The Pink Buddha is ready.,,,,

Why is it that everything that can go wrong, usually does? The works began to take on strong flavours of the latest Portuguese soap opera - there were nail biting cliffhangers and gut wrenching fear that it would not be ready. My preplanned week of 'rest and relaxation' before the first Pink Buddha restaurant did not happen - we were getting ready until almost the last moment. But as in all these situations, it did all come together after looking at its worst before it looked its best....and the studio lay in wait for its first visitors from the US, Spain and the UK, plus a bit of a do for the first night - the 'Grand Opening"!

People were met at the airport, settled into the lovely Lousada Country Hotel, and the first day of the workshop was spent in lots of great conversation and anticipation of the week ahead. Suddenly the tempo changed - people , including my wonderful friends Jane and Nat who had created The Pink Buddha Art Studios', friends, family and workshop attendees, began to arrive... out came the 'champagne', corks popped! I reverted instantly into my former Headmistress mode and made my speech. The most important part for me, apart from thanking Jane and Nat, and Isabel, for their tireless efforts, was to answer the question...who and what is this studio for I feel very passionately about opening up the studio to all, including the local community, to singles, small groups and independent travellers, to people who have never picked up a paintbrush, to people who don't need me but just want to come and paint for a while and have a comfy bed and meals cooked for them. It's all part of the dream.

On becoming an 'ARTIST'

Painting Buddha will always be my favourite activity - it feeds my soul, and is calming and meditative. I am already doing another!

Something very strange has happened to me in the past few weeks.......it would make an interesting psychological study for the world of art. At what point do people who love to paint, draw and create, at what point do they become an 'ARTIST'?

Painting this last week helped........

'Love of my Life' It has taken five years for me to paint a tribute to my guy who died in 2009. I think I have made a start, and have plans for others, too. I love portraits - I am painting a real person with character, personality and individuality. I try to find a person's uniqueness.....

Is it a self-imposed term that is rooted in the way we perceive ourselves?
Is it to do with our daily routine, output and number of hours at the easel?
Is it measured by the standard and quality of work as we learn and improve? Who exactly is judging this?  We are hardwired to criticise ourselves, the inner gremlins see to that. Our friends are hardwired to be kind and love everything we do.
Is it when we finally gather the courage to show our work online, to cease talking about ourselves in a derogatory way, to actually LIKE some of our work. We join groups, do classes and chat with hundreds of people doing much the same.
Is it the drive to perfectionism that I seem to have been born with? I hate mediocrity, shamefully I have never taken up anything that I knew I couldn't shine at (like sport, for example)?

.......or is it when you are seen as an artist by the public, in your posts and albums, in comments, in follow up communications?

Crazy, fluffed out drama queen of the house - Gracie!

All I know is that, after five years of trying, starting with crude stick figures, I do feel that I can call myself an artist. Good or bad rests only in the eye of the beholder, I realise that it is not for me to judge myself. My mantra is to paint what I love, to paint from my heart, from the inside out, to paint things that move me or have elicited an emotional response. I need to paint with authenticity. That's what makes me happy. The fact that some people like my work is an added bonus, a privilege.

A more expressionist take from a very old but much loved photo from a distance. Roy was leaning against the wall of out 16th century fisherman's cottage by the sea at Minehead Harbour. A fleeting moment from the past.......now in shadow

So my conclusion? It's just a word. I am a lifelong teacher - doesn't mean I am a GOOD teacher 9I think I was!!)...therefore being called an artist is meaningless unless you create for yourself, with truth and daring, when you are driven to it by some inner force which guides you instinctively to that easel every day!

Yes, I want to sell my art on sites such as Fineart and Redbubble. In a gallery. Wow!!!! But one's own satisfaction and happiness in the very act of creation must be at the very heart of it all. Still a WIP!

Arizona Rocks revisited 

Experiencing Monterey - one of my favourite places in the world

Humble Offerings

I have been trying out quite a lot of abstract art work recently, and this is becoming quite a passion. It takes ages for me to get started, but then I lose track of time and hours can go by without my noticing. Many of the ideas are not mine - some are ideas from various books, but I do usually try to add my own twist. Learning to paint is no different to any other learning. You have to learn technique first, try out people's work whom you admire, and only then are you really equipped to do your own thing as ideas flood in. I am overwhelmed still with the shapes and colours of South West USA - and feel a lot of urges to paint these welling up inside me....

This one's my own - it's not any specific place, just all my visual memories in one picture - just colour and shape

Pity Rothko got there first but I do love playing with colour fields. These are all sizes ranging form sketchbook pages to large canvases!

Add caption

I now have a large sketchbook for tryouts - this one hopefully will end up slightly altered on canvas one day!

More holiday impressions

These two are definitely not my original idea but I got huge pleasure from doing them in my large sketchbook....

Finally two of my small sillies!!!

The cat walked over this and made it unique - can you see the red paw print?

Needs redoing with better colour!! 

Buddha Day

My Buddha is finished!! I can't believe that I have done it! From such a simple idea, and some good instruction, it seemed to spark something off inside me and I became much braver than ever before.

Procrastination is my enemy - I can make excuses not to work good enough for an Olympic medal - I get so easily distracted and my attention span is normally equal to my mad cat Gracie! I get round this by forcing myself to get my paint palette ready with the colours all sitting there waiting for me and threatening to dry out if I don't show up at the easel, so that I just have to get on with it. Like any other passion, once I get started, I lose all sense of time and place until I realise that I've missed my favourite soap, or haven't had my expresso coffee at all, or some other phenomenally important event has been missed!

I took part in a webinar yesterday....given by Julie Fei Fan Balzar about blogging. She did a fine job, beautifully delivered. It is still very vague about how to attract people to your blog and get followers - patience and consistency seem to be the key.  I also learnt that Typepad may be a much better platform for making your blog look prettier, so at some stage soon I am going to change over and produce a really PINK blog for which you will all need sunglasses and some form of neon protection!!!

I'm really tired tonight...will be back soon. Thanks for joining me.

Painting......lost and found

My journals have been laid aside recently. I am keen to get back to them, but a new passion has entered into my life and there just doesn't seem to be enough time for it all. The Buddha painting course has proved to be wonderful. Not only in giving me excellent guidance to paint Buddha's face in a colourful and meditative way, but it has also given me inspiration, ideas and techniques to go back to abandoned pictures and start again. I had had a crisis at the easel! I had lost my way, I suppose, got frustrated and couldn't go forward. The Buddha programme sparked off something inside me - I can't work out what - but I just got going again. The finished product is not so important for me as the process - I know I will get better with time - and I know that I should take a little more care - but I feel now that I can, and know how to. Of-course, everything else gets neglected, but I am enjoying my days for now! I got my painting mojo back!

There is much to do around the nose and mouth, and final glazes to be laid, so this is the unfinished Buddha....

So much work to do - I have visitors from the US next week, then I am going back to my favourite cottage in a tiny hamlet in the  delightful Northern Alentejo in Central Portugal for two weeks, then more visitors from the US in June, then the house has to be got ready for all the summer visitors (huge amount of work here)...and I am back off to India.

...and here is my last painting, inspired by a scary helicopter ride over the Grand Canyon in a snowstorm!

First ever piece of 'Art"

I have finally summoned up the confidence to do this and then put it about! The twirliness probably reflects what is in my head at the moment - so much uncertainty about selling Roy's land, which is the key to my future. But the colours always win through. I think I have found my 'muse' and am now waiting for the next batch of neon paints and markers to be delivered! Just a small canvas but one giant step.........

Firstart