Catching up with myself

Blogging is hard. I am full of admiration for those folks who manage to do it so regularly and don't let life get in the way at all. I have always been a girl, rather like the moon, with phases....ranging from intense activity to complete apathy with all sorts in between......you can guess what my last phase was as I haven't posted since May! I do find that if I am worried or tense about something, I find it really hard to write and post - I wonder if other people have the same problem. Anyway, here I am back with renewed promises to do this more regularly and to find the courage to publish my work alongside others who are clearly better at it than me!!! I have won a few battles with the Inner Critic, but I haven't won the war yet....but I am trying.

I loved my visit to Santiago de Compostello - a delightful easy-to-explore city, brilliantly preserved but full of life - you really feel the past in every nook and cranny.

Where have the last few months gone?  The usual helter-skelter of travels, plus looking after my home when I rent out to holiday-makers and now I have started teaching again. It was flattering at 65 to be asked back to my old job teaching English at the Psychology Faculty in Porto - nothing too heavy, two ten-week courses a year. I'm loving it, have lots of interesting students and not a moment of regret. Still not in a position to start planning my next world travels, but things are more optimistic, and I am really hopeful that things will turn out well. First stop will be Florida in January, staying with a new friend, then I will drive off and do what I love. Exploring. Just me and a car plus maps, travel journal, camera and guide books. Plus a bird identification book and binoculars. This is all I need to feel totally fulfilled, and I can't wait to hit the road again.

        For (the few) who do like to see some of my art and my journalling, I have been able to complete some pages and some pictures....I also have to fight of my worst enemies of all - LAZINESS, SLOTH and a tendency to ALWAYS find some way of DISTRACTING myself from what I really want to be doing. I would so love to know what the cure is - there are no medicines for this in the local pharmacy!

....and a few recent pages from my journals.....

I used the following idea later for a painting - I dream constantly of the South West USA.........

...and a tribute to the wonderful Isabel as well as my return to teaching after four years!

Back to Silveira

The sunsets here are unforgettable

View of Belver castle from the river beach

I have fallen quite unashamedly in love with the hamlet of  Silveira - when I go there now I feel I have come home and enjoy strolling round the village, having a chat with the locals and making sure all is well. It must be related to what we as people need at various stages of our lives. Here, I am at one with nature, entering a new stage of decluttering and simplifying.

Lynn's lovely lily pond

Chatting to the neighbours. The goats' cheese here is delicious - creamy and smooth.  My last visit was at the end of September. The prickly pears were at their best - plump with deep yellow-orange cactus lets......this turned out to be the last hot, sunny weekend of summer - it all ended with a perfect evening out with friends and a gorgeous sunset.

Travel Journaling in Silveira, Portugal

Holidays have become totally transformed for me since I began travel journaling. No more lazy evenings. No more laid-back relaxed moments spent in idle contemplation. Now, when I am not doing, I am recording. I think I come back more exhausted than when I left in my quest to get 'everything' down, every memory, every exploration and adventure, every experience and every important visual treat. Inevitably, this gets done quite differently to art and journaling back home. There are limited supplies, lack of time and opportunity but, most of all, I am usually doing it when I am already exhausted at the end of the day. It doesn't help that I am obsessed, too, with printing out mini polaroid photos to stick in, too, with my Pogo printer. Another addictive occupation! The machine gets hotter and hotter, and prints ever more slowly, but each night I am determined to see it through!

I am telling my story through the pages of my travel journal made during the holiday. It's as much as I can manage without neglecting my holiday companions, and losing valuable adventure time. It has to fit in with the actual day's wonders!

This trip was wonderful. This little hamlet at the top of the valley of the River Tejo in a remote area of Portugal is my idea of heaven. An untouched, unspoilt corner of the world where time has stood still. Where goats, donkeys and the local 'Donas' rule.

Here is where we get to see what the world really is, and how we are meant to live in this simple, naturalistic way. I feel so alive there, so energised and excited. I am seriously considering living there one day - though so dependant on other events to enable this. But I know I would be happy there....and with friends like my hosts, Lynn and John, close at hand, I can't imagine a better existence. Anything is possible.....

Can you see the donkey cart still in use top left above? This lady told me she had never been out of the village - she is 79 years old!

But the true joy of travel journaling is apparent long after the holiday is over. I now have two shelves crammed with  all my adventures, accounts of the wonderful people I have met, the amazing scenery and unforgettable experiences. Details I would have forgotten over time. Everything is there - where I bought stuff, contacts, wildlife records and all my maps, sketches and photos. Sometimes I write poems - the only way to describe the most wondrous sights. I can relive my travels over and over again - it is always worth the extra effort!

Thank you to all my new followers and readers. I really appreciate your interest. Now I have time to investigate other people's blogs and pages, which I know I will enjoy. See you there!

My Best Smile

Hope this counts!!! My all time favourite smiler......on a California beach!

From an idea at  http://wipso-astitchintime.blogspot.co.uk/2013/04/this-weeks-smilesweek-15.html

WOYWW

Oh no!!! I've got visitors this week and my workdesk is about as cleared as it ever gets.....But you can see my latest journal in the middle and all my bits and pieces within reach...I am SO lazy!! Should I mention that at the opposite end of the room is a large screen TV where I can watch old Bette Davies and Doris Day films during long art-filled afternoons! Art has taken over my living space but has become my life!!!

This is my first attempt at trying to link my blog to another...so here goes.................

http://stamping-ground.blogspot.pt

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!

Journaling Workshops

How easy it can sometimes be! I love this ....and this is from my drip page, under whatever I was working on at the time!!!

There are many times when I am so thankful that I was born in an English-speaking country. It has provided me with the ability to get a job teaching English all over the world, to strike up conversations and new friendships easily, to watch films without struggling to watch and read subtitles at the same time, and, VERY importantly to enable me to enter easily into, firstly, the world of art journaling and, now, the world of some of my favourite artists. 

One way to do this is by doing online art and journaling courses. I love doing them. Not only have I learnt a lot and been motivated. Since I plucked up courage to join in the various groups, blogs and Facebook groups, I have entered a world of friendly people with a common interest, all over the world. This leads to more confidence and better work, I think! At the moment I am doing quite a few - 21 Secrets, a massive workshop involving a huge list of teachers and many lessons to choose from, Extreme Composition from another favourite arist and journalist, Jane Davies, and two from another person who really motivated me - Traci Bautista. One called Digital Canvas - now I can do much more with my ipad, produce journal pages, cut and paste, collage and much more. Also I am slowly working through Discovering You, where Traci guides us through the process of setting our goals and, possibly, turning our hobby into a business, whether by teaching or by selling. 

Ipad pictures - very first efforts..

The learning experience

Unfinished picture

I am toying with the idea of teaching online, or giving workshops locally here in Portugal. But recently I have been thinking of turning my house into a workshop holiday centre, with guests from abroad, and guest teachers as well. If I do some conversion work, I could easily sleep at least 10 people and have great plans for workshops inside and outside by the pool. Of-course, this could all be a dream - that will depend on how much I really want it!!!

Here are a couple of pages I did from ideas from Tracy Verdugo, a wonderful artist form Australia, as part of the 21 Secrets workshop. It's about our individual 'print' - starting off with thumbprints in our favourite colours, then using a previous picture of ourselves to extend the idea. I then had the idea that, as well as our unique thumbprint, what people really remember about us is our 'personality print'....

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

Self-Portraits

I'm getting more and more fun out of self-portraits. Each one is a major learning experience - and each one informs the next. I know I need to be looser and now that I am confident in drawing the face etc, am going to try to be more imaginative and different.  They are just journal pages so are not finished pieces, just try-outs! As with everything else, it's the process that counts, pure enjoyment!!!

I tried so hard to look bored in this one!

This is my very first effort on my iPad. I am doing a course with Traci Bautista and learning a lot.

...and I did these some time ago on the computer....

This will ALWAYS be my favourite...

HAVE FUN!!!!!!