Gentle Days In and Rough Days Out

Well, my first English course this academic year is done and dusted, Christmas is come and gone and here we all are in the limbo of January. It's pouring with rain most of the time, a few gales of the howling variety like distant wolves, and two frustrated cats who can't go outside and instead release their pent up energies by having a protracted and vicious war with the bathroom mat.......I am happy to be in a peaceful and sheltered place, though suffering from that incurable 'less is more' syndrome - the more time I have, the less I seem to do, that is. But I've enjoyed spending hours talking to dear friends in the US and in India on Skype, addling my mind on Facebook and the like, doing all sorts of online art and journalling courses and best of all, I have learnt to hook up my iPad to the TV, stream from the main computer and watch Game of Thrones and other delights on the big screen. What joy!

I've had some ups and downs. I can't be alone in that at this time of year, our thoughts naturally turn to those we have lost, and moments of reflection are followed by sadness and some tears. But somehow we manage to jerk back into reality and cope and live our own lives to the absolute full, even if that's a day moving from one inane task to the other. I've managed to keep up with my journalling, finish another Buddha and start quite a few things so I am happy.

Second Buddha finished

Bought a book of Graffiti Stencils - love them!

Christmas was spent in my beloved Silveira with Lynn and John. It was cold and wet outside but we were so warm and cosy indoors with crackling log fires giving us all a rosy glow (or was that the Baileys?) and making sure we kept up all the traditions. We managed to procure parsnips, crackers and Christmas pudding so we could do it all in style and then repeat it the next day but having a pyjama day! I discovered my best friend Lynn has a fantastic singing voice, strong and sweet and full of emotion. She sang to us on Christmas Day evening and tears glistened in all our eyes.

Why I love Christmas!

Yoko and Slash add the cute factor

Still beautiful in Silveira

A Sardinian warbler nibbles the last pomegranate

Serendipity - a unique positioning of magazine, tin and the rest make for a brilliant shot!

So, not very much to report but I am going to Florida on 21st January so I hope to have more to blog about soon. I am going to stay a few days with a girlfriend I made online through our love of art and journals! We have talked on Skype and have discovered that neither of us is a monster alien or possible serial killer. Then I am going to take off alone in a car and do what I do best - explore. Through the Everglades and down to Key West. A few days in Art Deco Miami! I just can't wait!

Play with landscape .....

Just play

Another example from a Jane Davies lesson

Didn't like painting flowers until I realised there were some on my bed!

I have also decided to take a more serious course - and become a Creativity Coach....I will have lots more to say about this later on. It starts soon........watch this space!

Getting going.....home and away

Whilst planning and dreaming of my next holiday - YES, I am going to Florida in the New Year ...hooray, on the road again!!! - I have done quite a few courses recently in my quest to acquire better technique. I know they won't necessarily make me more creative or talented (I wish!) but I do find that they stimulate ideas and give you practice in a very positive learning environment. They get me going...

 My favourite workshops are those of Jane Davies, especially the ones on Composition. She has a wonderfully straightforward, practical way of explaining both her theory and practice, reflecting a vast amount of preparation which she must have done previously. I love her work, too, but don't wish to copy it, and she ensures this by demonstrating a process and then setting guidelines for our subsequent follow up which are flexible and which allow for all of us as individuals to use our own ideas and inspiration . Much more importantly, she gives a kind but meaningful critique with constructive criticism - much better than the gushing sycophancy often found on other courses! This particular course is very similar in any case to what I like doing, so it really appeals. Here are my first attempts from Lesson Two - a fairly basic technique of abstract landscape composition but with some interesting collage elements, too.

As I said, this gets me going. Once in the zone, I can't seem to stop until weariness takes over, and the thought of having to work the next day. I then did a couple of colour studies in my large sketchbook, where I gather ideas for paintings.....

A productive day is a happy day......

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!! 

Indian Summer 2

Out birding with my good friend Binoy. We cruise for hours along the backwater canals....

Now replete, I am still thinking that it is almost impossible to get across the real experience of being in India, as there is so much more happening than just a visual feast. You have to feel the soft, balmy breezes lightly brushing your skin in the cool of dawn, sway along with the rustling palm fronds to a gentle rhythm, dodging the odd coconut dropping like a brick from high up in the tree make a huge plopping splash in the water, as straight as an Olympic diver. Drift out onto the water hyacinth-filled lapping lake to hear the distant chanting from the Hindu temples interrupted by the raucous laughter of iridescent turquoise kingfishers. Feel the intense midday sun from which there is no escape except a refreshing shower. Best of all is a special feeling I only get when I am there - that this is spiritually where I feel internally most at peace, where I feel spirituality in the very air, surrounded and protected by soft, gentle people who seem to take everything in their stride with an enviable dignity that invites immediate respect, yet with a sense of humour as free as a child's. Somehow here I can accept with more grace the cycle of life, the loss of loved ones and our own inevitable fate. Watch the colours of sunset as they turn from yellows into oranges and burnt golds, into the reds onward through the spectrum through deep magenta until, about half an hour after sunset, the sky has turned into a deep violet and the water steely indigo. Some photos and some journals - hopefully they speak louder than words.......

Dawn is misty, still and cool, though the birds are already awake and the fishermen already on the water

From yellow through orange and red.......

...........and into violet and purple

One of my more noisy neighbours - a
ring-necked parakeet

The forest glows emerald green, yellow and lime after the deluge

 

I got to experience the monsoon rain. It starts quite gently, as a few refreshing droplets, but quickly escalates into a downpour like no other, like buckets of water being emptied from above. This is accompanied by a deafening pouring noise, then swiftly made worse by the simultaneous pourings and drummings from numerous roofs and gutters, forming instant lakes and marooning me in my bungalow within minutes. But it's still warm and it's not at all uncomfortable. Then, the clouds clear and the forest seems to glow in its greenness - colours are vivid and luxuriant, the air fresher and cleaner. Parrots squawk with delight overhead as they feast on the last of the year's mangoes high on the tops os the trees, whilst bright green barbets utter shrill shrieks which penetrate the undergrowth. Everything here in Kerala is about bright, lurid colour, from the ladies' saris, to the temples and colours of people's houses and the heaps of bright in-your-face powders found in the market place so I am in neon heaven!

When it rains, it pours...............

Two of my favourite bamboo trees on the farm.....

Most people know of my encounter with this chap......

Finally just a couple more typical pages from my journals.....

The yellow trumpet bushes are in full bloom just by my bungalow

The tiniest cows in the world - Vechoor cows -  the head came out a bit large! I can vouch for the yummy home made yogurt they provide me with every breakfast...plus a little treasure which Anya gave me with love and I will always keep....

Indian Summer

This is what remained after a meal out - of butter curry and naan bread. I can still taste it in all its deliciousness..notice the lack of cutlery, I much prefer eating with my fingers now!

I had a wonderful time in India this summer - I stayed with Anu and family by the backwaters for five idyllic weeks. I miss them still - the days were languid and laughter filled, with plenty of love and hugs. I caught up with all my local bird friends and would still find it very hard to account for how the time passed so quickly. The highlights must be the sari I was given for my birthday, being in the monsoon for the first time, the visit of the Peace Boat from Japan and strolling once again through the streets of Fort Cochin. It's my second home. There just aren't enough weeks in a year to be everywhere I would like to be......

A typical spread - three times a day!

I could easily write a book about my time there - indeed I already have several bulging journals full of photos, drawings and a million memories - so it's almost impossible to select a few to 'represent' my experiences. Bear with me, please. I'll start with the utterly delicious food - Mummy's home cooking, Keralan Syrian Christian backwater style (lots of coconut) but also everywhere you go. I learnt to eat with my fingers this visit - I swear that food tastes MUCH better when eaten this way - somehow you have a closer relationship with it, in all its succulence. It really is finger-licking good.  I also eat more slowly and with great relish. I eat lots, but never feel the need to snack as it is so satisfying, so I always feel healthy, too.

My all-time favourite dessert - Coconut mousse...but I also love payasam and coconut pancakes and banana patties and and and.......

Dhosas for breakfast with Anu!

So I'll end there, with more to come - this has made my mouth water, I've just got to go and eat something!