JUST ME :: and a stack of blank pages

:: Living creatively ::

About me

This is the real secret of life — to be completely engaged with what you are doing in the here and now. And instead of calling it work, realise it is play. The only thing that is ultimately real about your journey is the step that you are taking at this moment. That’s all there ever is. I’m here to tell you that the path to peace is right there, when you want to get away. When you are present, you can allow the mind to be as it is without getting entangled in it. If you miss the present moment, you miss your appointment with life. That is very serious!

Tuesday, June 5, 2012

Crow on a bough

 
W&N watercolour on Bockingford 300gsm 

Coco, my Crow and companion for 20 years 

I'm a crow on a bough 
battered by the winds 
I've got shelter indeed 
but Ill brave it for my sins 

I'm the sun on a snowdrop 
opening from it's sleep 
I've got a world to light 
but on it's petals I'll beat 

I'm the dogs at your door 
begging to be fed 
but if you feed me once 
your step will make my bed 

 like a worm in a worm hole 
thoughts tunnel my mind 
I am all of these things 
these exist within mankind 
- Unknown

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Saturday, June 2, 2012

A Winter walk in the Park

“In the summer I have this friend who I am closest to, and sometimes, in the winter, I long to call her up and say, come here and live with me, in this cold place. But we are summer friends. There is a rule it seems, that summer friends don't get together in the wintertime. Now, sitting here, waiting for her, I realize that I have never seen her in a winter coat, and for some reason that makes me sadder than anything else in the world.” 
- Jacqueline Woodson 

W&N watercolour on DalerRowney 300gsm Cold Pressed watercolour paper. 

Just because the trees are bare and there’s a chill in the air doesn’t mean you have to forgo your daily walks. In winter, sunlight and just being outdoors can do wonders for lifting your mood and self-esteem and leave you with an improved sense of well-being. 

Researchers say that winter walking could provide an effective, easy-to-stick-with therapy for mild-to-moderate depression. They also say that not getting outside during winter months slows down production and decreases the body’s store of vitamin D, which is important for keeping bones strong. 

So all you hibernating lazy bones, come join me for a walk in the park! (We'll leave the jogging for the more energetic!) 

 (It’s good to be outside again and breathing fresh air. We need to do this more often!) 

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Monday, May 28, 2012

I'll wait for your return...

The sound of birds stops the noise in my mind. 
~ Carly Simon 

W&N watercolour on Bockingford 300gsm 

At the beginning of April my Greater Striped Swallows were getting increasingly more restless until, finally, on the 8th April, they were gone. Nobody to greet me on the bathroom wall, no twittering and chattering coming from the TV satellite dish, no more watching them throwing their little heads back and uttering their little gurgling song... I DO wish them a safe journey to their summer destination and I will expectantly be waiting for their return in September.... 

The Greater Striped Swallow (Hirundo cucullata syn. Cecropis cucullata) is a large swallow. It breeds in Southern Africa, arriving from its central African non-breeding grounds around July-August in the Limpopo Province, Western and Eastern Cape. It reaches Swaziland, Botswana, Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal during September-October, eventually leaving the region around April-May.

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Tuesday, May 22, 2012

Scare people...


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go be that starving artist you're afraid to be. open up that journal and get poetic finally.  volunteer. suck it up and travel. you were not born here to work and pay taxes.  you were put here to be part of a vast organism to explore and create.  stop putting it off.  the world has much more to offer than what's on fifteen televisions at tgi fridays.  take pictures.  scare people. shake up the scene. be the change you want to see in the world.  you'll thank yourself for it. 
~jason mraz~ 

Done from a photograph on Pinterest. 

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Monday, May 7, 2012

Chilly whisper in the breeze...

W&N watercolour on Bockingford 300gsm 

There is a chilly whisper in the breeze reminding us that winter will soon be here. We've really had a cold past two weeks, but today the sun is shining brightly, the temperature is in the middle 20C's and it's now turning into that blissful time of year when it's a joy to be outside in nature before we settle indoors to sit out the winter. 

So, 
IF YOU NEED ME... 
I’ll be somewhere outside, 
soaking up those last few rays 
of autumn sun… 
what are you up to? 

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Monday, April 30, 2012

Friendship isn't a big thing...

... it's a million little things.


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The original is a birthday card sent to a very special friend. 
W&N watercolour on Bockingford 300gsm - card size 

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Saturday, April 28, 2012

A State of Consciousness

A landscape, like a book, is a state of consciousness varying with readers.


W&N watercolour on DalerRowney 190g/m² sketching paper

There is a chilly whisper in the breeze reminding us that winter will soon be here. We've really had a cold past two weeks, but today the sun is shining brightly, the temperature is in the middle 20C's and it's now turning into that blissful time of year when it's a joy to be outside in nature before we settle indoors to sit out the winter. It's still very green here in Tarlton, I mean, we've had April showers!

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So, IF YOU NEED ME...
I’ll be somewhere outside,
soaking up those last few rays
of autumn sun…
what are you up to?

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Monday, April 23, 2012

In my imagination...



    “In my imagination I can see what the eyes cannot see. I can hear what the ears cannot hear. I can feel what the heart cannot feel.”

    Watercolour on X-pressit 300gsm

And Einstein said, "I am enough of an artist to draw freely upon my imagination. Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world." 

How often do you, as an artist, work purely from imagination? I have found that, the next best thing to painting en plein air, is to paint from my imagination. Sometimes I do have an image in my mind, but most of the time it's just letting the colour flow and watching what emerges. And I'm sure that much of our 'imagination' is fueled by what we have experienced in the past, but it can also be a wonderful journey into the new and unexpected...

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Monday, April 16, 2012

Passion - your path to success,

“Things which matter most must never be at the mercy of things that matter least.”
 ~ Goethe 

W&N watercolour on X-pressit 300gsm 

I have found that you can bring greater joy, financial flow, and deep fulfillment into your life through a business that is aligned with your highest path, something that you are totally passionate about. 

It's all too easy to pick a career in order to make enough money to "someday quit and do what you really want to do". Education or even talent aren’t worth much without passion. So do the stuff that you love and you've always wanted to do because without it, you'll feel stuck and unfulfilled. 

Whatever journey your path takes you on, the most important thing is to have passion in what you do. So the answer is to have complete clarity on what is most deep and meaningful to you right now. "Our passion exists in the space of awe and amazement that we so willingly stepped into as a child. We can not see our dreams, know our true calling, hear our true voice when we look with a sense of desperation, impatience or doubt. Only looking with Eyes of Awe will its radiance greet you and invite you to play with it." 
From "Finding your Passion" by Keri Coffman-Thiede

Successful people have made an important discovery - that the journey itself is even more important than the goal. So choose how you want to spend your life - choices made with intention bring peace.

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Sunday, April 8, 2012

On the other side of the fence

W&N watercolour on grey cardboard 

The grass is not, in fact, always greener on the other side of the fence. Fences have nothing to do with it. The grass is greenest where it is watered. When crossing over fences, carry water with you and tend the grass wherever you may be. 
- Robert Fulghum 

 How true that saying is that the grass is greenest where it is watered – the same as with any lawn or garden, if we don’t tend to our life and our relationships, soon everything will be barren and dead… 

 A friend’s driveway on their farm – Magaliesburg, Gauteng, South Africa.

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