a BOTTLE OF WINE.... and a loaf of bread!

I painted this when I was at St Martin's I think - when I was 20!  I remember the grapefruits went off - I think I had made the mistake of having them in the freezer compartment of the fridge...   !  Shared house in Keildon Road, SW11 ...  ah innocent days.   I wish I could contact some of my housemates ...   even with the good offices of Facebook and ... the dreaded Friend's united no luck!  Ah well -  I am pleased to see in those days - I was so young but I could wield a brush...  two more still lives to follow...  just for fun 

oil on canvas

AUTUMN EQUINOX..... a bluebell painting ....

I have been sorting out my photos and I found this ....  a scanned-not-very-good photo of Blubells, from 1996 I think, and I had the  thought that Spring and painting bluebells is something to look forward to! 

OUR DEEPEST FEAR IS NOT THAT WE ARE INADEQUATE....

Our Deepest Fear

by Marianne Williamsonfrom A Return To Love: Reflections on the Principles of A Course in Miracles(See note below about Nelson Mandela)

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”



I first  read/heard of this piece when I was Peace Worker at a Conference at Woodbrooke College in Birmingham in the days of Greenham and all that...   and it has a place in my 'fuzzy file'  something I copied from Bruce Kent......  in another life that laid the foundations for this one......

MISTY MELBURY & FLOWERS.....

I have finished this painting - almost like it as much as the Jubilation one - and I have three others nearing completion and ... two small ones on boards that I did last year that I never fully resolved that I feel I can tweak into something now ...  really on a creative high and loving it!   

Misty Melbury & Flowers 80 x 80 cm

SEPTEMBER JUBILATION

I have named this painting after consultation with a special friend! - so this is it!  I think I might put it on the cover of my book which I am re-printing very soon.    I am not sure I am ready to part with this one just yet - or maybe I shall agree to getting some reproductions done by PICTURE FRAMES (www.pictureframers.co.uk)... we shall see!

September Jubilation oil/canvas 1 x 1m   

 No Hiding in the Flower Bed 90 x 90cm sold - MINSTER GALLERY WINCHESTER

THE GOOD LIFE! doubled!

This painting is finished and I am really happy with it ...  excited about where it has taken me! 

Often when you hear writers talking on the radio about their novels, they say the characters take over the story and the plot, they develop a life of  their own.   This seems to reflect what happens to me when things go well - when 'I' get out of the way...    and then I am working in harmony with the painting, a channel for the inevitable... the painting takes over and I am led.   

It is getting more abstract, less descriptive, less literal.  And as I looked at the flower bed I just kept seeing more colours - suggesting themselves to me!   I am ready to begin the next painting as long as I dont allow myself to be distracted by watering geraniums and tomatoes and dead heading cosmos, oh ! or picking raspberries!  

So it is also about the bounty this time of year, The Good Life times two!

I dont know what to call this painting -  I want to call it for a very dear friend - I have to ask her permission first so I will come back and label it later!

WHAT A WONDERFUL DAY .....

I have been out painting ... wasnt it hot today?   Wonderful, what a treat and lets hope we have an indian summer?    Finally I have got the lovely Mr P to take a 'natural photo' of me ...  I was actually painting, not pretending to !....    the flower bed of course.

It began from another angle - and/but I am being led by the nose - I try NOT  to think when I paint, thinking DOES NOT  HELP at all when painting ...  it is about the left brain trying to be bossy and organise things and be sensible and .... BORING ....   no magic with left brain .. or brian ....   enough for now ..... 

I am pleased with this - the end of a second session - and a relaxed one at that!
Putting it on the blog is more stressful - if I remember I must talk about 'earnestness' and 'play as opposed to angst .... making a good, honest and authentic painting....  


I want my work to reflect joy and all those happy emotions - why not?  the flowers of the fields etc etc ....  but never froth at the expense of honesty and integrity...    and I  think  that what I want to express is a clear ... avenue to God's grace - acceptance and knowledge of what is so good and so available in my blessed life....  without my vanity of ideas and stuff ....  striving at a felt authenticity and simplicity ... of the grace of being a ...late middle aged woman in this treasured corner of beautiful England.    What blessings indeed!