Posted on by Myfrenchkitchen · 15 Comments

Earth day – respect, care and joy.

Today is earth day. Some garden sketches as my contribution.

All sketches done in moleskine with rotring pen and watercolour.

…tulips…

earth-day2

*Create a garden that is ecologically friendly. Ban pesticides. Plant combinations of plants and herbs and certain weeds for natural pest control. Learn to live with a few weeds and some chewed up leaves. Promote insect life by planting flowers that atttract them – lavenders, feverfews, buddleias, lilas, roses, honeysuckle… Take care of birds with available waterbaths, nesting houses, perches… Keep containers all around the garden to catch the rainwater with which you can water plants. Create a “strong” garden by not over watering your plants, much like you would train a young tree to bend with the wind, thus forcing it to grow strong. Use the water you rince your salads or other foods in the kitchen with, to water your potplants. Plant herbs to use in your cooking, for medicine, for the household. Ban chemicals from the kitchen and visit Gramma for tips on natural household products. There are info and tips all over internet and books galore on how to live as close as ecologically friendly as we can today, without going to extremes and freaking out on “bio”. Just a little effort already helps a lot.

Respect our earth, care for it and enjoy it.

Water on “earth day” – a clear brook, is my contribution to Watermarks. Drop by to see all our contributions for this day!

…a resting place for animals..

earth-day3…a resting place for humans

earth-day1…camelia…

earth-day4

Posted on by Myfrenchkitchen · 13 Comments

Crocus painting

I’m still frantically struggling artwise. It may not seem so, but I am.

I’ve spent some ample time sketching and drawing, doing contour work, splashing paint and it still feels as if I’m slopping through mud.  I suppose I am in the low part of the creative cycle and will need patience and perseverance to rise again. Patience doesn’t come easy for me, especially when I have  a new book of artists in hand and see what amazing talent and excitement and original creativity are happening in the art world! Then I “intensely dislike” the slushing here in my mud pool!

…a little colour in mud…

crocuswatercolour

Watercolour on Fabriano artistico paper HP, 30x23cm (11,8″x9″)

A while back Lindsay posted some of her comments which I found a great idea;  sometimes there is such valuable info and support in the comments which we miss out on.  I’m going to follow her lead and post some comments of my previous post. From these comments it is clear how many/all artists relate to these feelings of frustration, understand the creative struggle and recognize their own share of lows with personal experience and bits of advice here and there. These are the things I learn from on my daily creative journey…

…..”the nice thing about things forgotten is that they come back again quickly, and one has the chance to change a thing or two about them”… said Gesah.

…”Sometimes when work shows a little struggle in the birthing it only makes it more pleasurable to see. I learned that from a painting I did that when I looked at it I could only see the struggle. A viewer told me they loved it BECAUSE they could see the struggle which gave it much more drama and excitement than the ordinary pretty picture it might have been without the struggle”…said Jana.

…”sometimes those ‘tough love’ approaches do us the most favours…” said Cathy

…”like anything else you have to warm up first. If I’ve not been on my bike for 2 months, I am shaky and breathless just going down the road – but after a couple of rides, I’m back in the saddle. The same with drawing for me – if I’ve not drawn for a while, I do the most clumsy, embarassing drawings until I get my eye back in again”… said Carole

…”sometimes our brains get in the way of our making”…said Maureen

…”I really learn when an artist shares the process she has gone through. We can all sympathize with those times when the creative juices seem frozen”…said Annie

…”I have a tutor who echoes in my head in the same way :>) when going through a bad patch on the degree and being very nervous of him (he was very acid and didn’t suffer fools gladly) I was was overworking the paint. Each time he walked by he said ‘put it down (the paint) and leave it ALONE’, ’round the class …. back to me …. and he’d say it again and again! It worked”…said Vivien

…As far as I can tell, for a certain type of artist (of which I am one and I think you are, too), it’s always a process of learning, losing the way for a time, relearning, picking up new materials, re- finding old ones, circling back to old themes and concerns, recalibrating, rethinking, refocusing. It’s a lifetime thing. Or so I think. I try to be accepting of the process, as dispiriting as it sometimes seems”…said Laura

…Art doesn’t come out in an even stream, but we go backward and forward and through all kinds of loops and spins”…said Bill Fulton

…I guess those things work like when you have a bad hair day – YOU see it very well in the mirror, but everybody else thinks you just look like you always do”…said Nina.

…”Sometimes what seem to be harsh words sink deeper and do good even if they can feel soul destroying when they are spoken”…said Jeanette

…”I can empathize with what you said. I know when I have not painted or drawn for an extended period of time, there’s a little reluctant anticipation….kind of like the sensation of jumping into cold water…but once in…. it feels good”…said D Prizzi.

…”But painting, like riding a bike, will again come naturally”…said Desirée.

(a recent comment)…”these things definitely do come and go in cycles, don’t they? One of the things that is always hard for me to remember is that the cycle moves more quickly if I still show up and work every day. (There’s a good book about this that I should probably re-read — “The War of Art” by Stephen Pressfield.)”…said Turningturning

Posted on by Myfrenchkitchen · 21 Comments

Hydrangeas and awards

The hydrangeas in my garden are supposed to be blue, but the soil doesn’t play along. They start out with tints of blue and then turn a dark, bright pink, almost red. It makes for a very pinkish/reddish painting, but at least I had fun doing it.

This was done with watercolour on Fabriano artistico, HP extra white, 23×30,5 cm.

…hydrangeas, red and blue…

I also want to thank Mark from Paper Raven Art, Pamyla from Musings and Maggie from Scquiltaddict, for this award. I really appreciate it.

Like everybody else, I also would like to pass it on to so many people and since I feel I can’t stop at five names, I decided that I would this time like to pass it on to Cathy G at Asketchintime, who does beautiful art, experiments with all kinds of media, who often tries new directions, new techiniques, new approaches. She is an inspiration as well as a supportive friend. No obligations Cathy!

Posted on by Myfrenchkitchen · 7 Comments

Glen’s flowerbook at Ronell

You can see more of Glen’s book, which is all about flowers, at Flying Pictures Project. I have just added my paper and splatters, thus completing the 3’rd contribution and it is now going off to Lindsay.

…glen’s flowerbook…

Posted on by Myfrenchkitchen · 21 Comments

To take a break or not…

I’ve been away from sketching and drawing and painting for almost 4 weeks. Our Flying Pictures Project got me back into it. And I struggled. My hand felt dumb, my mind was foggy, my imagination was glum and even my committment and desire were flimsy. And that brought the question to my mind: “Is it good to take a break?”

…digging deep…

Watercolour, pencil and rotring pen on Fabriano artistico  HP, 23×30,5 cm.

It will probably be different for everybody.

As for myself and some people I’ve spoken to lately: ….to take a break, is fine. To take a long break, is disasterous. Whether it is a break from art, or work, or excercise or singing, design, or studies, or whatever. Routine sounds like a dull, boring, unartistic word. But it is in fact routine that gets us to be committed and effective, creative and original, inspired and determined. To break the routine for a definite period, is good for the body and soul. It is replenishing. But taking a break for an indefintite period can be dangerous.

Being away from art for 4 weeks, had me shying away more and more from the paper and brush. It felt too hard find the committment, the inspiration and the creativity. My excuses showed up more frequently and they got more creative in fact! I would promise myself that I would sit down for some painting an afternoon, just to quickly find that my afternoon was taken up by “a-lot-of-other-things-that-need-to-be-done-first”. Or I would blame lack of inspiration. Or even the weather.

It got easier to replace the joy of painting with other things I do enjoy. Photography and cooking. And writing. I also love gardening and designing.  But then there is my conscience. I have a terrible conscience. One that keeps me from sleeping and drives me to eating. My conscience stirred my guilt. For neglecting something that I truly love and enjoy. 

I’ve come to the conclusion that to take a break is almost like planning a vaction:

  • There is a beginning and an end in taking a break, which has to be decided on in your planning beforehand.
  • There is a “destination”; where is this break taking me? Do I want to spend more time on excercising or do I want to spend time with my loved ones..
  • “Not feeling inspired” is one of the most futile reasons for taking a break, which was part of my reason.
  • There is also a “budget” that must be adhered to. What will this break cost me? Will I not lose the new techniques that I’ve just starting working with?
  • And then there is the decision to fully enjoy the short break, knowing well when you’ll be back so as to not have your conscience breathing down your neck the whole time.

I now have to work on reestablishing my commitment,(which needs time to settle in) digging deep for my creativity(which must be excercised to surface), practice the new techniques I left hanging loose, and just start doing again without thinking…art wise that is!

Posted on by Myfrenchkitchen · 28 Comments

The red tulip

Like last year, this single red tulip once again made its appearance in my all white and blue  garden. And like last year, I accept it and welcome it. It has become quite a game and I’m amused by the tulip’s proudness and dedication to defeat me. It reminds me of a guy I once knew at university who wouldn’t give up either.

 

He was madly in love with me, completely, head over heels..and yes, he was sort of cute too, I thought at that stage. I was staying in a hostel for girls on campus, fourth floor out of six, overlooking beautifully tended campus gardens. And he was staying in a hostel for boys, way off, on the other side of the campus. That’s how it was those days. No men allowed in the girls’ hostels and vice versa, which made for very exciting experiences! Except of course, for visiting hours in the lounge downstairs.

Very regularly, he would show up at my hostel, long after visiting hours, on nights when the moon was showing off in the sky and the stars were sparkling impatiently with anticipation. With his guitar and a red rose and his best friend, I would be charmed with unashamedly beautiful love songs from the garden under my window. Their strong, deep melodious voices, trained from years of singing, had every girl hanging out their windows along with me, losing ourselves in the charm and romance of “old world courting” from down below.  Beautiful beautiful brown eyes, would always be on the list of songs and their voices would fade away in the distance with Goodnight ladies. My red rose, always stolen from an overflowing garden somewhere, would be left on the windowsill downstairs at the front door, for the hostel had already firmly been locked up for the night.

And so it happened that he got caught one night while stealing my red rose. He unfortunately chose the garden of the Professor of engineering, with whom he was very well acquainted…! He was allowed the rose, but had to work the Professor’s compost heap for two weekends. For a while, it was slow on the rose-serenading-scene and we all missed it..all the ladies, that is. Then one night there he was again, with a stolen red rose and guitar and his best friend. The cute guy I once knew. And who I still know. He is my husband.