I really should be painting...

Terribly typical of me, I'm flat out painting 2 paintings for an art competition, and entry forms need to be posted tomorrow morning (to arrive by Friday afternoon) and, most inconveniently I must say, they want to see images of the paintings entered by Friday as well.  I say inconvenient because my usual modus operandi is to put in the entry form THEN paint the painting.  I HAVE mentioned I'm terminally disorganised before, haven't I?!  So I really shouldn't be sitting here, but I do like to come up for air occasionally and read my favourite blogs.  I've also mentioned I'm a terrible procrastinator, haven't I?!  So I haven't anything new to show, but if all goes well, I will by Friday.  In the meantime, I'll pin up some pictures of old works to brighten this post up a little.

I've posted previously about the small book I made to go with this set of paintings, but haven't actually posted the paintings before, so here they are.  'The Four Elements', all completed in 2007.  They were a difficult bunch, very headstrong with VERY definite ideas about how they wished to be depicted.  'Air' particularly gave me a lot of trouble, and I repainted large sections a couple of times.  'Earth' just turned out completely different to how I intended her to, but after the struggle with 'Air' I figured it was best to let her decide.  Worked well, I think.  I'll probably put these in my Etsy shop as prints sometime soon.  The originals were all bought by one lovely lady, who saved up and paid them off in installments.

That's a lot of breasts all lined up!

And, as I'm feeling in a green mood at the moment...a small green man mask.

The pic on the left is a page from my journal, and you can just see the edge of a painting I've stuck in by Terri Windling.  An inspirational painting for me, of a Green Woman, about keeping our connections to the wild (both outside and inside of us) open and free.  You can see the beautiful original (and many more of her beautiful and full-of-magic paintings) at her website here.

Better get back to painting...hopefully my experimental glazes will have dried enough for the next layer!

A pendant off to a new home!

Just a quick post to let you know that this little pendant with the three leaves has been sold.  Lovely Shannon at Mothering with Rhythm and Rhyme has claimed it, so it will be winging its (probably quite slow...good old Australia Post) way to Brisbane.  Do pop over to Shannon's blog, she makes the most gorgeous felt and fur creatures, and if you're quick, she's having a giveaway this weekend.

I'm toying with the idea of making some Autumny versions, for those of you in the Northern Hemisphere who are moving into the "season of mists and mellow fruitfulness" as we move into our Spring.  What do you think?

LATE NOTE:  The other pendants are now available in my Etsy Shop, and I'm feeling quite chuffed because I sold another original little drawing today too.  This one now has a new home!

Hmmm, time for a cup of warm milk and honey with ginger, and bed!

More olive wood pendants, and Spring has come.

We've barely had a winter.  Yet my almond is in blossom, my apricot is in blossom, and my jonquils have been out for two weeks.  My jasmine has just come out and I could smell its scent as I took these photographs.  Three more olive wood pendants.  I think they ARE pendants...I wore one the other day and got a lovely comment about it.  Two curling green trees and a Greenwoman Spirit.

These are available to buy, and are $45 USD each (not including postage).  Each one will come in a little gift bag that I'm making from my 'stash' of fabric.  I'll hopefully get them into my Etsy shop by the weekend, but if one of them grabs your fancy, do let me know (and if you have a colour preference for the gift bag).  The first little one went as soon as I put it on my Facebook page!

Green trees and pendants...

So many lovely comments about my little Olive wood hanger/pendants, thank you all!  As several people have enquired, yes, I'm intending to put them into my Etsy shop, I just haven't got to it yet.  But I must tell you that the Green Tree with the gold background and glass leaves (above) has been sold, and is already on its way to its new owner.  But I have more on my work table (which is currently the dining room table as there's not enough room in my overcrowded studio at the moment), and I think green things are calling me, so there will be more curly trees and leaves to come, similar but not the same of course.  This one sold for $50AUD, which is about $45USD at the moment I think.  They may not necessarily all be that price, it really depends on how fiddly and detailed they are.  I'm using acrylic paints on them, but am experimenting with finishes.  This pendant has a hard-wearing acrylic resin finish, but the little nasturtium leaf and my pyrographic 'doodle' featured a few days ago are finished with a natural furniture polish.  I will post new ones here as I finish them, so if you do see one you want, let me know rather than waiting for me to put it on Etsy.  I'm a bit scatterbrained at the moment, and it might be a while before I get around to it.  I can always create a 'reserved' Etsy listing for you to make payment etc easier, or use PayPal direct.

I have been thinking that I need to draw away from 'art as a business' for a while.  Not to give up, but rather to regroup.  It's been a very slow and rather disappointing year in that respect (for a lot of people I suspect), and I feel I've lost a little of my creative 'mojo'.  And at the moment there's so much work to be done at home, the garden is crying out for attention, there are walls to be painted and window frames to be oiled, and we have set ourselves the goal of having it all ready to put on the market in a year's time, in anticipation of a new adventure in our lives, a move to the country.  So I think art might go back to being a hobby for a while, to make some small and beautiful things for the sheer joy of it.  And, of course, to go on blogging about them!

There are other things too needing my energy.  A decision to be made.  A hard one.  Something that over the years has caused me worry as I've stood on the sidelines knowing I can't do anything, and I finally realised is never going to change.  But if I step away and let it go, I will lose something very precious.  I need some space to think about it.  Some time.

A birthday...

My little shining light, who brought joy back into the world for me when my heart needed mending all those years ago, turned nine yesterday.  My little Autumn faery.

I feel a little as if I have lost something precious.  Perhaps I need to tie up a loaf of bread in a spotted hanker-chief, sling it on the end of a stick over my shoulder, and set out on a quest to find it.  I would also need a warm woollen cloak with a hood, and a song to sing.  You can't go on a quest without a song to sing as you tramp the by-ways.  And the cloak of course, to curl up in at night under the stars.

This is my 100th blog post.  Thank you to all who have wandered by, and stayed to hear my stories and see the things I've made, and left behind such wise words of support and encouragement.  It has been wonderful.  There will be more to come.

Refilling the well

After reading Jackie Morris' recent post about finding a way to centre and ground myself, I went and dug out a pack of divination cards that I haven't looked at for ages.  The cards and book are fairly tightly squeezed into the box, but as I pulled the lid off, a card was half out of the pack and fell into my hand.  I picked it up.  It was this one.

It doesn't really require any further explanation, does it?  But here's the meaning as it appears in the book.

I did a very quick reading with 3 more cards pulled at random.  I'm not an expert at this, but there is something calming about it.  The cards were as follows.  For me right now, the Pentacle.

A need to balance my energies and perhaps for protection.

For my situation, the Black Cat.

Withdraw my energy and curl up and rest. 

For my course of action, the Chalice.

To go with the flow and allow the chalice to be refilled.  Yes.  I think someone said that yesterday.  I think that is what I need.  To retreat and refill the well.

Tired.............

I am tired.  Physically tired, yes.  But also mentally.  I want to curl up and sleep, far away from the noise and bustle of this busy, busy world.  I want to forget my problems.  And other people's problems too, which always weigh on my mind too much.  To stop worrying about things that will never change.  I want to cocoon myself in quiet and solitude, and make small things of beauty and large things that take time, and not speak...and sleep and sleep some more.  Not forever.  For a little while.  But I'm a mother, a wife, a friend.  I have people who need me.  How can I find the balance?

Art imitates life.  Nasturtium leaf pendant.

Just a pyrographic doodle...because the disk cracked when I put the second hole in it, so it became a practice piece and I could just play.

Thoughts...of rain...and Spring...and small things...

Life has taken precedence over blogging of late, but that's OK, it's as it should be...otherwise I would have nothing to blog about!  The weather is gorgeous today, but it shouldn't be.  It's the middle of winter, and we've had at least a week without any rain, and none forecast till the end of this week either.  The Dams are low, and everywhere I see, hear and feel the signs of Spring.  We've barely had a winter at all.  It's going to be another long, hot, stifling, and dry summer.

Strange...normally I can waffle on ad infinitum about all sorts of inconsequential (and occasionally consequential) things, but I feel oddly lost for words at the moment.  I have things on my mind I suppose, my head is full, but full of things that are not the stuff of blogging.  I'm not sure why this is so, usually winter is my most creative, thoughtful time, when I have ideas bursting out, and things in my mind that jostle to be created.  I am creating, but it's small things, small thoughts.  My focus seems diffused, my energy elsewhere.

So, a few pictures of what I made this last week...small things to hang, in a tree, on a wall, round your neck perhaps.  I've been turning the idea in my mind for a few months since my olive trees received their very serious haircut, and I had some lovely olive branches crying out to be made into something special.  Beloved cut some thin slices for me, and they were so beautiful and smooth to touch, I wanted to wait and see what they might become rather than just rushing into doing something with them that might spoil their natural beauty.  I'm not sure I've achieved that, but here's what I've done with two of them.