I attended a gathering this week where I was asked what kind of art I made. This is a loaded question and one I often find difficult to answer. I said I love colour and believe that the creative process in all its forms is the key to emotional, physical and spiritual wellbeing. I was then asked if I thought everyone had a desire to create. My answer was a resounding – yes.
This years visit to the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition. 
After returning home I thought more about my response.
Our inborn creativity has to be nurtured in the same way that we care for our minds and bodies. For example, if we allowed one of our limbs to shrivel and atrophy – we would always be aware of the many things we might have done with the full use of that limb. It is much the same with creativity. Not to use it in one form or another, brings frustration often accompanied by a sense of loss. A loss that in many ways we are unable to identify. Use it or lose it really does apply.
Jayanthi Rani at the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition 
This beautiful watercolour was painted by Jayanthi Rani who I met five years ago when she came to my painting course in Portugal….and since then it has been my great privilege to watch her work blossom and grow. You can see more of Jayanthi’s work on her FB page. 
It seems to me that as we try to fill the ever widening holes within as our collective senses are being deadened through the over use of technology, our frustration levels grow and the need for a creative outlet even more acute.
Nurturing my little cottage garden in Wales from a barren, fallow patch, was a creative project I loved. 
Cooking, sewing, knitting, writing, dance, music – I could go on and on. When I observe people using a myriad of creative disciplines – I see people who in that moment feel a sense of contentment and wellbeing.
I am off to Crickhowell, Wales (AKA The Magical Town of Crickadoon) on Monday and will hopefully return with lots of new ideas and sketches.
For now I leave you with a happy moment from last year along with a watercolour of the beautiful Use Valley.
A Bientôt
I posted these two photographs of my wonderful Grandmother and her Great Granddaughter, my daughter, because they show so clearly that within a relatively short period of time…..how our world has changed. How the lives of women have changed…..
When I went through my Aunt’s papers, I was delighted to find that her passport only expired last year – which means that she renewed it when she was 86. She also volunteered helping ‘old people’ when she was in her eighties and early nineties. What an inspiration.
I have been surrounded with strong, and unusual woman all my life – from my Grandmothers, to my Mother and Aunt Peggy.
Nearly ten years ago, Peggy lost her only son, my cousin James – aged 57….and although I know it hurt her terribly she never complained. Although Peggy was not a religious woman in the conventional sense, she was deeply spiritual and believed that eventually she and James would be reunited…..
A Benton
I will be painting, writing, celebrating life and enjoying the company of dear friends during the next few weeks……
Once again I have been reminded through the untimely death of a good friend of the importance of making the very best of every moment we have.
Not to put off what we really want to do….but rather to take on life’s new adventures with a sense of excitement.
Not to wait for the perfect time to do something, because there never is a perfect time…just today.
“Follow your Bliss” – another quote from Joseph Campbell.
And so today I follow the example of the magical hummingbirds, soaring above all the madness and drinking from the sweet nectar of life……..:)
A bientôt
As we go about our daily lives, just like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle being revealed, the seed sprouts ideas that give us more information…..This can happen at any time.
Ultimately we hope to experience the ‘Ah Ha’ moment. That exquisite time when the completed jigsaw puzzle is revealed in our mind’s eye……At this point, we can see and feel the rhythms and flow of the concept. Finer details are revealed as we commence work.
The more we exercise and practise our creative thinking, regardless of what discipline we are involved in, the easier and more fluent this process will become. Playing is a key element in revealing vital clues.
“Just imagine becoming the way you used to be as a very young child, before you understood the meaning of any word, before opinions took over your mind. The real you is loving, joyful, and free. The real you is just like a flower, just like the wind, just like the ocean, just like the sun.” Don Miguel Ruiz