cliodhna’s wave

…and the cock crew at midnight, witching hour, space between yesterday and tomorrow, a tiny space of now.

I slept and did not hear his clarion call to the world, that caused small animals to look up in wonder and large ones to feel the pull in their bellies. I felt it in my bones though, and dreamt of tidal waves and earthquakes and great winds sweeping the earth.

In the chicken coop an egg was beginning to hatch, the chick following blind instinct to hit out at the darkness surrounding it, to crack, to break, to push outwards. Imagine! all the world this chick has ever known is about to get as big as eternity.

But then, the world is the perfect size for each of us and we should not be afraid of the spaces between the stars.

x cliodhna,

to all us little chicks pushing out and breaking out of all the world we have ever known!

I finished the two paintings I was working on. Time to tell the story. Paul kept asking me what they were about and I would just say ‘you know, freedom’ very articulate I know but sometimes I can’t say until they are finished and I am so much better at writing this than saying them. So here it is!

I had a dream about a wee brown bird. I took this brown bird away from where it was living because I wanted to protect it. The bird was angry with me for having done this and was going to fly back to where it came from. I was really worried about it because I figured it was too small to do this safely but then I looked and the brown bird had turned into a young man with a backpack on his back and I realised he could do it if he wanted.

The moral of the story? wee brown birds are perfectly capable of looking after themselves

The meaning of the dream? I am that part of me that I figure can’t look after myself. I mother the bird, trying to protect it and it gets angry with me for not letting it live its own life. The bird/young man is that part of me that is very able to take care for itself but just looks small and fragile right now. I have to stop trying to look after it and trying to keep it by me but let it fly and go where it wants to go. Let myself go where I want to go and do what I want to do and trust myself and my wishes and heart wants in life.

I will have the other finished painting and the story behind it in a day or two..

x

I went to Leon yesterday (that is in Mexico not spain by the way) to the ‘Feria’. Sooooo many people. Just follow the crush around the stalls until we got wise, abandoned our friends who were looking for ceramics and got outside and headed straight for the ‘mechanical toys’. They are kind of old here, Paul reckons they are the rides that he used to go on when he was young, there are almost no safety harnesses (although as I pointed out its nice that mexicans assume you are not going to jump out of the ferris wheel car whereas everywhere else I have been they see a possibility and immediately fill it) and I reealllly didn’t trust the look of some of them. We skipped the old rollercoaster and went on the middle-aged one (twice), went on the haunted ride, took a spin on the spinner, ate churros, did the water-ride, ate cotton-candy, felt sick…. usual fun… I am like a child in these places, I never went to them when I was growing up. I make lists of all the rides we HAVE to go on and drag Paul around behind me!

Anyway, I bought these

which are the cutest things..a hobby horse an a hobby tiger.. they are from paper mache and I don’t know how long they would actually last in the hands of a child, I dented a tiny hole in the paint just taking a picture. But they are gorgeous!

and these

they are feng shui frogs and if I put them in the right place they will attract riches into our house. I will have to find a nice place for them to live.

Lastly.. to some art work I am progressing with the two oil paintings. I have got to the stage where I start to have some real fun. The backrounds and major details are done and dry and now I get to do stars and dots and spirals and flowers and suns rays and other wonderful things.. happy monday ya’ll… make a wish for the rest of the week!

I love oil paints.. have I said that before? probably a few times, I love the smell of them, they make me feel like a real artist, but also the depth of the colours you can achieve with them and the lustre of the paint and the malleability and also the fact that they take a whole heap of time to dry so I can take my time with textures and details.

Watercolours are like a zen meditation.. brush poised.. hold it… take a deep breath.. now go! and don’t stop until you finish!

Oils are more like the progression of a turtle.. ambling happily on the journey, pause, admire the flowers, ponder on significance of this, take the wrong turn, get it right, oh look we have arrived and just in time for tea!

I use washes under colours, deep blue under light blue, light blue under deep, yellow ochre under anything green so I can use a prussian blue wash to get the most incredible green.

I scratch into the paint before it dries, using the colour underneath to be the contrast.

Here is the next stage of the two paintings I am working on at the mo.

I see new artists all the time now, on etsy and outside through others blogs. Some I like, some I don’t really have a connection with, some are really sweet, some I know I like because they remind me of my style and some I look at with a critical eye and would love to give them a few tips or ideas on pushing the edge of where they are. A very few I love, because they inspire me or because they make me happy or I connect with the person who is making the art on some level or just something abstract that art critics have been trying to define for centuries. ‘Why do you like a particular piece of art and not another?’

But! very very rarely I see someone elses art and it just makes me stop. Makes me come to a halt and almost get jealous, (well, ok, leave out the almost) for a second or two. Can’t compare! I have my own paintings to paint!

this is the shop I found the other day ‘obsoleteworld‘

They make me sad and lonesome and draw me into the little worlds that are in each picture. I showed them to Paul and another artist friend later that night and we ooohed and ahhed and ‘this one is my favourite’ and ‘no, this one is I think’! Read her profile too..

Well, time to return to my personal world and keep on with the two paintings I started. I have taken pictures of them and am going to post as they progress! Happy days when my hands are covered in prussian blue and my head aches slightly from the smell of white spirit. Have to move onto linseed oil but I find if I use oil for the earlier layers of a painting it becomes to glossy and washes won’t stick. I actually know nothing about oil painting, I just love the medium and am discovering tricks as I go.

Here is the first stage of the paintings..