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It's all about 'Flow' - on Carol Anfinsen's blog today..

I'm relieved to say that I was given the all-clear by the hospital this morning, re possible retinal tears.

But getting to and from The Royal Gwent Hospital in Newport and then the after-effects of the drops the eye doctor put in, to help her look for damage, has all been very time-consuming so I haven't been able to post any 'Tree Paintings today!

However, coincidentally, Carol Anfinsen has posted my 'guest post' on her blog today so here is the link for anyone who's interested:

It's all about 'Flow'

Tree paintings #12 - Somerleyton Hall

 

Another example of where the trees, rather than the building, caught my eye and asked to be painted!

Somerleyton Hall, in Suffolk, is a fine example of a Tudor/Jacobean mansion, open to the public. But nowadays the grounds have been turned to good commercial use with holiday cottages and as a venue for weddings etc

Tree paintings #11 Gt Massingham, Norfolk

 

A few years ago, when I still lived in Norwich, I decided to go on a silent retreat! It was in the Autumn and it lasted from late afternoon on the  Friday until Sunday lunchtime. I think I went more out of curiosity than anything.

The retreat took place in a beautiful old country house in North West Norfolk, at Great Massingham. But unfortunately the style of the interior was very reminiscent of the boarding school where I spent my term-times from the age of 11 until I was 18. I say, 'unfortunately' because I didn't much like being at boarding school and worse still, one of the punishments for minor offences was a 'silent meal' and, for slightly more serious misdemeanours, we were given a 'silent bed', which meant that we weren't allowed to talk while we were getting ready for bed or during the fifteen minutes or so before the lights were put out. For a chatterbox like me that was horrendous.

So I spent the first evening at Great Massingham silently rebelling against the 'silence'! I slept very badly and woke early so I decided to get up and take my camera and explore the grounds before breakfast.

It was October and the morning was bright and frosty and the sun coming up made the colours of the fields and hedgerows breathtakingly beautiful, especially as I'm normally a 'night owl' and therefore quite a late riser!

 

My early-morning explorations took me into a small area of woodland, where I cheerfully clicked away with my camera. This was well before the age of digital cameras so I ran out of film! We had been told that it was OK to speak to the nuns about anything urgent and to me this was almost a crisis. So I rather nervously knocked on the door and asked if there was anywhere I could get more film for my camera. The nun was a lovely lady and she immediately whisked me off to the nearest village in her ancient Citroen 'deux chevaux' to stock up on film.

By that time I was more than happy with the silence and in fact, when it came to Sunday lunchtime and everyone started talking, I really didn't want to. It struck me that a lot of what we say to one another is of very little consequence and that we rarely really listen in any case!

What a difference a day had made!

 

Are you an Artist?

A question that many of us have struggled with or are still pondering, even now! 

I was lucky in that, when I was turning this question over in my mind, a good friend addressed my birthday card to, ‘The Artist, The Studio.....’ for all the world, or at least the postman, to see. I was touched by that gesture of confidence in me which provided an answer to my questioning  - but not everyone is so fortunate.

So what is an artist? How can you decide whether or not you are an artist without a definition of the word? Dictionaries give various definitions and I expect you have some personal definition in mind when you ask that question and it may well be different from mine but here’s what I’ve come up with:

‘An artist is anyone who is drawn to and is comfortable with expressing their thoughts, ideas or feelings through visual images.’

You may want to suggest alternative wording and maybe you can improve on my choice of terms. But my attempt at a definition is very inclusive. As well as painters, it can include sculptors, photographers, designers, illustrators, architects, embroiderers, quilters, film-makers, choreographers - and lots more!

I suspect that there are many people who don’t count themselves as artists because they don’t believe that they can draw. You may have noticed from this post that I believe that anyone who can write their name can draw.

But I’ll go even further and suggest that we are all latent artists, even if we haven’t overcome the challenges to our drawing abilities (which I think are mostly lack of confidence and practice). In her guest post, writer, Joanna Paterson, suggested three alternative ways  in which we can communicate through visual images even if we believe that  we can’t draw.

And there are many more ways in which we demonstrate on a daily basis that we have the ability to express ourselves visually. Whenever you put together an outfit to wear, you are ‘being an artist’. Even more so, I think, when you plan the decor of your living space. Of course, if you’re colour-blind, that could pose some difficulties, though they are unlikely to be insuperable!

I’m sure you will immediately remind me that some people’s decor is not in the least bit ‘artistic’. I agree, but that doesn’t prove that we are not all born with ‘artistic’ ability. It only suggests that the person is not sufficiently interested in their surroundings to take the trouble to ‘design’ it so that it becomes an expression of themselves. It may not be their priority.

Of course , we are not all ‘professional’ artists, a term I would use to describe someone who makes their living through their artistic pursuits. But I do believe that we all have that capability – what we lack is maybe the opportunities that training would have provided, or more often, the ability to market our work and perhaps more often still, the genuine interest and determination to make it our priority to succeed.

Looking back, I wonder why the question of whether or not I could call myself an artist bothered me so much. I take it for granted these days. But I do understand that it’s an uncomfortable, burning question for some people.  

And I’d be interested to hear whether what I’ve suggested has gone some way to resolving it - or how you arrived at the point where you knew you were an artist!

Tree painting #10 Queenswood, Herefordshire again

Today's trees are some more from Queenswood, the area of woodland that tops Dinmore Hill, between Hereford and Leominster.

I never much liked driving up Dinmore Hill! It's quite steep and goes round a long three-laned curve, where my little Peugeot, Guinevere, could never make her mind up which lane to be in. She's far too impatient to hang around behind the lorries in the inside 'crawler' lane and yet doesn't quite have the 'oomph' to keep up with the larger, more powerful cars in the outside lane.

But once arrived at the entrance to the country park at the top, it was always worth a few hairy moments on the way up - especially in the Autumn!

Tree Paintings #9: Hereford and Brecon Cathedrals

I'm really surprised to discover how many trees I've painted!

I never thought of myself as a tree-painting person. But I can say with confidence that I'm not going to discover that I've painted many buildings in any kind of detail. In fact the painting above is entitled 'Hereford Cathedral' - but the magnificent old tree in front of it saved me from having to bother with all that architectural detail!

Brecon Cathedral is actually quite a distance from Hereford but I drove a visiting friend down there when I was still living in Hereford and this tree in the Cathedral Close is one of the two sketches that resulted:

The other one was of a clump of poppies growing by a corner of the ancient stone building....

......which is nowhere to be seen as far as my paintings are concerned!