Perhaps that's the Artist's job

I actively seek the joy in each day, do you? After being il for such
 a long time I had to learn to see again. My partner would say
I miss you saying "Look at that Tree"
But with all the drugs from chemo I stopped noticing. Wow life was so flat.
It has been the flowers and birds that have brought me back. Just to sit for a short time and quietly watch. Yesterday two rosellas flew into the tree in my garden in front of me, your heart lifts with joy.
Then last night a Tui was doing aerobatics from tree to tree, dropping suddenly, soaring, turning, just fabulous, so wonderful a sight.
Plants thriving in the greenhouse are uplifting too. So exciting to see the cucumber attaching itself to the tamarin and clambering skyward.
It made me think about the early days, at 20 I painted in oils and choice of subject was usually flowers and seedpods. Right in close, magnified view, vibrant and clashing colour combinations. Seeing nature as no one sees it. Perhaps that's the artists job to help others to notice the beauty round them. To see through our eyes. I  constantly seek a tree or a small scene I have never noticed and think Van Gogh would have painted that.

What do you know….

Lots going on at the moment, busy, busy but a good kinda busy. I have my own Art Calenders out and they have come up beautiful. Very impressed with the printing, you can see the textured surface on the Paintings clear as day. Its got nearly all new work from this year. Really people can get a lot of Art here for $25, frame their favourites, bang them on the wall.

I love Art Calendars and always buy the latest one, keeping them for years for the pictures, could be the colour combination and feeling I am currently exploring. A dream of mine was to one day be in one of those calendars and lo and behold you can just print your own.

Some dreams are so easily sorted!

What's kinda cool is they are my images so I can use prints of sold paintings ,so others get to see and share the pieces that have been snapped up. And oh boy its been a steady year of sales…

So if you're keen to get a 2015 edition they are available from Helensville Art Centre, Discover me website or direct from the Artist, cheaper too!

Or wait for next year when it'll only get better. hee hee

"I see Red"

"I see Red"
Definitely how I feel today. Have had surgery done on my nose and lets just say there has been a lot of blood. Had acute sinusitis and allergies for 12 years, so fantastic that I am sorting that out at last.
As an expressionist I paint how I feel not just what I see.
So this Painting," I see Red"was finished earlier this year but I didn't exhibit it with the Life is But a Dream series as it was so intense and full of emotion. I was annoyed how I couldn't think, focus or     paint with the sinus headache and then realised, why not paint how IT feels…                                                      
Being one to always look at the positive I thought of all the things that were red beside pain, anger, or  aggression. So this is that Painting, there is the road full of Autumn colour and the glorious beauty of red. Its good for the Artist to paint about all sides of life, not just the nice. What does pain look like? grief? loneliness? I enjoy exploring and expressing in colour life's full plate.
Funnily enough its a green palette I am working with today but thats another story…..