We are on the road again! The bags are down and lists are being made and modified. We are leaving in two weeks for the Northern Hemisphere, we are planning to spend a year living and working in Scotland. There is so much to do!
A few years ago, during a time of upheaval and change, I created this large mandala, using just a 6b pencil. It is not a pretty image and was done purely as a therapeutic "doodle". Some of the images are borrowed from paintings and cuttings from newspapers and magazines. Picasso's, "Woman Dressing her Hair" seemed to be the embodiment of how I was feeling at the beginning of my 5th decade! The marching of time seemed to come out of the pattern from my watch strap. It was an outpouring of pure emotion and now is a snapshot of how I was feeling at that time.
Carl Jung ascribed healing powers to the mandala and felt it was a way to bring consciousness into a concrete form that could be read, much as one reads a dream. He believed that by putting personal symbols together in a circle, which itself symbolizes the wholeness of the psyche, many parts are brought together in harmony. For Jung, all part of the psyche need to have their honoured place for healing to occur. For a time, he used to do a small mandala every day to clear his thoughts and find out what was important on that day.
Both Hindus and Buddhists use a mandala as a graphic symbol of the universe. Mandala is a Sanskrit word meaning "magic circle".
This imaginary painting was on the go before I started my rock pool series , it actually initiated my close-up rock pool paintings. The painting consists of many layers, some were retained and some obliterated. I have been trying to get the feel of looking over the rocks and pools, towards the sea in the early morning light. The painting symbolizes new beginnings.
Below I have shown stage 1 and 2 of my painting process.
This tiny painting measures 8 x 8cm! I created this for a communal project, one of about 16 that will be framed together. I used watercolour, acrylic ink and thin tissue paper collage. I have never tried to create such a small abstract painting before, it has been a real challenge!
I paint mostly intuitively, guided by the principals of visual harmony, initially, in a purely abstract manner dealing only with line, colour and texture. I often start my work devoid of any subject matter, allowing the images to be revealed rather than dictating the direction of the painting. As the painting progresses, it may germinate thoughts, ideas, feelings or dreams which need to be transformed into visual images, using my own alphabet of symbols. The painting may take many transformations, until the work arrives at its destination and is complete.
Still Life
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I'm not a still life painter, but these are little ones done in a few
hours. And I really enjoyed doing them! Lucky for me, they sold as well
at the la...
A Great Experience
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The month of March 2019 brought a wonderful assignment my way. Advertising
agencies usually make use of the very clever young people extremely
literate in ...
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just playing around trying to figure out where I can upload my photos from.
this is an old mixed media piece, 22x30, for an invitational show entitled
Ta...
The Start.....new painting 2/2016
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My students often have a hard time starting. At the beginning it is best to
keep things as simple as possible. I started this delightful painting of my
Mom...
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*'Contemplation'*
Oil on 15x20cm canvas
This is one the portraits I finished last week.
The cross was an after-thought but I felt it had to be there to...
Lionel Smit studio visit
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On 4 June a group of lucky SASA members were taken on a walkabout of Lionel
Smit's studio in the Strand. Lionel showed us around himself, sharing his
space...
From the Immersion series
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I finally figured out Instagram and it is way too much fun! So I've been
posting there lately, but in the meantime these are recently completed
works f...
PinIt!
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As if I don't have enough social channels to keep up with now, I thought I
would finally jump on the Pin Wagon at Pinterest. I know many of you are
there, ...
CESTANDREA has a new home on Wordpress
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Hey Sleepyheads:)
If you haven't yet noticed, it's been more than a year that we have moved
away, but not far :)
come on over into PARISDREAMTIM...