The River and a thank you

I feel the urge to blog right now this second whilst in the middle of starting a new piece. I sat back and realised exactly 10 mins ago how much my work is now free flowing from my fingers. I thought about my time a few months ago when I couldnt hold a pen without a lot of fear and pent up energy. What a difference a few months has made.

I can honestly say that the EDM group has really helped and I wanted to say a HUGE thank you to everyone for all the lovely comments and support since I started my journey back to the land of the creative living.

I wanted to put a few shots up of 'The River':

Its quite big - about 54cm x 33.5cm and its been lovely to do. Its been a slight challenge due to the card being quite waxy, therefore repelling the wax pastels and allowing me to work with it differently.



You can see here that there is alot of layering and I have also scratched into the pastel to create different lines and textures





Working on The River was really about me loosening up and letting go a little.

I've just started another piece today - a market shot I took with vibrant fruits and lots going on. Heres the start of it:



Drawing these pictures is quite cathartic for me and I'm feeling quite precious about them. When I travelled to Asia last year I was in a very bad place emotionally. I was surrounded by all the beauty and the culture but I was removed from it. I don't regret it for one moment however, I needed to be there and I needed to go through the motions of change to lead me to this point now. Drawing these is like a little nod to that. I feel like I'm now appreciating it in the way I should have been whilst there.

On a final note, I have been pretty ill the last few days so I havent really been out of the house. Last weekend however I took a trip to the park. Autumn is by far my FAVOURITE time of year and I took my new camera and went for a walk to capture the colours:

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Changes

The Pond - by Fred

I met the most fantastic man last week called Fred, whilst visiting a family member in an elderly home. I've got to say, the place struck me as incredibly clinical and almost like a hospital which I found strange. As we walked to the rooms to meet our elderly uncle, I noticed a table full of pencil drawings layed out on the chairs and on the floor. I peered over and had a look and then carried on walking down to meet people. As we walked into the main TV room we had a look at the 'activity room' next door which was empty and untouched. No games, just a table with a few bits on the walls. My heart sank when I looked back at everyone - I had a feeling that people really were not shown enough love and attention here.
After a bit of time, my mum and I went for a walk through the corridoor as she was keen to show the balcony to admire the view she had seen before. As we walked past we saw a man sitting down with all the drawings I saw earlier. He was surrounded by at least 50 A3 style pieces and he was drawing one as we approached.



We sat and spoke to him and he explained that he just loves to draw and that he draws about 5 or 6 pictures a day all pencil and all from his own imagination.


We walked to his room and we were greeted by more pictures up and around the walls. A mixture of portraits and landscape and with a fantastic charm. I was generally touched to meet Fred and to see his work and to meet someone with such a strong and vibrant spirit. He was like a ray of sunshine in that place and it was lovely.




I showed him some of my own work via my camera and then Fred kindly let me take two drawings! Excellent. I'm going to go back and visit Fred and give him a drawing in return and buy him some paints. However he seems to be very happy just using pencil. Meeting Fred was brilliant for me. It reminded me how important and beautiful it is to create.

On another note - this really has been the year of change without actually planning it. I do believe that as soon as you let go and accept yourself and your life, things will happen that you once were clawing for without any effort. I feel like exactly 6 months ago I started doing just that and now things are in motion in lots of different ways.

I'm now about to move out and share a flat with a friend, so that really has dominated the last 3 weeks but I have started a new large piece on a waxy cardboard which is a completely new and interesting effect with my oil pastels. Its all very experimental and nice to have it there to dip in and out of. Especially at the moment. I like the idea of just evolving slowly with my work and taking twists and turns. I have nice new camera (which I'm still figuring out) but its great for documenting work. I look forward to putting pics up of it when its ready.