Wedding Belles and Beaus

                     

    

As 2012 faded and we turned into 2013 I began to paint the piece at the top here and noted at the time that it had a different flavour to my previous work. As time passed a distinctive  and mysterious 'wedding' theme seemed to appear on my canvas.

Things began to fall into place when we were greeted with the exciting news that our son and his lovely fiancee had decided to get married. And so with the signature on my painting still drying, plans were put together for a beach wedding in Koh Samui over Easter. It was as if I was a step ahead with my canvas! I love it when the universe brings threads together like this. I thought it would be nice to share a few photos of the wedding. The painting is now ready to go to the framers for my summer show.

Being Worthy

I'm very pleased one of my paintings is going to be auctioned by Bobath Scotland to help raise some funds for the great work Bobath do supporting children with cerebral palsy and their families. I will post more details later about the auction. I had a lovely morning meeting Clare from Bobath and helping to select which painting would be 'the one' for auction.

I've been thinking a lot lately about the concept of giving and of receiving and see that perhaps some of us are better in one area than the other! Just before Christmas I lost a £20 note whilst I was jogging. I'd put it inside my mobile cover for a trip to the health shop on my way back to the house and it must have  floated away whilst I was taking a photo of beautiful frosted leaves. I got to the till and discovered it was missing. I decided not to dwell on things and that there must have been someone in greater need of it than myself at that point and sent it on its way lovingly. 

I thought no more the incident until a couple of weeks ago when I came across a £20 note lying on the pavement near my house. This is the first time I have ever come across any money dropped on a pavement and the fact that it was precisely the amount I'd 'lost' earlier took me aback. I gingerly picked up the note and looked around to see if I could identify someone who may have just dropped it, but the street was empty. I progressed along the pavement with the note at arm's length for several minutes and then tentatively put it in my pocket. I considered the possibility that someone might have reported the loss to the police, but decided that just as I had done myself, more than likely the loss would have been 'written off'. Once home I placed the note in a little container in my 'angel corner' alongside some crystals.

At the time I felt that the Universe had almost reunited me with my lost note, but looking back I can see that although I was grateful, there was a bit of me felt 'not worthy' of the find. This has made me reflect on fortunate blessings in any guise and how important it is for us each to feel we are worthy and deserving. Its all very well to donate and help others and even to bless our losses but we should receive with love and give thanks for whatever comes our way. This small incident had made a big impression on me and has shown me where I have room for improvement.

I'm very grateful for this lesson! I think one of the most important things we can do is to give thanks for what comes our way, even our challenges which carry such transformational powers. We should also allow ourselves to feel worthy of universal gifts and know we are deserving.

Viewing Reviewing

Recently I received almost simultaneous reviews of my book. One reviewer was particularly enthusiastic and wrote a detailed and incredibly complimentary account of her view of my writing. In the other instance the reviewer was not so complimentary.

Such opposing reviews made me think about not just reviews but of the written word and books in general. Words are never definitive and can only represent the viewpoint of that individual. Even books written by respected and celebrated  authors on their specialist subject should be read and interpreted rather than taken verbatim.

When we are reading, be it a book or a review, we must pay attention to our own internal guidance system. Have your shoulders tensed and your grip on the pages or eBook reader tightened? Is there something contained in the pages that has made you take a deeply relaxing exhalation and given you a feeling of warmth surrounding you? This guidance applies to life in general, but perhaps we are so accustomed to the notion that words are ‘truth’ that we forget to apply our own personal filters to what we read.

Occasionally a book may touch on an issue mirroring our own experience and our guidance system is telling us whether we have come to terms with our situation yet or not. Its very easy to be irritated by an author discussing elements that reflect the reader’s own challenges. Its also easy to be lacking in patience when reading about issues that we resolved years ago but which someone else is currently grappling with.

Its wonderful that opinions vary in life and that some things stir individuals differently. I do think that we can learn much about ourselves, however, by making sure we read mindfully and notice how literature makes us feel. Perhaps we should consider exploring in greater depth what our internal guidance is telling us whilst words are under our eyes. I always feel we are in this life together and can glean a great deal about ourselves, particularly the nature of compassion, from the honest writing of others.

Tuesday in Edinburgh......

I had a very nice day showing my publisher Nigel Peace, from Local Legend Publishing around an unusually sunny Edinburgh the other day. Nigel was in town to give a talk on Precognition, Dreams and Synchronicity which he delivered beautifully to a packed room at  25 Palmerston Place

Spiritual Pause

I found January heavy going in Scotland and almost the sense that things had 'stopped' in comparison to the speed of things pre Christmas. At such times I retreat to my spiritual world a bit to try to process and make sense of the certain apathy in the air! It seems that instead of viewing this period of apparent stagnation as a 'lull' it is better to consider it as a Spiritual Pause! It gives us time to catch up with ourselves, perhaps even an opportunity for some mental, or physical detoxing to prepare for when momentum picks up once again.

No sooner had I worked the above out than my creative juices began flowing. I've been particularly taken by pots of Primroses that are cheering up my garden. I love the sculptural and unassuming form of these tiny flowers and the two paintings at the top show early stages of capturing them on canvas. The more abstract painting at the foot (painted during my lull -confusion) contains an unexpected drama. The subject is a tulip and I can see this painting representing some of the struggles and artist-angst that was within me as I worked on it!  Its almost as if the dark shape reaching for the right top corner was stopped in its tracks from engulfing the whole painting and instead works to enhance the bright area.  This canvas definitely had a light-dark dilemma going on. Art can't be detached from what is felt within....which is OK, great even! I always stand by whatever appears as being authentic and intriguing for it.

Flaming January

January has gone all flame coloured in my studio, bringing a welcome relief to our Scottish winter days! This painting is smaller scale for a change and is destined for London or Kuwait of all things! I've yet to make that decision and feel which is the right fit!

Interest in my book continues to grow, which is lovely. I've a Goodreads Giveaway underway just now running until the 14th February. You can enter the draw here !!

The Skinny, Edinburgh were kind enough to review my book, which is fantastic as they have limited space for this. As you see the review has a mixture of incredibly positive comments as well as perhaps some less so. Overall I'm happy with it and the 3 stars appear consistent with many of the reviewer's other reviews.

I have an author's interview in Expat Bookshop I find I love these interview questions and the way
your mind, or heart processes responses. For me, the trick seems to be to not over-think but to really allow your inner voice to speak. I read them back later and am amazed by my responses!

Seasonal Extract...

Here is a Seasonal extract taken from my book Spinach Soup for the Walls where I share my experience of creating a Christmas tree decoration for one of the shopping malls in Muscat, Oman. I hope you enjoy it!

.....On one occasion I was asked, just ten days ahead of Christmas, to come up with a festive Christmas tree to deck one of the shopping malls. Again, as briefs were being discussed with the mall manager and his assistant, my head was already forming images and ideas to fit the bill and my creative pulse speeding up to the pace of a steady jog at the notion of a tree made of metal poles and great sails of silk, in different colours and angles forming large triangular ‘branches’.  Due to similar defined and rigid opinions about what I deem to be the optimal scheme, and the same rigidity that permits me from moving even one single cushion once an interior has been carefully completed, my ideas once formed in my head take no budging.

And so, I found myself in a metal workshop with my sketches and samples of fabric tying my best to explain my idea to a very enthusiastic but highly bemused Indian workforce in a hot, outdoor workshop in one of Muscat’s backstreets. This was a rabbit warren area of town where most things could be bought and almost anything could be mended. Machines, well past their working sell-by dates, and cars that in European countries would have been put to scrap metal sleep, are able to be fixed here for relatively low exchange of cash.

To their credit, and perhaps somewhat to my stubborn Capricorn persistence, we arrived at the decision to make a prototype to be ready for my inspection in two days time. In the meantime I stretched my O Grade Maths to the best of my numerical ability, to calculate precisely (or roughly) how much fabric it would take to form my 7 x 40 feet sails, all to be lined in silver lame and all to look wonderful on my iconic tree. I had the grateful co-operation of the manager of a small fabric shop, a favourite of mine, nestled in amongst the many hundreds of similar shops in the fabric market, or souk. I always considered his material selection to be a cut above the competition, with a myriad of colours and degrees of shimmer and fabric weight that beat the rest hands down. There wasn’t sufficient material on the premises for such an unexpectedly large request, but in time for the inspection of the tree prototype the balance of my order would be dispatched from Dubai.

Tensions began to rise slowly as the day drew nearer and still nothing resembling my prototype multiplied by ten was shaping up. Finally, on the penultimate day of construction, and to a lovely but completely hopeless manager unable to contain any longer his own design ideas for improving my tree specification, my fuse blew. He gave me his pledge that the next day all would be complete and the grim, bare grey metal of my magical tree would be sprayed and glittered to a level Walt Disney productions would be proud of..........

Merry Christmas

  Wishing everyone a Merry Christmas and a peaceful and creative New Year