Commissioned Art

When I am feeling up against it, there are a few things that I find consoling – my writing, my garden, my photography and my drawing.  This week  I have returned to my garden to pot some succulents, plant a lemon tree and to take photographs. Sunday was drawing day. Less exhausting and still very satisfying. By creating something, my heart feels lighter, there is the feeling of completeness and  my soul is satiated.

For regulars, you may remember a previous post Book Artwork COmmission , last month. Today was the perfect day to complete the work. It was a pleasant spring day but the occasional showers restricted any gardening hopes that I had. I had inked the last two images yesterday. They had dried for over 24 hours, so I cleaned them up with an eraser.  

The cover was to be coloured. I used pencils to give shading similar to that found in the medieval artwork of the manuscript. In all, there are four black and white nib-inked chapter drawings and a page of incidental artwork, plus the inked and hand-coloured cover.

I am hoping these will be to the taste of the author. All going well, this will be available to buy

in the very near future – I33: Fencing in he Style of the Walpurgis Manuscript (a discussion and rapier exercises based on early period text)

Attention all Fencers – watch this space!

Commissioned Art

The Need to Smell the Roses

I has been some time since I have just taken photographs for the sake of art. There been many happy snaps and quick pictorial documentation of events attended but I have not really enjoyed the visual delight and interplay of colours of the world around me. It was time to just take the time to revel in the nature around me.

This week I have managed to get back into the garden and get some chores done (there are still many to go). Spring is well on the way; the flowers are blooming, the fruit is starting to appear on the trees and the bees are swarming.  This week the broccoli has all flowered and I came home to see almost fifty native bees flying around (there were about three Europan bees as well). They were fast little critters; I took several photos to try to get as many as possible in shot (and hopefully one in flight). This worked best with a darker background (I moved to get shadow behind) and  larger aparture (to blur the background).

The calendula flowers almost glowed in the sun, so I used the same technique (dark, blurred background) to bring out the colour. This was one of my favourite photos.                            

I know I should vary my style a little but I love getting in close. The Aeonium Schwarzkopf is almost taking over, under one of my native trees. I love the dark purplish colours that contrast with the green of the new leaves.

It is very easy to propagate – just cut a piece off, wait for the end to seal (a few days) and push it into the ground. It will eventually produce roots and grow. These were grown this way.

A few years ago, I planted three rose bushes along the front path. They were straggly survivors from pots. They sat there, not dying and not really prospering. Finally they are really start to produce a lot of flowers and the leaves. I should get out to smell the roses more.

The Need to Smell the Roses

The Colour Grey.

I was just skimming through some emails and posts on Facebook and came across one that I found interesting (and heartening). A friend had discovered her first strands of grey hair. Proudly, she owned them and was determined not to immediately run to  a hairdresser in search of a cover up.

I was in my mid-twenties when I first noticed the odd grey hair creeping into my otherwise dark brown hair. I wasn’t too worried. My mum had ‘salt and pepper’ hair and she wasn’t that old. My grandmother had grey hair; she was an independent, go-for-it kinda woman who rode motorcycles and wore trousers during WWII. She was cool. I wanted to be just like her. For me, grey did not equate to old, it equated to wisdom, no-nonsense and not caring what others thought of someone.

As I got older, the grey mulitplied but not at any great speed. There was only a slight amount of salt in the pepper.  My husband, on the other hand, has greyed much quicker and now has a sort of silverness to his coiffure. It didn’t really bother him until he found the odd grey in his beard. I didn’t mind as now he has the whole Gandalf-the-yummy thing happening. He is still him. He is still my love. The colour of his hair did not change anything at all.

In the past couple of years I have noticed a very satisfying thing. Most of my grey hair is concentrated around the face and, in particular, a streak at the front. It is a most pleasant white colour. I had always hoped I would get a grey streak – a Rogue-ish type mark. I bided my time until it was long enough to let loose on the world.

I like my long  hair. Even as a child, I envisioned myself as an old granny (well more of a nonna possibly) with long grey plaits. None of this recent trend of ‘cutting the locks short when you reach 40 as it is more mature‘- shit for me. Oh no! I wear my long hair with pride.

When I get bored, I get my hair coloured instead of cut. I have red (that look more purplish some say) streaks. For some time, I have made the hairdresser leave the grey streak in  - ’cause I can!  I recolour when I feel like it, not everytime an errant grey pops up or when the roots are showing. Why should I conform to the Youth Cult that Society seems to want to force me to follow. I am happy in my skin (ah plastic surgery – a whole other blog post!).

I am proud to have lived life; I have survived many trials and situations that I hope others will never find themselves in. I have learnt a lot. My grandmother used to say things like ‘It is good for your soul’ and ‘what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger’. 

My advice to my friend was to wear her grey hair as a badge of honour! It is a sign that we have been through stuff! We should wear it proudly! It is not we that should conform to Society’s narrow restrictions, it is the rest of society that can’t handle it!

But she knew that already.

The Colour Grey.

Garden Therapy

It has been a tough week emotionally. I needed to get out of the house, into the open air and out of the constriction of the walls that surrounded me. Wednesday was too hot to dig in the garden but I did manage to pot up some succulent cuttings and fill some of my teapot collection. My hubby feels we have enough teapots inside the house, so now I collect interesting ones to use as pots in the garden. It was not too onerous a task for 30 deg celcius.

Yesterday it rained, rejuvenating the entire garden that had suffered from the heat the day before. I actually love the rain but it did confine me indoors once again. The walls were still closing in. I needed to escape. I dragged my family to a (relatively) local nursery and purchased an advanced lemon tree and a camelia sinensis (the type you can make your own tea from).

We have big plans for our garden. Well, at least I do. Last year I had planned to do some landscaping, removing much of the overgrown grass, replacing it with white stones al la Tuscan style, complete with humungous terracotta pots with dwarf fruit trees. Due to the health, stress and monetary issues this year, these plans have not eventuated and the heat is starting to roll in.

But there has been a light at the end of the tunnel. The landscaping is still not achieved but I have discovered a garden fairy godmother. She has funded a small garden spree because ‘I have inspired her to grow an edible garden on her balcony’.  After my tears of joy that there is such a generous soul out there, the greenie in me jumped for joy that I have actually inspired someone to garden! (everyone should grow some of their own food  - oh don’t let me get on my soapbox!) I still have goosebumps.

Squee!

Now I just have to wait for the rain to stop (I can’t believe I said that) so the ground can dry and I can get digging.

Garden Therapy

An exercise in Free Writing.

At least once a week, I read through a variety of articles and blogs on tips for writing. One article recommended (and suggested exercise in) freewriting. Freewriting involves writing whatever comes to mind, regardless of grammar, sense or coherence. It produces a raw stream of consciousness. You just let your mind wander. It is an writing exercise used as one of many suggestions to help remove writers’ block or procrastination and to help provide ideas. It is writing for the pleasure of writing without having to worry about the motive for writing or the end result. It is another reason I endeavour to write my blog daily; it gives me practice in free writing. Sometimes I ask friends for a topic, to get my creative juices flowing…

Today I present you with one of the exercises that I have done, as an example. The subject given to me was:  About my feet. (in 10 minutes)

I have average sized feet and the toenails really need a trim; they grow extremely fast. Right now they are sporting a bright green shade of nail polish – a remnant from a ‘girly session’ with my daughter.

I have been told that I have small feet for my height. They used to be a 7 1/2 but now that shoes are being made narrower, I have to wear a size 8 (Australian). Many of my friends were size 9. Though I have been told that our feet get larger as we age. I should Google that sometime (not that I can believe everything found on the internet – no peer reviews and usually no bibliography to support facts.)

More recently the large toe joints have become very pointed. It reminds me of my grandma’s feet. It is a reminder that I am aging. To rub salt into the I’ve hit middle age is the problems with my arches. I now need to wear arch supports (helps my hip!). Now I have to adapt my shoe-shopping to take this into account.

I like to walk in bare feet. I often say that ‘Shoes are coffins for our feet.’ I remember mum forcing me to wear shoes at school. These days my feet have gone soft. Last night I ventured out front without shoes (checking on the smoke that was down the street). I found the path had scattered stones from the garden. The larger ones were not such an issue. However the smaller ones were hard underfoot. When I reached the driveway, there were fallen sticks from the gum tree, rough stones and prickles in the grass. I really should do some weeding when the weather cools slightly.

Give it a try: your subject is: Lunch

An exercise in Free Writing.

A Balance in Life

There is nothing we can do to stop death. We can try to stay healthy, we can seek medical help but in the end it comes to us all. With the news of my friend’s death from the cancer, just in her forties, I needed the comfort of my garden. I needed to dig in the soil, feed the plants and help them grow. I needed to walk around and see the new life bursting around me and forget about death for a while.

Slowly our garden is becoming a productive one – we currently have the remains of brocolli, kale, two different kinds of beans and tomatoes. We have a fruiting lily pily, a recovering blueberry and a mysterious, self-seeded stone fruit that is looking more like being a peach tree.  We have an orange tree and two dwarf apples – pink lady and a granny smith.

The orange and apple trees have only been in the ground for two seasons. This year they are smothered in flowers. The orange tree has a multitude of small proto-oranges on the go. This was the time to add manure, blood and bone, compost and straw to mulch. The two potted dwarf apples also had a top up of potting mix. I was determined that they will live, grow and thrive.

I also rescued one of our standard roses that appears to have been sat on, possibly by one of the feral cats in the area (the possums are no longer around). It was leaning at a dangerous angle. It is now in a pot of twice the size and mulched with decorative stones.

Death has been balanced by life. This year my fruit trees are dedicated to my Sandy.

A Balance in Life

Buy Nothing New October...

As some of you may be aware October is Buy Nothing New month. For those who don’t know what I am on about, this is it:

It started in Melbourne and is spreading. The idea is to get people thinking about how much ‘stuff’ we actually use. If we use less, recycle, upcycle or repair more then we can help our environment by reducing needless waste.  It saves us money as well. It was originally in October, so that is when I do the challenge. 

Earlier in the week, we took advantage of a secondhand book sale at our local library. We bought three bags of books and came home with 71 books and some DVD/CDs and we returned on Saturday (now at 111 books). Now we just have to find somewhere to put them… and we WILL.

I have mentioned some of my efforts in sorting out my wardrobe in Buy NOthing New Clothing where I have started using material (that I already have in my cupboard) to sew new outfits this month – so I don’t have to buy new clothing.

Second hand stores, such as Salvos, Goodwill and opshops are also another way of doing this. I often opshop for costume bits and accessories. Many pieces of my steampunk outfits have been sourced at garage sales or secondhand stores. It keeps the cost right down! Today we found a checkered suit, perfect for steampunking up (think the suits on Ripper). It was a perfect fit for my husband and only $20 – for the entire suit. Wicked! (One less thing I have to make. Even better.)

I also managed to score some chinaware – a teapot (in which I plant my succulents) and a  novelty teacup. I love collecting interesting teapots. My hubby insisted that we had more than enough to use, so I decided to use them for potting up my succulents. So there is now two collections in one.

The tea cup will cheer me up when I need it.

Our environment is precious and this is something individuals can do. There is a website and a FB page, if you want more information.


Buy Nothing New October...