Monday 14 July 2014

Two more "primitive portraits"

Well...I have been having another go at Mindy Lacefield's lovely course called Primitive Portraits. This time I used acrylics on canvas so my first go with acrylics. Ha ha....they are such fun and brought a ray of sunshine into my life this afternoon. I loved spending days on end on my acrylic portraits last year when I was trying to learn to paint realistically but my mood is dictating what I can do right now and Mindy's wonderful work really fits the bill. Primitive, unfinished and fun.....Yes I think I managed all three of those today. Room for improvement on the art side indeed but hugely lifted my spirits today.

Sunday 13 July 2014

Beginning my week with some good advice....


“We cultivate love when we allow our most vulnerable and powerful selves to be deeply seen and known, and when we honor the spiritual connection that grows from that offering with trust, respect, kindness and affection.

Love is not something we give or get; it is something that we nurture and grow, a connection that can only be cultivated between two people when it exists within each one of them – we can only love others as much as we love ourselves.

Shame, blame, disrespect, betrayal, and the withholding of affection damage the roots from which love grows. Love can only survive these injuries if they are acknowledged, healed and rare.”
― BrenĂ© Brown, The Gifts of Imperfection: Let Go of Who You Think You're Supposed to Be and Embrace Who You Are

Saturday 12 July 2014

Daring Greatly

I was recently introduced to the most wonderful book and indeed inspiring lady who wrote it. The book is called "Daring Greatly" and the author is Brene Brown. You can find many wonderful videos of this lady giving talks on TED TV and they are seriously good medicine when you are feeling down. Her book title comes from part of a speech by Theodore Roosevelt and it goes like this....

It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.

Isn't that just awe inspiring? Just to dare greatly....I can identify with that. Defeat loses its power.

Let in the light.....

I love this quote....it is so uplifting when I feel down. Struggling again at the moment so I am trying to work out "a new plan of coping" but it needs to be done bit by bit, I don't feel up to taking on the world right now. So for today I am going to let the light in through the latest cracks. :-)

Thursday 10 July 2014

Finding a little determination ... somewhere or other

Another little primitive portrait


I tried another one but somehow not so pleased with this one but I still like the freedom of this approach and need to persevere. My painting has suffered from my withdrawal from it and somehow I must get back to it. How I would love a tiny space to call my own...a broom cupboard would do...just as long as I could leave my stuff out and not have to constantly prepare a painting space, find all the materials I need form the various places in which they are crammed and then to be able to leave them there and just pop back whenever I had a little time. Feeling down really interferes with doing routine things and even things you like and this has been going on for months now. I need to find a way to pick myself up.....