Coming back to life......

Several months have passed now since I decided to close down Dancing Daisies. At that time I had been hacked and subjected to some hurtful abuse and it just about finished me off last year. I had been very low with depression at the time and an anxiety problem hurtling out of control but during the past few months I have been healing and found my way again. I never thought I would feel up to re-opening Dancing Daisies but today on my 67th birthday, I suddenly felt I wanted to. As this thought came to me out of the blue, I felt perhaps it was important to follow that "gut" feeling.

The content of my blog is likely to change a bit, due a lot to what has been going on in my heart and my head since last year....but I will just let it be ....and see what happens. If you do pick me up again by any chance, thank you for reading.

A new dawn.....

Closing "Daisies"

I am really sad to have to do this but I am going to close down my blog as I have been the target of a very vicious email linked to my social network site Freeing Your Wings. I have been struggling with very bad depression this year and I cannot cope with the feeling of being open to attack in this way. I am in the process of withdrawing myself as much as I can from the internet and to finish posting on my Dancing Daisies blog is very sad for me. I don't think many people follow me but I have loved doing it. If you did ever follow me thank you so much. I hope all goes well for you but this will be my last post.

Love Lynda x

Joseph and another of Stanley

My little grandson, Joseph, has been by far the hardest to capture and I do not feel as if I have managed it. This second one of Stanley I prefer, as it is softer.

Rose

Still on my "Prelude" course, I had a go at drawing my little grandaughter Rose this morning. Quite pleased with her.

A new course in portrait work

I have started a new course in working on portraits and am once more moving towards realistic work. This course is run by Kelly Berkey and is called "Prelude to a Portrait". I am loving it although it is very challenging and there are many incredible artists on the course but everyone is so supportive. I have got so involved with it that I have forgotten to post any of my work so will post my first four portraits now, the three portraits of women are from the course material and the little boy is from a photo of my grandson, Stanley,which I found wonderful to try out. All the work is in charcoal at the moment with a focus on light and shade.

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.

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.”
― Brené Brown, The Gifts of Imperfection: Let Go of Who You Think You're Supposed to Be and Embrace Who You Are

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.