Category Archives: Art in the living space

A brighter future

I suspect we are about to see a tremendous upsurge in the human spirit and, in its wake, a wave of the truest kind of human intuitive and creativity, like never before. I intuit that, across all these weeks of being sent to our room to reconsider our behaviour, we are clearing some of the plaque from our arteries, the scales from our eyes and the lead from our hearts; and to see what is real and what is not…and it’s about time Continue reading

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Glass butterflies II

Glass Butterflies is a growing collection of photographs depicting butterflies in juxtaposition with glass: under frames, next to windows, inside glass houses…a metaphor that has deeply informed my painting, writing and thinking for a number of years. As well as taking me on a journey of deeply personal exploration, these synchronistic experiences have everything to do with releasing the Sacred Feminine from her “box” whilst learning to appreciate how that feminine aspect can be allowed to settle upon a much more equal and balanced relationship with the male-oriented, left-hemispherical “structures” of our three-dimensional reality. In a sense, the butterfly learns to work with “the box” on her terms and in ways that enhance her innate qualities; which is the very marriage of fluidity and form that underpins the art-process, taking “inspiration” through the journey of the creative act to where we have something tangible that we can interface with as a three-dimensional form of expression. As you can tell, the metaphor has many layers and continues to develop as one of the long-running themes of my experience. Continue reading

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Amsterdam – where left meets right

There’s something crystalline about places that formed along strictly organised lines masterminded by great architects…and then softened over time. It’s not the history of the places that draws me per se but the process of succumbing and melding with something more fluid, after the event of their creation, that beguiles me; it’s where they are at now that appeals. Like a cup overspilling, the colour and creativity of human life that they burst with – now – is like that liquid I refer to, although it’s not; its more energetic in nature, it’s a feeling that manifests as beauty…. Revisiting Amsterdam, having some epiphanies about what creates the unique energy of a place along the way. Continue reading

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Leading me up the garden path

The weather that delivered on the day of our long-planned visit to Charleston turned out to be nothing like what I had painted in my head; the sky was tipping water by the bucket-full. But then, of course, everything glistened; the fruit, especially, glistened as though freshly varnished and the petals hugged droplets of water like glass teardrops perfectly poised. We got to marvel at the way the bees knew how to line up with their backs to the wind and hang upside down beneath the flower heads – one on each bloom – until the rainshower was over. We got that kind of light that is clear and crisp, not washed-out and without subtlety as on a typical summer’s day. The velvet reds “zinged” and the greens looked like freshly squeezed life-zest personified; vibrant and rejuvenating to receive with all the senses. One of the gifts was the unexpected juxtaposition of a dripping-wet female form peeking out through vivid wet leaves and abundantly ripe fruit;her wet face had something to tell me and it was nothing at all about tears…”I sleep; I do not weep” were words that came boomeranging back at me later that same weekend in yet another stunning garden and the journey in between turned out to be a labyrinth of self-discovery through a landscape of universal themes. Continue reading

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In search of hygge

Going back to what innately draws us as the winter season plays out its pantomime of darkness and severity, we find ourselves recognising the light of ourselves shining back at us across the cosy darkness of our most intimate living spaces, delivered straight out of the eyes of others we hold dear as we embrace the darkness to forge times of warmer glow in communion with family and friends, even strangers that have spontaneously gathered upon these terms of hospitality, conviviality and generally good vibe. The ability to create, cultivate and and sustain the spirit of hygge through the darkest of times is a skill-set we could all use, regardless of our seasonal light-quota. So, what is hygge? Here’s what it is (and I think you’ll like it)… Continue reading

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Peeling back layers

There is a chair in my life that’s, quite literally, always been there – and don’t so many of us have such pieces of furniture and other accumulated objects that are ‘just there’ because they are? This one – an … Continue reading

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Ten (painting) days in December

As the final month of the year approached, and my urge to take a step back from the long, super-intense painting process of my bigger work took hold, I decided to do something extremely light-hearted as a countdown to Christmas … Continue reading

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Of peacocks and dragons…

(..and of suns and moons, of archangels with swords and little silver fish); bizarre as it sounds, these things make up the main substance of the story of my week. As though intent on taking me on a journey that … Continue reading

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