Category Archives: Photography

Photography of Helen White or on the subject of photography in general.

Finding my sweet spot

So, as an artist, what do I most want to do…do I want to present it all on an equal footing, as though you were standing there in that garden with me, getting to choose which blade of grass to examine closely next? (I tend to think that would make me into someone who delivers visual information, documentary fashion…but not an artist.) Or do I want to share what I, personally, focussed on and so experienced there because it was so high-frequency it overwhelmed me with love and appreciation of life and I want to dole that out like a tonic to all the world? The same goes for life, do I want to see the whole picture, or do I elect to find my own personal sweet spot and choose to stay there, as much as possible, modelling this way of being (not that this is why I do it) to anyone who cares to notice how good it can feel to be this way? Why do I suspect there’s more to this topic than meets the eye; that there’s pure alchemy at work when we, each of us, elect to seek out our own sweet spot and make it into our home, our very way of being, the thing that determines how we spend our time, what we give our thoughts to, how much joy, love and gratitude we feel every day… 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

Posted in Animal art, Architecture, Art, Art in the living space, Art metaphor, Art purpose, Art technique, Art transformation tool, Consciousness & evolution, Divine feminine, divine masculine, Installation art, Life journey, Menu, metaphor, Personal Development, Photography, Spirituality, Symbolic journeys, Windows in art | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Seeing the world

Its a classic time of year for me to be adding a load of eye-catching nature pictures to my newsfeed following long winter walks. To those of my friends who don’t live in my part of the world, or even a similar climate (and there are several), it may seem as though I live in a completely DIFFERENT world, but I don’t…not really.

I started doing an online photography course yesterday and I loved it when the teacher described how she saw a feather hanging off a branch in a pubic garden and pounced on it with her camera. Her friend said to her “How did you SEE that?” and she replied “How did you NOT?” I’m just the same and, like her, I would have then spent the next half hour angling different shots at this feather while my friend scuffed her feet around wondering when we were going for some lunch – I do that to my family all the time – but its not that I’m trying to force the beauty out of a subject. Its already there…its everywhere, its just a case of being receptive to it, to really see it, to notice it wherever it presents itself. Continue reading

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The yin-yang garden

This is all the same winter garden as experienced during a period of less than three hours, first in day and then in night. Notice how the deep dark velvets and jewel tones sing out mostly in the daytime, the … Continue reading

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Glass butterflies

I noticed something very distinct about Amsterdam and that was how the layout of its main canals, in a layered horse-shoe shape, divided by roads and intersecting canals that fanned it out like a turkey-tail, reminded me of an inverted tree of life or rather, a tree of life labyrinth. I have talked about my labyrinthine experiences walking around the streets of various towns many times before and here was another example showing up in my experience. The labyrinth can be an extremely powerful way of encountering portals at the points where energies intersect and seems to invite multi-faceted experience into your awareness through these portals; which serve as an axis-point between other dimensions (you could think of such a portal as the truck of a tree connecting dimensional “branches”). So, in effect, you can find yourself standing in an ordinary physical “place” when suddenly your three-dimensional “reality” (which starts to take on symbolic significance in ways you didn’t notice before; these everyday things are now”clues” to make you sit up and take notice) seems to intersect more fluidly than ever with other dimensions that you can now perceive.These power nodes train you in multi-dimensional awareness and so you familiarise yourself with its potential in ways that you get to take with you through other walks of life. When you encounter these power-portals, you feel riveted to the spot as coincidences of circumstance “speak” to you in a multitude of ways, offering new layers of deeper meaning and understanding to what you ordinarily encounter with your five senses. Continue reading

Posted in Ancient sites, Art, Art metaphor, Art purpose, Art technique, Art transformation tool, Consciousness & evolution, Divine feminine, divine masculine, Holiday destinations, Leylines, Life journey, Menu, Personal Development, Photography, Remembering, Spirituality, Symbolic journeys, Travel | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 7 Comments

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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Graceful journey: a Scandinavian experience

When grace happens to you, it is like a moment of poise that you just know is exactly where you were destined to be; one you will never forget and will continue to draw upon at times when life drags you back into its slip streams. Like portals between layers of space and time that tell us we are unfailingly on track, can’t even be off-track if we tried, these appointments with our own self-created destiny are powerful nodes of experience that communicate back and forth across time and space and make life feel unimaginably coherent, even in the midst of the most tragic or unexpected things happening around us. Nothing can truly shake us out of this sense of coherence once we plug into this personal journey of the heart. There is true power and strength to be found around so many unlikely street corners on such a journey through life; one which takes us far closer to the true epicentre of our own heart-maze than anything we could experience from following somebody else’s guidance on where we should be going, what we should be doing. Listen to the advice, yes…but the listen to your own inner guidance first; and take some of those detours down less trodden streets and be amazed at what shows up in some unexpected places. That’s when we realise that grace is, ultimately, an inside job and entirely portable, wherever we happen to be. From that space, we realise, place is just a matter of perspective; that the inner work is where it all happens and that, through the attitudes we adopt, we really are the true architects of our world, the creators of our own skyline view and (when we allow life to unfold for us) we are always, unfailingly, in the right place at the right time. Continue reading

Posted in Ancient sites, Art, Art technique, Birds, Consciousness & evolution, Divine feminine, Gardens & gardening, Health & wellbeing, Holiday destinations, Installation art, Life choices, Life journey, Personal Development, Photography, Symbolic journeys, Travel, Walks | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

The blossom opened early…

Did the tree know something I didn’t, had it heard the starting pistol, received the signal, been slipped the secret cue that something big was underway; something that could contain itself no longer but must “out” into the light? Or had it simply felt it must take that leap of faith, be the one to demonstrate, through actions, that it dared to be all today that it had hoped to be tomorrow so that others would also believe this was possible and much more so than just through the endless repeating of words? No more waiting. No more striving. No more hoping and trekking and aiming and intending and visualising but BEING it. Did it want to manifest what it already knew to be so in its heart’s potential, to bring it out of hiding and into that light, however cautious and conditional these times still urged it to be, however much of a mixed blessing the sheer intensity of that light it was reaching out into could sometimes feel? Had it decided there was no more time left for slumbering underground, its tenderness tucked away inside dry woody branches? Continue reading

Posted in Birds, Consciousness & evolution, Divine feminine, Gardens & gardening, Life journey, Nature, Personal Development, Photography, Seasons, Spirituality, Symbolic journeys | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

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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For the love of them

When I first started to produce art for a living, sheep were my chosen subject so often that I became known in some circles as ‘the sheep painter’. All my life, I’ve had a special place in my heart for … Continue reading

Posted in Animal welfare, Consciousness & evolution, Culture, Health & wellbeing, Life choices, Life journey, Nature, Personal Development, Photography, Spirituality, Vegetarianism | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 5 Comments