Listen to your heart: a blast from the past inspired by the Altered Page

While I whip you up a lime putty recipe and finish off my next piece that I PROMISED I'd blog about tomorrow, Seth at the Altered Page came up with an offer that was too good to refuse: Dig up some buried treasure in the form of a favourite blog post from the past.  The post below is one of my personal favourites. Why? Because one year on, I'm still thrilled that I went ahead and followed my heart. Although it's not about art. It could just as well be. Life is art - is it not?


It's my own personal reminder to listen to my heart over and over and over again. 

Hope you do too, for never was there a truer voice :) 

Much love and see you tomorrow

WEDNESDAY, MAY 5, 2010

People mistakenly assume...

... that their thinking is done by their head; 
it is actually done by the heart 
which first dictates the conclusion, 
then commands the head to provide 
the reasoning that will defend it."

- Anthony de Mello 

via Whisky River (Thanks again to this most inspirational blog)

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(Photo: Reflections. Taken for the C&C photo assignment that I forgot to post ...Ahem!)

The above quote pretty well sums up where I'm at in the proverbial a nutshell at the moment. You see there has finally been an uprising here at La Rivière. You may remember this post where I poured my heart out about the sadness of the French school system, and my ensuing désarroi...

Eh bien CA Y EST! In spite of my 'head's' better judgement and worries about how in goodness name I'm going to manage it all, let alone succeed in everything, I finally bit the bullet and formally announced my intentiondetermination to homeschool the messmonsters (in light of having no better formal schooling option in a vicinity of 150 kilometres). Yup! All 3 of them.  As from September 2010. THIS YEAR! 

Did I mention that I am STILL going to 'launch' my new idea in a couple of weeks and go all the way through with it as well?  While still painting, reopening my wee shop and organising a couple of exhibitions? Am I intending to find time to eat or sleep? Hmmm - Not sure if the last two options will be feasible ;-)

Let's just say that, in a burst of pure FOLIE, Heart quarters overthrew Headquarters, is now staging a full on seige, and will continue to hold out until Headquarters caves in and comes up with the goods on 'how to pull it all off seamlessly and without a hitch.' 

So when Jamie Ridler asked today in her 'Wishcasting Wednesday,' "What rules do you wish to make or break?" I had to respond with this:

This is the first time in my life when I'm actually sort of 'breaking rules.' Up till my early 20s (well, late teens maybe) I was always a terrible goody two shoes, afraid of 'not being liked' and admonished if I did 'wrong.' France has been good for me in that way. This is a country where EVERYBODY bends or shatters the rules. NO ONE obeys rules here. Except for the school one that says 'thou child shall remain inside these school buildings from 9-5.30 when s/he will be released to go home to study for another hour at least.'

You may not find that shocking. I was a grade A student, finished my degree, was Student President and in the School Debating Team, musicals etc etc etc..... AND I DO!

So I'm BREAKING this one.   

Now I'm going to take a big deep breath and say, "It's been nice knowing you. I'm never going to find enough time to blog again." 

NoN! NON! 
That's not what I want to say at all!!

I want to say...

...THANK YOU FOR ALL THE SUPPORT YOU'VE SHOWN ME because your comments and shared concerns have been very influential in helping me make my decision.  


In the end though - it's just my messmonsters that seem sooooooo worth it!! 


Looking forward to catching up with you later in the week to share my 'other breath-taking news' and introduce you to two very inspirational women bloggers...


Bisous
xx

Playing around with a curvy Roman

Sigh - sort of. Playing around with a Curvy Roman hand that is - 'La Cursive Romaine.' I'm still only just getting the hang of it but have been enjoying it's soft rise and fall, similar to the gentle swell of the tide.

You see, when the family goes away (hijacking the camera in their wake - hence yet another long absence from yours truly)  I tuck myself away in my atelier with a text that inspires, a thermos of yogi tea and the unlimited reaches of my imagination. Of course, I am violently brought back to reality when my brushes refuse to trace the perfect lines I see so clearly in my mind. With a little coaxing, some uninterrupted concentration, ornery persistence gentle patience and the soft strains of the Brides of Christ soundtrack filling the atmosphere, somehow it all frees up enough to be a satisfactory first draft.

You can overcome all your negative feelings if you realise that they have no other power over you than that which you allow them to have. The day that you understand this truth, you will be FREE. Louise L Hay

I'm not sure that these are the EXACT words Louise Hay actually said - I couldn't find the English original on the Internet - Louise being a very prolific purveyor of wisdom. So I've translated it back out of French into the closest I could get.

I can tell you - It's done me an awful lot of good mulling over this one in all its various forms over the last few days. Doesn't it just bring ya home to the truth! Any of you have those days when you feel like you just don't cut it? Don't make the measure? Will never get there? Personally, this happens to me every now and again so I thank the person I've been working on this for. The universe is in alignment :)

(Never let it be said that I'm not patient enough to watch paint dry)

Now I'm playing around with the same text with a sort of more modern look. It's not finished by any stretch of the imagination. Still far too much white - and no graphic stability. However, it's an adventure that I'm feeling FREEEEEEEEEE to delve into, with willful abandon. Anyway, for the moment I thought it resembled a plane and it really tickled my fancy to imagine myself flying around the realms of my own imagination, so I just HAD to share it with you ;-)

I'll try not to spend so long locked up away from you again next time. I need to finish this piece this week so PROMISE to post the finished result before FRIDAY. Wow - that'll be two blog posts in a week instead of 1 per month!! Don't go thanking me now… y' hear! You're all worth it. Every single little bit :)

Righto - off to make a few visits and catch up on what you've been up to over the last 4 weeks.  Love to you allllllllll…

PS - I'm preparing a special post for those who wanted the recipe to reproduce the lime putty walls in my atelier. It too will be out this week :)

PPS. I had promised a lighting tutorial - but for the life of me I can't get the pieces I need to make the lights I have envisaged. The best laid plans huh… I'm going to have to find the bits because the summer is half way through and I won't have enough light to work in the dark autumn evenings. Fingers crossed I stumble across what I need in a brocante somewhere.

The Quicklime Quickstep

I'm back from London. 

With THESE!!!

I had to wear them home!!

 Incidentally, I ran into a friend I hadn't seen in 12 months in the line-up for customs.

She was behind me. 

Eying off the SHOES thinking 'I could really get on well with the girl wearing those...'

Then I turned around ;-)

Funny how life works, isn't it!

I also came back with 2 other pairs: both rather more sophisticated, rather less 'zany' but with heels so high I could touch the sky.

All 3 pairs are hopelessly impractical for a woman who lives in the middle of a very muddy or dusty countryside, surrounded by horses, who homeschools her messmonsters and plays with pigments and ink at least once per day.

I just ADORE the impracticality of life.

Mind you, it's probably best that I have a propensity to avoid cities and shopping most of the time…

For an art blog, shoes should not be very important. Unless, that is, a girl is wearing them whilst shimmying around her studio to the tune of 'Mamma Mia,' breezily whizzing herself up a quick fix lighting solution for over her work table with some plaster and old bedsprings. 

They inspire me to create

What can I say?

Hope your weekend was fabulous too.

(still have to bunch up my kiwi fruit vines and cement them into a gumboot)

Stay tuned for a 'lighting tutorial' later in the week 

and some specs for those of you who asked about the recipe for the lime mix.

 

Much love to you all. 

Mixing the blues… colour of the sky, flying high!

As you can see, I've got a case of the blues. 

Up to my elbows in it. Literally!

You have to use your fingers to knead out the bumps made when mixing lime powder and fine sand with water, before you add the acetate that binds it all together so you can plaster it to the wall.

There's something that drives me crazy about blue pigments

Bleu Céruleum…

Bleu outremer...

I know I have a big load of visiting to do.

But this weekend I am taking the extra special friend 

who spent ALL last Monday helping me 

apply lime putty to my new studio wall 

with a big blue border around the door frame :) 

to

LONDON

for the weekend.

In fact there are 3 of us taking her.

And we have reason to suspect she's never taken a plane before.

So it was quite a job getting an identity card for her without her guessing ;-)

We told her she would need her bikini and skis.

So far, so good! She hasn't guessed where we are going!

Although she did try and wheedle a clue out of my messmonsters on the sly!!

It's amazing how kids pull through in urgent situations ;-)

I love girly weekends

Especially when they are a big surprise

for someone so lovely as my sweet friend Nath.

She doesn't read my blog. Or anyone else's for that matter.
Internet is not her thing.
Fortunately for me she is the world's leading expert in mixing and applying blue lime putty or 'la chaux' as we fondly call it here.

So she will never know I wrote this, thank goodness.

She is uncomfortable around verbal outbursts of affection.

.

She doesn't speak ANY ENGLISH

Hehe. The weekend is going to be a blast.

When I get back, I shall grab a wine and tell you all about it,
(as well as doing a bit more visiting from the seat of my chair :)

She'll be like a messmonster in a lolly shop

Hope your weekend is bright blue too :)

Finding the right Brand

This post isn't quite about what you might think it's going to be. I bet you're thinking I'm going to be going on and on and on etc about my own brand, or someone else's; one of my favourite brands perhaps. Or maybe have a bit of a rant about a terrible branding campaign.

Tricked ya! 

I have been far too busy putting the final touches (ie: a HUGE WINDOW) on my studio or atelier as we say here in France, so I can finally quit the kitchen table for good. Well - if you don't count meal times that is!!

(Meet Tiago, the lovely Portugese builder, putting a cage up around my mess)

(Mess firmly locked inside with a satisfying view of the surrounding vegetation)

ENFIN mes amis, I will be able to sit in the light of the setting sun in the evening, after the messmonsters ...

...have finished their hard labour supper and paint to my heart's content as the light gently fades in the sky, supping a wee glass of champagne delightfully in the peace and quiet. Sigh - I can almost feel the pleasure permeating into my wee pieces of wood.

 (Sometimes I potter around with things other than old doors..)

But that's not what this post is really about. This post, as I mentioned earlier possums, is actually about personal branding:

(Hint: It does NOT say 'NAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!')

I have started scrounging around in the vide-greniers and brocantes again, on the look out for new and interesting pieces to transform and paint. As it turned out, this Sunday I found a piece that has the power to transform me, not necessarily for the better I might add.  My own initials 'n all! The brocanteur who sold it to me cautioned me against showing it to Beaker unless he got some sort of strange ideas about branding.

Now, where is the key to my studio. I may need a safe place to hide ;-)

Have a lovely week now y'all.  

Au Clair de la Lune, mon Ami Pierrot, please lend me your 'plume'

Au clair de la lune mon ami Pierrot 

(not often you see a sad face around here, is it?)

Prête-moi ta plume pour écrire un mot

(Be a sport! Loan me your quill, I have a few words I'd like to share)

Ma chandelle est morte, je n'ai plus de feu

Ouvre-moi ta porte pour l'amour de Dieu

(Go on. For the love of God open your door. I can't see a thing out here)

(background of a wee door I'm about to start once I've finished the backlog of projects hanging around)

Au clair de la lune, Pierrot replied

'Sorry cobber, have you seen the time? A bloke's gotta sleep!!!

What sort of hour is this to be up brandishing quills???

(heard that one before???!!!)

Try next door at Colombine's

She's up. I just saw the light go on.

You'll have to wait a couple of days for the rest of the story about Colombine and Pierrot.

I only just found them again after 6 years while looking for some old lamps to do up. I love the way Beaker 'tidies' our garage…! 

Anyway, Pierrot has gone to bed like any reasonable person. That is where I will be soon too.

In the mean time, I found my own quill and have a wee word to say to Pierrot and all of you:

Where ever you are… 

FOLLOW YOUR DREAMS

and make them big enough so you don't lose sight of them in your pursuit

Bonne nuit mes ami(e)s

xxxx

If it's important, we will find a way!!

(photo found at this wonderful Australian Artist's blog)

I will find a way to photograph everything I've been working on before the end of the week gulp - that's in two days so I can share it with you next week!! NO EXCUSES.

It's also EXCEPTIONALLY important that I rise early tomorrow and go for my 'patience of a saint Mum' run before the Messies get up, so that I can paint a special request onto some (holding my breath) VERY SMOOTH perspex with clear, deliberate strokes (No grumbly Mum shakes) once 'school' is over.

So that leaves me 3 minutes to keep my promise to myself and be in bed before midnight. I may have to cheat on the 3 mt teeth cleaning time then!!

Bonne nuit ;-) Hope you are all getting your important stuff done.
Love
xxx

To paint the portrait of a bird or Pour faire le portrait d'un oiseau

Nearly a month ago I was meant to be taking off for 9 days. It seems that every time I go to Wales, I come back only in body, and my (freshly upgraded) mind remains in Wales for a good couple of weeks afterwards.

In the mean time, I have returned to Glorious Spring. Homeschooling outside. Painting outside. Life outside. And birds, eggs and birdlings everywhere ;-) It's literally a bird watcher's paradise on our very own doorstep.

Needless to say, we have been inspired. Libellule found this poem by Jacques Prévert*** in one of her homeschooling books. We decided it would be a welcome change to the very dry content of the rest of the French program we had initially elected to try.

Paint first a cage

with the door open

next paint

something pretty

something simple

something lovely

something of use

to the bird

then put the canvas near a tree

in a garden

in the woods

or in a forest

hide behind the tree

say nothing

don’t move…

Sometimes the bird comes quickly

but it can just as well take many years

before deciding

Don’t be disheartened

wait

wait years if need be

the pace of the bird’s arrival

bearing no relation

to the success of the painting

When the bird comes

if it comes

keep very still

wait for the bird to enter the cage

and once it has

gently close the door with the brush

then

paint out the bars one by one

taking care not to touch any of the bird’s feathers

Next paint the tree’s portrait

choosing the loveliest of its branches

for the bird

paint likewise the green leaves and fresh breeze

the sun’s scintillation

and the clamor of crickets in the heat of summer

and then wait until the bird decides to sing

If the bird does not sing

that’s a bad sign

A sign the painting is no good

but if it sings that’s a good sign

a sign you can sign

so you must softly pluck 

one of the bird's feathers

and you write your name in a corner of the painting

Libellule can't stay in one place for more than five minutes, so the rest of the poem (another painting for example) may never be completed. That however, is of  little consequence. This first part was enough fun. We will move on to other things...

Yikes!! There is a howl coming from the cherry tree. That must mean my break time is over. Sigh...

Bisous to you all …

PS.
I have been busy WORKING! Which is why you have had no news from this corner of the woods. Photos to come…

***Jacques Prévert (1900-1977) was a French poet whose poems are often about life in Paris after the Second World War. He also wrote several classic screenplays for film director Marcel Carné, the most famous of which, Les enfants du paradis (The Children of Paradise, 1945), is considered one of the greatest French films of all time. 

"His satirical attacks on rigid French education and the Catholic Church and other institutions of authority expressed France's post-war disillusionment and defiant spirit."

You can't be part of the beach with your shoes on!

As a would-be (by origin, not location UNFORTUNATELY) beach babe, toes-in-sand scruncher, and all round vagabond, imagine my joy when I stumbled on this colourful book :

Inspiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiired was I. Am still going through a yellow phase which I have subsequently put down to withdrawal symptoms: it has now been 5  months since I have had the pleasure of glimpsing, let alone scrunching, a single grain of golden sand. This means I have to resort to using a pumice stone in the shower… not quite the same joy ;-)

Anyhoooooo! Tis my Mama's birthday and she sort of subtly (like a sledgehammer) dropped the hint last time I was home, that her walls could do with a piece of my work. Alors, drumroll please! VOILA! Ze Masterpiece ;-)

In case you were wondering, which you may not have been, it is surprisingly delicate trying to dance a metal nib across a discarded roof plank, which is why I often use brushes instead. Roof planks are ornery things - having spent most of their life NOT being part of the beach - and highly resistant to being danced across with a metal nib (known in France as a 'plume'). Even if said nib is gaily dressed in shades of yellow. Sadly, I have been subject to a mutiny. My brushes are all ganging up on me at once, sporting punk hair cuts and brandishing rebel attitudes, supposedly due to my recent neglect. What then is an artist to do, but go back to square one?

Ah oui! Patience is definitely a virtue when one is wrestling with unbending 'plumes' and unforgiveably ornery wood. Of course, if your 'plume' has a distinct penchant for blue, then you oblige and drape her in turquoise. Only then will she really dance… like sea water sliding across the sand ...

Happy birthday Mama! Dutiful daughter now recommends that you remove your shoes and become part of the beach as you wait for your parcel to arrive :)

Thanks to all of you lovely people who commented for letting me know that my last post did indeed inspire you and make you smile. I can take off to Wales secure in the knowledge that you are smiling and well. Did I say 'take off to Wales.' Bugger! I knew there was a story I still hadn't told ;-)

See you in 10 days. I don't know if driving over the Severn River counts as glimpsing the sea… but it's as close as I'm going to get for now.

Much love
xxx

P.S.

I've put a few more photos of recent work HERE on my Facebook Page (click on the link for those of you who didn't know I had one!!) so if you want to check them out, don't forget to stop by and 'like' my page. It'd really make me smile too.