Taexalia

wild.life

Work In Progress

Work In Progress ~ Totem

This is how my painting is looking tonight. I don't think the details have photographed well, but the painting itself looks great. Hmm well Crow looks great but the background details haven't fully formed in my head. I've learned two things whilst trying to plot the background... either leave the background until the bird is finished, or do it first and let it dry a bit. I suppose it adds to the romance that I covered my hands and arms in paint - and I have no idea how paint got on my belly!

I am enjoying the oils. I have no idea about technique really - even at college I never had lessons in oil painting. I have one half finished oil painting in my dusty old portfolio and I think that's about the extent of my oil painting experience. So I'm making it up as I go along - but I learn better by doing.

I have no idea why I don't do things like this every day - because when I just do something creative and ignore all the blocks and predatory thoughts, I lose myself in these wonderful journeys. I find that oil paint is very forgiving - it's easy to blend in and out of things that don't quite look right... I know how many layers are under a certain bit of Crow and I feel that I'm just bringing him to life with each session. I'm really liking that this painting is also holding the spirit of the crow that visits me - this is why I am naming the painting "Totem".

My deadline for enrolling to exhibit at TSLO is May 1. I'm sure I will have this painting completed and I have chosen some photography chosen - so I will be exhibiting work in a gallery in Odense, Denmark in June. TSLO is a wonderful group who seem to believe that everyone can converse in art. Their annual exhibition allows amateurs to experience seeing their work in a bona-fide gallery. Allan exhibited last year and it was amazing to see him glow - this is the man who told me he could not draw when I met him... conditioned by stupid thoughtless teachers, who should never have been allowed near children no doubt! I committed to bringing "something" this year and as the deadline has gotten closer I have realised that I have good things to share. Which is quite an achievement for me - not least in the area of self-esteem!

A woman I met in one of the storytelling workshops said to me "Tell stories that you love... you will tell the best stories when they are ones that mean something to you."

It is the same with whatever medium/discipline you express yourself in - expressing what is in my deep self, my Wild Woman, flows better.

Keeping with the bird energy - I nipped out to Kemp's Corner to snaffle a bottle of red wine and as I walked up Restalrig Drive I was visited by a Kestrel. I mean really visited - she swooped so close to my head that I felt the breath of her wings. I nearly jumped up and down and squealed and she darted off over the bowling green!

I know that there are Kestrels in and around Edinburgh - I saw one last year on the promenade at Portobello Beach, and two years ago I saw one about 15 minutes walk away on Sleigh Drive. I've never seen one so close to home before For all that I dream of living in the wilds of nowhere, I love the diversity of wildlife here - only 20 minutes from Edinburgh City Centre.

I think I'm still Finding Water I have been doing Morning Pages without a hitch and I haven't missed a day yet. I have been out walking twice this week. I definitely tick the Artist Date box as I have been to a second session of the Singing Class I enrolled in. I've also been to a Celtic Knotwork workshop and been to the art supplies shop twice to potter and purchase.