The Happy Tulip

The Happy Tulip

As most of you will know I have a real love of flowers and nature. You will also know if you have read my other blog that I have been spending some time away in my new caravan this weekend. On Saturday evening I went for a short walk with my wife son and daughter in law. Hey had come to visit and see the new van.


Louise has just volunteered to help in the Scouts working with the younger children. As we walked she began to ask me about the various trees we were passing. How you could remember the different types and the names. She has to be able to show the youngsters, trees, flowers and birds.

I was in my element, and she also seemed to be enthusiastic. As we walked I told her of my father and how he had instilled in me a passion for wildlife .I told her how I knew every tree bird and flower by name, as he shared his passion with me.

He also made up stories of the characters of the trees and the flowers. I believed every word he said, as you do. Soon different trees and plants took on a character of their own.

He grew flowers and showed them at floral shows. He always spoke of tulips as happy smiling flowers. So as I wrote today of the happy Chinaman my thoughts did go back to him and his happy tulips.

So here is one of my very very early attempts at painting a happy tulip. I painted it in acrylic. It was never shown to anybody and to this day it is in a cupboard out of sight. I will not paint over it because it was a first and it does have happy connections.



I return home today so hope to catch up on your blogs I have so missed reading them.






This blog is linked to my other where I tell the story of the happy Buddha:- The Happy Chinaman

From a Distance

From a Distance

I think I have shown this painting before but in the very early days of blogging. This is one of those paintings that come as a happy accident. I was not at all happy with the painting I had begun. I decided to begin again. I took a very large brush and spread the paint across the large canvas. I then left it to dry before applying a coat of gesso and start again.


I went to have a cup of coffee while the paint dried. On my return I was captured by the faint idea of a painting. Instead of painting over with gesso I added the hint of waves and the two distant figures. Now it could be said that this was a happy accident but it was an accident waiting to happen. I had been running early that morning. I had run along the beach at North Queensferry. As I ran in the silence I became very aware of the vastness of it all. I stopped and let the sand run through my fingers. Every grain of sand all needed to make the beach. Every person needed to make humanity.

Here I was the small and tiny figure in all this trying to play my part and take my place.

So a happy accident but one that who knows happened as per circumstance.

I called it, “From a Distance,” and I still have it. I will not sell it because I have a good friend who does not have an easy life. He loves this painting and one day soon it will hang on his walls. He and I may in fact be the only two who do like it but does it matter?



This blog is linked to my other where the artwork is used:- Say Nothing

Betsie

Betsie

Today in my blog I spoke of my dog Damon, I know I have shown you a sketch of him before, so today I show you Betsie. One of my friend’s wife was very ill in hospital. I went with him one day to visit her. She was very ill indeed and was finding it difficult. During the conversation she spoke more than once about her dog and how she was missing her.


How I would have loved to have broken all the rules of the hospital and sneaked her in to visit. It was just not possible. So after the visit I went to his home and did this very quick pastel drawing of Betsie. My friend took it up to the hospital later and blue tacked it to the wall where she could see it. It hung there till sadly she died.

I hope it brought her comfort. There does seem to be something between people and animals that can speak and say the words that we want to say but can never quite find.

I know that my friend took the drawing home and that he still has it in his possession, so maybe it is a small part of the cherished memories he has of her.



This blog is linked to my other blog:- The Wondrous Moment

Cape Lilly

Cape Lilly

Is it not amazing the wonder of a flower? I used to tell all wedding groups to please take care to look deeply at the flowers that played such an important part in any marriage. They are the silent witnesses to the events of the day. They silently contribute to the beauty of the event.


The wonder of nature in all its glory.

It is no surprise then when I started painting that my first steps into art were my attempts at painting flowers. Strangely, I was never really attracted to botanical art where the artist strives for the perfection of the flower. I did attend a workshop where a wonderful botanical artist led us through her process. In three hours we did about four petals.

Meditation plays a very important role in my life and how often the beauty of a flower can hold my mind in thoughtless wonder for a wondrous time of peace.

So the flowers I paint are not the flowers of perfection but the flowers that stir my inner being. Some of you whose blogs I follow have fed me with the wonders of your flowers so often and I thank you all.

So today I give you one of mine.

One of the first ones I painted when I first got my hands on acrylic paint. I painted it on canvas 16” x 20”.

I was so surprised when somebody offered to purchase it. I had sat contemplating it for a good number of days. I occasionally put it on my computer screen and still do so.


I am not sure if I will manage to post my blog this weekend but will make every effort to do so.



This blog is linked to my other where the art is used:- The Sound of One Hand

Silence

Silence

This painting, as until yesterday and large seascape that had kicked around for sometime doing nothing but taking up space. Every time I saw it I took a bigger and bigger dislike to it, so yesterday I converted it to this abstract.


I was feeling good within, it was nice to be pain free, and I felt full of bright colours and joy. I just wanted to let this bubble forth onto the canvas. I had not real plan, which is unusual for me. I normally have an internal picture fighting to break free. What I was sure of as the colours, the colours I see al around. New leaves popping onto the branches, yellows of daffodils and primroses abound. While in my garden, there are the bright reds of a rhododendron and azalea.

So with these colours and no others, and my knives and fingers I attacked. The original painting was landscape, so this one was going to be portrait. I do not ever remember painting a portrait abstract this size. I did paint it in landscape but all the time trying to see it in portrait.

When it as finished I showed it to a fellow artist see it in landscape. The comment was positive, so now I had a problem. I let two friends se it. They did not like it at all. When I turned it round to portrait they began to look again, and I think maybe they saw something else.

Is it finished? I am not at all sure. Will I leave it? Or will it go the way of the seascape?

The most important thing for me was this. If I had just had a little bit of silence yesterday would have been a marvellous day.

I am not at all sure about the title of this I may in fact leave it without a name and let it say nothing.

I hope those who read this find ALL they seek this day.



This blog is linked to my other where I talk about silence:-  The Desire For Silence