The West Wind Blows

The West Wind Blows

West wind blows

where it goes.

West wind blows

trees and grass bend to face the east.

From where will come our aid?

As the west wind blows.

Unseen yet all around the winds of change

course through our lives.

Like trees and grass we bend this way and that.

At the will of the unseen manipulator.

The desire to BE.

The yearning to be filled.

The tree holds firm,

its roots deep into the soil.

I hold to you the chi of all,

and in the storms you hold me fast.

Secure and yet still free,

to BE much more than I dreamed.

I have a passion for walking along the coastal paths and the high places of Scotland. If Scotland has anything it has weather that is unpredictable. It is said in the mountains of Scotland you can experience all four seasons in one day. It is a fact I can vouch for. This means that I frequently set out in one kind of weather and then there is change and I am in the midst of something else. 

One day I was walking the coastal path in sun the next it was dark windy and raining. I came home and painted this and another version of this same painting. But the weather does not only inspire scenes of beauty it also provokes thoughts of change, and our place in the midst of such changing beauty. 

Both this blog and my other consider this today.  The Winds of Change

 

1812

1812

I have used this painting again today even though I had it on here not so long ago. On my other blog I have been talking about change for the last two days. Today I was linking change with the fear of failure. Rightly or wrongly I think they are connected.

While writing this morning I was very aware that I have painted very little for the last few weeks. That in fact I have stepped back from doing anything with paint. I have made all sorts of excuses the biggest one that I need to get back to my fitness level and lose the extra weight I had put on. Both are fact but both are also, I now realise smokescreens.

I took a step with painting where I got ambitious, maybe even over confident. I produced this painting and one or two others in a similar way. I really liked them.

The trouble is; nobody else seems to. They are taking up hanging space and not selling. I have been afraid to admit failure and learn.

I painted this using all sorts of different methods of using texture. It did not work.

Maybe it is time to think again and get back to just paint.

Time for change. Once I get one or two other things sorted I will take the plunge.

This blog is linked to my other. The First Step

Apocalypse

Apocalypse

This is a painting I have never shown before. How do I know this, because, I have never shown this painting to anybody before. This was one of those that I painted when I was feeling overcome with events. I felt surrounded by demands and things I had to do. I would get up in the morning not want to have another day doing the same thing.

Then there were the days when I was ready to paint, the phone would ring and I would have another day sitting on the bench in court. I needed to do something.

This painting came to me one day. I hated it and still do. What it did though was made me see that I had to break through the fences I had built and find something else to do in my life.

It was painted on a large canvas with acrylic. Painted in a very short space of time. It is not more but it did its task and made me unafraid of change.



This blog is linked to my other where I speak of the need to face change. Is It Time For a Change

The Passage of Time

The Passage of Time

This artwork, “Passage of Time” was another of the triptych I produced as my early adventures into abstract art. The three were based in some way or another around the big questions of creation, time and space.


I was very new to the idea of abstracts, prior to this little adventure I had stuck to painting seascapes and poppies. I had expected some comments and sure enough they came fast and furious. I did something like this at school and got punished for it was one such comment. Then there was of course, “funny shape for an egg.” “What were you on when you painted that?” Just a few of the many comments I had to bear. My friends were so used to looking at my paintings and knowing just exactly what they were. Here was something different. I began to doubt if it had been worth the attempt. The thing was though I had enjoyed painting them and they had made my mind active and thoughtful during the process. I had found it a pleasant experience.

Undeterred, I prepared them for hanging and braved more of the same. On the day I was going to hang them I removed them from the package and somebody came over to speak to me, made me an offer. They were repacked and he took them home.

So I had tried something new. I had faced the critics and a new adventure began. Abstracts certainly stimulate discussion and from time to time people like to hang them in their homes. The abstracts I hang in the three inns where I do hang my work for sale certainly stimulates discussion. People who have probably never discussed art since leaving school have become art critics in their own right, and they are never shy to say what they like and do not like.

One old wag when he sees me coming always makes the comment, “what are you bringing today to add to our understanding of culture?”

They were painted on three box canvas using acrylic.



Apologies for any errors there may be in this blog it was written but not checked. Yesterday while washing my caravan I fell from the roof of it and today I am in considerable pain so have just posted it unread or checked. I usually post then read the blogs I follow today I will post and crawl back to bed.

This blog is linked to my other blog where the artwork was used it can be seen at:-Time Change