Heart Tree

Just finished Heart Tree. I added some deeper purple to the surrounding background to make the falling hearts pop a little more and coloured some of the surrounding whites at the bottom of the tree, to give more light at the top. Such a different painting now with only those few changes. The photographs just don't do it justice - needs to be seen in person : ))

Heart Tree

Heart Tree has been a lot of fun to do - still not finished  - soon I hope to get back to it. I just love working on such BIG canvases : ))

The Value of Resting

Yesterday I was feeling unwell and my body was definitely asking for a rest. I listened, rested and nurtured myself  -  and today my body is getting rid of all the unwanted gunk : )) Yay! It got me thinking this morning about rest and how incredibly intelligent our bodies are. How, given the chance, our bodies ( minds and spirits too) can recuperate . I started wondering why it is so hard for me and so many others in our culture to just simply rest. I usually only rest when it is enforced by becoming unwell. Sound familiar? I was reminded of one of my favourite bits from Leunig's book, The Curly Pyjama Letters  - "What is worth doing and what is worth having?" asks Vasco of his friend Mr. Curly. " It is worth doing nothing and it is worth having a rest" advises the sagacious Mr Curly. " In spite of all the difficulty it may cause, you MUST rest Vasco - otherwise you will become RESTLESS". How true! When I look around at others and when I feel my own self - there is this constant rest-less-ness - I've noticed it seems to increase, initially, when I am TRYING to rest ( me thinks that is resistance to resting). Not surprising when adverts, like the one for cold and flu tablets telling us to "soldier on", are in our faces. When we are faced with friends, family, work colleagues and all the other 'Restless' people we encounter - giving us and themselves pats on the back for ignoring or pushing through anything that looks or even sniffs of rest. It seems to be perceived as weakness, laziness, valueless and definitely detrimental to the smooth running of production and the business of making money. After all, there are deadlines and clients waiting and and and and and................I think I'm gonna go out on a limb here with Mr Curly and suggest that it's possible that taking a little rest every now and then might be very efficacious to our bodies, minds and spirits. There is the possibility that it may prevent us from getting unwell and having an enforced rest but it may also be the the place where creative ideas and solutions bubble up to the surface - because we ARE taking time out. Time away from the cacophony of busy life, where we can actually hear the quiet voice inside ourselves and have the time to listen. This begs the question of what is the definition of rest? Most peoples eyes glaze over when they even hear the word REST mentioned. I would imagine each person may have a different answer. For some, it may be sitting on a garden swing in the sunshine staring off into space and eventually falling asleep, for others it may be knitting while listening to their favourite music, for others still, it may be reading a yummy book and sitting, pondering after every paragraph or sitting on the beach listening to the waves crashing and the gulls overhead. Whatever 'rest' is for you - consider taking some NOW and enjoying the many benefits it has to offer. On that note, I think I will rug up against the crisp wind and find a spot of sunshine to curl up and rest in : ))

Devine has just gone up on my FB business page facebook.com/ShonaHutchings with the other finished paintings I have for sale. It was simply a daisy chain of hearts on canvas with a few of my favourite colours - blues, turquoise and red and gold. I left it on the easel for some weeks as it didn't feel finished. There was a place in the centre that kept calling to me but I just couldn't quite hear it - like this elusive sound just at the periphery of my awareness. Last week a friend came over for a couple of hours so we could paint together and listening to some music and working on another canvas - I suddenly got the impulse to work on this one again. The woman's face then materialised really quickly on the canvas and I added some other details and changed a few colours. Still she wasn't finished. Then on a trip with my husband to a warehouse he had to go to for his work, I was introduced to Hydrocryl, artists acrylic paints, in these little glass tubs. The guy said they had ordered them in, in quantities, to sell to big companies and the orders fell through after the first one. They had lots of paints and some were drying up because their shelf life was coming to an end. He sold 3 good ones to me - the most saturated colours I have seen in acrylics. I was in love - Ultra violet, Pthalo green and Alizarin were my three choices. My husband raided their wheelie bin for the ones that had been thrown out already and I have been through them and added water to see if it revives any. They are called Interference or translucent colours, which I don't use as much. Anyway, I digress. I carried my bootie home - excited and eager to try them on canvas. When I walked in to the room I paint in, the woman on the canvas said " Yes, I want those colours on me". A week later and I still have the purple under my finger nails . The colours are so deep and rich and I love them even if they are really difficult to clean off skin, never mind nails - a small price to pay for how absolutely divine they are - There we have the name for the painting - but I changed the i to an e, so it is more like a name for her : )) Deeeeeevine : ))

Welcome to My World is a fun painting for me. It's really so cartoonish and just evolved from a sort of dream like city scape into a lets jump out of our cars and dance in the street just for the pure joy of it - Now that's the kind of world I envision - it's started already, the movement grows stronger every day and I would much rather dance than drive anyday : ))