'Storm'

Creating the painting below was great fun. I found that I got completely absorbed into it as it progressed because I had no particular image in mind when I added the oil paints to the surface. I started off with randomly adding blobs of two shades each of; blue, red and yellow, then washed with thinner to spread the paint around. Once the whole surface was covered I used various objects; a comb, a pine cone, a roller and wood to create marks in the image. When I was happy with my mark making I finished off dripping shimmering ink on to it. Stepping back is when it's title came; 'Storm', that's what I see. The beautiful colours created by a storm out at sea. Different people see other things in the image and thats good because it makes a person stop, look and think.

'Auras'

'Colour In Art' by John Gage is an interesting book, hard going at times but pretty insightful. The part that caught me was chapter 6, Can Colours Signify? Here he talks about colours having a roloe in our lifes, take for instance; flags.The colours symbolises different concepts for different countries, i.e. national flag of Saudi Arabia, green often appears in the flags of Islamic countries because of the strong association of the Prophet Mohammed with this colour. The inscription reads ' There is no God but Allah and Mohammed is his Prophet'. Whereas the green of the original Mexican state tricolour was glossed as symbolising independence from Spain. Nowadays the green in the Mexican flag, like the Portuguese, expresses hope, a concept taken over from the colour of hope among the traditional Christian theological virtues.

The Aboriginal flag symbolises the people and their land. The flag, introduced in 1971, four years after Aborigines gained Australian citizenship, has become a powerful political symbol in much non-traditional Aboriginal art. It introduces three of the four 'traditional' colours; red for the earth, yellow for the sun and black for their black skin.

Further on in the chapter Gage talks about man's aura, introducing C.W Leadbeater's 'Man Visible and Invisible' and William Blake's 'Albion Rose'

Leadbeater's 'Man Visible and Invisible' 1902.

Blake's 'Albion Rose' 1796.



This got me thinking about trying to describe my kids in colour; their auras. I started with Rebekah who can be basic described as reds, yellows and oranges as she is loud, fiery expansive, flamboyant and full of energy. These are some colour studies I did using oils and mixed media.

This is a typical look from madam, she was having an attitude problem that day lol.

To Jane

Hope this artist is of some use to you :))); Katarzyna Gajewska.

Sigmar Polke

Sigmar Polke, the translation at the bottom is; "Higher forces demanded:paint the upper right corner in black!" 

'Journey'

As I am exploring colours I decided to do an interpretation of Ludovico Einauld's 'Nuvole Bianche'. Using colours that symbolise certain emotions, I depicted a spiritual journey I took and a philosophy that I live by now; 'Whenever you're in a dark place, look for the light and follow it. It might at times become very dim, this is because when you are faced with problems that need to be resolved. Afterwards the light becomes bright again and the emotions become clearer to understand, which gives you strength and hope to keep going till you reach the end and come out into the sunshine.

This last one is the finished painting

Classical Music

These are two of many pieces of classical music that I love to listen to whilst painting.
This first one is by Frederick Delius and it's called Koanga 'La Calinda'




This next piece is by an amazing pianist. Ludovico Einauld plays 'Nuvole Bianche' which is the theme tune to England '86