Wow – I had one of those ‘God’s on my case’ (or synchronicity) moments this morning. I just read the email (arrived nice and early so was there when I woke up) and the question was something about how you connect to your creative force and it led to me thinking about how I love waterfalls or moving water like rivers and the sea. Over breakfast I watched the art tuition video from yesterday. We were treated to lots of pictures of swimming pools and water, both abstract and realistic. It has given me confirmation that my thoughts are getting me on the right track.
However when it came to me creating a picture to represent my past creative work etc, unlike our artist tutor, I have no memories of drawing as a child, or of being artistic. The opposite is more the case: I took art at CSE and, with help from the teacher scraped through a pass. But I have absolutely NO memories of what I did or enjoyed. So I am going back into my early adult memories of knitting, sewing and making special birthday cakes for my daughters. The rest of the picture is things I like. Unfortunately my efforts at sea and waterfall images are lacking in artistic merit either in realism or abstract. Although I felt disappointed, I continued to work on it throughout the day.
The words about the sea are a Haiku poem. Each line has a set number of syllables. I love autumn colours and the green fronds in the small circle on the right remind me of running through lots of ferns when I was a small child and they were bigger than me. The hills are there because I love walking in them and have often felt close to God and been able to mull things over and prayer whilst outdoors. I chose the style of the picture because I thought about the Life Is….. picture I did many years ago. (See yesterday’s blog).
As I walked on the beach I pondered the questions set for Day 3.
Question: What parts of my life have energy and connect me to my creative force?
answer: Walking in creation with The Creator; prayer; the Holy Spirit.
Question: What have I learnt from times of ring stuck or stifled in art? How can these insights help me in creating art?
Answer: I have found challenges like this one, support from people on various Facebook groups (Creative Christianity Summit, Love to Paint with Roisin, Evolve yourSELF creatively and Faith & Arts) and in the art group I attend (stopped by Covid) where there is a tutor on hand to encourage and help as well as giving us a lesson once a month that usually stretches us.
I need to continue praying and reflecting upon creation as well as connecting with other people to learn techniques and shift my mind set, as well as be challenged and inspired. I have found rising to a challenge makes me do something and doing something is much better than doing nothing.
As I walked along the beach I was struck by the beauty of the rocks and marks in the sand, and despite my resolve not to, I collected a few shells. I have a large collection of shells and pebbles at home that I really do not need any more. I took some photos and wondered if I could paint something inspired by them – not necessarily realistic looking, but abstract and just using the photos as a starting point. We will see.
I am now very tired and have done enough for today. I will watch day 3 video in the morning.
Elizabeth Jones' Diary 