Today started off with the email prompt questions:
1. What time/place/thing in my past reminds me of how much I love making art?
My reaction to learning that there’s an art group in one of the villages when I first looked to move to my current parishes. I knew it would give me regular practice with people who would encourage me. This has indeed proved to be the case.
2. In what ways am I a different person now?
I am more confident in my creativity. i have gained experience and become more experimental.
3. What do I still have in common with the person I was then?
A willingness to learn and desire to develop as an artist.
I want for my morning walk and enjoyed the scenery. I was amazed at the number of different leaves there are.
I didn’t do the video exercise until late afternoon, when I was tired. We had had a lovely afternoon at the seaside and I had paddled in the sea.
The video was encouraging us to look at our past and see what has made us feel creative. What do I love? What inspires me to create? I found this very difficult. As I watched the presenter I drew a blank about my own past. So I switched it off, and gave it some thought. I love the sea, leaves & trees, shells & stones. I feel alive when preaching, singing and of course when I was ordained there was an enormous sense of this is who I am. The words of the hymn Tell out my soul came to mind. They are based on Mary’s song, the Magnificat. Magnificat anima mea Dominum – My soul magnifies the Lord.
So I set about putting these ideas on paper using watercolour. They are the things that I find most difficult to paint. I started with the word Magnificat, then added a tree trunk to the left and some water and sand to the right. Some leaves went in next and then the mountain. I finally added some sky and then a sort of island for the leaves, which had been left stuck in the air. What was supposed to be an abstract collection of ideas somehow became a picture – and the leaves didn’t fit. I should perhaps do some more to it, but it is late. Hopefully tomorrow will be a better day for art.
Elizabeth Jones' Diary 