March - Creative Colour Challenge

March 2012 Creative Colour Challenge from Louise Gale's monthly blog challenge. The theme this month was Blue.

I had been working on this piece throughout the month but it is not really quite finished. My original intention was more of still water and light however it is has turned out more like a thunderstorm, which is interesting. So this piece will continue on it's journey to completion.

So as my original piece is still "in progress" I had decided to also share something I completed earlier this month that is still  in line with our Blue theme.

The girl in the painting looks quite worried and maybe a little bit sad. The light bulbs and the butterfly represent the realisation that if we can control our thoughts we can create a better life.

Art: Change Your Thinking

Looking forward to seeing some of the beautiful blue creations this month!!

Moments of Gratitude (Employment)

Employment

This week I would like to express my gratitude for having a stable job.

I sometimes complain about being time poor and I wish that I worked less (dreaming of a lotto win!) But I am truly grateful to have a job that challenges me, enables me to work with some wonderful colleagues and also supports a comfortable lifestyle.

"We have too many people who live without working, and we have altogether too many people who work without living"

Charles Reynolds Brown

I guess it's all about finding the balance.

Lotus Pearl

This is a textured piece on a large canvass. Most of the texture is done with lace and the Lotus flower and petals are moulded with texture paste. It is painted with a pearl white finish. I have been procrastinating about whether to leave it plain pearl white or to colour the lotus and petals in a rose gold? I guess the all white finish represents purity but then again perhaps it is a little too plain.

Any thoughts ........ is less more or does it need some colour?

Art:- Lotus Pearl

Moments of Gratitude (My Bed)

My Bed

This week I have chosen to express my gratitude for my bed. It is such a beautiful healing space for me. I love the smell when the sheets are freshly washed. I snuggle in amongst the stillness and silence and often, I imagine that I am laying in a big white fluffy cloud, hovering above the world. 

It truly is heaven.

 I am so very grateful to have a clean, comfortable and safe place to sleep each night.

Beautiful Misgivings

Art:- Beautiful Misgivings

People are like stained-glass windows.  They sparkle and shine when the sun is out, but when the darkness sets in their true beauty is revealed only if there is light from within.  ~Elisabeth Kübler-Ross

This piece is done with a combination of collage, texture and acrylics.

The woman was originally meant to be complete however I over worked her face to a point that she looked a little worse for wear. So I decided to use this opportunity to fill her up with words relating to our misgivings about beauty. All those insecurities, questions and doubts that we as humans obsess about far too often. The mirrors are filled will aluminium foil for a reflective finish and the flowers represent the true beauty that we are, once we can switch off all those critical thoughts and just be.

Nana

It was time for you to leave this life & now we must let you rest.

The angels have come & whisked you away to place you with the best!

Today as we say our final goodbye, we also celebrate your life

& thank you for your gift of love.

Though you're gone from this earthly plane,

in our hearts you’ll always remain.

With Love

Tam

xoxo

Water Women

I was going through my art stuff in the garage today and I found these artworks which I had totally forgotten about. These were creations from a few years back which had kind of an African flavour to them. I had them hanging in my bathroom for a long time and then they kind of landed amongst the piles of semi completed creations.

Art:- Water Women

Amongst the madness of shapes and colour there are figures of women holding clay bowls of water.  In Africa it is primarily the women and children who collect the fresh water, everyday getting up at the crack of dawn and walking for miles to the nearest water hole to collect their family's water. It is hard to imagine this life and it certainly brings an awareness of how truly lucky we are to have access to fresh clean water simply by turning on a tap.

This piece was done on canvass with collage and acrylic paints.

Precious Moments

Lately I have been very conscious of how much life is ruled by time. When to eat, when to sleep, what time to wake up. This is inevitable in a world with work and other commitments, but I guess the key is to let go of time whenever we can.

Whenever possible be timeless. Be in the moment - in the now.

“Time isn’t precious at all, because it is an illusion. What you perceive as precious is not time but the one point that is out of time: the Now. That is precious indeed. The more you are focused on time—past and future—the more you miss the Now, the most precious thing there is.” ~ Eckhart Tolle

Art:- Precious Moments

Mixed Media - Collage, Metallic, Oil Pastels and Acrylics

Moments of Gratitude (My Mum)

My Mum

Yesterday my Mum lost her Mother. (my Nana)

So it feels so appropriate that this week I express my full hearted gratitude for my Mother who brings so much beauty, support, laughter and love into our lives.

I love my mother as the trees love water and sunshine - she helps me grow, prosper, and reach great heights.  ~Terri Guillemets

Change your thinking, change your life

For me, today was a very good example that this is sometimes far easier said than done. But the light of my determination will not fade! It just feels a little dim right now.

Art:- Change Your Thinking

Moments of Gratitude (Yoga)

Yoga

Yoga teaches us to cure what need not be endured and endure what cannot be cured.  ~B.K.S. Iyengar

One of the many passages that I love from Meditations from the Mat by Katrina Kenison and Rolf Gates

"We get the job, we don't get the job, we get married, we don't get married, our family is well, our family is troubled, our friends flourish, our friends founder, our demons are meting away, our demons are at the door; we wake up with a love for life, we wake up filled with free floating anxiety; we feel worthy of the love in our life, we feel unworthy of the love in our life..... through it all, though, we come back to the mat, we return to the meditation cushion, we do the next right thing"

I am so grateful for the many gifts that Yoga brings into my life.