Balance

While I paint and study the landscape this flow state allows my mind to wander into different areas of thinking.  Here are some sketchbook notes written recently...

The landscape we live in is breath taking and I am compelled to capture it, to study it and develop my dialogue with it.  I think about the ancientness of it all and what it was like before we arrived and built on it, what impact our human imprint has.  Nature is far more powerful than us, time is unstoppable, not in terms of hands on a clock but moon cycles and sun revolutions and the relentless tide.

Truly being in a place is to be in a sort of meditation state.  Looking so deeply and mindfully, I notice more and more, listening and shifting awareness, sinking into the body of the land.  It is also shifting awareness to share and emphasise our appreciation for what we have and where we are and hopefully how to treat it with respect.

I cast my imagination back to the rawness of the elements and purity of the land.  My mood sometimes matches the elements, and sometimes the elements sway my mood.  A brooding stormy sky full of high contrasts with winds that flow over and around the land and myself, or blissful drifting pinks, blues and soft greys and a light that warms the heart and soul as it strengthens it's warmth in the air.  I meditate on these ideas as I paint either en plein air or at home in my studio.

I have thought a lot about words recently like balance and reverence, calm and solace. Thought about energies and mood.  Perhaps this recent painting below should be called 'Balance' and not just because it is currently perched upon this chair.

'Balance' will be appearing with me in an upcoming group exhibition at Yeovil Art Space for Somerset Art Weeks, 21 Sept - 6 Oct,  Wed-Sun 12-4.