Welcome Summer

work in progress: Midsummer Blooms

Summer is the time when one sheds one's tensions with one's clothes, and the right kind of day is jeweled balm for the battered spirit. A few of those days and you can become drunk with the belief that all's right with the world.
- Ada Louise Huxtable

Happy Summer Solstice. I wish you many days of jeweled balm and drunken belief.

Stephanie
xo

Creative Trigger #3: Nature

This post is the third in a weekly series on personal creative triggers: places, people or things from which I draw creative or artistic inspiration. Week 1. Week 2.

OK it's hardly original, but it's still worthy of its own post here because there's no denying it's one of my creative triggers. But how can I possibly reduce Mother Nature's creative inspiration to a bulleted list?

I won't try to include it all. I'll tackle only a fraction and focus on a few ways Mother Nature triggers creativity in my small world of visual art with the hopes that you'll find something valuable to your specific medium or practice. Here goes:

1) Nature's textures, colours and composition provide fodder for painting and photography. Think lines, patterns and colour juxtapositions for abstracts; vistas with mountains, water and sky for landscapes; and don't forget the birds and the bees - literally.

stillness reflected

fortuitous photo fluke of autumn colours

ice patterns with negative effect

2) Following the lead of shadows and sunlight (see week 2), nature exercises the imagination. Have you ever caught yourself cloud gazing or building fairy houses in the woods? Or maybe you see hidden shapes and images in the bark of a tree, the textures of a rock or the curves of a pepper?

3) Finally, nature instills the humility and stillness necessary for me to return to my Centre and connect with, among other things, my creative essence. Although not directly related to the canvas, the restorative qualities of nature do wonders for my spirit which in turn feeds my creative process. A hike in the woods or an afternoon by the sea can be the ultimate Artist Date.

Et voilà, three ways Mother Nature inspires my artistic play.

Sometimes obvious, sometimes subtle, Mother Nature's subjects are as endless as the artistic visions through which she is honoured. Surely she inspires in more ways than those captured here.

How does nature inspire you in your creative practice? Tell me. Show me.

Be As a Bird

Be as a bird perched on a frail branch that she feels bending beneath her, still she sings away all the same, knowing she has wings.
- Victor Hugo

This morning a mystery songbird graced me with its melody. Much as I tried to catch a glimpse and identify it, it was nowhere to be seen. It was a balm for the soul.

Happy Solstice

The Winter Solstice holds a place dear to my heart. Last year I crafted a countdown of blog posts to mark the days up to the 21st in the form of Solstice Reflections (think a Solstice version of the Advent calendar).

At one point during my spiritual journey to December 21st, D. asked me "Why the Solstice?" A good question indeed. Here's what I replied on December 19th, 2008:

"These three weeks are turning out to be a spiritual journey leading to personal transition - a transition mirroring Nature's own shift from darkness to light. The questions explored and insights received are preparing me for the year to come, helping me shift from an internal to a more outward focus as I welcome 2009.

The new year is when I set out fresh intentions about who I want to be, what I'd like to do and how I'd like to go about doing it. These past few weeks will help shape those intentions.

So why the urge to have this correspond to the Winter Solstice?

Timing is one thing I guess - it conveniently takes place at the end of the calendar year. Connection to all things Nature is another. There's something comforting about timing my personal transition to Mother Nature's; it connects me to something universal and grants me the perspective I need to think beyond my ego. Finally, it just feels right."

Happy Solstice to you all.

Steph
xo

Giving Thanks for Life In Its Entirety

"A great photograph is a full expression of what one feels about what is being photographed in the deepest sense, and is, thereby, a true expression of what one feels about life in its entirety."
- Ansel Adams

Yesterday afternoon D. and I spent over two hours exploring Ottawa's Experimental Farm with our cameras in hand - he his digital SLR focusing on homework for this term's photography class, I with my point & shoot focusing on creative inspiration and play.

It was magic for my soul.

For the past month - time at Squam Art Workshops excepted - I've been in a pretty powerful funk that on most days, left me drained of energy with a view of the world through very dark glasses. Yesterday was one of the first times I ventured out for a trek longer than the one to my local coffee shop or grocery store. At one point during my outing, I found myself deeply immersed into photographing cornstalks, oblivious to the world around me, grinning ear to ear (no pun intended). When I deemed I'd captured enough corn photos I skipped down the road to catch up with D.

I skipped. Down the road. With my trusty little point & shoot in hand and pigtails in my hair. And in that moment I felt free of the weight that's been dragging me down for the past several weeks.

Yesterday I felt good about life in its entirety and for that I am grateful. I leave you with a few photos that helped make it so.

Happy Thanksgiving to all.

Love,
Steph
xo

cow crossing

étude de corn stalk 01 of 29

elongated shadow

noble chartreuse

cow and Canada Post Headquarters

ochre on blue sky

Cottage Comforts

I thought I'd share a few snippets of last week's cottage getaway comforts...

view from the dock

outdoor art - kindred spirits were here!

a favourite spot in the screened in porch

fuel for warmth on chilly September nights

comfort was curling up on that couch with a book
in front of a crackling fire

beauty in the small touches

moose on a ledge full of cottage trinkets

I didn't get a good picture, but I was smitten with the contents of their Billy bookcase library. Who wouldn't be with titles like "The Amateur Naturalist's Handbook", "Silent Spring" by Rachel Carson and "A Country-Lover's Guide to Wildlife" - not to mention all the field guides: birds, animal tracks, trees, reptiles, insects, to name a few.

Sigh, kindred spirits and comfort indeed. Is it any wonder I didn't want to leave? :)