Yesterday my good friend and Barbados buddy, Mizz C, came down to Chez Badass for a visit so I was able to present her with her (May) birthday gift. OK, I know this sounds bad. But we are the kind of friends who still feel close even though we haven’t seen each other in months. I was also able to re-give her last year’s Christmas present, which was left behind in my vehicle last February when I dropped her off, after our trip.
We’ve been friends for over 50 years now…the kind of friends who can spend a whole afternoon sitting beside each other, noses in books and tea mugs in hands, and barely speak and think we had the most marvelous time. Because we did.
Anywho, she asked me to paint her a beach scene…someday.
I do like how this painting turned out. I wanted it to represent any beach, anywhere. Mizz C lives in a beach community a couple of hours north of the Village. I chose a beach scene without any details that could convey a certain geographic region and didn’t make the water too overtly tropical in hue. I think I will have to repeat it for myself some day. I think something like this would be perfect to hang in my bathroom, so I can look at it while soaking in the tub.
I followed a painting tutorial by Angela Anderson to create this beach painting.
And because this is a Monday post, I want to speak a bit about mindfulness, as well as and related to art. When I am in my studio (aka laundry room) working on a piece, it is almost a meditative activity for me. I am so intensely focused on what I am trying to convey with my paints, that all other thoughts are emptied from my mind. It’s a nice break from the mind chatter, to have those almost unrelenting pop-up thoughts fall away momentarily.
Four weeks in, I think the meditation that I am practicing is helping me physically. I have less neck and shoulder pain lately, even when spending more time than usual hunched over my computer at work – like I was last week when my right hand person was off and I had to take over some of her duties besides my own. Last time she was off, I needed to apply a heated bag to my neck and shoulders during the day, to help ease the tension. This time I didn’t feel any pain.
I have a massage therapy appointment this week. I wonder if my masseuse will notice a difference. I feel different, on the inside.
I used to think that creating art was a very free-flowing, emotion-heavy, intuitive and spontaneous activity…when I wasn’t doing it. But I find it mostly to be about careful planning, design, and problem-solving…just like real life. And it is a mindful activity. All of which I like. All of which I can get into. All of which I am working on getting better at.
Rock on,
The WB
I love it! What a lucky friend.
Thank you Reticula!
I found your comment at the very end particularly interesting. I’m sure most of us who aren’t artists or creative types also think of being artistic as free-flowing and intuitive. However, now that you mention the careful planning, design, and problem-solving, it makes complete sense to me.
I’m following another blogger – Karen Hume at The Profound Journey – who you may find very interesting. She is currently engaged in learning more about art and being an artist. She talked about art as a narrative and how an artist’s body of work will tell a story.
I find it interesting that even with the deliberate process of planning and designing your art, you can then still tap into that inner meditative peace where your creative self can be found. I don’t know if this makes sense to you, but for a non-artist looking in, that’s what it appears to be.
Absolutely Joanne! I’m going to check out that blogger, thanks. I believe in what you described…by seeing someone’s art you are seeing their story as they choose to tell it.
Actually the concept was new to me and I was quite fascinated about the idea that stories could be told in different forms (did I mention I wasn’t particularly creative? 😉)
This is the link to Karen’s blog …. https://profoundjourney.com
Hmmmm….I’m not sure that someone who has multiple blogs and takes awesome photos can be allowed to mention that she is “not particularly creative”. 😉
I wonder why you can’t see the irony in what you just wrote! Just what do you think being creative means, Joanne? Just because you don’t have paint under your finger nails doesn’t mean you aren’t creating! I see you creating ALL. THE. TIME.
That’s an interesting thought. I’ve never looked at it quite that way. Thanks for the pep talk.
Yer welcome!
❤️
Wow! It’s phenomenal – so realistic!
Thank you Kim! I think so too, especially from far away and if you squint…LOL!!!! (Up close, I see all my little boo-boos).
What a fantastic painting! And those friends who you can just hang out with, doing “nothing” – those are some of the best friends. I was discussing this with one of my friends who now lives a long way from us. When we lived close together, we would just go to one of our houses and read or work on things, just with the other present. We didn’t need to be doing anything to be happy just spending time together.