Bossa nova

Just when you thought you might get a blog post that didn't reference Glastonbury, I sneak one in under a Latin American radar!

You see, the thing is, I'm doing another of these round robin journals and am working on Sue Richardson's bossa-nova-themed book. Sue is a jazz musician which I find terribly exciting and exotic. In fact, I was so inspired that I ended up buying a whole new album of jaunty tunes - but more on that in a moment. Let's first drift through the mists to the picture above....

Do you wonder sometimes how the universe conspires to set things in perfect alignment for you. I return from my trip to the fabled land with the magic of the Lady of the Lake and lyrics of Roxy Music floating on repeat through my conscious, only to find a journal with a distinctly up-beat Latin American feel - not a match to my mood at all... or was it?

For listen carefully to the smooth tones of Mr Ferry singing Avalon and you'll find words of a very serendipitous nature!

So, with one double-page spread under my belt I could have had done with it and moved onto my next project - but no! For you see, I am something of a fan of the Latin beat - I think I may have been Brazilian in a former life. I wanted to paint those rhythms after all and tap my brushes like drumsticks and dance the paint across the page. I thought a new iTunes purchase might help, so added to my overflowing hard drive a little bossa nova compilation for the Muse to dance to - and samba she did, swinging those hips and flicking her tresses bedecked with feathers and sequins (she's such a party girl!)

It's the music I remember from my Dad's vinyl collection (Wes Montgomery, Charlie Byrd, Stan Getz) - the kind I would scoff at as a New Romantic teenager but which I have come to love. A bit like olives I think - a taste one acquires as one grows older and we stop consuming the type of sugary substances that dull our taste buds.

So, tomorrow this journal goes in the post and I await the next.

\|I'm also posting Gemma's 'purple' journal - but that's a whole other blog post....

Until then...

What the Muse wants

When the Muse wants to paint a portrait, she gets to paint a portrait. When the Muse wants to paint the same expression we sketched a few days ago, something a bit moody and introspective, then that's what she gets.

The Muse did not care that the colour scheme for this week was entitled Wild & Reckless. Don't get me wrong, she loved the colours. She just did not care for crazy abandon.

The Muse allowed me to pick a name for this girl, so I chose Wendy. The Muse changed her mind and picked Grace.

Who am I to argue with the Muse?

It's the Summer of Ice Cream Colour week 5.

Mixed media on watercolour paper. I layered up some hearts using a stencil and a stamp. I splatted with watercolour and acrylic. I collaged some old book pages, then drew Wendy/Grace with charcoal and picked out her features in acrylic.

Saving

OK, I admit it. I've been saving this artwork for this post for one of those weeks where either the Muse was sulking or 'other stuff' got in the way of creating art. Well, I have to tell you that the Muse may have pouted and postulated all she wanted this week; I've been far too busy and distracted to even notice! Secretly I think she's been hanging out with her arty Muse friends. I went to London on Tuesday night and I'm sure I saw her skulking off in the direction of the Royal Academy. Still, at least if she got to see the David Hockney show, then maybe she can bring back some inspiration for me - what's a Muse for after all?

I trod the red carpet on Tuesday readers. I nearly skulked in the side door until the delightful doorman at The Mayfair Marriott reminded me that the red carpet had actually been rolled out especially for the likes of little old me and that I really should make the most of it. So, I duly pulled myself up an extra inch or two and came over all 'Helen Mirren'. I worked that carpet so hard ... it's just a shame that the paparazzi had gone to the wrong hotel...

Assume a virtue if you have it not... For use can almost change the stamp of nature

William Shakespeare, from Hamlet

I was at an awards dinner for one of my clients. Rackspace was finalist in the UK Customer Satisfaction Awards - well deserved. Not quite the BAFTAs or Oscars but frankly much more important don't you think? I was wearing Monsoon.

Back to the art. These are tiny fragments of other paintings which I've cropped and blown up in PhotoShop to create something new. I hate to miss a 'do' and Paint Party Friday have rolled out their own red carpet this week in honour of their birthday. I wonder if there will be cake?

Dressing for dinner... well lunch actually...

Do you always know what you're going to write when you start a post? I don't. Many's the time when I just start typing and hope the Muse turns up.

She's been out dancing. She's taking Flamenco lessons. I worry about all that Latin passion and what she's going to have me do with it. In fact, I've just got my clothes out for work tomorrow and the whole ensemble couldn't look more Spanish if it tried. The neat pile draped over the banister includes a ruby red rose corsage; a black, embroidered full skirt that swirls out when you twirl; and red jewels.

We're having our Christmas lunch out with work tomorrow so I thought I'd make the effort. We're only going to a local pub - rather than enjoying paella and tapas as you might expect with this outfit. I don't doubt I'll be over-dressed, but frankly once a lady reaches a certain age and station in life she likes to have a little fun; and if she wishes to temporarily change her name to Lisabeta, click her heels a great deal and shout "Olé!" at passing waiters then that is her prerogative.

Err...

Eva

Well, it looks like I just can't stop drawing these girls on book pages... Last night I wasted a lot of time working on a bird piece that was collaged and painted and waxed and tweaked... But in the end, it just didn't tweet it for me.

Then, just as I was about to go to bed, the Muse gently nudged me back to the art table. "Go on... just one..." she urged. What could I say? When the Muse calls you listen (or she sulks for days refusing to come out to play). Then one face turned into two and the clock ticked way past my bedtime...

I love how I can get away with giving these girls messed up hair. In this sense they are very self-portrait. I have never been able to tame my fine mane. That's 'fine' as in thin and weedy, rather than a spectacle of luxurious coiffure.

Still there's plenty of other parts of me that chug along happily without being tamed. My imagination certainly enjoys being free to roam. Last night I scored a golfing hole in one in my dream. Everyone bought me a drink. It was very jolly... But later I was trying to find my way home and lost in Brighton while looking for Waterloo Station. It promised to be a long search as it's about 60 miles further north in London! Then before I knew it, suddenly I had match-side seats to watch Liverpool play some other team at football, but all the guys I was with said they'd prefer to go to the cinema... It's a strange old world that subconscious...

Samphire

(I knew it wouldn't be too long before a mermaid demanded to be included in this set!)

Day 5 of Art Every Day Month - I'm having so much fun!! It's never too late to join in.

Looking back and looking in

This week Inspiration Avenue the Etsy Group and creative challenge blog (of which I am a member) is celebrating hitting 500 followers with a little party. We have giveaways and something creative for you to join in with. Our challenge this week is to share what gives you the inspiration to create.

Now, let me tell you a story... Over two years ago I came across these creative ladies when they held another blog party on a similar theme. I shared what stirs my soul to write and paint and before I knew it had found myself with a whole heap of new friends keen to support me on my artistic journey. With their encouragement I opened my own Etsy shop, became a member of their wonderful tribe and sold some art! Without these wonderfully kind and caring folk, I doubt I would have had the confidence to keep trying new techniques, pushing myself and listening to the Muse inside me who was begging to be let out to play.

So, my Inspiration is YOU! Thank you both team mates and the wonderfully talented artists and creatives who join in every week with our challenges - your work never ceases to amaze me! I hope you don't think it's a cop out, but rather than create something new for this week, I really wanted to share again what started it all over two years ago. If I have time later in the week, I may add a few more to this list, but really want to get to that party right now... I just can't wait!


5 degrees of inspiration (originally posted 1st August 2009)

I've been invited to a wonderful party - fancy dress of course! Come dressed in your five favourite inspirations... It's not too late to join in, grab your 'drive' and journey over...

Inspiration. The word seems to brush gently as it passes your lips,

gossamer soft and strangely enticing.

Primo - My Muse

She is surely a magical thing but playful too. My secret self who will creep up on me when least expected, and don’t think she follows any rules. No way! Inspiration makes an appearance only when she wants to. It’s her terms or no terms.

Inspiration is my muse; she is what turns a dull day into a fine one; a pile of old paper into a work of art and a tiny germ of an idea into a full-blown pandemic of explosive creativity! Sometimes I just have to sit at a keyboard or in front of some art materials and she will weave her spells. Occasionally she makes me work a bit harder for her services. However, the time she pays me most visits (the little minx) is late at night when I am trying to sleep. POP goes the bubble of idea she sends me scuttling into my brain and spreading out its interesting tendrils, exploring a myriad possibilities. Will I remember by morning? Possibly not, so my muse gives me a quick nudge, turns on the bedside lamp and presents me with my beautiful floral notebook into which I diligently record her delightful suggestions.

Secondo - Artists & Creatives

The creativity of others – whether it be a beautiful ACEO on Etsy or gazing in awe in front of the great Masters. Standing in front of the Canalettos in the National Gallery in London, I once had what can only be described as a moment of self-discovery. It is almost impossible to put into words. I felt uplifted and suddenly in touch with lost emotion, with the desire to create and dig for soul treasure.

Websites like Etsy had me dreaming and drooling until suddenly I stopped thinking "if only" and instead dived in head first into a box of art supplies. I came out sticky, paint-stained, crumpled, creased, frustrated, exhilarated but above all motivated. No matter the result, it's the journey that counts. It doesn't have to rank alongside Canaletto, Rosetti or Monet. It just has to please me.

My soul is like a sponge soaked in all this inspirational juice. Everywhere I turn I'm drenched in showers of it. Thank you to all you lovely creative people.
Terzo - Italy

What magic lifts from the fragrant hills? What secrets lie behind honeyed walls and terracotta tile? What secret elixir inhabits the vino rosso? Maybe it is the incurable romantic in me, but there is something timelessly enticing about the land of Romeo and his sweetheart. Artists and writers across the centuries have been drawn in mesmerised and, growing up in such surroundings how can you fail but to become Michaelangelo, Da Vinci, Puccini or even Ferrari?

The first time I sat open-mouthed in front of the film adaptation of the E M Forster classic, A Room with a View, I was in love. I only have to catch a passing glimpse of rolling Tuscan countryside and I am reaching for paintbrush. Ah if only I could truly capture that essence.

Quarto - Feedback

Well, I admit that no one really likes criticism but if ever anything was guaranteed to goad me into action to improve anything I have created then a little niggling dig is sure to rile the Muse into action - providing of course that you see their point of view (there's always a caveat!). "I'll show them..."

But thankfully the scales of happiness do sometimes swing in our favour. How wonderful to receive praise... but is it really as good at kick-starting the Muse? Does it not put extra pressure to out-perform or at the very least equal?

And who can ever resist the pull of a little healthy competition too?

And now alas my inner critic is chastising me. How can I possibly post this without an appropriate picture? I don't have any artwork that quite epitomises the inspiring power of a few choice words. No, not excellent.


Quinto - Heston Blumenthal

Just watch and tell me you're not inspired! Anything is possible. Pure genius.

Heston is arguably one of the world's greatest chefs and undoubtedly the most imaginative.

He is a man who thrives on creativity, cut him in half (not recommended) and he'll have it written through him. It doesn't matter whether he creates culinary concoctions, advertisements, films or breeze blocks. It's about having the nerve to fire up that creativity with inspiration from the most unlikely sources; never being afraid to try something different and, possibly most important, keeping at it until you get the results you're after - it may not be exactly what you set out to do at the start, but it's giving people what they didn't know they wanted - and boy do they want it!

Thank you for the invite. I'm having fun so far, but a little lonely at the party on my own... Who will turn up next and what costumes will they be wearing?

The Muse in disguise

It's funny, I've written so many posts about my Muse over the years, yet as soon as I find a writing prompt to do so, she deserts me. I can hear her now, laughing hysterically in the background, at my foolish belief that she'd bend to my will. Fickle creature. I have a cunning plan though... I will leave this post for a while and sneak back when she is least expecting...

You see the Muse might be her own woman, but she does have a tendency to turn up while you are creating. She's nosy. Once you've got her in your thrall then she just can't help giving you a little idea or inspiring thought here and there. Suddenly from nowhere, the word feather will appear and you'll realise it's just what you needed to finish your piece.

The Muse loves mermaids. Perhaps that's where she goes when sneaks off - to swim with sirens? This mermaid wanted to go to the Reef Masked Ball. It's a sumptous affair with everyone having a whale of a time proudly displaying their coral and pearl jewels. Melissa wanted to be a little different so had a word with Freddy the Flying Fish (he's well known to be able to procure anything and he owed Melissa a favour after she got him out of trouble with the loan shark).

Melissa's mask has feathers thanks to Freddy (probably best not to ask where he got them from... although have you seen that parrot without a tail?

Shh.... the Muse is back and she's in a playful mood...

We made this together but can't quite decide if we prefer the original (immediately above) or the one with a little PhotoShopped texture (up top). Freddy says he likes the first one, but he would as he supplied the texture.

It's disguise theme at Illustration Friday this week. We're sneaking in under cover...

Sunkissed

It's funny the way the Muse pulls you sometimes. I had in mind a sunkissed maiden, but a visit to an exhibition by Chris Prout and my Mum suggesting I try more landscapes, had me thinking of playing with the sun-dappled hills of Tuscany landscape for IA's 'sunkissed' challenge this week. I searched through photographs and paintings looking for inspiration. I even made a few sketches, but nothing spoke to me. Yet I persisted. I really wanted to paint something soaked in sunshine.

In desperation, I picked up an older unfinished painting and began to introduce light - but she wasn't having any of it and became Amy Winehouse instead (you can see her at Friday's post). I splodged papers with bright colours and let them dry. Layered up some more. "A flower!" thought I. So I painted one atop of my sunshine shades in a thick, rich red, but it seemed most uncomfortable on the page so I splatted the lush colour onto a sketchbook page and resurveyed the remnants...

I slept on it... I painted a white wash over the top... then washed it off... Eventually I thought I'd just sketch a face over the top in charcoal for Sunday Sketches. Then, finally, this sun-kissed Asian Princess emerged. But she wasn't going to be happy just being a humble charcoal sketch. She wanted jewels and light, texture, fabric and richness. She asked and so she received...

Then I had to write about her. Normally the words just flow, but once again I was struggling with where to begin. Words flowed through the keyboard OK, but they just didn't reflect her creation. Then, when it was way past bedtime and the computer was asleep, I turned at last to good old paper and pen to make the magic flow.

Strange how so much effort went into one piece. I knew it (or indeed 'she') was in there. I just didn't pay attention to intuition. 'She' was calling me all week. I should have listened!