Just a little something

Within you by Cameron S. Reutzel

OK, so less than 48 hours of supposedly locking myself away to focus on my business plans, here I am back blogging again!

Well, this is just a fleeting visit. I wanted to share something that inspires me every day and is helping me kick butt this very afternoon.

The time has come for me to stop 'researching' and planning and mind mapping and PROCRASTINATING... and start doing.

It is all within me. I have been given the key. Time to let it out.

This painting is by Cameron Reutzel from Paint Myself Pretty. As soon as I saw it on her blog, I just knew I had to have it! You know how sometimes art just speaks to you. Well, this one positively sang!

Everything in the Universe is within you. Ask all from yourself.

~ Rumi ~

Normal service will resume shortly

Readers. I totally need to focus on my new business plan and avoid all distractions until I can come back here and properly tell you all about it.

I'm going to slip off the radar for a week or two, best rest assured I'm thinking about you all and working on something I hope you are going to love!

Back soon!

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?

Recurring dream

I'm either back at University and it's the end of term or I need to pack up to return from holiday. The trouble is... I seem to have amassed an enormous amount of... well... stuff! But it's mainly books. Hundreds of books weighing down shelves, under the bed, inside cupboards. Words and pictures. Academic, children's picture books, fiction.... there's no rhyme nor reason. Well, there probably is among that pile. I'm sure I spotted a book on the romantic poets the other day.

So, there I am in this dream and on a deadline. I need to move out, load up the car, but I have nothing to put all these books in and no space to transport them. I can't bear to part with them. I panic, I rush, I wake up...

Amy prompted us to creatively depict our dreams for The Butterfly Effect. It's been a bit of a week, so this quick digital play is all I've had time for this week, but if I didn't get to make at least one piece of art this week I was going to fade away! I'm lacking in energy and willpower, so will quickly post and link this, then I'm off to bed.. Night night....

The books are coming to get me..... Help!!!!

Entrepreneurial me

Yeah yeah, it's another girl on a book page... What can I say? I like drawing girls on book pages. I find the whole process soothing and restful.

Chill time is definitely something I have to make the most of these days - as well as ensure I make time for. I'm on a roll with launching my new business plans. I'm already self-employed as you know, but I've got a few new irons in the fire in addition to the work I do out in the corporate world - I'm branching out into the fairy-tale magic of creativity.

When I was made redundant three years ago I had a number of sessions with a career advisor and at the time she said she saw me owning a portfolio of businesses; that it would suit me. These thoughts have simmered gently at the back of my mind but then the gentle bubbling began boiling over as the urge to embrace the creative tribe forced its way to the surface.

I can't see myself being anything other than an entrepreneur. The thought of being tied to one company now sends shivers down my spine - the kind where bunch of ramblers take an amble over my grave! At last I am in the vocation I was born to do. It surely explains those old Sunday night feelings of dread as I contemplated another week at the grindstone of my employers. They are long gone! At last I am free to do what I love. For my corporate clients I write and advise. I let rip with creativity and my heart and soul into doing the best work I can.

And now, I am on the cusp of an additional venture. I want to take what I've learned and inspire others to write and paint, craft and create. I want to work with this creative tribe I have found online and weave magic together.

I'm finalising my offering and will be sharing it soon, I promise. In the meantime, you can sign up to the mailing list (see the box in the top right of the sidebar) and I've also created a separate Twitter account @WrightBrains.

Sharing this piece today with Sunday Sketches - pop over to Sophia's blog and check out what everyone has been creating this week!

Primavera

I have to say I am absolutely chuffed at how this came out and, as is typical with my creations, it wasn't quite what I intended at the start - which is kind of me all round really!

This is actually two pieces layered digitally on top of each other.

You might need to enlarge her to see all the details. Background is made from collaged papers layered with acrylics, watercolours, alcohol ink and glimmer mist.

Girl is a mixed media piece on old book page.

I was truly inspired by Priti Lisa's post on Inspiration Avenue this week. She invited us to investigate:

The allegory of Spring

Something with a hidden meaning

Something from your soul

When I draw these girls they do truly come from the soul. There's a magic in creation. Willow is a daughter of the Spring, born under a sap moon. She brings light and life and is bursting with energy, but also spends time in quiet focus nurturing the seeds within her.

Here's the background on its own.

A postcard from Switzerland

I loved reading Heidi when I was a girl - there was something delightfully romantic about the notion of sleeping in a hayloft high on the alpine pastures and running around barefoot with the goats and a sweet boy called Peter!

Clearly Y has romantic notions. I think that secretly he was a bit put out by X and her Cuban dalliance last week - even though it came to nothing. I think we need to read between the lines on this card...

I was all set to draw a cuckoo clock this evening; but with our Welshman was feeling a bit pushed out of the nest after X's behaviour in Havana, I felt he didn't really need reminding, so we went with Heidi instead. Plus, knowing Y's sense of humour I have a feeling he chose this card just so he could include the opening line - given its Welsh connotations. (You may need to be a Brit of a certain age to appreciate the humour here!!)

This is Heidi in her Sunday best. We all know that she wouldn't stay looking this neat for long - see how her eyes are peering out the door and watching the sunlight dance on the edelweiss... She wants to be outside chasing goats.... and goatherds...!

The Postcard Challenge is run by delightful Darcy - back story here.


Also posting Paint Party Friday. Someone pour me something cool with bubbles... Did you know that carbon dioxide has a flavour? That's why we don't get fizzy milk.