New work in progress

A short and hopefully sweet post to share with you what I'm currently working on. The first two pics are of the Tanabata festival held here in Japan during July, the festival centres around the tale of star crossed lovers who get turned into stars separated by the milky way and can only see each other once a year. The temples and streets are very colourful at this time as children make brightly coloured banners and write their wishes on strips of paper that are then tied to a bamboo branch.

The first picture, which I'm tentatively calling Autumn Girl, is a spontaneous, unplanned painting which, if I'm honest, I'm not sure what to do with next! Any suggestions?

xxx

Martha Wainwright competition

I don't know who won the competition yet, it doesn't say on the website, but above are my 2 favourites, followed by my as yet unfinished painting/drawing of Martha.

I've decided to draw her surrounded by the sea as her songs are so emotional and water symbolises the emotions. Her songs convey feelings of being swept away by passion, and yet they can be amazingly delicate too. I really love her voice.

I think the sea might come to be a stronger theme for me in my work as I'm currently living by the sea here in Japan and I'm really enjoying it and finding much inspiration there.

xx

Me and my guitar

I've just done something very brave, for me anyway! I've just recorded myself on my guitar using my digital camera and posted it to youtube (I've put a link on here if you want to have a look). I don't usually sing in front of people so this will have to do for now, till I build my confidence anyway!!
It's one of my favourite songs by a band called Reindeer Section, the song's called Where I Fall
Hope you like it xxx

School days

Here's a few pictures of me at school with 'my' kids!!! I really will miss them when I go home.

The paper bags are masks for Halloween which everyone is really excited about xxx

Sato sans origami

It turns out that some of my colleagues at school are also very creative. Above are some pictures of Sato Ai San, one of my favourite people at school, with some origami work made out of beautiful Japanese paper.

I'm hoping that she'll give me a lesson at some point! All the birds seem to be joined up and I don't know how she does it, looks very tricky to me. The origami in the first couple of pictures was a gift from Sato san to me.

xxx

Kurihama flower world

Today was a lovely, if windy, autumn day here in Kurihama and I decided to go for a walk to Kurihama flower world (partly, I must confess, to avoid the housework that needs doing-bad little me!!). The fresh air did me good anyway and I can always tidy up tomorrow!

The flowers that bloom in KFW in October are called 'Cosmos' flowers.

Making progress

My work in progress has progressed a little!

The picture of Martha Wainwright was inspired by a competition she was running to design a t-shirt for her tour (the image of her is from her latest album - I know you're married but I have feelings too). I just haven't had the time to get it done by the deadline though and it's still not finished so I'm just enjoying coming up with different ideas for it and having a play around. It'a a very sexy pose!

The other painting has gone through a few changes with regard to colour, it started off being quite bright and I've kept toning it down until I was happy with it, which I now am:) xx

Sugimotodera Temple

Sugimotodera temple is a small and very dark temple at the top of some stone steps up the hill in Kamakura. I have photos of the the outside but you're not allowed to take photos inside the temple, which was my favourite bit. It's so atmospheric inside, it's wooden and old and feel's like another time. I knelt at one of the Buddha statues just as there was a lull in voices, so I felt really quiet and still. Some of the Buddha images are difficult to see because of the dimmed lighting but that only added to the sense of mystery and stillness. It also smells deeply of incense, one of my favourite smells!

Small, dark and beautiful!

Day out in Kamakura

I had a lovely day out yesterday in Kamakura and I want to share some of my photos with you!

Kamakura still retains some of that ancient magic of old Japan, don't get me wrong, contemporary Japan's fascinating, but give me cobbled streets, ancient temples, and tranquil mossy gardens any day:)

I visited quite a few temples yesterday but my two favourites were Hokokuji and Sugimotodera.

Hokokuji temple has a beautiful bamboo garden, which even though it was pretty busy still had a hushed, magical feel. I walked around it twice I loved the atmosphere so much! There's a small pavillion with a good view of the garden where you can sit and drink green tea (whisked by hand) and eat Japanese sweets which really complement the tea. I didn't manage to get a photo of it but as I was sitting admiring the view of the garden a pale emerald coloured dragonfly fluttered across my vision like a jewel, beautiful.

Kaii Higashiyama

Another Japanese artist that I'm really drawn to at the moment is Kaii Higashiyama. I work at two schools in Japan and in both of the staff rooms they have the same print up by him. I'm not sure what it's called but you can see it above, it's the one with the white horse. The two photos of his work in-situ is from a temple in Nara, the ancient capital of Japan.

I'd love to see his work close up and in the flesh, apparently his paintings are pretty big. What draws me to his work is the feeling of serenity he evokes, my mind feels more silent when I look at his work. That's a rare gift.

If I manage to get some better quality pics at some point in the future then I'll be sure to share them.

Hope you like them. xx

Tea and cake - two of my favourite things

Just a quickie to share some more of my older work with you, a theme very close to my heart (and tastebuds), cakes, yummmm!!

They are all painted on good quality watercolour paper using acrylics, sometimes I add some soft pastel and bits of collage paper (usually pretty washi paper from Japan). The first 2 pics are almost A1 in size and the long thin one is about a metre and a half long, it took me ages but it's one of my favourites, I was really happy with the colours. xx

Birds, bird, birds:)

Hello again, just wanted to share some of my older work with you. I started to do a collection based on birds about a year or so ago. I am definitely going to revisit this theme and aim to add to this collection eventually. xx