Freedom!

Cycling to my studio today after days of working on my other job I felt a most delicious sense of freedom!

Like a kid let out of school early coupled with the smug satisfaction of having worked really really hard, the reward earned, the contentment of a job well done filling me up, the eager feeling of the wind on my cheeks as I fly along the canal to paint in my hideaway world.

My other job is intense, fulfilling, a different rhythm to painting, demanding all of me for the time it calls. At times I resent it for taking me away from my paints. Today I am grateful for the different sense of perspective it provides, for taking me to the outer world and allowing my imagination to soar into other realms that I would not normally touch in my studio.

And I am grateful grateful grateful for my studio, my paints, my solitude and the swirling river that flows outside my window.

I have often wondered how to define happiness. Today happiness was my every breath.

i can fly!

As I sat looking at my finished 'Faith' painting I realised that she needed a companion to describe what happens after the leap ... and so I painted 'Fly'.

I wanted her to by flying amongst the stars, each one representing another limitless possibility. No longer blindfolded, she is looking calmly into her future.

A close friend of  mine always used to say 'take the step, the ground may be closer than you think'.  I ruminated that often the fear of the unknown, my imaginary dreads, are greater than the unknown itself.

Each of these paintings has about 20 attempts behind them to get them feeling right! Watercolour is so challenging. One little mistake and it's all in the bin - there is no undo button and I am often bamboozled. How ironic that I am encouraging myself to be fearless with this painting and even in the technique I must practise this!

So here is my reminder to 'Fly', in fearless serenity, blindfold shed and fluttering away.