Far and Away

Hi @Faith-and-Hope How is the painting going? I haven't started yet - as you probably already know!!! I am still just trying to get by hour by hour and hope that this will pass soon and I can get into the stepping stone image. I go to start setting up and then just lose the motivation really quickly. I am planning to get a new canvas tomorrow which will be just for our Stepping Stone image - I figure if I have a nice fresh new canvas I will feel more motivated rather than just using card or thick paper - that may sound strange to some but it will feel like I am working towards a result that can be displayed straight away and won't need to be mounted afterwards (too much messing around) - I'm sure you will understand that. Anyway, I will let you know when I start - depends on whether I actually get paid tomorrow because I have 95cents left in my account atm - really stressing about that!!!!

Hope you are having a lovely day and hopefully I will be around a bit more today and tonight. I did feel a little better after having some sleep but my trip to work today has definitely had an effect on my energy levels - nearly zero atm but hoping some rest and taking it easy this afternoon will help.

Zoe

So good to see that self-nurturing happening @Zoe7 ..... and I am doing that too .... had a girlfriend over for coffee, and going out to meet up with another one this afternoon.

That shortens my time at home, and I find I can give myself small tasks to do in between, like going and starting the washing machine, or passing a broom across the kitchen floor.

I call it "running raids on the housekeeping", and it helps to keep me functioning ..... if I focus in on a sense of hopelessness in regard to our situation, which my brain will try to do if I take away all structure, it leads to spiralling thoughts, and I am in a position where I tell myself "just don't !!" and it really helps.

I also know in my heart of hearts that our situation is not hopeless .... and I have to give that part of my thinking a microphone at times .... lol ... which also really helps .....

I understand completely in terms of buying a canvas to get started on, and I have done the same thing at times, but the paper is far more portable for me. It is harder to frame, but cheaper in the doing of the painting in the first place, so I am doing both really. Acrylics have given me more portability too, where oils are my actual forte ....

Oils are my choice for what I call serious paintings .... ones that take a month or so of steady painting to produce, and which I am entering into state and national art competitions. Going down south with the kids shortly is to set up for one of those, and that is my intent at the moment, to honour the fact that I am an artist and produce a strong enough body of work to bring it off the back burner ..... I have been the mainstay for everybody else until now. This is what I know I need to do going forward. Giving my heart the microphone here .... 💕

@Zoe7 Hello, sounds like you had a challenging day. Make sure you rest up - it's necessary to keep the gremlins at bay

@Faith-and-Hope those " ovens " you posted, they have very similar in Turkey. Brings back memories looking at those pics actually.

@Faith-and-Hope So pleased to hear you are looking after YOU and taking some time out just for yourself. I get what you mean about not focussing on a sense of hopelessness in your situation - I really did feel like I was getting to that point myself until last week. I know deep down that I can get through this but I am just finding it incredibly difficult. I'm trying to avoid absolutely everything I can think of to not trigger my self-doubt and negative thoughts - tv, music, reading, most threads on here, even going to the beach atm is not such a great idea. The down side is I have a lot of time to fill in and little energy or motivation to do anything. I did try to get out into the garden the other day but I was so exhausted after just a little while that it upset me I couldn't keep going.

@Faith-and-Hope Accidently posted before I had finished writing - told you I was tired!!!!!

It does not surprise me that you enter Art competitions - I absolutely love your work and you are very, very talented. This is one of those times that anonymity really sucks because I would see an exhibition of your work anywhere, anytime

I actually prefer working with acrylics - I think it is more of the time factor for me - when I am working I don't have a lot of time (or space) up my sleeves so being able to use paints that dry quickly and I can move the work and put away for a while is an advantage.

I do love using pastels also - do a lot with the kids and love to teach them the techniques to shade and blendand construct pieces with depth. They seem to enjoy that more than painting - some of the more advance students I did work with separately to teach them the same techniques using paints - and some with water colours as well - WOW I really do miss the Art teaching!!!! I really enjoyed that one day a week

When are you planning on your Art trip with the kids?

@Zoe7

The art trip is a couple of weekends away, but I will post my travels .... 😊💕 .... really enjoying doing that. And yes, for me things like that are just not possible with oils, but I only picked up acrylics for the first time last year. Before that, chalk pastels were my substitute ....

@Former-Member .... there is a strong cultural correlation between all cultures in this part of the Meditteranean .... for several significant reasons including the Turkish occupation of Greece for 400 years, the fact that the entire region and beyond was part of the Byzantine empire for 1000 years with an Orthodox Christian basis, the Ottoman Turks and Israelites are from a common ancestor and therefore religious customs basis with Crphristianity (fasting practices, worship practices, hygiene practices, art forms, dress codes, culinary influences etc), the Silk Road through to India and China caused a further sharing of culture and resources, and music and the arts including visual and text .....

You find echoes and echoes of everything across these regions .... just enchanting, and such a wealth of history from antiquity ...

Yes ... waxing lyrical here .... lol ....

🌷💜

@Zoe7, I figured you would find all that interesting too .... 💕

Group Hug for @Zoe7, hope you pick up soon xox

Love your images @Former-Member .... ❣

Yes @Faith-and-Hope the history in that area is just amazing. I learnt so much, had at least a handful of deep life changing experiences that wove into serendipitous confirmations once I arrived back in "my world". Was quite uncanny and surreal.

The line can be traced in the other geographical direction with the ancient silk route reaching up into the sanskrit lineage. It's just all fascinating. Too much to even try to elucidate. Suffices to say I feel a deep connection to it all in a somewhat mystical way.

The photos you posted, particularly the furnaces, for some reason remind me strongly of Cappadocia in central Turkey. I'll try to find some pics I think resonate with my thoughts, but it is so hard to do that area justice in a photo, I even realised that myself when I tried to do it. It's more a "being there" place.