Wednesday, August 31, 2011

Here comes Red

Madeleine is dancing in her white dress and swirling her red silk about her, I try to capture the light on her with my camera and its lense....... This image appears before me and I feel lucky to have a camera, a lense and a daughter who swirls just so, in mid morning light.

Red is here again!



There is always a little red around, in my home and in my studio. But, for the longest time it has been subtle, a small point of interest, to warm up a page, to accent a blue, or deepen a yellow.
Not now, I have noticed lately it is not so quiet anymore. This color is coming in and all about, abounding in its vitality. Its Autumn too now after all! The apples are back again, falling again, and the last of summer's flowers are blooming, bloomed, blown.


Madeleine feels it too: ) She is choosing her red clothes. Though we are both influencing each other I am sure, as are these flowers, how can they but influence us too?

What a beautiful year its been for wild flowers here, I have noticed them like never before here. 
When I lived and loved in the Pyrenees I marveled at the meadows in early summer, lamenting that we had nothing of the sorts back home, but I may have had my irish flower blinkers on. 
Its been a color show here all summer, with so much to inspire. 

These ones Madeleine had picked from my Dads garden. 


I adore color!!!! As an artist its my medium. Color first, then the paint. Color. Colour, Coleur.

I mentioned in a previous blog, I have been reading Chroma by Derek Jarman a poetic and poignant account of a man loosing his sight. From beginning to end one is taken on an unforgettable color path, sometimes hurtled through history and theory of how we see and perceive color, to pigment making. And then at other times dropped deeply into blues, softly into pinks and around again. Then awoken, into greens, with a breath, and a reminder that this man is dying as he writes.
Its been an intense read, and heightened for me an awareness that was already amplified, in a rediscovered and utter love affair of color.

How do they exist. And How is it we see this wonderful dream?

Red is all about action. In color therapy, it is a color of doing, all fired up and ready to go!
A sensual color, a color of connection with the body and aliveness, of your earthly state. Its a color of strength and of course also the color of anger "seeing red". Anger after all is very active, depending on how it is directed.



Interestingly, I never put much red on Madeleine before this year. I felt it such a strong color for a little girl, but now perhaps she has grown into it. She does feel so strong these days and has grown up so much over the summer.


Here is a a little glimpse of some works in progress, whats happening in the studio. Reds and warm tones coming up and in and out through just about everything I am making........









I am ready to make things happen with a kind of strength, knowing what I want to do finally.
I have been preparing things, working away bit by bit, step by little step and been far more patient then I have ever been about my life unfolding before.

Now its time to take a greater step with my work, a steady one. I have contacted printers and framers and I am preparing my first works for sale and finishing other works.
I have laid down the plans of a bigger project that my heart is singing about each day that I think about it. That will be what the red is all about!

Last night I dreamt I was a magician teaching people to walk on air. Like my elephant dreams, I can still feel it as if its real. I can feel the sensation of stepping into space, and assuredly smiling to those around me as I did, that it was safe to do so.

It takes faith and trust on my part to stay with this. A leap of faith in a direction unknown, that I can provide for us from my art, by being true to my big red heart and staying on the path.
Ach we are always on the right path really, how can we be off it? We are simply where we are, finding our way, no matter how long it takes us. Time is even irrelevant to the matter, that we find our way.

And along the way I had the amazing luck of finally finding a recored player to play my old vinyl. I couldn't have asked for a better one. Me and Pj picked it up in Dublin a couple of weeks ago, he kindly carried it a long way for me, back to our tram stop. I could hardly wait to get it home.


When I say vinyl, I mean old vinyl from when I was a kid.
My soundtrack these days is just about right with red, from Maria Callas in Tosca to The kids from Fame, and Starmaker. Its been a trip and a half. I am also enjoying Kate Bush on vinyl again, and also her new album The director's cut, which I would highly recommend. I would have written 'highly' up somewhere very high to illustrate just how wonderful an artist she is, if I could; ) Another sweet and beautiful album I have listened to lately is by Ergo, and is called Bell Fable- more from the deep heart.

So now I am seeking a red dress to paint in: ) to celebrate and create and to dance about in with Madeleine whilst playing records!!!!

So do tell me what colour you love, how is it to love that color, I would love to know!!!!!

And, As always Thank you dear reader xx

E







11 comments:

  1. What utterly gorgeous pictures you've created! Love! My little girl suits red, she is quite olive and has amazing hazel eyes, I have found little red tunics and tops to be becoming on her, even as a teenytot. Now that Spring is arriving here, I am thinking in greens....especially vibrant light, lime-y greens. I enjoyed your musings this post!

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  2. RADIANT RED! The very blood of life, bones and heart. Your artwork is a fairy tale. And thank you kindly for the music recommendations. I, too, am in the mood for some nice old-fashioned vinyl :) Peace and love to you.

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  3. Thanks Teeny, You are right red is a glorious color for little girls, I guess I have not been not resonating with it. I have dressed Madeleine in a lot of greens up till now, and purples, and her favorite color has been orange for what seems a long time in her little life. Ach its a beautiful ting to have these little ones to dress and love and watch over.
    : )
    Thanks too Heather for your kind words, uplifting as always! Peace and love to ye both xx

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  4. Thank you so much for your comments on my work and for your email...I think I have found the place to leave messages ie here...hope you get this! It is always great to get positive comments isnt it. Your latest work 'girl in red dress' and the others just look beautiful they really do. I use that life drawing class that I go to to literally splash out and then it seems to help freeing me up for other work. You look as if you have quite a distinct style... I covet that and hope to get to that place where I can just draw without having to think how I will draw each time. Anyway good luck with everything and lots of love x

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  5. So beautiful notes about flowers and colors. Happy to read about your safe journey to the library, escaping from rain showers.

    Many more adventures to you!

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  6. I just love the imagery of your dream Liz! To teach people to walk on air, wow. Powerful and symbolic, no? Excited for you with your clear vision and many pots simmering away. Thanks for sharing these glimpses of your beautiful new paintings, so look forward to seeing 'the complete works' ; ) As for colour, having sub consciously enveloped myself in blues and greens for years now, I find myself unexpectedly drawn to gold and fuschia...xx

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  7. Hi Elizabeth. Thanks for visiting my blog and directing me toward this lovely bit of cyberspace you've got going here. Your artwork is quite beautiful, like something out of a dream world, and it sounds like your own inner dream world is very exciting indeed :)

    Interesting to think about the way certain colors seem to wash over our lives at certain times and what they might mean or represent. I'd like to know what this specific shade of light cornflower blue that I've felt compelled to wear a lot lately is all about, hmmm...

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  8. Hi Elizabeth! I've been meaning to leave you a little note for quite some time, but as life sometimes goes it has just not happened. Until now. I am so utterly excited to have met you as I wander through this beautiful blog of yours.

    Your art is amazing! The pictures seem to speak. They are like illustrations of a children's story that I've read somewhere and forgotten, yet it's lodged in the back of my mind. The picture of the girl looking into the stream takes my breath away. What you create is just wonderful. Looking at Madeleine in all her magical crowns makes me delight in the wonder of childhood. Another beautiful thing to create-a child's experience of the world.

    Look forward to getting to know you better and am so so excited be your bio-regional swap partner! What magic...

    Happy fall,
    Milla

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  9. oh me oh my...what an absolutely gorgeous space you have created here. Your photos are divine and that painting with the cherry blossoms and girl in purple skirt - breathtaking! x

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  10. Am wowed by all your heart felt comments. Feeling such love and awe from all you creative and utterly beautiful ladies. xx E

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  11. Wow, your paintings are so so so beautiful.
    & now a red coat to add to the medley of colour...
    So looking forward to seeing you soon x x x mr

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