Last Friday some friends and I went to the Huntington Gardens in Pasadena, California. Wonderful acreage with multiple gardens, but very short hours! We spent most of our time there in the Japanese and Chinese gardens. The Japanese garden was installed 100 years ago; the Chinese garden is much newer – within the last 20 years – and more is being constructed as I write. A great place to visit year round.
New growth!
This is a particularly lovely little tree in the Japanese section of the Gardens of the World. The bark is multicolored and has an interesting texture. Viewed from different vantage points, and at different times of the day, the little tree glows with colors.
Admittedly I have been feeling rather sorry for myself. I get like this when I have no time to sit down and think about life and what I want to do with it. Thursday I walked into my office at work and was just unable to make choices as to what to pursue next. Oh, there were a lot of things to be done, but it seemed just so overwhelming and the mere act of choosing what to do was impossible. The best thing to do in these circumstances – for me, at least – is to sit down with paper and pen and begin to write. Five pages later, the world was in order once more.
Writing is therapeutic. It’s like the pensieve of the Harry Potter stories. I pull out thoughts and ideas and frustrations, and when they are all placed onto paper, there is structure found amidst the chaos.
Painting is much the same process as writing; however, I often feel pulled into different directions. I never focus on one style. The consistent factor is my use of water-soluble media and paper, but other than that, I don’t have a particular style. Consequently, I am not as accomplished as I would like to be in watercolor. I like many of my ink paintings and the simpler watercolors that are based on sumi-e. Traditional watercolors are often disastrous failures. Acrylic paints are not my favorite medium, but there are times when I have used them to create more graphic pictures.
Today, I went through my hard drive to look at some of the paintings I have scanned or photographed over the past year or two, and pulled out some which appealed to me for whatever reason – sort of a retrospective of the work of the last few years. Here they are, not in any particular order, but just for me and anyone who wants to look at them to see and consider.
Ink, Yarn & Beer 