A very belated Happy New Year to you all! I hope whatever weather the winter is wielding in your corner of the country, that you are all warm and well, and happy in heart!
I have not visited much here of late, posts I could have written and would have liked to have written have passed by and been left behind, their unspoken words swept away by a heavy trailing cloak of weariness.
It has been that bone deep kind of weariness that has something more to do with the spirit than the body, that paralyses creativity and numbs the mind. I have always been susceptible to it and rising above it takes a conscious effort. Much like the woods in a way - my soul turns in ever changing seasons and depths of weather!
But its high time to fling the heavy cloak aside and let the wind blow the weariness away...!
I may try to catch up with some of the lost news and pick up the threads in coming posts, but for now I will just start with today... Those of you folks who live up in North America or Canada probably have a chuckle at the fuss a little bit of snow creates here in Britain! But for all the chaos it causes, it is beautiful...
The snows draw down a strange silence and a cold bewitching beauty... our woods have become an ethereal world of spectral silences under crystal-rimed boughs, a breathtaking unearthliness.
It is like walking through the eerie, evocative paintings of Kay Nielsen and John Bauer, and I love the art of both...They were strongly in my mind as I walked...
 |
| By Kay Nielsen |
 |
| By John Bauer |
But there is a part of me that longs for the spring, and I so look forward to watching the slow changes of the woods as ferns unfurl and the earth wakes. I can't wait for the fresh green of young birch leaves layered in light and the bright unravelling curls of baby oak leaves. I love living at the edges of the woods. They are seeming to become a metaphor for life in so many layers for me. Thoughts that deepen and unfold every time I walk there in every changing season..
And even beneath the cloaking snow, a rebellious burst of bright yellow gorse petals defies this season...
Two deer sprang away ahead of us through the trees, soon to disapear like mist as we followed, and again much closer to home another bounded across our path and away. I hope they're finding enough to eat.
I will be back soon with the beginnings of some artwork to show you from my newest story and will try not to neglect my poor little blog for so long this time! I'll leave you with this clip of Yuri Norstein's 'Seasons' - I know I've posted it before but it is so perfect for this post and entrancing however many times you see it!
Bye for now...
I think we all have our personal "seasons" or perhaps "rhythms" is a better word -- our energies ebb and flow. Ideas come easily, or slowly or not at all, depending on our "season" -- after periods of creativity we need time to lie fallow and let the creative energies recharge. When we are in a fallow period, sometimes the fear can creep in that we've used up all our creative energy and that it will not flow again, but be reassured, your brain is working and fomenting ideas constantly, and they'll percolate to the surface when they're ready.
ReplyDeleteWonderful to see you woods all dressed up in snow! Hope your funk lifts soon, its nice to have you here again!! That little film is so enchanting! I love it and will show it to my Myth & Symbol class, how perfect!
ReplyDeleteAnd best wishes to you for this new year. It certainly looks very beautiful and your photographs are stunning, the trees look amazing. It must have been an inspiration walking through this scenery.
ReplyDeleteI just called in a few days ago, glad to see a post and look forward to seeing your new art works. Happy painting for 2013.