"We're all mad here" Polling day Ireland

To quote Alice ( in Wonderland)   If I had a world of my own, everything would be nonsense.  Nothing would be what it is, because everything would be what it isn't.  And contrary wise, what is, it wouldn't be. And what it wouldn't be, it would. You see?”

 On a day that Ireland voted to form a new Government -  I 'm so jaded listening to the endless discussion about bond-holders, banks and debts which the ordinary  folk have to pay back . The illlogical logic  of economics - !

The day was spring like , walking with the dogs I see the newly ploughed field and hints of green in the hedgerows

The secret life of the earth moves along - In nature nothing is perfect and everything is perfect. Trees can be contorted and bent out of  shape and are all the more beautiful  . 

Trees - "a nest of Robins in her hair "

http://www.etsy.com/treasury/4d617e83fde18eef32dcc2f4/i-think-that-i-shall-never-see-a-poem

Although there is a mention of God in this poem -I believe the creative forces  of nature are the only dieties !
It's still an inspiring poem !

 

" TREES" 

by american poet Joyce Kilmer

I think that I shall never see

A poem lovely as a tree.

A tree whose hungry mouth is prest
Against the earth's sweet flowing breast;
A Tree that looks at God all day,
And lifts her leafy arms to pray;
A tree that may in Summer wear
A nest of robins in her hair;
Upon whose bosom snow has lain;
Who intimately lives with rain.
Poems are made by fools like me,
But only God can make a tree              

"Approaching rain, Eagle Hill" Oil on canvas .

This Oil painting  "Approaching Rain, Eagle Hill " is of a place very close to my heart as I spent my chilhood playing in its fields and woods and among its rocks and ferns.  I love this place.
I sold  the piece on line  recently to a lady from Utah -USA
She emailed the following  when she recieved the painting.
"I received it yesterday! And I must say I am in LOVE with it! It is even more beautiful than I could have imagined! It has this dream like quality to it...you have created an ethereal, poetic landscape, a soft, soothing, yet happy place! You are truly gifted! I LOVE your use of color!!! I am so happy with my new art !!. You must be a lovely, tender, sweet soul to have painted this artwork   Thank you Dear Trudi!! "
I am very happy for this piece to have gone to a loving home ! Yes my paintings are like my children , I have a pang every time I let one go - but it's  good to  make a  living !

What makes a good painting ?
"If a painting is full of magic, if you feel some happiness from it, if it makes you laugh or cry, if it gets things moving.
It should be like a flower,a tree. It should be the same as nature. It should be that when it is not there you should miss it. It is a person. A painting is only good when it can stand comparison to a tree or a living person . "
F.Hundertwasser 1928 -2000( Austrian artist )

Thinking of summer to banish January Blues

2011 Art weekends and workshops at my studio.

We're almost at the end of the coldest January and winter in living memory here in Ireland and life goes on - snowdrops are peeping their brave little shoots through the hard frosty soil . I've had inquiries about my 2011 Art weekends and workshops, and they will as usual begin at the end of April and continue until October - I will  publish  definite dates and details here on my blog soon ! It is  time to plan the year ahead !

If you would like to be notified please leave a message here on comments or email me at trudiart@eircom.net   Please LEAVE A COMMENT if you have any special requests or suggestions for classes . Input from my potential  or returning students is always welcome -I am  open to new ideas and if I know what you want I will do my best to provide it . 

 "After the Showers" Watercolour

And why not take a few moments to check out my JANUARY SALE  of paintings and prints in  my NEW ONLINE  Etsy shop    http://www.etsy.com/shop/ARTbyTRUDI

Very cold today but keeping warm organising my studio and planning new work with mixed media and collage  in 2011. A new year- time to have creative fun - enjoy being alive - living life to the full - it will be over  before we know it - so to hell with recession -this too will pass ! 

Let the bird of inspiration fly free !

Best wishes 

Celebrate  Winter solstice , Christmas,/Yuletide 

 and  may 2011 be a time of peace and creativity ! 

A cock step longer !

We in Ireland are enduring the coldest early winter in living memory - the lowest temperatures in late November since records began and heavy snowfalls and minus 14degrees celsius in the first week of December There are icicles hanging from the eaves of houses and rural untreated roads are impassible .

Soon it will be the Winter Solstice, Yuletide, Christmas - the festival of the rebirth of the sun, when the sun begins to gain strength again and even in the depths of winter we are reminded that life will begin again.

After the shortest day of the year, the winter solstice, the days begin to lengthen, my mother taught me, by the time span of a cocks step. Even in the coldest winter hope of Spring returning keeps us going

"Frosted Forest "(watercolour )

Good morning beautiful world !

(A cock step longer !)"Fox Alert" Acrylic  

Icicles by my door 

Studio in Snow  -December

Hope is the thing with feathers That perches in the soul,
And sings the tune without the words,

And never stops at all,

And sweetest in the gale is heard;

And sore must be the storm

That could abash the little bird

That kept so many warm.

I've heard it in the chillest land,

And on the strangest sea;

Yet, never, in extremity,

It asked a crumb of me

Poem by Emily Dickinson

Hedgehogs and poppies - the connection !

A field of wild scarlet poppies is an astonishing sight - seeds of these ephemeral beauties have the ability to lie dormant for decades since the time before modern chemicals were sprayed. When farmers desist from spraying everything in their path with pesticides they once again spring forth from underground . How sad that modern agricultural practices should have killed off these and many other wild flowers - The compulsory EU set aside policy of of the 1990's ( now no longer in place) a scheme which made it compulsory to take 10% of land out of production to reduce the "grain mountains" meant that farmers refrained from spraying these fields and were rewarded by the return of many arable wildflowers and the subsequent reappearance of birds, butterflies, hares, frogs, newts, hedgehogs and other wildlife that thrive on plants and seeds .