Tuesday, 29 December 2020
Sometimes you just need to get out of the house, a change of pace, change in scenery, to change your course from going stir crazy. That’s what we did this afternoon…a little Sunday driving!
Thursday, 30 July 2020
It’s an evening like this that sums up summer in Canada.
Sitting by the river, tunes on the box, ducks swimming by, enjoying a cold beverage on a hot evening as the sun teases it’s decent.
What strikes me most is the sound of silence. Not the song 🤣, but the actual silence. How often in your day can you say you hear nothing?
I stood near the river, the moon shining bright, the stars appearing one by one as the sky slowly darkened to astronomical twilight and I hear…nothing. No cars, no boats, no dogs, no fridges, no air conditioners…it’s pure bliss and my paradise for a few days.
Wednesday, 24 July 2019
A beautiful sunny summer day. Not too hot.
Today, we said adieu to my beautiful aunt. A beautiful funeral and burial followed by an Irish celebration of life. Eating, drinking, sharing stories and laughter. It does that soul good.
Today’s painting is inspired by a photo I took of the Ottawa river at Campbell’s Bay. The photo will be my photo of the day as well.
I have a collection of photos of my favourite beaches hanging on a wall in my bathroom, of all places. Yesterday, one of those beach photos caught my attention and I studied it, long and hard, taking in the colours, hues, shadows, details, and came to the conclusion…this is something I could paint.
So, tonight, I pushed myself to give it a go and if I failed…well, that would be ok. At least I would have tried. While I prepared my painting space, a voice was repeating a litany over and over of all the reasons this was a stupid idea and I was just setting myself up to fail. I almost changed my mind. I was feeling tired and would prefer a quick painting.
But I didn’t. And I’m so thankful I went ahead and tried it, because, for the first time in this creative journey, I have actually sat back from a painting and smiled, liking what I just painted.
It was a grey day today, and everything looked dull. Not very inspiring for photography. My sister and niece popped by for a visit and, as we chatted, I noticed a light reflecting on the window behind my sister’s head. It took me a few minutes to figure out that it was the sun. There was a tiny strip of yellow/orange light between the horizon and the massive grey cloud covering. The sun was setting! The colour changed to a vibrant red orange and the clouds took on the colour as well. It was so beautiful. I grabbed my camera, boots, coat, gloves, headband…by the time I got outside it was gone. All that was left was a small strip of red behind the trees. I went back inside, grabbed my tripod, then set up and began snapping photos. Turned out pretty well after all.
Creativity is the calling of the soul 