A slow awakening into
Spring has allowed us to enjoy the snowdrops for longer and to linger over the
tangerine-tongued purple irises while waiting for the tulips. Yet what mostly
stirred my heart were the anemones I discovered, struggling with the crusty
earth; shapely leaves and buds full of life force. It is movement in time coming to visibility but
the form is ever changing. Is this what
Goethe was encouraging us to perceive? The visible gives but a glimpse of the
whole plant which imagination only can fill in.
So
how is this in our artistic process of creating a finished piece. Yes, the process
is an event and a journey and often it comes alive again through the viewing of
it by new eyes. However it does not follow
the journey of a plant ; disappearing to reappear the following Spring!
After
pondering on this question I wondered if my series of soul moods following the
seasons and festivals of the year which many have joined me in making, could be
seen as an experience of metamorphosis, where the viewer can in their
imagination fill in the spaces between with a moving , living gesture.
On
this theme, I am looking forward to leading the two workshops at Dilston Physic
garden in May and June where we will find an artistic way to study healing
plants in the Goethean Science method.
A longer, weekend, workshop
in a similar vein will take place in Gloucestershire in July and then in
September the theme will take in the human hand and footprint in the landscape;
from ancient carvings to pilgrim routes. This project is a conjoined effort
with Lorna and Andy in North Northumberland
who run a delightful small-holding B&B and ‘full board’ place to stay. There
are on-going workshops in the Studio and I have been happy to fit in occasional
workshops on request; as time out from stressful lives and a way to get back in
touch with Nature and our true selves. On
my circular walk which takes me through gamboling lambs and coconut-scented
gorse to the pond I am delighted to find the pair of swans have made a nest this year! 
Down
the road in Alnmouth I have been allocated a space in St.John’s Church as part
of the Alnmouth Arts Festival this year, for the weekend of 15th and
16th June, when I will have work on display and a chance for people
to try out the oil and rag technique. See web-site for more info. www.alnmouthartsfestival.com
My seven-year-old self wrote:
Spring is here, Summer is near,
Butterflies flying, crocuses dying,
Spring is here, Summer is near.
Not a touch on the Gerard
Manley Hopkins of course but I must have seen the evidence of a passing away, a
death, so giving space to the new.
THE WORLD is charged with the grandeur of God.
It will
flame out, like shining from shook foil;
It gathers to greatness, like the ooze
of oil Crushed.
Why do men then now not reck his rod?
Generations
have trod, have trod, have trod;
And all is
seared with trade; bleared, smeared with toil;
And wears man’s smudge and shares man’s
smell: the soil
Is bare
now, nor can foot feel, being shod.
And for all this, nature is never spent;
There lives the
dearest freshness deep down things;
And
though the last lights off the black West went
Oh, morning,
at the brown brink eastward, springs—
Because the Holy Ghost over the bent
World broods with
warm breast and with ah! bright wings.
So,
as news reaches us of volcanoes, earthquakes and devastating oil spills, we can
balance this with the force of nature we experience as ever-renewing and give
her encouragement against the odds.
I wish you all a wonderful
Summer, full of strawberries and cream, by stream and ocean, in heart-high
gladness,
Jenny
CALENDAR
Please see EVENTS PAGE or contact me for more information, leaflets and
booking details
MAY
Friday 21st 9.30.am-12.30.pm Birds of a Feather. Painting in oils Studio Workshop Cost:
£15(12) for half day
Saturday 22nd 10.30am- 4.00.pm Close Encounters with Healing Plants at Dilston Physic Garden £40
JUNE
Wednesday 16th 10.30am-
4.00.pm Close Encounters with
Healing Plants
At Dilston Physic garden, Corbridge. £40
Friday 25 th to Sunday 27th Alnmouth Arts Festival
JULY
Friday 2nd
9.30.am-12.30.pm
Studio workshop
Cost: £15(12) for half day
Saturday 10th
and Sunday 12th 9.30. am to 4.30 p.m £150
A SUMMER PAINTING COURSE
At The Hatch
Camphill Community Thornbury, Near Bristol
Friday 23rd Painting 9.30.am-12.30.pm
Workshop in the
Studio ‘ Cost:
£15(12)
AUGUST Nothing planned as
yet.
SEPTEMBER
21st-
25th LANDSCAPES
OF THE SOUL £385 all
inclusive
Walking and Painting Holiday at Spylaw Farm
Cottages, North Northumberland