I got an e mail from a business recently, addressing me by my first name, friendly and chatty in tone, then, a couple of paragraphs in, telling me 'Remember I'm just a bit of software' !! It refers me to FAQ with any queries and then, as a last resort, to a person. The security check bit says 'If you are a human, please copy this'.
I know I'm sometimes communicating with machines online, but to be reminded of it by the machine is really a bit funny, in both senses of the word, don't you think?
I skived off yesterday.
I went up to Glasgow on the bus and as I stepped off I saw the Edinburgh bus was sitting next to mine, just about to leave, so in a 'laugh and go' moment I hopped on. It was a warm and sunny day in Edinburgh. I had a Caesar salad and a glass of wine on the terrace of a rooftop restaurant, wandered round some posh shops, browsed in a new shop called Anthropologie, bought a small notebook in Paperchase, admired this new simple landscaping in St Andrew's Square and came home again, wonderfully refreshed!
Julia Cameron in her book The Artist's Way - A Course in Discovering and Recovering your Creative Self talks of the need to fill the well :-
In order to create, we draw from our inner well. This inner well, an artistic reservoir, is ideally like a well stocked trout pond...any extended period or piece of work draws heavily on our artistic well...
As artists we must learn to be self nourishing. We must become alert enough to consciously replenish our creative resources - as we draw on them - to restock the trout pond so to speak.
I am beginning to think that my current restlessness has something to do with the need to fill the well. I've been painting full time for over a decade now - obviously filling the well frequently - but I feel a great need to drain it completely, clean it out thoroughly, repair the walls, and top it up to the brim with fresh new water - hundreds of thousands of gallons of it!
..do you need to fill your well?....
Another simple way to create calm in a room is with limiting the number of colours you are looking at at any one time. Colour is wonderful, but it can be distracting too, and multi-coloured everything can be very tiring I think.
Try putting things of only one colour on your shelf, or coffee table top. Gather up a few things from around the house in your favourite colour and arrange them together, not too many.
Instant calm.
If you found yesterday's photo calming, can you create that feeling in your own room? Even a small area can have the desired effect.
You might take a shelf in an alcove, or the surface of the dining table or coffee table, or you could choose the bit that is usually the messiest!
Clear it completely and clean it. Then put back only a select few things. Objects which please your eye, or conjure up happy memories, or otherwise give you pleasure. Something alive - flowers, a sprig of ivy, or a healthy plant. A photograph or a card, just one (you can always swap it for another favourite next week/month). Perhaps a candle. Arrange them carefully. Try a few arrangements - it only takes a thoughtful minute - and ask yourself which looks best. If it doesn't look right, take something away.
Be minimal, if only in this one space.
Every time your eye goes to this space, you will feel a little calmer and more peaceful.
If this works for you, you may like to create a little oasis of calm in each room, or you could extend this practice over the whole room, or the whole house.
Try it with just one small space and see if it works....
keep it simple..
I wasn't laughing this morning when the paint on the studio floor was still tacky. It said on the paint tin 4 - 6 hours drying time! This was 10 hours later.
And the frame I need to finish is against the window on the far side...
(But it does look good with the bright sunshine creating beautiful patterns on it.)
I'm not really a hopelessly disorganised person - it just looks that way sometimes....
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