Water and fire 

I have just finished "The forty rules of Love" by Elif Shafak.  An enjoyable book, with many twists and turns, but mainly about journeys, following what you believe or feel is right, and in the end, love

Love this from the last page

Life is the water of life and a lover is a soul of fire

I like that definition.

"The universe turns differently when fire loves water"

 Current work

Ive been working on a large painting of quiet water, in acrylic. 

Its evolved and isn't quite right, not by a long way, but its slowly getting away from what I don't want towards what I do, with the canvas

Lots of layers in the water, lots of reflections

it is a large canvas and taking time to paint, which is also helpful as its making me stand and focus, which isn't something I find easy.

Maybe painting is the answer to a chaotic life  ?

 Inspiration

Its always good to have somewhere or something that gives you inspiration, especially when you really really don't have any.

How do you turn that dry patch, where you can't write anything, or you aren't able to even start putting paint onto a canvas or piece of paper, because to be honest you don't even know what colour paint its going to be, let alone what the thing you are going to paint is.

For me, Its an emotional thing. I have to feel something, some emotional feeling that kicks my internal tyres and I run with that.  I don't really know where its going to go, unless Im using some sort of stock picture as a basis for the painting.  

The last few paintings I have done have just been from colours in my mind.

But the other really good inspiration for me is the water, either the sea or local rivers.  Its the wildness and untamed nature of the sea I love. Respect it or don't, but you'll only survive it if you do.

Something like this from a paddle on the Deben in 2014.

which I turned into this, in acrylic paints.

Its not perfect and is around 10 years old now, so I hope Ive become a better artist, but the ethereal nature of the evening sort of comes out in the painting.

 Water

I quite like painting water. 

Whether its waves, the stormier the better, or water on the river reflecting the sun, or water that's hiding something dark underneath.

But I also like the still calm water you see in slow moving rivers and in ponds.

The feeling of moving through that sort of water is nothing short of uplifting to your mind. It doesn't have to be quiet even. Its just the feeling of peace.

So I started painting what I could see in my mind to describe this, yesterday and it turned out like this

It is still very much work in progress but is just made up of many many lines of blues browns and greens and a touch of white.

But a bit like the first painting I posted, the time it takes to do the small actions also helps me to focus my mind and concentration, which is often not possible in that ping pong inside my brain.

So, I shall carry on adding to this and another painting Im doing in between other things and update this as it goes...

 What is Inspiration

What gives you inspiration to draw, paint, make music ?  

Is it the light of the sun reflecting off the water ?

is it that the glistening of the light dazzles you when you are walking, or floating on the water ?  

Is it that it brings out something inside you that is already there or does it create something inside you that wasn't there in the first place ?  

I don't know the answer to be honest. All I know is that sometimes that happens and sometimes it doesn't.

For example, this photo inspired me to paint this. It wasn't the best interpretation of it but I liked how the water shone out.  Ive taken a long time trying to replicate it though.

For me, the real way I paint is emotion. If I don't feel something there is no point trying to paint or do anything creative.  It will be dull and empty (and likely some of what I have on Instagram is just that).  

The flip side is that the emotion can go anywhere and nowhere, I just have to wait to see how its going to end.

these are both based on the same photo, that I can't put my finger on, but was along the Deben near the cut.  The Pencil drawing was soon after I kayaked there and the painting was more emotionally driven as a painting.

Without sounding arty or anything, that's the sort of thing that drives my dabbling with paint.

Last night, I tried to paint, but my head and heart wasn't in it at all and it ended up a canvas and sheet of paper being wasted and ruined.

I should know not to bother by now...