The real state of affairs-

The real state of affairs- unedited...

On the window- Lucy's reasures-

On the 'thinking couch'-the dog the girls made collectively last year-

On the desk- a drawing I did two days ago, but I don't think I will use. Isn't she a mean mommy? That's how I feel today, I got mad at Lucy for being too messy and too late this morning(again) because she spent soooo much time doing her hair!!!!!! Of course I am guilty of al these things too all the time, so why did I get mad and why did I not kiss her goodbye? Mean mommy-

But still some things appear to be ready, and look pretty happy too-The city is happy and looking all excited- the final countdown to the Olympics- I need to take my camera downtown one of these days- ...-

And I have to say- you must see 'calculus'-have you already? It's breathtaking-

Hugs-

Thinking about restlessness

Time to make peace. With imperfections. Time to just be, with what is.
The children asked me a while ago to stop all the baking because they were gaining weight. There goes my dream of being the perfect cookie-making mom. Are you laughing now? I know you are I can hear it...Its ok, because I am laughing too.
I still make pancakes with applesauce on Sundays. That is the kind of mom I am.


I have to constantly adjust my expectations. Life has offered some interesting and rather stressful challenges in the past couple of years.
One of my remedies has been to explore the small things that make up my life and to find beauty and comfort in them. I haven't posted much lately because I was working yes, but also because I felt restless and dissatisfied with what is. Here, now. Which is anyway why I started this blog so I am back to square one and I have to start over and take the time to appreciate what is. Here. Now.



Light. The soft diffuse light of Vancouver. White things in this light. Even when the house messy there will be a corner that is as I wished it to be.

I did this self-portrait in oils about a year ago. I was very restless then too.

Which is where the paradox comes in. It is this restlessness with things as they are that moves me to better it all as much as I can. It pushes me to learn and explore and discover and I am so immensely more excited about my artmaking now.

So, I guess there must be a place where one is accepting of one's restlessness and the striving for more and better,while at the same time cherishing the present moment as a time of singular never returning beauty.

Yes, I think so.

I hug you.

At the studio downtown-

The city is feverishly preparing for the Olympics which means that I had to change my route to the studio downtown for my regular Friday session. Which was great fun when I didn't think of the amazing length of extra time it took to get back home because of all the detours and traffic. Truly, I love exploring new routes, but I also love coming back home.


Two more things: do you love Hanna's drawings? I do. Their simplicity and sensitivity and subtlety and gorgeous inventiveness. When I feel I need to find tranquility and gentelness and generally something that will make it 'all alright', I look at Hanna's work. Then all is alright once again!

Then there is Lisa Solomon's work and that is a different sort of love but love it is. I adore the layers of space and meaning and complexity in her work. At the same time there is brilliant clarity and 'breathing space' and beautiful color, innovation and gorgeous texture. A feast for the eyes and lots of food for thought!




Don't you love it ? All these amazing artists at your fingertips? I feel grateful, excited and inspired !

Hugs my sweet friends!

I have been meaning to say...

Have I ever told you how thankful I am about all your comments and kind thoughts and everyone

who has ever come visiting or signed up to 'follow'? I am so so so so thrilled and ever grateful and it means tons to me!

I am running late tonight as usual, so

I won't say much , just show you a photo of my funny slippers and a few new little ones.......

The word is 'simplifying'. It might seem like nothing but it has taken me such a long time to

deal with 'space'(the traditional space thing)....AHHH

This is what this is called:'the mysterious nature of space-linear solutions-' Happy-

And take a listen to this. I found it here.

Hugs, you lovely people.

A week spent in the cocoon

Really, its not easy to leave my cocoon.

I am preparing for a show in April and there is so much to think about.

Where do I want to go with my work? I felt that lately I opened many doors and that made me feel uneasy and unsettled. Not that in art anything is ever easy or settled. But I think we all know when we have missed the step in the right direction.

So after a week in my cocoon am I any wiser you may ask? I am still

debating things in my mind. It's not over but I will be posting regularly again, because there is a discipline in clarifying ones thoughts right here as well, is there not?

And I do have some other news. When I saw Belinda's work up on Artwall I loved it. Now I am delighted to see my artwork up in Katie's master bedroom, and I am thrilled and thankfull to Katie, who has created amazing spaces in her 'home' with really exciting artwork to feast on!

I hope you are all cheerful and well !

Hugs-

Things of the weekend-

Indulging (well, but how could one resist?)

Noticing-

Hoping-

And also rethinking,

erasing,

looking at my charts,

redirecting,

asking,

cleaning up my act.

(and one more thing. I picked up 'Craft in America' , a journey to the origins, artists and techniques of American craft' from the library (2 DVDs)- really loved it, take a look if you can)

Hugs-

keeping it small-

All about feet.
Some stories are all about a part of the body-feet, thighs, breasts, nose.
I have really ugly feet. The truth is I was never really troubled by that, only marginally, but probably because I love drawing them. They are fascinating forms, don't you think? And they are also so very precious, carrying all our weight around and all. And as I was doing this I thought of winged feet, which is the means of transforming the ugly feet story- by
the gift of wings.


Yes, my friends these are the silly things I think of when I am painting but then I also think about color relationships.
And line qualities.
As I was making this one I had to add a series of a's and I remembered very clearly the pleasure and the effort it took to write my first letters. I wanted to stay there.



I remember things more clearly while I am painting than at any other time. Is art then a game of hide and seek?
Seeking small memories, whispering thoughts, little voices under layers and layers of the demands of 'now'? And why should one seek them you say, why are they important after all?
Is it just a means of grasping to life?

Hugs-

Busy in the studio-

I am doing small, intuitive

watercolors all within the theme of storytelling. I am stretching and pulling and trying to allow things to evolve. When I think I have lost something I take it further and lo and behold it comes to a happy conclusion!

I am using watercolor in transparent but also in thick layers like I use my acrylics. Very iconoclastic I know, but so satisfying!

I am thinking about storytelling and how we get trapped in our own stories. A deep well here.

The question of course is, can we re-write our stories and what does it take to do that?

How much of 'us' is fixed and how much is the end-result of this entrapment in our own 'story'?

I can only answer these questions for myself, and this I will be thinking about while preparing for my coming show in April. I am so happy and involved here that I woke up at six thirty and did laundry, cleaned a bathroom, vacuumed a third of the house, called Elli in Greece, called Lucy's dentist and did my list for the day, all before nine in the morning... I AM GOOOOD. I am guarding my precious studio-hours like a -...-well, I don't know exactly what, but something ferocious...!

I will leave you with some inspiration:

A page from the skechbook of a potter.

And an artcard by the lovely Heather.

Weekend walks and a big thank you-

A little girl with a new hat-

Something to draw-

Something to nibble on-(with caramelized lemon slices on top- Lucy didn't have hers, that's when parents get lucky with little children's lack of good taste...)

Something about pattern and colour-

Something to be thankfull for!

It's even more perfectly beautiful than the photo, and its packaged with such care!I am positively thrilled that it flew to my home to stay!

Thank you Holly!

More small blessings-

Trying to remember to use the camera.

Because the days have been so focused on my small watercolors.

There are four or five unfinished acrylics siting here and there in the studio. The watercolors are actually helping me see the unfinshed works with fresh eyes.

These here are obviously alot more abstracted which is a bit of a relief from all the story-telling. The nice thing is too that I can experiment and play with this small size and the watercolors. What I miss is the intense color and the brilliance I can achieve with acrylics and medium. But then there is also something to be said for subtlety and soft-spoken, little watercolors...

My dear friend K. asked exasperated the other day, :'how can you stay cheerul ?' I was thinking about it and tomorrow when I see her I will tell her that it's because I try to focus on the things I can do-

And I hug you-

Work routines-

'how we didn't really mind the rain'

'I drink tea- you drink coffee'.

(both made with watercolor and ink)

A couple of months ago I decided to do the drawing a day thing- It didn't work for me and I should have known better. I was impulsive, as usual. These are my character defects- well, some of them. I can't keep a routine -even though I crave one. I am impulsive and always want to do more than I can.( I guess that's why I can't keep a routine)

The point is that I have 'drawing times' and 'painting times'. I never know exactly how long each will last but I get so absorbed in the phase that I am into at the time, that nothing can move me and nothing else interests me.

I was never really aware of these cycles of work because I never before had to account for them as I do here. In the beginning I saw not being able to fulfil my promise to upload a drawing a day as a big failure, after all so many other artists are doing it. But now that I think of it, I must admit it was a good thing because it just tells me I have to adjust my expectations to my personality and real working rythms. And maybe one day I will find the longed for routine because it will be made just for me. (this was a me-me-me posting- it must have been a me-Tuesday - but to redeem I will post this link to a lovely collection of -what else?-CUPS!)

Hugs -

Red is my pepper-

Rain-
Tulips with red just at the right time-

we stayed indoors-
daydreaming-
doing not much at all-
not even watching tv-
cat-like and silent-
reading on the couch-




We did go out for a coffee break-
a walk on the sea wall-
but-
the seals were not there-
and no herons-
so, you see-
that's when a good children's book
is so useful-
a painted bird brightens up my day-
more than coffee-
any day-


Hugs-

Friday at the life-drawing studio-

I have never visited Istambul myself. But I have heard alot from my husband who lived there for a short period of time, and of course I have read so much about it ever since I was a young girl at school in Greece.
The shapes I was drawing in this little one,made me think of Istanbul as if I was remembering it, but since I wasn't really I called it :'Literary memories of Istanbul'.
Then I thought, how fascinating that we can have 'literary memories' of a place that are almost as real as if we had actual memories. Think for instance of New York. Don't we all more or less have 'literary memories' of that wonderful city even if we have never seet a foot there?
Hugs-

Anniversary tulips-

For a good number of years my husband gave me roses. I would take any opportunity to hint at how I really loved tulips- yes, tulips were definitely my favourite flower, TULIPS, but... to deaf ears. Expectations are louder than the loudest polite hint...

So the day came when I unashamedly and very directly asked for tulips.

And tulips I received.

Pink for the living room. Yellow for my desk, red for the small table in front of the tv, and white for the 'music room'...

Thank you-

Hugs-

Small acrylic painting- A child playing.

Lucy asked me yesterday if the world will explode in 2012 (because her friend said so....)
-'no Lucy, it won't'-
'But mom you did say once that the planet will explode one day'-
-'In millions of years from now'-
...Then there was some strange calculating in her head...and she said:
'So the world will start all over again and maybe the dinosaurs will return- ...- so maybe I will get the chance to do first and second grade again and correct my mistakes and get better grades...'-
!!!
What I find so funny here, is not the irrationality of the thinking process, (its magical and imaginative), but the very deep human need to correct one's wrongdoing, the desire for a second chance, the regrets of an eight-year-old...
Talking about regrets, I have decided to approach resolutions differently this year, I will actually scale down my expectations. Better to focus on three or four things and do them best.
So in 2010 I will continue my study of cooking, and menu planning, but I will not make a vegetable garden.(next year)
I will focus on painting and learning as much as I can about the business side of art which is something I should have done ages ago.
I will try to keep a daily routine which is so very difficult for me but necessary and cost-effective really. I need to take small breaks when I get too tired and not be a perfectionist, not try to clean the whole house in one day with one breath, not paint the world right after... I will plan...
I will not diet. I will eat chocolate.
I will make my own bread. Lots of it.
I will blog. Love it.
I will definitely keep the daily walks.

There.


Good luck with yours!
I hug you-

Welcoming the New Year on my kitchen table-

It's true, my life revolves around my kitchen table.

Happily.

I cook, eat, read, write, blog, paint, draw, crochet, sew, 'travel around the world' via favourite blogs, drink coffee, laugh lots, cry some, discuss, enjoy my family over dinner, savour their delihghted faces when they are liking the food I made for them.

And here this first morning of the year we cut our New Year's cake. I used my mother's recipe, which is pretty much an orange-brandy-sponge cake covered with icing sugar. A delicious and very aromatic beginning trully.

It's also true that I treasure the thing I learned over the past year:
Every single thing done for the home, the cleaning, the budgeting, the mending, the crafting the cooking and baking..- its all 'worthy', and really the foundation of the family's greatest happiness and wealth.

Which brings me right back to my kitchen table which now I see as the very navel of our home life and joy.
(do you love your kitchen table?)

I hug you-

Happy New Year to All-

So grateful for the year that is passing.
Thank you-
Thank you-
Thank you-
So hopeful for the year coming.
Say yes-
Yes-
Yes-




I hug you-

Emerging from the 'quiet days'-

Had some very needed 'quiet time'.Loved having Elli at home. She's back at her job and university now. Hopefully she will be joining us again soon.

I am now cleaning the house, getting things in order, organising my months ahead. I love the 'planning times', don't you? Siting at the kitchen table with much coffee, my notes and my calendar.
Thankfully there are many half-finished paintings on my desk. When the time is right I will get back to my studio and pick things up easily where I left them off.(she hopes..)

I hug you.

Reworked painting- photos of Elli-

The big -green painting, reworked-
Is it finished?
They just grow with me don't they?
Its called the 'daily walk'-
It's green because I love that particular range of greens,
and because green is about growth, potential- questions- what will this daily walk bring? where to? how?
I love questions, taking new paths, but I also love the regularity of the daily walks- Now my husband and I,
stroller free,
walk after dinner in the evening.
Its not as green ,but there is still that sense of anticipation...
Where?
what if?
So there it is ,
the :
'what if'?- tree'-























And a 'what-if'-mom-and child-'

The perhaps-finished painting-

And Elli, who is a lot more into red -

Somewhere between Athens, Amsterdam and Vancouver, her luggage got lost... And unfortunately my daughter is one of those gilrs who looove and get very attached to their clothes! ...

One of those things-

Hugs-

Owl stories-

Hugs-

Some very joyous days...-

Our very lovely Rea, just turned nineteen...

And on that very day her big sister Elli arrived...

And we picked up a tree but have not decorated it yet- I rather like it just as it is-

Are you all ready for the holidays yet?

Hugs-

Light in a Christmas kitchen

I decided to treat myself with something warm and sweet and I picked up a collection of Christmas stories called 'Favourite Christmas stories from Fireside Al' selected and introduced by Alan Maitland.

Here's a little description of a kitchen by a writer called Lillian Eugenia Smith. I wish I could copy for you the whole 'Christmas kitchen', but a few lines will have to do:

"The kitchen was a wide big room on the southwest side of the house, full of yellow light in the afternoon;and this yellow light always smelled like spice cake, or spareribs slowly browning, or maybe sweet potato pies at the crusty moment of being considered "done" and ready to set out on a long table to cool."

As an artist, the nature of light has been of great interest to me for the last almost thirty years. But I had no idea it could 'smell' like any of these things. Now , a whole new dimension has been added to the way I see things...- and that is what excellent art/writing is all about -after all- isn't it?

Hugs-

Pepe, the lost puppy.

When she was thirteen she had a puppy called Pepe. One day she came home from school and he had been lost. Pepe the lost puppy. Dear, dear Pepe.

Hugs.

This birthday girl turns eight-

The birthday girl-

Sweet-sweet Lucy-

Mom's cupcakes for her friends at school. Yum!

Hugs-

A study in colored pencil from the life drawing studio on Friday.

But also, I really want to thank two lovely people for featuring my work :

Hazel Terry from The art room plant

and

Kate Singleton from Art Hound

Have a great week-

My Christmas painting-

It never really feels like a painting is finished.

But I comfort myself with the idea that if I stop one painting I can rework the same subject matter on another one. So you may see that I will paint a second or a third and fourth version of the same image, or just about. I reserve the right to do this.

Hugs-

Mom's delight!!

Some of us were having their grad photos taken tonight...

East Vancouver Culture Crawl

In the past year I have been very closely involved with the running of a life-drawing studio/gallery called Basic Inquiry. During the East Vancouver Culture Crawl our gallery hosted a group show of nine artists, in which I participated.

Rea came to see the show and cheer on!

A quiet moment was the perfect time to take a clear picture of 'my wall'...

Thank you to everyone who came by and was wonderfully supportive in many different ways.

Hugs-

Yesterday there was a handbag next to her but I painted over it- these are very small paintings and they are meant to force me to keep within visual economy-

That sounds like a university course:

Visual Economics-

or

International Visual Economics-

There-

Hugs-

my creative space

A series of small paintings in the making, some more finished than others- a Christmas (if I make it on time...) painting for my Christmas cards...(in the middle) Next to it, a self-portrait at the age of twelve when my life was lived in a big yellow dress and taking care of stray anything with four legs, or even two legs and wings! And others...- In the evening I curle up next to my husband and crochet while watching 'All creatures great and small', the BBC series based on the James Herrriot books-(as part of our evening -therapy-watching session...) Outside its windy and sormy and rainy....Inside its happy, happy-

Playing along with Kootoyoo- take a look!
Hugs!