Spring Sunshine

Yesterday a friend of C's came up from Cork for the day, and after lunch they went off for a walk in Farmleigh. I was sorry to have missed it, so today C picked me up after work and we went for a stroll around before heading home for a very late lunch. So everything else has been running late today too...

These are my favourite photos - I have 18 altogether so if you wish to see them all they are in THIS album.

Boundless Imagination

I'm losing track of days and weeks right now! I thought my canvas was for a challenge later in the month or even into April, but it turns out that it was actually today so I can share it here already.

St. Patrick's Day

Last year's unexpected snow days in March meant more people than usual got cards from me in the mail. This year I managed to make just one, and another "Irish" one which sufficed.

While  looking for a quote to use on a canvas I have been working on, I found one from Jean-Jacques Rousseau which is similar to the one I posted last week from Zhang Heng. Rousseau said that " The world of reality has its limits; the world of imagination is boundless." I'm afraid I can't share the canvas right now as I was making it for an upcoming challenge - but you'll see it next month.

Just Because...

Still very slowly recovering from the 'flu and without a lot of energy. But on my day off last week I decided to just sit down and create for the fun of it with no goal in mind. I've called this Castles in the Air, and to go with it, here's  a quote from Mark Kurlansky's book on paper which C picked up the last time we were at the library (I've already read Cod and Salt).

Here he is quoting Zhang Heng, the earliest Chinese painter whose name is on record: "Real objects are difficult to represent, but the realm of the unreal is infinite."

I didn't want a traditional rainbow, so I used the three different packs of gilding flakes which I have. They look very different in the packaging, not so much when you see them side by side like this. I would have preferred a more mythical looking bird or even an owl - but none of the ones I have are flying.