A New Favourite

Diane of "Cymberrain" sent me this cozy and beautiful velvet. It is black with shimmering greens and purples. A true gem! See her blog. Her dyeing work is gorgeous. She doesn't seem to have a shop at the moment, but look out for it in case it will be opened again.wrong.
Update: There are shops! Please see Diane's comment below this posting.

Paint is my Ice Cream

 

My latest painting turned out more dazzling than I expected it to be. What I was dealing with is sea creatures, as I have done before. Now this one is hard to look at unless you like such unvoluntary motions of the eye; I don't, I can't look at it for longer than just a few seconds. While I was painting it was so close that the effect did not work. 
This is how it started: A meeting of two different sea snails. I liked to think of their tentacles like something transparent, glassy, like sepia. The colors are a mix of bright and subdued tones, and the bright turquoise is meant to remind of phosphorescent animals. I haven't painted a background yet, I added it in photoshop, and it is not bad, so I guess I will do it.

 

I also continued the windmills theme, since I like the idea of producing our energy by wind and sun. This should be the future way to do it, I believe. And the windcraft power stations should be nicer to look at. They should be created by artists, as I stated before. Sorry to be boring, I just love to play. Hope you are all fine, dear readers.

Growing Slowly

 This piece grows slowly. Just a few stitches here and there; the motivation is in not knowing what the whole piece will look like. I don't think I would ever finish a work from a kit.

In August, I'll have an exhibition at a local culture center, run by the culture administration of our town. They are interested in my quilts, too. It is not a big thing, but is meant as an inspiration for visitors who come for theatre rehearsals, dancing courses, painting groups and many more. Here's a look inside. The canteen walls are red, what a background for Joseph's Colorful Coat.

A new painting; this one was made for a friend. I'll try to make it to the post office today and mail it. --- Update: It is on the way.
Today, things come to perfection, it seems; do you have a similar experience? Long-due repairs in bath and kitchen have been done; the same friend who will receive my painting just sent me a wonderful purple-and-green scarf, and spring seems to be coming with bright sunshine.

The Masters of Time

"Time is an invention of man", said my spiritual teacher, a Tibetan lama. And another one, asked why time seems so long to children and so short for grown-ups, answered: "Children don't have their heads full of thought-concepts, but just watch what is happening -- yes, I think this is why." (He is father to 3). Could it be that the solution to the problem of "having no time" is just to watch what is happening -- without concepts and thoughts? Ha, how to be without thoughts? No, you don't necessarily have to be without thoughts -- just don't let them conquer your mind. This happens when we get entangled in sequences of thoughts, trying to find reasons and drawing conclusions.
I once noticed that if I have the choice between to urgent tasks, I choose a third one which is idle and just fun. :-) This makes it easier to find out which of the tasks is really urgent -- if it is at all. But if it is, I don't hesitate.
Screens are time robbers! TV is worst. It is worse than the internet, because you are passive and get hypnotized by the motion on the screen. The faster it becomes, the stronger the urge of the brain to relax and let the pictures just float by. This is why tv is the strongest time robber. Proof: if it is broken, you feel bored, then you start observing what is around you -- and you seem to have a lot more time.

Looks like Fagus Factory

When you look at the weaving of Anni Albers, the groups of stripes are somewhat similar, but on her weaving, there is only one direction, either horizontal or vertical, whereas I let them vary. Also the choice of colors is different from the Bauhaus preferences. I hardly saw pink or mauve there; I don't know if the pigments and dyes just weren't so developed then, or was it going against the grain of the artists? My husband and I saw Kandinsky's home in Dessau, and in two of the bedrooms, the owners had chosen pink, together with other pastels like mint and vanilla. Was the Kandinsky couple being spiteful, eh?

On Sunday, we followed an invitation to Harsefeld, a small place you never ever heard of, I guess. 900 years ago, it was the site of a monastery of some importance.
This cloister did not follow the change to Reformation as all the places in northern Lower Saxony. Instead, they defended their independence until 17th century. During the 30-years-war, it was deserted and fell into pieces, until the foundations were excavated in the eighties of the 20th century. The church was built in the 19th century, and we had brunch in a café in the building you can see behind the ruins in a very romantic cellar which once was part of the cloister with old oak beams carrying the ceiling. The party are sitting in the back of the room. While they were still talking -- most of them were my husband's old schoolmates -- I took a little stroll to take pictures of the amazing rocks which were used for these buildings in medieval times. And to take back some cobblestones for Wanda. The picture shows the kerb/curb of the cloister kitchen.