Meditative Studies, the why and #45-53

The Meditative Studies series of nature drawings - where did it come from and why?

A daily habit

I wanted to instill in myself the habit of a daily drawing practice. Like drinking a litre or more per day of fresh water, or walking the dogs each evening, there are habits for good physical health. So too are there habits for excellence. I don't want to be average at drawing. I want my drawing to be excellent. A regular drawing session always gives better results than occasional large ones. And so it made sense to begin to form a daily drawing habit by just starting, working through the awkward and hard to commit to stage, and sticking with it long enough to end up with a daily reflex.

Meditation

Many people find stillness sitting meditation or in yoga. I've always found that the full concentration required of careful-yet-free drawing, or of painting for that matter, to be just as quieting. I had begun to notice that my drawing and painting sessions were really meditation sessions. Just like some people do walking meditations. Without my drawing meditation I notice myself become edgier. It has a soothing effect.

Nature in ink

Old botannical illustrations. I love these but I don't want to reproduce their stiffness. Old pen and ink book illustrations. There were so many unnamed talented illustrators in generations gone by. A childhood of being a bookworm has had the unintended effect of giving me a huge respect for the art of pen and ink drawing. Pieces of nature. To tell the truth, I didn't even think this out. I just notice curiousities while out with the dogs and wanted to draw them. All these influences simply meshed together.

Zen for your walls.

Small nature studies.
Quietly created as drawing meditations.
Each one is unique.

Peaceful simplicity. Slow looking. Radiating stillness.

These are delicate and deceptively simple drawings on quality artist's paper. Matted to fit a standard 8x10" frame.

My art explores an ongoing love of nature and celebrates the brighter, calmer, radiant side of life. It is a reminder that the world smiles with possibility.

All currently available Meditative Studies are listed here: http://www.wherefishsing.com/meditativestudies

Gumleaves and ....

A new and occasional series celebrating the curious forms of the iconic Australian gumleaves and the emotions of connection with nature. It has grown out of the Meditative Studies and my daily drawing practice. I wanted to take this Japanesque woodblock hatching theme that has developed and make it larger and really explore the shapes, and make it more substantial and move onto stretched canvas. I wanted to make these colourful. I wanted the feel of the bush to be present.

Gumleaves & Tranquility

Gumleaves & Joy

These pieces are 8x10" ink on acrylic on canvas. The canvas is deep edged gallery wrapped, so framing is optional.

All currently available artworks are listed here: http://www.wherefishsing.com/officialartstore

Creative Cauldron - the attempt at a giant summary

Phoenix - 12 x 11.5cm etching by FionaMorgan circa 2003

These analytical type posts where I try and define what it is about a creative's work that I am drawn to is really hard work for me. It's not how I tend to think. I tend to receive information in impressions and sensations. Although critical logical thinking is a strength for me, analysis is not. It's been a great exercise to do these Creative Cauldron posts as it forces me to explain why I like what I do and thence to see the common threads and connections between, on the surface, disparate influences.

On one hand it feels crazy to go through and analyse the work I admire to get a really good idea of what it is I love. Then again, it has been wonderfully useful to understand and become fully aware of these things. It feels crazy that this process has been so useful to uncover what is right under my nose.

While this series has been mostly for my benefit, I do hope I have not bored you all to tears but have given you some insight into where I am coming from, what I am about. This series may be added to occasionally from here on in if I find another real wow to write about, distill and internalise.

For now, (again mostly for me to see these all in one place so I can see what it is I am aiming for in my own work), a summary of the commonalities in my admiration for the work I have profiled in these Creative Cauldrons. In brain-shorthand bullet points, as that's how I tend to think.

Technical:

• immaculate presentation 
• absolute technical mastery
• decorative pattern, sinuous, dancing, flow
• very Australian colour, subtle tones, pastels contrasted with deep rich coloured darks, tonally related, limited palette
• bravura brushwork
• textural brushwork, paint as texture, emphatically paintings not images
• luminous
• space to breath, not busy design,
• Japanese influenced design 
• absolutely beautiful images, mesmerising
• Australian light

Ideas:

• intelligent 
• thoughtful, a thinker, free thinker, new ideas
• has an opinion
• straight talking
• kind
• gracious
• ability to synthesise and see connections from a wide landscape
• wordsmith

Feeling:

• poetic, evocative, ephemeral, mysterious, mood, dreamy, other worldliness, more than ordinary reality, soulful, graceful, spirit, there is more to life than we can see

• playful, silly, fun, humour, quirky, make people think, have a laugh, irreverence, cartoon, wit

• weaves mythology, spirituality, archetypes, truths distilled, essence, iconic, symbolism, collective unconscious direct line, synthesis, shaman, mirror into us, storytelling for the soul

• zen like stillness, presence, magic of the moment, mindfulness, slow looking, nature is respected, presence, calm, gentleness, intimate, celebrate, childlike, soulful, thoughtful, innocence, playfulness, quiet, happiness, contemplation, delight, observant

 
Accomplishment:

• unique style, no one else, own voice
• top of their game, redefined their genre
• respect for hard work, discipline, do the work
• themed bodies of work
• seeing in new ways
• experimental
• imaginative
• genuineness, not whimsy, not contrived, honest

About the Creative Cauldron series of posts

The Creative Cauldron series of posts explores and showcases the visual styles, techniques, attitudes, ideas, artists and paintings that have had the most impact on me. 

The rest of the series is accessible via the Creative Cauldron page. Have a meander if you please, and remember to check out my artworks on Flickr, and have an insider peek at life as an artist on Facebook.

Creative Cauldron - Joseph Campbell

Artist inspiration and artist influences. No biographies, dates or scholarly research here -  this is a personal response to the work of mythologist Joseph Campbell by Australian artist Fiona Morgan.

Joseph Campbell quote - this & other inspiring quotes on ceramics are available from mbartstudios on etsy

It seems strange to me that Joseph Campbell's work on comparitive mythology and religion has been done so recently in time. I mean that it has taken all of history until now for someone to really take a good look at the belief systems around the world and draw out their essences, similarities, histories, relations and differences.


Despite the overdue arrival of this scholarship, oh my goodness was it done thoroughly. Such detail, such comprehension, such insightful cross discipline views and such synthesis and so much careful thought.

Where do we arrive at from this?
We now have a roadmap of how religions evolved. If you can manage to wade your way through the four part series 'Masks of God', of Primitive Mythology, Oriental Mythology, Occidental Mythology and Creative Mythology, your views on religions will probably never be the same. Your understanding of the opposing viewpoints operating in the world will be sharpened.

 We now have the understanding that myths are meant to serve as guides on how to live life and they need to be updated for each time period, each generation. Myths are there to help with how to handle adversity, transitions to different life stages and to help us with what life is all about.

We have an understanding of the structure of the great overarching communal monomyth, the hero's journey, and some eternal truths which have been distilled from it, the most famous being, 'follow your bliss'.

Mythology turns out to be centrally important to humans to function healthily. Myths connect us to another way of being. They help us find happiness.


What a stupendous legacy.

I have a huge admiration for the thinker who synthesised and distilled the roadmaps people have made for life. His explanations are detailed, well thought out and very complex. It often takes me several passes of his information to be able to comprehend and digest what he has to say. I enjoy the challenge. And the rewards are well worth the effort. Too much information out there is too simplified.

While I'm not sure I can call him a wordsmith, Joseph Campbell is a storyteller for the soul. It may be one of the most important jobs there is - reminding us that there is more to life than we can see.

Interview excerpts on how myth aids us in growing out of childhood and into adults:

And how myth helps us place ourselves in the life cycle and accept where we are (very odd audio/visual mismatch from about halfway through - I recommend shut your eyes and just listen!):

More Joseph Campbell links

Joseph Campbell Foundation: http://www.jcf.org/new/index.php
http://www.facebook.com/JosephCampbellFoundation
http://www.youtube.com/user/campbellfoundation
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Campbell

About the Creative Cauldron series of posts

The Creative Cauldron series of posts explores and showcases the visual styles, techniques, attitudes, ideas, artists and paintings that have had the most impact on me. 

The rest of the series is accessible via the Creative Cauldron page. Have a meander if you please, and remember to check out my artworks on Flickr, and have an insider peek at life as an artist on Facebook.

Creative Cauldron - Stephen Fry

Artist inspiration and artist influences. No biographies, dates or scholarly research here -  this is a personal response to the work of Stephen Fry by Australian artist Fiona Morgan.

A small pondering on the admiral qualities of Stephen Fry and why he is the sort of someone I hold in high regard.

Well, he is a wordsmith, a master of language with his own unique voice. This is a trait that I tend to admire. But of course there's more.

In a world filled with vacuous celebrities, it is a relief to find an intelligent, thoughtful and even wise voice. This is someone who has a strong belief in the inherent good in people, the better side of humanity and yet is not naive. Someone who stands up to paranoid and closed thinking, looks at things rationally and with humility and says what he thinks.

To be opinionated but not offensive. To hold strong, thoughtful views. To be a free thinker. These are qualities I can aspire to.

To be well read and educated. To be kind. These too are qualities that anyone can achieve with persistance and mindfullness.

Of course he is wonderfully multitalented - writer, speaker, actor. While natural talent will get you so far, plain old fashioned hard work is what is takes to get this far. My hat is off and I am reminded to do the work.

His story of enrolling in English Literature at Cambridge University and becoming so enthralled and caught up in the acting world on offer there - to the point that exams and essays and such things that were there to determine a pass or fail were more or less ignored - is a classic 'follow your bliss' story. Again, a reminder.

And then there is the comedy. The boldness and freedom and aliveness in silliness. Hooray a real person!

There are gazillions of intelligent and thoughtful spokespersons who never get a toehold in anyone's imagination because, I think, they tend to be dull and hand their opinions down from above. Make people laugh. Like cartoons that bypass the everyday guardians of how we think, a bit of humour darts past the guards and gets the message through. Then 'just' learn how to graciously offer and explain your thoughtful opinion, with a dose of wit, plain talking and kindness.

 

More Stephen Fry links

Official site: http://www.stephenfry.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Fry

About the Creative Cauldron series of posts

The Creative Cauldron series of posts explores and showcases the visual styles, techniques, attitudes, ideas, artists and paintings that have had the most impact on me. 

The rest of the series is accessible via the Creative Cauldron page. Have a meander if you please, and remember to check out my artworks on Flickr, and have an insider peek at life as an artist on Facebook.

Meditative Studies day #71-84

 

Latest works, done in time snatched inbetween recipe testing, framing and market stalls. I find I really miss the regular quiet concentration time if I skip a day and make it up later. There's a background buzz of anxiety that builds without this regular drawing meditation.

----------

 

Black ink pen on white watercolour paper 5x7" and matted ready to frame. Fits the very commonly available standard size 8x10" frame.

All the currently available Meditative Studies are here, including this one: 

www.wherefishsing.com/meditativestudies

Buy one, buy them all! $20 each, including postage within Australia. OS airmail postage is $5 for 1, $8 for 2, $11 for 3+. Comment SOLD on the photo of the one you want and include a contact email so I can send payment details.

Meditative Studies day #55-70

You could be forgiven for thinking these drawings are really not flowing at the moment, but the truth is I've been creating a yet to be revealed little sub-series of Meditative Studies. More later. For now, the chattering mouths of the banksia seedpod is all I can show for the past few weeks work.

Black ink pen on white watercolour paper 5x7" and matted ready to frame. Fits the very commonly available standard size 8x10" frame.

All the currently available Meditative Studies are here, including this one: 

www.wherefishsing.com/meditativestudies

Buy one, buy them all! $20 each, including postage within Australia. OS airmail postage is $5 for 1, $8 for 2, $11 for 3+. Comment SOLD on the photo of the one you want and include a contact email so I can send payment details.