I'd like to share with you a tiny daily ritual that has made a large difference to how I feel throughout the day. It's stupendously simple.

Drink at least one litre of plain water every day.

This is plain water, very unfashionable. Not juice. Not herbal tea. Definitely not soft drink or coffee.

Consistency.
I do this throughout the day.

Downing a litre or so of water right before bed gets the daily quota met, but defeats the main purpose of smoothing out energy and concentration slumps throughout the day.

Mindfulness.
I stay aware of my energy levels. If I begin to feel sluggish, I am also usually thirsty.
I notice that I get ill within a day or two of low water intake.

Benefits.

Once upon a time I had a huge caffiene addiction. To the point where I drank so much strong coffee that my body began to have an allergic reaction. Trust me, that's boatloads of coffee. I was one of those people who simply could not function without a coffee first. A typical creative type.

After a month or so of carefully making sure I was drinking at least one litre of plain water a day, I stopped craving caffiene. I was not trying for this. It was totally unexpected.

I am no longer a slave to the caffiene hit. The days of the afternoon slump are gone. Being consistently creative is so much easier. Thinking is clearer.

You?
What simple habit can you share that has made a gigantic difference to you, your state of being, how much you get out of your days?

Although I am a visual artist, people also enjoy my writing. As such, I have been invited to be a columnist for this brand new media source in Ballarat

So what am I doing there? Spreading the glitter of imagination to you all...

Want a dose of inspiration and possibilities? The feeling that maybe you too could be creative. And why not! Check out my column for stories from people slapped by the muse. It's part celebration of the talent in our midst, part swooning over beauty for it's own sake, and part insight into what makes those creative types tick.

Woo woo meets cool clear logic.

When I visited Findhorn, a community of spiritual folk in the north of Scotland, they had a lovely little ritual that began any group task. It involved, stopping, being quiet outside and in, holding hands and taking 20 seconds to reflect on the intention of the group effort and the qualities of how the work would unfold. Like planting the seed of right behaviour and underscoring the ideal outcome. Like praying. 

Setting intention.

It is said that once you decide to get a new car, suddenly you see the model you want everywhere, when right before the decision you would swear there were none on the road. Effectively you told your unconscious this car model is now very important, notice it. Are there more on the road? No. Are you more likely to find the one you want? Yes. Because you notice more of them or because you decided to buy?

Setting intention.

I have a set of Angel Cards. Each of these has a positive inner quality worth cultivating. The idea is to choose one and reflect on it for the day. Does leading the mind to notice this quality  then also attract more, a la 'The Secret'? Or is it that noticing makes a difference to the quantity of this quality that you are aware of and subjectively, enjoyably, the world seems so much more peaceful/abundant/wise? Suddenly you can see so many more ways to get more of this quality because you have given it priority?
Setting intention.

Many people who want big changes in their life set up what is sometimes called a vision board. Sometimes people write a statement, in present tense, of how they want their life to look in the future. There is daily meditating on these goals as if they were already happening. There are psychological reasons for doing this as our brains prioritise the now. Some call this priming. Others, calling out to the universe or deity of choice for assistance.
Setting intention.

Is it the focussing of the mind on the bigger task, the wanted qualities that keeps you on track? Is it a magnetic force which is activated by the act of setting intention? Is it both? You get what you notice. Does it matter how it works? Because it does work. 

There comes the time in the creative process when all the work is done, bar the last step. Some call it 'shipping'. Most of us probably think of it as putting our creations out there to be judged.

It's pretty damn scary.

It took me a full year to make the cookbook paintings available for sale. Oh, there were reasons. Setting up a web store. Finding the best method to record the paintings. Researching costs. Learning how to successfully photograph oil paintings. You know, reasons.

What if no one likes them? What if they don't sell? What if I post them off and then the archive file is buggered? What if. What if. What if. None of that happened.

Silly billy.

The whole point of bringing some new piece of wisdom and beauty into the world is to put it out there for people. Make it available, accessible. The whole point of creating a painting is to put a spark on canvas that someone, to whom that spark speaks, can put it on their wall and be reminded every day of it's message.

So I apologise.

For letting the fear of putting my work out there get the better of me for so long. I am determined to not let that happen ever again.

"In contrast to European dragons that are considered evil, Chinese dragons traditionally symbolize potent and auspicious powers.... The Chinese dragon is also a symbol of power, strength, and good luck." (Thanks Wikipedia)

I've been reading Steven Pressfield's 'Do the Work' wherein he talks about Resistance - the Inner Dragon that constantly talks you out of doing anything that you've decided to do to make your life better. Behind the Inner Dragon is the treasure. ie what achieving your goal/s would bring. This little book very directly shows the characteristics of Resistance, the path of achievement, your allies and what you need to do to get your treasure.

Do the Work is  short and very good. It's available for free on Kindle at Amazon. The Kindle app for iPhone is also free. I don't think you have any excuses. You do? Stop listening to that dragon.

This Inner Dragon is evil. It is Resistance. That is the Western idea of the dragon. Manifestation of evil, blocking the hero (you) from riches. 

Another idea is put forward on Resistance. That which you resist the most, is the most important. The thing that you are most afraid of is the thing that would make the most difference. Resistance as a compass. Head to where there is the greatest fear. An Oriental dragon. Resistance the asian dragon pointing the way to potent and auspicious powers. A marker of the surest way to power, strength and good fortune.

It's the same inner landscape. Two useful points of view. Mythology at your service.

It turns out that all art competitions are not created equal. Well of course I knew that. Entering a Henry Lawson festival art prize or a competition run by a primary school might be a bit of fun but seriously aren't likely to be smart career moves, for me at least.

Even among the appropriate competitions there are layers of career smartness. It turns out there is juried and non juried. Why I didn't clue into this earlier I don't know, but at least I do know after entering just two comps, not twenty.

Juried? Yes, as in preselected. As in quality control. As in anyone can enter but all entries are peer selected as worthy, a bit like scientific papers but a heck of a lot more subjective.

Not juried? As in anyone can enter and have the work hung. Not a bad thing to give everyone a go but not desirable to enhance a professional career.

Remember the Competition Flagbearer poll? It's where I asked your opinion on the painting that I should enter in the Barossa competition.  "Wine, food and painting go together rather well, even if I am a little biased. The Barossa Fine Art Exhibition is part of The Barossa Vintage Festival 2011. It is a painting competition/prize based in the famous Barossa valley wine region in South Australia. The competition powers-that-be have a stated interest in the 'diversity of contemporary abstracts'. As you know, I have a tendency toward creating abstract paintings and I'm hoping one of my foodie inspired abstracts might be a better-than-crapshoot chance in this competition and catch the eye of the judges from this food and wine region. But which painting?"

With your help, I chose Okonomiyaki as the painting to put forward. A big thankyou for everyone who weighed in with their opinion!

After paying the entry fee, obtaining quotes from my framer for the strikingly modern framing, getting shipping quotes and estimating the travel and accommodation costs of attending the festival, it seemed like an awful lot of money to gamble. Which is when I had a closer look at the professional worth of the festival, realised it is NOT juried, and decided to pass.

Then this happened.

One of Australia's top art prizes was decided by the toss of a coin. Truly.

I'm flabbergasted.

All publicity is good eh? Sure.... there's one competition I won't be likely to enter! So insultingly cavalier with the artists expertise and time and money. They do not deserve entrants.

Let's just say I am now rather choosey about the competitions I enter, if I enter any at all.

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

It was an enjoyably sunny day some 10 years or more ago when I was being a tourist and wandering the streets of Palo Alto, California. I moseyed into the invitingly quirky looking Bell's Books and there discovered a stack or two of very curious books.

One was, 'The Epiplectic Bicycle'. Another, 'The Doubtful Guest'. There were others. All were written and illustrated in a most uncommon style by the rather talented Edward Gorey. I was delighted.

These very little books appealed instantly to my sense of the surreal. Such amusing absurdity. Such inventiveness. Such a consistently high standard. My admiration was immediate.

Stories from not very many words whatsoever. Sometimes with rhymes. Often with antiques of language. Always with pictures. What fun.

All from an artist who completely owns his own style. Ah the simplicity of pen and ink. I appreciate the stylistic intersection of cartooning and 18th century etching. Clever, that.

It continues! All the stories are set in Victorian/Edwardian times. It's part of the style. It's woven into the gloom with the gothic overtones. From the fancy dress, the tureens and fountains, gramaphones and elaborate wallpaper. As well as the antedeluvian linguistics.

Despite the tales being gruesome, perplexing and strange, I find they are also pervaded by a sense of calm and gentleness. How is this possible? More admiration.

 

There are many humourous children's books which I enjoy and sometimes collect for their pictures. Occasionally there are kid's books worth collecting for the witty exchange between their words and pictures. Dr Xargle's Book of Earth Hounds is a particular favourite. However I find it rare to encounter the level of intelligent play that all Gorey's books contain. It probably helps that his books were not actually written for kids. I imagine gripping the minds of tiny children and wittily amusing intelligent adults all at the same time is quite a tall order. Think of Gorey's books more as playful stories for adults. In fact, he is considered to be an author of the literary nonsense persuasion.

 

I now know that I have a taste for this 'literary nonsense'. Quite a taste. Think Lewis Carrol and Dr Seuss. I am certain this influence is going to rise to the surface in a big way in the future.

More Edward Gorey links

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Gorey

http://www.edwardgoreyhouse.org

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.

It's been a very long time coming and you have been very patient with waiting. It's wonderful to be able to say that all the original cookbook paintings created thus far are now available to own. That's all of the Autumn paintings and all of Winter. There is a wide variety of styles on offer and what's been really interesting is the wide variety in the ones which have sold so far. There is no discernable trend.

Actually, there is one trend. Everyone who has seen them has indicated that the current price of $AU135 is too low or a real bargain. Effectively the same thing. In trying to ensure that the paintings are accessible to as many people as possible, I fear I have underpriced my work. 

And so the prices shall be increasing. On May 9, just over a week away, all the cookbook originals will go UP in price to $AU150. You have until that date to grab an earlybird bargain.

Where are the paintings for sale? Why, in the Official Art Store. If you're wondering how paintings have sold before this announcement, newsletter subscribers get advance notice. Yellow box, top left.