The Loeries woke us this morning. What gentler way to slip back into city life after our week in the wilderness than to hear Purple Crested Loeries calling in our garden.
We've just returned from our annual Wild Coast holiday where we woke every morning to spectacular sunrises and the haunting cries of Fish Eagles.
This is the view from our bungalow. I would need to be a poet to describe the beauty of this place ..... and since I'm not, I'll share a few photos and a story or two about chance encounters and new friends.
Otter tracks on the dunes
Time to try my hand at land art. Nothing serious but quite absorbing all the same.
I played while M fished.
I thought these flowers could be from another planet.
We met many lovely, caring people who shared our enthusiasm for the Wild Coast. Two young veterinarians on honeymoon presented me with a bar of delicious Belgian chocolate on my birthday as well as a huge driftwood log (because they knew I loved wood). They hauled it along the beach, floated it across the estuary in a canoe and dragged it up the hill to our veranda where we found it when we returned from our walk. I was so touched ! So if you are reading this, Robbie and Taneale ...... the log is at home in our courtyard reminding us of you.
One evening I heard my husband talking to the couple who had just moved into the neighbouring bungalow. They spoke with American accents and had visited all my favourite places so of course I had to go out and chat with them too. Slowly it dawned on me that I actually might know who these people were. Several months ago a mutual internet friend, (a reader of Art Propelled) had asked me to email a few travelling tips to her friends who were thinking about visiting South Africa. What an amazing coincidence that we should meet them by chance and spend a lovely evening together before they left on the next leg of their trip. Synchronicities always seem to happen when we're on holiday. I suppose that's the magic about taking time out, away from home.
Of course I had to bring home a cache of Wild Coast pebbles to remind me of the happy days spent gathering them.
Gathering Stillness by Robyn Gordon.
My word for 2013 is stillness.
A dear friend of mine suggested that we check in with each other every week or two via email, to refocus on our chosen words. Sometimes I forget to check in but ever since we decided to do this little exercise I have found that I am able to maintain my focus, unlike other years when I've forgotten my word within days. Doing this with a friend has made all the difference. Even when it seems that all is chaos around me I am able to find moments of calm in my day. I am gathering stillness and it is affecting my art.
Gathering Stillness by Robyn Gordon
"Have you ever heard the wonderful silence just before the dawn? Or the quiet and calm just as a storm ends? Or perhaps you know the silence when you haven't the answer to a question you've been asked, or the hush of a country road at night, or the expectant pause of a room full of people when someone is just about to speak, or, most beautiful of all, the moment after the door closes and you're alone in the whole house? Each one is different, you know, and all very beautiful if you listen carefully." - The Phantom Tollbooth, Norton Juster
Angel by Omar Galliani. See more here.
Linda Vachon. See more on Linda's Flickr photo stream here.
Road Trip by Carole Leslie. See Carole's blog here and website here
From Stillness by Heidi Hass Gable. See more images here
Center by Intao. See more of Intao's work here.
Brian Ferry. See Brian's work here.
River of Grass by Matthew Hillier. See website here
Resting by kerrdelune on Flickr. See more here.
paulus.iosephus on Flickr. Click here.
"In the midst of movement and chaos,
keep stillness inside of you".
- Deepak Chopra
The hands of fiber artist, Maria Hwang Levy by photographer Eric Swansen. See more of Eric's beautiful photographs here.
seeds
encased
until the time is ripe
for new life
new thoughts
new ideas
Maria Hwang Levy. See Maria's amazing work at her website here
"These vessels are receptacles for my thoughts, memories and feelings." - Maria Hwang Levy
Bronwyn Berman. See website here.
"The pod form is deeply 'known', an encapsulation of life to come, a concentration or distillation of all that is complex in nature, containing seeds of new life, of the promise of transformation to new form." - Bronwyn Berman
Geopods by Bronwyn Berman. See website here
"I love the look and texture of the woven form, weaving is women's work, and the forms are female in their nature, seed pods are givers of life, and the pods have a torso kind of quality . " - Bronwyn Berman
Ceramic pod forms by Debra Fleury. See more at Debra's blog here.
Debra Fleury. See more here
Seed Pod Rattles by Demetria Chappo. See blog here
Marisa Molin (cocoon of twigs, screws, zipper ties and copper wire) See website here and Face Book page here
Donna Anderson. See website here
Pat Hickman. See website here
Susanne Klemm coats natural objects in a fine layer of polyolefin or epoxy. See more here
Susanne Klemme. See more here
Scott Cardamatis & Joseph Saad. See more here
Magdalena Abakanowicz. Website here
I couldn't resist this image doing the rounds on Pinterest. I 've not managed to find the artist.
Erik Gonzales. See more of Eric's work at the Costello Childs Gallery website here
I suppose we all have a place in our hearts, perhaps from childhood or another life time that makes the heart ache when you think about it. A place that has a strong pull but is sometimes too painful to think about because you know you can't go back. I learned to love nature in such a place. When I feel a connection to all the things that live and grow in the countryside I also feel a connection to the farm I grew up on.
Erik Gonzales. See more here
I find this poem by Pablo Neruda particularly moving.
Lost in the forest, I broke off a dark twig
and lifted its whisper to my thirsty lips:
maybe it was the voice of the rain crying,
a cracked bell, or a torn heart.
Something from far off: it seemed
deep and secret to me, hidden by the earth,
a shout muffled by huge autumns,
by the moist half-opened darkness of leaves.
Wakening from the dreaming forest there, the hazel-sprig
sang under my tongue, its drifting fragrance
climbed up through my conscious mind
as if suddenly the roots I had left behind
cried out to me, the land I had lost with my childhood --
and I stopped, wounded by the wandering scent.
- Pablo Neruda
An Unwritten Book by Fiona Watson. See Fiona's Flickr photo stream here
Fiona Watson. See more of Fiona's work here
Fiona Watson. See more here
One-of-a-kind artist book by Jill Hubley. Click here
Everything/Something, a unique book with wooden pages, screenprint, gouache by Karen Kunc. See website here.
Bee Mapping by Cas Holmes. This piece is currently on tour in the 5th European Quilt Art Tour. See website here and blog here
Rosie Turnbull textile print. Click here.
Exquisite Leaf by Francis Ooi. See more here
Mayumi Sarai draws inspiration from organic structures and other natural processes to create her carved wooden sculptures. See more here
Bronze sculpture by Mark Hall. See more here
