Yesterday I had a fabulous time at a beautiful private historic house in Staffordshire. It was a Cancer Research sale event. Loved every minute. A super opportunity to show my work and talk about it. I realised how nice it is to chat to interested people about the story behind my paintings and philosophy of the joy of it all. 
I’d like to do public events more often and when I do I will let you know when and where!

   
    
   

“The Secret Garden”
12″ x 12″
Acrylic on canvas

To celebrate our move into winter. Last night the daylight and darkness hours were equal. A shift. Ready for regeneration.

Available £120

Always work on making your glass half full. This is my mantra.

I have enjoyed the making of this painting. I get a buzz from the contrast between the lilac (almost) neutral of the background, the yellows of the table and the shimmer of that hydrangea from the garden.

Acrylic on board 24″ x 20″. For sale.

Every day I make sure I try to notice the little things. I think it’s so healthy to appreciate the beauty around us in whatever situation. I celebrated today by painting the abundance of flowers around me in the garden and picking more to photograph and influence this series of floral paintings honouring the Summer.

Here’s “Vase Of Abundance” acrylic on canvas board 20″ x 24″ finished this weekend and for sale. I tried to capture the exhuberence of these big blooms

Even in our local urban environment there are beautiful moments noticing some peeling paint, some old distressed wood or rusty, aged metal. Some of the shapes in our Victoriana in my town are superb.
Definitely more flower power paintings to come this next few weeks! Do call back here! x

I’ve just got back from a week long alternative health and music festival called One World Camp. It was in Somerset this year and I’m walking on sunshine now. The food is macrobiotic and mostly vegetarian, almost all organic and locally sourced. There are plenty of workshops, a choir, drumming circles, lectures and games for all.

One workshop I did whilst there was with Jon Athawes and was entitled “The Real Me”. It involved various methods of getting to the nub of where you wanted to be in a set timescale in your future. It was really quite powerful. I think Jon is going to write a book on it this year so watch this space.

On my return I expressed my feelings in a painting called “Strength In Gentleness – Ganesha”. I often have this Hindu god in mind as he is the remover of obstacles in your way. I have a strong vision of where I want to be and it’s already working. Ganesha symbolises reaching your potential. So this Ganesha has flowers in his hair to express the great feeling I have resulting from the festival.

The original sold the next day from my Facebook post (my page is at Clare Wassermann Art and Stitch) but I am organising a very limited run of signed prints. They are 30″ x 21″ image size. Some have already been reserved. Do let me know if you’d like one. They’re £140. My email is Clare.wassermann@gmail.com 

  

As an ex- jazz musician I chose to paint Billy Holiday when painting my last portrait. Her agony and pain showed in the latter part of her life but such great music stemmed from this.

This painting is with acrylic – showing how layers can work as they do in oil from a grisaille underpainting and utilising acrylic glazing medium in the layers. Most of this I painted with my fingers and a babywipe!

Keeping up the practice; I am lucky. I am finding ways to devote more time to painting. I have children, now in their teens, who are becoming independent more and more. They are required to get the bus whenever possible. They can now shop for some of their own food and prepare it if they need to. This has taken some effort since doing it for them can often be quicker and easier (and less messy) but when I see so many parents driving their kids everywhere when we have pretty good public transport I despair.

Another thing. Internet shopping for all the boring, heavy and repetitive goods has helped. Then I top up locally supporting the little independent shops as I need to.

I have in my head what I’m going to do be doing before I do it. I’m thinking about that when doing the mundane or driving (oops). When it comes to painting time I’m ready to go.

So even though I have two jobs, two teens and a husband to administer to I still seem to be fairly productive. I do dream colours though and often wake with ideas in the morning. I also am a firm believer in using the little chunks of time in between other responsibilities to get on and go for it. Having said that I’m an early riser. 5.30am is my friend.

But I’m shattered by the end of the day and go a bit weak at 4pm for a while!!

So recently I have been on a roll. I love hares. I am captivated by their shape and also by the legends behind the hare from Pagan times here but also they feature in legends from all over the world.

The above painting “Under The Hill”   40″ x 30″ in acrylic sold very quickly. I could have sold it a few times. Hares speak to people it seems. I have some nice box canvas prints of it measuring 30″ x 22″ at £140 plus postage. The print quality is exceptional.

This is for sale – please let me know if you are interested in the comments

I am about to start a third in the series of hares. As I say, keeping in the flow and utilising every tiny chink of time.

It’s not a coincidence that my father used to recite this at home many, many times:

If – By Rudyard Kipling

I just know it’s good for me! OK there are times when I can feel a bit angsty about what I’m painting but it passes or I can go away and think about it. I get stuck and hot and bothered too but really I am grateful for what a privilege it is to be painting at all – come to think of it it’s a privilege to be breathing isn’t it?

It’s a solitary occupation of time but that suits me. Meeting up with friends is a wonderful diversion as is my lovely family and my other work. Mostly, however, I love it because it is a meditation in itself. Sometimes one is totally lost in the work and other times it’s an opportunity to think things through. Generally though it is a time of utter focus and time passes without perception. I’m always burning the tea!

If times are tough painting is a great way to shift focus but also the creation of art relies on having plenty of time for creativity and rumination. The chewing of the cud. Before that can happen we need to look around and REALLY notice things – colour juxtapositions, tonal values, shape placement and all this means not looking. Not JUST looking but looking to see, to REALLY see. This is the basis for mindfulness. This is the root to health.

Mindfulness is present throughout my painting process and I do my best to incorporate it into my every day movements and perceptions. It certainly brings with it a calmness and a sense of gratitude. Gratitude is another health boosting practice.

To this end I practise yoga and meditation whenever I can and listen to music which stimulates the right side of my brain. All these things bring health into my life. Creativity itself is about play. We should all cultivate play in our lives in whatever way we can.

I have really enjoyed painting this piece entitled “Spirit Moon” which is 30″ x 30″ acrylic on canvas. Just letting ideas flow with no real goal or vision of what was to emerge. It feels exciting to see the painting emerge forth.

I’m pleased to say it was seen and SOLD before it was even dry!

20″ x 20″ prints are available for £60

Let’s see what comes next – my head is full of ideas. So much so it feels like this sometimes:

Stuffed with ideas.

I think it’s time to meditate!!

I’m very happy to say that this painting is off to a collector in Belgium. As with them all there is sadness as it goes because I was so happy painting it – does that make sense?

But then much of the process of my art is about letting go anyway so I will apply that principle as I wave it off. The joy of starting the next piece is still to come.

This piece is fr sale at the moment:

It’s called “Within and Without” and is 40″ x 30″

Ready to hang- no frame is required.