I have had this magical weekend in london with lots of sunshine, creating and reading. It feels so magic to have great weather something I never appreciated when I lived in Australia. This week I have been really appreciating moving to and living in another country. My adventure in london has given me much perspective on myself, life and what is important to me. See sunshine it is magic, it makes you feel better but I would never have known the difference if I hadn't done without. ( watercolour at my studio window with plenty of sunshine)
Work/life balance is something I have had some real shifts.... who are the crazy ones working so hard all the crazy Australians who are told this is how you get ahead. Don't get me wrong I am not keen on the 'plodder syndrome' (talk about this another time) but seriously there is so much of life to live and who wants to spend it working. Who knows when life as we or I know it will end. I want to make the most of it every day. A turning point for me is when I made a real commitment to creating every day. At the beginning of this year it was learning to draw. It made my whole day better knowing that I had 1 hour of something I love. As my day job isn't giving me the meaning it is now a bookend to other precious hours, it makes every moment away from an office feel amazing, precious and great. I have my horrible moments where my moods take over but it has taken the pressure of work defining me (well for now anyway I do regress often).
Yesterday was day 1 of Drawing Continued with Jayne Kay at
City Lit it was such a great class. Back into drawing still life and enjoying the spoils of practice and reminders of the fundamentals. (When Lawrence returns I will download the first line drawing I worked on). Jayne is so lovely and it was great to feel part of a community people I have done courses with before, a teacher from a previous class. I know it will be awesome I am already dreading it ending.
Today I went to Gerhard Richter Portraits at the National Portrait Gallery. Great exhibition and seemed to follow my new discovery, life it what is. Nothing more, humans search for meaning so much in everything especially art and he goes against this. A new hero especially since he is primarily a painter but works in other mediums. Of course I was tempted and bought the catalogue + a book about him. Yes 1 week and 3 new art books!
gerhard richter is internationally recognised as one of the world's leading contemporary artists. Born is Dresden in 1932, his mature work dates from 1962 when he made his first 'Photo Pictures': paintings based on photographs selected from newspapers, magazines and, later family albums. From mid- 1960s he also used his own photographs as the basis for paintings and began to explore other styles, including abstract painting, as well as a range of media. 
