Books, faces and a blue sun

New books, because I really never stay away from books, and I'm not getting tired of drawing them either. Each cover is a little challenge in itself, and when I read the book, I often find myself wondering how I'm ever going to manage to draw that on paper...

On the left, a thriller from Norway by Jo Nesbo, great author, great story and characters. It's the second one of this author that I read and I wasn't disapointed.
On the right is the second book in the SF "Gaïa" trilogy by John Varley. I adored these books when I was younger, it's such a fun universe.

Some faces. On the upper right it's my daughter, from a photo taken two years ago. She had just dismounted from her horse after the class, she was still very concentrated and focussed, I love that photo (and my drawing, not bad!)

And a little easy picture, just because I wanted to see those colors and a blue sun.

Love the quote, loving hearing Francesco Clemente talking, he's very precise, very interesting.

Pictures, quotes and (too?) many words

I'm still playing with those little naïve pieces and enjoying it. I'm learning something for what I don't have words, yet.

I'm learning to be lighter, for one. Letting go of a lot of things I don't want to carry around anymore.

It's written : A man who insists upon seeing with perfect clarity before he decides, never decides. Accept life and you must accept regret. It's a quote from H.F. Amiel  - I don't know him, but I agree with him.

And a Julia Cameron quote, with a drawing from a photo I saw on tumblr.  I love Julia Cameron books. I read and worked with The Artist's way first, and later with The Vein of Gold. I thought it would  help me explore and develop my artistic side, but it led me to completely different and unexpected paths.

I allowed myself for the first time to aknowledge my long lasting and deep interest in everything about resilience, healing, therapy and personal development - and in a few months now, I'll be a therapist myself, when I get my final diploma in Sophrology.

I also bought a guitar, and play regularly. That was very inexpected too, since I've played piano in my childhood - I was forced to - and I was bad at it and thought I was lost to music forever. (I'm still bad at guitar, but the difference is, I take pleasure in it, and maybe, when I'm around sixty, I'll be a passable player!)

I can't recommend those books enough. I offer The Artist's Way regularly to friends when I feel they're looking for a change in their life and don't know where to begin.
And that happens a lot since many of my friends are around forty, like me, and suddenly realize life is not going to wait for them eternally.

In between

Motivation is a strange thing. I feel pulled in several directions and most of the time end up doing nothing. I want to draw something, and at the same time not, it seems too difficult, too long, not worth the effort.

So I just continue with these little experiments, easy, fun, like little meditations. They satisfy my need for lines and colors.

I hope I'll feel inspired for more, soon. But in fact it doesn't matter. I'm trying to let go of a lot of unwanted baggage and attitudes, and the emptiness in between is confusing (and a little frightening, too).

The black thing in the middle represents nothing. It serves to hide a terribly failed face drawing. Poor kid, I couldn't let his face look like this.
Do you have times like this, when you really want to do something, create something, and nothing is really it, and the thing evades you?
I think it happens to me because of the changes in my life, and the fact that I'm really in between things, not where I want to be yet, but well on the way. And patience has never been my forte...

Happy, on the top of the world

My exams are over, I did good ( no, I did great, I'm on the top of the world right now!!!)
More time to read and go outside! My last reads :

On the left is a graphic novel about three girls and their families in the Ivory Coast during the last seventies, early eighties. It's awesome, fun, exciting, and the drawings are fabulous. My daughter and I loved the whole series (6 books) and felt like the characters were part of our lives for a few weeks!
On the right is a book written in 1968 and it was said on the cover it changed many people's lives at the time.
It didn't change mine, but it was still a good read, a bit boring, but in a good way, because I went on anyway and found a lot of things to like. After all, that was about the desert, and deserts are boring, too, but if you're patient, you can see wonders in them.
(You can see the books bigger by clicking on the picture, if you want to see the titles and authors).

And this is one of my orchideas. I wanted to draw the four of them in bloom, but this one took everything out of me and I decided to go back to my usual, fast, fun faces drawings...

 And that's it. Now I'm going to enjoy the fact that my exams are over and take a little break. Then back to work (I mean, homework after work...) because I still have a thesis to do and present before I get my full diploma. This means months of work with patients I need to find. But it's interesting and I look forward to doing it. I'm a student at heart, I guess.

Taking a break, finally

I'm having a little time on my hands today so here I am, blogging again after two months away... How time flies, really. I've been reading, of course, although maybe not as much as usual.

On the left is what has been my favorite series of books for a long time, the Gaïa series by John Varley, great science fiction saga, space opera, awesome and delirious. I'm not enjoying it as much this time, maybe because it's the fourth time I read it, or maybe because I'm getting old and easily bored, I don't know.
On the right is the last Kate Atkinson novel, fourth in the Jackson Brodie series, and it was wonderful, and unique, and perfect as all her books have been for now.

A few portraits, from a page I begun in march, still not completely filled. I draw faces almost everyday, though, some fast and some very very fast (not showing those : ), but they're the most interesting in terms of learning !). I always draw very quickly, anyway, otherwise I get bored. (I think there might be a pattern, here, somewhere).

And this is just an experiment, in writing and putting paint on a page, because I've not been painting much, not been inspired, and I missed it. So I found this forgotten little sketch book under my bed, dusted it and began to fill it with paint and words and it feels good just doing it. Most often it doesn't feel good watching the results, though, but that's not the point.


My final tests, after my two years course in sophrology (kind of relaxation therapy) are in five days. If I'm not ready now I'll never be.