Sunday 6 July 2014

Recharging Batteries : Busy Bee

Busy Bees

This week I did something really unusual for me. I sat down! I wandered around my gorgeous garden to admire beautiful flowers for inspiration and passed a garden lounger that has hardly been used. I laughed at the memory of my begging my husband to buy me the comfortable sunbed. I had been filled with visions of relaxing on it in my garden but that time has never come. Like most gardeners its' impossible to not see weeds that need pulling out or plants that need dead heading or cutting back. And as an artist I constantly see things that I want to paint. 
On top of that I always have so much to do.

But this week the sunshine has been incredible and I couldn't ignore that sun lounger. I decided to sit still for half an hour which happily turned into an hour. All the time I was lying there, I was thinking about how much needed to be done. I mentally listed the work left to be covered in my new book, I thought of the list of emails with fabulous invitations for future USA tours in 2016/2017. I could  have been working on my new exhibition .  

But instead I did something very rare.
I sat still and recharged my batteries. 
And listened to bees!

It made a change to watch a tiny nsect working really hard and they reminded me of myself. I have been  so busy leaping from one project to the next , sharing my passion for watercolour, but somewhere along the line I had forgotten to take genuine time out to simply chill. 

And it was worth it.

I now feel energised and eager to face the week ahead. In fact,I  have just sent off the introduction to the next section of my new book to my publisher which I hope they love as much as I do.

Of course the bees had an influence as they appeared in my next painting. In glorious glowing yellow.

Artists Tip For the Day?

Take time out from painting to recharge your batteries. And enjoy it!


************

3 comments:

Unknown said...

Great advice and a beautiful painting.

Jean Haines SWA, SFP said...

Thank you Sue.

Jean Haines SWA, SFP said...

Hi Olga, thank you and I am thrilled you like my painting. I always aim to keep my colour clean and fresh when working, using the most vibrant colours I can find. I hope this helps, happy painting! Jean