Scribbled in my sketchbook:

It is something to be able to paint a particular picture, or to carve a statue, and so to make a few objects beautiful; but it is far more glorious to carve and paint the very atmosphere and medium through which we look. To affect the quality of the day - that is the highest of the arts. - Thoreau

I love the negative spaces in this photo Doug posted on his blog. He came back with some beautiful, almost painterly images. He also managed close ups of birds and squirrels that delighted me. I’m sure he’d rather finish his novel, but I keep telling him that with his background in horticulture he should publish a book of regional wildflowers.

For all the joys motherhood has brought in the last year I may not be able to run outside to paint whenever the urge strikes, but looking at Doug’s recent photographs gave me the thought that painting en plein air would be a good way to start working in oil again once Conor is weaned. Easier said than done in Newfoundland! In Nova Scotia I had great fun strapping my French easel to the back of my bike and wobbling off down the road towards the farmlands at sunrise. For all the inspiration that Newfoundland offers, the strong winds make it difficult to keep a canvas still in the great outdoors.

I have sketch book/art journal filled with more thoughts for work than I have years on earth. In it I doodle, and record random thoughts for bodies of work and individual paintings. I put them down on paper when inpiration hits, and if in a year an idea still rings true then I will run with it.

In the back I collect words that speak to me for those days when I need a little more help. It is a way to call on the strength and wisdom of the world. Most of the quotes relate to my work, and some to everyday life. It’s a lovely thing to hold, to flip through whenever I want to be instantly energized and uplifted. These passages are not secrets; some you will have no doubt read before. In this blog, I’d like to share a few of the gems that I’ve scribbled down over the years.

Here’s my first:

Walk on a rainbow trail; walk on a trail of song, and all about you
will be beauty. There is a way out of every dark mist, over a rainbow
trail. - Virginia Woolf

I have to admit that I don’t have much time to surf the web, so I appreciate that boing boing goes to the trouble for me. It is often a good source of new art links. While ear wax sculpture, nazi sex dolls, and the $18, 000 bar of soap make me want to turn off the computer, and take my baby out for fresh air and a very long walk, it’s the rare gem that makes the site worth a visit now and then. Among my favourite finds this month are:

Art or Crap? Take the quiz. I scored 11 our of 16. I felt a little bad about the plaster cast, but if you have a minute it’s a fun thing to do.

An interview on NPR with children’s author and illustrator, Maurice Sendak.

The work of Dave Devries whose paintings are based on kids’ drawings of monsters and superheroes. (I like the bird face bordering this piece.)

And speaking of monsters, Jill Miller is one brave cookie. She is waiting for big foot.

I was also glad to find the-artists.org, a good source with useful search engines for all things relating to major modern and contemporary visual artists.