Sacred Geometry

You know I've been couped up too much inside when I begin studying sacred geometry again.  

This winter I have found myself struggling with composition.

As a gardener and a learning painter I am aware of the use of golden proportions in nature, art, architecture and landscaping. It is something I intuitively use all the time, and have studied it for years, but recently I had a light bulb moment when I heard someone explaining the geometry in terms of quantum physics.

The light bulb went on when I heard the words "Geometry creates resonance....60 degree angles represent the hyper dimension, where things are perceived beyond this dimension."

I immediately related to my thesis in college entitled 'What Makes a Garden Beautiful".

In my paper, I researched the use of sacred geometry in the creation of histories most well known and timeless gardens.  I wrote this paper because when I visit a garden designed from these principles I am instantly transported out of now modern urban time and float in the beauty of all time and no time. You can feel the shift in these ancient places, when you enter, something divine is going on and you know it. 

I know I've hit the mark in my own garden creations when people zip into a dimension of delight, relax, giggle, play or just wander around in awe. 

Here is a snip from my term paper relating to the use of sacred geometry in the English Landscape gardens of the early 1700's. 

This paper covered the whole history of sacred geometry from the Parthenon to the US Air Force Academy, but I won't bore you with all that. 

The landscape garden was conceived in England between 1710 and 1730—that is, during the period of the European Enlightenment, which coincides with the role of Freemasonry in England and Europe.  Many landlords and intellectuals of the eighteenth century were freemasons.  Among them were famous people of the period.  The writer Alexander Pope, Edward Harley, the Earl of Chesterfield, James Addison, Richard Steele, Jonathan Swift, James Thomson, Lord Burlington, Lord Cobham, William Stuckley, Lord Montague, and Voltair.  It is at this point in its history that Freemasonry develops as a focus for intellectuals, politicians, the gentry, artists and architects, and fosters a continuous exchange of ideas, aesthetic values and beliefs between English and European intellectuals.  Freemasons believed in virtue, progress, equality, and they contributed to the ideology for the late eighteenth century democratic revolutions.

These Enlightenment ideals (tolerance, equality, universalism, civic duty, natural religion, and morality) were also reflected in the use of iconography and design in the early English landscape garden.   During that time the intellectuals who belonged to or had links with this secret society were also responsible for the developments in the arts including landscape architecture, so it is important to understand the relationship between Freemasonry and the early 18^th century English landscape garden.   Freemasonry carried mystical overtones and origins dating back to the Middle Ages.  Medieval stonemasons were called "freemasons" since they were not bound to a guild in any specific city but were forced to wander from place to place where churches were erected.  Thus the design principles of the freemasons spread far and wide across Europe and into America.

Two common elements of these works on Masonic history are the reference to God as the Great Architect of the Universe and the definition of the seven liberal arts which are grammar, dialectic, rhetoric, arithmetic, astronomy, harmony and geometry, with a heavy emphasis on geometry, which was considered to be the source of knowledge, an art which had the potential to re-create the Divine in building.

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[1] http://www.esoteric.msu.edu/VolumeV/Freemasonill.html

I love that recreating the divine stuff! I also love the words virtue, progress, equality, tolerance, universalism, civic duty, natural religion, and morality.  I think I will meditate on these as I putter and paint and practice the art of re creating the divine. 

Light Changing

I normally paint botanicals, but in February nothing is blooming and I have no desire to sketch bouquets of store bought roses and carnations. So I have been sketching and painting birds, dogs and children. A stretch for me...but fun to try. 

I do a little better with birds than dogs and children. The body proportions are difficult for a dork like me, but I want to be able to paint my grandchildren as they come along. 

I took a photo of Finn last summer, laying on the porch with his ball in the hope that I would stop gardening long enough to throw it for him. He is so beautiful I wish I could do him justice.  I am painting this sketch as well, but not thrilled with it. Painting dog fur in watercolor is a big challenge. There is so much going on in that pile of brown fluff. 

I am also feeling the need to get my kitty on the white paper too before he heads over the rainbow. He is over 20 years old, and the most beautifully marked Siamese tabby mix I have ever seen. I love his blue eyes, pink nose and raccoon striped tail.  He doesn't photograph well, and even in his sleep he moves constantly....so that will be a challenge.

Yesterdays challenge was this sketch of my granddaughter toodling near a garden bench. 

I will work on this some more today, I want so badly to get the right look of busy curiosity in her face. 

In the meantime I am watching the old world crumble and the new world gestate with hope and joy at the transformation that is taking place.  I know transition is always uncomfortable, but transformation always follows.  It is the constant spiral of Ascension.  We just made a leap from tradition, the world watched as a new President was inaugurated, millions gathered in peace to celebrate and sing a song of joy.  Now, a time of transition, depending on how long we drag our feet in fear until we manifest transformation.  How exciting!

Personally I am visioning a financial system that is not based on debt.  That would truly be freedom from slavery wouldn't it?  I have been seeing future paintings of mine of crumbling super malls, with magical trees sprouting from the ruins.  I sure wish I had the capabilities now to paint some of these images as beautifully as I see them in my minds eye.....but I am working on it daily, in small ways with small things.

Veggie Doodles

As the US collectively shivers in the arctic chill of what is being called the coldest winter in decades, we are heading for the deep freeze here in NC as well. 

Nothing much to do except paint and putter. I am working on my statue paintings in the studio, but I am having more fun painting the veggies when I take a break from the larger projects I am attempting. I keep the moleskin notebook and a travel box of Sennelier watercolors on the kitchen counter for my doodles. This means I only have a few colors to work with and have to really think about mixing the colors I want. I used this travel set when I traveled to  Italy, the cappuccino's I indulged in after a delicious meal  kept me awake at night, so I painted two paintings that I ended up framing and showing.  I am realizing I have good luck with Sennelier paints. Maybe it is because they use honey as part of the formula for their paints. They do look yummy enough to eat. 

I had a lot of fun with this cabbage. It is great practice. I am getting better with mixing greens. For years I was struggling with how to mix colorful, but muted, green foliage. I may keep working on this one a bit more. So far, I have doodled in short spurts on this cabbage for a week. I am also painting a very bright red pepper.  I suppose painting the vegetables is keeping me from getting too lonely for the summer garden....it will be here soon enough. In the meantime it is fun to dream about those beautiful vegetables on paper, and take long wintertime naps with the 97lb brown fuzzy Finn dog.  

Dreaming and Doodling

While recovering from the family flu bug passed around over Christmas I had little energy for anything but a few doodles recently. That, and the yearly bookkeeping for the business has kept me busy. Better to get that over with now. 

Besides, I was sneezing and coughing so much that any attempt at a stoke with a brush could be sidelined by a sneeze. 

The seed catalogues are coming in daily. The photographs are so enticing. I thought I would see how they looked in watercolor. The bean pods were very fun. Though I would like to do more of this type of botanical on bigger sheets of paper so I can get more details on the ribs, seeds and flowers.

While visiting my daughter over the holidays I saw that she had framed a painting I did of my tomatoes and peppers a few years ago. I thought, wow, I could do that so much better now, I have learned so much in the meantime. 

When I came home I painted a Costoluto Genovese tomato from the catalogue, the same tomato growing in my garden when I did my first tomato painting. I doodled these in my moleskin notebook during the worst of the body aches and fevered exhaustion. This batch is much improved over my first for sure. I have more colors to play with now as well, like Opera, Mineral violet, and Poppy, which I did not discover until this year.

The benefits of being sick for a week was all the sleeping and dreaming I got to do. Yesterday morning, while in the dream state, I was was hanging out with angels, working on a painting in the studio. I was consulting with one of them about the next step, the angel suggested another layer or two of turquoise on a portion of the painting to enhance the change in values. I had a feeling in my dream of awe, that angels would be actively working with me on my elementary attempts at self taught art. I thought, Oh! I am finally hanging out with angels. 

This is really amazing.

I woke up with a Wow feeling. I do get seasonal dreams often near the solstice and equinox, this was definitely one of them...laying out the next phase for the journey. I get the feeling that what ever I end up doing this year, it will be inspired. 

I also got the message about the 'Change in Values' as the planet Pluto begins to transit my 2nd house....of things we value......yes, angels, I caught that.....a thousand thanks for the heads up.

Beauty and magic takes a lot of work

Finn & I are packing up the sleigh for a Christmas road trip.  

The weather has warmed up just in time for me to clean out the car, rake the last of the leaves from the yard and carport, pack and drive to Virginia. 

I love the timing of a sixty degree, dry day right when I really need it.

I stayed on top of the maple leaves all fall, but the oak leaves fell with the cold snap a month ago, and pretty much buried my lawn. I was beginning to get real depressed about the garden view from my window.  

It was so delightful to get outside and hear the birds tweeting happily while I raked. Finn was glad to get out too. We have had three days in a row of rain and fog.  I always feel better when leaving home if these things are done. Now I am freed up to feast and play.

I did get a start on a series of garden paintings I want to do this winter.  I have been wanting to paint this scene for a long time. 

I couldn't get the true colors to come through the scan. In real life it does not look quite the same. It is really a bit more greenish than it looks here. It looks like I was hoping it would, though I may fuss with it a bit more after the holidays. 

It makes me want to write and illustrate a story book for my granddaughter. Maybe that will be one of her Christmas presents next year. 

I just had a giggle over that last line I wrote..........

I have always said I wanted to grow up and live like Tasha Tudor.  I read her books to my daughters when they were little. The link takes you to Tova Martins book with all the beautiful photo's of Tasha's garden in Vermont.  Ms. Tudor finally let go of her garden last summer, I was sad to hear when she went over the rainbow.

I never even thought about illustrating children's books until I did this painting.  My father always gave my sister and I beautifully and whimsically illustrated fairy tale books. He encouraged us to believe in Unicorns and such.  He imprinted in me a love of magic and beauty. Just by investing in some great books. I used to spend hours staring into those images of the beauties and the beasties. The beasts were so beautiful and horrific at the same time. The beauties were so enchanting and tragic.

My parents sent my sister to art school. Every line she ever drew was frame worthy. Some people have that gift. I don't. They sent me to gymnastics. I was not born with a green thumb either. My mother never even kept a houseplant.  The only garden I remember planting with her was when I was two and she let me poke some zinnia seeds into the little holes she made in the earth. We moved around too much to ever garden as children.  

But, I did have this love of beauty. When I figured out I could create natural beauty in gardens, that was it....I studied everything I could about garden design. I tore up and re birthed hundreds of yards learning my craft.

When I was thirteen I loved the beauty of harmony in music, so I made myself learn how to play a guitar and sing harmony. It didn't come naturally, I begged friends to teach me. I locked my self in the bedroom for several years, fingers raw on the ever plucked strings, until I finally did not sound like a cat in heat. It turns out, I could make people emotional when I sang. Even grooms at weddings.

I gave it up professionally when I was being asked to sing at too many funerals. I didn't want to make people sad with my music. I was young and didn't want to be around all that grief.  But I had found a sense of beauty that spoke to my soul.

It is the same with my new love of painting. I hasn't happened naturally. But I am getting better at it all the time. I do know, that when I watch the colors spread out on a piece of white paper and form a flower or a landscape, I get that sense of the soulful harmony in the act of creating and I know when I hit a perfect tone, or note.  Something magical is trying to happen. 

Speaking of magical, Christmas is always magic!  Morgan and Barrie were trimming the Christmas tree together the other night. Every now and then Morgan would step back and look at the tree and ask little Barrie, 'Isn't it beautiful'?  Barrie would step back, hands on her hips, just like her Mom, and said 'Jus gorejess". Who knows how she picked up such a big word, she won't be two until spring. Must be magic.

Finally

For two years I have ignored my old website. It was still tied to the nursery in Virginia and just soooo out of date.  Finally this week I dove into the land of website building and powered through the resizing of photo's to be Internet friendly for your easy loading...and learning to use the software.  So, no painting this week, but I did manage a new creation after all. Gardensofdelight.info has been reborn. Take a look if you like and let me know of improvements I can make. 

It is a joy to have this off of my to do list.....now I can get ready for Christmas. Amen

Hibernating

We have had quite a cold season for the end of Fall. So we are hibernating.  Days are now spent feasting on Thanksgiving leftovers, reading and being generally lazy.  I have enjoyed cleaning up the house, rearranging things and finally, I have a studio in the basement.

Finn is getting used to the stay at home routine now after a brief confusion over our new schedule. Instead of packing lunch and leaving the house at the same time every day to go outside and play, we are now unscheduled for a brief while and I am soaking it up for all it's worth. He is bored and follows me all over the house. He loves to ride with me to the store, and patiently waits for me in the drivers seat while I shop. He loves his afternoon naps, the big old fuzzy brown dog that looks like a bear.  I find him on the bed, with his head on my pillow, snoring away, often. I do owe him some good hikes when we get a warm spell. He is so patient with me and my quiet hours of painting.

I have been painting winter trees with India Ink. I think I'll use this one for my Christmas cards.

It is a quiet thoughtful time as the year draws toward it's ending. I love my peaceful winter days with so few interruptions. It his heaven. I am truly in the painting mode, so many things I want to try now that I have some room to spread out and work. I have things I need to frame for gifts as well. December will go by quickly no doubt.