I've been thinking lately of a book to create of the inspirations for my work. I need your help.
What would you most like to see in this book, paintings, illustrations, fairytale, folklore, tree moons and goddesses? Information on animal totems and meanings? Ideas of sacred, healing gardens for your own use and meditations? All of this and the 'wheel of the year' associations and the tree ogham.
Here are a few illustration for this book. Looks like I'm gonna be busy for a while, but I will keep you posted on my progress.
When the sea mist rolls in from the cornish sea, there is a deep feeling of mystery and magic. Filled with stories of mermaids, shipwrecks, myths and folklore. The salty waves unchanged and our footprints in the sand have other stories to tell of this time, one day to be a myth too.
Sea Witch. Amanda Clark 2011.
Secret Cove.
Ancient megalith stones. New secrets unfolding all the time. Who were we then and how much of the old wisdom have we lost.
Upon Rough Tor. By Amanda Clark 2010.
Beautiful colours of Rocky Valley near Tintagel. If you follow the path here you come to an old mill and 2 labyrinths carved on the stones of the valley wall. Then follow somemore and you reach the ocean.
If you follow this same path the other way, you can walk through the most enchanting wood I have ever seen to the sacred place of St Nectan's Glen. A sacred waterfall.
' The Picture Parlour' art galley in Boscastle. A beautiful little gallery. They have some of my original paintings and prints for sale. There is also a 'Witch Museum' in Boscastle.
Glastonbury Tor at Summer Solstice 2010. There is an art gallery in the town. Glastonbury Art Gallery also stock my work.
While in Cornwall, we spent alot of our dreamy days on the beach. Trebarwith Strand is one of my favorites.
The sea was still icy cold from the winter and I could just bring myself to paddle up to my knees in the waves.
The rockpools were so deep with the most fantastic colours of blues. My little girl Megan managed to get a wetsuit and imagined herself a seal or mermaid on the rocks then jumping into the pools.
Waterfall and stream running into the waves of the Atlantic.
Waves of the Atlantic Ocean at Sunset.
Dancing waves rolling in.
Running in the pools and watching the sunset as the tide goes out.
Gull Rock in the distance. I imagine a wonderful place for mermaids to dwell.
This is such a magical place for inspiration and some stories say, a healing place for the heart.
A set of burgundy paintings and panels of paintings that are on show in my solo exhibition. Shire Hall, Bodmin, Cornwall. Just a sample of the paintings for this Exhibition. Starts tomorrow and ends 27th May 2011.
We were hanging the paintings on the last day of our holiday. Every day was beautifully sunny except this Saturday, which turned cloudy with heavy rain....much needed for my poor garden!
Many of these paintings are inspired from my time in Cornwall....such a magical place.
I'm making my way to beautiful cornwall this weekend getting ready for my solo exhibiton at the Shire Hall in Bodmin. We are staying in a wooded valley, surrounded by bluebells! Exhibition starts 1 May until the 30 May. If you are around that way, please come and see! There will be larger mystical landscape paintings on canvas as well as my smaller pieces of work.
If the bee disappears off the surface of the Earth, man would have no more than 4 years to live. Albert Einstein.
We are going to keep honey bees this summer, our garden and hive is nearly ready. I have planted all the favorite flowers and herbs that I could have the space to fill. Even our lawn is going to be a wild flower mini meadow. We have apple trees, plum, greengage,grape vine, pear, berry and many flowering vegetables that the bee can have a love affair with. It's so exiting to hear of so many others that are taking up the protection of this wonder filled creature, and to think without the honey bee here with us on this beautiful Earth, we may not exist, nor much of any of Mother Earth's creations.
A sacred and adored feminine princible long through the ages, the honey bee has been on the Earth for around 20 million years.
There is a legend told that the bee was to have been created from the tears of Ra, the father of Egyptian Gods and Goddesses. Mead or honey wine is the Ambrosia of the Gods. In Greece bees were thought to be the surviving souls of the priestesses who served the Goddess Aphrodite.
Aphrodite, the Goddess of love, called herself 'Melissa', the Queen Bee, and her priestesses were called the Melissae. See the link below for the wonderful book 'The Shamanic Way of the Bee. http://www.sacredtrust.org/the-shamanic-way-of-the-bee.php
The Melissae, were accompanied by priests called ' Essenes ' - meaning drones, which are the male bees of the hive.
The honey bees were Aphrodite's sacred creatures who Pythagoreans worshipped, created their endless perfect symmetry of the hexagons, and this suggested the underlying order of the Cosmos.
Demeter is also known as the 'Mother Bee' for she governs nature's cycles of life.
A Poem by Pablo Neruda.
Let the wax raise green statues,
Let the honey drip in infinite tongues,
Let the ocean be a big comb and the Earth a tunic of flowers,
let the world be a cascade, magnificent hair,
unceasing growth of Beedom.
Clay faces singing lullaby's for the bees and crab apple blossom in the garden.
Bees have been believed to have secret knowledge and are divine messengers. Celtic cultures say that bees have the secret wisdom of the soul and the 'Otherworld'. They made a drink called 'Mead' - a honey wine that was drunk to bestow the gifts of wisdom, creativity and immortality. Indeed a mythical drink!
The Melissae were said to be prophets and oracles that entered a trance by taking a secret recipe which included honey and pollen.
Here is a swarm of honey bees being introduced to their new home by a lady called Heidi. My partner went to Heidi's beautiful Kent home for a course in Natural Bee Keeping.
Our new bee hive! Nolan makes these to order and I can also paint them for people. These are Warre Hives.
Is this a bee's eye view?
For to the bee the
Flower is a fountain of life
And to the flower a bee is a
Messenger of love
And to both, bee and flower
The giving and receiving is
A need and an ecstacy.
Kahlil Gibran.
Power Animal - Honey Bee
Power Honey Bee's wisdom includes, love, cooperation, giving back to the Earth, sweetness.
This totem also says to forgive yourself and others, have compassion. Honeybee carries sweetness to those in need of love. Sit beside a field of blossoming clover-and listen to the humming mantra of love's fertility.
Loren Cruden.
( The Spirit of Place )
The message of the honey bee tells us to go get your dreams, you can make your dreams a reality. You can create anything you put your mind and heart to.
Some of the favorite plants for the Honey
bee;
Spring- Old species of tulips, snowdrops,violets, crocuses, forget-me-nots, dandelion,helleborus,and trees; hawthorn, blackthorn,hazel,lime tree,oak,willow, sycamore, and all fruit trees and bushes.
Summer - buddleja, anise-hyssop,bergamont (bee balm ), melissa, catnip, red clover, heather,majoram,thyme,joe-pye weed, motherwort,milkweed,poppy,basil,borage,clove-pink,germander,horehound,lavender,mints,nasturtium,alliums,sunflowers and all daisy shaped flowers.
Coriander is useful - helps the bees rub off mites.
Sage can be a spring cleanser for bees. A feed of 5kg of honey with a tea brewed for 20 mins in 5 ltrs of water, 14 tsps sage, 4 tsps thyme, 4 tsps chamomile. warm this to around 65. c.
To help with the bee's health, it's important to have growing in the garden, anise-hyssop,catnip,purple loosestrife,majoram, motherwort and mint.
These help with honey production to feed the bees throughout the winter months. Ivy is also good to have around for pollen in late Autumn.
Well, I will let you know when we have our bees and hopefully a few photos of the wild flower mini meadow! I will be raising a glass of honey wine to the bees while sitting out in the garden, watching them collecting their gold. Here's to the Honey Bee!
It was such a beautiful warm, sunny day yesterday. I planted more flower and vegetable seeds for our garden and worked a little on the village school eco garden. The birds were singing and keeping busy, especially the little robin that kept me company and watching for any stray worms to eat.
Flowers and shoots are pulling themselves out of the earth as the light and dark are at equals. Now the longer days are on their way back to us and we can look forward to warm spring days and the glorious summer.
Spring Equinox by Amanda Clark 2011
The Divinity is all around us now, in the leaf, bud and early flowers. In the bird song and their nest making. In the cool breeze and the sprinkling of rain. The new borns and new life. The air, the delicate aroma and freshness, kisses my smiling face. It is in the light and dark of equals. In the earth and the sky. Planting seeds here and now, so welcome life! Welcome warm and joyful light. Welcome and blessings to you, our Goddess of Spring.
Mother of the Dawn. by Amanda Clark 2011
Ostara/Eostre
Goddess of Spring and rebirth. A Goddess of new beginnings. Eostre's sacred animal is the hare or rabbit and represents creativity and fertility. The moon, spring, magic and mystery are also associated with the Goddess.
One legend was thought to explain the easter rabbit who laid eggs in a nest. The Goddess Eostre saved a baby bird from the cruel, harsh winter by turning it into a hare. This magical hare was able to lay eggs and would forever more decorate the eggs as a gift for the Goddess.
The Norse Goddess, Freya, is also associated ( as with many others) with Eostre. She wears a magical necklace that represents the fire of the sun. She is also attended by lantern holding hares.
Land of the Hare. Moon, Sun and Earth. by Amanda Clark 2011.
Eggs and the equinoxes are linked to the folk legend of being able to balance an egg on end during these times.
Naturally dyed eggs is something to make for a symbol ,used for this celebration. They can be dyed with onion skins. Give this a try:
Collect some brown onion skins and cover the eggs with a couple of layers, then wrap this with paper towel and secure with elastic bands. Boil these bundles for 20 mins - for a light bronze colour. Or for 2hrs or so for a deeper bronze or mahogany colour. Rinse with cold water and carefully unwrap and dry the eggs. You should have beautiful marbeled patterns that you can coat with a little cooking oil to bring out the colours and make them glossy. Another way to make more patterns is to soak a leaf or flower in a little water and then place this onto the egg befor covering with onion skins. It may help if you soak the onion skins in cool water aswell to help stick to the surface of the eggs.
Spring Light. by Amanda Clark 2010.
There are lots of ways to decorated a totem egg, and you can bury these in your garden or favorite woodland after a few days, as more potent charms of re-newal.
Here is another version of the Earth and Moon, titled 'Moon Dream'.
Moon Dream by Amanda Clark 2011.
The meanings of moon dreams. Dreams of the moon can symbolize romantic feelings and hopes, but also silvery reflections of intuitions, creativity, developmental stages of the self, fertility, the awakenings of the unconscious and alchemy or metamorphic changes. These dreams can sometimes be a transition of the feminine principle working through the cycle of the moon.
As intuition is information from the higher self, the all knowing. The moon in dreams can be telling us to listen more to our intuition or our souls guiding feelings. The full moon can indicate a higher level of intuitional strength. A crescent moon can indicate the beginning of trust in yourself and the feelings of the heart, this starts to bring messages from the unconscious into the light.
Fertility and creativity are associated with the feminine. The full moon may have the meaning of potent creativity, and full fertility.
When dreaming, if the full moon is close or touching the earth, it can mean we are completely connected to our intuition, feelings and creativity. A small moon in the night sky, or further away from the earth, seems to mean have become distant from our emotions and intuition or creativity.
Sea Mist and Moon by Amanda Clark 2011
Fields of Jade by Amanda Clark 2011.
In folklore and myth, Luna was regarded as a giver of dew and moisture. A secret silver dew of life.
Luna and Mercurius sprinkled the dismembered dragon with her water and restores him back to life.
The Hare or Rabbit in the moon is called 'The Jade Rabbit' in chinese legends and myths. He was the maker of the elixir of immortality. The Aztecs also have legends of the hare in the moon, and various stories from the Americas. Read the link to discover the Aztec legend of the God Quetzalcoatl and the Native American legend about the hare/rabbit and the moon.
I wonder if there is any meaning with the moon being at it's closest in nearly 20 years and this year being the chinese year of the rabbit........umm, something to wonder while I'm creating new pieces of work.
On the 19th March, the moon will appear unusally large in the night sky as it reaches a point of 'lunarperigee'. The moon could appear up to 30% brighter in the sky, especially when it rises on the eastern horizon at sunset. This is called a 'Super Moon'.
It's a beautiful misty March morning. Up at 7.30am. I sent the children off to their village school, fed the chickens, ducks and nearly tripped over 'Bamba' my cat, on the black and white rug in the hallway. Who's silly idea was that to get a rug the same colour as the cat anyway?......Ok, so it was my idea. Bamba just seems to melt into the labyrinth of the shapes in the rug.
Bamba sits by my feet while I make a fresh pot of coffee.He's just waiting for a sip of cream that I always save for him. He doesn't much care for the chickens and ducks when they are freedom planning in the garden. Whenever he wants to go out on one of his adventures, he slinks away around the edges of the veranda into the bushes of rosemary and lavender, then through the ivy and tree trunks into the next garden. Then where he goes for the next few hours, I have absolutely no idea at all! Sneaking up on white hares and black crows no doubt.
Well, I had a very late night painting the collection of fairytale pictures, so this pot of coffee is very much needed to wake my dreamy head. I could so easily go back to a warm cozy bed and carry on with the wanderings of my soul; but painting is also a wandering for the soul for me. Not asleep, but somewhere inbetween. Only a place I can go. Very much a healing place where insights and imagination meet.
'Earth and Moon' by Amanda Clark.
The inspiration for this painting 'Earth and Moon', was from some interesting writings that I read a few weeks ago about the moon at this time is the closesr to the earth in every 18 years or so. This is when the magnetic pull is at it's strongest.
Emotions too must be very strong at this time. The interconnectedness of all the celestral and human life is truly amazing. The insight of 'all is one' is at it's most clear. How this effects the animal and plant kingdoms I'm not sure.
I will be watching how the seeds grow in the next couple of weeks and months to see if there is any marked difference.
It is also said that the 'super moon' could sometimes create earthquakes around this time due to the magnetic pull. New Zealand and Japan has had some devastating earthquakes and tsunami this month . Lets hope there's no more and the moon will lessen it's strength on the earth. This painting tells of the unconditional love we all must try to feel and be in hard times and to send it out to all who need it most.
