A gift of an early Spring after the storms of England.

The February storms have passed and these first few days of March have been amazing for the early buds and blossoms of the hedgerow and woods.  While walking the tiny country lanes I find that everywhere has  come alive with the first flowers of Spring. Snowdrops are fading now to create the space for daffodils and celandines and the first of the cherry blossom are in company of singing birds calling their mate home for the evening.
The soft Spring light after the rains has inspired new paintings of nature as it returns to new life.

The fresh greens and softness of creamy pinks against the dark branches of trees.

Beautiful calm, sunny days with whispers of mist over the water.

The Wren King by Amanda Clark (c)

       The First Signs of Spring by Amanda Clark (c).

            A Message of Spring by Amanda Clark (c).

              The First Song by Amanda Clark (c).

Prints of these 'Heart' paintings will be in my etsy shop very soon.

Mersea Island, Swans and crazy beautiful House Boats.

Mersea Island is a wonderful place to be by the sea and it's local to where I live. It is just under an hours drive through the essex countryside and being careful of the
high tides, you can take the road over the estuary with a view of all the wildlife and the salty mud flats. I remember coming here with my grandad when I was a girl and watching the swans fly in home.  I loved the salty breeze and big skies with the quiet sandy beach. Colourful beach huts lined the edges of the creamy coloured, seaweedy sand and the soft sound of the waves lapping the shore. I always filled my pockets with beautiful seashells and driftwood to take home and display on my bedroom dressing table. Later to sketch and draw the memories of our day in the sunshine.

We found the old house boats along the beach and stayed for a while drinking latte coffees  and watching the gulls over head riding the wind and gliding down to the water's edge.

These boats were beautiful, some old and shanty style and others with their own wonderful gardens and wooden pathways.

This one fallen into the sea!

On the way home we could tell it was going to be a stunning sunset.  An hour later, I ran to the top of the hill near to where we live and managed to capture the last of the big red sun and moody light.  The feeling was so peaceful and still with an aura of magic as the great sun went to sleep.

Today has been a wealth of memories of childhood and a heart filled with inspiration.

Winter Fairy Tales in August!

East of the sun and West of the moon.

This month ...still in August I know. I have been reading wintery tales and folklore and one of my favorites has got to be a Norwegian tale, East of the Sun and West of the Moon.  Even the title of this story brings amazing images to my heart and mind.  Some how it reminds me of winter and the cold feel of the North wind.   How did I ever miss this one as a child!  The young girl in this story saves the prince! 
I have seen many illustrations for this fairy tale and I wanted to try to capture the feel of the story  as a painting.  I have the perfect frame for it too. Chunky white wood with an inner frame of icy soft gold.

Shaman Flight.

Ok, so we all know that 'Santa' is a shaman in folklore, right?  Usually the rein deer would fly with him after both eating the mushroom, 'Fly Agaric' . So if this mushroom did give the rein deer visions and altered states of their usual rein deer happenings, maybe they would see themselves as unicorns as well as the magical ability to fly! Anything is possible. In any case, shamans must know about the unicorn and all matter of magical, mythical creatures so who knows where the rein deer must have taken him!

Winter's Dream.

The inspiration for this painting is from the fairy tale of the 'Ice Queen'. Another tale I seem to have missed as a child but seem to remember images somewhere down the years.  Winter is a time to go inward to a creative and meditive space of which I'm really looking forward to.  This Summer has been so busy with all the running around and crazy fun.  Autumn isn't far away. It will soon be time to slow down and dream those far away dreams.

Celtic Festivals

We are into August already and the berries and fruit trees are ripening early this year. Soon I'll be getting ready to gather as many empty glass jars as I can for jams and pickles to last for the 4 or 6 months ahead.  Already there are black currants, plums, crab apples, tay berries and in a couple of weeks the elderberries.  Last year we make hedgerow jelly with rosehips, haw berries and black berries.  Pear and cider apple chutney, and a few others that I can't remember the wonderful things we put in. The veg garden is growing in abundance and all around us countryside is bursting with wild food for foraging.
Sitting in the garden drinking mint and lemon balm tea from the wild knot of herbs, I wonder what adventures our family blackbirds have had this summer. Always meeting me at dawn with their song and never far away during the day. Their beautiful singing balancing the energies of the new day.

Early last Spring I started painting the Celtic Festivals and have finally finished all 8. I love the colours of the seasons here in the UK. The warm bronze and rusts, golds and earthy browns of Samhain to the gentle yellows, greens and violets of Ostara.  I will soon have all of these ready for prints and I'll be making card sets for the 'Wheel of the Year'.

Inspirations and illustrations

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.

Earth and Moon.

On the 19th March, the moon will appear unusally large in the night sky as it reaches a point of 'lunar perigee'. 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 try to plant seeds at the right time of the luna cycle.   http://www.gardeningbythemoon.com/lunarfacts.html.

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.