Moments & Conversations from our Bloomz Art Show
Have you ever had moments where you’ve been completely stopped in your tracks by something? Maybe it’s a piece of music, or a beautifully designed building, a car, or a piece of art?
This has happened to me a few times over the years, pieces of music, pieces of art, there’s just something about them that just stops me in my tracks and mesmerises me.
Some great conversations around this came up last weekend during our online art show, so I thought I’d share a few of them here with you…
Many years ago, one Sunday afternoon I was at home with the kids, the tv was on in the background, and ‘Songs of Praise’ came on, a hymn started, and I had to stop, it touched me at a deep soul level, and I was struck by the feeling that came over me as I stood and watched and listened to all the people in the cathedral sing their hearts out to that tune. It was ‘Make me a Channel of your Peace’ I don’t think I’d ever heard it before that moment, but it has been a firm favourite ever since, and I still find myself humming along to it every once in a while, normally when things start getting a bit frantic!
It was that same feeling I got, with some old paintings we had at home, tucked away in a cupboard, depicting scenes from a Shakespeare play, the swathes of clothes, fabrics falling… HOW can a few brush strokes create such effects?!
William Hogarth’s ‘Painter and his Pug’ at Tate Britain, whilst not my usual style of painting I’d expect to be transfixed by, I was captivated by his palette and ‘The Line of Beauty and Grace” alongside more Shakespeare books (interestingly!) again, it was one of those moments that I was transfixed by…
So too, when I first saw an encaustic wax painting, again, it stopped me in my tracks, it was more than just painting…. there was something deeper going on…
I aim to get this deep feeling across in my own paintings…
I’ve discovered, when I ‘try’ to paint a piece from my head, it rarely goes the way I want it to… however, when I lean in, and ‘allow’ the painting to pour through me, and fall out onto the board, or paper, that’s when the magic happens….
That’s when people come to me, and say things like… ‘It just spoke to me…’ or ‘‘Wow! I can literally ‘feel’ that piece… does that sound strange…?’ No… it doesn’t sound strange at all…! To me, this is the language of colour and paint, and I totally get it… Not all understand it, and that’s okay, but when a painting (or piece of music, or a building, or a car, or whatever it is for you….) brings you goosebumps, a wave of colour, joy, emotion, and stops you in your tracks… stop and listen, enjoy that moment… and let it ‘speak’ to you….
These were some of the conversations that came up during our Bloomz Art Show at the weekend, if you visited, a huge Thank You for helping make our show such a success… it was our best to date!
If you missed it, you can see my work and showreel by clicking the link below… but of course, the best conversations happen, as you can see above, when you show up live…! (Join my newsletter, and follow me on social medias to make sure you don’t miss out on future events)
See my work and show summary here.
I hope you enjoy it, and do let me know, have you had moments, where something just stopped you in your tracks? Was it a piece of art? Music? Something else? I’d love to know…!
Until next time…
PS. If you had encaustic moments, like me, and you’re craving for help and guidance, as I was! Check out my online courses here, if I could have had a resource like this ten years ago, I would have jumped at it, it’s why I’ve created it, to help share the joy and beauty of encaustic as far as possible. xx
