So here’s the other mouse – this is a summer scene and the wee mouse is tucked in among the daisies. Another fun one to paint with pops of mauves and pale yellows in the daisy petals …and what a cute little face.
(C) 2023 Hilary Farmer
These current times have me experimenting more with my art for some reason. Anyway, this is painted in acrylic which I haven’t done much with for a few years. It felt more playful and less “pressure-y” which was what I needed! And it turned out to be playful too – no surprises there! Acrylic dries so fast that if you decide a colour or shape isn’t working, you can paint over it almost right away. So different from both oils and watercolour.
Tom found inspiration for a very dynamic poem here! He adds some background information in case you’re wondering – like I did – what the heck that word means:
Thylakoids–which sound like they should be some kind of creature on
Edgar Rice Borough’s “Barsoom” (Mars)–are the structure within
chloroplasts where the light-dependent reactions that almost all life on
Earth ultimately depends on take place.
Storms of summer, raging light
crashing down as photic waves
sweep the beaches of the night
and shift dark beasts within their caves:
the sleeping thylakoids are roused
by the light in which they’re doused.
They ride the surges, open wide,
absorb the roaring solar tide
and feel some energy within
as bonds are broken and remade
within this bright and sunny glade,
a garden without sin
where simple surfaces abound
but deep beneath the truth is found.
image (c) 2020 Hilary Farmer
poem (c) 2020 TJ Radcliffe
Not sure why but today was a daisy day! They just make you smile, don’t they? Well me anyway! The paint was dancing on my brush …and so the daisies were dancing too.
And the daisies are dancing in Tom’s joyful poem!
Daisies dancing in the spring
conjuring the summertime
around the fields they leap and fling
themselves against the walls of rhyme
until their song of summer breaks
into a wild ecstatic shake
of petals drawing magic near
from out the sky so blue and clear
into long twilight where there dwells
more beauty than the world can hold
still the dance so long and bold
carries on until the knell
of day at last brings summer sleep
and rest before tomorrow’s leaps.
image (c) 2018 Hilary Farmer
poem (c) 2018 TJ Radcliffe
It has been some time since I posted a mandala! This one was actually started back in January and after a long pause, I finished it this week. It’s a bit early to be craving summer but flowers and such are always a pleasure to draw and I tend to go with whatever evolves out of my meditative mandala creation process. Hopefully looking at it will bring summer to your heart, if not your surroundings!
Here is Tom’s wonderful, playful poem just written for this mandala!
Behold soft pennants brightly waving
above the boldly blooming flowers
awakening Creations’s cravings
beneath a passing summer shower
that waters daisies in the fields
whose petals form a soft white shield
between dry Earth and open sky
where an errant dragon flies
to meet a knight more brave than wise.
All the field’s abuzz with life
awaiting Knight v. Dragon strife
whereby cold truth will conquer lies.
Dry paper blossoms catch the breeze
The dragon glides above the trees.
image (c) 2018 Hilary Farmer
poem (c) 2018 TJ Radcliffe
Water colour has transformed the black and white mandala. There are so many ways this could be done that sometimes it is hard to choose but this time, the colour palette and rendering of the single large flower behind the drawing was in my mind from the beginning …a carefree feeling of summer meadows.
In colour, it is much easier to see the dainty hoverflies. While mimicking the appearance of bees for self-protection, they are stingless. To give an idea of scale, the overall mandala is 8″ in diameter so the yellow centre with all the intricate details is less than 3″ across and the hoverfly is about 1/4″ long which is about full scale – although they do vary in size by species.
Here is Tom’s new sonnet for the colour version. Wonderful!
find the flower soft within the flower
rising moon behind the open fields
where the nightingale sings o’re the bower
of his lover, dreaming as she yields
to seductive songs of other climes:
promises of joy complete, fulfilled
by the long result of flowing time
down the river, through the hollow hills
where ancient magics deep within the Earth
stir, arise from endless eon’s sleep,
go whispering along the banks in mirth
a spell is spoke, a promise made to keep
Beneath the moon two lovers eyes alight
Upon each other, daisies in the night
image (c) 2017 Hilary Farmer
poem (c) 2017 TJ Radcliffe
Back to full on summer (well the last gasp of summer anyway) with daisies! They are such a happy flower to my mind. I started this one with a Celtic love knot in the centre and worked my way from more abstract in the middle to more naturalistic at the edges. I love to add some fauna to these mandalas but was wondering what different insect to choose this time. Can you find them? There are two tiny hover flies – or flower flies – lurking in the petals. Cute little pollinators! They will show up more clearly once the mandala has been painted. There’s one in the detail below.
Tom has written a wonderful new sonnet for this one. 🙂 He often sees quite different things than I do in these mandalas so it is exciting to see his poem that accompanies, seeming just right, without mirroring exactly.
Radiating energy abounds
from out the core so dense and dark and deep
sinusoidal synergies surround
oscillations making quantum leaps
from stem to stamen, fecund in the sun
anthers fat with lakhs of silent seed
hieroglyphic human hearts are one
while triple-stems lift blossoms high to feed
the insects buzzing lazy through the air
searching out sweet nectar to devour
spreading pollen here and also there
casually ensuring all the flowers
will not be lost too soon in time’s great well
but in the fields the daisies still will dwell.
image (c) 2017 Hilary Farmer
poem (c) 2017 TJ Radcliffe
Green Tea Doodles 