25012025~ness

Carrying On The CarryOn.

Jan 25, 2025

January Greetings to you who reads, looks at, partakes of, that which I bring, via our screens. Here We Are!

Thank you, + Welcome, to new people who took an active interest during my Lull, and to those of you who kindly hung on in there, and stayed subscribed, through my Quiet Months.

As this is a pic-rich sendout, it may be too long to be viewed entirely in your email. Please click through to Substack to ensure you’re seeing all that I’m offering here.

Hibernation continues, naturally, overhere. The Sea of Teddy Fleece, + a sprinkling of Cashmere, is still required swaddling, and the new-this-Winter heater continues to delight me with the easy warmth it brings.
I have been less grumpy-through-coldness this Winter than any I recall, you may be glad to know.

The daily template of only-three-hours-sitting-out-in-wheelchair-on-The-Sore continues, and will do for the forseeable.
As the second year of this way of things flows on in, I feel easier, despite the unease abroad in the Air, and the overall awfulness of too much I have read about, out in The World.

In the slightly bigger picture, I've a lot to be glad for, a lot to enjoy, to appreciate.
And it feels like my responsibility to contribute such precious morcels into The Whole, when possible, now.
I've seen many postings conveying this sense recently.
As a shaman I worked with said: "We gots to work on the Critical Mass."

In terms of being more settled into my most recent restrictions, I'm easier.
This time last year I didn't know how it was all going to go, as we never do - but in terms of what I am working with, now, I am more aligned.
Metaphorical sleeves rolled up, along with a comfier let-go acceptance of how it is.

Artistry, as always, is key, for me, in being able to feel good amidst it all. And now, a year into 'this-is-it-for-now' time-constraints, I am getting more expert at squeezing good juice from shorter minutes than I would otherwise have chosen.
The rolling accumulation effect, lots of nibbles of activity adding up to big feasting, after a while; I can trust this increasingly, as I go along.

Good creativity flow is happening within the Quiet overhere.

Which is what brings me to the screen now, to share some of the doings, before that becomes an overwhelming task.

I hope you'll enjoy to see the pics ~ which I had yet to take, as I wrote, but which in due course, all being well enough, are before your very eyes.

Technical Note: I believe all these smaller gallery pics will click open to view larger, sometimes rectangular, pics. All my pics are best seen on your largest screen.

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Concertina Book was a pre-Xmas-till-New-Year nibble-project.

I loved working in this format, and intend to try different sizes.

I may put more marks into it, but it could be that it's fine-as-is, a little simple packet from that extra-lovely extra-Quiet inbetweentimes window.

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And, this week, a Proper Splashing appeared - on 8"/20cm square, done with a bit more time than new-usual, via an artistry-Zoom-hour with a pal, and then another shorter session or two, to tweak it to a satisfying completion.

I got surprises as I went, and that's always a delight.

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Red was Allowed In, and brought Joy, again this Winter, after perhaps decades of it being outwith my comfortable resonance.

That opened the door to further surprising colour choices in a watercolour order which I made last night - something freshwild stirring within the Mysterious-Sap zones.

I think the palette-on-the-way may reflect creating Harmony from Dischord - I glimpsed that in the basket-thumbnails. We'll see, when the paints show up, and I get to it.
It's enlivening to have Things to look forward to ~ another privilege, not a given for all Humans here with us now.

Other reportage pics here will be of colour-geekery - paint testing into a simple colour-sample book.

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And my finest recent invention - magnetic-taped paint-pans in tins. A setup I've long aspired to, brought pleasingly in to land.
The Perfect Tin, at last, and the just-right magnetic tape gives the most satisfying of sturdy-yet-bendy palette options. A Beauty-Full Triumph!