Finding My Muse In A Secret Garden

For those who don't already know, the talented Alisa Burke launched a free online class last week called Finding Your Muse. It is about learning to discover inspiration in what surrounds you every single day. It's about creating and developing your own style; reflecting your life in your work. It's about never having to worry about running out of ideas. It's about learning to open your eyes to patterns, colours and textures. It's a wonderful read, and inspiring on it's own. 

Bright and early on Saturday morning, with Alisa's words still fresh in my mind, I took my camera to the beach. Sadly I hadn't checked the tide forecast and it was super ridiculous high tide- not a speck of sand to be seen. Determined not to be defeated, I remembered a place I used to go that I called my Secret Garden. It is a strange little track not far from the beach that's nestled between two rows of houses. I say it's strange because it feels a bit like your trespassing since you're only three feet away from someone's back yard on either side of the path. But it is always peaceful, with nothing but the sound of birds talking and leaves rustling

The last picture of the lavender sparked a desire to paint pretty lilac stems- so that's what I did as soon as I got home. I re-used a canvas with an unfinished and lifeless painting and set out to make something organic and magical. I simply found shades of purple I liked in my paint drawer, began mixing and let the brush do the rest. I had no pre-conceived notion of how this was going to turn out, only that I wanted to use lavender as my main subject and purples. Here is what I have so far-

This piece is still unfinished and I'm really excited to see where it heads. I will have it finished for the Japanese Art Festival at the end of this month, where I will be exhibiting a small selection of my art. More about that soon :)

Alisa's class is so great for re-focusing on what is real and what inspires you. From this I have made a conscious decision to look that little bit harder each day to see if there is something fantastic hiding amongst the mundane that will cause a surge of inspiration and bring to life a new piece of art.

Rhiannon xxoxx