Issue 42, I Know Someone (Mary Oliver)

Swooning over summer flowers, practicing wonder (and an announcement)

The soul should always stand ajar.

-Emily Dickinson

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Hi friends,

Having spent so much of my life in rational mode, I am learning to bust open the doors of my soul. It’s been a journey I’ve been on for a few years now and the wall I used to come up against is now a revolving door - if not quite fully or always ajar.

The reason I started Found Poems was to create the gusts of winds that open that door for me (and hopefully for others) and as I progress I am finding the poetry is everywhere. I am increasingly drawn to the poetry of visual media or of nature because they seem to bypass my rational mind in a way written word doesn’t at the moment.

Lauren Bon, Artists Need to Create on the Same Scale That Society Has the Capacity to Destroy, 2017. © Metabolic Studio LLC.

I am pressing, painting and noticing the flowers still persisting in the oppressive heat of climate change-induced summer for my first collection of paintings. The colours like a riot, not unlike the riots in my own head - colourful and thorny.

My 8 month old nephew is learning to walk, without learning how to crawl first - I empathise. I am impatient with the creative journey I am on and often spiral into imagined catastrophes - the flowers unfailingly bring me back to wonder.

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🎨 Want to sketch with me? 🎨

I’m planning to run a couple of small virtual and IRL low-pressure sketching classes in the next few weeks, if you would like to be notified please let me know below in comments, email or subscribe to the newsletter to be notified!

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In this issue I also want to share…

1. Mary Oliver’s poem - the poet I think of first when I think of finding poetry in nature
2. My own art explorations on capturing the summer flowers
3. Mediums for your own artistic play

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I Know Someone

By Mary Oliver

I know someone who kisses the way
a flower opens, but more rapidly.
Flowers are sweet. They have
short, beatific lives. They offer
much pleasure. There is
nothing in the world that can be said
against them.
Sad, isn’t it, that all they can kiss
is the air.
Yes, yes! We are the lucky ones.

A small kernel of idea is taking shape and I am observing the sleeping patterns of flowers. Here is a Marvel of Peru awakening mid-afternoon, sans judgement.

I am trying to capture the essence of flowers in various ways. Can we still feel the sudden rush of hope when the season has passed? I’m like a squirrel preserving flowers for winter. And I am of course learning how to let them speak softly and loudly at the same time when painting.

Sicilian Bougainvillea pressed in books on India

‘Apolitical Lotus’ Oil on Canvas

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Mediums of play

Ranunculus study, Pastel on Paper

I was gifted a set of Sennellier Pastels last Christmas and I’ve been really enjoying making studies with the pastels. They ‘re highly pigmented and go on like a dream - not to mention portable when all you want to do is go out unencumbered and sketch.

Rose Study, digital painting in Procreate

I’ve also been using this Perfect Oils brush set on Procreate, and I am really loving the satisfaction and ease of playing with digital oil brushes, without the drama of making a big oil painting. There are quite a few brushes, so it takes a bit of trial and error, but I’ve found myself pretty much exclusively using these at the moment.

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As always, you can support this work by sharing this newsletter across your socials or forwarding to that one friend you know needs some inspiration.

If what you’re after is some more inspiration yourself, I recommend The Sample, a newsletter that curates a new type of newsletter to your inbox every time, or check out some books from my curated Bookshop.org list.

x

sana