The best of times

Monday turned out to be all sun; the news ‘n weather terrorists as usual forecast doom n perpetual clouds and we forgot about the full moon cycles (turns out full moon came round on monday) so slept in till 10 but upon opening our peepers and blinds to blue skies, was out of our place in twenty minutes still brushing my teeth while run jumping down the stairs n to head out to the closest snowcovered woods, in this case. the goodwood forest, where i could open ended wander tripping over fleeting individual moments all day working out what was essential abut each one. Following the sun until it dropped below the treeline by 2:30 and all life was drained out of the snow.

road thru winter –  24″ x 30″   mixed media (watercolcour / acrylic painted directly on absorbent ground on gessoed birch panel)

A friend.who was out her neck of  the woods wrote;

Barb McGuey I was out for a short bit of photography…absolutely freezing! How did you keep warm?

i guess i forgot to be cold; was out wandering for well over 4 hours in the woods / there was no wind today / have a down filled jacket n thermal underwear / brought along the snowshoes but did not need them as there was only 6 inches of snow on the ground where i was; you may think me silly, but i do ‘let go’ as it were,  n let the cold come in, accept it, (as if to) become one with it – ‘not fight it’ n so never really feel it in any inhibiting way / same in the summer = let the heat go thru me and never feel too hot…speaking of silly,  Wendy & i feel that when ever there is a full moon / the gravitational pull of it here (esp in the winter) virtually guarantees us a sunny day – cold but sunny / i just never checked the weather beyond hearing it was going to cloudy so did not get up till 10 this morning n so got a late start when we pulled back the blinds….otherwise i would have been out at 3 am n further north awaiting to greet the dawn……

‘sunstriped-drift-of-daylight-along-a-stretch-of-treelined-trail’-  goodwood forest – 18″ x 24″ Mixed media (watercolour / acrylic painted directly on gessoed birch panel)

Barb McGuey You’re one individual Dude! Understand the very cold bright sun thing though…I like the sunny cold days myself just can’t keep the hands warm when using the camera! I got a few good shots for future reference. I found some past brochures of your work I gathered from your shows(couldn’t afford the originals). I am going to scan them and send them to you…just to prove that I was influenced by your work many years ago before I met you. You may find it interesting…?

thank you very much.   very kind of you to say my work provided influence to your work;

the crash of 08 (?) now am not even sure when it actually started, killed those shows; it was a a nice run though – twice yearly  from 84 to 08  – and the art world, for some is going good, for others, is currently undergoing seismic organizational shifts……

‘clear-winters-day-full-of-shifting-impressions-quietly-random-strips-of-sunlight’ – 18″ x 24″ -mixed media (watercolour / acrylic painted directly on gessoed birch panel