Twilight Flight

Escaping the Twilight Zone

Here in Britain we've been experiencing one of the wettest winters in 100 years. Winter had seemed to be never ending - the dark days, even darker nights, chilly temperatures and above all rain, rain, rain and more rain. We have been deluged. With the rain came overcast and continuous days of greyness with hardly a spark of sunshine breaking through. It's hard to get through winter that have been as long this one. It made me think of struggle. More immediately, those struggling with floods and its after-effects and the heartache it causes or those struggling with other internal emotions that through their own darkness often can't see the light. Sometimes, I myself, feel like I'm living in twilight - never quite reaching the joy that I believe should be in my life. But I do try and my faith pulls me along and constantly my heart is drawn to God's light.

© 2014 Angela Cutler. Twilight Flight. Pencil, oil pastel on paper.

I live just outside London, on the edge of the countryside and one dark night driving along a country lane bordered by fields I saw a ghostly waft of white feathers silently flit across the road infront of me and then to land as light as a dancer on a fence post. It was a barn owl. As quickly as she had flitted across the road, I had sped past, but the image and the beauty, once again. was ingrained on my mind...and in my heart. Even if it was only seconds - it was a moment of sheer beauty and delight.

On Wings Like Eagles

When I started this blog early last year I had intended to update it regularly with many of the paintings and drawings I had started to create. However, as is usual other things in life seemed to divert my attention, but I promise to update far more regulary from now on. For those who like some background, I had spent the last 20 years working in a stressful professional environment as a graphic designer and internet administrator with a long and tiring commute in all weather on public transport. All my energy seemed to be spent focussing and then recovering from my daily grind and although I tried not to, health issues started to compromise my life and I came to a realisation that something had to give. At one point, I thought it was me...I had come to the end of my physical tether. I have always been a very independent woman brought up on the good old protestant work ethic, but after much soul searching I decided to quit my career, downsize and change my life. I am very fortunate to have a very supportive husband who for years could see my creative spark which for me had been lost through administrative tasks, reports, budgets, corporate graphics and deadlines. He encouraged me to take this sabbatical and re-ignite the spark!

On Wings Like Eagles © Angela Cutler

I didn't know at that point almost 2 years ago now, if I still could draw or paint or even if I have the creative vision or enthusiasm to do it having not done very much at all in the interim. And in actual fact, I found the 'idea' of starting quite daunting...what if I failed? There was only one thing to do and that was to try. I started out not even knowing what materials to use...paint and if so what type, pastels, pencil, large, small. I didn't know. So I just started off with what I had in the house - pencils, pastels and some craft paint. I started to find pleasure in the process without worrying about what the end result would be. I was encouraged to see some lovely abstract art works appear which I found very satisfying as I felt they were expressing a little bit of my private feelings. I will post some of these early faltering steps soon.

Christmas Time is Hare Again!

I apologise for the terrible pun, but I'm feeling in a Christmassy mood and have painted a few little canvas's. My brother gave me a pack of tiny A6 canvas boards for my birthday earlier this year - and at first I didn't quite know what to do with them...A6 is really, very, tiny! My preferred medium is acrylic - it just so happened that I had bought quite a lot of it and oil pastels, and both don't really translate to...tiny! So I kept the canvas's for a time when inspiration struck.

Hare running in the snow - December 2013. Acrylic paint on A6 canvas board

Drawing on the Magnificient

I started my blog earlier this year with the intention of regular entries showcasing some of my artworks with some personal musings - however, I do realise there's been somewhat of an hiatus. In early spring, a friend asked whether I could illustrate a children's book that she had written - she explained her intention with the book, and naively, having never illustrated a book before, I said yes. Without previous experience, both of us really didn't understand the magnitude of the undertaking at the time - literally it has taken us all summer...and autumn!

Magnificent Me, Magnificent You - The Grand Canyon

A Children's Activity book. Front Cover.

Click on the images for larger versions.

She initially saw my drawings/paintings and liked the way I worked and felt we would make a great team for her ideas. I work from the heart and explore love and light, and her ethos is to support children both physically and spiritually. She focuses on well-being through yoga - not just bendy stretches, but healthy mind, body and spirit. I always feel that any focus on health through any tradition has to be good thing, but because of my beliefs, we agreed that there would not be a religious aspect to what we did.

Illustration for The Grand Canyon children's book

I instantly loved her book's storyline, ethos and idea. The story focus's on twins Crystal and Leo who have a wishing mirror that transports them to a new place and follows their journey of discovery, not only of themselves, but of the world around them.  They learn about spiritual traditions from different cultures and discover how to bring these practices into their everyday lives.

Artists, Exhibitions and Inspirations

So, yes, I realise that there's been a bit of a hiatus between my last entry and this. So I best get on with things then...

I've been checking out other artists and open exhibitions within the locale as I'm interested to see the type of work that's out there and how my art compares. Today I visited the Herts Visual Arts (HVA) Summer Exhibition which is held in Harpenden, a very pleasant leafy Hertfordshire town in England, UK. So not only did I have the opportunity to peruse art and chat to artists - I also enjoyed lovely afternoon which absolutely required a visit to one of the charming pubs in the area!

Of Tides and Currents

The weather in England is so changeable, that's why us Brits are forever discussing the weather as a topic of conversation - it becomes part of who we are - forever ingrained in our cells. I visited Pembrokeshire in Wales, UK recently, and true to form the weather changed day to day and unfortunately for me, not for the better.

The Wave © Angela Cutler 2012

Pembrokeshire is a lovely part of Wales - mostly quite rural with small towns and some picture postcard seaside towns like Tenby. However, the draw for me is St. David's on the farthest south-western point jutting out from the peninsula. St. David's, the place, is so called due one of the holiest men of Wales and their patron saint, born at about 500AD. An historic cathedral was built in his name and in its time was one of the most important pilgrimage sites in Christendom. That all has past, but the cathedral still stands and attracts a host of tourists from around the world. A little further out, off the beaten track, if you care to explore is the supposed spot that he was born and raised - a small chapel sits here named after David's mother, St. Non, as well as a sacred spring whose water's are said to heal the sick.

St. David's, Pembrokeshire © Tony Crook

Even after all the centuries have passed, here you still feel the past pushing against the present; fervent Christianity has waned here, belief in saints and healing water are now no more than curiosities. However, the area is so steeped in its history that you can still feel this exude from the granite it sits on. When I visited, the weather closed in, the sky turned grey, a stern breeze blew and it rained and rained. Far from putting a dampener on my holiday the weather somehow lent an ethereal feel to the place - the light was not just grey, there was a shifting of subtle hues which gave rise to a mood that almost made you feel time could shift easily and magically from the present to the past. There was nothing else to do with my time here except explore and when the weather further closed in, sit quietly and allow the atmosphere to soak in. It's little wonder this area draws so many artists to live in or paint the place. As I sat on the headland being somewhat battered by the weather, I could not help but feel imbued with the history and rugged beauty surrounding me.

A Walk on the Wild Side

I am the flame. © Angela Cutler 2013

I have always had a connection with nature. As a kid I would be fascinated by whatever I could find in my garden - what we as adults find ordinary, was extraordinary to me then. I even remember as a toddler sitting watching ants industriously scurry by, I'd watch spiders spin webs and wrap up flies, I'd try and find caterpillars, so that I could put them in a jam jar and watch them turn into hard, crusty crysalis's; then transform into butterflies...mostly 'cabbage whites' as I recall. I was just amazed by the enormous variety of life and lifeforms, of colour, of everything living. I have two older brothers who brought home a plethora of unusual pets - grass snakes, toads, lizards, stick insects. As I grew older, I'd watch and feed the garden birds and then later, we did have some more usual pets - a goldfish from a fair, a mouse saved from a zoological supplies shop, gerbils and fancy rats; we never had a dog or cat. I would also watch all the David Attenborough nature programmes on TV, read natural history books too and my favorite place to visit was the zoo - I got to be pretty knowledgeable about the flora and fauna around me. Much later, I almost read Ecology at University rather than Art. Almost.