Compliments, kindness and colour

Posted on November 1, 2011 by

Dearest, most wonderful Bold Soul,

I hope this finds you healthy of mind, body, spirit and heart.
This week I am going to offer quite a few links. I’m realising that it’s the connecting thing that’s important :)

Recently I had 2 reminders of an old-fashioned art: the art of giving a compliment.
In the physical world, two girls in my street were singing and dancing their hearts out on a driveway near me while I was outside weeding the front garden. They shouted out “Are we any good?” and I said they had beautiful voices. They came a bit closer, and complimented my jacket, and my garden (which to my eye was thoroughly interspersed with grasses ‘going to seed’) and proceeded to tell me about singing and school and ‘make friends’ with me. It was just what I needed as a counterpoint to previous events of the day! 8- and 9-year-olds just know how to make friends. It doesn’t have to be a skill left behind in our childhood – let’s do it too!
I love Kyeli’s post about the simple art of the compliment on Kind Over Matter, too, a great reminder story.
By the way, did you know my downloadable bookmarks were in Amanda’s Kind over Matter Friday Lovelies List this week? Check out all the other lovelies, too, we’re in the most extraordinary company.

Speaking of Lovelies, I ordered some cute earrings from Gwynnie B a few weeks ago. They arrived on Friday wrapped like this (how divine!):

From the be-ribboned box I unpacked the earrings.

Aren’t they nice? Metal flowers, and purple, sparkly droppy thingies – I adore them! I converted them over to clip ons as I don’t have holes in my ears so now I can wear them happily.

I have a preview of 3 new paintings I’ve finished if you want to see, the littlest one is the nasturtium one above. On Friday they go to get framed ready for the Goodwood Christmas Market. Check them out at my new First Look page – which will, like some kind of wizarding page, be visible only sometimes (in this case, until Friday morning)!
[Later: That page now disappeared so I've taken off the link!]

What is it about these simple, easily grown flowers that’s so delightful? Me, I love the distinct smell, the range of bright, clear, warm colours and the sheer enthusiastic abundance of their growth.
What’s your favourite flower? What do you love about them? Let us know in the comments section below, or do you think I’m over-thinking it?! Have a chat about what you enjoy about flowers, or about anything else that speaks to you from this post :D

By the way, it seems that writing a post about re-charging your batteries doesn’t immunize you against forgetting to do so yourself! Oh dear, I did it again! In gentleness towards myself, it is a new bike, and a new concept to have to ‘charge your vehicle’. However, I do need to make the recharging more of a regular awareness! Heavy bike with no battery boost is not fun, specially when you’re also beating yourself up about the forgetting all the way back home (note to self: release old habit of telling myself off!)

You and me both need to remember to Take Care of Ourselves! We are precious and unique!
Have a lovely week,
Much love,
Meg x o

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On goodness and colour

Posted on October 25, 2011 by

Dear big-hearted bold souls :)

Hope this finds you happy and well, and that lovely balance of busy when you feel you’re accomplishing things, yet not getting unduly stressed about it and still have energy for yourself!

Right now someone close to me is has had their mental health disrupted. We’re not out of the woods enough to wrap words around it and talk about it here, yet it’s inspired a re-visiting of why I do what I do, both as part of ongoing self-observation and also with this new found landscape that includes mental illness. Suffice to say for now, that I am finding myself more committed than ever to my belief in the goodness and nurturing power of colour, beauty and kindness.

Personally, I find the joy of vibrant colour is one that bypasses the judgment of thoughts and goes straight to my core. You might be of that nature too, bold soul :)

The lady from the lino print Thriving is happily grateful for the abundance she finds both within and surrounding herself :) Incidentally, once the lino print was printed and painted I decided “I like that grateful girl’s clothing” – hence the tshirt design!

That’s me last summer – in the shirt (it’s back to front as it’s a mirror photo) – holding one of the satsuma plums from the tree that inspired the lino print!
I guess what I am getting at with all of this gathering of threads and weaving around is this series of reminders – for myself as much as anyone else!

  1. Be happy
  2. Do what makes you happy
  3. Wear what makes you happy (colourful garments will most likely be involved)
  4. Art (the photograph) imitates life (me in the tshirt) imitates art (the lino print) inspired by life (the abundance and gratitude of summer) … and around it goes, in one big happy colourful circle (ideally)
  5. A bit of gratitude goes a long way
  6. Recognise abundance and beauty in little things!
  7. Your mental health is precious and needs to be taken care of. Nurture it like a garden that needs gentle tending, so it may bloom.
  8. Seeing beautiful colour can be a great centre-er
  9. Surround yourself with people and things that make you happy

This feels like a long post and I’ve wandered a bit. Hopefully it all intertwines! This week several other blog writers tell this too, how their art/work/field has meaning for and has supported them; I also find Prem Rawat’s Words of Peace message to be very grounding.

Let me know in the comments section if you’ve found strength or solace from your art, music or a terrific teacher; and if you’ve blogged about it leave us a link so we can read it too – I’d love to hear from you, dear one :)

Be in your day, take heart, and thrive!
Much love,
Meg x o

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Live Bold List 24: 6 Things I learned about re-charging my batteries by riding my electric bike

Posted on October 18, 2011 by

Hello dear one :)
Thank you for being here. Your presence is so precious.

The weather is warming up here in the Southern Hemisphere – time to transition to using the car less and the bike(s) more! Last week I misjudged the battery longevity on my new electric bike and had to pedal the solid red frame up a hill, to meet my friend. At the point of battery fizzlement I also made the decision to have the train assist me to get most of the way back home afterwards!

Here are some of the things I pondered while I pedalled the rather-heavy-when-the-battery-isn’t-helping beast along:

Live Bold List 24: 6 Things I learned about re-charging my batteries by riding my electric bike

  1. You are totally allowed to take the smoother, less busy path. You can choose which will be easier for you this day :)
  2. You ARE still moving, even though the meter is no longer showing you your speed (because it, too, is powered by the battery!) Keep going steadily, even if it feels a bit restricted! Left, right. Repeat.
  3. If you start your day with your battery charged to only 30%, it drops surprisingly quickly to zero.
  4. You might need to allow extra time after stopping at the lights to get up momentum.
  5. You can change gears! Pushing the pedals is a lot harder without the luxury and support of battery help – even the battery itself is weighing you down! It’s permitted to change to an easier gear and pedal at a sustainable level.
  6. Respect and recharge your battery. When you get back home, plug it in to a sunny day (solar powered power point during daylight) and re-charge ready for your next adventure :) Then have a good dinner and an early night!

This was a fascinating way to learn something so nurturing about life, myself, *recharging* and my new bike (which is really my car).
How do you recharge your batteries? Let me know in the comments section below!

Oh, did I mention:
Recharge your batteries,
recharge your batteries,
recharge your batteries.

Much love,
Meg x o

 

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Market and Nutmeg

Posted on October 11, 2011 by

Hello beloved kindred spirit <3

Hoping you are well and content. If things are other than you might judge ‘perfect’, I am sure their educational purpose will become clear in the fullness of time! I myself am winning a long fight with some kind of cold and have random things happening in my world, but trusting that all will make sense in due course.

Hello new friends from the Port Festival Artists Market. Thanks for coming to check out my site – welcome! It was wonderful to meet you over the weekend. My gorgeous friends/helpers and I had fun at the stall sharing vibrant art, including giving away 138 free art bookmarks! Civilised weather made things easy for stall holders, organisers and visitors alike, and live music added to the atmosphere.

I think I look pretty tired in the photo – ‘cos I was tired and also fighting the lurgy. If you are wondering about my garb, on the Saturday (above) I wore the Luka Cat of Light Tshirt and on the Sunday I wore Rainbow Lady. My helpers chose Floraline, 3 Bold Butterflies and Stripey Peace. The tshirts are such fun to wear, comfy and garner lots of comments (plug, plug :D)!

Would you like to see one of my latest greeting card pictures (if you were at the market you may recognise her)?

Nutmeg the Magic Cat

Here is the poem which inspired Nutmeg to be painted. See how you can put commas and fullstops (periods) in lots of different places in it? Have a go:

I like Nutmeg very much he is a cat with a tail of magic and happiness is all Nutmeg likes me

If you are inspired, try making a SentencePoem with lots of possible pause spots of your own. I’d love to read them in the comments section.

By the way, Nutmeg is now available as a greeting card (top row, right)!

See you in the comments section below or on Facebook!
Much love,
Meg x o

 

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Cat Calendar proclamation

Posted on September 22, 2011 by

Hello Dearhearts!
*Hugs* and Meow!
I’m bursting to announce this…
Look! Oh look! I made you a Cat Calendar!
12 months of wholesome catty art goodness, just for you. The cover looks like this:
If your soul is nourished by vivid colours and/or Cat Art (I guess that’s why you’re here ;P) then this is for you! Having this on your wall guarantees a whole year of fresh Tangerine Meg colour blooming right there on your wall, a new one each month. You need only look over and be uplifted by (tangerine) zesty colour and visual images of cat contentedness and wisdom.
I took a lot longer than I was imagining to make this collection – I wanted to make sure all the artworks were colourful and strong with their own personality. Like you, lovely bold soul!

Bold Souls who’ve had a sneak peek have already commented:

“I love this bold cat calendar. Every month is a treat.”

and:

“My Xmas list has just become a lot easier! Wonderful site!”

[Do those colours remind you of having your eyes checked? And then choosing pretty new glasses? Oops, sorry, what was I talking about?...] Oh yes…

It’s pretty easy to order the cat calendars if you’re familiar with ordering things online. When you click on the picture or (this>) text link to the Cat Calendar, you go to a third party site – the ‘print on demand’ company I like: Red Bubble. There you can look at the pictures for each month and choose which month the calendar begins on.

I’ll tell you up front, bold soul, the postage cost seems high at first – it was $13 within Australia the last time I checked (which was earlier this afternoon). However, I’ve ordered calendars from Red Bubble for myself to have a test run, and am well gladdened with not only the good design, excellent print and lovely thick paper of the calendar but also the robustness of the packaging materials they use. They’re packed sturdily and are super secure. You will receive the calendar in perfect condition.

Orders are direct from Red Bubble and I don’t see your address or payment details at all. If you’d also like to keep in contact with me, it very easy with RSS, eNewsletter or Facebook – click on those text links or see the right ‘sidebar’. I am also now on Twitter, sometimes :)

By the way, Bold Souls of Adelaide, I am going to be doing a stall at the Port Market on October 8 and 9. So I recommend you sign up for my eNewsletter asap, as I’m busily plotting and scheming what kind of extra fun surprises I can give you if you come there!
Bold Soul eNews subscribers, international, will not miss out: I will have online-accessible goodness for you too!

Let me know what you think of the new cat calendar, either in the comments section below or on my Tangerine Meg Visual Artist Facebook page. You can even email me if that’s easy for you. I do appreciate you taking the time to send me your thoughts, bold soul.

Love you heaps, thanks for being here,
*hugs*
Meg x o

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After the Spring rainstorm

Posted on September 13, 2011 by

Hello warmhearted bold soul,
I hope this finds you well &/or healing and happy &/or deciding how to change things for the better.

I am back from a 10-day change of scenery, and will show you photos when they’ve been extracted from my camera. For today, I offer for your enjoyment a feline blast from the “vault”.Sometimes the watercolour paints run together in an almost precisely imprecisely cat-fur kind of way, a way you can neither plan nor draw, and certainly that would be a challenge to carve into lino. I think this is one of those times.
Can I ask you a favour? If you see one of these “vault treasures” that you think would make a particularly good greeting card, could you let me know? I think that single pear (from last post) could be a encouraging image for solo parents – did you think that too?

Wishing you green and purple magic sparkles. Or sparkling magicals :)
Much love,
Tangerine Meg x o

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The story of a single pear

Posted on September 5, 2011 by

Hello petal! Mwah! :)
I hope you are going tremendously well, and having a brilliant day and week!

I have a picture post for you today, dearly beloveds, a blast from the vault (and when I say vault I mean large cardboard folder) that I was excited to rediscover.

The story goes like this: The single pear alludes to my solo parenting situation at the time, and the fabric was that of one of my favourite maternity dresses (I sewed it myself from a burda pattern magazine)! You can see a little bit of a clothes iron (I ironed?) in the background and a little of its cord, strangley umbilicus-like. It brings back recollections of my boys’ very young years - except the the ironing which I have blotted out! I like the colour scheme that the fabric suggested, it’s not as rainbowy as my latest stuff, but still bold. This picture is a result of making a moment (or several non-consecutive moments most likely) to draw and paint amidst all the Things That Needed To Be Done.
It’s been interesting finding quite a few of my previous paintings, would you like to see a few of the others?

Take care, beautiful bold soul :)
Lots of love,
Meg x o

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Bold new colourful artwork, greeting cards and even hair

Posted on September 2, 2011 by

Dear beloved kindred spirit!
I hope you are shiningly well and frolicking in both joy and abundance :)

I am bursting to introduce this new lino print to you! Can you imagine the colours zinging right off the paper and into your face? Pixels are a bit different but I hope you get an idea -I SO wish I could show it to you in real life, Lovely One!

Content is a study in settling in, right into the warm brightness of your surrounds. Orange Cat is an expert in the art of arranging himself - in this case on the patchwork blanket that my husband’s now 94-year-old Nanna knitted for him long before we met! Take up Orange Cat’s message of luxuriation and contentedness, and drink in the vibrancy  :)  I would love you to see and hold and gain colour-soul-liftment from Content. If you are interested in a rather unique (there are and only ever will be 9 in this edition of handpainted prints) artwork, make your way (via one click) to the  Cat Art Emporium :) Email me if you want to arrange part payments, dearheart!

And, there’s more: These are the 4 newest greeting card pictures I have to offer you, bold soul. Have you a loved one’s birthday coming soon? Or maybe you need to top up your greeting card stash? :) These are available now from the Greeting Card page. [Thank you so much Birdy for letting me know that a vital element was missing - the "View Cart" button! If you've previously tried to buy greeting cards or other art and it didn't quite work, have another try and let me know how it goes! I am always super appreciative of feedback that allows me to make things work better! *Hugs Birdy*]

While I am showing you new things, wanna see my new hairdo? In theory I am ‘growing my hair’ but it’d been feeling a bit dry lately (from months of having an underactive thyroid I think – long story) and it was time for a change! As a bonus I now have a hardly ‘hair like’ hair colour that she rinsed through too (the bright smudge on my ear will wash off!) Just look at the crazy volumes of Spring blossom in the background!

Another consideration with the haircut is that now my energy is returning I intend to return to circus training next term (I’d given myself a break to take care of my health). If you’re doing acrobatics (and I intend to be), it’s quite a comfort factor to know your shoulders are free of your hair when people are going to stand on them.

I’d love to hear juicy details of your greeting card stash in the comments section, below :) What you’ve got there, how much you love surprising people with something ‘just right’ that you’d collected and then re-found. I am assuming here that you have a greeting card (and possibly gift?) stash - am I right? ‘Cos I know you’re fun, loving AND organised :)

Well, dear, have a lovely weekend, buy art if it calls to you, and I’ll ‘see’ you soon :)

Love Meg x o

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Travel the world with art – blog hop!

Posted on August 26, 2011 by

Hey Lovelies!
Warm greetings from a sunny day. Hope things are well in your neck of the collective woods world woods :)

Are you ready to come along on an art blog mystery tour? Summon your magic cat and let’s go meet new friends :)

I’d mentioned Kat Sloma’s Liberate Your Art Postcard Swap before. This weekend is the time when people can ‘blog hop’ between the 200+ participants.
Shall I show you the 5 postcards that came to me in the post? I have made them into links so you can visit the sites, or you can use the Blog Hop widget below this post to go visiting anyone who is joining in :)

This beautiful rose photo is from Cathy in Arkansas, USA. She sent: “Always be on the lookout for the presence of wonder.” – EB White
I am almost always in need of a reminder to appreciate the small things! By the way, we had no idea who would receive our messages/pictures as we sent our greetings/blessings out :)

Katie from RedTin told me that her rainbow umbrella girl’s face is done with coloured pencil on linen. On her blog she talks about a variety of wonderful creative projects. If you want to do a treasure hunt, look for the blog post with a cool lino stamp of a woman printed onto envelopes.

I’m not sure if this cool black & white photo is a bridge or a jetty, a bridge I think. Maybe a boardwalk? Larissa sent this, she is from Southern California and you can check out her and Matthew’s adventures and photography at their site. Click the photo to go there.

This photo collage postcard is from Lui in the Philippines. She must be very happy there – her site is Lui in Heaven, and she has another site (besides the link via the photo) called Hounds in Heaven. How fun that a ‘cat artist’ got a postcard from a ‘dog artist’! There’s a white cat in the picture too, can you see it?
She says: “I do sustainable art and community projects mostly non-profit initiatives, design and implement creative works on any media and on site, promote and support programs on art and cultural heritage work, nature and animal welfare, care and protection.”

Look at that wonderful bark texture! This also came with a quote: “We are starstuff. We are the universe made manifest, trying to figure itself out” – Babylon 5. Thank you Jenny – beautiful! Ha! Spellchecker, you know not the meaning of the word starstuff! We do. And that’s as it should be :)

Apologies to the people I couldn’t work out how to contact!

Hoorah, this was fun! I loved being part of a community reaching all around the world. Technology combined with art combined with good old fashioned postal mail. I do still love getting ‘real’ mail, with postage stamps and date stamps too, handwriting and sometimes, like this time, address stickers and wonderful art! Do you love getting mail from interesting people and places? Tell me in the comments, or let me know your favourites of the sites you checked out :)

See you soon, dear ones,
Meg x o



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7 Days of Giveaways – Day 7

Posted on August 20, 2011 by

Dear ones, I have loved your wonderful sentiments this week, you’ve warmed my heart! The random number generator chose Annie to get the greeting cards, and then I decided to ‘re-roll’ and Evan has won, too. I will email you, bold souls!
Check out the retrospective post to get it all into perspective, in which I’m not at all objective :)

Hey Fabulousness personified!

Today’s the seventh of 7 days of giveaways merrymaking. Thanks for playing along all week!

Leave me a comment in answer to the prompt below to go in the draw for the seventh giveaway, a mixed pack of 3 “Bold Art for Bold Soul” greeting cards, similar to the above (if you want a particular theme, you could let me know in the comment, too). And if we’ve not met before, how did you find me, by the way? I’ll choose the giveaway winner with a random number generator.
I’ve just decided am going to add extra giveaways if there are double or more comments (1 comment per person please!) so please share with your nice friends – we have one more day this week of lovely giveaway fun :)

Last weekend I was trying to encourage the new seedlings that are coming up between the very healthy grass that’s growing around them, and spotted an almost not there dragonfly, perched delicate and still on one of said tufts of grass, like a “invisible” effect in a Harry Potter movie. Time to pause. Then rushed to get my camera!

Tell us about a favourite garden OR Out-in-nature OR Giving/receiving of flowers moment.

See you in the comments section :)

Love Meg x o

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