I am staying in Olaulim Backyards with the following….
Savio and Pirkko who own this wonderfully serene place. Then there are their teenage children who often help out (impressive for teenagers!), other guests and ……
a donkey, a goat, a pony, three cats, four dogs. This morning I saw frogs jumping around and I am told there are fish eating crocodiles in the river but they are shy and haven’t been spotted recently. Mantra, the donkey, has a distinctive bray which people often record for their phone ring. Currently I have dogs barking on my phone to distinguish it from the other iPhone rings at work! I think I would quite like a woodpecker actually. The donkey eeey-ooohr would scare people when my phone rang.
Painting and Drawing
I used pens, charcoal, pencils, felt tips, crayons and oil pastels. I tried to copy the designs that I had made from the Spirograph I made originally. I did them all super quickly. Often holding more than one pen in my hand at a time.
Overall, I was very disappointed with these drawings. It brought home to me loud and clear that I cannot draw. It felt I had done too many and that I was careless and not really describing what I want. I think it is bound up in doing things as quickly as possible when I don’t feel confident in them. So, my knitting and crochet are really good and are slow. Anything I have ever made in knitting with big needles and thick wool which takes only a short amount of time, I don’t really like. So, it is really no surprise that I feel I am not good at something, rush it and then get disillusioned.
I even had a try at electronic drawing on my Microsoft pro laptop and was more pleased with this than my drawings on A3. I think I had even chosen such large pieces of paper to do a huge drawing as quickly as possible. Drawing sabotage.
In Boroda (Vadodara) after I had done my washi tape circles, I felt confident to try and tackle the paintbrush again! I did a practice with five different brushes that I bought for applying makeup – I only wear lipstick and eyeliner and because I cry so readily rarely mascara. I drew first round some circular shapes. I used the foam pad (to apply eye shadow) and this worked well. There were small gaps and I used all the different purples I could muster up. I used the djecko felt tip pens which you could blur with water and also worked well but only on this small practice one. I wonder if they have just run out! I also tried with the permanent markers and surprise they didn’t water down or bleed out at all! Silly me. Then I used the applicator most similar to a paintbrush with one colour which I watered down until I reached the edge and this was one of my favourite techniques. Finally, I used the rouge brush but it should really only be applying rouge – rubbish as a paint applicator!
In the end I only did two final pieces – the one with the foam eyeshadow pad and the paint brush with increasingly diluted colour as you reached the edge of the paper.
Feeling slightly more confident and mindful I really cannot continue carrying around the large fixative spray, I did some similar charcoal drawings. Firstly, on lilac paper as my white is running out. I chose which pencil (of the rather inferior ones from Tiger!) worked best and did two finished pieces I think are passable.
My final pieces were made at the beginning of my time in Goa using a stencil that I had bought in Ahmadabad. I know. Not really drawing or paining but rather filling in!
As it was so hot in our room I moved to a yoga tent and Betsy came with to paint (on paper and herself!). The only problem was when she used acrylic paint on herself which was difficult to remove and I needed her to model in my Tatouage project (see blog 14th January 2020 Getting into Goa).
They aren’t really painting or drawing but I think I have come to terms with my inability to paint or draw. There are some further ideas for a logo which I will post in a later blog. To be honest, I just don’t have the patience!
Scooting about the Place
I knew that we would rent a scooter when Harry came out as he has done this before, is proficient and has had riders on the back. Also, we were staying pretty off the beaten track so getting a scooter was a given. However, Betsy was keen we rent one too. We did it for a day because that was enough stress for both of us and to be honest, we were in the thick of it and didn’t really need one. But I did travel on the back of it to take photos of purple Goan flowers! And we went off to a shop that sold bindis so I could make some more art projects with them. We also went to lunch at Kitty Masala where we had some smoothie bowls.
When Harry came out, we bit the bullet and hired it for six days.
I tried it tentatively once and then Harry suggested we go for a longer trip and he was very encouraging and we made it! Phew. Having a scooter meant when Harry came, we had a lovely time visiting way off grid places and having fun.
Coins
I had decided that the next project to be completed was felting. I had carried along the fleece, felting needles, pipe cleaners for far too long and I was over half way through January and the time had come. But I had forgotten how to felt – well actually I hadn’t but I really wanted to carry on my montages using my method of foil centre and tapes around the edge.
I had a collection of five different Indian coins and so they sung to me more – use me, use me rather than the felt! The coins weren’t purple.
Had never been but they would make a nice centre piece on the chocolate foil pieces I was using. I have made so many of these montages but the foil just isn’t running out! The tapes have and I am now a regular at any shop that says paper or stationary or gift on the outside to buy yet more rather unsticky tape! I managed to make the coin project last a whole day along with reading, yoga and swimming in the nature pool whilst listening and saying hello to the frogs rather than start on the felt. Worse still in my head was, by complete co-incidence, another felter staying there for me to check on techniques. Even worse for my procrastination self. Yes not a usual state but the felt was really getting to me!
Obsessions with Goan Purple
Arriving in Goa with all the colour was magical. North Goa had some purple – flowers and lots of clothes for sale to tourists in my sabbatical colour! But moving to Casa Susegad was like a dream come true. The whole place was painted various of my long list of purples. I shall spare you and not repeat the list now. But some of the words like heliotrope are lovely!
I enjoyed taking photos of the staff who wore a bluey purple uniform. It was unusual as nearly all the staff were women – most places seemed to have employees who were all men. I noticed how the owners (Carole and Norman) had very personable relationships for their staff having known them for many years. They told me best to take the photograph of them at 4pm when they all sat down and had chai!
Other photographs were taken at the time of day when the light can be said to be purple or anything that caught my attention. Nothing too serious. Just an mild obsession!
Over and out this Tuesday morning at the end of January 2020. I am busy with my sewing and felting (I did get on with it in the end!) as well as some more sticking (of course) for my next shipment later this week.
