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cairns

Beyond the Reef

September 13, 2009 · 4 comments

Blog Reef Girl 1Reef Girl 1

Watercolour 1/2 sheet

Copyright 2009 Jean Burman

This week… in what can only be described as a series of seriously serendipitous circumstances… I became Artist in Residence at the Sebel Reef House & Spa in idyllic Palm Cove. This entails painting there three days a week and so far the experience has been hugely rewarding.

I mean to say… who is able to paint each day in such an idyllic location? I get to meet and talk with people from all over the country and around the world [which of course I have been lucky enough to do here online for a number of years... but that's kinda different... grin]

Most people are really friendly. Many are inquisitive about the painting process… so I have had to quickly become used to people watching me work! But for the most part they are very forgiving… and keen for me to get the washes right first time. And sometimes I actually manage to do that [grin]. Reef Girl 1 was painted on location there this week… and has gone to be scanned and reproduced on paper as well as stretched canvas. Reef Girl 2 is still out paddling… but I will post her here as soon as she’s done.

Funny how life has a certain bitter sweet quality right now. There is a real sense of the old giving way to the new… and the sweet sadness that this evokes. But along with it comes the stirrings of excitement about the future and the experiences and adventures that no doubt lie ahead. At last the Universe has begun to open up… offering a small but promising glimpse of the way forward.

I have always thought of life as a long corridor of possibilities and opportunities. Along the way… some doors we open… others we choose to leave closed. I have on occasion looked back with a sense of regret at some of the unopened doors along the corridor of my life. Whether through obligation to others… or a serious lack of commitment to myself… for one reason or another I had sometimes let the chance go by.

My friend Judith recently described it like this.  Life’s opportunities are “floating by”… and we get to choose which ones we will grasp onto and float with. I like that analogy. It has a real sense of optimism and hopefulness about it!

Interestingly though… just lately I have noticed that the opportunities I had thought were lost are in fact still there… albeit now showing up in a different form. It now appears that some opportunities are apparently endless… determined only by our willingness to [at last] open the door… or to grab onto the chances that are still [incredibly] floating by after all this time!

There is also the possibility of course that I have been on the correct trajectory all along… simply biding my time… gathering the knowledge wisdom courage and strength to do whatever it is I am destined to do!

Slowly I am beginning to understand that life is a mystery… a maze of unfolding possibilities and unlimited potential.

Right now I am open to whatever comes.

I need simply to breathe and go with it.

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Going with the Flow

August 31, 2009 · 4 comments

sunset-flying-south“Sunset Flying South”

1/2 sheet Watercolour Pour

Copyright 2009 Jean Burman

It is for sunsets like this one (below) that I love this place.  I walk in the late afternoon and enjoy the lovely light that pervades the foreshore at this particular time of the day. It’s August [and late winter] in the Southern Hemisphere… but already the air is balmy and warm… and fragrant with frangipani.

p1030018

I find it interesting that despite the economic downturn our small city is still teaming with tourists from all around the world.  Young Europeans especially… who tend to gather in groups to discuss their adventures.

I had to smile the other evening.  While collecting the makings for spaghetti bolognese in the pasta aisle of the local supermarket three young Italian women were vigorously debating brands.  I stood back and waited hoping to learn what Italians themselves would choose… but alas… despite the wide choice… they still chose the no frills generic brand… leaving me still none the wiser!  Nevertheless it was fun to hear the lively discussion taking place in ‘fluid’ Italian… especially when peppered with slang which is pretty much universal in every language!

Earlier I had enjoyed another exchange between an older couple as we passed each other on the Esplanade. The man was instructing his wife [as much as himself] that they must try to remember the street they had just come down to get back to their hotel.  ”We have to remember where we came from… so we can know how to get back home” he said with great emphasis. That made me smile.  As a metaphor for life… I couldn’t have agreed more! Grin.

mystical-migaloo“Mystical Migaloo”

The White Whale

1/2 sheet Watercolour Pour

Copyright 2009 Jean Burman

Saturday’s workshop went well as we moved into painting “from the imagination” using broad generous pouring techniques… choosing pigments with specific chemical characteristics and allowing the paint to dictate the subject and establish  the mood.  I think this will be the way I will be moving toward teaching in future workshops.

There is so much to be learned about the properties of paint and paper in the pouring of watercolour paint. Besides… it’s a lot of fun.  And for the beginner in watercolour… fun is not generally something that people have come to expect.  Watercolour is a demanding medium.  And it has a reputation for taking very few prisoners.

But taking a broad approach… away from traditional techniques of graded and variegated washes and intensive brushwork… (at least in the initial stages) allows newbies to experience the possibilities of the medium and to see it at it’s glorious best.  It will be ‘soon enough’ later to discover the drawbacks… so for now at least… it will be a lovely random and purely creative process.

In art… as in life… it doesn’t get better than that.



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Highway to Hell

June 28, 2008 · 18 comments

Highway to Hell

Highway to Hell

Cartoon Pen & Watercolour 8″ x 12″

Copyright 2008 Jean Burman

My good friend Elinor Mac emailed me from Scotland this week.    It’s always such a treat to open my inbox to find her there.  She always has something entertaining to tell me… or to forward… and the other day was no exception!

After reading her email… a quick google search confirmed the terrible truth.

According to a report in The Scotsman… police caught and charged a man with drink driving whilst six times over the legal limit at the wheel of his motorised wheelchair… (the fact that he was also asleep at the lights in the turning lane on a busy four lane highway probably added to their ire and brought the essential element of “circus” to the news story!)

Where?  A little red faced I confess this happened in downtown Cairns.  My town.  Half way around the world from Tignabraich Scotland.  In fact… if you were to fly for 24 hours in a straight line from pretty much anywhere on the planet you would eventually get… well… here.

Newsworthy yes… and indeed the incident did make front page news here too.  But what surprised me the most was that the Scottish newspaper was not the only one onto it.  India news… Hinduonline… Congo news… Reuters… even the NYTimes and the Huffington Post all got a hold of this one.  And in a matter of earthshattering minutes too.  Breaking news of the weirdest kind (apparently) travels fast.  I gave up counting at page 9 on Google for the news sources carrying this story!

Why there hasn’t been such a commotion online or off since that bloke up in the Top End was bitten on his Rear End by a taipan… as he crouched for a comfort stop by the side of an outback road in the Northern Territory.  Front page world news for over a week… but that was more than 3 weeks ago!

Amazing how quirky news travels fast… but why the fascination with such things when there is so much other “serious” stuff going on out there?  But I guess that’s the point isn’t it?   Where on earth would we be without a good laugh… especially when we get the chance to laugh at ourselves!  ( ~grin~)

I have no idea what the rest of the world must think of this place where we 20 million odd Aussies live (odd being the operative word here ~still grinning~)  This vast brown land all green around the edges just gets more entertaining by the minute!

Kangaroos bounding around our streets (oh yeah right)… crocodiles on the beaches (uhuh?)… snakes in places you could never imagine (well okay maybe)… should all make for one of the most exciting tourist destinations on the planet.  So “where the bloody hell are they?”  (to caption the late great ill-fated tourism ad campaign that crashed and burned)

Visitor numbers are down…. and can you blame them with all this crazy stuff going on?  I mean… “why the bloody hell would they?” *wink*

But no… it’s not the front page news of reckless runaway motorised wheelchairs or the belligerence of our (oooo scarey) wildlife that has tourists running scared.

Nope.  It’s all that rather stupid trivial stuff on page 3 that’s got them all stumped (and staying home).  Incidentals… like the burgeoning cost of fuel… the world economic crisis… political social and religious unrest across the planet… terrorism… war in the middle east…and the threat of climate change… jihad and global catastrophe.

Tsshhh… details details…

Oh come on over… she’ll be right mate!  (((chuckles)))

 

 

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