7th September 2021, first show where I choose my own music. And talk alternative travel, lifestyle, health, and ideas. I will be putting the links onto social media and this blog for further information about all themes mentioned. Its called The Alternatives Show but I want to call it The Full Catastrophe for some reason. Got a ring to it..
In the first show, I talked about the Hampshire Arts Studio and painting and drawing trees with acclaimed artist Fiona McIntrye. The full catastrophe of my experience is on https://www.arbuturian.com/lifestyle/theidler/the-art-of-trees
but here is a snippet
McIntyre makes the two days fast and fun. She’s engaging and accessible, showing more than telling, giving us all courage to ‘explore the trees’ – not just paint what we see, but paint what we feel. The first morning is spent taking part in a sort of art version of speed dating. Ten of us on the course, circling the area like flower fairies, went outside with easels and graphite and were told we could spend sixty seconds drawing the trees – but could not look at our paper. Fiona had a stop watch, and on ‘go’, we all went for it. I looked at my first version. It looked like the sort of thing a psychologist would have a field day analysing.
I moved to the next easel as someone moved to mine, and had another go, managing not to peek at the paper (others cheated, ahem) and, this time, it looked more like three people at a party slightly swaying to ‘80s music the worse for wear. My leaves looked like smudged birds ready to fly off the page at any moment. Then the time was reduced to thirty seconds, then fifteen. Everyone agreed their fifteen second version was much more proficient than their sixty second version, as they went with the flow and had gained more courage. They key was not to take the graphite off the page and to scrawl quickly.
Music is good. Joe Satriani, Blue Dream; cover version of Maybe I'm Amazed, Norah Jones and Dave Grohl, Randy Scouse Git, the Monkeys; Mirror in the Bathroom, The Beat; Sunflowers, Wynton Marsalis; Extreme, More than Words.
Next week, talking Canada and yoga, and all things Canadian (Rush, Joni, Crash Test Dummies). Mmmm
