Creativity Enmeshed

Inspired by Nature

One of the things that have caused me to block creatively is envy, I am not proud to admit. Most of the time I absolutely love looking at others work, for my own interest and pleasure but also as an important part of my job as the curator and manager of an art gallery. However sometimes I find myself so awed by someone's work that I shut down and disconnect from my own creativity.


It is a complex thing being a creative person. I feel that it makes one vulnerable to being knocked sideways, being open as we are to the world as it feeds and sometimes steals our souls.


Personally I need to be connected to the rhythms of nature and the seasons, in conversation with friends and fellow artists, stimulated by books and art in all its forms to be fully connected to my own creative self. Therefore my eyes and heart are wide open as I seek both a visual and an emotional stimulus to what's around me in my quest for inspiration, sometimes too open.

This is why I think that certain harsh criticisms from teachers have caused a much greater wounding than perhaps they warranted. So too I believe, it is understandable and natural to admire an artist's work so much that you wish you could have done it yourself.

The key is to not get too enmeshed in that 'other', whoever or whatever it may be. To try and find a balance between protecting ones creative core and connecting with your own creative source. The only thing that really helps though is a deep understanding that You are uniquely who You are and that only You can create what You do.  So I remind myself to revel in that and enjoy others work for their uniqueness too.

Arctic - Silver Tea and Bear Stories

I have tried to write about my trip to Arctic Sweden on several occasions, but each time I find I have either no words that can even begin to describe this magical experience or so many that it becomes deafening. So to keep things simple I have gathered here some evocative words and pictures...

~ Stillness ~ Purity ~ Adventure ~ Empowering ~ Fairy Tale ~ Wild ~ Silence ~

~ Community ~ Aloneness ~ Silver Tea ~ Huskies ~ Wild Night Rides ~ Snow Angels ~ 

~ Ice Maidens ~ Frost Fairs ~ Sami Gatherings ~ Candlelit Snow Churches ~ 

~ Bear Men and Moon Wolves ~ Frozen Lakes ~ Dawn ~ Blue Hour ~ 

~ Crafts ~ Being Rescued ~ Walking ~ Skiing ~ Naked Saunas ~ Yoiking ~

~ Sunlight on Snow ~ Colours ~ Candles ~ Reindeer ~ Willow Bark Bread ~ 

~ Drumming ~ Hearth Goddess ~ Arctic Breakfast ~ Circular Rainbows ~  

~ Soul Singing ~ Canine Connections ~ Heart Hound ~ Isolation ~ Creating ~ 

~ Answering a Call ~ Arctic Sisters ~ Laughter ~ Knitting ~ Tears ~ Love ~ Icicles ~ 

~ Tipis ~ Companionship ~ Crisp Cold ~ Crystal Eyelashes ~ Lunar Madness ~ 

~ Antlers ~ Snow Drifts ~ Beauty ~ Northern Lights ~

~ Longing to Return to the Land of Snow and Ice ~

Fairytale - Curious Realms

At my gallery we have recently launched a new show called 'Fairytale - Curious Realms of the Imagination', which is on until the 24th March. It's a subject that has always fascinated me and this is The exhibition I had always wanted to put on in an art gallery. Over the last year I have gathered a number of artists whose work has touched this intriguing area, and when planning the shows for 2012 I felt the time was right to bring them all together in one exhibition. 

The first artist to enter the realm of faerie was Neil Payne, whose intricate collages and sculptures are created from found objects, used and worn until finally discarded giving a sense of timelessness and secret worlds. 

by Neil Payne

Followed by Helena-A Reut, a native of Belarus, whose work has a remarkable quality of capturing the subject and holding them in a sacred moment of ordinary everyday-ness.  She also paints images from myths and fables from her own country.

'Autumn Spirit' by Helena-A Reut

Next is the delightfully dark and humorous Celeste Copping, an illustrator in acrylics of slightly sinister fairy tale and nursery characters - the sort of images that kids really love as well as adults.

'Red Riding Hood' by Celeste Copping

Now for the enchanting Amanda Clark whose luminous work is so evocative of the mystery of our land and magical nature.  I am especially smitten by her new works in the show - Tree Ladies.

'Bird Lady' by Amanda Clark

Then we have paper and book sculptor Justin Rowe, who uses books as a base for his paper-cut characters.  Some elements of which are sculpted from paper and lit from within, reminding me of a 3D village in winter that my dad made for Christmas one year.

'Forest of Dreams' by Justin Rowe

Two other wanderers of the secret world are Sue Law with her ‘Glass Slipper’ moulded from a real foot and shoe, only fits one person!  

'Glass Slipper II' by Sue Law

And Amanda Sheldrake with her swirling figures in gorgeous flower-filled gardens, making you wonder whether she’s painted real faery folk!

'Girl in Forest' by Amanda Sheldrake

Last and I hope not least, I couldn’t help but include my own work - illustrations of classic fairy tales.

'Baba Yaga - At Home' by Amber Caspian

Blue Hour

Snow Queen

Silence of Snow

Snowscape in Essex

The falling of snow feels like such a gift when it happens.  The world becomes so peaceful, there's an otherworldly silence that one experiences at no other time.  The air is clear and crisp and fresh.  The bare winter branches are decorated with white crystals, thin grasses bowed under the weight of glittering crowns. 

Bearing a Crown of Silver Crystals

I went out for a walk today after heavy snowfall last night.  It was above my ankles, my boots crunching and my coat and trousers swooshing as I moved.  I stopped often to listen, the silence filled with something I cannot name, perhaps with stillness, expectation, yearning.  Also my memories of walking in the Arctic snow in Sweden. 

Arctic Landscape

I find it hard to quiet my mind but I realised that in this blanketed landscape my head is not full of chatter but feelings and images.  Words are never enough in these moments…

Imbolc Goddess

Brigid - Goddess of Creativity

Although I don't believe in Goddesses and Gods manifesting in tangible form before me, I do find myself attracted to the stories and symbolism behind certain ones. As we have just had the festival of Imbolc I wanted to write briefly about one in particular who is Goddess of something very close to my heart - creativity.

Brigid, Brighid, Brigit, Bride, Brigantia is the maiden goddess who is celebrated on 1/2 February, when the first signs of spring appear. She is the woman of craft, particularly of smith-craft, she is the lady of the hearth, of fire and the spark of inspiration. Worshipped by poets, she is the light that breaks the darkness, sometimes seen adorned with a crown of candles.

I painted my version of Brigid a few years ago ‘Bearing a Crown of Silver Candles’ surrounded by a few of her symbols – a branch with buds ready to burst, snowdrops, a new moon, the triple moon symbol tattooed on her forehead and one beneath her collar bone of St Brigit's cross. She has one eye closed and one open, the closed eye is about looking within for inspiration, instinct, intuition, dreams and prophesies. A third eye appears within the bowl of water representing her as seer.

'Bearing a Crown of Silver Candles' (c) Amber Caspian, 2011

Brigid calls up creative inspiration from deep within her wise-self, the flame of her hearth heart giving spring warmth and causing buds to burst forth and come alive with ideas.