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by KAY JAMIESON
Firstly, establish placement on the page, ie. Composition. Is the head in the centre or to one side, looking up or down? If it’s to be a profile then perhaps more space is needed on the side the subject is facing. Will the background be important? Maybe some tone behind the head will help in producing a 3-D effect. Any emotions which are expressed will show in the face: sadness, joy, contemplation, smile or frown. Capturing these feelings will entail some concentrated study of anatomy, particularly around the eyes and mouth. Basic measurements which help to establish placement of the features. The width of an average face equals approximately two thirds the length, but of course this will vary according to the individual. Once the shape of the face is outlined with vertical centre line and horizontal halfway measurements marked, divide into three sections, the first line indicating eyebrows, the second line the end of the nose. Between the top third and halfway lines is the position of the eyes. The lower third is divided into three to indicate mouth and chin. Ears are generally situated between the brow line and tip of the nose in a frontal view.   Lastly, practice, practice and practice some more. I hope my portrait drawing tips help you. Have fun!
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 My passion is symbolism, particularly geometry. Over 20 years of in depth research across numerous subject areas has resulted in an accumulation of dozens of books! Books in quantity are very heavy and the growing piles in my loft needed to come down before the ceiling collapsed. These piles remained, plus those already on my shelves, after two boxes of 'not so noteworthy texts' headed to the charity shop. It was like greeting old friends to see them all once more. Several are enticing me back into their pages. Can I remember everything...certainly not! But, it brought home to me how our minds and perspectives are fashioned by the information and knowledge we allow in. The more we read, the broader the scope of subjects, of opposing opinions not just those supporting our view, the more we open our minds. Our universe is a vast place of incredible complexity and diversity that we are only scratch at the surface of in our understanding. My own journey has lead me down numerous paths of investigation as I mined for information. In my books my intention is to provide readers with accessible insights into a fascinating arena by distilling information and opening doors into areas they might want to delve into more. With this in mind to encourage more reading and to support fellow authors I am posting a Recommended Read every week on my own BLOG, Instagram - KarenLFrenchSymbolism and Facebook. Happy reading! Recommended Reads...so far
by ROSIE PHIPPSOnes personal truth is always mute – when it is truly expressed it is communicated in silence – and if one really has to speak what results is the translation of that silence into pictures, music, dance and other creative acts – personal, social and institutional. Every dream is a plan that lends itself to enactment in the outside world, behind every enactment in the outside world there is a dream – or a picture, a note, a movement a thought, an idea – or perhaps something that is only waiting to be discovered. Keats said – that which is creative must create itself. Creativity arises from itself, you can’t learn it, explain it, teach it – it comes upon one and creates stillness and a presence where the images and colours take on a life of their own. One becomes obsessed by it and it is creates an urgency and demands that have to be satisfied, one cannot avoid it, it has to be done.
 Birth of the Sunchild - painted around 1976
Getting in touch with the imagination and the little people (internal objects) that inhabit it is rather like dreaming, the images are able to do as they please, one has to trust the voices, the images, and the sounds and allow them to come from themselves and not control what you want them to say. It is like a dream, one is always a player in a group, sometimes an observer and at other times taking command. Other people in the group are also of value. So what comes first in a painting may not be the final image, as one has to allow other images to speak for themselves. This may involve destroying what has initially been created to allow creativity to reform itself and to recreate itself. In painting a picture this process can go on, over and over again, so that one learns that the act of creation is also one of destruction. The creator and the destroyer work hand in hand. One has to learn to live with that tension. The painting is a mirror that reflects who one is at a moment in time, the images and colours form the archetypal background to one's life and the relationship between the conscious and unconscious mind. The grid so to speak on which one is built, enabling one to battle with questions like chaos and control, black and white, dark and light, creation and destruction, duality and unity – the unification of opposites. These questions flow from out of the paint into being itself, so the work is both meditation on life and a meditation where paint becomes an extension of psyche: one’s battle with one’s soul.  by ROSIE PHIPPSOnes personal truth is always mute – when it is truly expressed it is communicated in silence – and if one really has to speak what results is the translation of that silence into pictures, music, dance and other creative acts – personal, social and institutional. Every dream is a plan that lends itself to enactment in the outside world, behind every enactment in the outside world there is a dream – or a picture, a note, a movement a thought, an idea – or perhaps something that is only waiting to be discovered. Keats said – that which is creative must create itself. Creativity arises from itself, you can’t learn it, explain it, teach it – it comes upon one and creates stillness and a presence where the images and colours take on a life of their own. One becomes obsessed by it and it is creates an urgency and demands that have to be satisfied, one cannot avoid it, it has to be done.
 Birth of the Sun Child - Painted around 1976
Getting in touch with the imagination and the little people (internal objects) that inhabit it is rather like dreaming, the images are able to do as they please, one has to trust the voices, the images, and the sounds and allow them to come from themselves and not control what you want them to say. It is like a dream, one is always a player in a group, sometimes an observer and at other times taking command. Other people in the group are also of value. So what comes first in a painting may not be the final image, as one has to allow other images to speak for themselves. This may involve destroying what has initially been created to allow creativity to reform itself and to recreate itself. In painting a picture this process can go on, over and over again, so that one learns that the act of creation is also one of destruction. The creator and the destroyer work hand in hand. One has to learn to live with that tension. The painting is a mirror that reflects who one is at a moment in time, the images and colours form the archetypal background to one's life and the relationship between the conscious and unconscious mind. The grid so to speak on which one is built, enabling one to battle with questions like chaos and control, black and white, dark and light, creation and destruction, duality and unity – the unification of opposites. These questions flow from out of the paint into being itself, so the work is both meditation on life and a meditation where paint becomes an extension of psyche: one’s battle with one’s soul.  Small landscape - Painted 2021 Continuing with the theme of art inspired poetry....'capturing our creativity' in multiple modes. LiterArties Kay Jamieson and Dennis Hamley are an artist, author partnership. The beauty of Lake Hayes, Queenstown, New Zealand, inspired Kay to paint her tranquil artwork that, in turn, inspired Dennis to pen a poem. 
Capturing our CreativityLiterArties vision unites us. Each of us is 'Capturing our Creativity' through many modes and mediums. Change is a feature of every moment and as creative people we strive to 'capture' the essence of a moment, or moments, in our transient lives using our 'creativity' in words, images, music, clay,... any vehicle possible. Not only is this creative process very rewarding, but through it we can share our inner worlds and experiences with others, hopefully to make their life more pleasurable as well. Inspirational images
Dennis Hamley's AnthologyLiterArties' Dennis Hamley scoured the internet and his own shelves to search out other examples of art inspired poetry and found 21 examples! A book in itself and maybe he will publish it. From his wide ranging and inspirational selection here are three examples. The first is about the experience of visiting the Tate Gallery:
This second example was chosen as it gives a humorous insight into the challenges of creating a masterpiece in cramped physical conditions, in fact the Sistine Chapel.
And thirdly, a short poem that encapsulates how a painting captures the moment:
'Being Seen and Known' by Karen L FrenchLiterArties' Karen L French - "It was a great honour, and moving, to have a poem created by Liz Everett for my expressionistic painting Being Seen and Known, about allowing others to see you for who you really are rather than creating a facade to hide yourself. Having words to complement a work of art really brings home its message. It was really insightful to hear, in her own poetic words, how my artwork had influenced her, personally and creatively."
Our visionLiterArties vision unites us. Each of us is 'Capturing our Creativity' through many modes and mediums. Change is a feature of every moment and as creative people we strive to 'capture' the essence of a moment, or moments, in our transient lives using our 'creativity' in words, images, music, clay,... any vehicle possible. Not only is this creative process very rewarding, but through it we can share our inner worlds and experiences with others, hopefully to make their life more pleasurable as well. Mixing it upNaturally we can explore our creativity through individual mediums, such a writing a book or taking a photograph, but mixing up mediums to convey our inspiration as an integrated whole is a wonderful challenge. Maeve Bayton - sound, images and words
"Among those in the know, Maeve Bayton is something of a local hero, or, rather, heroine. She has a long and distinguished musical record in Oxford, fronting the city’s first all-girl band, 'The Mistakes', in the ‘70s, while her second band, 'Jane Goes Shopping', were also a regular fixture. She remains a respected blues artist, has lectured on music at Ruskin and written on the subject of women in rock. That experience comes through in her second solo album – a collection of sweet, whimsical folk moulded in the tradition of Joan Baez or Sandy Denny. Featuring only five tracks, each tune has space to breath, particularly on the title track, which weighs in at eight-and-a-half minutes long. And it is genuinely lovely and uncommercial. Maeve’s heartfelt, pastoral songs, exploring sadness and loss are soothing, pastoral and, at times almost psychedelic in their simplicity and naivety. The title track even comes with a birdsong soundscape recorded at dawn near Maeve’s Otmoor home. The heartmelting lyrics, meanwhile, were written about her husband’s terminal illness. The standout track is opener 'Missing You' – with Jane Griffiths’s dreamy Celtic fiddle. But really the record works as a whole. The beauty of the music, Maeve’s clear voice and the sparse instrumentation by Griffiths and guitarist Ian Wycherly lend it huge charm. Here is music to soothe most frayed of souls." (The Oxford Times Review, May 2013) © Copyright 2001-2013 Newsquest Media Group
 The view from Maeve's window
"Gazing from my window this morning, I see verdant swathes of green: many species of trees (viridian, olive, sap), then meadows and fields (pea, salmon pink, yellow ochre) gradually turning into the misty blues of hazy far north Oxfordshire. The few distant village houses and church towers are toytown small. Whilst above, the vast dome of sky fades from cobalt to cerulean to pearly chromatic greys. In the wetter months this colourscape is further heightened by a reflected silver and blue from the wide flooded fenland of the RSPB Otmoor Nature Reserve. Closer to hand, I spy three rooks and a green woodpecker, spiking the grass for ants. A horse, a pony and two pheasant, like me, are at breakfast. Above, two whistling kites slowly circle. At other times I have seen March hares boxing, a row of newly fledged owlets strung along the fence, swallows having their first flying lesson, a fox stalking a rabbit, and deer of course. But today there is sparse activity and also little sound, for it is August and the birds have quietened. Later, dusk will bring bats and a pre-roost gathering of rooks. Spring is very different. I shall never forget my first May morning here. Living on main roads in cities all my life, yet always yearning for the country, I took the leap in ’97, leaving noisy crowded sociable Iffley Road for pastures new. I was woken by a cacophony of birdsong. There was a clattering of jackdaws on my roof and a clamour of rooks in the trees. A great spotted woodpecker was hammering a trunk and I counted many sparrows, a wren, a robin, blackbirds, a thrush and a blackcap amongst others. The church bell tolled the hour, 4 am, and I thought, “This is paradise”. I walked down into the nearby copse and recorded the woodland song. This magical experience fed directly into two of my songs, 'The 2nd of May' and 'Missing You'. A photo of the blackcap adorns both CD case and disc and the title track has my recording of the dawn chorus (with robin) running though its entire length. How blessed am I….." (Written for the Writers in Oxford newsletter)
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