Art Process: How I approach the canvas

People often ask me where do my seemingly endless ideas come from. I am almost always working on several projects at once. These visuals usually have a sequence in a series that are variations on a theme. Currently these are the treads I am working from:
The great Earth Goddess Callieach (Scotland, Ireland and England) whom I encountered last fall in Scotland. I'm thinking to integrate her into the cycles of both the seasons and life. This idea was generated from a previous topic which was not "finished" to my satisfaction. So I will look over older sketches and give them more substance before painting four pieces that interlock in some way. I will approach images by first identifying old concepts; which will become concrete with more information and/or research. Intuitive knowledge plays an important role as well, this wonderful and powerful spirit woman has been living in my unconscious for years. In fact, the sketch I did of her in Fife, was similar to one I did in my early 20's while living in intercity Detroit. I do believe in genetic memory! And this is my cultural heritage. I'm also working on an original prints of these images. On my easel is the painting from this drawing.
Other images I am continuing to develop are Everyday life which I will blog on shortly and Waterways, that is, how the waters are the world are connected and the sacred tree.
Next blog, I will continue to delve into how I process images from seeds of thought and the many origins of ...
 My Portrait is by my talented daughter, Maia T. Scott

Solstice

Callanish

Blog for solstice 2013

Facing the west close to the Atlantic, on the island of Lewis, in the Outer Hebrides is the stone circle of Callanish. Sitting silently for 5000 years, the luminous pale stones seem lit from within and worn pearl-like without. They communicate still over thousands of years to the people from all over the world to see the structure built as a cross long before the introduction of Christianity.  It is a circle to the four directions built by the indigenous tribe of Western Scotland to align with the maximum and minimum lunar cycle.

It is easy to envision the phenomenon of the standstill of the moon every 18.65 years when the moon is full, the dance of the ancients within this sacred space. It is said that it is the moment, as the full moon rises over the distant “Sleeping Women” mountain, of rebirth. The woman sleeping is the venerable Callieach; the multifaceted and complex personification of the magic of the feminine manifested on Earth in Nature, in women.

The stark landscape of the lonely and windworn place brings visitors to cross the barrier of eons to see through the eyes, those that struggled to create a rich spiritual life in the face of extreme physical odds. The ancient people must have had a meager life from the moody sea and the rocky, peaty terrain. Still they left us a measure of their reverence of life and joy; love for the Mother of us all, the Spirit of the Earth, in the monument to Callieach, at Callanish.

Next blog is on the Spirit of the Earth, the ancient female, Callieach. The beginning of her stories….

Toni Truesdale