Looking back to move foward

I was reading that in order to move forward we need to first look back at what we have already done, then learn from that and plan ahead. Now, I have to admit for some reason I have never really paid much attention once I have done something or looked back at my paintings unless I had to make a new website or a new blog, which I did this year also. But I am determined to start this year different. So I started filling out the “Shining Year Ahead Workbook” by Leonie Dawson (my first ever affiliate link!). Her workbooks and calendars are so much fun and so well structured, I think this is really going to be my best year ever.

It’s already a special year, it is my 50th year living on this beautiful earth and I decided to make it mean something, perhaps a turning point who knows for the next 50 years . . . ha, ha, at least that is how long my to do list already is. Anyhow, lets not get carried away with the future and start looking back first . . .

I almost forgot that I went to India for a few month, no wonder the years seemed short, see photos here…

Oh, and I remember very fondly an amazing workshop I took last year, it was called “Devotion to the Ocean”: Awaken, Embody, & Illuminate Our Oceanic Self: Mandala Process and Continuum Movement, with Julia Weaver and Barbara Karlsen. I was so exited and almost didn’t make it but it felt so amazing. Here is the link to the blog post about it.

acrylic on canvas, H 40 x W 30 (x3)= 90in (101,6 x 228,6 cm)

We moved at the beginning of last year again to Berkeley to stay with old friends of ours, and they asked me if I would paint a painting for their living room. A sunset. Why a sunset of all subjects? Its a long story and if you want to read more click here to read the whole story and see more photos also.

And then I did another customized painting for a friend, a portraiture, which was a total different challenge altogether, a good one, and I love painting portraits especially this one of a very dear saint from Kashmir by the name of Swami Lakshmanjoo. Here is the original photo and the final painting for comparison. I think it turned out really amazing.
Read more here . . .

Then I worked on a few whimsical little boxes . . . (and I haven’t even made a blog post about it yet)

And experimented with the colored pencils I had discovered at the workshop . . . .

and then some larger paintings on paper playing with collages again also . . .

and some smaller ones that combined into a larger one . . . (There is more to this but I have to explain this another time in a longer blog post)

Last November I participated in our annual artist group show at Playa Vista again, even though I felt I hadn’t painted very much last year because I was busy with the landscape and the portrait, still I started a whole new series that I want to explore more in the coming year . . .

So looking back wasn’t such a bad idea, I can see that I went into some quite interesting areas even though at the time they seemed not so enticing. Just like I was reading in “Big Magic” by Elizabeth Gilbert . . .

“Don’t abandon your creativity the moment things stop being easy or rewarding – because that’s the moment when INTERESTING begins.”

Wishing us all a creative and curious and INTERESTING or even Magic New Year! Love and hugs!