I am a full time artist and teacher.
This is the type of job that fills me with peace and joy.
Before I go on any holiday I write a list of creative goals I want to achieve.
If I cover all of my goals I feel satisfied.
The holiday has been worthwhile.
I am an active relaxer.
I am always energised by different locations and often surprised by how they affect my outlook and output.
The list for my latest Ohiwa Harbour nine day holiday was involved.
Creating an illustration a day for my visual diary.
Creating a series of photographs that I could post to my blog and face book and hopefully win honours awards at Rotorua Camera Club.
Write 2 haiku per day. (short 3 lined poem about nature), to enter into competitions and online journals.
Write three pages long hand a day, first thing in the morning of feelings and musings in accordance with Julia Cameron's The Artists Way book.
Read this if you want to be more creative and above all do the exercises.
After ten weeks you will see life changing results.
Write a page in my diary a day about what was physically happening.
This is to help with my creative and travel writing.
Practise my piano keyboard every day once after writing and just before going to bed.
This accelerates learning.
If I practise on the piano every day and night I find myself humming frequently.
This has to be good for mental health.
Learning a new piece of music keeps your brain active.
Do some exercise every day, usually a walk along the beach.
Have fun every day.
Rest and relax and meditate every day.
Go to a nice cafe in either Whakatane or Ohope.
Go on mini road trips.
It was my 58th birthday on 11th April so I wanted to make sure I could gather many resources to inspire me when I came back to work in Rotorua.
Remember winter is coming ( its freezing and frequently drizzly in Rotorua) unlike Ohiwa Harbour.
To hold onto joy we need to keep on creating.
As an art teacher you are giving out a lot of energy most of the time so you need to fill your creative bank up with the powerful magic of nature.
You often learn new things which you can pass onto your pupils.
It's not enough for me to experience these holidays in a blur; I want them to have a lasting effect on my work.
Otherwise memories can become lost in the intensity of activity when you return to work.
Ohiwa Harbour is consistently one of the best places in New Zealand I have discovered, that is reasonably close to Rotorua
The people who live there seem happier and more relaxed than in
Rotorua.
Who wouldn't be relaxed if they had scenes like these to gaze on every day.
The weather helps conjure images that are ethereal and idyllic.
The place is sparsely populated.
Yet it is never lonely.
I love the peacefulness of it.
Walking up to the top of the Pa site at the back of Ohiwa Beach Holiday Park; where we have been staying every year for the past twenty years, gives you a panoramic 360 degree view.
The weather and sunsets form massive skies that can be enhanced with a wide angle lens, polorising filter and a steady hand.
The walk up is steep and keeps the heart pumping.
Back on the beach every day is different.
I like to go in the golden hour just before dusk.
Some people call it the blue hour.
The shadows are elongated and the hues are intense and do not become blown out.
I like to play with them in photoshop and also to take the same view with different settings to enhance the mood, whether it be broody and intense.
Dreamy light and lavender filled hues and reflections on the sand.
A wide angled lens gives you a huge horizon and makes the cloud formations fuller.
This Island is called Whale island.
I have been here on a boat trip.
They have some very noisy saddleback birds who are impossible to photograph because they dart around so quickly.
You just obtain an orange and black flash of colour.
The trip over on the boat from Whakatane is great on a nice day and bumpy over the bar even when it is reasonably calm.
Sometimes you can see dolphins and whales.
I like to follow birds with my camera on burst, trying to capture the perfect fossicking Oyster Catcher shot.
They never let you come too close
They are always sticking their bright orange beaks deep into the sand for food as they squeak when they see you coming.
People say they are endangered but there are plenty at Ohiwa.
These are multi-layers with shallow depth of fields.
The beach and the sand becomes something else imaginative and almost indistinguishable because of the multi-layers.
Shells are always making interesting patterns on the beach.
Generally I am intrigued by pattern and texture in nature.
These are made by shifting the focus with a 24 to 105 lens.
So that the image becomes deliberately blurry.
Then processing in Photoshop.
Flipping horizontally after duplicating an image then sandwiching them back together to create an alien or mirror image.
Almost like a kaliedascope.
Going to the beach on sunset and staying until after dark while taking lots of images, no matter what the weather, always produces results that differ every time.
Walking on the beach is great for the health.
Going to a West coat beach in NZ is different from an East Coach beach at sunset.
You should try both.
Creative Quote of the day.
“In every outthrust headland, in every curving beach, in every grain of sand there is the story of the earth.”
―
Kids after school Painting , Mosaic book writing and illustrating and creativity classes
3.30 pm to 4.30 pm Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday
Enrolling for this coming term now.
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