Cards for Christmas, Birthdays, Celebrations, Thankyou notes, Valentines. By Janet Keen, Art Photographer . Buy Rotorua hand made

1

Ohiwa  gull
2

Pohutukawa Passion

3

Manuka  branches, Kuirau Park, Rotorua

4  Cheeky Gull, Sulphur Point Rotorua

5. Love at the Rotorua Lakefront

5. Rose Impressions , Government Gardens, Rotorua

6. Pohutukawa Blossom Whakatane, NZ

7. Pohutukawa Explosion Whakatane, NZ

8. Mystical Pohtukawa 1, Ohiwa

9.Mystical Pohutukawa 2, Ohiwa Bay of Plenty

Sunset Port Waikato, NZ

Cushion Pohutukawa Ohope

Email me on janet@jkeen.net text on 0273513887 Call 073463435

All cards individually hand made and signed. .

 

 

 

 Up to 5 Cards $6.50

Order 10 cards pay $6.00 each.

15 cards 5.50 each

 20 and over  $5.00 each

Plus postage and packing.

 

 

Animation of my illustrations by my husband Graham Hardman. Illustration classes Monday mornings and Monday afternoons. Text 0273513887 for more information

Tauranga under the Matapihi Railway bridge photography and poetry.

Reflections..... Tauranga under the Railway Bridge

 

 

An  exercise to try:

Pairing unrelated  poems to photographs.

The viewer is invited to make their own sense of what you are saying.

You don't have to spell everything out to your audience. 

Try juxtaposing and see what happens.

If you watch animated music videos you can often see this idea at work. 

An animation plays to a song and appears to have little to do with the words of the song even though it tells its own story.

 

Advertisers  use this device to lure watchers into making favourable associations with their products on a subconscious level. 

How many times have you watched clips on television with scenes that appear to have nothing on the surface to do with the thing that is being advertised? 

It's a great device to prolong attention as the mind mulls over possible links. 

 

. 

Following are some tanka paired with scenes near the Tauranga  Rail Bridge .

 See what you think.

 Then go out into the field with your camera in a spot you like

Take about 60  photos and pick out your top 10. 

Write short poetry underneath that look as though on the surface they aren't connected. 

time  does not  heal all wounds

that lurk in crevices 

of  past memories 

frenemies words

no power to derail 

 

                                                                        

                                                                       autumn morning 

on the pathway

possum prints 

in orange juice

                                                                       with discarded peel   

lavender essential oils

baking soda with epsom salts 

soothing tired limbs

after a day of walking

in long shadows

the squarking chorus 

of hopeful seagulls

living for the moment

the couple stop eating

their oysters and chips

at lunchtime  

outside the closed cafe 

rows of crumbling houses 

devoured by

hungry waves

during lockdown 

I run my tongue 

over cracked molars 

yet still 

I suck on toffees

                                                       The high road or the low road.

 i am in the library

discussing writing

with my friend

when a bull dog

of a woman

 who I have avoided

for five years

 for sound  reasons

 passes by.

 

Because of lock-down

 kindness

 I make eye contact

and smile thinking-

that's the end of it-

good deed done.

goodbye

 

On her lonely way out

 she has the cheek

to stop to talk

after all the polluted water

that has passed

under

our  bridges

while showering us

(but mostly my friend)

with pleasantries.

 

 

She parts with a toxic

 judgemental  jibe

leaving me 

 with a mouth full of

indignation and 

wondering about

the wisdom of

 taking the highroad

when faced with a

  bulldog's bite. 

Beginner Photography lessons, especially for women. 

 

From snapshots to great shots in the most rapid time possible without too much technical jargon and complicated language. Plenty of opportunity for image taking and image critiquing. Bring along a pen drive of your images and I will improve them in photoshop for you with my simple to follow editing recipes.

 

 

 

Painting mosaic making, illustration  and creative poetry, short story writing lessons available Monday and Tuesday mornings in my art- filled studio. After school creative enrichment lessons Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 3.30 pm.Wednesday and Friday mornings 9am to 12noon.

Please email janet@jkeen.net  for a no obligation quote.

Phone or text  0273513887 to enquire about booking  time out for creativity in  your special place. 

 

Creative Quote of the day

You must write every single day of your life... You must lurk in libraries and climb the stacks like ladders to sniff books like perfumes and wear books like hats upon your crazy heads... may you be in love every day for the next 20,000 days. And out of that love, remake a world.

Ray Bradbury

 

I think that the practice of writing every day was what made me remember that writing doesn't have anything to do with publishing books. It can be totally separate and private - a comforting thought.

Nell Freudenberger

 

Writing every day is a way of keeping the engine running, and then something good may come out of it.

T. S. Eliot

 

Lake Okareka photographs to view by Janet Keen Rotorua based Fine Art Photographer, Writer and Artist

Beginner Photography lessons Tuesday and Wednesday and Friday mornings 9am to 12noon.

Please email janet@jkeen.net  for details.

Phone or text  0273513887 to book your special place. 

Tanka and Haiku to Celebrate special moments in time at lake Okareka, Rotorua , New Zealand.

autumn afternoon

 lake during lockdown

still the rustle of toitoi

 

 

                                                                                     

even though

it is lockdown at the lake

fish still rise at dusk

is

all walks

around lakes

covered in people

 

autumn afternoon

chilled  wind dropped

soon it will be dark

how unusual

no sound of  outdoor motors

slight breeze

amongst the kanuka

carries the kingfisher cry

 

 

manuka tree repellent

sandflies still bite

truncates the bush picnic

 

 

Buy New Zealand Made

Cards

Plus

A4, A3, A2, A1 Prints.

Email janet@jkeen.net for prices.

 

Feel free to comment on the ones you like the best.

 

 

 

Creative Quote of the day

 overgrown woods

stillness of  lonely shore

company where none intrudes

soothing lap of waves

 not completely shy of others

  just loving nature far more

 

 

 

 Local photography tours, I can show you some of the best locations locally for fantastic photos. 

Priced from $300.00 per person

 

Bubble Photography , During Lockdown. Gathering words for haiku and tanka Hamurana, Rotorua, New Zealand.

Every day my husband and I go for at least an hour long walk or bike ride in Rotorua. 
We take a home-made picnic and freshly brewed coffee in a thermos.
 We have sucrose-free banana and fejoia muffins or slices of loaf. 
Usually I'll take my camera with a wide angle lens and a polaroid filter so I can take effective photos of trees when the sun is high up in the sky. 


plain air  picnics
fejoias taste fresher  
among trees near water



An exercise for you would be to take a small notebook and a pencil on your next walk. 
Don't talk too much. 
 Make this a mindful and meditative experience. 
After half an hour
Sit down near or under a tree. 
 Jot down ideas and sensory words that come into your mind.
Nothing is off limits. 
Whatever you put down will be right at that time.
Trust your intuition 



leaving the japanese walnuts
i hear the sigh of
sayonara

What can You see?

What can You  taste?
       What can You hear?
                 What can You touch?
                                What can You smell

The most poignant sense of all...
                        What does your intuition tell you?


When you arrive home. 
 Look over your words. 
Write the experience up in the form of short sentences.
Leave it alone giving your subconscious time to percolate

Then
Create a haiku or tanka out of it. 

NB: First try and you can't do it?
      Don't give up.
      Try again.
       But just a word of warning.
       Do not show people your work too early.
         It is your baby and you don't want to have your                   "darlings" killed off.

 I've been writing  and reading poetry for over 50 years now, off and on.
I studied it at university.
I have masses of whimsical children's books with stunning illustrations and poetic prose.

 I wrote my first rainbow book of poetry at the age of five and gave it to a nun at the convent school I was going to. 
She was very encouraging and told my mother that I was a talented poet. 
 I have published chapbooks of haiku and photography

It's  been a long journey.
It's never too late to start. 
 If you are reading this blog maybe the right time for you to start is now. 

perfumed
invitations sent
out by blossoms
inviting bees
to breakfast

whispering secrets
in the breeze
acers, willows, poplars
mixed accents 
varigated responses.

trees of a feather 
 capable
of friendship 
feeding each other
from a distance 

no more leaves
 to fall 
swaying willows 
signal desires
beckoning branches

  communities of trees 
 help each other out
transporting sugar 
to leaves
providing shelter

 walking among 
trees  is a constant 
reminder to slow down 
and tune into 
the language of nature

 Illustrated Tanka and Haiku  workshops available for primary school aged pupils in the Rotorua area. 
Email janet@jkeen.net or Phone 0273513887 or  3463435
for details. 

Creative Quote of the day
"I would define in brief the poetry of words as the rhythmical creation of beauty"
Edgar Allen Poe.