Quiet Summer

As some of you might have noticed, I have neglected my blog for quite some time. What can I say? This summer has not been very creative for me to say the least.

For now, some beads and stones have occupied my studio table to take a bath in sun and moon light, while I figure out the right design for a custom necklace.

There are 3 paintings waiting to be continued and, eventually, finished (the image shows 2 of them). I really hope to get back to them after I finish a big translation project I'm working at right now.

How about you? How was this summer for you so far? Have you created something? Have you taken any courses?

You know I always love to hear from you, right?

Please, feel free to leave a comment here or contact me at ritajc(at)inbox(dot)lv

Loads of Pondering

The last week has been full of deep pondering for me, as I am trying to figure out my path at least for the next couple of years.

I had my first couple of sessions as a life coach. Really loved them, and the clients seemed to feel much happier and be much more focused and productive after our conversations. One of them said: "This conversation made me very sad and joyful! (We worked with her grief.) It was positive!" The sessions are free for now. So, if you would like to figure out, if you and me are the right team to get you unstuck and move on in your life, feel free to contact me via e-mail: ritajc@inbox.lv or on Facebook to schedule a trial session.

There are still many decisions to make, before my new business is launched, but I am working on it every day and most definitely moving forward. And my Soul Art piece is helping me a huge load. As some of you know, I started it 10 days ago. It has changed more or less every day since then, and this is how it looks now. I call her my inner Mother Goddess.

These are some of the phases it went through.

The Soul Art process has revealed to me so many things about me and the question I wanted to get the answer to! I would really love to become a Soul Art certified guide, but there are so many other techniques I want to learn and get certified at. Decisions, decisions... :)

One of them is about the place of fine art in my life in the next future. If it is meant to be a business, I have to work more on the commercial side of it. But where to get the time and energy for that, if I am launching a whole new other business already? If it stays just a hobby, I have to stop investing so much in it and, most probably, going to the public studio. The place of that studio in my life is unclear in general. The atmosphere is wonderful and the mentor is really inspiring and supporting! But, as he says, he has almost nothing to teach me, as he sees me as a mature artist. And working in the studio makes the creating process unnatural and pretty hard for me. As we live outside the town, it takes time and money to get there. Mostly, we have chores to do before the studio time and I arrive there tired already. And, then, I feel this pressure to paint even though I might not feel, what the painting wants, because that is the "studio time" and I have payed for it. After those 3 hours, I feel dead tired and, sometimes, not happy with what I have added to my work at all. Then, I have to get home and get back to the studio the next day for another 3 hours (still tired from the previous day), because those are the times it is open. What comes naturally to me, is living with a painting for the time it is being created and adding to it when I feel what it wants. Mostly, it takes me weeks and a huge number of short sessions to channel something to the canvas. Another thing I miss in the studio are my supplies. I love to have them all around me to pick the one that feels right at any given moment . It's impossible to take them all to the studio, as we don't have a car and my son has to carry them on his back. And it's such a stress every time to gather them and to predict what I could need over there... For now, I am still going to it to keep company to my son, who needs to prepare for the enrollment exams into the art school but doesn't feel confident enough in the town yet. Decisions, decisions...

Anyway, this is the first piece I created in the studio.

A couple of weeks ago, I started the largest piece ever over there (100x80 cm), as usually, with a layer of collaged paper scraps. These are some of the stages it went through so far. It has loads of circles in it, and, at one point, I covered it almost completely with a layer of the Chalkboard spray from The Tattered Angels Paint System.

This is, how it looks right now and I have no idea, what it wants.

To be honest, I liked all the previous layers better, than the current one, but that is nothing new for my creative process, right? The piece might be next to being finished. :D

I know, I know, the post turned out pretty huge. I would really love to make many small posts instead, thought about it every day, but couldn't bring me to it. Have no idea why.

I would really appreciate your ideas and suggestions about my struggles in the comments here or as a private message via e-mail: ritajc@inbox.lv or on Facebook.

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Celebration In My Studio

My youngest son Pēteris is turning 16 today.

As some of you know, me, my 2 youngest kids, and our 7 pets happen to live in my studio.


So YAY! Sun is shining and there is a celebration in my studio today!

And I have been very creative: the food and the drinks we have on the table didn't cost much more than $10 all together! One more YAY! :)

My Creative Space - Expanding

IT HAPPENED! THE FIRST EVER EXHIBITION WITH ONE OF MY PAINTINGS AND 3 STUDIES WAS OPENED ON APRIL 3 IN MY HOMETOWN LIEPAJA IN LATVIA!

And this is near to how "we" looked right before The Moment! Sorry for the bad quality of the image, but this was the best that could be edited out of my daughter's snapshot under those circumstances :)

I had 3 guests there in addition to my daughter: my sister, my nephew, and one of my ex-MILs :) It felt good, although I didn't know most of the people in the room personally, as I am a complete newbie in the public studio the artists share twice a week. But it totally felt like everything was happening the way it was supposed to. Although, it's really hard to feel back into that moment, as this one is completely different: my body is fighting what's called a virus and a FM flair.

During the last week, a whole bunch of new images have started or continued to evolve under my hands. Most of them - pretty dark, although they don't present as sad or painful to "me". These could be the closest to being finished.

The last one is emerging in the Evening Studio, and it's a real challenge for me, as it's hard to know, what will want to be added to it, when me and my son leave the house and take the supplies with us.

An exception form the dark series is this painting on a 20x30 inch canvas, which emerged very quickly and spontaneously around midnight inspired by the sound of this video. Interestingly enough, it doesn't let to depict it exactly as it is even with the perfect light. It is actually phthalo/sky blue and turquoise, and the white lines are more distinctive, but it doesn't look like this, no matter what I do, at least - not on this screen :)

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