Spring Is Here

Normally, February would be the coldest month of the year here in Latvia.

But this year, winter has been really short and mild and meteorologists say that the average day temperature is constantly staying above the freezing point.

They say the snowdrops are blooming at some places. Haven't seen any myself yet, but the willows show pretty big catkins already.

So, yes, spring must be here. YAY!!!

How is it where you are?

I Love It Here

It's getting colder here. And the heating system is totally centralized and collectivized since the Soviet time, when these houses were built.

That means, the heating will be available only after certain conditions are met even for the ones, who can pay for it.

And, after that, it will be adjusted for the whole house at once and stop only in the spring. But that's not the problem for us right now.

It's pretty chill in our apartment. Our pets are moving closer to sleep.

This is the absolutely closest, as it gets. And, for each of them, this is a true act of bravery.

As it is my bed, I sleep between them as well, when I do. And love the warmth around me, especially - from the dog. Although, sometimes it's challenging, when the dog forgets herself. :)

Yes, it's fall and it's getting colder. The first snow forecast by the end of the week.

But look at all this glorious beauty I see right now in the neighborhood...

...and our house entrance...

... and a little piece of the view from my room!

You get it, why I love it here even at this time of the year, don't you? :)

(BTW: the flower shop is in the flat building on the bottom of the image.)

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Creative Every Day

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

Time of Big Changes

The last couple of weeks have been full of big changes for me inwardly and outwardly.

Weather is unusually warm, and on most days - sunny, but the trees know, it's autumn.

Love my hometown Liepaja! It (actually "She" in Latvian) is so beautiful at any time of the year! :)

Step by step, I'm returning to my usual cheerful and hopeful self, that sees beauty and goodness in everything.

And the sandplay therapy is helping me a lot.

And I have a day job. Since last Thursday, I work in a flower shop.

The salary is low and the working week is long, but there are lots of benefits as well. The biggest one: the shop is in a building right next to our home. :)

And things in the shop, that was ready to sell my creations, have started out really well, especially - regarding jewelry with semi precious stones.

The owner is interested in all kinds of cooperation with me.

So, I decided to spend a couple of hours every week in the shop to take in orders and jewelry for repair. And my desk at home looks mostly like this, when I get to it.

But I still started a new painting last night. :D

Thank goodness for the slow years and months before! My life seems gathering speed very quickly right now. And I love it!!! :D

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Paint Party Friday

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And you know I'm always happy to hear from you, right?

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

My Creative Space

Another pretty productive week in my studio and even more so outside of it. I had almost no translation projects to work at (makes me a bit nervous about paying the bills, but I really appreciate the time & energy I can spend with my creative explorations) and no classes at school. 

First of all, we got a new assignment in the CAPI course with Milliande. It was quite a challenge for me, as I'm used to work intuitively and not to know, what I'm actually creating until the last part of the process. For this assignment, we had to stay with one shape (or a combination of them) discovered on a sheet full of scribbles. And we were encouraged to use techniques not so usual to us. So I played with one figure on repurposed pieces of card board and restricted me to 4 materials: white gesso, black water soluble pencil, burnt umber acrylic paint and graphite pencil. And these are my results so far. And, honestly, I was pretty surprised about the development.

Another collection I have started to create are silhouettes of naked trees around my village. It's all covered and pretty dark here, so the image quality isn't the best, but they are good enough for me as a reference or maybe for some transfers. The unique pattern of each tree has always fascinated me, and this little collection makes me really happy, although to get a good silhouette of one tree is quite a challenge, as none of the trees is standing separately in a plain field here. These are the most expressive ones from the images I have gathered so far.

Another series/collection is emerging from my experiments with what's left in my coffee cup after I've had my coffee.  I really love this process for so many reasons:
* the result is pretty much unpredictable, although, after more than 10 sheets, I have found some regularities & the right tool and refined my technique
* I don't "waste" expensive art supplies to play and explore, actually, I recycle, what I always love to do
* no hazardous fumes, the whole house smells like a coffee shop :)
etc. etc.
After the first layer is dry, the sheets look somewhat like this.

This one has the layer number 4 on it and isn't completely dry yet.

As you can see, I was all in shades of grey and brown last week. The only excerpt was this dramatic sunrise yesterday morning.

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