My love of tiny art and trees
Original post re-shared from my SUBSTACK PUBLICATION, where you can find all my writings.
~ I saw this quote and it stopped me in my Instagram scrolling tracks ~
Autumn, the time of year when I ask myself…what do I need to let go of?… mother nature, always offering us cues as to what we should lean into, is now leading us towards the wind-down.
“Life meanders like a path through the woods. We have seasons when we flourish and seasons when the leaves fall from us, revealing our bare bones. Given time, they grow again.”
― Katherine May, Wintering: The Power of Rest and Retreat in Difficult Times.
The trees transform daily before our eyes, individually performing their glorious colour-laden finale before they release their grip, drop their curtain of leaves and exit the stage into winter rest.
Nature is saying to me…get ready to let go.
When I was young:
“What did you do as a child that made the hours pass like minutes? Herein lies the key to your earthly pursuits.”. ― Carl Jung.
This quote resonated with me, such a simple question, yet so evocative. Childhood memories flooded back quickly, springing to mind came…making tiny things and sitting in trees.
Sitting in trees:
Memories of running in and out of wooded areas, playing adventures in my mind, imagining tiny windows, doors and chimneys in twisted trunks where the creatures of Brambley Hedge might live, or The Borrowers might be crafting some new invention out of their latest finds. The smell of pine needles and soft bouncy carpet of them under my feet as I explored the undergrowth on family walks, still evokes a feeling of happiness to this day. At home, I had a tree in the field behind our house that I would storm off to when I needed my own space, or to cool off! Climbing the step like branches up into the tree’s canopy I would sit in solitude with nature, until the comforting branches soothed my flyaway emotions. Apparently I was being watched from the kitchen window…where’s Hannah?… she’s in her tree.
I missed walking in amongst woodlands on my travels, there were trees throughout the Mediterranean of course, but they didn’t give the same feeling. We saw some very ancient olive trees and fabulous fig trees along the way which were majestic and fizzing with old tree energy, but they were not entwined with a woven undergrowth, mycelium networks and root twisted community of the woods to which I am familiar, at least not that I saw. When I came back to Northern Ireland one of the first things I did was go for a walk in the woods, and I realised, it is my happy place….My connection to the healing power of trees… goes back a long way.
Saying hi to an ancient olive tree in Greece on Kastos island.
Admiring the majestic fig trees in the city of Cartagena, Spain.
Making tiny things:
Getting lost in my own world as a child; making and imagining, creating and collecting miniature things, whiling away many hours sewing, sculpting or painting was another happy place that melted time. It is interesting that this answer emerged, as I have recently been revisiting my love of little paintings. The limited space onboard Sea Snail meant small paintings began to appear and since returning to land living, I have been painting a series of miniature original watercolour paintings and in doing so, have apparently, unconsciously, been connecting with my childhood love of making tiny things.
Not everyone sees the value in a miniature paintings, maybe because they are small it seems less of a challenge to create, but painting little works of art requires the same creative process. Working on a miniature scale with tiny brushes can be as testing as working on larger pieces and it takes time to get my mini’s just so. The feedback I have been getting is that people find them enchanting, some comments have been; “small paintings really feel quite special”…”so much detail in a tiny space.”…”beautiful and somehow small means precious to me”
You can view my mini paintings for sale…HERE
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