Last winter, I became interested in The Shakespeare Authorship Question thanks to Alexander Waugh’s You Tube presentations. Having been turned off Shakespeare at school, I was amazed to find myself enthralled. Alexander Waugh (and others) have produced compelling evidence that indicate Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford to be the most likely author, or…
Tag: Kirsten Harris Art
Seeding the Energy
Horses feel our thoughts. With hands as light as a dandelion seed we can direct our minds energy from our free necks and poised backs through our seat and hands to the horses mind, soul and spirit carrying us both through an ever expanding potential space. It’s called lightness and it takes practice as we…
Habitat – Birds at The Crystal Ball
I shared this painting on my FB page yesterday thinking it finally finished. This morning I’m not so sure. I need to hang it and see whether it hangs peacefully or nags me further. Someone asked me on FB if it was hard to do, due to the words written on it! I’ve been thinking…
You can’t keep doing more paintings!
‘Kirsten, you can’t keep doing more paintings, you must sell! You are running out of space! You have too many paintings and too much stuff too!’ ‘Really!?’ Am I doing harm to anyone painting whilst holding a vision of planting a forest before I die, or that I find objects d’art, small treasures found along…
Keeping on Keeping On!
I am not sure how this happened. But take a look at the stages of the painting before it became this painting, which I am calling The Intelligence of Trees. I just kept on keeping on instead of stopping! I must have liked this at some point as I stuck a copyright thing on the…
Feather Paintings – Painting with Spirit
The lovely thing about painting with feathers is I feel a connection with the bird and its energy, its spirit. I haven’t painted many birds, just a few African ones, so am enjoying this new subject matter immensely as I spend the summer observing them in the garden. I am trying not to overwork these…
For all the ‘Weirdos!’
Here’s the thing! When I went to art school in the early 80’s it was ‘where weirdos go!’ I was regularly told as a teenager I was a weirdo for liking art, dressing up weird and my music choices – ska, blues, punk! And alongside, told I would never make a living as an artist…
Shapeshifter
I can’t seem to decide to paint a thing then paint the thing! I decide to paint a thing and then it becomes a different thing. Unplanned things happen! I wasn’t intending crows but crows became the thing. And here’s the thing – both the day and the art shape shift no matter how good…
I See Your Horse Trees
A visiting friend yesterday said – ‘I see your horse trees in the fields here!’ What lovely words to hear, as though horse trees have become a thing! At art school in the 80’s, I made a large, 3d, interactive canvas (you could put your head inside it through several holes and see more paintings)…
Oil Paint versus Acrylic
Mother Africa, The Low Hanging Fruit are Easiest to Pick – Oil on Canvas, 150 x 100 cm Oil paint is honest! It’s substantial holding it’s rich, beautiful, natural colours but needs space and time available to dry, whilst releasing its toxic fumes. Acrylic is a dishonest bugger! It dries thinner than you’ve applied it,…
No! – Work in Progress
It can be hard to say ‘No!’ All sorts of emotions and thoughts can emerge to negotiate – guilt, fear, the people pleaser… but a ‘No’ to someone else can be a ‘Yes’ to yourself. In my experience a lot of us women find saying ‘No’ difficult, having been brought up to be good girls….
Daily Doodles – The Birth of a Haggis
A friend messaged me yesterday to say she was enjoying my daily doodles! It made me wonder about the word doodle. It is rooted in Germanic dudeldopp – simpleton. In the 17th century doodle meant ‘to make a fool of’ and the current sense of ‘scrawling aimlessly’ comes from the 1930’s. Hmm, interesting… a simpleton…
What is Brave Art? Art Workshops at Shieldhill Castle as Part of the Biggar Little Festival 2022
‘Another Word for Creativity is Courage’ – Henri Matisse All creativity is essentially brave. It takes courage to express yourself. Whether you are a musician, actor, artist or writer, you are digging deep inside to pull that joyous creative ‘rabbit’ out of your magical hat! Your best art will surprise you. Art is alchemy –…
Intentions – A bit of a stretch!
Artwork – Floating Above, Acrylic and Gold on Panel, 30 x 30cm I wrote a blog a few days ago called ‘The Joy of Not Setting Intentions.’ It definitely helped me have more fun with everything, so returning to the word intention this morning curious about its etymology. Intention comes from the Latin intendere meaning…
Heavenly Beings – I am Listening
Heavenly Beings, Oil on Panel, 40 x 40 cm I have tinnitus. It started during lockdown. Apparently it’s common and there seems to be no cure, so I’ve decided to listen into the high frequency, to allow rather than react to it: to be curious and see what I can hear. Now there is an…
The Walls Have Ears!
The walls might not have ears but they do have eyes, that is windows… I think of my small seascapes as windows to the sea. Painting, I hear the sea in my mind’s ear and see it in my imagination. I love the way a small canvas size can suggest a vast oceanic space. These…
The Christmas Story (With Bees) – Adapted and Illustrated by Kirsten Harris
My first video – I’ve been amusing myself over the past few days cartooning. I’ve never tried illustrating a story before, but a bee character showed up a few days ago and inspired an idea. I hope you enjoy the Xmas Story (With Bees). Sorry there is no audio. I am not a musician and…
Advent Calendar – 12th December – The Happiness of Drinking Tea with a Friend
A few years ago a friend gave me some cut willow branches. Easy peasy trees to grow, literally cut branches and stick into the ground in spring. Now I have trees growing drinking up some of the wet areas of ground here. But more than that… Willow bark tea is known as nature’s aspirin. Peel…
Advent Calendar – 5th December – Clyde Dryad
The Dryads of Greek mythology are tree guardians. Hamadryads, nymph spirits of oak and poplar trees, are connected with river-side trees and sacred groves. When a tree dies a Dryad dies. By planting native trees we plant spirit back into the land. Cash crop mono-forestry plantations have little or no spirit and do not guardian…
Advent Calendar – 3rd December – This Too Shall Pass!
This too shall pass, such a useful thought in hard and stressful times! A thought that asks us to change our attitude in the moment and be hopeful, knowing that life is short and everything changes. Change is the only certainty. Crows flock around the Horse Trees. Crows, intelligent, creative and adaptable, a crow feather…
Advent Calendar – 2nd December – The Return
I started this drawing months ago but it wasn’t speaking. Today the crows arrived at the Unicorn Tree. Crows are intelligent, adaptable and symbolic of transformation. They also have a somewhat sinister presence. The crows brought the drawing to life and with them came an idea… My dad told me that the beech trees we…
Advent Calendar – 11th December – The Embrace
Children hug trees. One girl stands beside a horse. ‘It is time to take action! We are ready!’ she says ‘ Show us the way!’ A prayer of sorts. Fencing off areas within our horses fields to plant stands of trees is a gift to the future – trees to embrace and nurture the children…
Advent Calendar – 1st December – Creating The Christmas Forest
Traditionally advent was marked with a chalk line on the wall ticking off the days until Christmas. I am marking advent with art, probably drawings, for 24 days as, I hope, a way to bring in ‘the light’ of ideas and inspiration. There is something about setting an intention and showing up that lets ideas…
Dusting my Whimsies!
I love things – old things, odd things, quirky things, kitsch things, inspiring things, hand made things! It’s deeply unfashionable to like things in this world where minimilism is seen as spiritual and billions of tons of stuff are dumped into landfill every year! Dah! I am an unashamed lover of things! A few weeks…
To Earth We Return
To Earth We Return by Kirsten Harris Why do humans find it so hard to accept that none of us are getting out of here alive? Me included! Life is short! My dad told me that all the avenues of beech trees in Britain were planted after the first world war to commemorate the dead….
Tree Lovers – Will You Help me Plant Trees?
Tree Lovers by Kirsten Harris We are heading to autumn and I hope to plant a lot more trees. Will you help me? These prints of tree drawings will pay to fence off an area of land to protect the young trees and get more planted. I am on a mission and asking for help!…
Why Blog?
Curious Cats by Kirsten Harris, Acrylic on Board, 40 x 50 cm I haven’t blogged much lately, so thought I would write a ‘why blog’ blog to give myself a kick up the creative bum! Simply put, blogging takes you forward. It’s an odd thing but it’s an effective way to speed up the creative…
The Last Tree On Earth
The Last Tree on Earth One dawn this spring I was watching the bronzy morning light on the tree outside my window, half asleep, drifting. I ‘saw’ an image of the last human in the world lying in the tree reaching for the last apple. It was a powerful semi-lucid moment. I decided to paint…
Beware of Bull – Close Encounters with the Community Bull!
Bull’s Close, Lanark was so named as it was where the community bull was historically kept. I love the idea of a community bull! It’s easy to forget that farm-yard animals, especially chickens, lived amongst people in towns. During lockdown many people have returned to keeping chickens and growing their own vegetables, including me, and…
Open Wide – More on Illustrating Lanark’s Medieval Closes
When I was asked to illustrate the history of Lanark’s Medieval Closes, for information panels to be displayed in the street, I was shocked, to say the least! I am definitely not known for images of buildings! Animals yes, dandelion clocks yes, horses yes, buildings, no! Perspective, Argh! ‘Steer clear’ has always been my motto! I…
Time Passages
Medieval Lanark – a walled town I love the idea of time travel – finding portals that allow you to travel into a history that’s still alive through fragments in the environment. Clues like echoes or ghosts of souls that trod before us. Lanark has twelve remaining Medieval public waythrough ‘time passages’ in the form…
Tao Te Ching – Ten
Carrying body and soul and embracing the one, Can you avoid separation? Attending fully and becoming supple, Can you be as a newborn babe? Washing and cleansing the primal vision, Can you be without stain? Loving all men and ruling the county, Can you be without cleverness? Opening and closing the gates of heaven, Can…
How to Fail as an Artist! 12 Fool Proof Steps to Failure!
Sometimes I have a dreadful sense of humour but I guess it’s good I can still make myself smile. So here is – How to fail as an artist! 12 fool proof steps to failure! Don’t finish anything. It’s safest to not start at all. If you make the mistake of starting don’t show anything…
20 – 20 Vision – Get Back on Your Unicorn Gallery
Welcome to my Unicorn Gallery. 20 Unicorn drawings and cartoons from £20 as part of my 20-20 Vision project, drawing a weird and challenging year to an end. I expected everyone to be talking about 2020 vision this year not viruses, so thought I would create a 20-20 vision personal art project and challenge to…
A Local Ghost Story
The Grey Lady of Sheildhill Castle by Kirsten Harris
Bum to the Wind!
Weathering the Storm by Kirsten Harris I’ve been thinking about how important it is to to keep a steady course in the midst of a storm, and that maintaining a steady course is a balancing act that requires courage, patience and trust. I notice people sail mentally into the eye of the storm and then…
Perspectives on Drawing
How the Cat Got Nine Lives, Ink on Paper I have been doing a lot of illustrative drawing recently and to my amazement have just discovered I CAN draw buildings which has inspired me to want to blog about drawing… Ideas arrive in the process of doing. They appear when we show up. White paper…
Dog Blog 1! Lightning Sketches
How am I going to learn to illustrate dogs? My plan – 1 – don’t go for finished product 2 – do lightning sketches to work out how to draw hairy hyperactive dog Maisie 3 – see if a character starts to emerge 4 – observe and draw as fast as possible 5 – don’t…
Meeting of the Sky Gods
Last week clumsy me damaged a painting. It upset me but in the big scheme of things seemed trivial. Last night I spent half the night dreaming that I should repair it and to repair it by adding horses in the clouds. As I painted the three horses and restored the painting it seemed a…
How to mess up your back and create pain whilst thoroughly enjoying yourself painting!
1 – Decide whilst an arctic storm is blowing that it’s a really good idea to go into your unheated studio and work on some large oil paintings that you thought were finished and had framed but have now decided to change. 2 – Repeat this behaviour pretty much daily for three weeks whilst three…
The Journey
A horse stands on a telegraph pole, other horses bravely move forward, balancing on a wire. The drawing is called The Journey. Sometimes we get stuck. It feels as though life is moving on without us. Our emotions, fear, circumstances or past experiences leave us in a place of hesitation or doubt. It may seem as…
Extinction Rebellious Art!
What if all we need to do to create change and stop destruction is to learn how to stop. Sounds simple enough. Just stop, or pause and take a bit of time out to think about what we are doing. Stop to create space to allow something new to happen. Stop the stuff that doesn’t…
Only Do the Good Ones!
My dear departed dad once asked me ‘Why don’t you only paint the good ones?’ He was trying to be helpful, and it made me laugh. If only!’ I said! ‘If I could I would!’ Sometimes I know when I have done a good painting, but sometimes it seems not. When I had finished drawing…
Contemplating the Earth Walk
I am thinking about feet! I tore a plantar plate in my toe about 5 months, a toe is now floating. It doesn’t sound like a big deal but it has made walking very difficult. It is funny how injury clarifies what is important! Tree planting for me! A foot is a powerful symbol for…
Feel
I am going to start writing a few blogs about the meaning behind my drawings. Hopefully, if you like the drawings, you will be able to find your own meaning too. My drawings more and more reflect my interest in horses, symbolism, teaching the Alexander Technique, positive thinking, tree planting and the environment and more….
Four Winds Medicine Wheel
‘Four Winds Medicine Wheel’ by Kirsten Harris I thought I would write a little about my drawings. ‘Four Wind’s Medicine Wheel’ is about emergence into light from darkness. It is about the mysterious deep space energy from which we all come. The element represented is air, the mind. The intuition of the moon calls us…
The Happiness of Grass
The Happiness of Grass by Kirsten Harris I have been thinking a lot about grass! As you do! Under a powerful microscope grass looks like it is smiling. Grass is amazing stuff. Grass is happy and it sure has tenacity. No matter how trampled and muddy, parched and burnt or just plain sad and worn…
In Our Hands
(I shared this originally as a facebook post on my art page Kirsten Harris Art. I wanted to write something to go with the drawing and to write from my heart about horses. I thought I should post as a blog here. I hope you enjoy it. ) ‘In Our Hands’ by Kirsten Harris 5…
Messages from Trees
‘In Nature We Find Ourselves’ Drawing by Kirsten Harris Messages from Trees – Breathe deeply of me I am the lungs of the world, my health and yours are one Let your spine flow upwards and your limbs flow outwards in the sky Life will shape you and sculpt you as you grow, it’s…
The Wishing Horse
Increasingly my painting and drawing is looking at ways to express ideas about mind-body-soul connection, horses and riding, drawing on my experience as a horse owner and Alexander Technique teacher, as well as hopefully connecting with some of the spiriitual magic and timeless inspirational power that is horses and the lessons we learn from…
What my horse drawings are about…
‘Connections’ – A drawing of two horses about elasticity, flow, direction, spatial awareness and connection. In February I set myself a drawing project, the weather was wild (snowed in home alone for 6 days) a drawing a day seemed like a doable project. I decided to concentrate my artwork on horses. For years…
How to Make a Dream Come True
How to Make a Dream Come True by Kirsten Harris I have been asked by someone to say what this image means to me, so here goes … The girl on the ground is daring to dream, she leans on the magic dandelion clock, the wish machine, that will give her dreams wings….
Lasting Impressions
My first art school teacher was the performance and instillation artist Kerry Trengrove, 1946 – 1991, infamous for his 1977 performance An Eight Day Passage, where he was buried in a small cell under the Acme Gallery in London and had to dig his way out. The performance is still legendary as an epic endurance…
Reflections on Plagiarism, Stress, Tattoos & the Kindness of Strangers!
If wishes were horses, beggars would ride If turnips were watches, I’d wear one by my side If ‘if’s and ‘and’s’ were pots and pans, There would be no work for tinkers hands! If wishes were horses, beggars would ride Watch! Some ‘turnips’ have no integrity or pride They’ll plagiarise your concept, pass it…
Wishing on Dandelion Clocks
Wishing with a Horse by Kirsten Harris ‘If Wishes Were Horses beggars would ride!’ I was the little girl who begged to ride. I mucked out all weekend at the local stables for a chance to sit on a horse and that might just be bringing the horses up from the field. I…
I Love Artists!
What could be better than gathering a group of artists who are scattered across this much over looked part of rural South Lanarkshire and who in the main don’t know each other and putting together an exhibition on a shared theme. This time Tinto, our much loved fire hill, is the source of inspiration…
The Path of a Painting
The idea for this painting came from walking in the mountains. I wanted to make a painting which was more about the experience of walking uphill, than a portrait of a hill or mountain. I have called it ‘A Spiritual Path’, as it is about the push to keep going in life when the path…
Dandelion Oracle
If Wishes Were Horses Dandelion oracle I blow on your clock Sending wishes into the wind Tell me when Love returns A year and half ago I was in the field next to my house early in the morning photographing dandelion clocks when my mum phoned from Portugal to say that my dad…
28 Drawings Later – Drawing some conclusions, half way through
I’m doing a project called 28 Drawings Later aka getting through a shitty February in the wilderness! (Us Brits like to moan about the weather, a national form of therapy and endless fascination!) The title 28 Drawings Later appealed – the suggestion of a journey, the suggestion of arriving in a new place – bring…
On Tintock Tap – Symbolism in a Traditional Lanarkshire Rhyme
ON TINTOCK TAP ‘On Tintock Tap there is a mist, And in that mist there is a kist, And in the kist there is a caup, And in that caup there is a drap; Tak’ up the caup, drink aff the drap And set up camp on Tintock Tap’ Tinto, 1/1/2018 To…
Mad!? Part 2
About a year ago I wrote a blog called Mad!? It was a rant about why artists aren’t mad, in response to being called a mad artist one too many times. Mad!? Link to blog This blog is a consideration of the fact that ‘mad’ might be a very apt term after all! …
Art, Bamboo Glasses and a Foul Mouthed Pub Landlady
Last night at the exhibition opening of Seascapes at the Old Chain Pier in Edinburgh, stories were told about the eccentric landlady who presided there in the 50’s and 60’s. Her family had owned the pub since the turn of the century. My friends mum and dad, revealing how they went on their second…
My Colouring Book
How about a giving a gift of planting a tree via a colouring book this Xmas? At the same time you will be sharing a a healthy dose of Alexander Technique and mindfulness nature wisdom … If that sounds appealing you have nothing further to do than click here and buy The Daily Ease…
Wonderful World
Imagine an art gallery in an industrial unit? The sort of place you might go to have your car MOT’d! This is Resonate Arts House in Alloa and I love the space! An artists dream in fact – big wall spaces, well lit, run by art historian Clark, whose passion and knowledge of the visual…