The golden hour

Back to Golden Bay to breathe freely for a while. Mist hovers over the sea today but still the holiday makers are growing and soon it will be just too busy for comfort.

We find a table at our little cafe and we feel free for a while to drink in the peace, the sense of relaxed activity and enjoyment. A beautiful setting, a carefree atmosphere, ---life as life! Thank God for Golden Bay and that golden hour.
                             Mo.

Reality or nightmare?

From St Paul's Bay by-pass.

It's growing hot here and at times the little village can seem oppressive.Narrow streets, traffic chaos and plentiful fumes.---- Not inspiring!

To add to the discomfort, a frenzy of road works is happening daily beneath our flat.----Not just fumes but dust dust and more dust. No real supervision or coordination, no constructive effort to help with the obvious health concerns,no one assuming responsibility for the mess, no end in sight.-Appalling!

How to escape for a while?----Take the high road up to the bypass and spend a refreshing hour or so away from the Hell below. Believe it or not, pollution is much less invasive here , crazy as it seems people prefer to drive through the jam-packed scene below.

Oh that welcome fresh air! I actually feel liberated! I walk along relishing my new sense of freedom, breathing deeply, and pausing to look at the view below. Serene, tranquil, white houses fronting a sapphire sea.Who could dream of the close- up  actuality?

I stay there dreaming for a while.Maybe I could bring my tent up here.Maybe I'll take time off to enjoy a higher perspective. Maybe down below is part of an ugly nightmare and I will return  to find that this insane
moment has vanished, Who knows??
                           Mo.

A different path----

View from St. Paul's village.

A different path today for our morning walk,-and a different view. Still the sea, but the sea through trees somehow gives a different perspective.

Sometimes the  unbroken vista as we look from our terrace is so vast and uninterrupted that its sense of Eternity is overwhelming, Here  I find a gentler mystery, a milder magic; , a relief that provides a  more tangible solid statement that grounds me in a mystical kind of way, awe inspiring and capturing again for me the amazing beauty of the world we live in.
                                          Mo.

'Trees are the earth's endless effort to speak to the listening heaven.'
                Rabindranath Tagore.

Into The Depth.

'Into The Depth'----acrylic on stretched canvas---16"x20"----€55

Usually my paintings arise out of my mood and feelings,
sometimes they come all in a rush as if there is a deep need to express myself there and then.

So it is with the above painting, born I think out of a sense of frustration, a desire to dig deeper into life, cut through the veil of illusion and move into a sphere of reality where there is only lightness, brightness and clarity.

Maybe a painful experience, maybe a  frightening one, but one that, in that moment of painting, beckoned me to go deeper, reach a truth that in its absolute nature revealed the ultimate fulfillment.
                       Mo.
       

Why?

 Early morning at St Paul's Bay and a glorious sunrise, setting the mood for a lovely day.

So difficult to look at this beauty and not feel stirred to the very soul with its hope and promise. Why is it that  in such an amazing world, with its light and colour, with its mystery and slendour,-why is it that we abuse it, neglect it, exploit it,
then expect as our right that it continues to be there for us, never changing?

Why do we not treasure it, nurture it, love it and everything and everyone in it, and be thankful that the Spirit of Life continues to animate and sustain it inspite of our destructive efforts?
                                Mo.

A FUNNY THING-----

' The Wedding Feast'----oil pastels and acrylics on fine cotton.

A funny thing happened to me today,
it really did.
I woke as usual, dressed as usual,
looked at the clock as usual,
and saw that time was standing still.

I stepped outside to see the day breaking,
the sun shining.
and people  full of every colourful lightness and brightness.
They were floating around in this colour,
drenching themselves in it,
drenching each other in it,
looking like rainbows in a beautiful scene of light

And I was with them,
moving with them, dancing with them, feeling such joy,
they gave me such warmth, and love and peace;
a perfection that dazzled me,
showed me Heaven just for a moment.
A funny thing, ---but I think it really happened.
                                               Mo.

VIEW FROM THE SITTING ROOM

We are blessed with this glorious view from the sitting room. Blue sky and sea, sapphire -like, tranquil,----an ambience of peace.

Here I can move away from stress and world turmoil just for a while and drink in the beauty of the real world. This is not illusion, this is the reality that we all search for in our heart.

I pray that this reality stays with me, showing me everything  that has meaning and substance, everything that I believe will ultimately prevail.----Meanwhile I drink in this moment, and nurture it deep within.
                     Mo

Today's painting------'Dreaming'

Acrylic on stretched canvas-----20"x36"-------DREAMING

Today I will be still and wander with my dreams to places I love.I will raise my eyes, drinking in the wonder of space and feel my heart beat softly to the  rhythm  of the waves lapping the shore.---- I will find peace.
                        Mo.

Sit in reverie and watch the changing colour of the waves that break upon the idle seashore of the mind.
      Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.