PEACE.

Sunset---from the terrace.

Yesterday was hot! The kind of heat that drains you, leaving you exhausted and vacant, almost longing for summer to be over.----(Oh no!) Then a whisper of breeze, a cooling moment ---and the view from the terrace.What a blessing!

When I admire the wonder of sunset or the beauty of the moon, my soul expands in worship of the Creator.

Mahatma Gandhi.

If I can put one touch of rosy sunset into the life of any man or woman I shall feel that I have worked with God.

G.K. Chesterton.

TODAY'S PAINTING----CAPRICE----MANDALA

Carice----Mandala----7x10 inches----€100

I'm really enjoying developing the mandala collection for my website,---they give tremendous scope for the imagination as I paint, and let me work in tune with the heart.I offer them as a focus for relaxation,often for a deeper meditation to inspire a sense of wholeness and peace.The colours in this one encourage a lively mood, a lightness of spirit and feeling of joy.

It's not what you look at that matters, but what you see.

Henry David Thoreau.

Think left and think right and think low and think high;oh the thinks you can think up if only you try.

Dr. Seuss.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

Happy Birthday Joe! Wishing you blue skies and just enough sunshine!----xxx

Life is a great big canvas and you should throw all the paint you can on it!

Danny Kaye.

AMBER LIGHT MANDALA.

Amber Light---Mandala.---Textured acrylic on stretched canvas--12x12 inches---€100

Mandalas are all about a journey within,---a journey to the centre, so for me they provide this medium. I rarely start with any idea , I simply let the painting evolve, take shape and colouring, and let its meaning clarify as it develops.So it helps me to relax, feel inspired and often tells me a little more about myself in an easy way.

Amber is a warm mellow colour and the amber gem is the lightest and softest of gems.In Neolithic times this'gold of the North' was regarded as a sacred symbol of the sun.

So relaxing with this mandala offers a moment to bathe in amber's healing properties; a general protection that fights depression, attracts joy and helps to maintain stability and balance.

'Art enables us to find ourselves and lose ourselves at the same time.'

Thomas Merton.

The painting can be bought through the shopping cart facility on my website.

RASBERRY SHAKE OR LICORICE?

Our friend who still prefers to stay bodiless was mopping his floor yesterday wearing his new 'licorice' shoes. He's still singing their praises,---so flexible and light,so effective , and ofcourse so much more masculine than the pink.Indeed winter will soon be here and with it the real messy floor situation! I believe he has a pair of 'chocolates 'too'---his daughter ordered them online from America. But ofcourse he smiles, you know the real source of them all----China! ------Oh---I forgot to ask him what he has done with the 'rasberries'---I wouldn't mind borrowing them for the beach!

TODAY'S PAINTING----LIVE WIRE.

Live wire. Textured acrylic on stretched canvas.---24x24 inches-----€220 (see website to purchase)

In the blog I try to stay faithful to The Oasis way of life ----really a journey to peace .This is a peace that incorporates all facets of life and believes that real peace has to mean living simply in a balanced way , using every part of oneself to live life lovingly and to the full with others. For me life is meant to be LIFE !

That's why I try to capture a lightness and brightness in my paintings---I feel we all need this so much today,--a simple awareness that life is beautiful, colourful and vibrant and we need to move within this animation as much as we can!

Seize from every moment its unique novelty and do not prepare your joys.

Andre Gide------Nourritures Terrestres.

PEACE PAINTING----NAZARETH.

Today's Painting----Nazareth.----Textured acrylic on canvas.

The concept of Peace is such a wide one I feel.---It covers the spectrum of personal, social, moral, spiritual issues and I also feel that it is the reality we are all searching for in our journey through life

When I think of Peace I suppose I visualise a state of perfect fulfillment, happiness and freedom; a clear perception of everything being real and true and beautiful, a sense of complete belonging and security, and the absolute certainty that this will always be so. Within this vision I am also certain that everyone and everything will be here, enjoying this same ecstatic feeling----a feeling of intense pervasive Love radiating from a Being who is the very source of it all.

Anyway, I long for this kind of Peace, I feel sure it is there for us all----and here in this world of ours one day!

If there is no peace it is because we have forgotten that we belong with one another.

Mother Teresa.

THE MANDALA---AGAIN.

Today's painting---The Centre---acrylic---24x24 inches---€220

I do believe that symbols have a deep meaning in terms of Life and Reality, and somehow the mandala symbol seems to creep into my paintings very often. Not surprising really, as I know that I am very aware of each person's life as a very unique personal journey to find the Truth, and the mandala as that sacred circle leads in to the very centre of L ife and the very centre of oneself--- to find oneself in Reality. Here we are able to feel complete fullfilment, happiness and peace---the end of the journey!

I use the mandala in my paintings to offer a focus for people; one that is soothing, inspiring, hopefully even healing in a gentle way.They can use the painting for meditation or simple relaxation. Also the Oasis vision that is the centre of my life and living is all about a Way of Life that leads to that real Peace, so ofcourse I try to share this vision in a practical, helpful way.---the paintings are one such way.-----I've thought about working on a Mandala Collection soon,---It should be an interesting project!

THE MANDALA.

Today's Painting---Mandala.---Acrylic on stretched canvas---20x24 inches---€220

----It became increasingly clear to me that the mandala is the centre. It is the exponent of all paths. It is the path to the centre- to individuation---I knew that in finding the mandala as an expression of the self ,I had attained what was for me the ultimate.---

C. J. Jung.

A human is part of the whole called by us the universe; a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings, as something separate from the rest-a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and affection for a few persons nearest to us.--- Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of understanding and compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.

Albert Einstein

WOW-----THOSE PINK SHOES!

On this morning's walk we met the 'PINK SHOES'! We met the owner too ofcourse, but he prefers to be anonymous ---and bodiless on this occasion!! -- How cruel people are; they've been teasing him about the style and colour saying how feminine they are ,--- and he very decidedly a 'he' or is it a 'him'?!

Even so he has been singing their praises---(the shoes )--- saying how wonderfully functional they are.Soft, flexible, comfortable,--- and great for cleaning floors.So light too and certainly non-slip.He has decided though, that they will have to go, and he is going off to town to find some in BLACK.

How dreary! the pink shoes certainly brought a bit of lightness to brighten our day,---I will miss them! I'd even offer to buy them if I knew they would be good for dancing----- but sad to say---no such luck!!

POPPY FIELD.

Poppy Field----7x10 inches ---€ 100 ---Acrylic on stretched canvas---textured.



Through the dancing poppies stole a breeze most softly lulling to my soul.



John Keats.

HEALTHY LIVING.

I'm a firm believer in wholesome eating, keeping to a simple balanced diet, with food in as natural a state as possible.I'm certainly not a fanatic about this---I hope not anyway.

Recently when our friends Ruben and Cathy became enthusiastic about the wonder food wheat grass we joined in with gusto and over the month of june we grew trays of healthy stuff,--- bright ,flourishing and so good! I've always felt the importance of chlorophyll,--- one of the few details I remember from school biology classes ! Sad to say though july here has been really hot and our wheatgrass growing has been blighted. No longer that healthy looking green stuff but rather some sparse struggling blades---- and dare I say it, ---invaded by that dreaded mould!

Ofcourse we are positive thinkers, so we appreciate that it is time for a change for a while and so the latest juicing efforts are focused on just about any fruit and veg. we can lay hands on.--- Great practice and challenge for our little hand juicer, and it is entering into this challenge with spirit!

So I am not becoming a neurotic fanatical health 'nut', I'm approaching the situation in a relaxed, way I hope !---continuing to enjoy the present experience, and to keep true to my holistic outlook, believing that real well-being comes not only from the nourishment of food, but more from the peace of mind that comes from a relaxed body and mind working in true harmony with that Spirit of Life, the real source of all the nourishment!---- I must say though I look forward to those cooler wheat grass growing months !!

My own prescription for health is less paperwork and more running barefoot through the grass.

Leslie Grimutter.

GOOD VIBRATIONS.

Good Vibrations---textured acrylic on canvas 7x10 inches---€ 100

I grew up in the 60's,--- a turbulent time in some ways, ---a time of change,--- but it was too a time of lightness, laughter,hope,--- and oh the music!!----That crazy rhythm, that resonant beat, a sense of feeling free, and too the strong emerging social awareness that grew with the Peace Songs.

Is it just that i'm no longer 'with it', is it my imagination, or does today's society offer so much less of the lightness and sense of freedom? --- I'm strongly aware of a heaviness, a sense of fear and restriction, a sense of confinement and resignation that so many seem burdened with.Where is that feeling of optimism, joie de vivre, and that deep intrinsic need to 'do one's own thing'? I don't believe it has vanished,--- it's still bubbling away there!

Anyway my painting today echoes the words of the Beach Boys--- and let's keep those Good Vibrations going!!

Turn your face to the sun and the darkness falls behind you.

Maori Proverb.

PEACEFUL PALMS. TODAY'S PAINTING.

Peaceful Palms---textured --acrylic on stretched canvas- €100

It's lovely working in the studio in the morning; despite the heat there is some sense of freshness here. I can hear the traffic noise quite near but the bird's morning chorus seems to dominate, and the tall circle of palms exudes a strong sense of nostalgia and history, a feeling of peace---I'm happy here!

Man's heart away from nature becomes hard.

Standing Bear.

OUR PRICKLY PEAR

Don't get me wrong I love theprickly pear,--- I find its primitive cheerful look quite comforting. It's my friend and I trust too its medicinal qualities,---for high cholesterol, diabetes, ---you name it. I like it so much that we have a couple on the terrace.

I'm afraid though they have a deceitful side, and can lull you into a false sense of security! ---So it was that the other day, looking casually over the terrace wall I was attacked by their small almost invisible hairy stickers. So invisible that you can't see them embedded----(in my stomach!)---Days later there are still a few there, even after squeezing and pinching and a few sessions with the tweezers!---- Now with one of my faithful efforts to think positively I'm convincing myself that their medicinal properties are actually doing me good.-------No,---don't say it!!

TODAY'S PAINTING----SUMMER FIELDS.

Summer Fields.----textured on canvas, --acrylics-- size 24 x20 inches €220

I believe a leaf of grass is no less the journey---work of the stars.

Walt Whitman.

To me a lush carpet of pine needles or spongy grass is more welcome than the most luxurious Persian rug.

Helen Keller.

OASIS STUDIO---OPENING HOURS.

During this hot weather I 've decided to open the studio in the evening---

5-30---7-30 pm----monday---friday. Feel very welcome to drop by and look around. At the moment the paintings are my originals,---soon I hope to add a selection of limited edition prints from these paintings.

The studio is within the grounds of the Palazzo Pescatore,St Paul's Bay. on the right side of the grounds. You will see steps leading to the entrance.(See photo.) --:If you need more help email me:- --theoasis@maltanet.net

Maureen.

TODAY'S PAINTING----DREAMING.

Dreaming-----stretched canvas- acrylic. 16x24 inches.

I seem to balance my 'activity' figures with those more still and meditative, and I suppose this arises from a deep need in myself to achieve that really balanced pattern of life, and so find true peace.---- Difficult in today's pressurised society, but without it nothing makes sense I feel!----So I keep trying!

'We need to find God and He cannot be found in noise and restlessness. God is the friend of silence; see how nature---trees, flowers, grass, grows in silence;---see the stars ,the moon ,the sun, how they move in silence.---We need silence to be able to touch our souls.'

Mother Teresa.

STUDIO PAINTINGS.

More about the Oasis Studio!--- I now have space to group and display my paintings, to offer them more openly to those interested in originals, and to feel that I am quite justified in making a mess! After all most painters are messy painters aren't they? --- or am I justifying myself too much?! Anyway it comforts me to think that way, and lets me feel more spontaneous and free.

Most of all though I'm hoping that it will grow into a place that others can enjoy too; ---a place of relaxation and peace, where those who visit can rest for a while away from the turmoil of day to day living,---not an escape more a means of inspiration and simple refreshment. ----My paintings are simple, and that's how I like to keep them, and If people enjoy them, that truly makes me happy!

What art offers is space---a certain breathing room for the spirit.

John Updike.

OASIS NEWS ---SUMMER 2009.

Palazzo Main Gate, ---- and Oasis Studio.

Yes --the Oasis News is on my 'blog', because I feel that this is where it should be! My blog spot is all about life and living and the Oasis vision lies at the very heart and centre of my life.

I studied Education:-B. Ed. Hons. London University, and for years I taught ,and worked in administration.

Increasingly though I have felt the need to follow ,as deeply as I can, a pattern of life that tries constantly to simplify, live freely and caringly in a balanced way:-enjoying all that is beautiful ,nurturing life, being simply creative, and as much as possible working harmoniously with the Spirit of life in a gentle rhythmic flow.--- Fromthis standpoint I feel more relaxed and able to respond more openly and peacefully to daily living and everyone I meet.

The creative, multi-dimensional approach to education that I offer really tries to promote this way of life as an opportunity for people to enjoy a simple , peaceful environment. Within the ambience of The O asis they can relax, feel secure,discuss constructively,enjoy meditation, and a social/leisure programme that develops in a fairly easy , spontaneous way. The emphasis is always on the positive ,with the belief that if people can move together with a truly altruistic attitude, then within this context only the good and positive will develop.

This format is based upon a vision that foresees a future development where people will live and work together in this truly motivated way, uplifting themselves and each other into a world of perfect happiness and peace. Certainly this is idealistic, but perhaps an altruistic idealism is the panacea that will lift the world out of its present jaded state in a final viable restoration.---My hopes lie with this vision.

My Art Website and my Blog:-

www.maureenhughes.artspan.com

http://mymospot.blogspot.com

The little art studio came our way quite simply and unobtrusively! ---I see It quite clearly as a facet of The Oasis, a place with an ambience of peace.

It is a little room, tucked away in the grounds of the old Palazzo Pescatore, and although quite close to the main road, the first thing I noticed was the bird-song. The old Palazzo is no longer used and looks sadly rejected, but it has a certain atmosphere.

After much hard , loving work by Joe, the little studio is almost functioning, and we look forward to seeing it grow and and become like the flat--- a place of light and peace, a rest ful place for people to come to and enjoy!

Wishing everyone a good summer,

Maureen

P.S. We are posting the newsletter as usual, but if you do have a computer you may wish to see the colour. Also please let us know for future so that we can email the newsletter or you can read it on the blog,---It will save a lot of time and posting for us!