Sketchbook

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My commitment to post daily is now proving to be challenging. There are inescapable responsibilities to attend to. Social commitments.

I spent the weekend over at my parents’. As you may have guessed, I didn’t get to follow the daily routine I am trying to establish. Overarching priorities get pushed aside… and for good reason.

Armed with my travel toolkit, I at least managed to squeeze some time to paint. The rest was spent on family togetherness, plant adventures, and furry cuddles.

  1. Painting #4
  2. My parents’ house is bathed in natural light. Couldn’t let an opportunity go to waste. 😛
  3. Morning taho from a street vendor
  4. Plants shopping at the park
  5. Painting (?) #5 on Moleskine
  6. With my girls at the park
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I am often inspired by poetry. Words. Beautiful words that touch me with its aching beauty and truth. A lot of the time when I come across such a poem, I feel like I’m gonna burst. Overfull with stirring emotions that I don’t know what to do with. So I have since been pouring it all on my sketchbook in the hope of sharing what it all means to me. How it makes me feel. And then, pass the gift to you in the form of painted imagery.

I call this painting ‘Chasing Stars’ from a line that inspired it (see below).

The use of fish to emphasize the great distance between one’s current state and one’s hopes and aspirations was obvious to me here. In truth, there’s no way that a fish can ever reach the sky. The same way it sometimes feels when we are bogged down by crippling self-doubt, faltering faith that its impossible to make our dreams happen.

My initial concept was that of a fish that has caught a star. But I decided against it because I realized that I much rather wanted to make it about the journey than the destination. The journey that can be very perilous, not many have the stomach for it. But if you have a dream that makes you feel alive, isn’t it enough for you to keep trying?

I wanna say to you, let’s stand hand in hand, fin to fin, as brave souls in this meaningful quest. Let’s not be fools. x

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I will always remember that time at the Hong Kong airport when I came across greeting cards using pencil shavings. It was the ingenuity of turning one thing that normally goes straight down the trash bin into something new and fresh that attracted me. I was seriously blown away that I never looked at pencil shavings the same way again.

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Finally after so long, I got to create my own version. I love being to able to see things in new ways. Pushing past what is known. Seeing beyond. xx

Bed Weather Feels

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I am enjoying the rainy/gloomy days we have been having as we speak. So much so that I feel like harking back to those art I made that were inspired by my long-standing love of the rain.

circa 2016
circa 2016
circa 2015

It feels good to stand in front of my easel to paint with the music, scent and cool air the rain brings (as opposed to the unbearable summer heat). It literally put a smile on my face and made me giddy inside. Life is good.

Later today, when I looked through my photo library, I came across this picturesque scene which was taken in Tokyo just right after the rain. Sigh – it is stunning.

Cherry blossom season post-rain in Ginza, 2016

Lastly, I want to end with this song. So beautifully done that you cannot help but feel things. To me, that is the power of art.

“And I built a home for you
For me
Until it disappeared
From me
From you
And now it’s time to leave and turn to dust”

Thank you for sharing in all these feels with me. xx

30 Days of Animal Life (Day 30)

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Whale shark sketch

Swimming with these gentle giants was one of my most memorable adventures to date. Back then, there was only one place to go to which was Donsol, Sorsogon (at least to us :p) Even then, not many people knew about it, it seemed. This was…. 9-10 years ago.

Nowadays, there is another more popular place for this which is in Oslob, Cebu. I want to be blunt and dissuade people from going to this one because there is little or zero limitations placed in protecting these animals from being taken advantage of. Luring them to shore to feed them or touching them is disruptive to their ways.

The one in Sorsogon observed a more sustainable practice from my personal experience. Then again, that was ages ago.

I looked for more recent experiences on the Internet and found this article with an in-depth comparison of these two places.

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let’s be good creatures, christin