Drawing tendrils and veins for new art work

pen drawing and graphic design by Candice Herne preliminary stages of new work

I've been working on new art work to go with my "Postcards from blogland" series. I'm not sure how this will fit in yet or if it is finished. Looking at it now I can see a trunk coming out of it????

Tendrils and veins have been a linking thread through my work for a few years now. If you click here there is some artwork I did last year for a exhibition I did at Brunswick St Gallery in Melbourne a painting titled "Reclaim Regrowth" covered in pink embroidered leaf veins. A series I started about Nurture verses nature looking at natural order and how it relates to life and popular culture. I remember framing my work at school with drawings of vines with flowers, it seemed so natural and easy, I just did it with no thought. I'm taken back remembering this about myself. As humans and/or artist do we eventually come full circle and unconsciously go back to what feels natural about ourselves?

Grandmother, Mentor and Muse

Portrait of my Grandmother June Eloise Herne 26 June 1923 - 11 March 2009

2003 Acrylic on Canvas 90cmx120cm by Candice Herne

My Granny passed away on the 11th March. Granny is the family matriarch. She is the glue that keeps us all together. Her motto is love, love, love. I lived with my Granny for 12 months from years 18 to 19. I felt that was the year I really started to grow. Her absolute love and respect for me, nurtured me into the woman I am today.

A favourite past time for all the grandchildren would be to get in bed with her and snuggle and chat. I still did it in my 30's. Where ever I was over the last 20 years I called Granny everyweek. She would say she got a bit worried If I'd miss a week here and there. I loved knowing that our chats meant something too her as much as they meant to me. Gran pretty much new everything about me and in return she shared with me some of the challenges she had to face in her life. Gran showed me that by showing authentic love we can get through most any challenge in our life.

I am very grateful that I have had time to prepare, say thank you, and tell her a million trillion times how much I love her, it's never enough and it hasn't been easy, saying goodbye. But the good thing is now I talk to her everyday. I love you Granny, thanks for loving me. Talk soon Candyxx

Secret of Art (page 82, from Book "Nurtured by Love" by Dr Suzuki)

Dr Suzuki found his secret to Art. He writes:
I searched for the meaning of art in music, and it was through music that I found my work and my purpose in life. Once art to me was something far off, unfathomable and unattainable. But I discovered it was a tangible thing. Anybody who takes up an art is apt to think of the object of his ambition as something very far off and I tried to search for the secret. But after my eight years in Germany, I found that it was not all what I had imagined it to be.

The real essence of art turned out to be not something high up and far off. It was right inside my ordinary daily self. The very way one greets people and expresses oneself is art. If a musician wants to become a fine artist, he must first become a finer person. If he does this his worth will appear. It will appear in everything he does, even in what he writes. Art is not some far off place. A work of art is the expression of a man's whole personality, sensibility, and ability.