I created this painting several years ago. An image of bird eggs is embedded in textured pastes.Above the image is a rusty hinge and above that is a weathered piece of wood.
I love to bring nature's gifts inside my home. This is a new addition to my dining room table.I have arranged rocks, driftwood, balls woven with tree bark, and small Japanese boxes that I have collected over the years.
Nature has innate beauty that makes an artist of the viewer.
These are sacred lingam rocks from a river in India. I have arranged them in a bowl on a table."One of the most important aspects of design is integration: not only the relationship of design to the process of manufacture, but to life itself and the creation of an environment." --- George Nakashima
The above is two collections of rocks. The first collection includes agates and crystals and quartz. The larger collection includes round beach rocks and grape vines.
The above fossils (ammonites and sand dollars) are arranged on top of a desk in my library. You can also see my favorite weathered balls and my love of rabbits.
The above are the former nests of gila woodpeckers in Arizona. They form their nests in the cavities of saguaro cacti. The sap from the cactus hardens the nest so these birds can use them more than once.
The saguaro boot nests have been added to my collection of bird nest, eggs, rocks, and drift wood in a container placed in my greenhouse.
A bird's nest and beach rocks and drift wood in a containerA fellow artist and master gardener, Betty Dorotik, has renamed my green house ZEN House which I like very much. The above arrangement is in a container in my zen house. To see pictures of my zen house (green house) go to my previous blog post here.
"The quality that we call beauty must always grow from the realities of life..."
--- Jun'Ichiro Tanizuki, In Praise of Shadows
Bonsai are Japanese dwarf trees. These miniature landscapes help convey simplicity, naturalism and harmony. These are a few of my bonsai that I have on my back decks and around my zen (green) house.
"One thing that was new to me in creating a Japanese-inspired garden was using many colors and textures of leaves, from light gray green to dark red, rather than using flowers for colors. The contrast adds depth and interest to the landscape, and the use of evergreens adds a timeless quality that is calming." Sakina von Briesen, Chado New Mexico
49 comments:
You have created beautiful place to live in. The view of your garden is stunning and the Zen garden is calling to dream and relax.
your painting is every bit as beautiful as a Zen garden, serene and beautiful... great post Donna!
There is so much in this post, Donna, that I don't know quite where to begin. Perhaps it will suffice to say that your art and your life is infused with meaning. Nothing, it seems, escapes your penetrating eye, and I am grateful that you are willing to share what you have seen.
A visual feast for me! I am so much on the same page, that visiting here is like the proverbial kid in a candy store. The colours, the textures and shapes- love it all!!
such joy!
Such beautiful examples of life...esp. love the woodpeckers nests...thank you for sharing...xx..julia
Thank you for the tranquility, the calming stillness that your post has given me; a precious gift indeed!
My very best wishes to you for a calm, peaceful, good weekend.
a very zen post Donna...I enjoyed the tour of your collections...I love rabbits too.. we had them as pets for many years and now I enjoy the wild bunnies in our yard..I have a big rusty rabbit similar to yours...
beauty before me
beauty behind me
beauty all around me
everywhere I go I walk in beauty
navajo prayer
D Have to agree with L - you surround yourself with collective beauty. Love the multiples of objects. I like the multiples and structure ans founds objects unified in your 'painting'. B
"placement of papers is like setting stones"
another treasure from you, those 7 words, as is this visit to your sacred place called home.
As you well know...I love a collection involving nests! I've never seen one like the woodpecker nest you showed here. Great find!
Hi Donna
your collections are very soothing and transporting...most of all I love the colours, these same colours that you use in your art work...
Last night I was reading a tiny book called Wabi Sabi- A way of life by Diane Durston and in that I read about Jun'Ichiro Tanizuki, In Praise of Shadows. I would like to read more of his ideals.
Diane Durston wrote that helpful book 'Old Kyoto' which talks of the crafts and family stores in Kyoto.
Thanks for a restful post
Happy days
What a wonderful way to start my Sunday! Your collage painting really pleases my heart and the bowls of treasures ... a sight to behold. My husband came home with an exquisite plover egg which he found on the tide line. It had been washed out to sea and back again just in time for him to find it. A beautiful gray/blue speckled with brown .... it would be perfectly at home in your painting.
Donna, I love that when I look at your blog it feels like home to me. There are things here that I have in my own house: the eggs, the nests, the gathered stones and driftwood. And the rabbits! I love rabbits and also have quite a few. The outside of your home is spectacular. I love that all the trees are trimmed up really high so that you can see the water below. And Delwyn writes about a book I just received in the mail from a fellow blogger friend. It is a gift I cherish and look at quite often. I also love those rusted bells in the arrangement. You certainly have an eye. Your style is exquisite! Happy to always come here.
Love collecting too and have spent a happy hour or so with a fellow artist who collects as I do. Yours make me want to go and find a few more special places and containers.
The wood at the top of your first piece reminds me of the curves of a violin. I would love to have found that on the shore. I love the nests. I have never found one fallen to the ground. Maybe one day.
Ohh, how I love all your beautifull little collections, So peacefull and a wonderfull place to be in.I am a collector of those things as wel but I have a lot to catch up to!
What a beautiful post Donna - so much to see and enjoy - I love the piece of work based on eggshells and it is great to see your source of inspiration - lovely collections of natural things - one of my ambitions is to visit Japan!
Lovely.... Tranquil, peaceful..... I have a small collection of birds nests ..... & enjoy putting nests in my paintings.... Thanks for the inspiration !
what a gift you have for arranging your finds! I cannot say how beautiful it all is and how much it touches me. thank you for sharing the beauty!
Your post has given deeper meaning to me of my own collections of finds in nature, both aged items and naturals.
It's all so nice....
there is a stillness to your collection and work that makes one feel that everything is going to be just fine.
very nice
Your collections and arrangements are breathtakingly beautiful. i feel so inspired by the beauty you have created and collected.
So much natural beauty surrounds you and you arrange it in such a way as to bring out all the best from it. What a lovely post and lovely place to be. xox Corrine
Thank you for sharing your collections. It is all so beautiful, I am charmed!
Such beauty and serenity...wonderful collections, beautiful artwork...I love your blog!
When I see the world you create with your collections and your artwork, I feel like everything is possible! isn't that the definition of inspiration? Thanks for another beautiful post.
Your painting...sublime. I so love the way you combine elements and your use of color ...ever pure tranquility.
Every table arrangement...a perfect still life.
And then the Bonsai and back into the gardens...I want to wander through the Zen House ;-)
The world you have created is simply glorious. I'm so thrilled I have the chance to share in it thanks to the internet...pretty darned cool!
I feel you r ahead of me, throwing my own dream seeds of harmony back toward me. Reminding what I know and always am. Thank you. It's an honor.
Lovely post, great collections... again I am interested in how we collect the same things, though because of our somewhat different style of placement, your arrangements/collections have that Eastern feel, mine have something different that I am too close to to see or name, though I know they feel quite different.
Thank you for the great tour of your natural collections. Your home inside reflects your home outside. Do I dare ask the question, as your guest do I ask...where is your studio...is it on the property...in the house? Mine is in the center of the house and takes guests by surprise.
wonderful natural collections - I love them all!!! and your zen-house is really a beautiful and peaceful place.
Donna, thanks for sharing your lovely painting, and the natural beauty you've integrated into your home. Your collections are fantastic, and I'm definitely coming to your house; I may even move in:) I'll bring all my collections of rocks and fossils, and we can start our own shop! I'm remembering the reaction of one of the movers who picked up a box and said, "This feels like it's full of rocks!" I said, "It is." I don't think he was sure that I was actually serious! Rock on, Donna!
Soothing and lovely. I always enjoy seeing your beautiful collections and arrangements.
just gorgeous collections of nature Donna. I definitely am feeling the zen, as well as the wabi sabi of your environ. So very warm and inviting in it's natural beauty. Thanks for sharing it all!
I am in love with your collections, and the way you see nature and beauty and revere them as one. And your nests, (and your own nest) are joyful and serene. roxanne
Your blog is such a beautiful work of art in itself. I felt nothing but peace as I visited you post. You bless my hurried heart. Imagine and Live in Peace, Mary Helen Fernandez Stewart
The world you have created around you is so lovely and creates a sense of calm and order within me as I look at your arrangements. Thank you for inviting us in and sharing.
Donna,
Thank you! It is such an intimate thing to be taken through another's home and shown collections. I am absolutely taken with the gila woodpecker's nests, hardened with cactus sap. Nature offers us her recycling techniques...The nests also remind me of the bowls the children made today in art group. Fascinated with the coiling technique, their small hands clasped the clay together making nest-shaped bowls and then, almost all of them placed eggs inside.
Looks to me as if you live your life in collaboration with nature. Such beautiful vignettes here. Thanks for this post.
Another enjoyable post! You have a refreshing way to bring art and nature together.
love all your "stuff" and am so pleased there is someone else out there, that collects "Nature" too. You have some amazing items but the way you arrange them is the difference..you have such style my friendx lynda
I just came by to look again. your treasures are so soothing! the stones from India are gorgeous! did you find them there or did some wonderful person send them to you? lyle
Your images are so soothing, enchanting and speak to me in a very non-verbal way...Your blog is a zen house.
XOXOrly
This post takes me back to almost the first time I visited your blog - it was a collection of similar objects you had on display somewhere in your gloriously decorated home - you should enter your photos to a home magazine somewhere Donna - your talent for monochromatics is divine!
Hi Donna, I tried to email you but it was returned. You are most welcome to use a collage, I would be honoured!
the worst thing to me about traveling is not being able to keep up on people's blogs, but how fantastically wonderful it is to return to so much wonderful goodness. this, as always, is a fantastic post and i always LOVE seeing peeks into your home of all of your magnificent collections. i love your nests, eggs and rocks, and your gardens are my favorite!
"One of the most important aspects of design is integration"
I like those words very much. There is a lesson in them for me BIG TIME, Thank you!
I love your collections. The rocks from India are beautiful, and so smooth looking.
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