lingering light Part 2

Clarity, cold wax and oil painting by Donna Watson

I decided to divide up my blog posts on my gardens and green house into 3 parts.  My last blog post showed images of my green house or Zen House as I like to call it.  These images here are outside around the the Zen House.

Pots of plants, including a bonsai gingko and a weeping Japanese maple tree near my front porch.

"Silence is essential for deep transformation.  It allows the practice of conscious breathing to become 

deep and effective.  Like still water that reflects things as they are, the calming silence helps us to 

see things more clearly; to be in deeper contact with ourselves and those around us."  

                                                                 -----  Thich Nhat Hanh

Small pond with gold fish

"I walk into a poem and walk out someone else."  Nayyirah Waheed

Large stone water basin

Bamboo water feature with stone lantern and laughing Buddha with Japanese maples and

deer ferns

"The only people who ever get anyplace interesting are the people who get lost."  

Henry David Thoreau

Large water basin with stone Carp, stone temple, stone rabbit with Japanese maple and gingko bush

Large sitting Buddha, natural stone temple, moss garden

Near my Meditation Path,  with tall Honeysuckle bush

Shade garden with bird bath, shade plants, ferns, wisteria on Torii Gate

Wisteria blooming in August

Sit and be still

until in the time 

of no rain you hear

beneath the dry wind's 

commotion in the trees

the sound of flowing

water among the rocks,

a stream unheard before,

and you are where

breathing is a prayer.

Wendell Berry

The Art of Being

My husband has been very busy this summer.  This torii gate has become the entrance to my Zen house.

The effect of building a space within a space is very powerful.

This is the path of stones to the entrance of my Zen house.

Line becoming object becoming space.

My husband built this Zen house (green house) several years ago.  Graced with bonsai outside and bird cages,

bird nests, buddha, rabbit vane, rocks fill the space within.

The effect of the Zen house is to give form to the surrounding gardens.  Within are

sweeping gestures of light and space.

Small pots of bonsai, help fill the space like a coloring book.

Here I am making boundaries, defining a space just to be.

Simply creating a space, enclosed and separate from the wild: a niche to feel safe inside of.

A moss ball I made earlier this summer with a rabbit fern.  It is sitting on white rocks in a lovely flat pot.

Some of my nest and rock collections.

More nests.

Another moss ball I made earlier this summer.  It is a rabbit fern and is attached to a piece of bamboo.

Back outside the Zen house...  at the entrance.  

My husband built 3 bamboo gates this summer.

Closing the gate, building the wall, we shut out the wild but still maintain the wild within.

The intent is to be at one with our environment.

The Art of Being

The fern in the rain breathes the silver message.

Stay, lie low.  Play your dark reeds

and relearn the beauty of absorption.

There is nothing beyond the rotten log

covered with leaves and needles.

Forget the light emerging with its golden wick.

Raise your face to the water-laden frond.

A thousand blossoms will fall into your arms.

-- Anne Corey, from A Measure's Hush 

 

 

 

 

 

Connecting the Dots in Kyoto

Boro, hand painted rice papers, acrylic, 2009

I am leaving for another visit to Kyoto very soon. My first visit was 2 years ago, in 2009. When I returned I began a new series of collages. The above collage was my first one completed after my visit. I know I have posted it before but I decided to include it here, because my first visit to Kyoto had a huge influence on my current body of work. I now approach my collage work like I work in my Zen gardens... like placing stones in the rock gardens.. with an eye towards balance and unity and rhythm and simplicity. Now I am going to Kyoto again.

I call my greenhouse my Zen house. It is part of me-- an extension of my art, my interests, my collections, my aesthetics.

In front of the Zen house is my collection of bonsai.

Inside the Zen House, is a corner with no plants, but some of my bird nests and rocks ...and containers that I love.

Have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. --- Steve Jobs

The above bird nests are new additions to my greenhouse this summer. The round rocks are from a beach near Port Angeles, Washington.

The above weather vane is a new addition. It is a metal rabbit that has moss for "feet".

There is a door. It opens. Then it is closed. But a slip of light stays, like a scrap of unreadable paper left on the floor, or the one red leaf the snow released in March. --Jane Hirshfield

I love to collect bird nests, and bird cages... but empty bird cages. And rocks....

"We work in the dark. We do what we can. We give what we have. Our doubt is our passion, and our passion is our doubt. All the rest is the madness of art. -- Henry James

I am going to Kyoto with an open mind. I have no idea what to look for, or what I am looking for but I know that important journeys begin that way.

And you wait, await the one thing
that will infinitely increase your life;
the gigantic, the stupendous,
the awakening of stones,
depths turned round toward you.
-- Rilke, The Book of Images

Outside In

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 container

A 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