Category Archives: Blogging

A Return to Painting

Posted on July 9, 2021 by AnnIsikArts

The above image marks a surprise return to painting after a good number of years during which I painted only sporadically and without much success. Life and all that. An email arrived earlier this year, out-of-the-blue, inviting me onto a … Continue reading →

Posted in Art, Blogging, Choral singing, Painting, Singing, Singing Sacred, Writing | Tagged Acrylic Painting, Eco Printing, L'Isle-Adam, Messa Di Gloria, Nettle, Puccini | 1 Comment

Eve Fumes at that Snake – and on Paying Attention

Posted on August 29, 2019 by AnnIsikArts

I did something very silly. Shocking. Earlier in the year, I decided I was only going to post blogs to which I could attach the completed artworks that arose from the ideas expressed in the blog. And in so doing, … Continue reading →

Posted in Art, Blogging, Creativity, Eco/Natural Dyeing and Printing, Inspiration, Printmaking, Stitch, Writing | Tagged Art, Blogging, Dye Garden, Dye Plants, Eco Printing, Growing Veggies, inspiration, Mixed media, Monoprints | 2 Comments

Mark Making, The Zen of Seeing, the Byzantine Monocondyle and the Seven Bridges of Königsberg

Posted on November 30, 2018 by AnnIsikArts

Warning: really long blog coming up. (I had to do a really long poetic walk this time). The quote opening my blog of 29 August was from The Zen of Seeing: Frederick Franck. Intrigued, I sent for the book. In parallel … Continue reading →

Posted in Aesthetics, Art, Blogging, Christian writing, Creativity, Drawing, Eco/Natural Dyeing and Printing, Printmaking, Science, spirituality, Walking, Walking Art, Writing | Tagged Automatic Writing, Bhagavad Gita, Byzance, Calligraphy, Drawing, Frederick Franck, Graph Theory, Krsna, Leonhard Euler, Mark Making, meditation, Mobius Strip, Monocondyle, Paul Klee, Poetic Mapping, Rust Printing, Rust Printing on Silk, Seven Bridges of Konigsberg, Stéphanie Devaux Textus, Tommy Wasserman, Tomography, Topology, Upanishads, Zen | 26 Comments

On the 100th Anniversary of the Armistice: Shanks, E., 100 Years Dead, Not Forgotten

Posted on November 10, 2018 by AnnIsikArts

‘O lad that I loved, there is rain on your face, And your eyes are blurred, and sick with the plain.’ – Siegfried Sassoon (1886-1967): I Stood with the Dead (June 1918) My maternal grandfather’s younger brother Edwin was killed … Continue reading →

Posted in Blogging, Writing | Tagged 100th Anniversary Armistice, Armistice, Battle of Passchendaele, Canadian Cemetery Vis-en-Artois, Coal Board, Yellow Rose of Peace, Ypres-Wipers | Leave a comment

Dear Westminster City Council Planning Department: Emmeline Pankhurst Statue

Posted on September 8, 2018 by AnnIsikArts

Dear Westminster City Council Planning Department, After a fight, a statue of Dame Millicent Fawcett, suffragist, was erected earlier this year in Parliament Square, the first statue of a woman ever to be placed there. This, together with the statue … Continue reading →

Posted in Activism, Blogging, Writing | Tagged Catherine Booth, Edith Cavell, Emmeline Pankhurst, Florence Nightingale, Louisa Blake, Margaret Ethel MacDonald, Millicent Fawcett, Suffragette Movement, Suffragism, Westminster City Council, Women's Rights | 4 Comments

Rorschach as Poetry: A Suite of Eco Prints on Watercolour Paper Postcards

Posted on January 28, 2017 by AnnIsikArts

Another experiment using in part a technique (creating mirror images) from Kathy Hays’ video eco print workshop. Instead of silk fabric, I’ve used a book of watercolour paper postcards whose blank faces have been awaiting activation for a couple of … Continue reading →

Posted in Aesthetics, Art, Blogging, Creativity, Eco/Natural Dyeing and Printing, Inspiration, Nature Journal, Printmaking | Tagged Botanical Pressure Printing, Eco Print, Eco Printing on Watercolour Paper, Gnosis, Gurdjieff, Hermes Trismegistus, Hermeticism, Isaac Newton, Mirror Image, Monoprinting, Twins | 3 Comments

Squares Activated and the Importance of Boundaries

Posted on July 11, 2016 by AnnIsikArts

I took the photo on the left a few days ago. Had I taken it the day before, you’d not have been able to see the squares of veggies (the wooden frames) for the height of the grass surrounding them. We … Continue reading →

Posted in Aesthetics, Allotmenteering, Art, Blogging, Creativity, Ecology, Inspiration, spirituality, Vegetarianism | Tagged Allotmenteering, Boundaries, Food Production, Littering, Negative Space, Scorched Earth, Total War | Leave a comment

Visual Journal 4: The Power of Prayer (Oh, no, not that old chestnut) and a Walk along a Herakleotikon Hamma

Posted on May 22, 2016 by AnnIsikArts

“Wounds heal more quickly when bound with a Hercules Knot.” (Pliny) The knot on the left is a Reef Knot. An image of a knot came to me directly after a prayer I made with a very specific target. … Continue reading →

Posted in Art, Art Journal, Blogging, Creativity, Inspiration, spirituality, Writing | Tagged Hercules Knot, Love Knot, Power of Prayer, Reef Knot, visual journal | 2 Comments

The Queen’s 90th Birthday – Sullied

Posted on April 21, 2016 by AnnIsikArts

There has been a series of programmes on UK TV about The Monarchy, as part of the celebration of HM Queen Elizabeth’s 90th birthday. Each episode of the series has been advertised by an excerpt in which a man is stating that Diana … Continue reading →

Posted in Art, Blogging | Tagged Princess Diana, Queen Elizabeth | 10 Comments

Pulling out the Strands: Wildness

Posted on March 28, 2016 by AnnIsikArts

“Wildness we might consider as the root of the authentic spontaneities of any being. It is that wellspring of creativity whence comes the instinctive activities that enable all living beings to obtain their food, to find shelter, to bring forth … Continue reading →