working ideas

before embarking on any kind of work here in the Project, we seek the approval of the OldBirdKing, he rules supreme; he is an extremely kind ruler, discrete, charming, charismatic and as he has thought a lot about many things during his long life, we of course value his judgement and listen to his ideas almost without questioning; he, by the way, is the first to encourage us to ask difficult maybe even awkward questions and to take nothing for granted, so it's a fine balance between our devoted admiration and also trying to think straight and really ask ourselves if what he has suggested we do in fact makes sense....
Here we see the OldBirdKing (at his feet the ever faithful shadow dog) together with Frog and Saumon Rose deliberating about the next construction whilst nibbling from the alder cones found fresh in the woods; they are in the studio-living-space* as this is most assuredly the best working space in the building, although not all the tools are here, they are now mainly talking, throwing up ideas in the air and seeing what becomes of them as they land; they truly enjoy each other's company and I guess you can't ask for much better

whilst I went for a short walk before office duties require my presence elsewhere, they are deciding what I will be doing the next couple of days......



* the laminated detail-print in the background is from the painting Rat and Toad go for a stroll, click to see more here

Comments

Nancy said…
Funny how Rat & Toad's strolling place is so connected to this one of yours. Did this location inspire the painting? I love seeing them all hanging out together. It's such a warm community they have. I hope the newbies will be welcomed!
Julie S said…
The oil painting looks like a piece of fabric, one of your cloths. Is it really just paint????
Saskia said…
Nancy & Julie:

yup it's all paint (on canvas)
it's an old painting, dating from 2008, it wasn't until I found this laminated detail and stuck it in the new housing Project that I realised just how much all the pieces are connected, related (springing from my imagination and hands that shouldn't take me by surprise, but it does..... hindsight , ha)

there were a couple of years where our front garden functioned as a rat-highway between the neighbors on either side who both held chickens and therefore chickenfeed, which led to rats dwelling closer to home than I liked; however, this is also part of living in the countryside alongside other animals, sharing space; on one side the couple moved house and so did their chickens, on the other side they got fed up with them and the chickens disappeared. Once the food source vanished, so did the rats - or at least there are far less of them to bother us.
From my studio window next to the desk I was able to observe the rats' activities undetected, there were often rats peeking out of one of their many doorways and they always struck me as being very intelligent, inquisitive creatures.....together with the many toads located here, they were a welcome subject in my paintings

tungsten

tungsten

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