I have recorded these dreams in journals along with sketches and key words so as to help me recapture the essence, feelings and characters who show up in my dreams. Dreams have always been a rich resource for my writing and paintings and the image below is representative of one such dream.

Here is a peek at what I’m currently working on.

Nocturnal Journey ~ Digital Painting ~ 5 x7 inches. Digital Painting ~ using Corel Painter 7 ~ soft charcoal variant of dry media.

Nocturnal Journey in progress #4

The inspiration for this painting came from several recurring dreams that I have been having over the past few weeks. Strange landscapes and a woman’s face which keeps hovering at the edges of my vision. She is always there as if waiting just beyond the bend of my awareness…waiting… waiting there just long enough  for me to capture a glimpse or a scent of her essence. I never see her whole face because half of her face is always hidden or lost in shadow. However, there is always an overwhelming sense of peace when she enters the dream.

“Dreams are illustrations… from the book your soul is writing about you.” ~ Marsha Norman

I would love to spend a few months living there, sketching, painting and mostly drinking in the sheer beauty of this forest, but for now I am satisfied with the inspiration and burst of creativity the video stirred up in me.

From a dream;  A young woman walking in the forest with a crescent moon suspended in the sky where trees dream and owls fly overhead. She loved the play of moonlight on the leaves ~ shadow and light. The wind playing with her hair ~ the sweet smell of the damp earth beneath her feet, Mother Earth whispered “Child of the forest reach out and touch your wild nature for therein lies your power.” To be continued….

Forest Spirit ~ Digital Painting ~ 11 x 15 inches

This is as far as I got on the painting today. I’m not sure about the background. The crescent moon will stay but the rest may change. The forest floor in my dream sparkled with shades of purple, muted greens and browns with silver moonbeams thrown in. The forest  bejeweled in moonlight.

I was able to capture the forest floor part of the dream in a necklace that I created last week. I have only three of these ceramic goddesses left ~ one of a kind ~ each one different from the other.

I chose this Goddess pendant because it reminds me of  an ancient goddess relic with the soft muted moss colored glaze and rich earth colors sprinkled about. The piece is signed and will soon be available at http://www.rosearizmendi.com/shop/

To learn more about Puzzlewood located  in the Forest Dean click here

If you love owls ~ You will love this beautiful Video!

I spent the morning creating the collage above from photographs I have taken over the years.

I love this time of the year, the slant of light and the lengthening shadows  ~  such beauty ~ so delicious this golden light that spills through the tree branches just outside my window, turning the leaves into shimmering liquid gold.

During the fall, I find myself longing for the haystacks of my youth. The heavenly smell of  hay mixed with the dampness of the earth. The early morning mist kissing my face and the exuberance of youth.

Over the years I find that I have come to value the fall of the year more and more ~  the day by day changes.  The mellow richness and different textures that hone and shape us as we age. The laughter, the tears and everything else in between that makes each one of us unique and beautiful.

So I breathe in the ripeness of the world around me and embrace this inevitable change. The waxing and waning  of the year.

The Opened Heart – Mixed Media

The mixed media piece above is a combination of digital & Traditional painting. The center is a Mixed Medium/Acrylic/Watercolor/Ink  8 x 10 inch painting on canvas that I decided to play around with using Corel Painter 7 and Photoshop. For the background I used scanned papers, fabrics, vintage ledgers and anything else I could think of. Wow, did I have fun!

Later, when I went to the market they had pumpkins and gourds  stacked on bales of hay reminding us that change has come and sweet autumn is here. It all made me feel so grateful for being a part of the eternal dance of life from one season to the next.

thought for the day:

In the deep fall don’t you imagine the leaves think how
comfortable it will be to touch
the earth instead of the
nothingness of air and the endless
freshets of wind? And don’t you think
the trees themselves, especially those with mossy,
warm caves, begin to think

of the birds that will come…six, a dozen…to sleep
inside their bodies? And don’t you hear
the goldenrod whispering goodbye,
the everlasting being crowned with the first
tuffets of snow? The pond vanishes, and the white field
over which the fox runs so quickly brings out
its blue shadows. And the wind pumps its
bellows. And at evening especially,
the piled firewood shifts a little,
longing to be on its way.
- Mary Oliver

Quietly painting in the studio. Images & dreams I will always carry in my heart.

Sonoma Tree Line – Digital Painting – Watercolor & Impasto brushstrokes on layers – 8 x 10 inches

So many signs - Quiet Change

Ephemeral things – soft and fragile

Slower, Deeper – The Wheel of life Turns

To the Light of September

When you are already here
you appear to be only
a name that tells of you
whether you are present or not

and for now it seems as though
you are still summer
still the high familiar
endless summer
yet with a glint
of bronze in the chill mornings
and the late yellow petals
of the mullein fluttering
on the stalks that lean
over their broken
shadows across the cracked ground

but they all know
that you have come
the seed heads of the sage
the whispering birds
with nowhere to hide you
to keep you for later

you
who fly with them

you who are neither
before nor after
you who arrive
with blue plums

that have fallen through the night

perfect in the dew
- w.s. merwiin