Arabella and her fish necklace...

Arabella knows stuff, she has a knowledge of things that is different to Genevieve's practical expertise...  Arabella's is more of an intuitive knowledge, a familiarity she gains from contact with life, from rolling in it like the ebb and flow of the waves.

She is a watcher and a thinker and when she talks everyone tends to listen... she is often surrounded by animals and fish leap out of the water when she is near.

I have only been fishing once, it was when I accompanied a neighbour who had done a lot of fishing to the river... I never caught a fish but I did happen to snag a $20 note on my line.  On the way home he said to me "Kate (he called me Kate not Katherine and I let him)... in all my days I have never had a catch quite like that" Oh and there was another time, but that way my brother's story... when he got my Aunt tangled up in his line even before we got to the water, that made me laugh.

Arabella...

Well... I decided to get rid of the swimming cap covered in holes and replace it with this lovely blue one, I also gave her some piggy tail tufts and a flowing cape...

I am still working on who Arabella is, although one thing I do know is that she has a strong affinity with the sea... As kids my brother and I were always in and out of water, (I guess living on an Island at the bottom of the pacific ocean you can't help but always be near the sea) my father had all sorts of diving equipment and I used to love floating on top of the water with a mask and snorkel.  It was always so relaxing and quiet, just the amplified sound of my steady breathing... I couldn't imagine being angry under water.

Simple Pleasures...

One of our video students was the runner for this very sweet love story, set on a braeburn orchard... filmed in Hawke's Bay... I just had to share.

I am in the middle of a few commissions at the moment so the seven sisters have been put on hold, although I have been getting Ariadne and Genevieve ready to list as prints (and maybe pendants)? in my etsy and felt shops... sometimes all that prep stuff can take just as much time as painting them!!!

not all ideas are good ones...

Do you ever get the feeling you are swimming through a thick fog... well that is kind of how I am feeling at the moment.  Ariadne and Genevieve came about quite quickly and I think I was expecting the next one to be the same...  I started with the idea that she would be a seafaring sister, but what I thought were good ideas in my head weren't so good once I tried them, like the picture above... a swimming cap with holes?

I think I have to also keep in mind that the 7 sisters are probably going to be a long term project and that I need to enjoy the creative process and not worry to much about dud ideas, there are bound to be lots of these, they are all part of the process... just relax and don't worry.

ideas wall...

(Genevieve and her ideas wall)

Genevieve has pinned up a few of her thoughts and ideas about the winged contraption that she made last Tuesday.  She is thinking of making a similar contraption for each of her sisters (in case of an emergency).  The other sisters look to Genevieve for guidance, she is very strong willed and knows her own mind and often has really good ideas, just as long as she is wearing her goggles, otherwise... as I said before she doesn't function in quite the same way as she does while wearing them.

I am still a little unclear of Genevieve's background both visually and actually... I am thinking she might live on a hill between the sea and a forest that merges into the outskirts of Ariadne's labyrinth, in a big tall castle like house, or maybe more like a lighthouse?  I might have to draw a map???