the beauty and sensuality of Saida, by Kees van Dongen ca 1913

Kees van Dongen (image here) who I got re-acquainted with recently on my visit to Amsterdam and The Hague, was a Dutch painter born near Rotterdam, who's earlier works were way ahead of their time. He was a fauvist, one of my favorite groups, because everything was about colour.

I didn't see this particular painting, but the paintings I did see inspired me deeply. I haven't put them here because the ones I saw are ubiquitous, you just have to google his name and up they come. I haven't seen 'Saida' before, and it did indeed remind me of an earlier time in my life in Morocco where I met one of the most beautiful women I've ever seen, even to this day, called Saida, who was the daughter of a family in Rabat where we were guests.
This Saida pictured here has the same quality of serenity, yet sensual femininity, and depth of gaze.

Oh Siena..a place so filled with Soul.
 It's very hard to describe what goes on that makes you feel like you're being held and fed with some Earthy nectar.
And the pictures don't convey it. The only problem was all the other thousands who were there just like us. But it still wove its magic..

Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakens.- Carl Jung

I've been meditating again, every morning for ten to twenty minutes.

I'm amazed at how this simple thing is transforming my experience of life.

I feel less and less attached to 'being right' or 'better'...

Its beyond words actually.

I can't recommend it highly enough.

Just sit quietly and watch your breath in and out to begin with

Watch your thoughts and say: 'thinking'..

Bring your awareness back to your breath

Allow your consciousness to penetrate

Stop, allow, make space

if only we could capture the scent of daphne on camera

a sentient being

I found this picture on a website by a woman called Robbie Kaye. She has it in her 'Portraits' section, under 'self portraits'. She saw herself reflected in this beautiful creature maybe? She has certainly captured the Being of this horse. She writes about 'the beauty of wisdom' on twitter where I found her. Her quotations are inspiring and heartening, and sometimes have made my day.

We are all becoming One with it all, and here is testament to that.

Amsterdam - the late fifties

This is a photo my father took of his sister Katinka Bruin-van Rood and me when we were visiting 'home'- Holland in about 1959 I think. It was Amsterdam, my grandmother's house, as far as I can remember.

My aunt was also known as Toos, and much loved by all of us. You can see here what a very beautiful woman she was. Full of life and intelligence. She loved her brother (my father, as you can see here too).
She was a great sculptress,  and probably inspired my to take the career path I have taken. My parents would leave us in her
studio for a day, and she would give us clay and set projects for us.
I once spent a whole day making 'a glass of water' out of clay. I was so excited that you could make anything, anything out if this wonderful pliable substance. I can still smell that wonderful earthy smell when I think about her studio. And the pale Amsterdam light flooding in through the tall windows.

On the left here is one of her bronze cast sculptures which I treasure. She adored cats, and always had them in pairs.
But even though that's what this depicts, there is a lot more going on, it has something about it which reminds me of the 'Tree of Life', something ancient and magical.

Katinka lives on in all who knew her, she was luminous and unforgettable.

wow in 1936 Edward Weston rocked

And not only with this photograph or in this year!
I first came across Edward Weston's work when I was at art school (about three hundred years ago..hmmm) and was struck by how his nudes had a painting sensibility about them: his eye somehow stroked every surface, rather like the brush wields paint to bring light and dark to the senses...a tactile surface translating into a vision of the Soul inhabiting the flesh..oh, I can't find the words...
I suggest you just allow your eye to linger over this image for a minute, or any of his images for that matter, and your Soul will be nourished.
The 'design' of this, imbues the elegant, rhythmic minimalism of that time, but could also have been taken today.

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• Edward Weston Photos & Biography (brighthub.com)