woooo hooooo!! Really excited about this - I will be showing people how to reach that beautiful, timeless state of just Being by using simple drawing techniques to connect to themselves and Nature at her finest. This will be part of an 8-day yoga retreat organised by the most amazing and inspirational yoga teacher ever, Michelle Bartolo.  In the beautiful French Alps we will bring a RUSH of fresh air into our lives!June 1 - 8 FRANCE *MichelleBartoloYoga & Jeni Caruana
* MichelleBartoloYoga presents a Yoga & Drawing Retreat in zee French Alps @ Chalet Le Badney 
Your investment & bookings: http://michellebartoloyoga.com/yoga-retreat/retreat-packages/

    This is a painting I did ages ago, when I was doing a lot of work around the prehistoric Temples of Malta. It's called 'Portal' and sums up a lot of what I feel about these unique and powerful sites.

  This morning I visited the same Temple, called Ta'Hagrat, which is very close to where I live. It really is a very special place. I was with special friends too, and we spent some time there, meditating and just feeling really. 
   I have been thinking of re-connecting with the Temples paintings for a month or so now, and it all seems to be coming together, at least in my head! I want to further the work I have already done in them, and to see where that takes me. I realised that I hadn't even put a Temples page on this website at all, even though I have so many images to use. That I will rectify soon, and I am also making a whole website dedicated to that subject alone.

  These sites date back to around 5,000 BC, and are almost universally unknown! 

  So that's my next project really, but first I have to work on the landscapes exhbition I am doing in May, with all the printing and designing and advertising and organising that goes with it. 
  I have to virtually forbid myself time in the studio or out painting so that I concentrate on all that Stuff.

  And I did resolve to send out regular blogs too, but Time just slips away..... the Temples have been standing there for thousands and thousands of years and I don't find Time to blog!

  
... so here I am, all fattened up after spending Christmas and New Year in the UK with my family. It's been great, doing nothing much but being with the Ones I Love.

     I did spend a day wandering around London seeing as many exhibitions and galleries as I possibly could, trying to take mental snapshots and store all the images for future reference. I find that's better than taking actual photos sometimes (I had forgotten to pack my camera anyway!) - memories are often better to paint from, and you can't be accused of copying! Having said that, I am reading a brilliant little book called "Steal Like An Artist" which says that we should all be 'stealing' (i.e. keeping a record of) everything that appeals to us, so that we can feed it into our own work later. We should keep a 'Swipe File' in a scrapbook or on our pc's to refer to whenever we need a bit of inspiration.This isn't about copying images, but the ideas and thoughts behind them, so our own images are original creations based on whatever we have experienced along the way. I'll be bringing this idea to my students in future!

    Which reminds me of all the things I have to do when I get home to Malta tomorrow - start organising my next First Friday Gallery (Feb 1st), advertise the Japanese Drawing workshop in my studio (Feb 3rd), think about having a Birthday Party (hoorah!), set up some new painting and drawing courses, confirm the dates of my landscape exhibition, which has been postponed because of the election in March, chase somebody that owes me some money :-), cuddle my cats until they squeak (yes I'll do that first!) and then see how my studio has fared without me.....  oh, and try to lose some of this weight!

    So tomorrow it will be farewell to the grey skies of London and HELLO!! to the blue skies of Malta.
From home to home.....