Starlight Inspiration...

Wynken, Blynken and Nod is about a Journey.  The Poem written by Eugene Field and published in 1889 is about three little fishermen who sail off in a wooden shoe to fish among the stars in the night sky.  It is a dream, it is a lullaby, it is a gentle pull into the mysteries of bedtime stories.   However the Journey for me is the series I am painting.  I’m doing it for myself, I’m doing it for the children in my life, I’m doing it because I can.  But it is a journey.  With ups and downs and spurts and pauses. 

I have about 6 paintings done, more or less.  I’ve stuck with a 22 x 16” size for my paintings and they are all watercolour on Arches Cold Press Cotton Rag paper. I figure I have maybe 15 more to go in the series,  but what I’ve decided is that I can’t plan it all out.  I just have to keep painting, and eventually I’ll just know that I’ve reached the point where I’m through. 

" The little stars were the herring fish

That lived in that beautiful sea — "

~ Eugene Field

Watercolour

© RiverWalker Arts

I got hung up for a while and while I was hung up I started to read a few blogs. I’m not a Blog creeper by nature. But sometimes inspiration can be found in a myriad of places.  Actually I started googling illustrators,  specifically ones that work in Watercolour, and from there I found images that spoke to me, which lead me to reading blogs written by illustrators…   specifically I found  http://www.starlightjourney.blogspot.ca  an older blog from pre 2009 written by illustrator and watercolour artist Jackie Morris.   I read back through much of her blog.  She writes about the growing pains of the book Starlight Sailor,  the rejection of her designs and ideas, the fully finished paintings for the cover that were turned down by the publisher.  Until finally the whole thing came together and the package with the final book arrived in the mail.   It was inspirational.  It was at this point I realized… I just need to keep painting, and maybe all of my paintings won’t make it into my little series. But that is ok.  And because I’m not trying to please a publisher.. I’m only trying to please myself in my spare time that I’m really ahead of the game and that this is really just a love affair… between me and my paint and a poem that captured my heart…  and so I’m back to painting again with a smile.

By the way… I bought Jackie Morris’s book Sarlight Sailor (written by James Mayhew) &  Tell Me a Dragon