Temperlyne's Tarot + Journal

To capture rain

2008-08-05T03:57:00.000-07:00

This fall I will be taking figure painting classes, finally. So hopefully composing a pose without a reference for my next painting will be a bit less frustrating.
For this queen I'm still experimenting a bit with how to create rain, but slowly she emerges like I pictured she should look.

The 5 of cups in retrospect

2008-07-23T06:20:00.000-07:00

Upon looking at my recent "non" tarot paintings I was struck by my stupidity. How could I not have seen that they were tarot cards as well? In trying to move from painting symbolic images to painting my feelings I solved the problem of the minor arcana. When this deck ever gets finished I will have to decide if I want to add the suits symbols to these minors but for now I leave them raw.

A queen in progress

2008-07-14T11:12:00.000-07:00

This is the current state of my queen of cups. An introvert woman surrounded by water. Like the pot-mother I showed below, she wil have water streaming from her breasts into the cup in front of her.
I hope to finish her soon. Trump XX is eager to take her place on the easel.

Still Knotted

2008-05-23T00:01:00.000-07:00

This painting evolves at an excruciatingly slow pace and I wonder if I will ever finish it. Why I am showing it today is because I finally have access to a decent camera that shows the original colours much better.
Maybe I should just leave it as raw as it is now, I usually tend to ruin any potential by refining it too much....

La Isla Bonita

2008-05-18T06:03:00.000-07:00

I've just returned from a forthnight on La Palma, the greenest of the Canary islands. La Palma in the spring is a work of art created in abundant exotic flowers and lush green, contrasted by rugged cliffs, secluded black beaches and desolate vulcanic landscapes. A perfect little paradise for naturelovers. Living in the modern world, it can be so easy to overlook the overwhelming beauty of the natural world, but standing on the edge of a steep cliff above the clouds or walking underneeth a skyhigh canopy of dripping ferns it is simply impossible not to be in awe.

The female vessel

2008-03-12T02:47:00.000-07:00

The picture shows the Phoenician goddess Astarte as pot mother. She is hollow and when filled pours the liquid from her breasts into the vase in her lap. A perfect and ancient example of the queen of cups' archetype, created ages before the tarot was thought out and female nipples became taboo.
The woman is the vessel that carries life. With the invention of pottery in the neolithic, pots and vases became symbols of storage and as such represented the female and her womb. The queen of cups represents this life carrying aspect of the female energies and I feel I should picture her like her prehistoric counterpart; As a vessel, carrying and pouring.

A new queen emerges

2008-03-05T00:16:00.000-08:00

I guess I just couldn't leave the tarot alone for long. As I started sketching with an Ondine theme in mind, the queen of cups emerged. Queen of water, nursing and the mysteries of emotional depth. For her painting I'm thinking blue... lots of blue.

Knotted

2008-01-24T03:24:00.000-08:00

To wrap yourself around a lover, or to be wrapped in a lovers embrace is to melt into each other, to dissolve bounderies and to become the cosmos.
Anyone who's love has been returned will understand the feeling of oneness. But to capture this cosmic knot in paint is a challenge way beyond me. For some reason I like to frustrate myself with the impossible. With this work in progress I need to close my eyes and let my heart see.

The virtue of 2008

2008-01-08T00:25:00.000-08:00

2007 was my chariot year, a year that transformed me from student to professional. I decided to pull a card to see where the wild ride of the chariot has left me and how I will be experiencing 2008. The 3 of wands tells me I will continue to explore the new and expand my horizons, but also that I need to take the long view and plan ahead while I'm standing on firm soil. And maybe I will finally be able to build up confidence based on positive experiences. I've made it this far, is there really any reason to doubt my virtues?

To touch a golden globe

2008-01-03T04:11:00.000-08:00

It's been a while and a lot has happened since. I've graduated and have entered a new fase in life as a small animal vet. It was not a smooth transition and besides reinventing myself, I didn't have the energy left to create. I did experiment with finger-painting and it felt very authentic, mystical and direct. Like creating my own prehystoric art. The most intens experience was painting on a spherical lamp. Letting my hands glide over the smooth surface, my fingers seemed to work without my intervention. The result was some sort of oneiric surreal mess, but the process was very liberating.

The minotaurus will never be finished btw, not only have I found a way out of the labyrinth, my cat found his way onto the painting... He fell asleep on top of it and left thousends of hairs in the paint.

Creeping in the dark

2007-08-14T06:09:00.000-07:00

Several paintings are awaiting completion and I've just started with a new one as well again. It represents the minotaurus in his underground labyrinth. I'm not sure what to think of him; Though in this image I've portrayed him as a dark monster, the bull-cult from crete, which inspired the myth, did not worship such a demon from the netherworld. One day I will devote a painting to the worship of the bull that lies at the birth of religion, for now this is just a fun image to create and it represents myself as I wander around in the labyrinth of choices. I am looking for a direction in my artwork that represents me personally, that radiates a hint of the unique but with every painting I feel more lost. The answer is somewhere in my artwork, but at the moment I just can not see it.

Medium..

2007-08-08T03:21:00.000-07:00

Well, the slight abstract lines of the sketch have disappeared. I'm not sure why the image slowly drifts towards more realism, maybe I'm just too gut-less to produce more abstract artwork.
While working on this painting I discovered something important... when I was given my first tubes of watersoluble oilpaint, I thought I just needed water to dilute the paint. After three years, I finally learned about medium.....

Oil pastels

2007-08-07T04:49:00.000-07:00

Now that I have time on my hands, I need to use it. Apart from doodling in class, I've never sketched much and I really felt I needed to do that more to practice form and shape. I've tried colour pencils and regular pencils, but they always made me feel clumsy. The discovery of oil pastels was a wonderful surprise! The colour is intense, can be mixed much like paint and I just love how it forces you to be expressive. It makes me feel like a child again, just enjoying the pretty colours.

Paint the sketch

2007-08-01T03:28:00.000-07:00

To my frustration, my original sketches are often more expressive than the finished painting. That might be because I've always seen my sketches as something completely different from my paintings. Sketches are just fast, rough and unguided thoughts on paper I thought, and I only used their composition and subject in the resulting painting. So time for yet another experiment: Paint the sketch and try to keep the impression of the sketch alive.

no more ten of cups

2007-08-01T02:05:00.000-07:00

I'm still on a creative quest. I feel I just need to try out lots of different things. The concept from my next painting comes from the 10 of cups, but releasing the tarot referance gives me a lot more freedom to experiment. I want to capture the magical feeling of one-ness, of dissolving in love and eachother. It will be a long time before this painting is finished, but I will take my time and see where the image leads me.

No more fear

2007-07-24T05:41:00.000-07:00

It'a amazing how productive I am since I abandoned my tarot project... The freedom I thought so scary actually allows me to create without fear. Sharing the production process of my tarot cards online might have reinforced my fear to fail, to disappoint not just myself. Nobody is watching over my shoulder now, there are no expectations and all that emerges is a surprise.
My next painting will be of Leda, raped by Zeus disguised as a swan.

I'm not here

2007-07-23T01:43:00.000-07:00

I just took a canvas and started painting. What came out was me, and my fear to face reality and to start a new fase in life. I've graduated as a vet, something I've wanted since I was a very little girl. But now I feel there is more I want, more aspects of myself that I want to explore. Instead of focussing on finding a job as a veterinarian, I applied for a new study in ancient history.

Is this it?

2007-07-20T02:17:00.000-07:00

I've tweaked her face a bit, only to unexpectantly recognise myself in the image. I did not plan that and the slight resemblance might not last till the end. Speaking of the end; when is a painting finished? I am quite satisfied the way it looks now, but there are still things that I can do that might improve (or ruin...) the painting.

Multitasking

2007-07-19T07:41:00.000-07:00

I have never been very good at focussing at just one thing for longer periods. Specially with artwork. I also like to take my time with a piece, advancing very slowly with just a few streaks a week or less. So it is also more efficient to be working on more than one painting.
Yesterday I got the urge to do "something" with gold and white. I remember seeing a certain pose a while back that intrigued me, so I decided to use that pose as well. This image is the result of that urge and I wonder where it will take me.

Tarot Sabatical

2007-06-27T01:39:00.000-07:00

Sadly, I have decided to stop working on my tarot deck. I want to explore my creativity beyond the scope of tarot. Painting tarot cards has been a wonderfull learning experience but I feel the set format is hindering my artistic development somewhat.
Tarot and its archetypes are an important part of my referance frame and I think a hint of tarot will remain visible in everything I create but I do not longer wish to create set cards and meanings. I have lots of ideas for paintings and I can't wait to try them out.
I think that eventually I will return to painting tarot, or maybe start a new project in a different medium. It is not unthinkable either, that my non-tarot work will be a perfect match to a certain card.
This is what I am working on at the moment. No pre-study, no set idea, just me the canvas and the paint. Each layer reveals a new direction and the destination is very much a mystery.

Birth of a page

2007-05-11T05:34:00.000-07:00

I still haven't found courage nor vision to finish my devil. I'm sure I will one day, but I decided to start on another card in the meantime. It's not a conscious move to frame the darkness of the devil between the purity of the star and the innocence of the page of cups but it seems logical.
The minors are a different challenge than the majors. The imagery is less about ancient and abstract archetypes and much more about personality and the actual moment.

Tarot lovers Calendar 2008

2007-04-27T05:18:00.000-07:00

I've decided to enter in the competition to design the cover for the Tarot lover's calendar of 2008. I wish I had the time to create something new and original, but I simply don't.
Unless a miracle happens over the weekend, this will be my entry this year.

One last leap of faith?

2007-03-23T03:55:00.000-07:00

The Star and the Devil alternate on my easel. Between them lies the liberating destruction of the Tower, and what a tower it must be to counteract the dark demon and free the golden beauty of hope. One day I will need to pour that image out of me and I fear the power that will be unleashed in me then.
The Star is almost finished. There are minor things that need tweaking and I still need to solve the issue of digitising metallic paint. There is one major addition I am contemplating. I intended to have water drip from her hair back into the see, to emphasize that the lady is the vessel of hope herself. But I fear I will ruin the image in the process as I have no idea how to pull it off convincingly. What to do...

The devil's poison

2007-03-20T05:48:00.000-07:00

Painting a devil is not an easy task, at least not when you have delved it up from the depths of your self. As she watches me from the easel I can feel the lure of temptation, denial and self gratification. She makes me feel bad about myself, very bad and I feel the need to purge myself from all this lusting and wanting. I can not wait to finish her, face her and than store my demon again. There is a lot of pleasure to be had in the devils realm, but in the end it will poison your mind.

Godless nature

2007-03-19T01:38:00.000-07:00

As my devil slowly emerges from the snake pile, it strikes me that painting tarot is one of my personal demons. It demands me totally and it keeps me from working on less creative and spiritual tasks. Painting and creating seem simple mundane needs that life is filled with, but they also serve a higher purpose. Creating has put me in touch with my spiritual side again without the need to toss aside the freedom of atheism. There is no god, only nature. And nature has evolved into creative minds like mine, capable of expressing personal themes and myths without the need to believe that they exist outside the human consciousness.