I’ve been reading a fair amount about water and color these days, as I continue to work on a small series inspired by the colours and patterns of Millefiori and Rose windows.

It’s quite astonishing how much of art and science interplay within the realm of colour - and this is most especially true during the 17th and 18th centuries when all artists are not just mixing their colours, but in fact creating them using different waxes and oils, and then mixing them with various powdered substances - of different mineral, plant, and animal materials.

I’ve become rather enraptured in my further learning about colour, so much so, as to also begin playing with colour in regard to experiments in colour theory and play and perhaps moving forward by next year, even into the creation of my own colours though these older techniques that are not so often used anymore. Anyhow, here’s a quick peak into almost completed series based on these patterns found within both Millefiori (Italian glasswork beads) and Rose windows (round stained glass windows found in many European cathedrals). I’m really enjoying creating the rhythmical patterns and the resulting imperfect pattern play. ​

Tahira Nusrat Karim
​Tauska

I am back in Calgary - It has been officially 2 weeks - I am transitioning and looking over all I've done over the past year. I feel incredibly blessed, and very happy. I've had so many incredible opportunities, and experiences, and I've spent a lot of time with wonderful people, and I've eaten a lot of good food. I've made good strides in painting, and I have a mentor. I want to thank the universe, greatly. 

This painting, below, was creatively based on the work of Salvador Dali - the surrealist Spanish painter whose works were often personal and symbolic. I created this painting in August when I was getting ready to say good bye to Peru and my friends and family there, and also to my life there - to which I had grown accustomed. I was feeling surrounded but alone. I am in the salt flats, my favourite place to go and ponder, when I had been living in Urubamba. On the way to them - the hike up, there were Cactus along the way, covered in furry almost fluffy cloud like looking cochineal bugs - white and powdery. Being a clumsy person I often fall into things - and things like cactus hurt - and the cochineals bugs are filled with a deep red blood like my own - reminding me on my way to the calmness and before the storm, that there will always be struggle, but to keep grounded, and to take time to be and think. The others in the painting are people from my present and past - acquaintances and friends. They go on with their lives, as I go on with mine. The calm is in the being, in the contemplation of the being, in the being with oneself. 

Tahira Nusrat Karim
​Tauska

Experimentations with techniques and styles - recently I've been playing with different styles and colour combinations in my painting. I've also been painting nudes which has been quite the experience in observations of skin tones and shadows - next post :) 

Tahira Nusrat Karim
​Tauska

So I've been doing a lot of painting recently, and just going to share a few pieces here. Anyhow, here's to more and more paintings!! 

Tahira Nusrat Karim
​Tauska

The envelopes filled with book manuscripts have finally gone into the publishers and paintings are continuing to be done. Books are being worked on and I am feeling like things are coming along :) 

Currently I am really getting into portraits again, and am becoming somewhat obsessed with maps. 

Some of the new paintings - portraits - working on skillz 

Tahira Nusrat Karim
Tauska

In my world... sometimes, actually always... I find it much easier to finish creative work - like a painting, or an illustration, but then after that... The temptation not to self promote and to continue working on new creative work sets in - basically procrastinating... 

So yes I've been procrastinating mucho lately... in mailing out to publishers and instead been painting lots!!

With the paperwork associated with self promotion looming in a dark corner I ponder if I should just get it done and:
1. feel better for having gotten the work out into the world
2. less guilty for just letting the work sit, and finally,
3. getting myself a step closer to my dreams of being able to one day fully support myself as an artist.

But.... the creative work is just so much more fun!! 

May be, just may be I should give myself a chance, and start at working on self promotion just one weekend a month.. or even one day a month to start... and go from there. I'll start with this coming Monday. This Monday, I'll dedicate the whole day to promotion - writing covers, getting prints done, addressing envelopes, sending out mail! If I actually do... hmmm what could I reward myself with? Perhaps the guilty feelings associated with procrastination ebbing will be reward enough... I guess I'll find out! 

Anyhow, on here I still feel less guilty as I showcase a new painting I've been working on :) 

Tahira Nusrat Karim
​Tauska