Leap of Faith – Starting the Cycle Again

An early image…one of the first Tarot cards that I painted when I was first out of art college.  I chose the figure from an early Picasso painting but on reflection I feel it is a little too static and does not engage the lightening energy of the Fool archetype that I have come to know.   This came up as the base card for a reading I received from Marcus Katz (Tarot Professionals).  I think it would be useful for me to revisit this card and rework as my insights into it grow through this year, and the reading I received.

The Ace of Wands Mandala

This Mandala painting was done as part of a project on the Tarot that I have been involved in. I knew I wanted to create a piece of work purely for myself but had no deliberate subject in mind, only a feeling. I find that doing a Mandala is the best way to pull messages from the unconscious forward. It’s a painting exercise I do from time to time, particularly when I feel stuck in my personal life. Working as a professional painter I often forget to use art for myself. Creativity is the fastest track for me to be the best I possibly can and this has a reflection not only on my work life as a painter and teacher but also as a person in my own right.

This Mandala celebrates the creative power within me. I have painted the Wand as being part of a full tree, showing its roots stretching and curling to the dark earth, as well as its branches reaching high into the bright and rainbowed sky. The central image is that of a butterfly unfurling its wings. The Red colour of the butterfly represents the fiery nature of the Wands energy. It also has connotations of “Moth to a burning flame” and having gone into that flame, arising out of it, transcended perhaps, into new life.

You can buy a poster of this on my Fine Art America page.

http://fineartamerica.com/featured/the-ace-of-wands-mandala-kate-bedell.html

A Fresh Start

Ace of Wands

The Ace of Wands brings fire and enthusiasm  to creative pursuits.  This is the kind of energy I need to get through these difficult days of winter.  Well, after 7 years of Indian sunshine, it does come as quite a shock to the system to now be enveloped in darkness.

However, the dark days do serve a purpose in that they give you time to take things more slowly and reflect inwardly.  Perhaps it is just the thing that’s needed to incubate those ideas that are only half formed or are not yet conscious.  When we’re busy all the time it is easy to miss out on some of the subtler aspects of life.

As an artist, I’m not new to having periods of furious creativity followed by dry spells when everything seems meaningless.  I just accept these highs and lows as par for the course.  I understand the necessity of hibernation.  It does seem unfair though, that one is expected to go on as normal with the everyday stress and strains when one of these bleak patches occurs.  It would be nice to retreat as Persephone does when she has to return to the underworld for six months of the year.

That’s were the Ace of Wands comes in.  It’s time to re-charge the soul with the spiritual and creative torch.  Enough of painting “manic miniatures for money”.  I’m ready to make a fresh start on my tarot paintings!

The High Priestess

The High Priestess Card

It’s been a very busy month! I still haven’t quite left the energy of the Magician and life has been hectic and demanding. I’ve had very little time to meditate or intuit images of a Tarot nature. I had to complete my three paintings for this year’s Water Colour Society’s154th annual exhibition. It was an arduous task as I was also trying to set up my new website and arrange to have some giclee prints made of my work. Well, something has paid off as I was informed a few hours ago that one of may paintings has just won an award! I could hardly believe it. My first ever. After all that excitement I really do need to go within and reach that inner sanctuary to restore my balance.

My Tarot Image of The High Priestess will help me to reconnect with the source. The current picture I have is a small sketch of the card which I went on to develop into a fabric wall hanging. It was tricky trying to keep the light part of her face unshaded as fabric paints have a tendency to run. As in the card of The Magician, I wanted it to be dramatic and so I used strong shadows on the face of the High Priestess. I feel that the painting was a little like a self portrait. I saw her as a creative, artistic figure who was dark and secretive. The strong shadow on one half of her face hints at the esoteric side of her nature. I think I identified with this hidden part, as up until now, I had been very private about my work on the Tarot.

The Magician

Having faced the awesome task of successfully setting up home again in Ireland; getting the house sorted; the children settled and the garden weeded, why was it that I found myself at a complete standstill when it came to getting up and running on my own projects? I went through a series of failed attempts at getting started and felt completely disorganized. (Why is it that we always leave ourselves till last?) I just couldn’t get myself to start something new, and was frustrated with the clutter that I found myself in the middle of.

Looking to the Tarot for inspiration is something that I do often to get myself out of a rut. During this particularly dry spell I picked up a deck of Tarot cards to study the images. I shuffled and cut the deck. The first card I turned up was The Magician. This happened three times with three different decks. I felt it was a sign to re-start my Tarot project and I set out to excavate my studio (which is currently being used as storage for our overflow). While clearing, I was drawn to a portfolio that had been stored while we were in India. I don’t know what made me look there as the work inside was all related to demonstration paintings I had done while I was teaching art classes. I went through it somewhat mechanically, and was drawn to a certain painting. As I pulled it out of its sleeve, I uncovered a different piece of work which was behind it. It was the original painting of The Magician, which I had done in 1988. Again, The Magician Card! I felt all tingly. It was definitely a sign to get going with this project again. I had really lost hope of ever finding the originals that I had started around the same time. (I have some photos, but because of moving back and forth the originals have all gone astray). All, that is, but one. And here it is…

The Magician Card

The figure is from a painting by El Greco and is painted with Indian Inks on watercolour paper. The original measures 30.5cms x 20.5 cms. Although initially happy with the general design of the card, I would like to re-work the painting technique as my style has changed a bit since then. I would also like to emphasize the lightening coming through the wand he is holding up, to show the energy being channeled through his body. The Magician’s role is to take energy from above and channel it through the earth…basically, to make ideas and inspiration happen in the real world. I can also see how this card relates to the chakra clearing work I was taught in my yoga classes in India. Through reading Caroline Myss’s work on Anatomy of the Spirit, I believe that the channeling of grace comes through our crown chakra and travels downwards to our mulhadara or base chakra. Through cleansing and re-energizing our chakras, we open the path to divine inspiration I couldn’t have chosen a more appropriate card in terms of both its message and its energy. What a great start!

Welcome to my Tarot Art Blog

Hi!  I am a Visual Artist and work mainly in Watercolour and collage. My subject matter has varied over the years covering landscape, flowers and figurative paintings. For a closer look you can visit my website www.katebedell.com. However I’ve had a passion for the Tarot and Astrology for many years and all of the paintings, drawings and designs I did have remained under cover. I didn’t want to sell any of the pieces so I didn’t show them. I was hoping to eventually do all 12 signs of the Zodiac as full size paintings and then make cards of the complete set. I did enough to make nice covers for the astrology charts I was doing for people but the designs never got into print. As for the Tarot designs, I designed about 8 of them starting in 1988, but because I had to carry on doing bread and butter work, I didn’t get time to complete them.

Just recently my interest in all things Tarot was reignited by listening to Leisa Refalo’s Tarot Connection podcasts. I followed all of the links through this; learned about new Tarot decks; read other peoples blogs on the Tarot and basically just saturated myself with it all. At first I was overwhelmed by the sheer amount of Tarot cards that have been made to date. It put me off a little, as I thought to myself that I could just never compete! But then I thought again… There has been so much excellence achieved in the art of Tarot that it occurred to me that this has become a genre in itself. And I thought, at this stage of my life, I owed it to myself, to really dedicate some time to doing my own deck.

It is my intention with this blog, to write about my journey of Tarot as I work through the cards. It will be a long process, but I feel well worth the effort. I welcome creative and constructive comments, however please bear in mind that I’m a painter and not a writer so I may not be able to update the diary part of this blog as often as I would like due to time constraints. I’m sure all will understand.