Postage #354

Daily painting #534. 4"x6" oil on primed canvas panel

A couple of months ago I came across an English watercolour landscape painter who also engages daily in painting charming little English landscapes. I loved the little works and started to follow his journey. I am interested to know what inspires others to paint daily as I do. I discovered that the artist had started up a postcard art group where artists around the world engage in sharing...posting off little postcards to one another as a way of sharing artwork, passion and inspiration. I have heard of similar projects before and so of course I was delighted when I was invited to join the group! A few weeks later I received some delightful little artworks in the form of postcards from all around the world! My sheer joy and elation at receiving something handmade in the post made me feel like a kid at Christmas all over again! It confirmed for me all the reasons why Paintings in the post has become such an important part of what I do! Besides being passionate about painting each day, I love the fact that my little paintings travel all over the world, that people are receiving something hand made in the post and that snail mail in this crazy, busy, internet driven world we live in, is still alive and thriving! The process of sharing through traditional mail carries a sense of nostalgia and intimacy which for me has such charm!

So this week I finally got around to completing some postcards to share. I only made 4 but I am in the process of making more! They were made using gouache, ink and pen and had a bright summery feel (summer is in the air here). They had the Persian proverb "the world is a rose....smell it and pass it on to a friend" inscribed on them. I love this sharing 'thing'....

My little postcards are headed off to 2 places in England, Sweden and Australia. I had such fun getting them ready and finding charming stamps to put on them. The little South African stamps at the moment have pictures of African beading on them and I especially loved the ones I painted today....they have little beaded ladybugs on them! 

The greatest excitement was taking my kids to pop them in the postbox ....have your children ever put anything in a post box? Well mine were fighting over putting them in .... A real novelty (my paintings are sent over the counter as packages not in the good old red box).

Such simple pleasure....a painting in the post!

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