For my project I have chosen to revisit the 7 Nature Moods which we did last year.

I think over the last months I’ve procrastinated over what I wanted to do. I’ve been distracted with life, as we all do from time to time. I think I’ve had a bit of a threshold moment, asking what do I really want? Why I am doing this? Can I do this? Self doubt can get the better of me sometimes and it’s been a particularly interesting year with all sorts of issues (health & family) that have been juggled and/or overcome. But through it all, here I am. I’ve crossed the threshold and I’m doing it, riding this year to completion, no matter what. I need to honour myself and everyone else, including you Fiona.

These sketches ‘Seed pictures’ given to the 1st Waldorf School teachers, by Rudolf Steiner, allows us to work out of colours themselves, not the forms in the sketches. Last year when we completed this series of sketches, I was still grappling with the materials and technique. I wish to truely live into the colour in a more mediative way to see how they live in me more deeply than last year. I also want to practice these nature moods more consciously, breathing into the feeling of the sketches. In one of the resources you gave us Van James speaks of how Steiner called these exercises “Yoga of Light” a breathing exercise to develop the Birth of the Soul (Astral body) in adolescence. ‘Through these exercises, we are able to all learn, to counter the distractions of the world, slow our perceptual life into a human pace which can slow us down in the experience of artistic harmony, which healing can arise.’

I think this will be very beneficial for me to experience this again. When we were doing this last year, I was caring for my mother, who was in hospital, with grim prospects. It was a difficult time and perhaps this series of sketches “saved me” at the time. Also I want to experience this again utilising all the knowledge of gained over the last year doing your course.

My plan is to do the sketches in pairs over 3 blocks of time, to complete all seven sketches. The last block being 3 over four weeks.

Week beginning 15th Sept

First 3 weeks- Sunrise & Sunset

2nd 3 weeks- Tree in Sunny Air & Trees in Storm

Then 4 week- Sunlit Tree by Waterfall, Head Study & Madonna (New Life)

Lastly 2 weeks- for reflection and written component.

Then presentation on the 6th Dec

In each block I plan to:

-Do sketches in pastel and/or wet on wet.

-Then do final artwork in wet on dry

My primary focus will be :

How do the gestures of the nature moods sketches work upon my soul compared with last time.

How do I live into the sketches? What arises in each of the sketches?

How do the colours work upon my being?

Do I work out of the colour?

How do I diverge from the sketches?

Are they different from last year?

Will these sketches of the nature mood bring balance and healing to my soul body?

If there is something else I’ve missed or could incorporate, please let me know.

Apologies for the late submission, perhaps my little threshold experience was part of the initiation process. Letting go of what no longer serves me. Interesting times we live in.