Jane Davenport

I Give You Butterflies ©Jane Davenport. Love it? It's available in my store!

Sophisticated Ladies © JAne Davenport

It’s been a full-on week! I have had some BIG creative projects to kick of, which always take herculean strength to get rolling. Of course once the ball is on the go, it’s easy to pick up the pace, slow down a little, alter course or change direction! But I feel as if I have been trying to shape all my creative energy into the actual ball itself. Scattered energy,  Aaaaaargh!

So at the end of my mental gymnastics week, I got ‘told off’ by an associate. I could hear in the person’s voice and the chaotic background that they were under pressure, and our conversation just kept on esculating until the person became aggressive. When I say ‘our’ conversation I am being generous, as I didn’t get to chime in…yes, we had a problem to sort out, but I was addressed as if I was a naughty child. It’s been a looong time since I have been spoken to in that tone. I was too shocked/tired/scared(!) to stand up for myself, explain or state my version of events, so I took on all the venting and finger wagging and slung away with my tail between my legs. I wonder how long I will be mentally hiding under the bed from this person!

I was worried that the situation would totally derail me from my other projects, because I felt really bad about the way I had been spoken to, and why I would not ‘fight back’.  I am just not good at confrontation and I will go a long way to avoid it. It freaks me out. I need time to think about things. I like to ponder all the angles. I take everything personally. Blech!

Anyway! pretty pink saved me from fingernail biting. I didn’t have time to worry about it all day yesterday, as I was in my Byron Bay gallery. It doesn’t happen often, but I enjoy it when I am working there! Seeing my work on the gallery walls, chatting to people, seeing what they like, what images people linger in front of,  answering curious questions about my artwork. Helping people make selections is fun!

And maybe because I was still feeling a bit shakey in the back of my brain, I was really attracted to the soft pinks and greys of, the above images “I Give You Butterflies’ and ‘Sophisticated Ladies’ hanging in the gallery. They comforted me. I am feeling a whole new level of love for these images – some of my most popular. They reminded me how lucky I am to do what I love and how hard I have worked to achieve a level of technical proficiency that allows me to get to an image I see in my head! I feel the need to create some friends for these two. Yes its winter, so finding bugjects will be a challenge, but where there is a will there is a way, right?! So after my lovely Gallery day and this chat on my blog, I am feeling all better now! Yay!

I hope you are having a lovely weekend (and nobody gives you a ticking off!)

Choose Happiness,

x Jane

"Everyone always referred to her as a bright girl." © Jane Davenport

I am feeling very BRIGHT today…I woke up this morning with the rising sun, leaped out the front door for a 5km run,  (is this rhyming? ), then I swam for an hour…KIDDING! It is so cold today (granted it’s only Byron Bay cold – not snowing in the mountains cold) and its reminding me that the ladybirds and most of my insect friends are in hibernation or hiding…so there are few of my Bugjects to photograph. And I miss my little insect buddies!

Having a small pine-full moment…so I had a peep through my huge library of ..sigh… ladybird images ( it’s gargantuan actually , but don’t tell anybody) , and this one caught my eye. I created it in the middle of summer at the Chicago Botanic Gardens. There were flowers everywhere, it was hot and the air was buzzing with little creatures. Nice ones, not the bitey variety. Spring through summer and into the turn of autumn you will find me outside, in the gardens, poking my nose into flowers and looking at the little life. But not in winter.

HOWEVER! that means there is more time to draw and paint, and there has been a lot of that going on…. AND lots of technological advances. The Institute of Cute has a Facebook page and went from 4 friends to 160 (and counting !) in a few days with a bit of effort. AND there was the videos of course, on the IOC’s own YouTube channel (!). And today I start building my Etsy store. The excitement is palpable here in ladybird land…

Of course, there has been a little assistance. I have a magical fairy called Erin helping me. She comes in to the studio 1 day a week and it amazes me the difference in energy it makes. Angus an I both get prepared for ‘Erin Day’ in advance, and we are making videos and thinking about ‘the business end’ of the art studio which adds to the momentum. Even just the tidying up for our guest worker is of huge benefit! And on the day she is here, I think we work harder, just to ‘set a good example’.

…so I am feeling like a Bright Girl too.

Choose Happiness,
x Jane

art journal page by Jane Davenport - "Why Bugs?"

I really enjoyed posting some of my journal pages a few days ago! I carry mine with me everywhere I go. I catch ideas and pin them down before they flit away again….sort of like a flower pressing book. Anyway, I liberated some insect pages from an old World Book Encyclopedia (remember those?!!) and made a collage a while back. Played with some bright colour and shapes (messy and scrumptious).  And that was it for the time being.

Someone asked me “Why bugs” the other day…and when I was manically flipping through my journal in the attempt to distract myself  on the ROUGH flight home last night from Sydney (we didn’t hit any stray tornadoes though! Wild and weird weather…hope the Lennox Head tornado was a one off – NOT a sign of things to come!), the answers to why I just love wrangling insects for my art practice flowed on to the uncannily prepared surface.

i love these moment when ‘things’ just flow…

Choose happiness,

x Jane

workshop image - fiddler beetle

What a Day! Lots of energy and fun! I set up lots of shots with beautiful, sculptural flower shapes and my students were able to experiment with different lighting techniques, lenses and approaches to each subject. We worked outside and photographed dragonflies and I found a delightful lime green preying mantis that performed like a true superstar!