A day is a miniature eternity

A miniature eternity by Jo Bradford

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I subscribe to a series of podcasts of the essays of Poet and essayist, Ralph Waldo Emerson which are very enjoyable ways to pass time.  Emerson died on this day in 1882 and to day I just wanted to share a few more of my favourite lines from Mr Emerson, beginning with the line used to title this post...

"A day is a miniature eternity."

...

A few of his words on artists and on creativity follow....

...

"Artists must be sacrificed to their art. Like bees, 

they must put their lives into the sting they give."

...

"Though we travel the world over to find the beautiful, 

we must carry it with us or we find it not"

...

"The creation of a thousand forests is in one acorn" 

...

RIP Ralph Waldo Emerson, an inspirational man whose words still hold meaning in our contemporary society.

Step out grandly to the Infinite

Infinite Expression by Jo Bradford

With stammering lips and insufficient sound
I strive and struggle to deliver right
That music of my nature, day and night
With dream and thought and feeling interwound
And only answering all the senses round
With octaves of a mystic depth and height
Which step out grandly to the infinite
From the dark edges of the sensual ground.
This song of soul I struggle to outbear
Through portals of the sense, sublime and whole,
And utter all myself into the air.

~Excerpt from "The Soul's Expression" by Elizabeth Barrett Browning~

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Swallows return...

The swallow, bonny birdie, comes sharp twittering o’er the sea,
And gladly is her carol heard for the sunny days to be;
She shares not with us wintry glooms, but yet, no faithless thing,
She hunts the summer o’er the earth with wearied little wing.

~ Thomas Aird  ~

A couple of days ago I saw the first swallow of the year, wheeling and darting across the sky above the orchard, and I felt thrilled at this happy portent of summer!  It reminded me that I made some pictures of swallows and their young at the end of last summer some of which are now in my area of the Getty Images library.  

I don't think I shared these pictures with you at the time, so here they are now....  more wildlife work than art but I just wanted to share them with you. 

Happy Easter xx

Hope you are having a happy easter!!

Jo
x

This image is from my 365 Ways to Say Goodbye Polaroid Project.

And the lucky winner is......

Congratulations to ........{drumroll}....... Quercus Silver, 
who chose the print Riviera as her prize.

Thanks to everyone who took part, 

Jo xoxo

Happy Days

So... that "something I was hoping to come off" that I talked about earlier this week, actually came off.....

That "something" was a 6 month old German Shorthaired Pointer who needed to be rescued after he was handed in a few weeks ago and ended up with Friends Of The Animals.  The poor little chap had been shipped round several foster homes while he waited for a new forever home.  We adopted him and picked him up yesterday.  He is just too cute for words :)

So here is the newest member of our family, Billy the Kid, pictured here on the left, sharing his red rubber frisbee with the gorgeous Charlie Brown.

Cute fellas hey!!

Things are looking up :)

Printemps by Jo Bradford

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Well March is slipping by so fast, and I have to say that for me this March has been a difficult and testing month, however, never one to wallow in the mire, I am looking forward to a brighter April!!  I am looking forward to next week particularly, as I have my fingers crossed for something to come off that will certainly lift spirits here at Green Island Studios.  I don't want to jinx it, so 'nuff said for now... more on this next week :)

This photograph, Printemps, is a brand new listing, available for sale in my Etsy store:
www.GreenIslandStudios.etsy.com

Happy Wednesday friends 

Jo 

xoxo

Euro Week Special Offer!!

Cosmopolitaine by Jo Bradford

♥♥  It is Etsy Euro week this week, and to celebrate I am offering a special buy-one-get-one-free on any 5x5" or 8x8" photograph in my Etsy Store full of European made artwork :)  ♥♥

Cosmopolitaine is a brand new print in my store this week - I hope you like it :)

Happy Monday & Happy Etsy Euro week everyone!!

Free Giveaway at Green Island Studios!

I am feeling generous, and full of the joys of spring this week  :)

And to show you just how happy I am -  I am going to offer up one of my Giclee prints for someone out there to win.

Firstly though, if you are on Facebook, get over there and add me to your faves - that way you can take advantage of special offers and discount vouchers first!   Click on the facebook link on the right to be transported there forthwith.

...

So you wanna be a winner do you?
All you have to do to be in with a chance of winning one of my 8" x 8" or 8" x 12" giclee prints is to have a look through the pictures in my Etsy or Dawanda store, then leave me a comment here telling me which one you would like to win. Oh, and if you're a blogger and you don't already follow my blog, then please add me to your follow list.

This  free giveaway will close on the 31st March 2010. I will let the Random Number Generator pick the winner on the 1st of April.

{Fingers crossed it's you!!}

Click here to choose from work in my European Store 
Click here to choose from work in my USA store

Good Luck!!

Jo xoxo

Advent of Spring

A week in Spring flowers, Day 1 (Pink Tulip) by Jo Bradford 

I am back in my studio after weeks of travels and I am delighted to see that the gardens are full of spring colour already.

I am still going along happily with my 365 Goodbyes Project  - using up all my expired old Polaroid Film.  To celebrate the advent of Spring 2010, I am going to make a theme of Spring Flowers for a few days, or a week, well basically until I run out of flowers to capture with my ‘roid! Cornwall, UK.

Pop over for a look at what I have been up to with my Polaroid recently :)

www.365goodbyes.tumblr.com

Happy Monday folks :)

     

A week in Spring flowers, Day 2 (Mauve and Green Helebore) by Jo Bradford ~ Polaroid Land Camera 240 and 125i film (expired 12/2007).

(Polaroid photographs, all rights reserved, copyright: Jo Bradford 2010)

More Mentions...

Thanks also to Pixel & Post for the blog mention this morning :)




























And more thanks to Future Heirloom Designs who also blogged two of my pictures today.

And even more thanks go out to the folks at We Love Indie who also blogged my picture today :)

HeatherLee Mention

Thanks to HeatherLee for the lovely write up she gave me this morning - it certainly started my day with a big smile :)

Poppytalk Feature - Spring Colours Week - Yellow Wednesday

Thanks to Poppytalk for the special mention over on their blog this morning.  Spring has definitely sprung and I am enjoying participating in Poppytalk's Spring Colours Week






You can see my little yellow sunshine bubble in the round up later on that day too :)

Spring Colours Week

It's Spring Colour Week over at Poppytalk Handmade and todays colour was green.

In their round up of the favourite photos submitted to their Green Day on their Spring Colours Flickr Group you can see my Budding Blossoms picture (4th from left
on row 3.)

Yeay :)

Happy Tuesday Folks

Hope is never lost

Rhapsody in Blue by Jo Bradford
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Hope is never lost
but misplaced.
The sun will rise, 
flowers will grow, 
birds will sing 
and you will feel the warmth 
of hope again
xxx


Today, I just need to remember that all is not lost - even if it seems that way sometimes