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What is a Haiku?

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 Discovering Haiku Poetry Up until a few months ago, I had never heard of the term "Haiku". When I started writing more poetry and studying it online, I found the word haiku kept popping up. So what does it mean? Essentially it is a form of Japanese poem that consists of only 17 syllabi.  The syllabi are broken down into 3 lines of 5, 7 and 5.  These short poems are traditionally about nature and the seasons. However, you will find that many writers have adapted them to cover a whole host of topics. I prefer to write haikus that broadly keep the tradition of writing about nature.  What really attracts me to these little snippets of poetry, is how they force the writer to concentrate their ideas into just a few words. For me, this helps me to avoid the temptation to waffle. I have been posting my haikus on Instagram   . Some of these I may come back to at a later date and expand the ideas into longer poems. If you would like to read or post haikus on Instagram, there are many

Self-publishing my first book

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Paint & Poems a lockdown project Over the last year, I have been working on a series of local landscapes with accompanying poems. During the first lockdown of Spring 2020, I shared a few of my poems on social media with friends. I was quite surprised to receive such positive feedback on my poems and this spurred me on to do more. These poems usually come to me when I am out on my own walking. It seemed natural, therefore to combine my landscape paintings with my poems. In total, the series is 25 mixed media paintings, each titled with its what3words location.  The paintings hope to capture some of the unique beauty, atmosphere and weather of the Lake District. I am drawn to the strong lines of paths, walls, ridges and streams that guide your eye through the landscape. This is reflected in my use of charcoal for mark-making. Putting all this together in a book has been a welcome distraction over the last few months. I am delighted that it is now in its final stages and ready for pri

To blog or not to blog?....................

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  The question I am asking myself today, should I continue with this blog or not? Writing a new blog has been on my to do list for a while now. It was last Autumn when I put my last post on here, and I thought I ought to be keeping up to date. I think that there are two main reasons why I have lost motivation to blog:- Firstly, the pandemic. This has made writing difficult, my usual glass half full optimism has waned from time to time over the last year. Also the lack of physical art events to get involved with has reduced the amount of news to report on.  Secondly, Instagram . When I began this blog site, I wasn't a user of Instagram. Now as I use Instagram more and more, I find it quite a useful tool for writing news, ideas etc. instead of the traditional blog format. Those of you who follow me on Instagram will see regular updates on what's happening in my studio etc. So, where does that leave this blog site? Well, as it costs me nothing except my time, I may as well leave i