' There is an artist inside all of us just waiting for the right opportunity to express itself '

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Angels Rising:
Oil painting by Rana J Rodger:
www.ranapix.co.uk

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Nature/Walking/Art holidays along the spectacular Aveyron Gorge in SW France in Bristol | Europe Travel Services & Tours Services | Gumtree.com

Stepping aside to let the magic happen

Story of a passion

My work has varied and changed considerably over the last years.

I started my career specialising in architectural portraiture back in the 1970 S. (Jennirodger. Co. Uk) This then led to greeting card designs and illustrations for posters and children’s books and many commissions in the commercial field.

However I still feel that my best paintings were the first ones that I did aged three and four.

My mother has kept all these paintings and I sometimes look at them and connect to the magic that I felt at that time… The smell of the fat wax crayon as it slid across the page… The wonderful surprise when pink met blue… Or blue met green… The excitement I felt as the paper began to fill with circles and lines and dots…

In the late 80 s I decided to concentrate solely on my own personal artistic journey. There was a whole year when I spent practically everyday experimenting with texture, color and hue. There were days when I felt that I was just making a load of mess and not getting anywhere… But where is there to get to anyway?

I discovered a wonderful blue pigment in France called «Blue mineral» and spent an entire year just playing with «blue. »

I couldn’t stop… «Blue» took me on a voyage. I never imagined that there could be so many facets to «blue » (see Blue Gallery)

I was deeply moved by a trip to Australia and when I returned I started to make my own paints from natural pigments and began to experiment with different media… Rolling inks onto paper and working with gesso and oil pastel.

I had re-found the delight and satisfaction that I had as a small child, and as a result my paintings started to take me on a voyage of discovery.

My studio is a roundhouse built of limestone and wood high up on a plateau of sw France.

I choose to live close to nature, for it is from here that I gain the inspiration for my inner work.
My paintings are inspired from the earth… The source… The mother of all things.

I listen to the silence within… To my dreams and intuitions and paint from my heart.

Major inspirations for my paintings have been from travels in Australia, dry arid landscapes such as The Painted Desert in Arizona, New Mexico and Southern Spain, n Africa and the traditional art of all these regions (See www.ranapix.co.uk)

I’m now starting to pass on the gifts and knowledge that I have gathered over these years to children and to adults wishing to connect with their own artist within.
So many people have been told that they cannot paint, or think that they hold no talent.
My work is to help them to find their own'artist within'.
I use eft (Emotional Freedom Technique) and meditation to clear the mind and'release the blocks'that we hold in our head that prevent us from expressing ourselves.

I have set up a nature/creativity retreat centre deep in the countryside of sw France: www.thealchemygarden.com.

Here wehave'FUN'in the studio experimenting and playing with different media and techniques and'stepping aside'to let our true creativity shine.

It is always such a surprise and delight to everybody to'watch'and witness what is just waiting to emerge and talk to us.

Spring comes to The Alchemy Garden

What an incredible spring day over here in The Alchemy Garden.

 Spent the afternoon raking the leaves of winter and clearing the earth beneath...
Cleared out the greenhouse and re potted all the plants and made some cuttings.

There was complete stillness except for a blackbird and a wood pidgeon calling from the pine trees.
So good to feel the sun on my skin again and to go barefoot on the bare earth.

The Labyrinth and fish

Bright light is breaking through deep waters...

Things that have remained hidden are now revealed into the light of day... 

The clouds are clearing revealing a secret:

The flight of the Phoenix

I have no idea what will unfold.
I am using rollers and oil pastels. The painting may change completely at any given moment. Sometimes I scratch away at the surface to reveal the white oil pastel beneath...sometimes I mask certain areas to keep the image in a certain area while I roll on a new coat of another hue.
I seem to be getting bigger...expanding. My whole body now wants to dance across the painting as I roll the pigment.
The Phoenix is taking me on a journey.

For this moment I have no past...
For this moment I have no future...
I am one with this big bird who somehow wants to take me with him through his journey into fire. 

The Phoenix

I am in the process of creating a new painting.
It is comprised of four individual paintings that go together to tell a story.
I don't know what the outcome of the story will be. 
I am only following where my intuition takes me .
The four pieces together will come to approximately five metres in length and I am working on the floor of what used to be the garage until the new studio is completed where I will have the space to crate even larger paintings.
I will photograph the painting as it evolves.
Here is a section of the new painting: The Phoenix:
Early March 2012

The old no longer exists
All that no longer is of purpose has been transformed by fire.
The phoenix is rising from the ashes