Little Pieces of Sunshine!

Other people’s words continue to provide solace. Comfort and inspiration. The words of someone else, often find the right tone, the right essence, to tell of how we feel.

When my Mum passed away, a long time ago now, really, I bought two books of poems and words by @maggiesmithpoet

Her words spoke directly to me. Taking me in, and listening to my heart. They captured my place in time, and she answered just right, I’ve looked back at those books recently. Flicked through the pages and revisited.

A friend wrote me yesterday, asked if I was ok, and we had a lovely chat, back and forth. Again, she noticed, and what is lovely, is even with where she is in her life, her words have helped me. Her tales told, resonating.

Recent times and the way my dad is, and is not, I’ve not wanted to place all of that here…

But her words hit a note, and whispered me in.

We conversed, of comfort and of solace. Finding hope in shared ways to both communicate and to perceive. How others find comfort.

Not religious, either of us, but aware of how more inclined to spiritual, or alternative ways to heal, have felt right for both of us. How what works for one, may not work for another, but, that doesn’t mean either line of thought is not valid.

The light continues to fall. The dark plays between the days and I notice it. In both incarnations.

My Dad has not been good. Both cognitively and physically he continues to decline, and it’s just so very sad.

That’s just the way it is… I cannot change it. I cannot do any more than be. I feel I’ve come to terms with this, but it doesn’t make it easier or less of a struggle to witness.

A beacon, a guiding light. The light prevails…. Elsewhere.

Through the trees, it peeks into our days. It falls on our gardens, our family, our cats and us. Our friends. Our lives.

Comfort to be found. Lighter, on some days more than others.

Grateful for those who lend me their own light to shine in.

#makingspacesothelightcangetin

#JennaMartinLeitchArtist
#JOYimprinted
#thelightthroughthetrees ...

Seems we have all needed some days like these….. the calm and the quiet. The place to feel safe and the time with the ones we love. 🤍

#JennaMartinLeitchArtist
#JOYimprinted ...

“Onwards to pass home. Stopping as skylarks spotted.
Rising from field. A flitter of wing, whirring in vertical lift. As they do... then song ascending.”

My Aberdeenshire, Tifty childhood home, surrounded by arable landscape. Farmland fields, with crops in rotation.
Ground nesting birds. Stubble fields upon harvest.
Grasses blown in breeze. The soft “shush” as the wind passed through the barley crops.

The gentle vibration of seed heads, awns and spindle stalks; moving in sequence, undulating as if to dance.

The skylarks rising up. Ascending in sky song. Their rapturous shimmer chorus, cloud held. Stratus, alto, cirrus. Sky singers.

They are synonymous. The planted fields and the sky song...
For me, intertwined and integral, to one another.
One cannot exist without the other.

A few summers ago, that season I remember I hadn’t yet heard a skylark... I was worried, and wondered, had the Tifty skylarks left?
Visiting with my children, we went a walk, and there they were. Two! Together in sky and in song. With the field in growth below... yielding.

Overwinter stubble fields, from harvested crops provide precious and perfect conditions for these ground nesters.
For those that fly so high, they choose to rest in the lowest of places.
When habitat prevails.

My wish, my hope, for them to always keep singing.
Smallest of skylarks. Vertical flights, and horizontal felds.
Sky song.

A Harvest Song.

Our Harvest Home.

~ Jenna Martin Leitch

The above piece of writing is the piece of prose I wrote to stand alone, but also, compliment my drawing “Our Harvest Song”, which you can see at the @art.and.nature.collective exhibition “Harvest/Lammas” at @foursticksgallery Falkland, Fife until the end of the month.

Sound on for those clips, with the daffodil, you can also hear my Tifty Skylarks, in full and glorious song.

#JennaMartinLeitchArtist
#JOYimprinted
#skylark
#ourharvestsong ...

The exhibition has begun! And what a beautiful treasure trove this space has become…

“Harvest / Lammas” by the @art.and.nature.collective at @foursticksgallery Falkland, Fife , runs to the end of the month.

With a wide variety of disciplines and ways of perceiving the concept of Harvest… it’s lovely to see and read everyone’s approaches.

Felt so proud stepping in to the gallery tonight, close by to where I live, and run by the loviest of folks. To see my work on the wall, and my piece of prose writing also.

A friend read my words, taking his time the really take them in… turning, with tears prickling his eyes, and a catch to his words in response… “wow! It’s beautiful!” Always so touched when someone takes the time to really read what I have written and take in my drawings also.

This work is very personal to me. As most of my artworks are.

A tale of my Tifty home, my Dad, and the skylarks which rise above in those Aberdeenshire skies for always. Evocative and captured in memory.

Thank you to all who came along tonight. Lovely to catch up with some friends and their families whilst there.

Ever onwards, and with a gladness pushing me forwards in what I do, and why I do it!

Jen x

#JennaMartinLeitchArtist
#ourharvestsong ...

Does anyone else stop to take note, when they see the SLOW signs written on pavements before them?

As if those words are written only for you. Placed there in paint upon tarmac… a resonance, the world reminding.

Slowing down, to me, means filtering out the noise. Making space, in life and in mind, so the light can get in.

For years now, I have busied my life, filled it with so many wonderful aspects. My family, my business, my studio time, my time at the vets, my running and my strength work, food shops, and time in house and home.

With my Dads health declining, and my girls growing older, I recognise, all too much, how the passing of time stops for no-one.

How the most important things, are the most simple. And also, how we must look after ourselves, before any other, so that we may do our best by them as a result.

I am determined to become a better version of myself: layers and layers of factors combine, but making the space and the time for each is my ultimate goal. For without this, the snail travels with more purpose than us, in actuality.

Gentle, forward motion. To who knows where?

SLOW.

Nurturing our children. Drawing and writing, without pressure. Studio time quietly required. Running and walking. In nature and light. Home cooking once more. Meals bursting with colour and with love. Presence and conversation. Garden enriched and repurposed.

I envisage calm and beauty and I can feel all the love entangled resting in my very soul. Beckoning me in. Thanking me for this space and this clarity.

Ever onwards.

Jen x

#JOYimprinted
#snailspace
#scottishartist
#scottishartistandwriter
#JennaMartinLeitchArtist
#makingspacesothelightcangetin ...

This Friday the @art.and.nature.collective exhibition “Harvest/Lammas” will open, at @foursticksgallery with a celebratory event 6-8pm.

Many of the artists with work in the show will be there, and it’ll be a lovely way to meet and have a blether about what we do and why!

We would love to see you there.

I popped along to Falkland yesterday, a short distance from my home, and was delighted to see the posters with my drawing dotted about the village.

“Our Harvest Song” is a special one for me (aren’t they all….) but this one, is one of a new body of work I am creating. Of my Tifty home, and stories of my Dad.

There is a piece of writing that goes alongside, that will be on display also.

Please do stop by if you’re in the area over the month of August.

Jen x

#OurHarvestSong
#JennaMartinLeitchArtist
#JOYimprinted
#scottishartist
#skylark
#artandnaturecollective
#foursticksfalkland ...

At the tail end of my run this morning, I noticed the tiniest of poppies at the very edge of the pavement.

Overshadowed by a tiny shrub hedge, I leaned down to take it in. Cradled it in my hand, so as to study its petals and centre.

The intricacy drew me in. Then in a moment… a hoverfly darted towards it.

With it held there, so close, I assumed the hoverfly would buzz away on its merry way, too scared to land if it realised I were there.

Instead, it landed. Stayed a while, wandered amongst and upon that tiny bloom.

To be seen as a safe place. For a something to sense I was not of any harm, that I would let it rest safely…

I say this at my work also, to be seen as a safe place. To scared animals within my care. Cats resting their heads in the nook of my arm, as if to hide. Dogs, leaning against me, looking into my eyes. Sometimes a tail wag.

My children also, cuddling in, when they need closeness and comfort. Friends and colleagues coming to me if they are worried.

And now, in a reverse of roles, I know when I am with him, my Dad is calmed by my presence. A gentle smile, then leaning in for a gentle bosie and a kiss on the cheek. When he sleeps in his chair, opening my eyes, so as to make sure I am still there. Sat with him.

A safe place. A sense and a feeling. I know it to be so… and what a privilege it is, so be such a place for so many.

Now, to find that sense of safety within my self.

Ever onwards.

#JennaMartinLeitchArtist #JOYimprinted
#ASafePlace ...