Catching our breath
and catching up with reading
Hello friends
I’m taking a breather from writing this week.
[N.B. Our Life Raft co-working session will go ahead as usual. Scroll down for the link]
I’ve been writing and painting and coaching other creatives and building an online course I am really proud of, that’s already helping other visual artists to find their words.
But it’s been…a lot…a lot of creating and putting things out into the world, and not quite enough of filling the cup again. I haven’t been taking time to read, slowly and thoughtfully, to think things through, to spend time outside, to experiment playfully in the studio. I haven’t been offering the book recommendations so many readers have said they value because I’ve not been reading them, and my to-be-read stack is becoming a teetering tower.
Writing this newsletter for you each week really is a labour of love, a task I value and enjoy doing. It enriches my life and I hope it does yours too. I don’t want to rush one out just for the sake of it.
A friend who reads The Life Boat told me she couldn’t quite keep up with reading every week, and felt like she was falling behind. I know that feeling. I’ve been guilty of speed-reading wonderful Substack newsletters that I subscribe to, instead of savouring them.
Another subscriber mentioned that she had only just discovered the web page for The Life Boat. I know that most of you read this letter in your email. I also know that many of you have only just boarded The Life Boat in recent weeks. So this week, while I am catching up with some of my reading pile, here’s a chance to catch up with yours. I’d like to invite you to browse the previous posts in the archive. There’s a library of no less than 77 previous issues of The Life Boat there, with no paywall, just waiting for you to browse.
I’ve linked a few of my own favourite posts below.
The sound of the sea breathing
We’ve had days and days of unrelenting wind here. Of wind you can lean your full weight into. Wind that fills your ears with roaring and sucks the air out of your open mouth. Wind that shoves and tugs at everything, that yanks the door from your hands, that snatches at your unfastened jacket and slaps your rain-so…
The brimming moment
It begins with a raindrop. It rolls down the fence wire just outside the window, to where it sags a little at the midpoint between two posts. Hanging, it swells there, catching the clouded light, a clear white bead. The loch and hill and sky beyond are folded inside. It gathers up a world and shines it out again, tiny and inverted, as fragile and beautif…
There's joy in repetition
During the run of my exhibition at Northlight Gallery in Stromness I’ve been inviting people to come and join me in creating a giant drawing that’s grown over the last two weeks, like a tide slowly creeping in, made of hundreds of thousands of tiny circles.
Think small. Go deep.
In the studio, I’ve been working on a single large piece for several weeks now. It’s more of a drawing than a painting, or perhaps it’s something in between. I’m still maybe only halfway done. On one level, it’s a response to the movements of water in the atmosphere; clouds, mists, especially the way salt spray hangs in the air, blown up off the sea, how…
THE LIFE RAFT meeting as usual!
Our weekly co-working session will go on as usual on Wednesday 3 - 4.30 pm UK time. We open with a short chat about what we are going to work on, work quietly in companionship for 45 minutes or so, then close with a bit of conversation and community. It’s a highlight of my week, and I usually have a very productive couple of hours after it closes. It’s free to join. Click the link below at 3 pm and I’ll let you in!
If you can’t make that time, or just want to check us out before joining us live you can view last week’s replay here, including a wonderful introduction to tapestry weaving from Emma Jo Webster who joined us at her loom. Look at those lovely smiley faces!
I’m off to crack open a book, take a walk, maybe a nap!
until next week!
– Sam
P.S. Did you know that if you click on the little heart icon at the bottom or top of this email it helps other readers to find the Life Boat? It also makes me very happy!
Apologies for missing the Raft this afternoon. Out on chores all day and trying not to drown x
Add my song to the chorus. I have too many subscriptions to keep up with. That is because people are so very interesting, as is the wide world they describe. Each deserves time and full attention. Time is what I lack to do you all full justice.