Fat and Happy?

Annemie Odendaal: Oil & Charcoal
"The Weight of my Mistakes"

I used to think, and believe, that I am fat and happy. Over the past two years, I am embarrassed to say, I have picked up a substantial amount of weight. I just wrote it off to all our travels and love for good food and wine, and never really lost sleep over it. After my sudden divorce however, I just started losing weight spontaneously. I did not put in any effort, and I wasn't in mourning, denying myself of good care and food. No, it just-happened.

That's when I started thinking. Is your weight gain a symptom of something else that might be wrong in your life, something bigger that you might not even be aware of? 

The Healthier Option

So I'm lying in bed today, sick with a runny nose, very sore cough and a throbbing headache, wondering where it came from? I have not been in contact with anyone sick, it just hit me from left field! While I was thinking about ways to boost my immune system again, it slowly dawned on me that I was abusing my body again! I do not get enough sleep ("I'll sleep when I'm dead" only worked when I was a teenager) and I have been naughty by introducing sugar back into my diet again, slowly, but increasingly, and as you all know, sugar is really a killer in more that one way.*

What do you see?

Annemie Odendaal: "Ballet Shoes"
Oil & Charcoal

As a painter, you are required to look at things a little differently, a little deeper. Paint that emotion behind the eyes, capture the magic that isn't visible on the surface. You have to look at an object and see how things really are. You can not draw from memory, you have to really look investigatively. We have to examine every angle, it is the only way to develop or grow in your style.

Years ago the Impressionists tried this for the first time, followed by the post-impressionists, expressionists and cubists. Until then, everybody painted just what they saw on surface and from memory. Everything was picture perfect and pretty. Almost documentary, which make sense, since there wasn't any cameras.