Today's work:
Changed the colour on the left hand side to a cooler one, it was too warm.
Some minor tweaks on the right hand side of Mt Shasta.

Then darkened the trees at the base of the mountain. These will be partly covered by mist later on.
In order to finish the mist it'll have to be completely dry first.




Just to compare... this is the same canvas, the way I'd painted it in 2015.

By the way, the exact same thing happened in the 16th century in the UK when Henry 8th wanted to divorce his wife, wasn't allowed to and broke with the Vatican.

He then founded the church of England and he and -again male- counsellors decided what was to be integrated in their newly created religion and what was to be left out or altered.

Yet to date people follow that religion, make themselves believe it is God-given. They conveniently forget it was merely created by 1 man with an attitude problem who needed a male heir.

I never get why people study or follow or read the bible.
Would you do the same with for instance "It" by Stephen King?

The bible has been translated so many times that it stands to reason many deviations and mistakes slipped in. Sometimes the omission or altering of 1 letter can change the entire meaning of a text.

But the bible isn't pure to begin with as it was construed by a group of men -as in the variety of humans with a penis, no woman had a say- in Nicaea in the year 325.
That is: 1800 years ago.
They decided what was to come into the so called holy book and what was to be left out as it wasn't convenient for them.
It was all about allowing them to stay in power, to get even more power etc.

It is not a good representation of the scrolls.
It's not for nothing that the Vatican is keeping huge amount of scrolls & texts behind lock & key.
They do have the original stuff, but don't want people to know it as it would mean they lose their influence, power, and their billions.

One big thing these men did -that has altered societies worldwide to date- is to make woman inferior and man superior.
Mary Magdalene was turned into a whore by church while she was Jesus' life partner and equal. They were both of high Essene descend, highly trained and equal which is why they worked together.

It's also odd that no one ever thought of the fact that vilifying Mary Magdalene would actually mean Jesus wasn't pure either. I mean, a guy that would hang out with a prostitute?
And even if Jesus had chosen to spend his life and Divine work with a prostitute, the message would still have been the same: We are ALL equal!!

What the Divine wants for us is to sense and feel for ourselves. Not to blindly follow some man-made (as in by humans with a penis) 1800 year old doctrine. It is obsolete.
Blindly following something external (which a religion is) is giving your power away.
Follow the what is with-in, not that what is with-out.

And think about this: If you need surgery would you see a doctor who practises medicine the way it was done in the year 325? Or would you rather put your trust in an up to date modern doctor?
It's the exact same thing with your bible.

Some mentioned there are a lot of false doctrines out there. Your bible is one of them.

Thanks, Julie :)

Today's update. Still not done with the mountain, but getting there now.

I have to admit that I'm started to look forward to being done with the mountain, pfff...
Then it's finishing off the rest, which shouldn't be too difficult, not like the mountain has proven to be.
I would've found it easier with acrylics to be honest.

I think that when it's difficult the first step is to examine yourself and find out where you fall short.
Not necessarily about who you are and how you look, but things like:
do you go out enough?
Do you have good profile photos?
Is your profile up to par?
Do you spend time to find potential matches and then take action like approach them & talk to them?
Are your communication skills good?
Do you have stuff to talk about and also take an interest in the other person?
Is your attitude in life positive?
Do you actually like yourself?
Do you have good self-esteem?

Think about this: if you had to date you, would you find yourself an attractive match? If not, why not? And work on that.

And so on and so forth.

Congratulations! Hope she has a great birthday!

Thank you!
It isn't done yet. I've only just started 2 days ago, hihi.

I started working on Mt Shasta 2 days ago.
I made the painting in 2015, finished it then as well, but it hadn't turned out the way I had wanted.

In the meantime I can paint better, I've learnt a helluva lot over the past 10 years, so I'm now finishing it off properly!

NOT DONE YET!!

I started with the middle of the mountain.
I noticed the vertical ridge to the right started in the wrong place.
Those ridges are defining for Mt Shasta so I wanted to get them right and now it's in the right place.

The overall colour has changed too as per reference photo. It had to be much much warmer.
Some part now look just a tad too purple (which the camera now does pick up on? Stupid thing, if it has to, it doesn't, haha).
I will go over that to alter it a bit.

Lots of work left to do, the rest of the mountain, but also the mist and foreground.

The way it was:



Where I am right now:

I can certainly feel the effect!
No physical anything so far, but surfacing of old memories, lots of dreaming.
Nothing really bad but also not anything of interest to me. Like last night I dreamt of being with my narcissistic partner still.
I left that behind over 12 yrs ago, dealt with it.
Yet at times it still comes up in dreams like the other night.

I saw the near full moon quite high in the eastern sky this afternoon, looking beautiful!

Full Moon Cancer January 13
CET 23.27
UK 22.27
(EDT 6 hours earlier, so around 17.27)

The Moon in Cancer makes you sensitive and can arouse caring. But if you don't experience the safety you desire, you quickly withdraw.

Moon and Cancer belong together and as you can see on the Moon Tarot card, you can deal with your feelings in different ways: like the dog in an adapted, tamed way, or like the wolf in an untamed, wild way by letting emotions go. flow and hear.
The Cancer rising from the water symbolizes the collective unconscious that makes itself heard: intense emotions, (ancestral) images, (primal) fears.

From the depths of the dark unconscious creeps up this animal part of the self. It tries to come ashore, wants to manifest itself in consciousness. But it will always sink back to where it emerged from.
During this time you can experience it as fears that are stirred up, unrest, old experiences (in your life, your DNA or in the collective) that have not yet been processed.

By seeking spiritual peace, rising above your emotions to understand them, the lobster sinks back into the water, fears disappear and there is a connection with the higher (immortal) self again.

These days it's all about learning to distinguish between fear and intuition.
You can grow in this through self-examination, learning and trusting your experiences and moving from your brain radar to your heart wisdom.
If you think “there's no other way, I can't do anything about it. It happens, I have to adapt”, then you have forgotten that you always have a choice!


Translated from Petra Stam's report

I guess only when it becomes inconvenient.
Think bed, chairs, car, settee etc. etc.
Or maybe when you have back problems because of it.

Also when you're so tall that you really stand out and people feel intimidated by it.

Think the actor that played Predator, Kevin Peter Hall.
He was 2.20m tall!! Even Arnie seemed minute next to him and had to look up at him while Arnie is a solid 1.88m!

That I would deem as too tall, hihi.

Arnie & Predator actor Kevin Peter Hall

Thank you, Merry & Julie!

Merry, it indeed looks much nicer than the photo shows.
It's not so dark, especially the foreground and li'l shed are lighter.
Somehow this painting is even more difficult to photograph than others. It is never easy, hihi.


Now I've got my oils out and am used to painting with 'em again I'm going to work on my painting of Mt Shasta in N-California.
I couldn't get that one right either at the time. Lots of evergreens in it, which I struggled greatly with. (We don't have such trees over here)
So that's the next project.

Lunch first, then get Mt Shasta downstairs, the painting that is, hihi.

Thank you, Merry!

I wasn't done with it yet, now I am!
It was called "Burma Fields", it still goes by that name, but I may think of something else. I'm never much good with catchy titles, hihi.

I have finished it this afternoon :)
Very happy with it, it was a good decision to go over this painting. Now I'd love to have it up on a wall somewhere, hihi.

It is 80x60cm, so a larger canvas.

Unfortunately I cannot get the colours of the sky to look right. It's almost royal blue, turning into a gorgeous purple / lilac layer lower down.

Almost everything has been painted again and/or improved.

Calling it a finished painting, hihi.

Oh, I'd love to visit Africa and hope one day I can do so!!
I've seen various travel docus, have friends that went there on holiday a couple of times. It really appeals to me. It already did when I was a teenager.

But... the question here is "where do you want to live the rest of your life?"
I do not wish to live in Africa.
Many places I'd like to visit (again), but doesn't mean I want to live there.
That's what holidays are for: discovering another country.

Well, that was the first 2025 day :) Another 364 to go!

I had a great day, hope you did too!

I don't see a thread with this, so making one.
If already one there, my apologies.

Not quite 00.00 yet, but getting there! 21 minutes to go!!

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!!
May 2025 be filled with love, joy, and happiness!!

Thank you, Julie :)
It feels good to be painting again!
I've been busy with other creative things, knitting woolen jumpers for instance.
But painting is different :)

I'm not sure I get the OP's question as it can be interpreted in plural ways.

As for Arab in their own country, I don't know as I don't live there.

As someone said, it varies per Arab country.
I remember watching a docu on Afghanistan shortly before the situation got bad again. I think this was in the 90s.
Women had gotten a lot of rights, could drive cars, go places, study, and so on.
I clearly recall as I was so happy about this!

I've had highly educated Arab women in my coaching classes. They had reasonable freedom, working in corporate etc. But they still had to fight the patriarchal unbalanced regime and society.

So I think level of education makes a difference for sure.

As for Arab women in my country...
Also depends where they're from.
What I have noticed is that many of them stick together. Maybe they're not allowed to go out alone.
When you then come across such a group in town, shopping centre, market place and so on they're not friendly at all.
Power in numbers, right, and they just barge into you, push you aside when it suits them, and so on.

So in that sense I do not have too high an opinion of them as I don't like such rude behaviour.
In spite of they themselves being oppressed at home they act towards us -in OUR country- as if we are less than they are.
And to be brutally honest, I effing hate that attitude.

Now I think these are more lower or not-educated women.
But those are the ones we get most of. The highly educated ones can lead a good life in their own country, no need to come here.

In short: there is no default. Too many factors at play.

You leave out that marriage as what we (and you) understand it to be is an invention of church and that church wasn't founded yet when Jesus was on Earth.

You also conveniently forget that Jesus DID have a wife: Mary Magdalene.
Both were highly educated Essenes of higher descend.
They were equals and she was part of his work as such. The then rising patriarchal shizzel changed that and she got demonised as that was easier for men to stomach.
According to church she was a wh*re, according to Jesus, his mother, the Essenes etc. she was his beloved equal.
Meaning that everyone who takes on church's view on Mary Magdalene doesn't follow Jesus' teachings at all. Yet they claim to be.

Another thing you leave out is that Adam had 2 wives. The first -Lilith- didn't want to be inferior to him as he demanded. Both were created simultaneously by the Divine, and were equal, just different genders. Because of his behaviour she left him. After which she was demonised by religions.
Then he was given a 2nd wive, Eve, and she was obedient and submissive.

I'm not sure how this story truly was construed & presented -in some scrolls prolly- as the whole Adam & Eve story and demonising of his 1st God-given wive is meant to convey that woman must be subservient or else!! (else you get demonised, cast out, not accepted and so on)