First Self portraits of 2025

Winters stillness - A visual meditation.

Honouring the quieter rhythms within myself.

Winter to me has always felt like a season of paradoxes, everything appears still and quiet, yet beneath us the earth is alive with quiet preparation.

There is this rush to set new year’s resolutions to take action but nature whispers “slow down. Rest. Be still” there is no rush in winter, when the tress stand bare, animals hibernate yet society asks us to start anew and just as winters energy slows down, we, too are invited to pause and honour the quieter rhythms within ourselves.

It's okay to pause, to resist the rush to align with the quiet wisdom of the season, January doesn’t have to be about doing, it can be about simply being.

Maybe the deeper wisdom is to redefine what “new beginnings” mean? maybe instead of rushing into action we focus on planting seeds of intention.

These self-portraits were born from that whisper, I found space to reflect and create not with urgency which is something I have done in the past but with gentle curiosity the fern always reminds me of its resilience, the dark afternoon light added some dark shadows and light, a gentle reminder for me that I don’t need perfect light to create in.

It felt less like creating and more like being.

What does winter mean to you?

what does stillness teach us?

what parts of us are quietly growing beneath the surface?

“Winter teaches us to look inward and to trust the unseen process of becoming”-Unknown.

All my love and warm hugs

Em xx