Artists Blog

Thanks to all of you for your comments, they really mean a lot to me. I have been such a slacker with posting of late - lots of “Real World” goings-on PLUS fighting for the computer = not a lot of posting.

 Another soon-to-be-cyclone is brewing out in the Coral Sea. Bring on the Dry Season and soon!

I’ve been stewing on all the things I’ve got on my “To Do” list as well. I don’t physically have a written down list, just a mental note that seems to be growing by the hour! When did organising one’s life get so hard?

Still, whenever things seem to get overwhelming, a walk and sit outside brings everything back into focus. There are hundreds of butterflies around at the moment, on a manic mission to drink lots of sugar and mate. Not a bad lifestyle really.

This dusk shot of the brilliant blue Ulysses is a bit grainy, but the blue was just so intense in the evening light.

Pink pegs on the clothesline are a favourtie spot for these Eggfly butterflies, who are so often dancing duets in the air - circling round and around each other but never colliding.

I’m feeling a bit disillusioined with art at the moment. So many Galleries have closed down here in Cairns. Lots of artists have lost money and trust. The economic woes of the world has really hit hard in this tourist town - lots of businesses are really doing it tough. On a brighter note I have ben invited to “try out” for the Miniature Society - they have two judged intakes per year - the next being in April. I need to complete 6 pieces (no bigger then 10cm on the longer side) to be considered. I’ve only ever done the one miniature for the exhibition late last year.

Still not sure whether I’m up to the task - more stewing on the subject required!

Cyclone Hamish certainly knows how to stir it up, even if he can’t make up his mind where he’s headed.

Yesterday Clifton Beach had a foreboding feel hanging over it.

If you look very carefully on the horizon you can just make out the shape of something luxurious…

…with a much more mundane friend beside it. I wonder if that’s the vessel that lost those 33 containers of Ammonia Nitrate, with another 3 tonnes spilt on deck. But don’t panic, it won’t explode unless it comes into contact with heat or chlorine….

Whilst on the subject of all things awash, we were pelted with such heavy rain late yesterday that we had several creeks running all throughout the yard and patio. I stepped onto the paving that was submerged up to my ankles and a tiny frogged grabbed my foot as it sailed past. It was headed for the white water rapids at the BBQ, and then the waterfall down the side gate. I rescued him and a couple of buddies till conditions eased.

Not sure if they were happy being turfed out of the Frog Hilton later that night, but I’m sure they’d want to join the DEAFENING CHORUS of their bazillion mates in the creek out front!

Image courtesy of the Bureau of Meteorology

Cyclone Hamish could be here as early as tomorrow night/saturday morning. There goes the weekend plans of exploring the Tablelands. Still, might be less crowded at the Coffee Plantation.

Thanks for all your lovely comments on the last post. I was hoping to be able to get a lot of painting done, but the Evil Taxation Return had other plans for me. It’s still not completed, and it’s like an infected thorn sticking in my toe. I was wading waist deep in papers, some going back to the 90’s, which thankfully are on their way to a new life in the reincarnation recycling bin. You know what it’s like, once I get bitten by the Purge Bug, I keep doggedly on, ripping up old bank statments with maniacal glee. Tax returns from the 80’s (just how did we survive on incomes so low?) even surfaced. I used to keep everything. Just in case. (Margie I can hear you laughing from here you know…)

Anyway, in an effort to tear myself away from all things mind numbing and soul destroying, I unwrapped a beautiful new Italian sketchbook (The Moleskine) this evening, and felt quite inspired admiring it’s creamy blank pages. Elli commented on linework in the last post, and linework is just what I need right now. There is an exhibition entitled “Line” closing soon, so I need to get a wriggle on. The lovely Elli also commented on museums being the source/inspiration for good work, and I do sadly miss them living up here. One of my favourite was the London Natural History Museum. I could live there and never ever get bored. The moment you set foot in that wonderous building you feel awe (and that Harry Potter might appear any minute). When I was there a while back I took so many (poor) photos. (This was still the age of film). I really think it inspired me to build my own naturalist’s collection, which I have been doing since I was a wee thing, much to my mother’s disdain. A decomposing red-bellied black snakes’s skin was binned whilst I was at school one day.

Everything was just so beautifully presented in polished timber cases. Did  anyone see the ABC’s recent series on the London Museum? How pedantic were they with dust getting into displays? Amazing dedication.

And the organisation - oh! It made me want to swoon.

So once back in Perth I built up a collection, mainly of beachy things, as we lived on the coast. After winter storms were the best time for finding unusual things, when the sea bed was trawled up and dumped on the sand. A lot of it stunk to high heaven, even after lots of bleach was involved. An outside collection was the best place until the smell disappeared.

When I proposed a piece for a Royal Show exhibition, I turned to my collection. I was able to use my finds, and gathered knowledge to put together a huge body of work, which won the Blue Ribbon at the Show. It met an untimely demise which I haven’t written about, but I did post some better photos under a post (click) HERE.

Below are some really bad photos from the film days.

So now I’m really keen to get some of my Tropical finds down on paper, captured in lines. Maybe even a splash of colour as well.

The Tax can wait.

Even though it was 33 deg C today, there is a definate change in the air. Even though the radio said the relative humidity at 8am last week was 94%, the mornings feel different. We really only have two seasons up here, Wet and Dry, and it’s been an amazingly dry week. (I may have put the mocker on  myself as there is talk of a cyclone forming by the end of the week - Cyclone Hamish). Last year March was the wettest time of the year - who knows what’s in store?

You can’t fool the plants though. We have decidious trees in the street - the Beach Almond (the bat’s & cockies fave). Whilst they are nude for only a fraction of time, they do drop their leaves. They go from deep emerald green to fire red canopy.  It seems one leaf is extra keen.

And speaking of nudes, here is one I did late last year at uni. We had to choose an artist whose palette knife technique we admired, and to emulate that style in a painting of our own. I can’t recall his name, but I do remember the vibrancy and movement he captured in his work. First nude and first palette knife painting. It was quite quick, around an hour and a half, but man did you use up a lot of paint! With some colours at $38 per tube, oil painting is NOT cheap.

Hope you are all enjoying Autumn wherever you may be!

A: The orthodontists’s quote this afternoon.

It’s around $6,000 to fill a teenager’s mouth with metal these days.

When we arrived home after the orthodontic shock, I noticed what seemed to be a patterned scarf near the back fence. It was under the Tree of Death, but as there were Peaceful Doves around it, I thought no way it could a Python. Again.

Wrong.

As I walked up to it I was able to see the final few gulps of wing feathers down it’s mouth.

How did he sneak up on a cocky during the day? They are usually nocturnal hunters. Cocky must’ve been really engrossed in something else.

The cat was freaking out, and performed 3 ft vertical jumps everytime it moved. The vets have warned about pets outside at night. Now I’ll have the joy of worrying during sunlight hours as well…

It wasn’t long before those final feathers were forced down that loooong throat.

Then lots of wriggling and stretching to force the whole “lump” further down it’s body. It almost looked as if the unfortunate bird was still alive in there.

It then rested it’s head in the fork of The Tree of Death for a while. It’s tongue was flickering every time I moved. Try as I might, I couldn’t quite capture the split second it flickered.

This was the smallest of the 3 pythons that have had a cocky meal here. This one was around 2 metres, maybe a tad more. The next shot is of it making an exit, stage left, with it’s head already under the fence. It did get stuck around it’s middle, and wriggled and danced till it made it through. Then it was back to the bush to sleep it off for a few weeks.

I hope that this is the last Python saga I have to tell for a good while, although word must be spreading in the serpent world about the smorgasboard by the back fence…

To finish on a more cute’n'cuddly note, someone else was enjoying a meal this morning:

I seem to be overrun with snakes and spiders.

“If you go down to the woods today, you’re sure of a big surprise….”

As I came up to the metre wide trunk of this tree, I wondered where the other half of the resident was - the pointy half.

Tip-toeing quietly around the tree trunk, (which was perched on a steep slope above a very rocky creek bed some metres below), I found this:

One ex-wallaby and a very satisfied Scrubby (Amethystine Python).

That’s dinner taken care of for the next 6 months or so. Would that be considered yo-yo dieting?

Some unexpected garden bounty over the weekend, pretty much all in miniature.

Salvaging my sweet potato vine from the marauding bandicoot brought this treasue to light.

Not more than a mouthful, so back into the soil he went. Something else that went into the soil was this little sweetie:

A gift from my neighbour, who has an extensive collection of bromeliads. This was just one of 2 crates of beautiful broms he gave me. The smell of this mini pineapple was just like an exotic cocktail. I almost pushed a straw into it.

An explosion of new mini critters in the garden - must be because of all the rain, and there has been a lot of it. This was one of the most inquisitive (and beautiful) jumping spiders I’ve ever encountered. He followed me all around the patio. Not bad for a fellow only a few mm long.

Not to be outdone with curiosity was this baby praying mantis. He turned his head to follow me about the palm tree trunk. He was about 20 mm long.

Oh for a macro lense….*sigh*

Male butterflies were quite aggresive in the backyard - chasing off any newcomers. The 2 species below have females which are very differently coloured.

The Eggfly below was almost luminescent in his purple blackness near dusk.

The Cairns birdwing below was one of the most erratic butterflies I’ve seen. It gave me a headache just trying to follow him. He was only still for a nano second. For every decent shot, there were a dozen blurry useless ones. Thank the lord we’re not using film anymore - it’d cost me a fortune!

I’ve a rather larger “friend” I met yesterday  in the bush that I’ll upload images of tomorrow….

It’s been such a busy end to the working week, isn’t it supposed to slow down after Wednesday?

But a good way to end a Friday was to call in to see my friend Pete, who has been working on a Great Wall.

Pete is a late comer to the world of painting. But it has in no way been a disadvantage. When asked to paint 30sq mtres of outdoor mural, he jumped in with both feet, regardles of the fact that he’s never painted one before.

When he asked me to come and have a look at his 90 hours of work thus far, I was amazed at what he’s created. He’s turned 15 metres of plain paling fence into a vast landscape, incorporating bush, desert and rainforest.

He’s had trying conditions to contend with, wet season at it’s wildest, crippling humidty and plants that “sting” you. I copped a 2 inch thorn from an agave in my bum yesterday!

“Skinning” of paint was also a problem, which he ingeniously overcame by storing the paint in syringes until he needed them. He was lucky enough to have a shade tent erected by the owners.

Left hand side starting with the gum trees of the bush. He’s still to paint in an old tumbledowned cottage in this section today. All up he’ll spend about 100 hours working on this amazing piece.

The middle section encompasses the red desert sands and ancient mountian ranges. I told him it reminded me of “Iron Knob” which we drove past over 20 years ago.

Next is the billabong, where’s he’s thinking about adding some more reflections/shadows, and maybe more clouds to the sky.

And finally the far right, which ends in the rainforest mountains that Cairns is surrounded by. He’s used the most gorgeous lilac to represent the shadows in this painting - just beautiful.

Congratulations to Pete & his Great Wall!

Found this skull at Clifton Beach recently.

I’m assuming it’s a fish of some kind.

Anyone have any idea? (I bet Tazar does)

Today the Governement sent in agents to launch a recon mission in my end of the street/creek and my yard. Their mission was to seek (and if necessary, destroy) a foreign invader - The Evil Electric Ant. 

In January, an infestation of these native South American Ants was discovered a few hundred metres away in the resort grounds across the bush from my house. They are not a friendly insect to stumble upon. These ants inject painful venom when they sting, they specifically attack the eyeballs of other animals, including pets, and can blind them. They attack birds and nestlings and farm scale insects. Bad for crops. All round nasty guys.

All week the DPI guys and girls have been laying baits to see if any had spread to our streeet and homes. Today was my turn.

That’s Steve checking bait traps on the banks of Deadman’s Gully. You can see the little pink ribbons where he laid traps inside my front fence.

About 2 dozen baits were laid around my yard, including the herb pots. The Electric ants are gourmets. They will only go for the expensive Don Sausage.

Steve checking the baits after an hour. He was such a knowledgable guy. We yakked for ages about the wonderful biodiversity of this area. He checked out a few insect species for me, as well as my tadpole ponds, which he’s hopeful are NOT canetoads.

This man has spent many years researching wild lion prides in South Africa. He says it’s was an amazing, sometimes heartbreaking, experience. To be checking for ants is quite a bit less stressful than facing a poacher with a semi-automatic machine gun!

We got the all clear - no baddies on our block.

Here is some info from their site:

The electric ant is golden brown in colour and 1 - 1.5mm in length

Overview

Description

Electric ants: