Artists Blog

Whilst most of the garden is gasping in this enduring heatwave, my succulents are thriving on it. Above is my WIP of succulent watercolours. Micron pen outline first, then initial wash laid down.

These Echeverias and Sempervivums have such an intricate way of growing. And such beautiful colours.

I’ve taken lots of cuttings as they are outgrowing all their containers. I just pop them into tiny vases till their new roots grow (almost immediately), or straight into new terracotta pots. And something else in the garden is blooming in an intricate style…

…my bromeliad. I think it wants it’s portrait painted too!

Kung Hei Fat Choi or Happy Chinese New Year! To celebrate I thought I’d paint a dragon inspired piece this evening. I set my favourite dragon vase and Dragon Wing plant in front of me. I ended up with a local species of dragon, one that lives along our coast right here in Perth. It’s our Leafy Sea Dragon, a species of sea horse. Above is my work-in-progress, painted with a number 0 round on  Arches rough.

This is one species that knows how to share responsibilities. The dad looks after the eggs, not the mum.

Hope your Dragon Year brings you much happiness & success. I’m off to prepare for an upcoming week of being scorched silly. We have been warned to expect temperatures around 42 C (107.6F) !!!

Where’s the ice cube trays….

Guess what I was lucky enough to see today?

Walking outside around lunchtime I noticed there was a certain dimness to the light, like during a bushfire or an eclipse. Looking up I saw rainbow rings around the sun.

These beautiful sun halos are caused by the ice crystals in cirrus cloud, and are sometimes called sun dogs.

Cirrus clouds have also been beautifully clothing the moon recently as well.

I think I could happily spend at least a week painting clouds and big skies.

Lying in the grass on your back looking up towards the heavens, is there a more relaxing way to spend an afternoon?

A quick sketch this evening with my pencils, and a touch of pastel for the white highlights. I really enjoy pencilwork, time seems to go by in the blink of an eye when I’m pushing them round the paper.

Saturday saw the first pastel workshop for 2012 kickoff. We had a great time, with some students creating their very first or second pastel paintings.

There were some other fabulous paintings, but not quite finished – those students will show their wonderful work next time!

Hope you are all enjoying your week!

Time to reorganise my old faithful pastel box – my first pastel workshop is on Saturday morning. During the teaching term pastels get thrown about and mixed up. A dust off, regroup-by-colour, and crumbs swept out is what’s needed urgently!

There are some new students starting Saturday, with some familiar faces returning. We share laughs, coffee & chocolate whilst painting, with most going home proudly with a finished painting.  Weekend workshops and weekly classes are enrolling now, drop me a line if you’d like to join us!

Below are some students and their work from late last year. Click on an image below to view it larger.

And a big Thank You for all your well wishes. Treatment is well under way and today my physiotherapist said he’d never heard “squealy” used as an adjective for his therapy before. But he likes it
 

After so much procrastination I finally have business cards. I’ve used the pastel painting I did last year of the waterlily pond, with a couple of paintings for the reverse side. This way there is an example of my pastel, watercolour/gouache, and acrylic styles.

The painting was inspired by a large waterlily pond was near our old home in Tropical North Queensland. It had a lovely old stone bridge over it, and was overlooked by mountains to the west and the Reef to the east.

Waterlilies were a weed up there – growing wild and rampant in so many colours all over the wet landscape. Street drains in the middle of the city were covered with what looked like white, yellow, mauve and green pool blankets.

I used to take so many photos of this pond, but haven’t shared them yet. There was so much that I haven’t shown you of this magical part of Australia. I do want to paint it, get those memories onto paper and canvas.

No time like the present I suppose!

Bella, 12″ x 16.5″ (30cm x 41cm) Pastel

2012 already? I hope you all had a wonderfully relaxing time over the holidays. Right about now it’s hard to remember the Frantic Frenzy that Christmas seems to bring. I’m guilty of being Frantically Challenged, as I was working on this commission of Bella the Aussie Bulldog right up until Santa was just about down the chimney.

As it was my first pet portrait commission I was quite obsessed with getting the detail “just so”. The clients were so patient, they supplied me with another photo so I could get the colour of Bella’s eye correct, as the origianl photo (above) was quite dark.

I was able to cast more light on her face and coat, although she has lost none of her adorability – what a face!

Christmas Day at my house means a walk along the beach in the early evening to help the Christmas Lunch digest! We broke with tradition this year and indulged in a banquet of Christmas Curries. It was more of a waddle than a walk… At the beach someone had left a lovely bouquet of lillies at the high tide line.

I think I will be at my drawing table much more in the coming weeks as I am not as mobile as I used to be. I was silly enough to do myself an injury 3 months ago, which has resisted all attempts at healing. Torn ligaments and tendons, that sort of annoying thing. I have now been told by 2 Drs, in no uncertain terms, that I can’t ignore it, I need treatment, and not to move much. What a nuisance! At least I can lay back and gaze at the sky without feeling guilty now……one of my sunrises this week.

I’ll catch up on all your news soon – May Blessings be bestowed upon all your endeavours this coming year!

Another busy week’s end finally in sight. Last Saturday the full moon total lunar eclipse provided spectacular viewing. I was running in and out the house for the 3hrs it took, whilst the boys happily sat outside, immune to the voracious mozzies. My blood seems to attract them from miles around, and when I am bitten, I suffer great itchy welts for days.

I apologise for the “totality” image above, when the moon glows orange whilst in the full shadow of the earth. I had adjusted my light settings on the camera, and then for some crazy reason, forgot to use my zoom lense! It wasn’t until the moon was being bathed in light again that I realised my unfortunate blunder. Now I have to wait until 2014 for this amazing event to occur again.

Onto the two stars…

Last Sunday Jeff was on the telly in a Greenfingers segment. Here’s a snapshot of our tv – that’s presenter Sue McDougall on the left. You can watch the video here (the professional lawn one).

And the other star is:

This week we attended the last of all the school functions. Jez’s work has been featured in the school’s Driftwood book, and another piece graced the cover of their Graduation booklet. We were all thrilled when he won the School Art Award as well as the School Board Award.

So proud of both my boys!

My little kingfishers have made it into next year’s calender, supporting the Whitfords Volunteer Sea Rescue. And they herald my birthday month of March – I’m so pleased. The original painting was 41cm x 51cm (16″ x 20″), and when I saw it reduced to such a tiny image, I thought I’d give a real miniature drawing a go.

This is approx 2″ x 1.5 ” in size, drawn with pencils and a smidge of white ink. The kingfisher still towers Godzilla-like over the kangaroo & emu on the 50c piece. The colours are a bit off with night photography, the yellow is nowhere near as bright. I learnt that you need VERY sharp pencils to make this work, and a good pair of eyes. I always vow to draw during daylight hours, but here I am again almost midnight…

A day of constant thunder, lightning and rain. So much lightning that the airport was closed for hours. There was low sunshine making a welcome appearance late this afternoon, but it is a brief reprieve – hail and squally thunder for tonight. Whilst waiting for the storm I pulled out the pencil tin to sketch some Rainbow Lorikeet feathers. I also used an ancient mechanical pencil I have had since highschool. 3 decades on it’s still going strong.

I haven’t played with pencils for ages. They were my weapon of choice all through high school – I was rather scared of paint. My technique is very similiar to how I paint – lots of light glazes of  transparent colour.

During the brief sunshine this afternoon I spied a visitor I haven’t seen or heard from in a while. Can you see him?

Yes, my old friend the Motorbike Frog is king of the fish pond.

To hear how he got his name, click Motorbike Frog.

Perpetual twilight was the order of the day. Here is Beaumaris Beach at lunchtime today.

Time for a cup of tea whilst storm clouds brew…