Artists Blog

Another exhibition this weekend, with my Lady in Red (in yet another incarnation) now off to her new home with new owners.

It was a lovely opening night, with a most talented Harpist providing the evenings’ music.

The Harp itself was a work of art. It must be so confsuing to play, all those coloured strings! The concentration she held was intense.

 A real Medieval atmosphere descended amongst the exhibition rooms, with such lilting, beautiful sounds.

Hope you all enjoyed your weekend!

Last weekend our Calligraphy Guild held a workshop for calligraphy on canvas. Now calligraphy can be challenging enough on paper with nibs, inks and guidelines, so dealing with paint, brushes, an uneven surface and writing in a straight line unaided was quite a task.

Firstly we laid down some acrylic washes on our pre-primed canvases. Then a fine spray of “Moonshadow Mist” in various colours was overlaid, some over stencils. (Those are the bottles in the above photo).

Moonshadow Mist is essentially interference powders (metallic, pearlescent etc) held in a suspension of walnut ink (brown when wet). When dry the powder rises to the top to leave a lustrous effect on whatever you have sprayed it on.

Next came some lettering - highlighted words from well known verses. As the canvas was wet, no leaning to keep hands and arms steady was possible. An added degree of difficulty to write with your hand up in the air!

Then more layers of acrylic paint and mist to partially obscure the words before the next layer of lettering went on. It was really foul wet and windy weather outside as well, so things were just not drying (crucial when you’re layering). In the end one kind soul went home to fetch a hairdryer to speed the process up. One hairdryer to dry a whole room of wet canvases was a slow process!

Using the local flora as stencils (both negative and positive shapes) gave added richness to the layering.

One of my pieces below still has quite a few layers to go, so will be a Work In Progress for a little bit longer yet. All in all it was a fun way to spend an afternoon in a room full of people who all love the art of Lettering.  If you’ve got a canvas laying around and a bit of time to spare, give it a try yourself!

Watercolour & ink on 225gsm rough.

It’s been a looong while, but here’s my submission to Illustration Friday.  Topic of the Week - EARLY.

I thought of all the usual images - early bird catches the worm, early morning cup of coffee etc, but nothing really grabbed me to pick up the brushes until I remembered our Beach Almond Tree in the Tropics.

The Beach Almond tree out the front of our house, full of bats at night and birds through the day was a bit confused with it’s one red leaf  - very very EARLY for Autumn! You can read the full post here.

Working on today’s piece was fun, playing with cling film to collect or disperse pigments, and then going in with fine ink pens.

Here’s to an inspirational week!

Watercolour study of Dysphania fenestrata  (ACEO size 2.5 x 3.5 inches)

One thing I miss about FNQ are the flamboyant, even gawdy, butterflies and moths that are everywhere. The Four o’Clock Moth was one of my favourites. Named as it usually appears late afternoon, it is one of the very few FNQ moths that flies during daylight hours.

This fellow was in no hurry to leave me - he just didn’t fly anywhere, even though his wings seemed in perfect shape.. He just hung around for days, so in the end I fed him nectar from a little dish which he sucked up with gusto.

The colouring of this moth is just awesome. Tiny scales shimmering and glittering in the late afternoon light kept me fascinated for ages - what do they say about shiny things and small minds….

His wings are translucent in the white patches - letting subdued sunlight shine through onto the leaf below. Just gorgeous!

I think I’ve written about this little guy before on the old blog. I did manage to grab screen shots from the old Bigblog before it was turned off - when I have time I’ll process them all and upload them retrospectively. Could be a long wait - there was a LOT of blogging back then!

The feathers in my last post were kindly provided by the extended kookaburra family who lived in our backyard and beyond. With the arrival of Baby Kookie, the parents and Uncle/Auntie were hard pressed to keep the hungry beak filled. When we were in the garden digging, they were always by our shoulder hoping for big juicy rhino beetle grubs (about the size of your index finger) to be unearthed.

In fact any grub would do in a pinch. Here’s Dad with a small grub for afternoon tea.

Baby Kookie has seen it and has gone into feeding frenzy mode. Nothing will get between him and food.

He has the worse table manners I have seen (apart from the pythons!). He almost swallows his parents’ beaks whole trying to get dinner down. Unfortunately I wasn’t quick enough with the camera to catch the “snatch & swallow” moment, but his dad shook his head afterwards if that means anything!

Have you seen a cheekier bird? Check out the direct look at me, asking if there’s any more on the menu?

Got to admit he’s a cutie though….

Busy in the studio today with feathers the kookaburra family kindly left behind. I couldn’t find my wide mouthed waterjar, and with nothing else to hand I splashed out with the crystal. Felt very opulent painting with this, and tapping water droplets off my brush made the most lovely tinkling ring.

Watercolour on 300gsm rough

I enjoyed painting these, which got me thinking about the rest of my HUGE feather collection. In boxes, in bags, in bottles, in baskets, in buckets. They are everywhere!  Who said crystal vases were just for flowers?

What sort of smell do you think this flower would possess? A hint would be the insect below.

In Australia this is called the Dead Horse Plant. It is a Carrion flower from South Africa, the Star Flower Stapelia Variegata, a cactus-like succulent with a stench of rotting meat.

I picked up this plant at a school fete to add to my succulent collection before it had any flowers. Now, lots of flower buds are about to open…not sure how I feel about that!

Even though I’m an old Sydney girl, it’s good to be back home.

You may remember the recent pastel painting workshop I attended. I thought I’d attempt the same scene in acrylics on canvas.

This was a lot harder, and took so much longer than the pastels. However, it’s all part of pushing yourself and your knowledge of different mediums.

Gave me an excuse to use my new H-frame easel. I started off by laying down a deep background of ultramarine blue darkened with a little black, then lightly scumbling some warm white for the sandy footprints.

The sky was laid in, then light ultramarine dry brushed into the shadows.

Vegetation and foliage was roughly scrubbed in with a very dry brush. Some pinks were laid down in the dune shadows.

The plants are becoming more defined, and fence posts added.

The very top picture show the finished piece, with the highlights from a low sun being added last.

All inspired by a recent walk along the shoreline.

Have been busy working on pieces for exhibitions - here’s one that was inspired by the wildness in my FNQ backyard.

 (watercolour & gouache on illustration board)

We had the wonderful privilege of watching a baby kookaburra incubated, hatched and raised into a very cheeky bird. Along the way an Uncle/Aunt joined the family and then there were four. When it was brekkie time you certainly knew about it! Four Noisy Kookies on the bench, or going from window to window to see where I was. Ever been stalked by a hungry kookaburra?

Can you spot the Cheeky Baby?