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….

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!

We are almost at the end of  last term, with only 2 more pastel workshops for the year. The pastel students have accomplished so much, and are producing outstanding pieces of work. I’m so proud of them!

Animals and birds have been a favourite subject, and a real pleasure to paint.

And as we are so close to the beach, it is a constant source of painting inpsiration.

That fellow trying to hide behind Joy and her painting is Chris our esteemed framer extraordinaire. He is hosting our Art Club’s exhibition over this coming weekend – more details tomorrow.

Hope everyone is enjoying a creative week!

After the previous post’s slant on painting the natural world, and feathers in particular, I thought you might like a look at another artist with passion for the subject, but on a grand scale.On until this Sunday is Stephen Delaney’s wonderful exhibition at the Monart Studio and Gallery in Dalkeith. The amazingly detailed and massive paintings are just exquisite. I was in heaven taking in these HUGE works (2mtrs / 7ft high). The breathtaking dragonfly at the back is 2.4m (7.9ft) wide.

The feathers are amazingly beautiful – the shape and colour are all perfect.

The gum leaves and insects are mind boggling also.

And more treasures await you.

In the centre of the room a laden table awaits with original specimens and magnifying glasses.

Feather envy, insect envy and gum leaf envy!

It was like stepping into a Natural History museum from Victorian times.

Get along to see it before it closes – you’ll be in awe.

On the weekend the Calligraphy Guild got together for more calligraphic adventures and a Feather painting workshop which I conducted. You may remember the Feathered letter C from last year, which was the inspiration behind this workshop.

The choice of feathers was amazingly different. Some more difficult to paint than others – Gaye was extraordinarily brave tackling the Peacock’s tail!

I had severe “feather envy” over Elizabeth’s Red Tailed Black Cockatoo feather. Her painting was fabulous.

Martin worked well with some “28″ parrot feathers.

More feathers from the same cheeky bird. I found myself admiring everyone’s watercolour boxes.

Rainbow Lorikeet feathers. Down by the Indiana Teahouse in Cottelsoe these birds roost at night in the Pines and their feathers are everywhere. It’s so sad about the fatal shark attacks there recently, and at Rottnest Island.

Trish got right into the spirit and brought in the most beautiful Ventian feather calligraphy pen.

Severe pen AND feather envy rolled into one!

The ducks in my pool kindly donated this feather that Leonie is working on.

Everyone did so well with their paintings, especially those who had never painted with watercolours before. I’m here with Sue who did a great job.

And Wendy who’s never painted a feather before produced an exceptional piece.

You know everyone is concentrating when it goes all quiet….and they comment on how silent it’s got!

Well done all – it was fun!

If anyone calligraphically inclined would like to join us at our monthly get togethers, you are more than welcome. Just drop me a line.

This week my art classes resumed, with some new students joining our happy group. Returning student Inga was happy to have finally finished her Mossman Gorge pastel.

Joy 1 was pleased with her storm over North Hillarys pastel painting.

Joy 2 (both Joys sat at the same “Joyous” table this morning) is well underway with her next charming cat painting.

Kelly Ann who keeps us all laughing is working well with her Agaves.

New faces Cathy, Val and Derek are painting with confidence already. Below Derek and Val at about an hour into the lesson.

And again an hour later. Next lesson they will well and truly have this one finished and have made a good start on their next piece.

Cathy was happy with her first foray into the world of pastels. Here she is first hour in.

And here she has two hours of pastel experience under her belt. It’s amazing what a little confidence, coffee and chocolate bikkies (Oreos today) can do!

Click here for this term’s Class Schedule.

I’ve had a lovely weekend – plenty of paintings and breakfast by the beach on a hot hot day. As promised I’ve put together a step by step of my last river painting.

The last two images show the difference varnish makes – the colours appear deeper and more saturated. Click on the thumbnail image below to see the super enlarged version.

Beach was mandatory yesterday – hot 36C (97F) winds whipped up the waves at Burns Beach. Summer is just around the corner!

Have a great week everyone!

A day of fun firsts. My first Pastel kitty – a work still in progress. We recently visited the zoo on a very windy day so all the big cats were up and about. It’s been fun painting a big cat in pastels, I’m sure I’ll work my way through all the species eventually!

And the other big first – Jez finally got the keys to his very first car!

How old do I feel??

Carrying on from my last post about the pastel students, here are some pieces from the watercolour bird students. Some of these students had never used watercolour and gouache before, so the results are quite something.

Above are Deb’s birds, the one on the left is on Illustration board, the other is on Claybord.

Vera’s just about finished her portrait of a cheeky bird she met on an overseas holiday.

And Thea’s not got long to go with her Gang Gang Cockatoos.

Great work by all!