Artists Blog

Swan river at Bayswater, acrylic on canvas, 101cm x 101cm (40″ x 40″) 

I love saying those words - “It’s finished!”

Sometimes it’s hard to know when you’ve reached that point, and it’s so easy to go into “Overkill” mode when painting. Stepping waaay back and even looking at the piece in the mirror can all help.

Detail

I’ll have to wait until all the thunderstorms and rain to clear before I can varnish.

 Detail

On the weekend we dined at Marmion Beach at sunset, just gorgeous.

I can feel another pastel painting bubbling up….

Here is my latest easel offering - one of my local beaches in pastel. After so much big brush work lately, I felt I needed to get my hands really dirty, so  pastel was the obvious answer.

Unfortunately I had masking tape “issues”. I tried low tack tape first, which wasn’t up to the task. After a couple of hours, even when aided by invisible tape, it fell to the floor.

Next up was normal masking tape. It jumped ship even sooner than the low tack tape.

Off to the shops to buy really wide, heavy duty tape and all was well at last.

 And did you get a chance to see the beautiful Full Moon last night?

I’m sure the neighbours across the road must think I’m spying whenever I go out the front with the long lense camera in the evening!

Underneath Tycho Crater (right hand side white spot that looks like where an orange stem would have been), is the large black “sea”, Mare Humorum (Mare = Latin for sea).

You may remember this painting from a past post.

When moving some canvases I found it sitting on a easel against the wall, unfinished and forgotten about.

I seized the moment, seized some pastels and laid down some clouds and waves on the water. Whilst still in seizure mode I got in the car and took it off to the framers. Wasn’t till I got home I realised that I had forgotten to sign it!

Lots of other images are floating around, awaiting their turn to be laid down on paper or canvas. You can see my underlying paper colour (before pastel is applied) in  my top image.

SO many exhibitions on at the moment - back to the easel!

Lots going on - time in the Hills, the beaches and the boys even spent time back in FNQ.

I’ve been head down, bum up working on 4 pieces at a time - fun, but demanding. 

I also been experimenting with synthetic textures for the first time - modelling compound and structure pastes. Sometimes mixing with paint and other times applying it first then painting over it.

Textures are what’s got me going at the moment, and there is inspiration everywhere. At Burns Beach there are limestone rocks with so many different weathered faces:

Rockpools and waves also keep me fascinated. Almost got a good dunking filming this sequence:

But back to the artwork… this piece also saw me using Structure paint (by Matisse Derivan) for the first time. More like thick buttery oil than acrylic paint. I could even carve into it sgraffito style to reveal metallic paint colour underneath.

Knitting needles so versatile with structure paste!

Also new to me was having to varnish the piece. Up to now I’ve always used paints with an inbuilt “sheen” of their own. As the acyrlics I’m using now dry with a flat matt finish, a spray of varnish was required to “lift” it. Not easy using aerosols when it drops below zero degrees at night!

Unvarnished on left, varnished on right.

The completed piece. (40cm x 75 cm / 16″ x 30″)

Over the next few days I’ll post all my “catch up” pieces.

Stay warm everyone!

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.

Yesterday I took part in a Pastel workshop which was just magic. Having only painted one pastel piece previously, I was a sponge ready to soak up any knowledge in this medium, along with the other 10 eager participants.

After only a few  short hours, we all had pieces we were happy to take home. Mine (top), is still a work in progess, but is mostly done. That’s the tricky part, knowing when to stop and not overwork a piece.

The generosity of spirit and knowledge from other artists always humbles me. Of course you will come across those who wish to keep all their tips and working methods Top Secret, but the majority of  professional artists are only too happy to share what they’ve learnt with you. They can distill a lifetime of successes and mistakes into a workshop that will steer you along the right path. I really do admire them.

Living by the beach,  you see all manner of things washed ashore with the incoming tide. Some are lovely tresures, others quite dangerous, bringing unwanted visitors with them.  During this summer, unfortunate humpbacks seemed to find our shores, with sharks of all descriptions gorging themselves silly.

The latest one was directly behind our home, an 8 metre humpback lodged on an inaccessible reef  platform. This meant the constant drone of circling helicopters overhead went on for days, trying to drive the sharks away from the popular beach. Of course the beach was closed, but some body boarders are a fearless lot, and still braved the shark infested waters. Some beach goers got in for a real close-up look, but I don’t know they stood the stench.

The big Pacific Gull below was making the most of the feast - more about him later.

Above picture courtesy Commuity News

Finally, a specially trained team of marine specialists broke up the carcass with high pressure water before pumping it to a truck for transport to the rubbish tip. This is the graveyard for most of the whales, I remember seeing the bizarre sight of a large truck driving down the road with a gigantic whale tale poking out the back.

Above picture courtesy Community News

Whilst I was taking photos with my nose firmly pinched closed, two Pacific Gulls (much bigger than the ubiquitous Silver Gull) were wheeling about overhead, then diving low and fast to glide just above the surface of the waves.

DIP and……

…and SPLASH….

….and it’s fish for dinner!

I think they must have been well and truly sick of whale by now.

I feel so lucky to have this stretch of coastline by my shoulder on my walk, with some of the most beautiful ocean sunsets you’ll ever drink in.

Before the massively, devastingly, horrendously violent unleashing of the heavens on Monday, it was perfectly gorgeous, sunny weekend. A weekend with lots of art excursions all over the city and even the beach.

It was the last weekend of The Sculpture by the Sea, and it certainly did not disapppoint. Cottesloe Beach was bathed in dazzling sunshine and was extra glittery with all her sculptural jewellery.

The reactions of observers and dedicated beach-goers was another source of amusement.

The imagination of the sculptors was certainly given full rein this year. Materials and form were amazing.

Kids found the counting sculpture irresistible.

Some couldn’t resist an opportunity for welcome shade.

This piece was also the winner of the $15,000.

Some beachgoers weren’t concerned about shelter from the sun. Just the opposite in fact.

Some pieces were intricate works of art.

There’s an astounding 70,000 bottle tops in this sculpture.

Made even more astounding when you realise that they’re all stitched together using cable ties.

Some quite simple in design.

Some seemed to remind us of familiar forms which we know well, but  skewed somehow.

With over 60 sculptures to explore and enjoy, it was the perfect ending to the weekend.

Then the Monday Hailstorm Hurricane hit and Perth was hammered. Current  damages stand at  $203 million (43,000 insurance claims), with estimates that it will double. I hope the scupltures fared better than my house!

Can you guess what these are?

Hint: The river is named after them.

Black swans on the Swan River.

Off to a Ball now by the banks of that very same river.

Since returning home to Perth I’m rediscovering treasures hidden away in the shed whilst we were gone. It’s been about 2 and a half years since my Royal Show Ribbon winning calligraphy piece went for a dip in the swimming pool.  I needed to take some catalogue photos, and had laid it out on the only area of paving long enough (it was a very long piece).

Of course the unthinkable happened.

A sudden gust of wind picked it up like a huge sail and threw it into the water. The duck thought it jolly good fun as I plunged in to rescue it.

What I was left with was a sodden mess of individual pages with non-waterproof inks running in all directions. The cat was rather enjoying herself as well,

as it all smelt so fishy when wet….

…that she just had to lick it. Not that it could get any wetter.

Treasures no more. Disgusted with myself, I threw it all on a shelf in the shed where it’s been drying out since July ‘07. When I was looking for some nails in the shed I saw a piece poking out. Looking at them again with fresh eyes I thought it might be worth a go trying to repair some of the water damage. Of course it will never be like the original, but now it’s got “character lines”. The smudges and blurs will always be there, but it’s just more background for the calligraphy to sit upon. I pulled out my pens and got stuck in.

These are just some of the pieces -there are those that are just too far gone to be salvaged, and those that have had their shells damaged (which means more beachcombing to finish the repair job).

But at least it’s got me thinking about a piece for this year’s Royal Show - deadline for submissions in July. Time to sharpen those nibs!