Artists Blog

Whenever I need a shot of colour inspiration I turn to the garden. Now that it’s cooler (meaning under 40C/104F!) I’m out there a whole lot more.

Blue Iris feeling fresh in the morning.

Candy Cane Frangipanis scent the air.

Looking down the throat of the Leopard spotted canna lily reminds me of the 1960’s show ”Time Tunnel”.

The hibiscus are madly flowering their heads off, and it’s magic watching them unfold right before your eyes in the morning - from tight bud to full flamboyant bloom in minutes.

Insects are out and about in the dawn light as well. Fly for breakfast anyone?

And of course the bees never stop.

Morning always reveals surprises.

Other winged creatures show up out front at first light.

Then stay for a seista on my front door mat. Gives the Postie a surprise sometimes!

Throughout the day more visitors come and go.

These long beaked Corellas can create carnage to a lawned area in mere minutes.

Watching the blue dragonflies hunt and dance can be quite hypnotic. They look you straight in the eye as well.

Now we have four turtle doves instead of two.

I can feel some botanical drawing/painting urges coming on…

On Sunday I joined the North Coast Art Club. These artists get together once a month to paint with each other in really relaxed, supportive atmosphere. You can’t get much more supportive than boxes of good chocolates and cups of tea!

Whilst at the Art Club I started my next painting, a miniature, with a familiar subject.

These Forest Kingfishers lived in my garden and the surrounding bush, and were more than happy to pose for photos.

I hope to finish him at home quite soon.

Do you remember the Mystery of the Fish Skull? (click here for original post) Well, scientists at a local University have deemed it a BATFISH, which I had taken underwater photos of at the Great Barrier Reef off Green Island. I still wouldn’t have guessed it.

Thanks to all who took the time to offer suggestions!

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!

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.

You may have heard in the news that ALL of North Queensland (from Townsville up to the tip at Cape York) was blacked out from 5.30 last night. That’s over 700,000 homes and everything else without power. We tried the radio in the cars to find out what was happening but even the stations were’nt transmitting anything but static.

At first it was rather Robinson Crusoe, with candles alight and chatting to people in the street. But once the lack of Air Conditioning kicked in, it lost it’s romantic appeal pretty quickly. My neighbour said that after he checked his fuse box, he went to see if my air conditioners were running. When he saw a still fan, he knew the power must be out everywhere. Operating air conditioners are the one constant in my household, after all I need my AC in the Tropics!

So to “escape the heat” we headed down to one of our spots by the beach, the place where I get my fancy frozen cocktails-in-a-martini-glass. It’s an almost new $4 million  building, so surely they had their own genny. Nope. With only one cash register operating on batteries that were fast running out, the call was for “LAST ROUND”.

“What about first round?” I asked.

“As they’re your first drinks, on the house!” was the reply.

Sipping from deliciously icy glasses, chatting on the balcony overlooking the beach, blackouts were not so bad after all.

But as it was getting dark, the orders were given to lock up and leave. This was the story all over the city. The whole area was deepest black.

Except for one shining light in the darkness - the Golf Course Clubhouse has a genny the size of a whale, so onwards for more refreshments and  most needed AC! A lovely evening in spite of everything.

The power returned later in the evening, and the sort-of explanation today is that a bird’s nest was the culprit. Amazing.

So in keeping with the theme, here are some recent nest builders that have kept me enthralled.

You may remember a previous post where this Willy Wagtail was busily constructing this nest.

Can you see what is sticking out from underneath the white belly feathers?

Two hungry beaks squawking.

As soon as the parents flew away to find food, the little beaks closed, heads drooped and they dropped off to sleep. But as soon as the parents returned, they stretched those beaks wide and clamoured and wailed like any hungry child. All with their eyes closed.

The chores of parents are the same the world over.

Now here’s another sort of nest, and not the traditional kind. More like “where ever I lay my eggs, that’s my home”.

I’ve not seen speckled eggs in the wild before. The mother was standing not far off, and we thought  it odd that she wasn’t running away, until we spied her treasures. We quickly moved off and she was blissful once again.

They still look Jurassic, those Bush Stone Curlews. Waaaaailing away every night, outside the bedroom window, for all the world sounding like they are committing/witnessing bloody murder.

I think we’ve almost kinda used to it now. Almost.

…your photos make it into the weekly magazines.

And you know you’ve really made it if one of them is a booby magazine.

Because we all know that big boobs and pythons go hand in hand.

(Please excuse my tongue-in-cheekiness!)

Leaving the back gate open provides an open invitation to arguably the noisiest night birds IN EXSISTENCE to wander around as if they own the place.

I do apologise for the “murkiness” of the photos. It’s so humid now that the lense fogs up as soon as I take it oudoors!

Bush Stone Curlew Pair (with chicks stashed by the gate) see what’s around my patio. One fell asleep by the sliding door.

Orange Footed Scrub Hens dig up my re-planted chilli plants if they can. That damn bandicoot digs them up each night and tosses them on the lawn. He performed that endearing trick on the passionfruit vine each night until I built a brick pyramid around it’s base. If I have to do that with each new plant I may as well concrete the garden beds!

Gotta run, that’s more lightening and thunder heading my way. Fingers crossed for buckets of rain - all on that bandicoot!

This was an entry originally posted 2 weeks ago. I had to delay it’s publication until now due to media committments.

If you’ve been following this blog, you may remember my recent painting, the very first I’ve sold - of the birds eating the snake.

Even the journalist said it was an amazing karmic coincidence.

In this internet age, it is simply astounding how this news has travelled the globe, proving it’s just not Far North Tropical Queensland that holds a fascination for such things. According to London newspapers, I live “in the jungle”. That’s inside the house I reckon!

On a sadder note, the departed cocky has left behind a lonely mate, who sits in the same spot in the bouganvillea all day, looking a little lost. Thankfully the python won’t be hungry for quite some time…

17 November 2008

Unfortunately my last sentence above proved horribly incorrect. Or maybe it was another python. But he was taken also. This one we tried to save. (I had only hours earlier removed a paralysis tick from above it’s eye). I hosed that python with a full strength hose, but he wasn’t giving up his catch.

There are a lot of images, and I think everyone’s seen most of them around the internet sites and newspapers, so I’m not sure if you would want to see them again on this blog?

Let me know what you think.

A new evening job is to make sure there are no guests sleeping over in the The Tree of Death….

Another casualty in the backyard this evening. I don’t know what had befallen this sad fellow, but he couldn’t fly, couldn’t walk and was generally just miserable. I tried to coax him with some water and seed, but he was having none of it.Time for a Vet Visit.

Dear husband calmy remined me of the carnage last Cocky Rescue Mission inflicted on my finger.  ( You can relive the blood and guts here)  After all this time I have almost got full feeling back in my fingertip.

No chances this time, thick towel and box at the ready, but this cocky had no blood lust and was quickly and quietly wrapped and whisked away in the car. I’ll ring the vet tomorrow to find out how he fared. And a lovely vet he is, kindly giving me his limited edition bird calender off his surgery walls when he learnt of my interest.

I have so much news and photos to share, of the exhibition opening night (sold a piece too!), Jez’s Awards Night, and much more. I just have to get through the next 2.5 weeks with all the folio’s, assignments, presentations etc. It is also the big Open exhibition (with prize money, although I’m not that hopeful) on Friday. I managed to deliver my 2 pieces with 11 minutes to spare. See, I’m getting better.

Will get back to you all as soon as I can!

POST SCRIPT : Word from the vet was that he could not be saved and was gently put to sleep