Artists Blog

You may recall this watercolour that I’m working on. Progress is slow, with so many other things stealing away my painting time.

One bird down, two to go.

I’m determined to have this piece finished before the weekend, so stay tuned…

A singing visitor returned to greet us the other night. Right up to the kitchen window he came.

You may remember the amusing song he sings from this previous post.

Yes, the Motorbike Frog is BACK!

Lots of blue and green colour combinations around me lately (whoever said “Blue and green should never be seen” were sorely mistaken”!)

Here is my latest Work In Progress – the trio of blue Forest Kingfishers that lived in the very green rainforest of my Far North Queensland home.

Down at Mullaloo Beach more blue and green with the waves are crashing! It’s one of my favourite spots for a morning jolt of coffee. So close to the the beach that the soft sand is underfoot whilst waiting for your latte.

I wish you could hear the BOOM of the wave – next time I’ll take some video. Good excuse for another seaside morning coffee….

I’m excited to be featured in the current issue of Decorative Painting & Fine Art Yearbook. (Vol 18 No 6) This tutorial demonstrates a step-by-step approach to painting birds in watercolour and gouache.

It brings back fond memories of Far North Queensland and the feathered family that visisted my home everyday.

A big shout out to my friends away up there who survived Cyclone Yasi. We’re thinking of you all.

It’s been a whirlwind in the studio -painting, drawing and calligraphing furiously, stopping only for coffee top ups. Scheduling time and jobs has been the real challenge – I’ve promised myself that 2011 organisation takes priority. My 2 foot wide Planner has been a blessing, and I’ve already pencilled in slabs of time for projects until the end of the year and even into January.

Acrylic on canvas 101 cm x 101 cm (40″ x 40″)

Above is my entry for the the City of Bayswater Art Awards & Exhibition which opens today at Noranda Village, Benara Rd. Exhibition runs until 25 September.

Acyrlic on canvas 101 cm x 101 cm (40″ x 40″)

The second painting is for the City of Bassendean’s Art Awards and Exhibition which runs from the 23rd – 29 September, at Cyril Jackson Recreation Centre, Fisher Rd.

Unfortunately these painting photos are a bit washed out – I took them outside after the sun had set, such was my hurry.

detail

 It is always helpful for me to hang a recently finished piece where I will walk past it several times a day. Undoubetedly there will be something that jumps out at me that needs to be changed. Some of the water hues were altered after the cat kindly pointed them out.

Can you feel that “rush” in the air? It’s as if a switch has been flicked and everyone has shifted up a gear. Busy-ness everywhere – in the people, the places, even the animals and birds. The garden is an explosion of activity – flowers busting to get out, bees & birds busting to get in. Spring, and the Christmas countdown has begun.

Now for me it’s literally back to the Drawing Board!

Winter in Perth means rainfall, if we’re lucky. Up in the Hills to the east are an abundance of brooks, creeks, dams, weirs and dams.

Exploring Jane Brook on a crisp winter morning was quite the adventure.

The brook has been dammed with a weir and is a popular swimming spot in warmer months.

Jez and his mate found many ways to amuse themselves.

If it could be walked across, they would try it, no fear of consequences.

There were so MANY birds there is not enough room in this post for them all. But the Splendid Fairy Wrens were so cheeky I had to show them to you here.

Here is the jewel coloured male

And here showing his bib

Not far behind was a little blur in the bush, the more discreetly coloured female.

Inspired by such wonderful waterways I hit the canvas, and here’s a snippet of my current Work In Progress (undoubtedly influenced by a certain Fairy Wren’s colours….)

“Whispers” Acrylic on canvas 100cm x 100cm (40″ x 40″)

Years and years ago I remember the absolute horror I felt when someone stuck a 3inch hake brush in my hand and said “A whole painting with just this brush.” It was watercolour,I did it, but hated it. I never picked up a big brush again, unless it was to paint the house or undercoat a canvas. Well recently I have been feeling I need to “loosen up”, and take a break from the fine work with 20/0 brushes.

This acyrlic painting has so many layers of watercolour-like washes, with me battling to get away from fiddling. I would feel good about a section I had been working on until I stepped back away from it. If I couldn’t see brushstrokes at 20 feet away I wasn’t happy. Back to the big brush to paint over details. Also, as this was for an a exhibition recording a particular place, I needed to identify it with the city landscape in the distance. Painting city buildings is definately NOT in my comfort zone! In fact I can’t ever recall having painted landscape structures at all.

It wasn’t unitl the final stages of the painting that I allowed myself to go down to a size 5 round brush.

Exhibition on now until August 7 at Belmont Forum

Here are some of my original reference photos, taken at the Swan River foreshore in Belmont. My interpretation is not a direct copy of the photos, but more my spin on the colours and atmosphere I felt. So different to how I usually paint!

Lots of squabbly chatter from the White Cheeked Honeyeaters around the foreshore.

Just around the bend of the river is the Garratt Road Bridge, a lovely old wooden bridge with lots of character.

Rivers have been in front of my lense a lot lately – painful as it initailly was, I can feel more “Big Brush” paintings coming on!

Here’s my piece in full entitled “Welcome to the neighbourhood”, now on exhibit in Joondalup.

Opening night was fun, with over 280 works to look at and the band playing gypsy swing, Romany style music.

 If you look carefully below at the portrait on the far right hand side, you may recognise…

..Jeff!  In a moment of raw Aussie Rules emotion (he’s a Dockers supporter).

Jez won a Highly Commended for this graphite portrait of his dad entitled “Dad’s Derby Day”

The exhibition runs until June 26 in The Great Space.

Another busy week comes to an end. Delivered some work this afternoon to an exhibition that will be opening soon, so I thought I’d share a little corner with you.

This is an Azure Kingfisher, cute little guys of the Kingfisher world. This is the bottom right hand corner (approx 10cm x 7 cm) of my finished piece, which I’ll share in full with you on Wednesday to co-incide with opening night.

After I’m happy with my sketch I apply liberal amounts of masking fluid.

Then the background is softly airbrushed in.

Then flat blocks of watercolour is applied quite thickly.

The starting from the beak down I start to move colour around and put in some brushstrokes.

Once the eye is painted in he takes on a real personality.

I define my light source and place the darkest shadows in.

Highlights on the feathers are brushed in with a fairly dry brush.

Feet are blocked in and work on his tree stump starts.

Final shadows are dropped in as well as the highlights on his toe-nails. When I paint the polish on these I know I’ve finished!

Will reveal the whole piece in a couple of days.

Have a great week everyone!

A quick watercolour & ink sketch late tonight to test out my new Winsor & Newton pan colours.

Hope you all enjoy the weekend!

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….