Artists Blog

“Spring” in the tropics is just like Winter. 30 deg C the past few days. AirCon in winter - who would believe it?

I can barely keep up with life at the moment. Luckily I have backyard comedians to help me maintain a happy outlook.

Impaled?

Nah, just trickin!

I’m finding Uni is a lot tougher/stressful/not-as-easy this semester. If I only had a sponge for a brain!

Photoshop studies, and in particular the first assignment (on scanning) due yesterday, had me all afluster. I completed it on time, but the image I had in my mind was not what ended up on the screen.

We had to build a Triptych of three images. My theme was based on time, mortality, the cycle of life. All the scanned objects came from the garden (yes, including the deceased Mannikin), or my immediate environment. I don’t think my scanner appreciated the soil slopped all over it though!

.

This is only Week 5 , lots more to get through….

Friday - painting class - continuing our adventures with “oil glazing”. A tiny dab of oil paint  is mixed with fast drying Liquol to produce a thin layer (a glaze) of paint. Many layers of glaze later you have a transparent sheen of paint that looks luminous. Well, that’s the theory anyway.

For many, including myself, it’s our first introduction to oil painting, and a whole new experience. Next week we go hard and thick with the oils with impasto techniques.

This afternoon there was a loud BANG on the kitchen window. The Man of the House had only cleaned the window recently and it had repercussions.

A teenage Chestnut Breasted Mannikin (or Bullfinch?) was not happy with his close encounter. A good excuse to have dirty windows!

(Don’t look at the oil paint under my fingernails).

He didn’t seem to want to fly anywhere, so I popped him in a tree out back. 20 minutes later he was right to join all his mates again.

Peaceful Dove trying to be inconspicuous.

Like all his friends.

Meanwhile, the Bromeliads and gingers are putting on a flamboyant display. Almost like Mardi Gras!

I’ve had such a busy week that I’ve only just sat down to read Wednesday’s paper (and the rest!) this evening. What a nice surprise to see one of my photos being used in the paper:

The original photo and story behind this OCD Sunbird and it’s pooping ways all over my car can be found by clicking here.

I’ve had a few emails asking for some “behind the scenes of the kingfisher painting. Everything I’ve learnt regarding this method has been taught to me by a wonderful bird artist, Paul Margocsy.

I’ve used Clayboard for this piece, but any illustration board (smooth or toothed), and even Matt board (for framing) is OK.

Step1 - After sketching onto my clayboard, I mask the birds and foliage. Using my airbrush, I lay down washes of background colour. I have the board tilted up at an angle, which is better for airbrushing, but not so good for wayward drips!

Airbrushing is really forgiving, I made a heap of mistakes here. The consequence is that the background gets darker and darker. I need to adjust the pressure to a lower setting so that it’s not like a rifle going off!

I use a finger or eraser to gently peel off the dried masking fluid. I’ve used a water soluable wash pencil for the sketch. I touched up some of the birds with the same pencil at this stage.

Time to block in rough areas of colour with a big brush. After this step, I go over and lay in the fine details with a tiny brush. Good eyes and a steady hand an advantage - I don’t have either! I wouldn’t call this method “over-the-top-difficult”, but more “methodical”. I find the feathers/foliage gets rather tedious after a while, but a quick walk or cuppa soon revives my momentum.

And the finished peice you saw 2 posts back. No 8 in using this method, not that I’m counting!

Did anyone sit through the whole Opening Ceremony last night? I admit I flagged after 12.30, but was able to catch the replay this morning. I think of all the artists involved in so many aspects, the costumes, the calligraphy, the lighting, the props, the digital art (stupendous!) and the list goes on. Just FABULOUS!

These Wood Swallows were hosting a very small party this afternoon. I’ve seen over 20 of them cuddling up close late in the evening.

It’s nice to have close friends.

No time to upload today’s painting photos - the Opening Ceremony with the painting-with-your-body calligraphy has me transfixed (the calligrapher in me is salivating all over the floor).

That crazy Sunbird is at it again. She is obsessed with singing, and now dancing with her reflection. Over coffee yesterday with our neighbour, he told us that she has ruined the rubber strips on his car windows, where she will sit for hours with her reflection as companion.

If she can also see herself in the wing mirror as well as the window, she goes into raptures.

Today she was dancing, which was something new.

She doesn’t seem to mind if you watch her either.

An OCD Sunbird for sure. Who leaves a trail of poop wherever she dances.

Another yellow guest is raking in the native bees on our front deck.

I try and save them, but they constantly hurl themselves into the sticky web. Every little white blob in the web was a hapless tiny native bee. How many bees can one Northern Jewelled Spider eat?

He is so shiny and stripey, just like an enamelled brooch sitting in the middle of a perfectly shaped web.

Underneath he wears polka dots.

I am not a fan of spiders, but there is something quite mesmerizing watching this one go about his day. He’s never in a hurry, ambling slowly over to the latest bee, injecting it with something horrid, then going back into the middle of the web for a snooze. He’s about the size of a 5 cent piece now, and will get to about 20c worth. If he lasts that long. He has precariously built his web right alongside some huge hairy monster who’s web is well over a metre wide. This little jewel may well be dinner for his neighbour some night soon…..

Made it by the skin of my teeth again! So much going on right now- including the exhibition Official Opening at Kickarts tonight. I can feel the butterflies already - I’ll be right once I have a glass of bubbles in my hand.

My submission this week to Illustration Friday was inspired by a couple of things that sit in my Naturalist’s Collection, and also by the memories of giving birth. “Enough already!” went hand in hand with all that pushing!

The nest is from our old hibiscus tree in Perth, sadly fallen to the ground when we did a hard prune back. The Emu egg is from a Royal Show exhibitor who runs an emu farm. Imagine the size of the basket used to collect the eggs on that farm!

So what do I have to show for a week’s intensive tuition? Raised blood pressure I’m sure! Cursing fickle feathers and my own inadequacies went hand in hand with my small successes. I completed some new pieces, as well as administering plastic surgery to 2 paintings from last year.

I used  the photo below for reference. Now that it’s Dry Season, our resident pair of Forest Kingfishers patrol our yard for breakfast.

The next painting was also from photos taken in the yard. I can’t tell male from female.

I’ll going to paint in a few water droplets on the front kingfisher. Haven’t tried that before so will study up first.

A “28″ parrot from WA, so called for it’s screeching “28! 28!”

So where to from here? For all the agony, stress and heart palpitations painting gives me, it is a compulsion to finish once I start. Hence, over the years I have learnt not to start! 

How to swap Procrastination with Motivation? Anyone have any suggestions?

Last day, Friday. What a wonderful week of observing and absorbing, learning and trying, becoming full to overflowing with inspiration and enthusiam.

Many chose to spend the better part of the day wandering through the Tanks, looking at what all the other groups have been creating.

This is Mike, he was tutoring big brush watercolours, concentrating on flowers and cyrstal.

He wore the most fabulous shirts and cowboy boots each day. You could hear the “clip clop” of those Texan boots a mile off.

The beginning of his gorgeously coloured piece.

Finished demo.

Mike is also an accomplished bird and water artist. This is a full size sheet painting. Big. Scary big.

This is the wall where he and his students displayed their finished work. I think I’ll be signing up for his class next year. After straining over miniscule paintings using brushes  only a few hairs wide, I’m needing something big & loose!

This is Naomi, she is in my photography class at Uni. She is trying oil painting for thr first time. The subject matter was a still life I put together for photography last semester - my chillies, boar jawbone, cocky feathers, split nautilus shell etc.

This is Helen, with her oil on paper Bromeliad painting. The photo does not do it justice.

Other beautiful broms were painted.

I think this was done by Clare. You can almost dip your fingers into that pooled water.

The exhibition was smoothed along with glasses of good wine and plenty of delicious foods.

The following are some of Paul’s work.

He is just so quick, it’s sickening.

I asked on the last day if he could do a demo showing outstretched wings. He bashed these quackers out in next to no time at all. Maybe an hour and a half? 30 years of experience certainly makes a difference. I agonise over a single feather for hours.

A kooka appeared before our very eyes like magic. He is a true talent.

No more room in this post - I’ll sort out my paintings and put them up in another post, as far away from Paul’s painting s as possible!

“What a gorgeous place this is!” say all the visitors to The Tanks. I uttered the very same words last year at my first ArtEscape. As part of the Botanical Gardens complex, the old WWII Tanks serve a much more peaceful purpose than their intended use.

Set into the rainforest at the foot of Mount Whitfield, it is a tranquil getaway so conducive to creating works of beauty.

A giant Quandong tree grows just outside Tank 2. Favourite food of the shy Cassowary.

Heliconias hang like giant necklaces.

Red Gate Hill was once again the setting for the 100+ group photo. Hopefully photos (on DVD with soundtrack!) ready in a couple of weeks.

There was a kookaburra sitting atop the gate watching proceedings. By the time I got my camera, he’d moved on into the canopy.

Every seat in the parklands is not your average seat. They are all works of art in themselves.

Even the rocks are decorated.

This Northern Jewelled Spider was busy spinning and weaving. I could watch spiders at work for hours.

No time for that though. A quick stretch of the legs with the camera and then it’s back to work. There’s painting to be done!

Day 2, and Jez has joined me. He spun out when he realised I was being tutored by Paul Margocsy, and wasn’t at Uni. One extra school holiday certainly wouldn’t hurt, and his teacher actually said he could spend the whole week there if he wanted.

Jez says Paul is “Hell Awesome”. That’s pretty much the highest accolade a teenager can give. He concentrated deeply as he watched Paul work, absorbing as much as he could. He didn’t want to stop for morning tea, lunch or afternoon tea. Paint, that’s all he wanted to do.

Today we were tackling the airbrush, which can be quite daunting. Air compressors, needles, reading gauges - a scary metal monster to some. Jez couldn’t wait!

Paul led the way. A tip is to have your board on an angle so the inks don’t pool. Careful they don’t drip though!

Another tip is to start outside of your board’s edges, so that no blobby bits occur.

Jez lays down the first colour  (blue) in  broad sweeps.

Next are some ochres. A test sheet of paper alongside your board is good to get the inks flowing smoothly through the airbrush needle.

Foliage greens are laid over the top. The masking fluid covering the bird sketch can be removed once the inks are touch dry.

Got a problem with your painting? No problem with Paul around. He could fix the impossible with a flick of his brush.

Jez was well impressed. There were airbrush dramas going on in the background.

The artist well pleased with his efforts.

There was a TV crew buzzing about in the morning. They were right “in my face” when Paul and I were discussing some aspects of one of my paintings. My “28″ from late last year needed some form of plastic surgery, and Paul was physically positioning his arms/wings so I could see where to place them on paper. The camera crew were having a great time positioning their camera to capture this hilarious pantomime from all angles. I couldn’t even look at them I was so embarrassed.

The “Meet & Greet” BBQ followed into the evening, so I was relieved not to have to watch Channel 7 news. Unfortunately other people did and let me know!