Artists Blog

Guess what I was lucky enough to see today?

Walking outside around lunchtime I noticed there was a certain dimness to the light, like during a bushfire or an eclipse. Looking up I saw rainbow rings around the sun.

These beautiful sun halos are caused by the ice crystals in cirrus cloud, and are sometimes called sun dogs.

Cirrus clouds have also been beautifully clothing the moon recently as well.

I think I could happily spend at least a week painting clouds and big skies.

Lying in the grass on your back looking up towards the heavens, is there a more relaxing way to spend an afternoon?

What a beautiful way to spend a night, watching one of the most spectacular alignments of sun, earth and moon in years. Also one of the longest deep eclipses in a over a decade, (and 3rd longest since 1000BC)  with the totality part of the eclipse (moon totally covered in shadow) lasting more than 100 minutes. The eclipse started at 1.25am (Perth time), and finished at dawn (around 7.15). Mind you I went to bed at 5.15am, just after the totality phase had finished and the clouds rolled in, obscuring everything.

A deep eclipse often bathes the moon in a coppery colour, as the earth’s shadow falls across the face of the moon, and light from the sun bends around the atmosphere during totality. This eclipse had the added ingredient of volcanic ash cloud in our skies which gave it a distinctly orange glow.

I apologise for the wobbliness of the photos. A cold front was blowing in from the west, and as I’m on the coast my tripod and I were buffetted by strong winds. I tried stabilising it with Jeff’s heavy weights, shielding the camera with my body, all to no avail. I’m glad no one heard me at 4am cursing the elements and metal weights crashing onto my toes!

The full moon rose as usual. Here she is in full glory at 1am.

Cloud started to roll in after 1.30am and I was gutted. The clouds are evident in this next shot. I was hoping I wouldn’t be up all night for nothing.

From 2.30am to 3am nothing but cloud. I went to bed. At 3.50am I jumped up and outside – what a beautiful sight – the Man in the Moon.

I remember when I was little drawing crescent shaped moons with a smiling face just like this image above.

With no shoes or jacket on, I set up the tripod in the howling wind, trying to be very very quiet. No matter what I did I couldn’t get crisp clean images. I decided to name the following photos for their moving star patterns:

“Written in the Stars”

“Nike Stars”

“Star Bats”

“Star Calligraphy”

Just as totality was about over, deep waves of clouds and spitting rain moved in. I took my last shot of the moon covered with cloud before I went cold, but very happy, back to bed.

Did you look up to the Heavens early this morning? I was out the front of my house well before dawn with my long camera. People on their early morning walk viewed me with great suspicion until I pointed out what I was capturing. The above photo was taken facing ENE, low to the horizon at approx. 5.40am. In my PJs.

The planets have been shuffling about for the past few days, and Jupiter is now climbing on up whilst Venus and Mercury will drop away. Next planetary alignment due in about 45 years.

Stars rock.

What a difference 24.5 hrs make. Here is a shot taken with a plain old “point & shoot” camera showing the low angle over my roof this morning. Jupiter is moving on up!

Hang onto something long enough and it’ll be cool again one day.

My 60′s Minolta SR1, bought as an old second camera back when I was a teenager (1/4 century ago!) has now found it’s way into my teenage son’s hands. “Wow! Why didn’t you tell me you had this before!” he said. Now armed with film, he’s becoming familiar with all the manual camera settings that were so frustrating back then. Manual focusing for one. More on that later.

At a recent garage sale I picked up an old A3 leather portfolio and a tiny hardback copy of a how to sketch book from 1950. Beautiful gestural drawings from the ballets of New York and London in the 40′s.

It brought back all the memories of life drawing sketches at uni – 2 and 1 minute sketches, the terrifying 30 second capture, and drawing without looking at the paper. I wished I had kept some now, but thought at the time they were best left at uni.

“Economy of Line” is something that has stuck in my head from those days – I need to practise it more. This little treasure of a book (picked up for 99cents), is adamant that you should not sacrifice movement for detail in your sketches. If using your eye to take a “snapshot” of an image to draw from memory, capture the essence of action, not the superfluous detail.

Later on the Swan river, another ballet was taking place.

So many passes in front of the city – she must have practised for over an hour just whilst we were there.

The Swan river is a great place for the camera. I with my digitals, and Jez with the fully manual (but cool) “antique”, below. I’ll share the results once we get the film developed.

During yesterday’s twilight I was driving home after the very tedious grocery shopping. Almost home, I was astounded to see a glowing golden ball sinking into the sea. This was not your normal sunset. Bushfires to the east throughout the day had drifted out over the ocean, creating a filter so that the edges of the sun could be clearly seen by the naked eye without any discomfort.

I drove straight past the house and onto the beach (with frozen peas melting in the car) and had the camera out in seconds. There were quite a few people with the same idea, all in awe of what they were seeing. 

 A beautiful way to say goodbye to a day that started just as lovely.

This morning at exactly 4.44am I went out the front garden to chase away The Singing Assassin (a WHOLE other story!), and another catch-in-your-throat sight greeted me.

A very thin sliver of crescent moon hung low to the east. So perfect in the pre-dawn light.

Nature reminds me to look for the lovely when I least expect it. And carry your camera with you at all times!

What  a wonderful Lunar Eclipse on Saturday! Even though temps were unbearably chilly (we had -0.6 Saturday morning!), it was worth frostbitten toes to record the moon and her shadow phases from my home (Lat -31° 73′, Long 115° 72′)

An eclipse of the moon (this was a partial eclipse) can only occur at full moon phase. If you look carefully at the top right quadrant you can see the large crater Tycho.

And whilst we are on the subject of all things Lunar, this week’s Illustration Friday theme is most appropriate – Satellite.

After my short break I’m back on deck with brush in hand ready to splash some paint around!

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.

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…

…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!)

Too many late nights of late -school holidays are a bad influence. Lots of reading getting done though – till 2am this morning. Feeling so inspired by images and stories of artists, craftspeople and those who make a living from the land. My eyes are going out in protest though – focusing now requires a lot of effort!

Lots of thunder and sheet lightening blanketing the night sky -awesome!