Artists Blog

A pastel collection is never complete – there are always new colours, new brands, new shapes to try. Resistance is utterly futile. Give in little and often.

Saturday’s pastel workshop has some amazingly talented students.

Jen has been busy, above is her wave painting, below an impala piece in progress.

Jackie was pleased with her first ever pastel piece, Mindarie Beach.

Heather is quickly building her collection with her 3rd pastel piece below.

Whilst Lil has almost completed her vibrant waterlily painting.

You are such a pleasure to teach – well done all!

It wasn’t until I started writing about these afternoon photos that I realised that they are all associated with trees. And trees are some of my favourite people.

I recently bought a chunky ”Eco Pencil”. Made by Mayan artisans from sustainable forest wood and strung with cactus twine, it’s the perfect thing for pencil rubbings.

Leaves clockwise from top left – Gardenia, Pelagonium, Lemon, Red Flowering Gum.

There are lots of other colours available, next time I’m at the Zoo I’ll buy the others.

Did you notice what else was hiding in the tree?

A Willie Wagtail nest. (That’s a Rainbow Lorrikeet’s feather, not a B & W Willie feather!)

And the tree itself is a Port Wine Magnolia. If I only had Smell-o-Vision you would all swoon.

These little flowers pack a huge punch. The smell hits you and throws you to the floor as soon as you step into the back garden.

Hope you all enjoy your weekend!

Gaye Godfrey-Nicholls, a good friend (and one of the best calligraphers I know), has embarked upon a huge calligraphic project/adventure for which I have been taking photographs. She has the most incredible collection of calligraphic accoutrements,

Spot the kitty above?

An amazing assortment of pens and paints for every occasion.

I admit loving to see inside other’s watercolour paintboxes.

They are like works of art in themselves.

Pencil collections and their storage methods I find extremely satisfying (Is that weird?)

And Gaye has pens of every description.

Working from her home studio, she has the ideal environment to get into the “Zen” mindset.

Whether inside or out, her calligraphy is ever present.

Even the windows bear her mark making.

Thanks Gaye for a peek into your world of words!

I was honoured to be asked to judge the annual St Stephens Art Awards last week. What a task! So many incredible works of the higest calibre. The imagination, dedication and story telling abilities of High school students are second to none. Opening night this evening was a lovely affair, with students, their families and teaching staff all admiring the amazing talent on display.

Every type of media is represented in this exhibition.

And the band were brilliant.

The exhibition is open until Thursday late afternoon. Get along to see it if you can at St Stephens, Tapping Campus.

You may remember last month Jez suffered a serious accident. He had just completed and exhibited Part 1 of his Yr 12 Major Art Work, the ballpoint pen self portrait (above right and below).

Last week he exhibited Part 2 at the Art Awards, and yesterday won the People’s Choice Award. Below are more detailed images, please excuse the uneven lighting.

It’s been a huge year for him, with only a week left of High School and Final Exams looming.

Working from photos taken standing clothed in the pool and bath, it was atfer his accident that he decided to add the “extras” to his final piece. It really gave him so much to think about. You’ll see what I mean from the last reference photo below. I still can’t look at that image without feeling overwhelming fear.

Fingers crossed for smooth sailing through exams! 

After showing the work of the weekend pastel students in my last post, it was only fair to show the finished pieces of the weekday group. Above is Kim’s Mindarie Beach, hot off the framer’s workbench.

Joy and Beaumaris Beach.

And the secret to Kelly’s North Hillary’s Beach piece is the being held aloft by Inga! 

You may remember the post about my violet shell which I sketched and unfortunately broke. My lovely husband Jeff found this shell today on his beach travels and left it on the kitchen bench for me to find. It is adorned with goose barnacles, a lovely lilac hue themselves.

That wasn’t the only amazing object to grace the kitchen bench this afternoon…

this GINORMOUS mushroom is slow roasting in the oven for dinner – yum!

The work produced on Saturday’s pastel workshop was just wonderful. The students are really spreading their wings with their paintings. Above is Thea working on Mogo Crater Creek rainforest in the Atherton Tablelands.

Albert proudly shows off his first pastel painting in many many years.

Heather shows us her vision of Quinns Beach, her 2nd painting ever!

Cathy is working in a very fresh and loose style on happy sunflowers from The Continent.

Lil is re-creating a stunning waterlily form Port Douglas.

We all share laughs, stories, tips and chocolate on Workshop days.

With finished paintings at the end to share with a wider audience. Thanks to everyone for sharing their work.

So impressive is the calibre of the students work, we are going to hold an exhibition on the first weekend in Decemeber. Stay tuned for details!

This week my local beach was full of interesting things. It’s been a while since I’ve seen the floating Violet Shells – these were used in days past to produce the colour purple. A quick sketch with purple ballpoint pen was fun. Sadly I dropped and broke one of the shells, but it did show me how luscious the purple is inside.

 There was also the most amazingly delicate coral formation, like porcelain filigree work – easily the most beautiful ocean treasure I’ve found in a long time.

Whilst I was peering into the rockpools there was a buzzing in the distance.

Quickly followed by more giant Man Bees. They seemed to be everywhere!

They were doing fancy turns, racing each other and just enjoying the freedom of birds. But with propellers.

Then off they went, one after the other, up the beach and out of sight.

It was a lot more peaceful when they had gone….

The Dutch Iris in my garden are rather tardy this year, through no fault of their own. Last summer was a record breaker for extreme heat and drought, so for the first time I lifted the bulbs and stored them in the garden shed. Shrivelled like little balls of brown paper after summer temps in the shed exceeding 50 degrees C (122F), I put them into the outodoor fridge late Autumn. And then totally forgot them.

It wasn’t until I saw other gardens in the neighbourhood with bright blue blooms waving around that I remembered my neglected bulbs shivering away next to bubble water bottles in the drinks fridge. Rescued and then hastily scattered around the garden, I held little hope that they’d survived.

But Nature is a hardy wee thing. Up they sprang, growing with the speed and vigour of triffids. They are blazing blue for all the world to see. 

Spring in Perth is so fleeting. Blink and it’s gone. The mornings where dewdrops collect on petals are numbered. Summer is almost here.

Off on a tangent, it was after this photogrpahy session in the garden that I decided I couldn’t put off new glasses any more. Using my telephoto lense for macro photography means manual focusing. I thought the lense was all fogged up when every photo was blurry, and had to “guess” when things were in focus.

Saw the Optometrist today. New distance glasses in 10 days….

Water’s Journey   Acyrlic on canvas 122cm x 122 cm (48″ x 48″)

The Perth Royal Agricultural Show is fast approaching, with delivery of the Art Award paintings on Sunday. On Saturday I had a niggling feeling that the large painting I had worked on may be a tight squeeze in the car. With tape measure in hand and trepidation in heart I went to the garage. The worst possible outcome – it wasn’t going to fit!

Panic, and even mad thoughts of starting and finishing a whole new painting in a matter of hours filled my head. What a horrible night of tossing and turning I had.

Then a Shining Knight on a White Horse appeared in the form of a loaned mini bus – a huge Thank You to all involved in my rescue!

Detail from top right hand corner below.