Plein Air

I've been reading James Gurney's blog of late and he has inspired me to attempt art making in the great outdoors (plein air).  So far in my art journey I have done very little drawing from life, I tend to use reference photographs instead.  I have NEVER made art out in public.  Having set my mind to trying this I asked my friend Sherri if she wanted to come along and do some art.  Thankfully, Sherri was very keen and we arranged to meet today at a park that overlooks Moffat Beach Headland.  It was a glorious day.

 Below, Sherri's set up using a crafting or tackle box and a HUGE pencil case to hold her supplies. 

 Never having worked plein air before I was feeling rather disorganised and really not sure what I needed or how to set myself up. In the end I decided to ditch the paints as the thought of managing paint, water, brushes etc in the open did my head in. Instead I grabbed my rarely used and limited range of pastels and threw them in a basket. 

 An old Tupperware craft organiser holds my pastels. They are stored in a combination of rice and rice flour. This protects the pastels and keeps them clean. It looks like a lot of pastels but many of those pictured are actually single sticks broken up into smaller pieces.  The deficiencies in my palette became apparent once we started working.

 Sherri had found this lovely park that is very quiet.  We were self-conscious about being watched our first time!  Here I am sketching in an outline in charcoal.  Cool enough for long clothing but a hat was still very necessary.  Australian sun.....

 Here I've done a very loose charcoal sketch and then blocked in some blue for the sky.  Making things up as I go along as per usual.   Sherri had a book that outlined how to go about doing a pastel drawing, which I looked at and then just got into it and forgot about. Ooops.

So much for the quiet, private spot.... Here is Sherri working away and in the background you will see the yoga or pilates class that turned up and stayed for much of the time we were there.  We also had a number of walkers stop and chat to us and I found that I really didn't feel self-conscious and enjoyed the experience.

 Here is my finished piece.  You can see that I don't have enough darks in my painting as I didn't have them in my palette. 

Here is Sherri's finished piece as she adds some last minute highlights.

Same view, same medium, different artists.  Just love it.  I wonder how long it will take me to not feel like an imposter when I call myself and artist?

We are really inspired to do this again as it was just the loveliest experience. So much fun!  I LOVED working with the pastels.  LOVED IT.  I am now keen to add to my pastel collection and know that I definitely need to add some colours in darker tones to give my art the impact it needs. On the way home I stopped at BCF (Boats, Camping, Fishing) and picked up a tackle box. On special too, the Art Gods were looking out for me. :) Just need to fill it up now!

Next time I will remember to bring my water bottle. We had a snack and a flask coffee but judging by my headache this evening, I really needed to drink some water too.  I usually have it with me at all times so not sure why I forgot.  Oh well.  A great day and possibly my favourite day of art ever. 

Spending a year in the past

I have a lot of books. LOTS of books, and buying books is a great pleasure for me.  I have large built in shelves taking up one whole wall in a spare room, another bookshelf in our bedroom, books here and there and after a big clean up and reorganisation, a large bookshelf full of all the books from my childhood. Looking through my shelves I've  made a decision to spend the rest of this year reading back through books that I've loved throughout my life.  So far, this has been just so lovely.  I am enjoying it so very much.  There are books that I do read annually and have done so for many years but I'm working on reading more widely from my collection. I began with Anne of Green Gables - oh what a dear, sweet joy that read is.

I then moved on to Indian Captive The story of Mary Jemison, which I first read at age 11 or 12 and it fascinated me, as all American History type books, movies and tv shows did. The story recounts the experience of a white child taken as a captive by Native American's.  This practice was not uncommon in the years of pioneering and colonial unrest.  Mary, when given an opportunity to return to life with Europeans, decides to stay with her Seneca indian family and lives out her life around the Great Lakes of the US.  I found myself equally engaged as an adult and have passed it on to my Mum to read.

Unable to leave the America of pioneer times I selected a battered, copy of Children of the Oregon Trail, purchased in an op shop during my teens.  This book, quite obviously, tells the story of children who partook of that extraordinary journey west over the Oregon trail in covered wagons.  When Jeff and I were in Oregon a few years ago we visited the Pioneer museum at the trails end which for me was such a treat. It always amazes me what courage people can find in the face of adversity or the hope of a better life. A bucket list item for me would be to traverse the Oregon trail myself - by car though!

Leaving my short sojourn into life in early America I moved on to my next life long love... England.  I am currently chuckling my way through a tired old copy of  Notes from a Small Island by Bill Bryson.  Oh my goodness that man amuses me!  Notes From a Small Island details a journey taken by Bill around England, Scotland and Wales mainly by foot and public transport. I love the way he looks at life and situations.  A great read, as are all his books. Not a children's book as were my previous two reads but I'm not limiting myself to my childhood bookshelf as I read back through my past.  I may well finish this book today on this windy old Sunday.  I wonder what will take my fancy next?

Blue and Orange....

I've added another coat to the background of my chrysanthemum.  It looks much better I think.

A painting in progress. Trying something new once again to stretch myself.  I did this by adding paint and then spraying it with water in a pump spray.  Once dry I turned it up the other way and had this image.  It reminds me of the trees in their autumn colours that we saw along the New England Highway.  It could very well be the flames from a fire front too.  What do you think?  I still need to work on the foreground.

Nothing happening in the studio today but plenty of washing and ironing has been done.  I've also done a bit of a tidy in the kitchen as per Flylady's zones.  Our trip has caught up with me I think as I've been tired, tired, tired.  I have a busy week too but hope I can get some more posts in for you.  I have promised to post how to make no knead bread so will try to do that this week too.  I've not forgotten Linda!

Thank you all for supporting my art.  Don't be shy, leave a comment!

Sandy xxx

After the road trip

We have just returned home from a road trip to Sydney. We were gone for five days and covered a lot of  ground in that time.  Our first big day of driving took us through all the Anzac Day services in small towns along the New England Highway.  There were riders on horseback, vintage vehicles, bagpipe bands and soldiers wearing medals. Great to see such good attendance along the way.   The New England Highway at this time of year is spectacular.  Blue, blue sky days acting as a backdrop to the eye startling golds and reds of trees turning for autumn.  Just glorious.

Our time was spent with friends in the north west of Sydney.  Living so far apart, it is difficult to catch up with each other regularly so time together is a treat.  We were there to celebrate a 40th birthday which involved great company and a delicious Thai banquet.  On Sunday we headed west through the Blue Mountains and continued on to the dear, sweet township of Millthorpe to visit more friends. Loz and Linda own Galvanised, a quirky, gorgeous store in the main street.  Pop over to their website and check it out.  We enjoyed yet another very late night visiting with friends before setting off on a close to 1200km trip to get home the next day.  This time we followed the Newell Highway through western New South Wales and had a brilliant trip.  Very little traffic, good roads and long stretches between towns so we made good time - no speeding - just a good run.  We left at 6.30am and arrived home here in the Sunshine Coast Hinterland at 9pm the same night.

I've purposely kept our trip details short as we have more important things to talk about..... ART.  Of course! Being tired from our trip I fiddled around with a watercolour piece yesterday.

I finished this morning.  Might redo the background though as my poor skills as a watercolourist are quite evident there...

My sister came over today after dropping the kids at school and we had knit and natter.  Well, Susan knitted and I faffed around with some left over paint.  This is what came off the brush today.

 Far from my usual style.  I quite like it though. I was inspired to do this after reading (ahem, skimming through) a book on intuitive painting.  I used a precut mat to view this piece in different ways for framing.  I came up with heaps of variations but will limit myself to sharing only a few with you.

Lots of fun and I'm now doing one in warm colours to reflect our trip through autumn down south.

It was wonderful to see you all and good to be back with those of you who are reading and missed out on a visit!

Stay well and happy!  Sandy xxx