On My Camera

In my garden.....

Baking bread...

Making pasta

Out and about - Little Yabba Creek

 

Owl in the nesting box seen in the above picture....

 

Back in the saddle........I hope.

Hello there my lovelies.  Sorry for my long absence.  I've not had it in me to blog for a long time now but I'm making an effort to get back into it.  It's a fantastic way to record bits and pieces of life and to keep a record of my art journey. So, more of an effort on my part to blog I think.  I'll wet my toes with an art post.

Long ago, in late 2013 in fact, I started to paint a portrait of an elephant. Pop into the archives for 2013 or click here to see one post about this painting.  Well, that painting has sat neglected and ignored for almost two years as we traversed courts and other draining challenges.  This week I felt like getting back into it.  I still go to a mentoring class with Don Milner and decided to work on Mma Tembo (remember 'Hatari' with John Wayne?) during my time in class.  This is how I had left the painting in 2013.

I've really not painted for quite some time so I focussed on refamiliarising myself with brush and paint and working on the top left quadrant. After a good dusting of the canvas I started by introducing colour and worked on using 'enough paint'.  I can tend to be a bit frugal in my paint usage. Don is constantly saying 'use more paint'.  He is a patient man.

Blending the colours and bringing in lighter tones. Still working on the top left quadrant only.  I was starting to relax and get back into the swing of things here.

By afternoon tea time I had a heap of paint and colour on the canvas and was feeling ready to just unleash and get into it with greater freedom.   This is where I was up to when I put down my brushes for the break.

 After our break and fuelled by caffeine I just went for it and got paint and colour onto the rest of the canvas.  Blocking in big chunks of colour and continually adjusting.  It was a challenge to keep the paint wet so Don  wet the canvas thoroughly for me by pouring water on the back and soaking it (yep you read that right).  I then used painting medium and a misting bottle to keep the paint and canvas moist and the paint moving nicely.  I went well until I got to the trunk where I forgot about form, large tonal areas and fixated on the wrinkles and creases of the trunk.  Basically I regressed right back to trying to draw instead of paint and this stopped my progress very quickly.  Don came to the rescue and demonstrated blocking in the shape of the trunk in hug big strokes.  Hopefully I'm back on track now although I admit that I am struggling not to hyper focus on the texture of the trunk at this stage.

 At brushes down I had covered the whole large (1.2m x 80cm) canvas with plenty of paint and colour.  Lots more to do as always but for the first time in ages I actually feel interested and enthusiastic about getting into the studio and painting.  I feel like I have room inside me to do so.  Let's hope it stays this way.

See you again soon.

love Sandy xx

And now, some art....

Merryl is progressing at a glacial rate.  I am so strung out with life at present I barely give her the time of day

Over the last two weeks we have worked on some timed, small tonal studies during our portraiture class which has been so much fun - although I was such a cranky pants last class one would NOT think this is so (sorry Don and my lovely arty friends)!!

Taped up and ready to start.  We used a large brush, burnt umber and white and slapped, ha!, delicately/confidently/expertly applied the paint in generous blocks of tone.

10 minutes in, a likeness is beginning to appear.  Viv has had a breakdown beside me by this time (I saved mine for a later lesson and mine was non art motivated methinks).

30 minutes in and 'brushes down'.

One hour each and a lot more paint - aaaargh and much more tuition and assistance and demonstration from the ever patient and generous Don.  I need to adjust the nose and eyes of the monklike fellow at bottom before next lesson. Hopefully I am able to find time instead of just rocketing around in a state of perpetual anxiety and unease as I have been of late.  I mostly feel like a crazed squirrel at present.

Hope all is well with you.  xxx

Garden Adventures Part 2

After games of  'Swiss Family Robinson', Robinson Crusoe etc in the wilds the kids decided to join in with the adults and become a 'garden army'.  Here I am supervising the selection of the 'weapons'.  If you look beyond us, the area we are working on is the heavily planted area past the fort.

Some more of the garden army.....two lovely husbands.  My sister and I are lucky girls.

 Uncle Jeff supervising mister M using a tomahawk for the first time to chop down a sappling.

After a very short time hacking and chopping the garden army transformed once again into the Swiss Family Robinson again and set off exploring their island.  Yes there are children in there.

The two youngest made a foray upon the house to get supplies.

And partook of said supplies in copious amounts....they were very sneaky.

Garden Adventures Part 1

A fun, impromptu family day in our garden that started when Jeff, my brother and my nephews cut down two palms near the house in preparation for the replacement of our back deck and green house.

Some serious cubby house building took place with the downed palm trees.

Hearing about all the action and not to be left out, my 'favourite' brother-in-law turned up prepared for action.

He brought my other nephew and my niece who joined their cousins for some wonderful, wild, gardeny adventures. For the first time they were allowed through the fence and down the 'far back' of our yard (we have 1/4 acre of wild bush and dam full of wildlife). 

 Lots of fun was had exploring the dry dam bed. 

A week later some nice rain filled this to almost 2/3 full. 

The girls had to stay on the other side of the fence.  They had tick collars on but we were making sure they were as safe as can be. As it was at the end of the day there were a few ticks pulled off the humans. I had 5 with four of them being paralysis ticks. Luckily they don't affect humans like dogs.

Open Studio weekend cancelled and garden plantings.

Just a quick note to let you know that our Open Studio event scheduled for this weekend has been cancelled.  After a busy week where I have found myself feeling like running to catch up all the time, I now suddenly find myself with an empty weekend stretching before me.  I might start it now!

Business attended to we shall now see what has been going on here at home.

I've been playing in the garden adding flowers to make me happy and lift my spirits. Lots of daisies.  To quote Meg Ryan, "Daisies are such a friendly flower."  Some pansies, roses and some startlingly red geraniums.  These are just some of the beauties that have come to live in our garden.

So much more has been happening in our yard and garden but I'll save that for another post!  Happy, happy, happy.  Flowers make me so delightedly happy.  Sigh.

Portrait update for Viv!

This is how my portrait progressed on Thursday afternoon.  Here the jawline has been reworked as has the mouth.  I've also started to fiddle with the skin tones, trying to make them more real to life. Remember you can click on the images to enlarge them.

Below you can see I have been starting to intensify the shadows around the jaw, mouth and cheeks.  The mouth has been widened too (I did this NUMEROUS times and then accidentally cut it back too far each time I cut back into it with the skin tones....doh!).

Here I have somehow managed to ruin the right eye so it looks too open yet droopy at the same time.  I will need to fix this on my next paint through.  I have aslo started to rework the hair which was fun. 

For the next paint through

• rework right eye (her left)
• start to resolve her wrap and hand - gulp. The hand gives me mild heebie jeebies.
• continue work on hair after working on bottom third of painting.