Garden

A combination of simply glorious weather and family stress has seen me out in our garden for most of each day lately.  I've even taken to eating on the front verandah so I am still out in the soothing calm.  This is part of the front garden in the early afternoon shade.  The yard is heavily shaded at this time of year turning the grass to weed and moss.

 The garden from the other side (looking back towards where I took the previous photo from).  It's quite a green garden and there are times when I definitely miss riotous colour.  It's soothing though and so large that filling the gardens with flowers for cutting would be unmanageable.  All up we live on a bit under one and a half acres and at least two thirds of it is garden.

I'm adding a bit of colour here and there though in amongst the established plantings.

My irises are beginning to bloom in amongst the parsley. I love higgledy-piggledy type plantings.

I did have an extensive vegetable and herb garden down the back years ago but it became unmanageable once I became ill and then we had two naughty labradors who used it as their personal drive-through food source. Not to mention the possums and bandicoots.  As a result I've moved edible crops to the front garden away from scavenging dogs and I kitchen garden on a much smaller scale. I am limited by sunlight and space but that is ok.  I'm growing kale, underplanted by sweet potato here.

I have zucchini, french beans, tomatoes, snow peas, baby spinach, lettuce, leeks and strawberries planted in foam boxes and planted out in the garden.

My ginger is has died back and I pick it as I need it and allow it to do as it will. The clumps simply continue to grow larger each year.

Throughout the garden bed I have asparagus, the plantings mentioned earlier and my herbs.  I love herbs.  I have rosemary, parsley, thyme, basil, coriander, mint in abundance and continue to spread them throughout the garden via cuttings, divisions or collecting the seeds.

There is a large pentas in the centre of the garden which the butterflies adore.  I hacked it back (technical gardening term there), to about on quarter of its original size this week so I have no beautiful pink blooms to share with the wee creatures.  I did manage to get three more plants from this though and have transplanted them elsewhere.

I'll share some more garden photographs in the future and I PROMISE I'll share some more art too.  Art has been slow going but I do have a few things that you've not seen.

Thanks for popping by.

Sandy xxx

Family day

I'm way behind with blog posts and my camera is bulging at the seams with photographs and things to share.  On Sunday morning, during my nieces sleepover, my brother and his eldest son turned up for a visit.  Oh the joy!  The kids haven't seen each other for awhile and once they realised that they were actually going to SPEND. TIME. TOGETHER.... the excitement hit crazy levels for awhile!!  It was great to see and it was so lovely to have Little Man J here as he's not been here since Easter.

The day was filled with all sorts of exciting things. Playing on the swings and in the orchard.

Spending time in the studio working on some masterpieces.

Once the paintings were finished the kids gravitated to the playroom and the lego.  They played so well together.  They are really good companions and were very sweet with each other.  It was lovely to see.

My brother and Little Man left mid afternoon and we had to pack Miss R up to take her home.  It was such a lovely day that I phoned my sister and invited her to come to the dam with us for a wander.  We took Miss R's things home, loaded her brother and mummy in the car and headed up to the dam.  Those in the back seat had to contend with very excited dogs who warbled all the way.....

 Heading across the causeway towards bush and throwing EVERY rock in on the way...

 Glorious, glorious day.  It's winter here in our neck of the woods and the days are so lovely, clear and blue and around 25 degrees celsius.  Just perfect.

Waiting for the ball to be throw so we can have a swim.  Master M has declared that it is 'cool' to wear his hat backwards as you can see in this image.  Sun safety loses out when you are a cool five year old obviously.

Such a lovely family filled day.  Memories.....

Beautiful day

Today can only be described as glorious.  One of those perfect, clear, warm winter days that bless us each year.  Our life and minds have been very busy of late and today has been a wonderful gift.  My niece Little Miss R is visiting.  Evidently her brother is annoying so I received a call from her straight after school on Friday begging for a sleepover. :)  She is here for two nights and it has been lovely so far.  She's quirky and charming and kind and provides many a giggle.  Last night I was treated to a startling operatic rendition of 'London's Burning' accompanied by music on a guitar with one string missing.

I have spent much of the day in the garden while R immersed herself in a book for hour upon end.  This afternoon we decided to walk down to the creek or the River of Sorrows and Wishes as it is also known as. We take glass beads or a special rock and throw them in while telling the river our sorrow or our wish and the river takes the sorrows away and listens to our wishes.  Sweet.  Sorrows released and wishes made we sauntered back towards home, through the trees, past the scribbley gums, across the road and to the small park.  We love the enormous fig trees.

We crossed rickety bridges in search of shy faeries.

There were none at home....

We found a story of lost love......

and played on the swing in peace.

Before heading home to find this.....I suspect the culprit is the one lurking behind me out of view of the camera. Hmmm.

Then off for another swing and NO PEACE.....

No one is a match for a very determined labrador with a ball.  Sometimes I think she is autistic.  Sweet girl.

Such a lovely day.  Hope yours was too.

Sandy xxx

Hello I'm here....

I feel as though I'm missing in action at the moment.  I've fallen back into a terrible fatigue state and am either asleep or in a fog again. I'm not sure if it's a result of four weekends of open studios taking their toll on my body or if that's just a coincidence.  I haven't even been into the studio this week but I did go to art today.  It felt good to go even if I had to leave early because it was a bit much for me. 

Sick and tired of being sick and tired and doing nothing, I dragged out my crochet hook and some wool yesterday and made myself a wrist cuff. I quite like it even though it's a bit girly for me.  I made up the cuff pattern using simple UK dc and then used Lucy's rose pattern for the floral adornment. A rifle through my odds and ends found a pinkish bead, saved from a broken Christmas decoration - I KNEW it would come in handy, was perfect for the centre.

It was a very easy and quick project, requiring no brain power which was just perfect.  I think I'll make a smaller one for my niece.

Today in art we continued our study of cityscapes. This time our reference included the use of one point perspective.  We began by creating a tonal study of the image.  I used a slurry of burnt umber as my underpainting colour which I think was a mistake as it was too warm.  I should have used paynes gray or prussian blue as my base. 

I then started to add colour while remaining focussed on tone and major shapes rather than detail.

As I brought in the blue I distorted the tonal balance making the road darker than the buildings (see photo reference in picture).  So I needed to fix that up by reestablishing the lighter tones.

This is where I left it.  I was too sore to concentrate anymore so instead of battling it I decided to pack up early and come home for a sleep.  :) I confess to being less than enthusiastic when Don told us we would be studying Cityscapes and am pleased to find that I am actually really enjoying myself and appreciating the subject.  Thank you Don. :)

Thinking of you all, even if I am a bit quiet at the moment. xxx

Meadow

Inspired by the process of a few different artists I set myself up to try something new this week.  During our Open Studio this weekend I prepped a canvas by covering it with impasto gel and then pressing tissue paper into it.  As I applied the tissue paper, I let it form lines and scrunched it up in places.  I then let this dry for a couple of days (it's raining again) then covered it with a light coat of gesso.  In terrible blogging form I forgot to photograph any of this process! Sorry.  Today, I got out the paints and set to having a play.  I laid in a background first with a large brush and LOVED painting on the texture of the tissue paper.  It was so different to painting on canvas.  Remember if you click on the images they will enlarge and you'll be able to see the texture clearly.

 Next I built up layers using all sorts of tools and techniques that I don't usually use and some I've never used before when I think about it.  I used sponges, brushes, palette knife and also applied very fluid paint by flicking and dribbling paint onto the canvas.  It was fun but oops, so very messy (cue image of me on hands and knees scrubbing floor).

I have no idea of the original source of the image that I was inspired by.  The original interpretation done by another unknown artist has been on my inspiration board for a very long time.  I'm going to use these techniques again now that I've had a play. This time I think I will try an image of one of our mountains.  Can't wait to get started.  

Thank you for supporting my art journey!

Open Studio Week 2

Working with another artist in my space is really enjoyable and it seems to be influencing my work in unexpected ways.  While we waited for people to brave the poor weather and visit Aannsha and I used our time to be productive.  I find that I can't concentrate on any pieces in realistic style when Aannsha is there so I worked on some small bird images that I had prepared so I could just 'colour' with paint once she had arrived.  Once these were done I experimented with another intuitive painting.

This is the first intuitive painting I did some weeks ago in the presence of my sister.  It was a totally new style for me and I felt quite lost when painting it.  The colours represent some of my favourites that feature frequently in my work, the teals, pthalos blue and green, purple, red and yellow.  I find it to be quite harmonious and I ended up quite liking the finished piece.

 My second intuitive painting I did in the company of Aannsha during our first open studio.  I have used the same colour palette as the painting above, however I've altered the proportions.  Warm colours are predominant instead of being used as accents and my beloved blues and purples have taken a back seat.  This was hard work as I suspect an intuitive painting shouldn't be. I have received some favourable comments about this piece but I don't feel comfortable with it or like it very much overall.

 This is my most recent intuitive painting.  Once again I have used the same colour palette as the previous two.  I mean that quite literally. I have paint in two ice cube trays containing a limited range of colours and I've used the same ones in all three paintings. Intuitive paintings are built up in layers and I've allowed more of the bottom layers to show through on this one.  It's unusual (to me as I'm not really into abstract art) but I like it more than my second attempt.  It reminds me of the landscape of Kakadu where I lived years ago.  The red rocks, the yellow vegetation, the billabongs and waterlillies.

Here are the three side by side for comparative purposes.  I can see growth in them even if I don't understand it!

Aannsha worked on a large felting project during the day and it made me realise that I would probably never be a felter.  Realistically, it would exhaust me the way my body is.  It proved to be a very prolonged and physical exercise for Aannsha to create the felt and then shape it.  This is what she produced.....

a very Dr Seussish vase or container.  It reminds me of the Grinch and the quirky art of Dr Seuss.  I love the green. 
We also watched this video on making a felt yurt that Aannsha had found on YouTube.  It's pretty incredible. So much work.  Enjoy!

A Quiet Week

I've been tired this week so have had a quite time which extended into today.  Aannsha and I were here holding an open studio again today as part of the Arts Trail and finally at 3.30pm we had two visitors. My friends Viv and Tony (who I met through an art class) turned up to support us.  Yay for friends!  Part of the Open Studio idea is to be actually doing art when people visit.  I set out to complete the calla lily I had been working on.  I fiddled.......

 and faffed.......

and wasn't feeling the love at all.  I could not get my head into the painting process this morning so I put it aside and decided I'd just have to do something else.  Sometimes the art just doesn't flow.

I started to play around with another intuitive painting and it seemed to take forever to settle into as well.  I moved away from my usual colour palette by reversing it really.  I usually use lots of teals and pthalo blues with highlights of red. Here I tried a warmer palette and I'm not sure I am fussed with it.  Aannsha really liked it but I think I need to sit on it a bit more and maybe even make some changes before it will grow on me.

 This is where I left it today.  I think I'll play with it again tomorrow to improve the balance of the piece. My goal for tomorrow is to finish the calla lily and continue with the landscape seen below that I started on Thursday. Hopefully I won't be so tired and I'll produce better art.

Aannsha was far more productive than me, completing two lovely felted items. A cute vase and a new scarf.

Hopefully we'll have some more visitors tomorrow when we open the studio. If not we'll enjoy ourselves being creative and productive anyway.