Happy 10th Birthday....

To our dear sweet girl Jessica who has enriched our lives beyond anything we could have imagined.  Wherever I am, she is.  Close by, catching the afternoon light in the studio as I sit and draw. 

 Pool loving, mango thieving (80 this year - she has a midden in the orchard), sock eating, ball loving, cancer sniffing, care taking, mail collecting, compost eating sweetheart.

 

 Beautiful, beautiful girl, you are a delight.

Back from the framers

I finally decided to put my Kakadu series of intuitive paintings to the framers.  I had done them as an experiment and for 'fun' and didn't really take them seriously.  Upon seeing them framed I think I have changed my mind....

Thank you to my sister Susan for taking the photos during our afternoon out at the park.

Fires

We've had a few fires around of late.  No houses lost luckily although it was a very close call for the farm house just up the road from us recently.  Well done to the firies and rural firies who worked to get things under control.

This is the same fire from different viewing points.  It went up and over Mt Tibrogargan or Tibro as we call it locally.

Flora Bowley's e-course

As some of you may recall, I mentioned late last year that I had enrolled in Flora Bowley's e-course.   Our life then went a bit 'high needs' and stressful and I never shared my journey with you.  Flora teaches intuitive painting and her course is very accessible to EVERYONE and is really quite amazing.  This style of painting is unlike anything I've ever done but I have found it is quite a joyous process.  Lots of letting go, playing and being brave.

 Here are three canvases at various stages of completion.  The canvas on the easel at left is finished and the two at right are ready for the final layers and the 'bringing together' of all that chaos!  I worked on the canvas pictured here on the floor to produce the final piece pictured below.

Once it is strung, on the wall and not a cloudy day I'll replace this with a better photograph.  I struggle to let go and trust a bit as I go through Flora's process of making these. It's just such a HUGE shift from my usual style of painting.  Here are some other examples of intuitive paintings I played with after reading Flora's book but before doing her course.  I think these are in fact my favourites.

Making tracks

Life has slowed down somewhat for me of late.  I've been nurturing myself through another flare of  health issues that set me back a bit.  Jeff took me for a walk in a new spot to give me a change of scenery and blow some cobwebs out.  We were only 10 minutes from home and it wasn't a challenging walk but I was spent by the end of it.  Loved it though.  I took my camera for you and saw the following things....

A leaf that looked like fish bones.

 New views of the mountains.  I live at the base of this mountain, hidden in the trees.

 Coonowrin Peeks through. It was hard to take photos as the area is thick with bush and quite wild. I had nose and ears switched on for wild pigs.  They are pretty prevalent around our parts and they make me very shifty.

Mama mountain, Beerwah, standing tall against the skyline (we are walking up on the range and she is still towering above us),  Not that our mountains are really mountains in the real sense. They are volcanic plugs from a mega volcano of old.

Snake track.

Kangaroo track.

I've been slowly making progress in the studio.  Spending time working on the many unfinished canvases left over from last year.  Finishing off my Flora Bowley course.  Making changes to the studio with a new storage unit and moving all of my sewing, embroidery, crochet, and knitting bits and bobs into the studio along with my paints.  All my creativity in one place.  The back burners in my brain are currently trying to work out how to incorporate all of these interests into one piece - possibly a portrait or animal portrait.  Not quite sure how to go about it at this stage so will have a play I think.  I have some artwork to show you tomorrow.

Progress of the Pears

I had expected to be finished with this painting - it is only small.  But I find myself unable to stand for long at the easel before fatigue sets in so......I'm close but not finished.  Instead of pushing myself this afternoon I've laid down brushes and will take a break.  Here are some progress photos.

 I started today's session  by working on the tonal values that had were rather wishy washy when I finished painting last.

 Further work on the background and definition of tones.  The pear at front needs further work particularly where it's highlights are concerned.   Interestingly the shadows and reflections look far better in the photograph than I believe they look in real life.

So, I need to finish defining the tones, particularly the highlights, put on stalks, fiddle around a bit with the foreground and shadows and straighten the line between the dark background and the lighter bench top.  I keep changing the angle of it which is starting to test my patience if not my sanity!

Remember you can click on the images to see them larger.  I hope you are enjoying watching the pears take shape.  Be brave and leave a comment or question. :)

Back to the brushes....

Our art classes resumed yesterday and it was great to get back into it and so lovely to catch up with the other ladies in the group and our mentors.  Don started us off with a revision exercise very similar to our very first class with him when we started 12 months ago.  In that class with Don we worked on a still life of a pear. At the time it was rather stressful for us.....wasn't it ladies!! We rather thought Don was mad - What? A BIG BRUSH. He's got to be joking.  Drawing a curved object with STRAIGHT LINES.  What have we gotten ourselves into.... But the finished product turned out quite well - much to my surprise.

Yesterday Don took us back to the techniques and subject of still life and had us work on two pears. It was MUCH easier this time around.

Drawing in a quick tonal study and outline with a thin brush and slurry of paint and water.

Not quite finished and I've had little people here today (thank goodness the episode of sibling battery and subsequent blood, swelling and rush to the doctors took place after my sister had picked them up and taken them home...).  I'll finish up over the weekend and post the end result for you. 

Until then stay well and happy.

Sandy xx

Edited to add evidence of sibling battery....

 Now the drama has worn off "I never wanted this to happen ever in my WHOLE LIFE"....Miss R is rather pleased that she looks rather like her beloved Uncle Jeff (see yesterday's post).  Incredible.