Looking back at some of my art from the past three years.....

Remember, you can click on the images to enlarge them!  Enjoy!

Graphite and Charcoal

Having fun with blind contour drawings

A touch of whimsy

Realism and hard-edge styles.

Exploring intuitive painting.

Knitting and nattering and general busyness.

My sister and I had a fantastic morning doing our usual knit and natter yesterday.  It was wet and cool and we were loving the feeling of being cloaked in by the clouds. Very cosy.  I'm going to try and do a picture of the view each week (if I remember) and see how it changes over the year.  Here is is cloudy and wet.

 The ripple blanket I showed you in my last knit n natter post has grown, even with a brief hiatus while more wool was ordered.

While I waited for the wool order - which arrived very quickly thanks to Morris and Sons in Sydney - I worked on a cowl with some wool from my stash.   A wool, silk combo that is just so divine to work with.  So soft and springy. 

On the art front I've been preparing for our ANZAC Day weekend Open Studios by making more bunting.  It's fun, happy art that puts no pressure on me which is just what I need right now.  Here is some bunting with a background coat of paint on.

Here are a couple of finished pieces.

Aaaah.  Pretty, pretty.  The wet weather has really set in today so I think I'll settle in to the sound of rain on the roof, BBC tv on the box, a nice pot of tea, crochet some ripples and paint some bright, happy bunting.  Blissful day.

In Loving Memory

When I was 11, my Aunt went on holiday overseas. Tucked in her luggage were letters I had written in the hopes that she could find me a penfriend.  Well, find me a penfriend she did.  Liz lived in Yorkshire in England and we wrote prolifically throughout our teens, nurturing and developing a very close and very special relationship.  It remains one of the most significant, important and treasured relationships of my life.

I have had the extreme good fortune to be able to visit England and spend time with Liz and her family on five or more occasions.  Her family welcomed me and gave me a place of my own within their close knit circle.  They have helped to contribute to many, many happy and special memories,  and lots of laughter.

Sadly, Liz's beloved dad, Brian, passed away very suddenly and unexpectedly on Monday.

Farewell you grumpy old bugger.  Thanks for the memories.xxxxx

Knit and Natter

Being Wednesday it was knit 'n' natter day with my sister.  We used to meet at my house but have started a new habit of going to Mary Cairncross Park for our sessions and are just loving it. Jeff and I were married right there in the cafe area overlooking the mountains.  Susan and I sit, creativity sprawled out over the table and chat and create for a couple of hours.  Today was cool and misty and we both wore jeans for the first time this year - in March!!  The cafe area has a central fire place as it does get cool up on the range.  Sadly it wasn't cool enough to be lit today but it is something I look forward to immensely in the future as the cooler weather settles in.

Susan mainly crochet's during these sessions whereas I am a bit more all over the place. Sometimes drawing or knitting or crocheting or ...... you get my drift.  Always chatting and lots of laughter. It is so good to have a sister like mine.  Such a treasure is our relationship.

Today I refreshed my knowledge of embroidery stitches as I try and work out WHAT TO DO with the watercolour rooster painted yesterday. 

I put old chooky in an embroidery frame but I'm not really happy with him.  The watercolour seems too washed out and even with the addition of embroidery I think it will be too flat and ho hum.  I'm starting to mull over some options and will place him on the back burner until then.  Perhaps some layers of fabric feathers and then incorporate embroidery in to that... Hmmm.  I may even try doing another image of chooky onto different fabric and use inks, acrylics or less diluted watercolours to see how that turns out.

So chooky and embroidery abandoned I dove into my other supplies and started to crochet a new ripple blanket.  Well a knee rug really but I do tend to get carried away when rippling, it is so soothing. 

During the 'nattering' component of the day I remembered a shopping trip to a fabric store in Portland, Oregon.  The Fabric Store I think it may have been called and it was of epic proportions.  Jeff took me there as a thank you for demonstrating patience and tolerance through all of the sports store visits we had done.  I purchased some fabric to make a small quilt in memory of this most wonderful trip and it has remained in a drawer ever since.  Hmmm, some three years or more it has waited patiently in my stash.  I came home and reacquainted myself with it.

Although I'm really quite tired at present I seem to be bursting with the need to be creative and DO things. Many things. All sorts of things.  Not a bad thing really.  So I shall just plod along, rest when I need to and flow where my creative whim takes me.  

Experimenting Part 1.

I mentioned recently that I had developed the germ of an idea to incorporate painting and embroidery.  Not five minutes after posting that thought on my blog I discovered Fi at Marmalade Rose had beaten me to it.  This lead to a Google search and the realization that my thought wasn't that original after all....  If you take the time to look at Fi's blog I encourage you to check out more than the post I've linked you to, she is awesomely talented and marvelous.  Not to mention living in one of my favourite places in the world.

Anyway, I decided to just get on with it and start experimenting with my idea.  My initial intention was to do a portrait but somehow that morphed into a rooster. No idea how, the weird and wonderful ways of my mind there...

I began by taping a bit of plain cotton quilters fabric to a piece of scrap cardboard.

I then loosely drew my image onto the fabric with a mechanical pencil. No reason for that choice other than the pencil was near to hand so I used it.

I wet parts of the background with a damp brush and discovered a couple of things.  Firstly the fabric resisted the water (perhaps I need to wash it first). Then I added more water and the fabric stuck to the black cardboard making it difficult to see where I was applying colour. I also think a sturdier fabric would be easier to use. Perhaps calico or maybe I could iron some interfacing to the back of this fabric for future use.

  I used cheapo tube watercolours and tried to get a wash type effect in the background.

I continued to splotch colours on and now I look at it on the computer I realise I have somehow ended up with blue feathers on the chest.... oh well.  I left finer details like the eye, beak detail for the later stages.

 I did experience some bleeding where the colour spread out and started to look smudged and out of shape, particularly around the face.  So I quickly pulled it off the cardboard and hung it out to dry. 

Now I need to work out what to do as my next  step.....I have knit and natter with my sister tomorrow so will take some embroidery floss, needle and hoop and see if I am flumoxed or inspired. 

Today's Ta Da!

Another piece of intuitive art completed.  I still don't know what I am doing with these but they are becoming increasingly appealing and fun to me.  I was tired and didn't feel like painting realistically so I splotched around with this instead.  We have Open Studios coming up from April 25th to 27th so I really need to be making some new art for visitors to see.  It's been a fun afternoon.

Now I just need to think up a name for it......Any ideas?

Acrylic on 76cm x 76cm canvas.

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.