Day 7 - Molly

                                              Acrylic on board 15 x15cm (6" x 6")

I took a snap of my friend's lovely Staffie the other week. It wasn't a great shot as she was a bit too close to the camera, but I thought I'd see if I could make something of it. The perspective in the photo made it impossible to know how to paint her neck and upper body so I thought I'd leave it out altogether. Molly is such a sweet natured dog which shows in her face.

Day 6 - Cotton Palm

 

Acrylic on board 15cm x 15cm (6" x 6")

I'm pretty sure these are called Cotton Palms. They are a common sight in Perth gardens. When I was walking along the beach yesterday taking my reference photos, I happened to spot three of these palm trees in a garden on a side street. They looked rather striking against the blue sky and fluffy white clouds so I took a few snaps. I'd intended doing another beach scene initially this morning but the palm trees jostled their way to the front of the queue.

Day 5 - Pansies

Acrylic on board  15.5 x 10.5 cms (4" x 6")

It worked out well having done the two paintings yesterday as I was able to get some other things done today. This painting was the second one I did yesterday which I began working on at around 3pm. I spent just under 2 hours working on it while also juggling phone calls - something urgent came up in the middle of my painting time that had to be attended to by 5pm.

I trotted down to the beach today to take some more art reference shots, I'm just about to upload them and see if I've got some good fodder for tomorrow.
 

Day 4 - Not a Success

You know how some reality TV shows are so bad, they're good? Well it's not the case with this painting. You would be forgiven for wondering why I was trying to paint dust bunnies, but the truth is that I was trying to paint clouds. I wouldn't have posted this under normal circumstances, but because it is a 30 day challenge, I wanted to prove that I did actually do a painting today.

I had taken some progress shots and this was the best it looked before I lost the plot and overworked it.

 I tried desperately to resuscitate it, but to no avail, in fact I just sent it to God all the sooner.

This is what it looks like now, just a carcass.

I felt very demoralised after I wiped the painting off in the hope of salvaging the board. Even that didn't go very well, it now has tufts of paper towel stuck to it. I had felt mentally scattered and a bit flat before embarking on my painting - now I felt mentally hung, drawn and quartered! What I did gain out of the exercise though, was a realisation that while I love painting clouds, it's only when they are in the distance. It seems I don't have a clue how to go about doing them close up. Although, now that I look at the photo again, I wonder if would be worth having another crack at it sometime.

Anyhoo, I got on with some other things and at around 3pm I had a little window of time to try doing another painting. Earlier in the day I 'd taken some photos of pansies flowering in my garden and decided to work from them. Now I'm thinking I might keep them up my sleeve and use to post for tomorrow's painting - which is within the rules! I was going to post them tonight but by the time I'd finished, the light was too poor for a good photograph.

Day 3 - Blustery Conditions

                                          Acrylic on board 15cm x 15cm (6" x 6")
                                          Day 3 in Leslie Saeta's 30 day challenge

I was happier with today's outcome than I was with yesterday's offering. I feel that I got a bit more drama into the ocean with this one. Today I also included one of the container ships that are a constant presence on the horizon as they make their way to and from Fremantle Port from all around the world.

When I first thought of participating in this challenge, I decided that I would create images of local scenes and wildflowers - amongst other things - in the hope that a few will be suitable to use for greeting cards should I ever do another print run.

Day 2 - Choppy Waters

                                             Acrylic on board 15cm  x 15cm (6" x 6")

I thought I'd go with an ocean theme again today - I so enjoy using the blues and greens. This painting had a mind of its own it seemed. I was enjoying painting the ocean but then realised I hadn't left enough room for the foreground which consisted of bushy sand dunes and a beach path. I felt it might just work without it and continued on. Maybe I will attempt it again tomorrow with the foreground included.

Day 1 - On the Way to Lunch

Acrylic on board 15 cm x 15 cm (6" x 6") 

Yay! One down, 29 to go!! I hadn't had a chance to do any preparation at all prior to this morning, so the first hour of the day was spent deciding on what photo to use for art reference. It took a while cropping various options from several different photo shoots. I had decided yesterday that I'd begin with an ocean scene, but which one? I'd taken some great shots the week before when walking along the coast to a cafe for lunch with a friend. I had actually done the same walk to the same cafe 3 days in a row - with different people each day! I was catching up with friends before locking myself away to get on with my writing. Conditions had been so divine on the first day but I hadn't taken my camera, so I made sure to take it the following day. The photo below was taken on day two (which was a carbon copy of the day before) and used as the reference for today's painting.

Then I cropped it into a square to make it easier to paint from.

Hmmm, probably not a good idea to compare my painting with the photos as it doesn't do it any favours. All I can say is that the painting looks better in the flesh than it does above (I hope!).

I was thrilled to get the painting finished in 2 hours as I had a busy afternoon ahead - being Father's Day today in Australia. Once I'd cleaned my brushes and had a bite to eat, I spent the afternoon visiting my dad and dad-in-law. I even got a chance to spend half an hour or so in the garden as I didn't need to organise dinner tonight. My oldest daughter is doing the honours tonight for her dad!! It's smellin' good!!!

30 Paintings in 30 Days

Having now caught up with things somewhat over the last two weeks, I had intended to get stuck into my writing next week. I have a book that I am putting the finishing touches to and am halfway through another. Not only that, I hoped to spend more time folding and packing my greeting cards and looking for new outlets. Then a couple of days ago I noticed that Leslie Saeta will be hosting another 30 paintings in 30 days challenge at the beginning of September. I have been finding it hard to paint as often as I had been earlier in the year so this challenge should get me off and galloping again.  I'm hoping it will also force me to develop better time-management skills because I still hope to fit the writing and greeting cards in around it.

I feel quite excited about the challenge when I'm not feeling terrified. It's a huge commitment that I made on the spur of the moment, and I haven't had any time at all to get prepared in advance. But hopefully, the end of September will find me high on a sense of achievement - rather than whimpering on the floor in the foetal position.

Now for something totally different. The other day I was once again enjoying the coastline when I spotted this beautiful lizard with it's baby sunning itself in the watery sunshine. I'd never seen a baby one before, but unfortunately I didn't get long to admire it as the mother flicked it into the crack in the path as she bravely remained where she was to protect it.

The Lost Art of Room Travel

Our visitors left at the beginning of the week and it is taking me some time to return to my normal routines (if my routines can ever be described as normal.) It was so great having our lovely relatives to stay and to show them the sights. It was a shame that it rained most days they were here, although the garden certainly enjoyed it. But being from the UK our visitors endured it with the good spirits of rainy weather veterans. Of course the moment they boarded the plane the sun came out and has continued to shine all week. The above photo was taken around noon today while walking along the coast to a cafe for lunch with a friend. Yes, I have been catching up with friends this week instead of painting. The weather today was To. Die. For!!

I also couldn't resist boasting (whoops - posting) about my sister's book that has just been published called  The Lost Art of Room Travel. She wrote this over a period of 18 months while semi-housebound with ill health. I'm very proud of her.

Sunny Winter's Day

Today we visited Kings park with my husband's British cousins who are staying with us for a couple of weeks. We've had very wintry weather of late, but today the weather was as stunning as the view - 23C and sunny. I took this photo which overlooks the old Swan Brewery and the beautiful Swan River. Rain is forecast for all of next week so it was great to be able to show Perth off in its best sunny colours.

I am halfway through a large painting for my husband and am hoping to spend a bit of time on it during the week.

Great Expectations

                                     Acrylic on board 12.5cm x 18cm (5" x 7")
Back in the saddle again! It's over a month since my last painting session so I was very pleased to finish this off today after beginning it yesterday. I have painted this for my daughter's birthday. She is a keen reader and also has a penchant for collecting old books. This particular tome is a rather well loved 1907 edition of Great Expectations by Charles Dickens.  I'd had great expectations of being able to paint the title legibly on the spine, but I discovered very quickly that it was a case of unrealistic expectations.

It seems that every time I see my daughter ensconsed in a book, she is devouring a Fuji apple. They are not the reddest or prettiest apple ever invented, but they are by far the tastiest!

Greeting Cards

I have recently had a range of greeting cards printed up based on some of the paintings I've done over the past year. I now have them in half a dozen locations in the northern suburbs of Perth. Very exciting!

Here is the link to my new publishing blog Banksia Lane Press

Kata Tjuta

                   Pastel on paper 74 cm x 55cms (approx 29 x 21 inches)circa 1995

While my paintbrushes lie temporarily dormant, I have been scraping the barrel of my very small body of work prior to 2012 to find something to post . It was hard to get a good photo of this one as the reflections from the glass have added a few rather lively details - including my head - but hopefully it is clear enough to get the gist of it.

In the early 90s I first began to paint - initially with oils and then with pastels. This was my second piece in pastels. I worked from a photo I took while visiting Kata Tjuta in the Northern Territory in central Australia. Kata Tjuta (The Olgas) is in close proximity to Uluru (Ayers Rock). It is a very special part of the world where the sense of sacred timelessness is tangible. This particular visit was during spring, when the red earth comes alive with wildflowers (if the winter rains have been good). In the foreground is a Mulla Mulla bush which has very striking tufty lavender cone-like flowers.

The reason why I haven't been painting much of late is due to establishing a line of greeting cards based on my paintings. It has been very time consuming but I am up and running now and will soon post a link to my new publishing blog

Pink and Grey Galahs

                                          Acrylic on board 15cm x 15cm (6" x 6")

I'm finding it very hard to get around to painting as often as I'd like to. I feel there are so many things I should  - and want - to be doing that I don't know where to start. In the end I often don't start at all. Thankfully, I did finally begin working on a painting yesterday. I painted for an hour or so but the sunshine was calling my name, so I gardened for a couple of hours before returning to paint for another hour. I have just spent 2 more hours on it today. I have worked from a photo I posted a few months ago. I have always liked the photo but hadn't intended to paint from it as it was already a piece of art, but in my sluggish mental state, it looked like an easy option.

I should know by now that no subject matter is an easy option. It was a painstaking task to get the angles and stance correct on these cheeky birds to capture their quintessential galahishness. Or should that be galah-ity? Their antics do inspire hilarity!

Purple Crysanthemum

                                          Acrylic on board 15cm x 15cm (6" x 6")

I had moments while painting this picture when I felt in touch with my inner chrysanthemum, but it only lasted while working on the left half of the main flower as you can see. Most of the time I felt I was channeling a dead thistle.

I had initially set it up to paint from life, but when I took a photo of it, I rather liked the way it had simplified the jar and so worked from that instead. The photo made the flowers look much pinker than they are so I tried to remain faithful to the real thing.

I have a lovely little patch of chrysanthemums still flowering in the garden. Unfortunately I have neglected them. They haven't been staked to allow them to stand up with dignity. So I thought I'd make up for it by honouring them in paint. The patch is made up of several different colours and types. They came to me initially as potted gifts for Mother's Days' past.

Beach Path

                            Acrylic on canvas 45cm x 35cm (18" x 14"ish) Circa 2007

I've had a bout of bronchitis this past week which I think I now have the better of. This is partly responsible for falling fallow with painting in recent weeks. There has also been a lot happening on many fronts - including other creative projects, so in the interim I thought I'd post something I painted years ago.

This painting was my first ever attempt at using acrylic paints. I had done several works in pastels, oils and watercolours over the years but I wanted to give acrylics a go. I attended a weekly class to get some guidance on how to use the medium. This painting was executed over quite a long period - at least 6 months or maybe even a year. I rarely touched it in-between class time.

After this painting I had every intention of continuing with the medium and had already begun preparing what I was going to paint next, but I decided to stop going to the class with the aim of relying on self-motivation and painting at home. I did continue to create watercolour illustrations from time to time for birthday cards and suchlike, but it took until the beginning of 2012 to revisit my acrylic paints - now forlorn and congealing in their tubes.

It was my 10 day painting challenge that got me painting regularly again, with no more than 2 or so weeks passing between sessions. I still can't quite believe how effective the challenge was for kick-starting a regular painting habit. 10 days doesn't sound much in the face of the 30 day challenges that others have been doing - or of course the amazing daily painting habits of some talented creatures, but it was enough to get me started.
Hopefully my experience may encourage others to realise that new habits can begin with modest commitments.

The Sunset Backup

The days seem to be passing too quickly of late to find time to do a weekly painting. But I don't like to let moss grow on the post button, so I thought I'd post these photos I took last night of the stunning sunset over the Indian Ocean. Of course these images taken on an automatic setting are mere finger paintings compared to the real thing.

Soaking up a lovely ocean sunset was a fitting way to end the day after having finished reading a fantastic memoir that was set on the ocean - albeit the Pacific. Love With A Chance Of Drowning was one of the most entertaining books I've read in a long time.

Cranky Cat

                                                 Acrylic on board 6" x 6"

I'd been planning to get a photo of my friend Barbara's cat for quite some time to use as painting reference. Rusty had been proving rather elusive on the occasions when I'd visited, but I finally got my opportunity. He was already peeved that his house had been overrun by a gaggle of 17 year old girls for a birthday party. Having me take his photo was simply the last straw! Hence his long suffering look.

The photo itself was quite blurry so it was nice to do a painting of a photo that wasn't much chop in the first place. When a photo is already beautiful it seems pointless to paint from it, as it is a work of art in its own right. Which isn't to say that I haven't done such things in the past.

Cupcake Illustration

                                                       Acrylic on board 6" x 6"
I just wanted to do something bright and fun from my imagination. I did however paint the fork from life and I also got a few cachous out of the pantry to copy the shine on them.
Now to do some writing!      

Sunset and Nearly Sunset

All has been fairly quiet on the painting front lately but not on the creative front overall. I have been spending a lot of time on my writing. Both on an adult non-fiction manuscript and a children's picture book story that I am re-working.

 I did finally put brush to board today and have been doing a cupcake illustration in acrylics. I'm not sure if it will be respectable enough to post when I finish it off tomorrow, but in the meantime I thought I would post this pretty skyscape and also the seascape.

Back yard sunset

Almost sunset on our beach walk.

Both of these photos were taken in January.

Standard Rose

                                                     Acrylic on board 7" x 5"
I managed to loosen up today but the outcome wasn't much chop. My heart wasn't in it today.

Sunflower with Bud

                                             Acrylic on board  6" x 6"

I painted this sunflower today from a photo I took in January. My lovely neighbours, Gerry and Pat, had a flock of them growing in their garden and kindly let me photograph them for reference material.
I think the bud looks slightly disembodied - or should that be disembudied?

Lamington on Doily

                                          Acrylic on board  6" x 6"

I very nearly ate the main attraction in this still-life before I could paint it. I confess I did eat just a sliver after cutting it in half. For a while I thought I'd discovered a fail-safe tool to enable me to loosen up my style and paint quickly. I was itching to eat it, but even with that motivation I still couldn't manage the elusive speed and looseness I was after. I began the painting on Tuesday, got back to it on Thursday and finished it on Saturday. Of course by the end, eating it was the last thing I wanted to do (it had dried up and practically  grown legs!).

For those that don't know, lamingtons are an Australian cake and were popular for fundraising in the form of "lamington drives" for schools and other organisations. I have special memories of Mum making batches of them when I was a child and of me helping to coat them in coconut. This specimen was bought from the local bakery - I'm not much of a baker I'm afraid.

Just as an aside - after whining so much about never seeing Twenty Eight Parrots anymore, this morning I was excited to hear their distinctive trill. I grabbed my camera (the one I still haven't learnt to use) and managed to catch a very poor snap of two in the tree out the front. Can you spot them?

A Year of Progress

                                            Acrylic on board 6" x 6" (the one on the left)

Today I painted the same subject matter as I painted about a year ago. I was interested to see what progress I may have made over the duration. I don't know that today's painting (on the left) was any easier than it was the first time around, but the outcome was certainly far better. Although, I think today's lemon could have been more subtly rendered. I had spent more than an hour drawing in the outline yesterday and then decided to spend a few hours on my writing instead of beginning to paint. Hence, today I had a slightly shriveled lemon to work from and I was trying to compensate by plumping it up a bit. I'm excited to find that I am actually making some progress with my weekly painting habit.

Sugar Bowl with Tongs

                                                  Acrylic on board  6" x 6"
I find that I really enjoy the challenge of painting china and shiny things. I painted this over the course of three days and spent about seven hours on it. If I ever hope to offer my work for sale, I need to learn to loosen things up a bit.

Rainbow Lorikeet

I have managed to photograph one of the Rainbow Lorikeets that frequent the area. They are such beautiful birds but I confess to not being able to properly enjoy their beauty. I still haven't quite forgiven them for bullying out our lovely native Twenty Eight Parrot which we almost never see in our garden anymore. They should be a good lesson to me to accept the things I cannot change.  I will make that my goal today!

Now I must get on with the painting that I began working on yesterday.  This post is just another strategy to delay getting on with it. I often have to push through the barrier of inertia each time I begin painting.  It only takes moments before I am in the creative flow so I don't know why I carry on like this. It doesn't happen all the time, but I seem to be going through a patch of it lately.

Birds and Flowers

I am posting some photos of local birds for anyone who is interested and particularly for Michael Perchard who kindly posted great photos on his blog of beautiful Cardinals and Chickadees from his local area in the USA.
First a distraction though, with the above photo I took yesterday of our Red Cap Gum, flowering in all its glory. It almost looks as if the photo is upside down but that's just because of it's weeping habit. It often has a gaggle of feral Rainbow Lorikeets visiting but not yesterday when I had my camera at the ready. We used to get a lot of the Twenty Eight Parrots in our garden but since the unwelcome proliferation of the lorikeets we don't often see them in the back yard. They are still easy to spot in local bushland thankfully. Here is one below.

The Pink and Grey Galahs are amongst my favourite birds.  They have a wonderful sense of humour and are very raucous. I'm sure they even play chicken on the roads. We've had them waddle across in front of us, taking their time and swaggering with nonchalance, only to fly off with seconds to spare. They fly in flocks and descend on trees or grassed areas like a bunch of juvenile delinquents. Last year when driving through the wheatbelt we saw hundreds of them wheeling through the sky as one.  I'd forgotten how big their flocks could grow to in the open country. They nest high up in tree hollows.

Last but not least today is a photo of some Kookaburras from the kingfisher family - also ferals to our state from the East. They have been established here since before I was born and I was well into adulthood before I knew they were blow-ins.  They make the greatest sound imaginable. They laugh like hysterical maniacs when at full throttle.

Finished

I enjoyed putting more detail into this painting. I may have made the cloth too dark when I added the shadows but it is done now. I had originally intended to add some more pieces but decided against it in the end.

In-Progress

                                                            5" x 7"
Having a blog is a great motivating tool for me. I know without doubt that if I hadn't set up my painting blog  in August last year, my weekly painting habit would have bitten the dust long ago.  Having made a commitment in public (initially to an audience of one - or maybe less) that I would endeavour to paint for a few hours every week, I felt compelled to keep my word.
With blog-post expectations breathing down my neck each week, there was none of this nonsense of just waiting around for inspiration to bite me, no, I just had to get on with it.
At the same time I have also been writing, so free time for procrastinating is not thick on the ground.

I feared that I might not finish this painting that I have been working on today, so I thought if I posted it, then I would feel compelled to finish it off.  I still intend to improve on what is already there, and add a few more pieces on to the table.  I'm just not sure what to add and where to put it as yet.  I have been working from this photo I took a couple of weeks ago.

I think I am being a little optimistic at being able to invent and move things around as I just don't have the skills yet to get shadows and tone right on things I can see, let alone things I'm fabricating. I would love some lessons in still-life composition and in how to loosen up. I see so many amazing blogs of people who do fantastic still-life paintings.  I aspire to being somewhere in the vicinity of their talent one of these days.

Workshop with Leon Holmes

Yesterday I attended a full day painting workshop with Leon Holmes at the lovely Marie Turner's house who was hosting the event. Leon did his demonstration from the balcony which offered panoramic views across bushland and rooftops with the Indian ocean in the distance.
It was such a great day.  The sea breeze was in and everyone was lovely.  Leon paints in oils and I learnt so much from him despite the fact that I paint in acrylics. He is an amazing artist who achieves such vibrancy and a great sense of place in his work. Marie is also a fantastic artist who works predominantly in watercolours.

                                           Acrylic on board 12" x 9"

After the demonstration we all did our own paintings. I did mine (above) from a photo I had taken of Trigg beach a year or so ago.  Leon helped me to crop the photo to a more suitable composition which was an insight for me.  I hadn't realised until then that I'd been overlooking some obvious rules of composition. The above is where I got it to with a few pertinent pointers from Leon.  The painting below is after Leon demonstrated to me on how to use other techniques to get different outcomes which was fantastic. It still needs more work but I might just leave it there so I will be able to see and remember all the salient points that I learnt. I will try out my new insights onto a new painting. It was a very rewarding and enjoyable day.