The Adventure Continues

We thoroughly enjoyed our time in Ireland. It's such a beautiful country and the people are VERY friendly. It was so great to spend some time with our brother and sister-in-law.
Dublin was pumping with life and there were a lot of colorful pubs around the place.

I loved all the flower stalls that we came across in the city centre.

The three hour ferry trip across to Wales was the smoothest crossing we could have hoped for. Things livened up a bit upon our arrival in holyhead when after a longish wait to disembark there was an announcement  advising us that the gangplank had been misplaced!!!!! Eventually we were disgorged via the vehicle drivers' exit and were bussed back to the baggage claim area. We caught our connecting train to Llandudno by the skin of our teeth.
Llandudno is a gorgeous Victorian seaside resort with the original buildings still intact and stunning. We enjoyed a walk along the amusement pier and joined friends later in the evening for a sumptuous meal at a beautiful hotel.
L



The next few days were spent nearby with friends on their rural property not far away. I will post photos in my next missive, but I warn you that the picturesque quotient is almost unbearable! They live in such quintessentially pretty British  countryside. Not that my photos have done it justice!

A Few Sketches

While staying with my brother and his wife I did a pencil sketch of their view from their dining room but didn't get a chance to finish it until last night. It's the first time I've used these watercolour paints and I painted by hotel lamp light which was rather subdued.

Today, my sister and I visited Trinity College which is the repository of the famous book of Kells - an illuminated manuscript from around 800AD. Amazing to see how intact and vibrant the text and illustrations are after all these centuries. Trinity College also boasts a three century old library which is a sight to behold. You feel like you've walked into a scene from a Harry Potter movie. We were allowed to take photos in the library as long as we didn't use our flashes.



Suddenly, I found the perfect spot to do a sketch. Luckily I had packed my sketching gear in the morning with the hope that such an occasion would arise.  There was a lull in the traffic and very few people were sitting on the few benches provided so I didn't feel I was in anyone's way. I really enjoyed myself and was astounded to discover that what felt like a ten minute sketch had actually taken me close to 40 minutes to do! Luckily my sister was happy to linger and soak up the amazing atmosphere of the place and she kindly took a few snaps of me sketching.

The photo below shows the back of my head and the view I am working from - the bust second to the left.
I'm afraid I'm unable to work out how to crop and rotate photos on my I-pad so you will have to crick your neck to view the outcome!

The Emerald Isle

I've been doing and seeing so much whilst here in Ireland, it has been hard to find the time to post on my blog.

After a nightmare trip over which involved three different flights, three long waits at three different airports and over 40 hours of all but no sleep, we arrived in Dublin. After a good night's sleep my sister and I were collected by my brother who lives an hour and a half south of the city with his wife. The view of the seats in front of us had been burned into our brain so it was wonderful to swap it for the gorgeous one above which is the view from my brother and sister-in-law's diningroom window.

We were well looked after and they drove us around to see all the local beauty spots. The windy hedge-lined lanes were dotted with rustic cottages and beautiful gardens and everywhere we looked was beautifully and quintessentially Irish. 

I've really appreciated all the comments that everyone has posted on my previous few posts and I'm sorry I haven't responded. I may not get much time to do so while I'm away but I really appreciate all my visitors!! I hope everyone is keeping well!

We are now spending a few nights in Dublin.

Waiting in the Departure Lounge

Yay! my first sketch and we haven't even left Perth yet.

Testing, Testing

After much gnashing of teeth - and with some help from my long-suffering husband - I have finally worked out how to do a blogpost from my i-pad!
I had to buy a special attachment to be able to upload the photos from my camera onto my i-pad, so I took my camera with me on my walk the other day to get some new snaps to upload.
I spotted this shag drying it's wings in the breeze.
So, I think I'm all set now for blogging all over the world!!

The Details are Sketchy!

Brighton Living Room - 1985

Historic House in Albany - 1989

Federation Home - 1989

I have some exciting news! Soonish, my sister Jenny and I will be spending five weeks in the UK together. It will be an early celebration of my fiftieth birthday which is still a few months away. The fact that I'm soon to be half a century old is almost as hard to believe as the fact that I will soon be swanning around Ireland, Wales and England. The latter is much more exciting of course!

We plan to take sketching materials along in the hope of creating some blogworthy works of art to accompany the photos I intend to post along the way. This reminds me that I will need to work out how to post via my i-pad!

It is a long while since I have done much in the way of sketching and pen and ink drawings, so long in fact that I had literally forgotten of the existence of the second and third of these three pictures. I found them this morning while hunting for the top one. While it is the least accomplished of the three it has a lot of sentimental value to me. It is the one-and-only ink sketch I did while on a backpacking holiday around the UK and Europe when I was twenty-one. Near the beginning of my eight month adventure I stayed for a few days at a friend's house in Brighton in the lead up to Christmas. I was totally entranced by their beautifully decorated town house and felt inspired to try my hand at sketching their living room. I didn't do any preliminary pencil drawing as you can see by the wonky walls, but worked in ink from the beginning. I suspect I used a Rotring pen which was a favourite tool of mine at the time. I definitely drew the second one in pencil first as it is too neat to have done otherwise but the tilt and looseness of the third makes me suspect I may not have done much preliminary drawing first at all.

I confess to being a bit startled at some of the techniques I used in the second sketch as I don't remember ever having these skills under my belt. I was very keen on ink drawings at the time so I probably familiarised myself with different cross-hatching styles before beginning; something I want to do again now in the lead up to going away. I'm not sure exactly what style I will come up with while I'm away. Before I found these I had imagined just doing a light ink outline with a watercolour wash - or maybe just pencil alone. Who knows! As long as I at least produce a few pieces of art I will be happy!

I have been very remiss with creating and posting of late but my excuse is that a lot of my time has been taken up with booking this holiday. Also, I needed a bit of a break. I wasn't getting enough down time as my stiff shoulders and continuing sore back could attest to. As for my book - I was a bit precipitate in announcing it was near completion. After getting further feedback from my latest round of readers, I know I have more culling and honing to do. It will be at the top of my list of things to do upon my return.

*****

I am also posting some photos of a beautiful hand made note-book my daughter made for a friend's birthday recently. I thought to post it after visiting Celia Blanco's blog where she showed how she'd cleverly made her own sketch book and asked if others had made similar items.

My daughter had learnt how to bind her own sketch book during an art class she had taken as a broadening unit at university last year. She has used hand-made paper bought from Oxfam for the cover and used some paper she'd bought in Japan for the end papers. She sewed it all together with bits of cotton she found around the place. I have dropped some VERY heavy hints that I would like a book like this for my birthday!!

The Lizard Whisperer

2007 - My daughter sketching a lizard from life 

 It was interesting to see the varied reactions to the photo of our "pet" goanna in my last post. It made me wonder if smaller reptiles would elicit the same response. I grew up in a bush setting where such creatures were a common sight so I had no fear of them. Taking their cues from me, my daughters also grew up not fearing them and as children would catch little lizards to play with - my oldest daughter in particular. There was a time when she'd often have a clutch of them in an ice-cream container in order to pamper them with all manner of interesting fare - like grass and flowers - before letting them go. Other times she'd have them trotting up her arm or sitting quietly on her hand. It's not in their nature to socialise with humans and they usually dart away if you get too close, but my daughter seemed to have such an uncanny way with them they became unnaturally docile in her presence. We called her the "lizard whisperer". These photos were taken at the height of her powers in 2007 . I was incredulous to find this cute little lizard sitting patiently for ages while she drew it meticulously in her sketch pad. She did a beautiful job!!

I was thrilled to win some of Canadian artist Shawna Lampi-Legaree's beautiful cards recently which she sent to me from Ayers Rock (Uluru) while visiting Australia recently. Click here to read about her Australian adventure and check out her stunning artwork.

Canadian cards now at home among the gum trees!

Getting Ideas on the Table

 While I've been waiting for feedback on my manuscript from a few readers, I have been toying with ideas for the book's cover. I got out a pile of beautiful reference books to inspire me while I did a couple of sketches of a concept I'd had rattling around in my head for a while. The following day I scanned my best black and white drawing and painted it in watercolour to see how it might look. I have another version in my mind's eye that I want to get on to paper and hope there will be still more ideas to come before making the final decision as to what my book will look like. I'd intended working on it today but the day evaporated before I had time to get to it. So I'm off to cook dinner instead!

I was delighted to spot this baby goanna in my back garden the other day.  

Happy Easter Everyone!

coloured pencil on watercolour paper 1999

I have always loved doing illustrations and I'd often send them to greeting card publishers in the hope of selling my designs. These two were among those that I sent off - to no avail.

Easter for us happens in autumn and has very special memories for me from childhood. The first hint of a chill in the air always gets those magical Easter memories flooding back. I also had beautiful children's picture books that depicted Easter in the northern hemisphere where the spring flowers seem to go hand in hand with the Easter theme. Hence the inspiration for the above illustration. 

In the last few decades in Australia the Easter Bilby has come on to the scene to also deliver eggs. The Bilby is an endangered marsupial that lives in the more arid areas of the country.

coloured pencil on cartridge paper 1994

My Pet Tree

                                           Watercolour and ink on paper 10" x 15"

I've been wanting to try plein air for a while now, as well as try my hand at watercolour and ink beyond illustration. The ink outline got a bit lost in the end and I regretted painting the background first as I made a dog's breakfast of it - I wish I'd left it out. However, I thoroughly enjoyed getting outside and painting from life on a glorious, sunny, autumn day. I love this eucalyptus tree that is in our garden, and have been wanting to paint it for years. The trunk looks stunning in the dappled light (in real life that is!). I painted this over the course of two hours this afternoon and by the time I'd finished, the shadows were getting much more pronounced. I began to deepen the shadows as you can see on the right hand limb but then I realised I was losing the nuance I had captured originally. So it is a rather flawed piece but successful enough to inspire me to try again.

I want to get a light-weight outdoor easel so I feel I can go further afield. Now that the weather is cooling down I won't get burnt to a crisp. I didn't have a very practical set up today. I just sat on a camp stool with the paper clipped to a board and I held it on my lap. I brought down an old kid's chair to put everything on.   Here are some progress shots.

Oh Yes, this is the best shot I've been able to get of a stingray so far, so I will keep trying! Yes, it is that black shape in the middle of the photo!!