Kalanchoe in Pot

 

                                             Pen and watercolour on sketching paper

 

This Kalanchoe has been flowering like this for weeks and every time I looked at it I thought I must sketch it before the flowers fade. Yesterday I thought I had left it too late but it was only because I had forgotten to water it. After a quick drink the flowers looked pretty and perky once again! The proportions of my sketch are all out of whack but there was no preliminary drawing and I just wanted to keep my hand in with some sketching as I haven't done any for a while. So I'm fairly happy with it.

 

Now, I must warn you that there are copious amounts of photos ahead! I visited Kings Park last week as I am wont to do every September and it is impossible to leave without having given my camera a good work-out.

Last weekend I had an article published in The West Australian. It is all about enjoying the wildflowers that can be found in suburban Perth. Click here for the online link if you would like to read it. Many of the pictures below will relate to the bit in the article about Kings Park.

 

Here comes the onslaught - I hope you make it to the end!

 

 

 We are so lucky to have 400 hectares (1,000 acres) of park/bushland so close to the centre of the city; due to the great foresight of the original city planners.

 

So much work goes into getting the botanical garden looking stunning during spring. Over recent years so many new plants have gone in, and acre upon acre bristle with gorgeous native plants to admire. The boronia garden smelt divine!

 

 

 

 

In 1954 the Queen planted a eucalyptus tree in Kings Park to commemorate her visit. 

 

 

It has since grown into a very regal specimen - as you can see from the tiara!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Other trees had been dressed for the festival too, and the entrance to the gift shop was also decorated with festive colour.

 

 

Then it was off on a guided tour through the native vegetation in the park.

 

 

Because many of our wildflowers are very delicate it is hard to convey how beautiful they look when actually in the bush. No doubt a better camera and a better photographer could do it justice but you just have to take my word for it that walking through the bush landscape in the height of spring will bring you to your knees!

The red and green kangaroo paws are furry to touch. They were growing in thickets in many areas.

 

Here you can almost feel you are in the middle of the bush miles from anywhere until you spot the tops of the skyscrapers in the distance.

 

 

To other matters, indie bookseller Oxford St. Books now have my books in stock. Yay!

 

 

West Australian Wildflowers

It isn't officially spring until the beginning of September but it has sprung early this year. There are many patches of remnant native bushland dotted around the Perth metropolitan area which are a delight to visit at any time of year but particularly when everything is in flower! Nearly two weeks ago a friend and I went for a walk in the bush just adjacent to Landsdale Farm. So many pretty flowers to admire including the ubiquitous hibbertia and Swan River myrtle.

 

 

 Above is the carnivorous sundew drosera.

 

 

Today my friend and I visited the Hepburn Heights bushland reserve which looked particularly pretty in the mid-afternoon light. Today was one of those ridiculously perfect winter's days when the sun is shining and the breeze is fresh.

 

 

                                                                         Moi!

 

 

And the winner is....

 

Thanks to all of you who kindly left comments on my last post and went into the draw for a copy of my shiny new book!

 

All the names went into a hat, and the lucky winner is..........Debbie Nolan (View from Harmony Hills). Yay, Debbie! please email me your address and I will send you a copy ASAP.

I am also excited to announce that my book is now available online at Amazon, and other outlets such as The Book Depository will be soon to follow. ***Update*** now also available on The Book Depository - and they do free delivery.

 

The idea for the book came about when I embarked upon a ten day painting challenge in 2012. After years of procrastination, I was thrilled at how potent and motivating the challenge format proved to be.

 

Below is the painting I did on the very first day of the ten day challenge, and the following is the same subject matter painted in a more stylised manner about six months later. There aren't any photos in my book but a lot of the paintings mentioned can be seen in the older posts on this blog.

 

 

 

The photo below is a clear example of the progress I made through regular painting sessions.

Using the same props, the still life on the left was done about a year after the one on the right.          

                                      Acrylic on board and canvas board respectively (2012)

And to other matters - there is a lot of prettiness in the garden at the moment but only when it comes to my pot plants. The garden in general has gone to rack and ruin. I hope to get out into the bushland soon to take photos of the emerging wildflowers.

                                                             
I hope you are all having a great week!

Grabbing the Muse by the Throat

 

Exciting news - my book is born!!

 

 

 

It will be a week or two yet before it is available online at The Book Depository, Amazon and other online stores.

Everyone who leaves a comment on this post in the next week will go into a draw to win a free copy of my book!!

All of the violas in this photo have since disappeared but I have some others still  flowering happily. Today I used this photo for reference for the watercolour and pen sketch below. I can see now that the colour I used for the leaves makes them look a bit anaemic, but I'm very happy with it overall.

 

 

I did the one below a couple of days ago from life. I have always known these violas by the common name of Johnny Jump-ups and they are favourites of mine. If my memory serves me right, I once read that they also have another common name which is the longest in the English language - "Meet her in the entry, kiss her in the buttery" How rustically divine is that!?

 

 

 

Egg-beater

                                                              Pen and watercolour

This is the first sketch I've done for a while so I felt a bit rusty when I got out my sketch book this evening. I went straight in with the ink pen and made quite a few false starts with the perspective. But it's amazing what can be covered up with some strategically placed rendering. This egg-beater is battered but beloved, and hails from my childhood.

I have finally finished writing the book I have been working on for nearly three years!!! I can hardly believe it as it seemed I would never get to the end of it. In recent months, every ounce of my creative energy has been devoted to working on it. The editing process has been incredibly intense and time-consuming; hence my absence from painting and blogging lately. The official publishing date is the 20th July so hopefully it will feature in my next post.

 As much as I've enjoyed many aspects of writing the book, I will be very glad to be free to move onto other projects. Getting a book over the last hurdles is all-consuming and I've really missed having a life outside of it these past couple of months.

I've barely had a moment to spend in the garden other than to pluck rogue snails from my miniature garden and re-locate them to hopefully tastier and more robust parts of the garden. They've eaten the miniature "lawn" to the roots. I hate to kill them but I may need to harden my heart. The snails I pluck afresh are beginning to look familiar. I think they are able to move much more quickly than they let on!

 

 

 

Thankfully, the snails don't like to eat moss so that is looking very lush. And just look at these  exquisite little pink flowers!(you may need to click onto the photo to get a good look!)

 

I'm looking forward to revealing all with my book very soon!!!