Shiny Start to Shiny New Year

 

Day 1 of Leslie Saeta's 30 paintings in 30 days challenge

Abalone Shell

acrylic on board 16cm x 16cm

 

Yay, one down, twenty nine to go!

 

I've long planned to paint an abalone shell. I have a bit of a thing for them. When walking on the beach their glittery mother-of-pearl sheen makes them look like little jewels embedded in the sand . I originally had a small purple sea urchin next to the abalone shell but ended up scrubbing it out. I wasn't happy with how it was coming along. So now the positioning of the shell in the painting is a little awry. However, considering how laborious and frustrating it was trying to replicate mother-of-pearl from life in paint, I was happy that it ended up recognisable as an abalone shell at all.

 

I had been toying with making the theme for my challenge to be all things shiny. I may stick with that idea but I don't like to pin myself down too strictly due to the risk of blocking inspiration. I find that my mood on the day very much determines my choice of subject matter.

 

I had a lovely swim at the beach after completing my painting and spotted quite a few other abalone shells washed up on the sand.

 

Oh yes, two weeks ago I was invited to do a book signing at Dymocks at Whitfords Shopping Centre. It was very exciting - and terrifying - but was a great experience and I sold some books to some lovely customers.

 

 

Wishing everyone a very Happy New Year! May 2016 be a fabulous year of great health and prolific creative exploits!

 

Belated Christmas Wishes

 

I hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas!!

We spent the day with family and had a very pleasant time of it.

 

I handmade some little Christmas chocolate boxes to give out at a friend's lunch a few days before the big day. I featured our native Christmas tree, nuytsia floribunda, which flowers at this time of year and can be spotted from miles away with its fluorescent orange blossoms. I have been meaning to take a snap of one in local bushland but have yet to get around to it. So this is the best I had on hand to give some idea of what it looks like in the bush. I took this photo from the car window while travelling to Cervantes last year so it's a bit blurry.

 

 

I managed to keep my trips to the shops during the Christmas madness to a minimum, but when I did make an appearance at this local shopping centre it looked very festive and wasn't too hectic.

 

 

Speaking of festive, my friend Corinne always does things with flair. Her homemade fruit mince pies looked very fetching on this vintage plate but they didn't last long! 

 

 

 

 

 One of her lovely roses in full bloom below, and above, a colourful display hanging from her balcony rafters.

 

 

The beach has been very distracting of late with summer upon us.

 

 

 Above is a picture of me at the beach yesterday, covered up and energised after a swim. The maximum temperature got to 41.6C (107F approx.)

 

Divine conditions! As is ever the way, a camera cannot compete with reality for capturing exactly how gorgeous everything is. To make things worse, my phone's camera was doing strange things and I couldn't get nice crisp shots. 

 

 

Below are some photos taken from other recent beach visits.

 

 

 

 The seaweed and shells are so pretty

 

 

 

I was asked to do a mug design for the Wildflower Society's 30 year anniversary recently and here is the printed product.

 

 

Below is my friend Katie reading my book at the iconic bathing boxes on Brighton Beach in Melbourne.

 

 

My book is also now available at the Bodhi Tree Book Café in Mt Hawthorn.

 

 

I am planning to participate in Leslie Saeta's famous 30 day painting challenge starting on the 1st January. This will be my third time so I'm not quite as terrified as I was the first time, but I'm not far from it! 

 

Wishing everyone a very Happy New Year!

Flowering Cactus

 

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

 

It was great to hit the paintbrushes again!

 

 

Each time I attend something interesting I mean to blog about it in detail, but I've fallen very behind with my blogging lately. So I hope you don't get too bored while I catch up all at once by posting photos of some of my recent outings. 

 

There have been so many festivals to attend and things of interest to do with the advent of the warmer weather. I enjoyed the Groat St Festival in late October - an event that promotes sustainable community living.

 

 

The lovely Eco-Faerie Sarah of Handmade Wonderland.

 

 

 I visited the Western Australian Herbarium mid November with the Wildflower Society and was absolutely boggled to find myself face to face with an actual specimen that the great Sir Joseph Banks himself had collected on Cook's first voyage of discovery in 1770. It was right there! I could have touched it! But I didn't.

 

 The Herbarium gathers and documents Western Australia's botanical species diversity. We saw many interesting specimens which even included lichen and seaweed.

 

 All kept safely in temperature controlled filing systems.

 

I was so pleased to see that one of the vaults had been named after my heroine Georgiana Molloy.

 

 

Sally kindly brought along some of her stunning home-grown verticordia flowers to grace their front reception.

 

On the drive home my friend Corinne and I oohed and aahed over the gorgeous Jacaranda trees in full bloom that line many of the streets in the older suburbs.

 

We also drove off course to investigate what was left of an old market garden area that had long been marooned amongst suburbia. Inevitably it too has now succumbed to "progress".

This little pioneer homestead now sits alone in a sea of new blocks that are ready to be built upon.

 

 

A few weeks back I went with friends to the Artist Open House Fremantle event. We walked through the streets of South Fremantle from house to house where many artists were exhibiting. So much great art and architecture. The murals below made me think of Sami who blogs about Perth and features murals on Mondays - you can check out her great blog here 

 

 

Last week I accompanied my mum to the HBF pioneer's garden party in the grounds of Government House.

 

 

Government House was built in 1863 and sits quietly in it's lovely 3.2 hectare surrounds while the city centre grows ever bigger and bustle-ier around it.

 

 

I was thrilled when American art blogging buddy Michael Perchard sent through a photo his nephew took of him reading my book in Boston on Thanksgiving! You can check out Michael's great blog by clicking here

 

I hope everyone's having a great week and I hope to visit all my favourite blogs very soon!