the owl and the pussycat

Went to sea in a beautiful pea green boat

For some reason that poem must have been in my head when I decided to have a bit more of a play with painting 3 dimensional ornaments.

I started with a purple cat (why not?  I can always give anything cat themed to Ella).  I like the detail in the face, but I'm not convinced about the rest of it....

 And then decided that I really wanted to do an owl.  I love the faces of owls, particularly barn owls.

 These two seem very happy together.  

I am really having fun with these- I love how firm they are- really like a 3 dimensional canvas, and I love the way they look hooked around a door handle, or hanging from a hook.  Will definitely be doing more of these.

My mum arrived last night and fortunately I'm feeling a lot better today.  I'm really looking forward to taking her up to VT this weekend to show her our house.

Block

I've been feeling really artistically blocked lately. I haven't painted, drawn or even knitted for WEEKS. And it's not through want of trying- I've sat with paper, with my carving blocks, with my paints many times and NOTHING comes. It's been incredibly frustrating. I've had ideas in my head, but it felt like I had a huge blockage- they just wouldn't come out.

So I was extremely happy today when something did eventuate when I sat with my paints. I found the photo of this little red squirrel on the cover of a magazine when we were in VT in February. I really wasn't sure what I'd do with him- he was in the snow. He's a bit fat, but I had so much fun painting in all those little hairs. Almost Van Goghian. He's watercolour/gouche on 12 x12 watercolour paper.

Here's the whole painting so you can see it to scale.

I'm reasonably happy with the outcome of the painting- but just oh so happy to feel like I can paint again. Not sure if this will lead to more art coming out of my finger tips, but it's a start at least.

finito

We had a great little break up in Vermont over the weekend. Although I took 2 cameras, I didn't take one single solitary photo. We spent Saturday together going to visit a sheep cheese farm (came home with cheeses and home made sausages- and nearly the cat that Ella fell in love with) had a bit of a drive and a lovely lunch and then Matt and I went out for our anniversary. Dinner and a very cool band. Lots of fun and a bit too much dancing on my broken toe.

Sunday and Monday the kids and Matt skied and snowboarded with our friends. Sunday night our friends took Matt and I out to dinner. Wow! Two nights in row. We got home late Monday night then woke up yesterday to more snow than we'd had in Vermont! Poor Matt has had to go back to work, while the kids have this week off and we're all taking it very easy.

I even managed to finish (I think) my Caribbean starfish painting today.

I'm quite happy with it, 'though I think I'll have another go at another one at some stage.

Thanks for the comments about Oscar's art. I'm quite proud of him I have to say.

this and that/ fish and hat

My Tam knitted last week. I dyed and spun the wool myself. In fact I have used it before for a cuff for a cardigan I was knitting- I decided I didn't like it and pulled the whole thing apart when I'd finished it. The tam has been good for covering up my scabby forehead.

And here's a painting I've been working on for the last few days. I can't find my rubber to erasethe pencil lines (the kids always steal them from me, take them to school and loose them and then steal mine all over again! GRR!). He's not quite right, but I like him all the same. Much bigger than the other water colour work I've been doing. This sheet is 15"x 11".

I painted it from a fantastic photo from the latest National Geographic magazine. I love Nat Geo for all the wonderful photos. I have pages and pages marked- interesting people's faces, animals etc- all potential paintings and drawings. Oscar was going through them the other day looking for things to draw too.

Gifts and giveaways.

The kids have started to bring me little gifts-things they find in the garden which they think I might want to paint. OH YES, I DO! Things like these mushrooms.

I love being able to paint things from a real 3d object. And I love the smell of mushrooms as I paint away. I have to be quick though, they will actually start to dry and shrivel under my strong lamp in the time it takes to paint them. By the morning they are totally different.

These two paintings measure 5 1/2''x12" (they have enough white border to be perfect with a 5"x11" mat opening). [This is something I learnt was important when I went to get a frame for my frog...]

And I have decided to do a giveaway with these. Leave a comment on this post by Friday 9pm (eastern US) and I will choose 2 winners to send these to.

Frog 2

frame

A few weeks ago Matt and I had been in the car, dropping him off for work, and we'd had a tiff about something-totally irrelevant, but it really got on my goat. I came home in a bad mood with him and found an email which said:

Can I have a fungi print for my office, pretty please?

So cute, and totally made me get over whatever it was...and how could I say no when he asked so nicely?

So today I got some frames-40% off. I'm quite happy with how they look. Suitable for a lawyer's office, don't you think? He got more than one because I really do love him.

Actually I went to get the frames to find one for this little painting I did this morning. The first of my frog paintings from my photos, and the first painting I've done in over a week.

I've found it hard to get back into my one a day routine-this week I've been tired and running the kids around for various things. But I'm happy with this-it was a struggle to work out how to make him suspended in water-in the photo the water is crystal clear. And the smudgy swirliness was a happy accident. This one I'm going to give to Matt's colleague whose pond the kids swam in.

And while I was buying frames, I found this super cute little iron on transfer book, with heaps of little transfers. From this design team-I love the colours and the funky little creatures. Can't wait to have a play with those...but not today. Today we have a real summer day and we've cracked 30C. Too hot in the attic, although the kids insisted on making cookies.

But a perfect day for wearing my opshop skirt. I love this skirt-it makes me happy, even if it is one size too small.

And since I was already up in the attic sweltering away, I thought I'd make a couple of tiny stamps with my off cuts (I can't help myself)

A squirrel (with enormous feet) and a fishy sharky thing.

More drawings

I am just loving painting mushrooms at the moment. I love their shapes, I love the variation on a theme. Every day I like to do a new and different one.

These have all been done in the last few days. I went and did some pottery yesterday-bought some studio hours- and I made some little square plates/tiles that can be hung on the wall in different sizes. On all of them I did mushrooms. What I found was that because I've been painting them so much lately, I was able to actually draw them from my head (not sure if they were specific species, but they worked). I can't wait to get in and glaze them in a few weeks.

More paintings

Thanks to both Annette and Wendy who said they liked the painting of mushrooms (?...I really SHOULD learn the difference between toadstools and mushro

oms) I did on the book page last week.  

Unfortunately that book had very fragile pages-some literally crumbled in my hand.  When I looked at it, it was from 1875!!!  So I was reluctant to sell that painting.  Not sure how long it would last.  

Instead,  I've done some more.  One of the same, on a slightly newer (1890s) book page (in my defense I am a total bibliophile and would never do this to books tha

t had some kind of value), with paper in much better condition.

And I've done a couple more...This 

one:

And there is this one.

I will put these in my etsy store.  

I'm loving doing these.  My stepmother sent me a book about Toadstools and mushrooms...well actually, she sent it to Matt, but I've stolen it.  It used to be hers when she was little.  Some of the paintings are faded, but I'm just loving looking at them and painting them for myself (they never turn out the same).  I feel almost like a witch or s

omething-learning about all these things from the earth.  I'd love to get myself an old botanical book and have a go.  

I also made a bigger stamp.  I am so happy with this.  Not only did it come out how I wanted, but Remi (our resident bird expert) could actually tell right away what bird it is (a black bellied plover- I need to get a black ink pad).  I scanned it, but it really didn't come out well.  I'll have another go tomorrow.  

A very productive day!

New Paintings

Some more paintings I've been doing over the last few days.

I've been trying out different papers.  The two above were done in my hand made paper note book.

These two were done in another little sketch book I have.  I love this kind of brown almost packing paper.

A page from an old falling apart book.  Yesterday we went to the library book sale.  I spent $20 on books and came home with 3 big bags full.  That should kick start our summer reading.  3 of them were really old falling apart books.

And watercolour paper.

We've had 2 days in a row with NO RAIN!  Unbelievable.   Although I just looked at the weather and there's supposed to be more thunderstorms tonight.

Hope you had a good weekend!

Paint.

Enough looking at all that mess.  I have been taking advantage of my updated space and I've been painting little "water colours" nearly every day.  Water colours aren't really a medium that I am overly familiar with.  And I'm not fond of wishy washy water colours.  I like them used like this.  Here are the last 3 little sketches that I have done (one last night and 2 today) and I am fairly happy with them.

I have raided the local library for books about birds and bugs and butterflies and mushrooms.  I need to be working from photos at the moment.  But the feather I found this morning when I was out walking Honey and I'm really happy with it.  It's good for me, this personal challenge; I am learning so much about what I want to achieve and how.  And I love that these aren't huge commitments I can get a little painting done in the morning before the kids are up and then pop up and do some more later in the day.

I often see my drawing like handwriting.  I have a style, just as I have a handwriting style.  I remember when I was a teenager trying to appropriate all my friends' handwriting styles, and working on my own until it got to where I almost liked it.  I am still insanely jealous when I see people with gorgeous handwriting.  I still don't particularly like my handwriting style, and I feel a bit that way with my drawing.  I'd love to be less literal and more illustrative.  I admire immensely people who can illustrate; to me that seems a much harder task than reproducing what is actually there.  I always found this with my life drawing (so much so that I "gave up" on myself after I last took classes in Sydney).  I wanted to be more expressive, less literal, less confined.  And I see this too with these little paintings, but for now I am content to explore the medium and to see where it takes me.  I have to say I am loving the water colours.

And today we have sun.  YAY!!!  Real sun; real "laze out on the hammock in the sun" sun.  I saw on the news last night (as I was waiting up for Oscar to come home from his "date") that on Tuesday this was the 8th wettest June on record, but by Wednesday it was the 5th.  And we're not done yet...But at least a bit of heat and sun was nice today.

More Paintings

I've been working hard the last few days, trying to get something ready for the art show.  These are 2 new ones I did.

I haven't painted a nude for ages and it's always a challenge on a square surface, but for some reason I had made up a lot of square canvases.  Still, I'm reasonably happy with it.  Haven't thought of a name yet..

This one, however, is, I think, the one I will go with.  Well inside the 40"x40" ruling at 14"x14", and called, you guessed it, Meditation 5, I think it is more representative of what I like to do.  I don't think it has the same impact as the big ones, but it still works.

So these two will go into the show, and the two below will miss out.

And yes, I know I had a little green theme going on.  Not quite sure why...

paint

I have been doing a lot of painting lately (when I can).  There's an art show locally in a few weeks and I'd like to put some work in, but me being me I'm having major doubts about whether my stuff is good enough (even though I know they take anyone) and thinking "I don't want to make a fool of myself".  Over the years I've come to believe that talent has nothing to do with making it as an artist, it's all about confidence and that I am severely lacking!  

So I will share these things here, as a kind of practice run.

Blue Tree

This could still be a work in progress.

Paper Tree

I have discovered that I find it really hard to PAINT trees.  I have no problem drawing them or cutting them out.  So this went through a few incarnations.  I really wasn't sure if I would be able to use paper to make a bark that I would be happy with...but with layers of different colours and textures of brown papers, I came up with this, and I'm really happy with it.

This idea has been floating around in my heads for ages (hence the sewing I did last week), and I was really happy to be able to make the leaves the same way as I do my paper tiles.  I'm actually quite happy with this, even though it is really simple.

Meditation 4

Photographed without a flash above and with a flash below.

This one I have been working on for months.  The paper tile circle was done sometime last year, but the painted background has been plaguing me for ages.  Usually I am more gentle/subtle with my backgrounds such as here:

Meditation 2

But I felt like I really needed the red to have energy and to glisten and glow.  To me it is like a Sari and I wanted that to come out.  It was also fun to try new paint techniques and play with layering and gloss medium.  I think I'm happy with it, unfortunately both of these are too big to put in the show, which has a limit of 40", so I may have to try and create another SMALLER paper tile painting before next week! (this I just realised and I'm so bummed because I was going to put Med 4 in the show!!!).

Anyway there they are.  I have another 2 in progress as well.  I'm enjoying having the time to paint again.