My dogs

It is a long time since I have put an image of my gorgeous little dogs on my blog.  They have just had their hair cut and are in their favourite place on the lounge.  Daisy is on the left and she is almost certainly the daughter of Rosie.  Uncertainty remains as they came from the RSPCA since they were found abandoned in the street seven years ago.  They had been abused and were not housetrained but now they seem pretty relaxed.  Lhasa Apsos are supposed to have very long hair since they are from Tibet but I like to keep it shorter, especially as summer is beginning.

Drawing & Collage

This  was a pen and ink sketch I did from my front window looking from my garden across the street to other houses.  Most of my garden is native Australian trees and other plants and is covered in tan bark as a mulch to retain moisture.  This is especially important with summers getting hotter and drier.







This was one of the final paintings done in my painting class on Wednesdays with Michael Winters.  It was finally warm enough to go outside and draw some trees and a pond.  Then we used string, torn newspaper and card to glue onto the canvas to recreate the picture.  When this was dry some acrylic paint was added to complete the picture.  It was harder to do than it looks - really interesting and challenging.

Botanical Painting

I have not worked in watercolour for many years and found a lot of the paints dried out. But I couldn't resist responding to an ad in the newspaper for a weekend in Botanical Painting held quite close to where I live. The old Tuggeranong Homestead had a beautiful garden and I picked a couple of hellebore flowers and a spig of lavender to work with. Generally I was quite happy with my first effort painting such detail, especially as I have been doing so many big acrylic paintings.

More paintings

This is a painting of a photo I made in Lawn Hill National Park on the border of Queensland and the Northern Territory last May. We had climbed up a rocky track to a high point looking over the gorge. I only used Ultramarine Blue and Burnt Sienna, learning to paint with a limited palette in Michael Winter's class. Moving the brush a lot enhanced the texture on the trunk.


This is another quite small painting using the same limited palette. The tones were painted on roughly first and the details added later. I walk in these gardens most weeks and take lots of photos to use in paintings. It's amazing how such dark tones can be made without using black which tends to deaden paintings.