Late Spring in my Garden

I've recently been outside photographing my garden as so much is now looking gorgeous after the rain we had in the last year.  I thought I'd share some of it on my blog.  Summer is forecast as being hot and dry again so I will then be back to working on my art and craft with the airconditioning on.  Today is the hottest at 27 degrees since early this year but at least the nights are still cool.

Early spring in my garden

These are a few photos I made a week or so ago of my back garden as spring has finally decided to come after a severe winter.  I may add some more as flowers and leaves continue appearing. It is a somewhat rustic informal garden with no lawn and gravel paths but I love it.

By the way, I put some of my pastel paintings into the Artists Society's Spring Exhibition last weekend, and sold one - the shearing shed (see a recent post).  I'm adding the others into the Cranleigh Art Exhibition (supports the special school) on 19-21 October.  Finding space for storing framed paintings at home is a  problem.


 

Tapestry flower abstract

It is a long time since I posted anything but finally I am recovering well from my hip replacement and getting back to normal activities.....  still lots of rehab. though so I can stop limping!

This tapestry weaving is not one of my best but it has been on the loom for about a year and I just had to finish it!  The surface is too irregular in places but since I was no longer working for assignments I didn't undo sections when the tension needed changing ....  I should have.  I made the design a couple of years ago when I used a photo of a crowea plant (Australian native) and applied a Photoshop filter to it.  I quite liked it so decided to weave it - 42 x 27 cm size.

Australian rural scenes in pastel

I'm posting these two soft pastel paintings I have made recently.  I may not be able to do any more for a while as I am going into hospital for a hip replacement in 10 days time.  There is lots of preparation for this with tests etc. but also getting my house OK since I will not be able to move in certain ways for 3 months due to the danger of dislocation.  I have arranged a housesitter for my two old dogs for 3 weeks while I am in hospital and rehab. and then we will have to manage with some help from friends.  So I'm unsure what place art will play for a while.

 

This old shearing shed was on a property in Western Victoria where I stayed years ago when bushfires made us evacuate from Halls Gap in the Grampian Mountains.

 

An old stone house and outbuildings in the country - not sure where.

Work in soft pastels

Old gnarled tree in Rocky Mountains

This pastel painting was made from an old photograph in a national park in the USA years ago. I used black paper with the ground made from pastel texture grit.

Autumn scene in Toronto, Canada

The colour slide I used as reference for this painting was made 40 years ago when I was living in this street in Toronto! It was taken against the light and I like the contrast of the shadows with the autumn leaves.

Map of my travels

This is just a bit of  fun.  I found this on someone's blog and thought I would give it a go since I have travelled a lot.  If you want to try it just click on the link below.

visited 110 states (48.8%)
Create your own visited map of The World or jurisdische veraling duits?


I've still got quite a few countries to visit - mainly islands in Africa, the Pacific and West Indies, so doubt I'll make them all!

More pastel paintings

I have been working in pastels a lot lately and these are two works in very different styles.  Both are on Flickr where there are photos of stages in their making.  This was done so they can be posted on a pastel Flickr group.  Here I will just put the final painting for each.  Click on the photos to go to Flickr and look around.

This painting was done from a card that I was sent years ago - shows a stone circle sculpture using local materials and that is gradually being returned to nature. It is titled Steam Stone Circle, Whites Beach, New Zealand.




 

This painting was made from a photo I took last year of the entrance to the main market in Cairo.  I was trying out a method of painting the background yellow in acrylic before adding pastel.  The result is that the colours are very warm.  I had hoped to do a more expressive painting but ended up with too much detail for this.  But I hope I've captured the feeling right.

 

Drypoint Etching

These prints were made with the new press at the Artists Society of Canberra where I belong to a printmaking group.  Jo Hollier, a well known local printmaker gave us some instruction in use of  the press by giving a workshop in drypoint.  Because an acetate sheet is used rather than copper or zinc, there are no noxious chemicals to deal with.  An etching needle makes the pattern, and can be helped by the use of a dremel.  I used part of the drawing I did in the Blue Mountains recently.  Click on the images to get more information on the process.  Chin Colle is the name given to the process with the pink section.

Painting and Sandals!

The title of this blog is rather strange but I did two workshops recently - one in which I made leather sandals and one in which I painted still life with pattern.  This was at the new Contextart Forum held in the Blue Mountains west of Sydney in the autumn school holidays.  For many years I have attended the Textile Fibre Forum which has been residential and held in Mittagong and then Orange in NSW.  Janet de Boer who is the main motivator and organiser has now enlarged the forum (including a name change) to include some straight art courses since textile and fibre artists tend to be interested in all forms of art.  For more information see Tafta.  Schools are used as venues but it is no longer residential.  Since the Blue Mountains area is a popular holiday destination there were many cottages to rent as well as hotels etc. and it was lovely walking in the mist in the mornings and enjoying the lookouts over the steep valleys.  It brought back many childhood memories for me as our holidays were always in this area as we lived in Sydney.  Showing my age, I remember the puffing billy steam trains when we seemed to go so far away..... 

I had always wanted to do one of Yvonne Twining's shoe workshops and finally there was the opportunity for a 2 day one making sandals.  She  also ran a 4 day workshop making non lasted full shoes. We could choose our own designs and be as creative as desired.  It was quite challenging learning how to measure one's feet, cut, glue, sew and ensure one didn't get two left feet!  I of course chose purple leathers as it is my favourite colour and added a little button decoration.  I now have to wait until summer to wear these thongs.

 

 I then did a workshop with Graham Marchant -  Still life with Pattern.  We each brought patterned items from home and set up our still life display.  We then spent time looking carefully at it and making a detailed drawing before painting it.  Some of these items I have had for many years but have never looked so carefully at them!.  The Paraguayan lace in the front and the Polish wooden plate took a lot of concentration.  I used acrylic paints, but some used oils and watercolours.  Here are the results.

Still Life Drawing and Painting

Recently I spent two weekends at the Strathnairn Arts Centre in Canberra at workshops on still life given by Michael Winters.  We were studying the work of Morandi, Matisse and Margaret Olley.  There were three still life setups. The first weekend was spent rotating between these setups and drawing compositions A2 size in charcoal and coloured pencils in the style of the three artists.  This was not easy but it was an excellent exercise and took me out of my comfort zone.  I then made small paintings in acrylic (some did oil) and one large one supposed to be in Margaret Olley's style, beginning with a blue tonal study as the base and using a limited palette.  These are the artworks I did - some more successful than others.

This is the Matisse style in charcoal and coloured pencil - details are omitted to show Matisse's love of colour, shape and line.  Could not get saturated colour with coloured pencils.

This is my Matisse style painting in acrylics.  I enjoyed the designing and working in saturated colours here - somewhat adventurous but that is what I prefer to do.






















 
 This is my charcoal drawing of a set up of bottles and cans that Morandi drew every day for many years.  There was a light at the left throwing shadows.










Below is the acrylic painting I did of a different composition of the bottles and cans - not quite monochrome  but limited palette of more neutral colours.

This is the charcoal and coloured pencil drawing A2 size of a compostion from the Margaret Olley still life set up.  It was quite complex and I had to adjust to a more painterly style than I am used to.

This is my acrylic painitng of a compostion from the drawing above.  I was again challenged by a more painterly style to reflect Margaret Olley.

This is the first layer of my larger acrylic painting on canvas - using blue to map in the tones before adding colour.





This is my final painting, building on the tonal study (above).  The palette was limited to two blues, one violet and two yellows.  At the end I decided to add a little red which I am happy with.  I quite liked this painting and have hung it in my bedroom, removing something that had been there 30 years!

Pastel Paintings

I have returned to painting with pastels as the colours are so clear. Although not very experienced in this medium I was quite pleased with the following two paintings of Lake Mungo National Park in southern NSW. I have been there many times, always trying to take the ultimate photographs at sunrise and sunset. I usually camp although there is some accommodation there now apart from the shearer's quarters from days gone by. It's one of my favourite remote places.

 

Photos of Jordan and Israel

I finally have all my photos organised from the last trip and these ones of Jordan will be in a slideshow you can view here on this blog rather than having to link back to Flickr.  My friend Debbie Herd who has her own blog (see link opposite) is staying with me and showing me how to manage this.

You can click any of the photos as they progress and you will be taken to Flickr where there is information about the photo. If you want to see them full screen with titles as with the photos of Ethiopia and Egypt go to the following web addresses and press slideshow on that page.

JORDAN : go to http://www.flickr.com/photos/banksias/sets/72157629559760099/

ISRAEL : go to http://www.flickr.com/photos/banksias/sets/72157629218152850/

Here is the slideshow of Jordan


Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

Here is the slideshow of Israel


Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

Photos of Egypt

I have just posted some of my Egyptian photos onto Flickr and here is the link to them.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/banksias/sets/72157629123031688/detail/

I suggest again that you press the slideshow button so they will be seen large and  continuous.  There are not as many as those for Ethiopia - I am still working on photos of Jordan and Israel.

....... and soon I will post pictures of a couple of pastel paintings I have just finished.

Photos of Ethiopia

I can't believe it is nearly 4 months since my last post.  Since I returned home just before Christmas I have been busy trying to edit and organise my 2,000 images while watching the tennis in January and trying to get the overgrown garden under control.  I really have had nothing to put on the blog.  But last week my regular printmaking and art groups have started again so maybe I'll produce something to add to this blog.

I took most photos in Ethiopia as it was a photographic trip - a great experience and highly recommended.  I've just posted 361 photos of Ethiopia on Flickr and I'll try and post the slideshow from there on this blog.  But in case it doesn't work with so many images, here is the link    http://www.flickr.com/photos/banksias/sets/72157629280580751/detail/  You can then press slideshow on the Flickr page so you can view in fullscreen mode.  Hope you enjoy them.

It appears that I have somehow got some of the pictures to appear below so it will give you a  taste of what they are like.  So press the link to see them all larger as I mentioned above.

ETHIOPIA

ETHIOPIA, a set on Flickr.