New Year 2016 has begun

It has been a long time since I posted anything here so thought I had better think about what has been happening.  Summer has been too long and too hot for me with a few milder moments.  But today is 36 degrees again so I am inside with the aircon on.  My little Monty likes it too and is at my feet under the computer, his favourite spot.

Just before Christmas I finally decided it was time to replace my 14 year old Subaru Forester although it hadn't done a lot of kilometres.  The new Foresters were larger and I wanted a more compact AWD car still with the ability to take my art stuff easily from the trolley.  So I am very pleased with my Subaru XV which has the same high clearance as the Forester.  This photo is not great but shows the nice cerulean blue colour.

I also decided on an automatic rather than manual which I have always had. Driving in Sydney late last year was very tiring with so much traffic and gear changing - and I realise I am geting older!

These are a few photos I took in January, two when it was wet showing my ramp from the front door, and some hanging baskets on the back deck.  The snapdragons are cheerful.

My Chinese pistache trees, front and back, are being stripped of seeds and branches by the big white sulphur crested cockatoos.  They look nice but are a menace as the dog gets all the sticky stuff from the tree in his fur and brings it into the house.  And I'm not prepared to sweep it all up every day anymore.

I spent a lot of January watching tennis on TV, especially the Australian Open. It's the only sport I understand as I played it (badly) when young.  But this month my art groups have recommenced so I am busy mid week now.   I'll post some new work later.  Our Wednesday group called Different Strokes is having an exhibition soon.  Sixteen of us are entering.  We all use different mediums and have varied experience.  Here is our invitation, in case anyone local is reading this and would like to come.

Art, monoprint, my garden and cockatoo

It's been a while since I have posted anything - busy, busy with a range of things - but here are a few pictures I like.

Cliff in the Grampians

This acrylic painting began with a photograph of a landscape and became a semiabstracted one. I was especially interested in shapes, lines. The colours, except for the green, were close on the colour wheel.  I'm doing an art class with Michael Winters again this semester and it's called 'Landscape - one step further' to get away from making realistic paintings and putting ones emotions into the painting.

 


Monoprint
I made this print using soluble wax crayons (Caran d'Arche) to draw the picture onto a piece of polypropylene, then printing on a piece of Arches watercolour paper 185gsm soaked in water for 30 minutes



Sulphur crested cockatoo
These large Australian birds love the seeds on my pistache tree.  For the last 2 weeks they have been stripping the tree of seeds and also breaking off branches which is very annoying. They are easy to photograph as they are quite unafraid of people quite close by.



Colombines in my garden

Back garden in summer

This summer has been unusually wet so everything looks so green

Back deck in summer

Summer at home in my garden

February has been very hot and dry and staying inside in the air conditioning has been a major activity - plenty to do with assignments for my course. But the sulphur crested white cockatoos have been busy this time of year eating the berries from my pistache tree and effectively pruning leaves and branches and dropping them everywhere.

It's so dry some of the Virginia Creeper leaves are changing colour already. My dogs, Rosie and Daisy need a haircut but enjoy being on the back deck and watching what I'm doing. I've been having fun photographing the centre of some of the flowers in my garden. They have potential for tapestry designs. Amongst some of the greenery the Snake Woman sculpture rises out to survey the scene.

At last in March temperatures are finally under 30C and the weather is fantastic, if only it would rain. All the rain has been in northern Australia with the monsoon flooding, the worst for many years. And everyone has heard of the shocking bushfires in Victoria where over 200 people have died and thousands of homes lost. Australia sure is a land of extremes.