Life has been a bit chaotic around here, as my partner has been down south for about a month looking after his Mum. So I'm in charge of all things domestic, it means I have less time to make art, and less headspace. I don't know if you've seen the Harry Potter movies...at the Weasley's house there's a magical clock, that keeps track of all the members of the family - that's what my brain is like at the moment, trying to remember who has to be where and making sure they get there on time (not to mention trying to work out what we're going to eat).

I'm supposed to be making work ready for a group show in June, but am struggling to do an occasional sketch book page at the moment... So here's a photo of a frangipani tree, a bit of a storm came through on Saturday afternoon and after it passed I took a walk down to the park, everything was a bit grey and delicate! I liked the look of the fragipani branches like lacework.


When I got home I did this little sketch of birds in the tree tops that I'd seen when I was walking, they seemed so happy after the rain calling loudly and taking off and swooping and landing in the treetops again.

And here's another storm clouds sketch in my tiny sketchbook!

The first members show for the year opens at Tactile Arts this evening. The theme is Fire Works - which is a great theme for glass artists and potters, whose work has been fired in the kiln! I have entered 2 little paintings that loosely fit the theme. Apparently there were heaps of entries, so not everything was squeezed in...so I'll see if both of mine are on the wall tonight.

This one was a bit of a cheat, of flame tree flowers!


This one was based on an old sketchbook drawing of a bird I saw on fireworks night. We have fireworks on 1st July for Territory Day.

I've been playing around with acrylics in my sketchbooks, (and putting down base coats on some canvas boards, so hopefully something will be happening there soon!)



This little landscape sketch was inspired by a walk in my lunch break. I get very cold at work in the air-conditioning, and seized up from sitting in front of the computer, so I often go for a quick walk around the block in my lunch break. It's not picturesque it's a light industrial area with car mechanics, lock smiths, panel beaters, etc... rows and rabbit warrens of sheds, and roadsides clogged with cars waiting for repair.

So, last week I took a walk in the midday heat, the sky was blue with clouds gathering, a huge cloud formation was boiling up, like a tower block or a mountain, I don't know how to describe it - a cloud that says rain is coming. Maybe that's why I'm so interested in clouds this year, because we haven't had much rain.

Here's one I did based on one of my watercolours at the beach.



Here are the little canvas boards ready to go!!

I'm a bit late with this story, but here goes!
I never really buy cut flowers, we're on a tight budget and if I splurge I buy a magazine, or art supplies or cake!! On christmas eve I was dashing around my local supermarket like everyone else, buying all that food for christmas day. As I came through the checkout one of the staff I see every week stopped me. "Hang on a second", he disappeared then came back with two flower arrangements...I was thrilled. A few of the flowers were starting to brown, I guess that by boxing day they'd be too far gone to sell, so better to give them away.



They looked lovely on my christmas dinner table, and I did a couple of tiny sketchbook drawings of them which turned into this linocut. It's much finer and more detailed than my usual, and I'm really pleased with how it turned out.



At the same time as I printed the xmas flowers lino, I printed one that I'd chiseled in December, of an elegant lady walking her dog down by the beach. Most people I see walking there are in serious sports gear, or casual shorts and runners, she wore a floaty dress and bare feet, tall and elegant, her dog was elegant too, maybe a greyhound? It's funny the things that stick in your head and appear later in an artwork.



I hope you've had a good weekend :)

For the past few years, every Christmas holidays I plan to go painting 'plein air'. Sometimes I have managed a couple of watercolours, one year I bought myself a beautiful moleskine book with heavy paper...which is still in the wrapping, far too daunting to use.

I have the idea of painting sunsets, storm clouds can be glorious at this time of year. But evening is the time of day when I'm low energy and have chores to do. I found that the holidays were zooming past and I hadn't done one painting. So instead of worrying about sunsets I took my paints along on my morning walks. I did these 2 quick sketcches on a windy morning at the beach.





And this one down at the park on new years day.



These are just in a normal little sketchpad, I'm using good quality paints but they seem to soak into the paper and disappear. So I bought a little watercolour pad to see what difference it would make. I did this sketch of evening clouds above my house yesterday, and the colour seems much better.



Hopefully I'll get a few more done before the kids go back to school and normal routines kick in. When I think about going painting I imagine doing something like the watercolours of Emil Nolde!!! with free brushwork and intense colour. The reality is very different, wrestling with a medium I'm not comfortable with - I like to work with line not light...

One of the blogs I follow has some gorgeous watercolours, I wish I could do some like that!! Go visit Jumie's blog and take a look :)

I hope your new year has started well. Best wishes to all.

I hope you're having a lovely relaxing day. This is our most laid back christmas day since kids! most of my teenagers didn't get out of bed til 10, so I did some quiet sewing to start the day and listened to classic fm! Just a quick post before I get stuck into the afternoon's cooking.

Have you read Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert? I bought it for myself back in September as soon as it came out. I'm a sucker for anything on creativity!!! I heard her interviewed about it on the radio a few months ago and was hanging out for it to come out.

I really enjoyed the book, I galloped through it really fast, and since then I've been re-reading it slowly with a pencil in hand, to underline the bits that resonate for me. It's interesting because it's very much her experience of the creative process along with anecdotes about people she knows. Some chapters have a big scribbled YES next to them, others got me thinking - oh that's interesting, my experience was a bit more like this... It's set me off thinking about people in my art class at school and college, people I haven't thought about in years. It's even got me doing a bit of writing after a couple of years drought! Here are a couple of the things I've written. The first is in response to how Liz Gilbert writes about loving our work even the failures, the second is in response to her writing about the lottery of success.

Myth #1

Nicky
not Nicola
17
long black hair
but boyish.
She purged her record collection
to make way for Slade.
( I got Kate Bush
and the Boomtown Rats.)

She painted in oils
a lifesize Noddy Holder,
rendered the reflections
of his lacquered guitar,
the textures of his craggy face
and rocker hair.
Centre stage in the art room
everyone admired it.

Until the morning it was discovered
smashed in half.
Nicky wasn't satisfied.

                         --------------------------------------------------------------------


The one to watch

Not up in the light filled studio,
he and a friend were in the basement
across the road, under the dark room.

A spotty teenager, with paint
on his clothes, on his face,
rumor he ate it too.

I remember seeing a sketchbook
with drab colour mixes, greys and browns
and notes scribbled beside.

He was not the one the girls chased
he hung out with the lads
a bit intense a bit wild.

Was I missing something?
Did anyone realise
he was the one to watch?

                        --------------------------------------------------------------------

I'd love to hear if you've read Big Magic and whether you liked it or not :)