Wednesday 30 March 2011

Class Paintout

I took my two classes to the National Botanic Gardens yesterday. Perfect weather & lovely subjects at every turn. Some snaps....


Up close - Water Dragon

Sketching grasses

Water Dragon again


Leaf Litter

Tree fern

Sketching in the gardens
 
Beautiful bark
 
Beautiful trees


Friday 25 March 2011

The DVD Saga.....

 A little over a year ago I began production of a series of instructional DVDs. My nephew  Max from Queensland was doing the filming & production for me. At the time he was available to do the filming I had two exhibitions looming back to back. I found it impossible to concentrate on filming the series & paint for two exhibitions so we called a halt to proceedings, he returned home & I painted furiously. After the exhibitions were done Max was married & also as an aspiring actor gained a part in the ABC production Brides of War so was a little pre-occupied. Then there were more acting roles & before we knew it a year had elapsed.... Today I received some rough drafts of the first DVD working title 'Getting started with Pastel'. Yay we are getting closer to having a finished product. Here are some stills !



Filming
 
The back of my head
    
My hand & my left cheek
   
My right ear

Me looking resentfully at the camera

  
Me looking at the camera sort of nicely



Saturday 19 March 2011

The travel box saga .....

Several months ago I purchased a lovely pastel travel box from Dakota Pastels.



  I was so excited when it arrived & I could hardly wait to fill it up. I was very busy at that point so wasn't able to begin arranging my pastels in it for several weeks. When I finally did begin the process I realised what a mammoth task it was.  I didn't want to use full sticks just pieces about 1 cm long because that is about the size I like to work with. I also wanted to keep a record of what pastels I had put in for ease of replacement.  I put in the blues I thought I would need when I realised that what I thought was just a medium sized box was going to take a whole lot more pastel pieces than I anticipated. Oh no & the job was quite onerous....not to mention boring & I am easily distracted.... I started on the greens then put the job in the too hard basket for several months but have just resumed the task of filling this cavernous box & recording what went where. By my rough calculations I am looking at about 430 pastel colours to fill this thing. I must admit it is nice seeing all the colours side by side rather than spread out in different sets. It makes it much easier to select colours & I'm discovering colours I don't use because have forgotten I own them. Well 5 or 6months later I am almost finished the greens (but still haven't finished the blues).....

The story so far



At some point this year I may finally finish filling this box.....  or I could just take it out & use it half empty....but what a waste !


 I was going to set to work this morning & fill some more but instead I weeded the vegetable garden ! Secretly all I want to do is paint....


Freshly weeded vegetable garden which, unlike my travel box looks loved !

Once I've filled the travel box  I need to re think how I arrange my working sets in the studio...oh joy...not!

Thursday 17 March 2011

On my easel at the moment...

I am working on these three pictures at the moment. I like to have several on the go at once. I start a new picture before I finish the one I'm working on. This saves inevitable down time spent thinking about the next work and organising the paper or board etc. It also stops me from overworking the one nearing completion as my focus shifts to the new work


The work on the left is probably finished but is sitting there for final analysis The work in the middle has only just been started & the work on the right ( the picture  shown in stages from an earlier post ) is very near to completion.


 Some of the tools of the trade.....many different brands



The bigger picture.....
Current works in progress with recently finished pictures plus the small one bottom centre which was a demo piece I did for one of my classes on Tuesday. As yet not quite finished but quite possibly sold!

Thursday 10 March 2011

Keeping Records...

I have been spending quite a bit of time putting together "Photobooks"  (http://www.photobookaustralia.com.au/ ) as a permanent record of my work . I have always kept an album of my work but these ones will be professionally printed. I thought I had only fallen a little behind in keeping them up to date until I got down to it.....it seems I haven't done it since 2003 !

 It has been an interesting ride revisiting almost a decade of work. Here are just a few of my favourites. I love them for differing reasons; for their simplicity or for breakthroughs I made or just because I do ! I'll post more at a later date.


Near Kiandra Circa 2003

 


Autumn Morning Helm Winery circa 2003



Kelly  2005



Afternoon Light Connell's Lane 2006


Early morning Finke River NT  2005


Felicite et Perpetue 2005

Monday 7 March 2011

The important things in life....

This is so simple & lovely.....
I watch it often to keep me grounded when life gets too complicated.


Thursday 3 March 2011

Finishing off....

Spent yesterday applying the finishing touches to a few pieces.


" Road to Wee Jasper I "


This is the type of landscape I am in love with at the moment Clouds & Roads. I absolutely love this piece & am very happy with the way it has turned out ! It speaks to me of summer & good times. It is the road to one of my favourite places on the planet.


 A tonal preparatory sketch for the above painting.

 

 Sunset Cloud Study, Bungendore & tonal sketch.

Wednesday 2 March 2011

Working on the commissions

Have commenced work on one of my commissions. The story so far......




The block in completed.


Another layer of pastel or two.



A close up of the work so far.
 More later....


Received another commission yesterday for a small painting of a country road (yay, favourite subject at present).