Indigo

I generally use Schmincke Watercolour pans with some Winsor and Newton and Schmincke make this indigo that I really love.  I want to use it more I think.

Time Out

I have been away from the blog awhile.  I have been a little under the weather physically and mentally and needed some time out.  I thought I would post these two small paintings(A5 size) that I really enjoyed making.  Whenever I make these portraits I never know what or who is going to come out and I kind of like that.

Mushrooms

Girl with Mushrooms

Gouache/Watercolour/Graphite Pencil in Moleskine Journal

So I don’t really know why I decided to draw mushrooms with this girl.  I think I was feeling a safe childhood place where there are fairytales, woods and yes, mushrooms. 

I hope everyone is doing okay.

Girl And Cat II

Girl and Cat II

Gouache/Watercolour/Graphite Pencil in Moleskine Journal

I’m slowly getting used to isolation, I’m trying to make different routines for myself.  When I do get out to go to the supermarket I feel all this anxiety about the wide open space around me and just want to go home again.  I am missing my favourite places though.

I really enjoyed making this picture.  The colour of this girls dress was a kind of happy accident which I was glad about.  I enjoyed drawing the cat too.  Stay safe everyone.

One Day At A Time

Girl In Green Dress

Watercolour/Gouache/Graphite Pencil in A5 Moleskine Journal

This week has felt so long when usually time feels so short.  I hope all those in isolation are going okay.  We are not isolated but have been asked to keep distance from others so I stay home a lot.  I’m trying not to watch the news today because yesterday it was too much and I wasn’t as sad for myself but for others and what they are going through.  It’s such a hard situation to get used to.  

I worked on this painting this week.  I feel like there are all these people inside me wanting to get out onto the paper and it’s like I have to get out the way and let them come through - I think Jackson Pollock said something like that and it is really true(not comparing myself to Jackson Pollock or anything:)).  It’s like the painting is already there and I just hope I am good enough to make it real on the paper.  I know I am trying to express something through these girls, I just don’t know what.  I think a state of being that I find myself in regularly and that I can’t define or describe adequately in words.   Goodbye till next time.

Solitary Life

Watercolour/Gouache/Graphite Pencil in A5 Moleskine Watercolour Sketchbook

So I am playing around with these girl paintings still and I have decided to add graphite Pencil illustrations to the painting.  I think I am getting somewhere.  The Coronavirus has become a really big deal everywhere as everyone knows and everything seems so uncertain and unstable.  I like the solitary life and my own company so isolation doesn’t really bother me but I mostly worry about some other people and how they will cope.  I think we can only take a day at a time really and I don’t know what else to say about it but I hope everyone can stay safe and not become too stressed out by this situation.  I will continue to make art and post it and try to be more regular about it.  I feel lucky I can somehow distract myself when I need to.

Girl And Cat

Girl and Cat

Gouache/Watercolour/Ink Pen

A4 

Stuck

             

I’ve just been playing around lately because I have felt so stuck and not sure about anything I have been doing.  I think I love so many styles and types of art and I know I can’t do everything but I have to find what really makes me feel joy and love deep down, and something I can truly  believe in.  I am reading ‘Find Your Artistic Voice’ by Lisa Congdon and I am getting so much out of it and really starting to understand how to narrow down my interests to areas that essentially resonate with me. Like, I have experimented with expressive painting but I never feel great about what I have done so I think that is an area I will let go of.  Some people might say ‘why don’t you do a bit of everything?’, but unfortunately there isn’t time in life to do everything or fulfill every interest and I would never have the chance to become good at one particular thing.  It’s a lot to think about but I think I am slowly thinking my way out of my stuckness😊 

Being Quiet

‘The Quiet One’

Gouache/Watercolour

6 x 8 inches

I am mostly quiet so I thought I would paint it.  I was kind of subconsciously thinking about 1970’s fashion as well; well of my childhood anyway.  And I think it’s okay to be quiet now; I felt it was a weakness for a really long time but everyone approaches the world differently I guess.

Flowers

I have wanted to make a flower painting for a while now and I finally got around to it.  I’m inspired to make another now, I’m thinking maybe in oil paint this time.  The size of this painting is 8” x 10” and I used Watercolour and Gouache.

Yoga

The solace of Yoga when life is difficult.

The Estuary

‘Her Freedom Was The Estuary At Dusk’

Watercolour/Gouache, 8” x 10”

So this painting seemed to take forever, there were so many details that I wanted to get right.  It was inspired by one of my favourite places at Port Noarlunga, the Onkaparinga River Estuary.  I love to go there, it is such a magical place and teeming with life despite human interference.  I really wanted to capture some of the plants and the Sacred Ibis and try to capture some feeling of what it is like out there on a warm night.  I don’t know if I have succeeded.  It is also a place I feel really free and even though I am alone, I am with all the life out there, so not alone at all.  It is a place where all the demands of the world seem to disappear and I can just be.

Country Life

I made this painting a while ago in an attempt to loosen up a bit.  It is Gouache/Watercolour on Strathmore Watercolour Paper.

Autumn

Autumn is here, Gouache and Watercolour.

Patience

I was looking over my past blog posts and I couldn’t believe I hadn’t made a post about my new cat Patience.  She isn’t really new.  I think I got her in October or November of 2016.  She is a rescue cat and she is about 4 and a half years old, we think, not sure though.  She is a very special cat because of her history.

She was rescued from somewhere by someone in New South Wales and I think she had 4 kittens.  So then she was on death row in an animal shelter in NSW.  Then another person came along and rescued Patience and her kittens from the shelter.  Then for some reason Patience and her kittens were shipped by plane to an animal rescue organisation here in South Australia. 

After a while Patience’ kittens were weaned and she then spent a year in foster care until I found her.  When I went to visit her the first time, the first thing I loved about her was her ears, they are quite big.  She was curled up asleep in a cat run and she was very fat Lol!  She was very well looked after, along with other cats.  I was told that she is very quiet and that she doesn’t really like to do anything and sleeps a lot.  This suited me fine.  I really wanted a chilled out cat.  So I bought her home and she was very quiet for two weeks because she was in a whole new situation but she was really enjoying the backyard.  Over time she became really active and lost all her weight because she was able to get out and about and run and jump and climb.  I discovered she was a great mouser and rat catcher and she could stand her ground with all the other neighbourhood cats.  My Mum still can’t believe that Patience is the same cat we picked up and brought home over two years ago.  She seems so youthful now compared to then.  And she is very patient and slowly she is teaching me patience.  She would have to be patient to put up with me I think.  She is such a gem.  I feel so happy that I can provide a place where she can be active and enjoy herself, though I think she does more for me than I do for her.  I think what I love most about her is that she is a survivor and she is so cool about it and just takes it all in her stride.  I really have come to love her. 

Recharge

When I’m going through a rough patch I find mself living for the sunsets.  It was so beautiful 

at O’Sullivans Beach tonight.  I’m sorry, I am aware of the amount of sunsets I post, please forgive me if they are not interesting, I just love them so much😊

Night Wandering

‘She Wandered ThroughThe Emu Bush At Night’

8” x 10”

Gouache and Watercolour

This painting is about the night and the magic and freedom of the night.  I remember reading diaries by Virginia Woolf and I remember her talking about how, at night, all things are possible.  It is a time for dreams, even if you are awake.