Christmas craft fair

Better late than never, a quick hello to let you know I'll be at the craft fair at the waterfront tomorrow morning, sharing a stall with my good friend Ingrid. I think there'll be over 80 stalls all local arts and crafts, I can't wait to see what everybody has been making. It's going to be hot so it'll be an earlier start and finish than usual 9 til 1 (instead of 10 til 2).

Here are some of the happiness flags I've been working on.

A friend of a friend has a gorgeous blog of daily photos of the sky! She recently did her 2000th post and had a celebration on facebook where she invited everyone to post a photo of the sky where they were, here's my shot.

Enjoy your weekend :)

Build up blossoms

It's the build up, the hot and humid time of year when people go troppo waiting for rain. We did have some early showers in September but nothing in October and the heat is building... the plants don't care though, heaps of trees burst into blossom at this time of year.

Here are some photos of a flower spike on my galangal (Thai ginger) plant, I've been growing them for a few years but haven't noticed them in flower before.

And some photos of the blossom trees I saw on my walk this morning.

And a drawing from my big sketchbook.

foam print cards

It's interesting working in different mediums how an idea will jump across from one to another, and I don't mind if the best version is a 'substantial' painting, a journal page that no-one sees, a lino print or a card.

One morning last month I made some foam prints based on my latest little paintings and sketchbook pages. Foam prints are so simple, no need for sharp tools or special equipment, you just draw into the foam sheet with a pencil and then they are ready to print. I print them with acrylic paint with retarder medium mixed in to slow down the drying time, and use a foam roller. I printed a big batch of prints.

Since then I've been colouring some in with coloured pencils and collaging them onto cards. Hand colouring is time consuming but very calming and I enjoy it, it's an activity I can fit into little 5 or 10 minute windows of time, eg before work, or in the evenings when I don't have the energy for anything serious!

sketchbook stuff

I'm glad to say a little bit of sketchbook work is happening! I love drawing with charcoal but I'm trying to push on with adding colour too. Here's a charcoal drawing then with soft pastel added. I think I like the black and white stage better!

This was inspired by doodling flowers from a gardening book and then there was a big gap in the composition so I filled it with the cat!

I've been having a break from choir, we had a very busy first half of the year and I thought I'd take a rest and am trying to focus more on art. (Just for a couple of months, I'll be back once the current production is over in October.) I am missing singing of course and sometimes find myself singing my favourite songs from the gospel concert as I walk through the park!!

The season is changing, it's getting warmer, more humid, we've even had some showers of rain, it feels very early but I suppose it's almost October which is the real start of the build up... have a great weekend.

2 tiny paintings

Two new little paintings 4x4 inch acrylic on canvas board. Very happy to have something to show at last!!

Tomatoes, walking shoes, and using up the scraps

I can't believe it's a month since I posted, and yet I've very little to show artwise, so here's some of the other stuff that's going on!

Here are my tomato plants. My partner had to make a cage to go round them because the possum ate the first 2 ripe tomatoes and probably would've eaten the lot. They have nearly all split their skins - I don't know why that happens - they don't look like perfect shop tomatoes, but they taste good!!

On my walks I've started pushing myself to walk a bit further, an extra lap of the park (or a sidetrack past the horses!), or a little further along the foreshore. I'm partly inspired by my Mum who's in her late 70's and walks for miles. And partly because I seem to be putting on weight!! I don't know if that's a result of sitting in front of the computer all day at work, or to do with turning 50 and my metabolism slowing down. I even bought myself some new walking shoes...

It's been a gorgeous dry season, lovely cool morning walks, I hope I can keep it up when the humidity sets in.

I did start 2 little paintings but then painted over them - I guess I'm a bit discouraged but trying not to worry about it!!! I always think when I have no deadlines I'll be able to get some real work done, but when it comes to the crunch I think I need those deadlines - exhibitions and craft fairs to get me moving and producing. After my painting sessions I've used up the leftover paint on my palette on some off-cuts of paper. Just playing with colour and patterns. I hope to use these for cardmaking/collage.

August is flying, we've completely missed the Darwin festival this year... I hope your month is going well!!

On my walk this morning

My most favourite walk is along the seafront at Nightcliff, but another regular walk I take is to the local park down the hill from my house. This morning I remembered to take my camera, so here are a few shots of the amazing foliage!

The last few days have been freezing, it feels crazy to write it! We've had temperatures that would be considered a perfect summers day in most places around the world - up around 28 or 29 in the day and down to 16 at night, brrr!! I've been chilling out in other ways too, with the craft fair over and my exhibition packed up, I'm enjoying having no deadlines to work towards, hoping to get back to my sketchbook and interested to see where my work might meander. I hope I'll have some new things to post soon...