Walking in the rain

little sketch I'm doing a lino-cut of

On Monday afternoon at 4.30 it was pouring with rain. There's something stubborn in me that wants my walk home no matter what. So I turned down offers of a lift home from work, waited for a lull in the rain and then set off in my raincoat, umbrella, bag packed in a plastic bag. 

It had been raining heavily for a couple of hours, so paths and gutters were awash. Traffic made bow waves, and drenched myself and a couple of brave cyclists as we waited for the traffic lights to change. 

Walking up the hill my arm ached from wrestling my umbrella against the wind and rain, I was hobbled by my wet skirt clinging to my legs, and my feet sliding about in sodden sandals!! It seems like madness even to me - maybe I still think I'm 26 and newly arrived in the tropics, reveling in warm rain after a lifetime of cold grey English drizzle. At any rate it seems necessary to get well and truly drenched at least once a year. 

At home I discovered rain had managed to get into my bag, the only casualty was the sketch book (I carry all the time but rarely use) which was damp right through and half the drawings have washed away - maybe it can have a new life if I gesso over the ruined pages and start again! 

new cards from last months lino prints

Fear of mucking up

Last weekend I did a bit of playful painting on two 5x7 inch canvases. They already had the beginnings of paintings on them that I didn't like, so I worked over the top. I like how the previous layers still come through to a certain extent, adding interest to the paint surface.

The last version of what was on them sat there for a week or two because I didn't like them and decided not to go on with them. Ironically these have sat for a week untouched because I like them too much. I'm scared to work into them and muck them up!!

I've done a foam print version of each, in the hope that it will let me be more playful when I get back to the canvas with paint. I have the idea down on paper now in the foam print, and can do as many different version s as I like working over the prints. It means I don't have to be so tied to that idea when I start painting, I can let it evolve the way it wants to.

I'd love to hear any tips or tricks you use to get around that fear.

new lino prints for cards and a walk at the beach

Here are the little lino prints I carved in the christmas holidays, both are based on paintings I did last year - I love that, when ideas hop from one medium to another.

I had a lovely walk at the beach on Friday evening, glorious wet season clouds!!
And I remembered to take my camera, here are a couple of photos.

One more week of school holidays to go and then back to more normal routines, which is good and bad!! I am looking forward to having my Friday mornings back for painting without interruption!!

Welcome 2015!

The monsoon is here at last, rain has been steadily pouring through the night and morning, frogs are croaking the pool and wheelbarrow are overflowing. Apparently we've had 140mm so far, approx 6 inches of rain. We're under a blanket of thick cloud, this morning it was like waking up in a kind of twilight. The temperature is 24 (centigrade) instead of 34, what a relief!

It's a lovely day to be at home chiseling a lino. This year I want to focus more on art, it's so easy to be sidetracked by demands of work and family...all those chores are not going away, but I can put half an hour of art first rather than doing all the other stuff and seeing if I have the energy for art at the end... I'll be keeping a time diary for a little while to see where I can squeeze more art in!

I'm almost at the end of my two weeks holiday, I've been walking at the beach as always and doing some quick sketches. I've also done a couple of new lino-cuts for cards which I hope to print before next week. Too much of the holiday has been spent at the shops - food shopping, last minute xmas shopping, and then the sales... To balance this out there's been copious amounts of tea drinking and having a little lie down with a good book. I'm reading 'The Silkworm' by Robert Galbraith (J K Rowling) a murder mystery and just loving it.

So I hope you're having a lovely day to start the new year, and hope 2015 is a year of kindness and creativity for us all.

Happy Christmas

Happy Christmas everyone! I hope you're having a lovely day. We're having a quiet family day, thunder is rumbling in the distance, so hoping for a good downpour to cool things down before I put the chicken in the oven!!

On my bookshelf 2014

 
I've just updated my 'books read 2014' list in the side-bar, which I hadn't filled in for about 6 months. 

My favourite novel this year was The Book Thief by Marcus Zusak, it's been out for a few years and very popular, but I'd judged the book by the cover, it looked too gothic for me !! Luckily it was a book group selection and I loved it, loved the characters, it's worth reading for the two handmade books that are incorporated into the story, and so much more. 

Other than that I've had a really bad run with book group books this year, very few are listed because I didn't finish them - we were reading Gone Girl when the movie came out, I was hating it, hating feeling so manipulated and that there wasn't one sympathetic character in there, and every time I turned on the tv or radio someone was reviewing the movie saying how good it was and how great the book was. I think I read half and then read the ending (sacrilege) which wasn't believable to me, so I didn't bother reading the second half...it got some very good reviews from my book group, so just goes to show how different tastes can be! 

Nearly half my list this year is non-fiction, and my favourite (other than the Matisse book!) would be David and Goliath by Malcolm Gladwell. I'd recommend anything he writes, it's always interesting and thought provoking, always turning what's accepted on it's head. 

I also loved Margaret Atwood's short story collection 'Stone Mattress', and so glad I finally got round to 'The Great Gatsby', I want to watch the movies now! 

As I have no art deadlines to work towards at the moment, I'm trying to take some time to play, here are some gouaches I've been doing, trying not to worry about subject too much and enjoy colour. 

end of year blues

Some weeks there isn't a lot to show, a tiny sketchbook drawing...

and a handful of cards...

On Friday I went into my kids school for the end of year assembly, it was lovely, the school band played and the choir sang, and lots of awards were given out. It's an emotional time of year for me, as my twins finish primary school in 4 days time, and our 13 year connection with the school ends (since my oldest started there.) I struggle with change, hate leaving behind teachers we know and love, feel sad that many of the kids' friends will be going to different schools or moving interstate, and at the same time try not to pass this on to my kids, so that they'll face the changes with open minds and even enthusiasm!

So there's been little time for art, and with all my xmas shopping still to do and xmas cards to write it might take a back seat for a couple more weeks...

Around the net - Kat McNally is running reverb, 21 days of blogging/journalling prompts to look back on the year. I'm especially enjoying the responses of Sarah's Heart Writes, so glad to have discovered her blog!