Unexpected

The surprising piece of work I made for the Tropical Delirium exhibition was a sculpture - I almost never work in 3D, but after I made a little painting of a gardener and a drawing, I really wanted to get rid of the background and just focus on her.

I'd have loved to do a woodcarving or stone carving - but I didn't have the materials, and it might have taken me 10 years to learn the skills!! - so I made her out of paper mache. I made the basic form out of rolled up newspaper pulled into shape with masking tape, and then layer after layer of newspaper and diluted pva glue, and then brown paper to give it a bit more strength. I painted it with acrylics. It was a complete experiment, and I was pretty happy with how it turned out - the finish is fairly rough, if I made another I'd pay more attention to the face, to get it smoother and easier to paint!

Here's the little painting it goes with.

Big for me.

Last Friday was the opening of the group exhibition I’m part of called ‘Lost in Tropical Delirium’. I didn’t wander too far from my favourite subjects of gardening, parks, beach and birds, my experience of life in the tropics. I challenged myself to work a bit bigger than usual.

This one I think is 60x60cm – ‘Mother and daughter reading’. I posted the sketches for this one last time. It’s not based on real life, my daughter doesn’t come walking down the beach with me (too boring), and neither of the figures looks like us. But we do both read a lot, my daughter usually reads on an I-pad, one day she told me she was reading an manga called ‘Death Note’ (a fairly dark and edgy tale), and I was reading something at the other end of the spectrum ‘The Miniaturist’ set in 17^th century Amsterdam. I guess this is the moment that sparked the painting.

The other biggish painting I did is approx. 60x80cm is called ‘The Cloud Dress’. It’s based on a little doodle in my sketchbook. The crotons in the background of the painting and the bush chooks at the front are very characteristic of Darwin gardens…

I’ll show you some of my other exhibition pieces next time.

I’m looking forward to a lovely weekend of singing. Dynes Austin is musical director of The Café of the Gate of Salvation Choir in Sydney, he’s coming to Darwin to lead a weekend of workshops which ends with a free concert on Sunday at 4.30 at Christchurch Cathedral. (workshops are open to anyone so if you’re interested contact Darwin Chorale) We’ll be singing thiskind of music – have a listen!

Hello May!

Better late than never, here is the 2nd painting I did for the Don Whyte 'Offcuts"show - which I blogged about last time.

So April flew past and May is going the same way. I'm working towards a group show that opens on the 5th June, I'll keep the finished work under wraps for now, but here are some of my drawings working out ideas.

As always I've been finding it hard to knuckle down and get things finished, so I'm hoping a few things will come together at the last minute!!

The dry season is here with beautiful cool nights - I planted some tomato seedlings about a month ago and they're on the verge of flowering...

My oldest son is in year 12 at school, I feel him flexing his wings, about to launch into adulthood, imagining possibilities beyond 'boring Darwin'. (Wherever you grew up seems boring I suppose!) During poetry month I got a Sharon Olds poem "High School Senior" in my inbox, which expresses beautifully some of what I'm feeling.

I've been reading, reading, reading. Favorite reads of the year so far are -
A Spool of Blue Thread by Anne Tyler
Instructions for a Heatwave by Maggie O'Farrell - (just finished last night and loved it)
Also recommended -
We are all completely beside ourselves by Karen Joy Fowler
The Miniaturist by Jessie Burton
I'd love to hear what you've been reading.

This Sunday I'll be at the waterfront craft fair, do drop by and say hello.

I hope you've had a wonderful long weekend!

Here are a few shots from my studio - a bench on the veranda - there's a still life painting in progress. I've used cut out paper shapes of the plant pot and vase to play around with the composition. It's kind of an imaginary still life, but I did bring a plant in from the garden and a vase from the kitchen for reference.

The painting is for the Don Whyte Framing offcuts show. It's an annual fundraising exhibition which I try to get involved with -tho I blew it last year! If you're in Darwin it opens next Saturday and is always a buying frenzy!! There's a great write up about it here.

Here's a shot of the painting in progress, and the finished work, below.

Wet season garden

Here are a couple of photos of m poor neglected garden. In the wet season I don't have to walk around with the hose, so I forget to walk around at all! The weeds are taking over, some thngs thrive and some get drowned or strangled.

Here's a pawpaw that self seeded - I love the shape of their leaves.

Here's some thai basil, we son't eat much because the kids don't like it, but the purple and white flowers are beautiful (and much more successful than the gazania flowers I did plant - the packet says they grow like weeds, but not in my garden!)

On the front fence are some sword beans or poor man's beans. I got the seeds from the local church/ charity shop/ community garden - people bring produce and seeds to swap on Saturday mornings. I got an envelope of 4 seeds and they have grown like the proverbial bean stalk!! As soon as they sprouted I realized the pots they were in were too small, but I was advised not to disturb the roots, so I cut holes in the pots and planted them pots and all in the ground in the front yard. They have grown like crazy over the fence, over a small tree, and along the gate - threatening to tie the gates shut overnight!! I've had to prune it back a few times so the postman can still get to the letter box! It's producing plenty of flowers, a lot seem to be falling off, but there are a few bean pods. If anyone knows at which stage to pick them and how to cook them, please let me know.

and a garden drawing :)

sneaking time in the studio

After sitting for a while I did get back to those 2 canvases I posted about a few weeks ago. Here they are, I think they're finished now.

I've been trying to do a little bit of painting in the evenings, ( some weeks it happens, some weeks it doesn't). When I paint on Friday mornings I have lots of time, I get everything out on the dining table on the verandah, books and magazines for reference and inspiration, several canvases in various stages of progress, and squirt every colour of the rainbow out on my palette and settle in for a luxurious couple of hours of painting.

When I paint in the evenings it's on the run, maybe 20 minutes between the kids showers and packing lunchboxes. I work on a corner of the bench where some of my art supplies are sored, and just squirt out a couple of colours to work with. I usually work on backgrounds, underpainting fairly loosely. I've always felt that I needed a big chunk of time to get any painting done, but these little sessions are helping to keep the momentum going. Here are 2 more I finished on Friday that have come out of that process.

Coming up next Friday 6th March is the members show opening at DVAA - small works 12x12cm in the small gallery and life drawing in the main gallery. If it's not pouring with rain I'm aiming to be there!!

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