a couple of new paintings

Here are a couple of (blurry) photos of new paintings. I did these 2 or 3 weeks ago. The one of the woman in the boat was sparked by my 7 year old asking why did boats have those old tyres ?...
They are supposed to be for the craft fair that's coming up fast in 3 weeks! But the boat painting sold already. So I'm busy at the moment finishing off little birds, fridge magnets and lots and lots of cards. Hopefully I'll squeeze in a couple more paintings too.

Catching up on a bit of reading!

I finished reading Wolf Hall, and really enjoyed it. I was a bit perplexed at the end that she chose to stop there, it didn't feel like an ending. I don't think this will spoil it if you haven't read it yet, to know that there is going to be a second book.

Tim Flannery came to Darwin for Wordstorm unfortunately I didn't get to the events he spoke at, but I thought it was about time I read his book The Weather Makers (before I dive into another novel). It's a really important book about climate change, and pretty depressing reading. The science is made interesting and relatively easy to understand. My natural reaction to anything bad is to bury my head in the sand. This book is arguing against that attitude - that accepting global warming is a fact is the first step towards doing something about it. He does give a note of optimism - 'the most important thing to realise is that we can all make a difference and help combat climate change at almost no cost to our lifestyle...'

Kind of in the same vein, I came across a great article by Jeanette Winterson in the Guardian online which is also about the individual making a difference. (Just by the way, the Guardian book blogs discusses a poem each week, if you haven't come across it it's great to read new and old poems with a brief intro, and discussion via comments.)

I'll be back soon with a post with some pictures!
Hope you're having a great week.

On the run!

I didn't post last week as we've been busy with visitors. Oh we're terrible creatures of habit at this house, so it's a good shock to the system to have lovely friends come to stay, and make us go to the markets and the wildlife park, and out to dinner; and to remind us that there is life going on outside Darwin!
Now we're back to normal for a week, but then school holidays will mean more chaos!

I have done a couple of new paintings, but haven't uploaded photos yet. So instead here's my favourite batch of cards I made from recent monoprints.

Discussion of a painting

Be warned this could be a long and rambling post!
On friday my partner looked at my new painting and said - what's the story with the buildings and birds? I said nothing really they just are. That wouldn't be an acceptable answer for his tutor at uni, or for an exhibition proposal...



This is not a major or significant piece of work, but it is interesting to think about a better answer for that question. This painting is a spin off (or continuation of a theme) from one of the monoprints I did last week. When I do the monoprints I work fast, I have a few art books/magazines/sketchbooks open on the table as I work, for ideas and inspiration. The bird and house image came from the cover of the last issue of Cloth Paper Scissors Magazine which featured a sculpture made of clay, paper mache, and wire of a bird atop a small house. I really liked the dark - negative version of this print and that's what set off the painting.

There are other things that I might associate with it but they are not what the painting is about such as-1) I'm reading Wolf Hall at the moment, about the court of Henry VIII, it has constant references to people being sent to the Tower - which also reminds me of the superstition that if the ravens ever leave the tower of London England will fall...
2) Lying in bed listening to bush chooks (scrub fowl) scrabbling on the roof.
3) The fact that they are towers not houses has a fairy tail feel, also the size of the birds is magical.
4) Whether the birds are protective, malevolent, imaginary...
5) I could even look at it with an environmental slant - all those high rise developments in town, people living cut-off from nature, unaware of the birds swooping down to roost on their roof at night.
I hope that another person looking at the painting would bring their own associations and meanings to it. But really it's about the visual - that I wanted to make a painting with the dark silhouettes of the buildings and birds, and from there I wrestled with colour and composition to get something 'satisfactory'.

I'd love to hear how others feel about explaining the ideas behind their art. Hope you had a good weekend!

new monoprints

Just a really quick post (it's late) to show you these new tiny monoprints, around 10x7 cm each.

I've added colour to one with coloured pencils, and will probably be working into and collaging some of the others. I've already used some on cards and hopefully will have photos of them to show soon.

The weather is strange, the rain is back it's very confusing!

I'm a third of the way into Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel - my Mum and sister raved about it so I have to read it too!! It's about life in and around the court of Henry VIII seen through the eyes of Thomas Cromwell, amazingly detailed and completely absorbing. I keep having to go for a little lie down and read a few pages...

Wordstorm and beyond

This weekend was Wordstorm, the NT writer's festival. It's a huge festival for a small town, I managed to get to only a fraction of it. I missed/avoided the big names and big ticket events, and went along to some almost randomly picked forums, and readings, which all turned out to be wonderful. I won't forget for a long time Andrea Hirata struggling through tears to read a chapter of his book, of course tears were rolling down my cheeks too.
Each day I dashed off for a few hours of inspiration and then back home to reality, clothes to wash, kids to feed, my mind still buzzing.

So there wasn't much time for painting but I did start this little canvas.

It's the same lacy top as last time - a very young woman was wearing this on the bus a few weeks ago, she was beautiful but 'undressed'. Probably fine for going out to a night-club, but not for the bus at 8 in the morning. I wanted to tell her to beware...

On the writing front another rejection, and nothing sent out yet for May.

The Crochet Story...

It all started on a Saturday morning... after our usual trip to the library, I popped into the fabric shop for 5 minutes. It's a shop for patchwork/quilters, I don't quilt but I drool over the fabrics and threads and wonder how I can use them in my work. Well, my son came across a book of 'amigurumi' (cute animal softies), 'let's make these' he said, 'oh but they're crochet,' I said, 'I don't know how to do that.

But the seed was in my head, so a few weeks later I went back and bought the book, balls of wool and crochet hooks. The amazing thing for me was that when I sat down with the wool and hook, my hands knew exactly what to do even though I hadn't done it since I was a teenager (30years ago!)

My son who's 12, went in 2 days, from struggling to make one stitch, to finishing a ball that will be an octopus body! My 7 year olds decided they needed more hands...so I taught them finger knitting instead.

Two weeks later the crochet craze is over, hopefully he might pick it up again in the school holidays when he's at a loose end. I've managed to finish this very mutant turtle! (with the book showing how it's supposed to look)