How to have a GREAT weekend!

1. Find some odd local event that has almost nothing to do with anything you are normally interested in and go along for the ride......

yep, that is a knight! 

dancing and musicians

knights on horseback

jousting!!

We had fun at the Medieval Fair :-)

 2. Let the pups take you for a walk...

3. Buy some pumpernickel bread, pretzels and Heineken beer and have your own private Octoberfest!

'Cheers!'

Take time to smell the roses.

What do you think?

I have been working on this pastel for a few weeks. The foreground has changed hugely since I started. Originally I had a pond and some bushes and branches in the foreground, but it just didn't work. I wiped all that off and now have the main tree stepping right into the viewer's space.  What do you think? Am I getting there?

Kitch or folk art, or both?

This morning I went shopping for home wares at a second hand shop with my daughter, who is moving out, and I found these amazing lidded mugs. They have beautiful relief images on them and seemed so lost amongst the odd cups and saucers and glasses. I had to have them - and they were only $5 each! 

I don't drink beer, and I have never been to Germany or Bavaria or wherever it is they came from (unfortunately) but I can't stop looking at these mugs. They are a knockout!

'the half hour painter'

Some years ago my sister gave me a book called 'The Half-Hour Painter' by Alwyn Crawshaw. I used to struggle with the idea of plein air painting because it seemed uncomfortable and difficult to set up and then it seemed to take an interminable amount of time to get much done, and I don't have a great attention span. In his book Mr Crawshaw demonstrates how to work ''half hour exercises" and talks about making decisions about composition, light and so on. In short he made it seem possible to paint a picture in the open air in half an hour, and I decided that I could cope with anything for half an hour. I have done many of these quick sketches now and find it enjoyable and very good for my art practise. A bit like the sketching equivalent of the 'daily pages' that Julia Cameron suggests in her book The Artist's Way


Here is todays 'half hour' sketch. These flowers, gymea lilies, are spectacular and native to the greater Sydney sandstone escarpment area.

Art Show

 For the past few years I have been involved with the Marsden Arts Group, which is a community of artists who meet once a month to support and inspire each other and we exhibit together once or twice a year. 

Our spring exhibition is running over the next couple of weeks and it opened last night. It was a great opening, lots of happy people, great looking art work and good vibes.

We are at the Watson Community Arts Centre.

                                        

Our art group

'Where is home', pastel

'Nestegg' , pastel

my watercolour and ink on rice paper fish paintings

It is exciting to see your work displayed in a gallery.

a room of one's own

A couple of years ago we built me a light filled studio. Here I am working at my standing easel.

For many years before I had a studio I had a 'creative dining table' and I got a lot of great work done there. My children and I liked to be together so it worked well for us while they were growing up, but it is wonderful to have a special 'me' place. I grew up in a large family and shared a room with my sisters, and I married young (the first time!!), so this is really the first time I have had a 'room of my own'. I love it.

My husband made me the table :-)