Adelaide Zombie Walk

Started work on a new piece yesterday. Some more inanimate objects from everyday life. Got the background done and I'm quite happy with it. Its a bit darker than I wanted and covers a lot of the text from the torn book pages I used but that's ok. Nearly finished drawing the image on and then I'll be ready to paint. Have a backlog of ideas I want to paint. My ideas are coming in so strong and fast I can't keep up with them. That's good I say. Nothing worse than having no ideas at all.

Julia and some of her friends went on Adelaide's Zombie Walk last night. Yes they all dressed up as zombies and walked the streets. Zoe was excited to be in on the action. After the walk I picked her up and took her home so the adult Zombies could have drinks in the many venues offering cheap drinks to Zombies.

Zombies all ready for their big walk.

Mother and daughter zombies.
Aren't they beautiful?

The Daisy

The struggle with the daisy is finally over and thoughts of a new piece are swimming around my head. Think I'll go back to some everyday inanimate objects that I understand. I bought a couple of new canvases and am itching to get started on them.

He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not

acrylic paint and conte on canvas

60.9 x 50.8cm (24"x20")

The Story of the Daisy

Has it really been that long since I posted on my blog? What have I been doing? I have been doing my art as usual but am struggling with my latest piece. I worked out why so many artists paint lilies. Its because daisies are hard to paint hehehe. Yes I'm trying to paint a really large daisy and its giving me some grief. Now the funny thing is I needed a particular colour conte crayon to finish the shading on the daisy. I finally bought the conte I needed but was going to visit my friend Mignon for lunch so I couldn't work on the piece. I took some of my recent artwork to show Mignon and decided to take the daisy piece to face one of my fears of showing unfinished work that hasn't been resolved yet. We had a lovely time catching up and talking about art. Mignon shared with me the book she's been writting. She's always wanted to write children's fiction and she's finally doing it. Good on you Mignon!!! I love the story and can't wait till she writes more. Its left me wanting to know what happens next. Anyway I digress... I packed up all my artwork and left Mignon's about 5pm and in peak hour traffic I realise I left that darn daisy piece behind. So now I have the conte but not the piece. I drive right near Mignon's when I take my son to work so I asked her to leave it out as I will come by early to pick it up. She didn't want to leave it out all night so she thought she would put it out in the morning. However finding the piece was not outside I looked at the time and thought it much too early to wake people up by pounding on the door. I left some books on the doorstep that I promised to lend and left. Once back home Mignon rang hehehe. She was up and putting the daisy piece outside when she noticed I'd already been hehehe. Will try again tomorrow morning. Will I ever get this piece finished? Is this the universe trying to tell me to give up, its a lost cause, don't paint daisies.

Women's Work

I love the every day objects of everyday life. I particularly like the things that were considered women's objects. In days past women's work was never considered as important as men's and in a lot of ways that's still true today. By depicting every day objects in my art I'm trying to show the importance of what was considered women's work and lift it to new heights. Its so hard to try and talk about this and stay politically correct but I'm sure you know what I'm trying to say. I'm quite passionate about this subject and I think this may be the start of a series.

The frying pan and colander in this painting are particularly important to me as they belonged to my Grandmother. When my Mum got married my Grandmother gave her a few things from her kitchen to help out. When we migrated to Australia these items were carefully packed in big boxes and shipped to our new home. To me they are a link to the past. A link to my Grandmother who I never saw again. And a link to all those wonderful women who came before me and quietly performed all their duties to perfection.

She Performed Her Duties to Perfection

collage, acrylic paint and conte on canvas

60.9x50.8cm (24"x20")

Blocked...nah not me!

Back on track after a couple of scary days. I've been really in the creative zone lately and getting a lot of artwork done. Of course this got me thinking. Rather than just going with the flow, happy that I'm creating, I had to start analysing it and thinking about how it will be perceived out in the world. Well that put a hold on my creative flow and could have turned into a major block if it wasn't for the skills I learned reading The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron. Just create for the act of creating JC says and don't think about the outcome. Well I did just that and I'm happy to say I'm back in the creative flow once more. I started a new piece yesterday and if I don't spent too much time on the computer or sitting around in my pyjamas drinking coffee I could get it finished today. That would be a record. Two days for an artwork! That's unheard of!!!

Happy Anniversay

This person you see below has made me happy for twenty years.

Happy anniversary Bob!

Blue Bowl, Yellow Lemons

This canvas was a piece that I just couldn't get to work so I glued on some old book pages as the first layer.

Now I've added image transfers of my grandmother's handwriting and added some patterned paper.

A little wash of colour is next.

A little darker colour for the edges.

Some text stamped on. (Sun was behind a cloud. Hence the variation in colour from the previous pic)

Still looked a bit bland so more colour!

Patterned stamp used in darker colour.

Picture roughly sketched in and filled with colour.

Details and tone added.

I felt the background was still too pale so another deeper wash was added.

Shadow of the bowl added to stop it looking like it was floating in mid air.

Irene's Kitchen

collage, image transfer, acrylic paint and conte on canvas

91 x 91cm (36"x36")

Chicken Soup and Barbecue

Started a new piece on Thursday. Got the first layer of torn book pages done. Its a large canvas so it took the whole day. Yesterday was shopping day. With all the hunter gatherer action there was no time for art. The weather was a little cool again yesterday so took the opportunity to cook a batch of chicken soup. Summer is on the way and that's the time for salads so it was nice to indulge in a hearty soup one last time. It was a big pot of soup, enough for tonight's dinner too. That means I can get lost in the studio and won't have to stop to cook dinner. Might even work after dinner as well.

My friend Kris will be in town on Sunday. She'll be staying over so I think we might have a barbecue for dinner. Bob won a large meat tray in the raffle at the football club so there will be plenty of meat. All I have to do is whip up a salad. Seeing Kris won't have to drive, might get some wine to have with dinner. Mmm looking forward to it already.

Tuscany Looks Nice This Time of Year

Two posts in one day. What's the world coming to??? Just finished the Italian piece and thought I'd post pics of the layers like I promised.

First layer is just some random blotches of acrylic paint. I don't always paint first. It all depends on what paper I use to collage with. If I'm going to stick on old book pages I don't paint first.

Layer number two is just a wash of one colour to harmonise all the colours of the first layer.

Layer number three is very ugly. Paper glued on and torn off. This is to add texture. I usually like to use old book pages or newspaper or old phone book pages for this technique. Seeing this piece was about Italy I thought English text would be wrong so that's why I went for the plain paper instead.

Next layer is just a wash of acrylic paint and the texture is starting to appear.

Layer 5 is another wash of acrylic paint to make the surface richer.I like to use washes as they allow each layer to show through which adds depth to the finished piece.

I love text in my work so layer 6 was adding some Italian text and some pretty bits of paper here and there to add interest. Some of the text is image transfer using printable rub ons and other text I've written on myself. Got some Italian love poems off the net. It was hard writing in Italian. I had to be careful not to make mistakes. At this stage I'm still only working randomly and not thinking too much about placement.

Layer 7 is some stamping with my favourite letter stamps. The words say "Its a beautiful day, no?" Still just working randomly.

Layer 8 is yet another acrylic wash to blend everything together.

Now here I should have layer 9 where I painted in blocks of colour for the door and shutters etc and then layer 10 is the detail drawn on with conte and layer 11 was another wash to put in the shadows. I didn't realise till it was too late that they were actually different layers and should have been recorded. Will try again with the next piece. This just needs some layers of varnish to protect it and its all finished.

Tuscany Looks Nice This Time of Year

collage, image transfer and acrylic paint on canvas

76.2cm x 50.8cm (30"x20")

Spring Is My Favourite Season

The last few days have been great. I've been able to lose myself in the studio. Had cooked enough dinner for two nights so didn't even have to stop to cook last night. It was hard to come back down to earth though. Does that happen to anyone else? Hopefully I should finish the Italian piece today. I'm thinking the title will be "Tuscany Looks Nice This Time of Year".

Looks like rain today. We could use it. Garden is already dry and its just in the start of spring. So many blossoms on my peach tree and they are turning into tiny peaches (so cute). Orange tree is so full of blossoms this year. With the jasmine, orange blossoms and wisteria all blooming at the moment, the garden is so fragrant. I open the windows and let the scent inside. I love spring!