Its Summer

Yesterday the temperature reached 45.7C (114F). Its the hottest day for 70 years. Overnight it only got down to 33C (91F). Phew! You'd think with all that sweating a person would lose some weight, but not I!!! I think the worse thing about it all is the cabin fever. You don't really venture out much and you close all curtains from the outside heat. I suppose its a bit like hibernation only its hot. I envy my fish swimming around in their cool pond. Poor Jack is feeling the heat. He just lays around panting. He hates water so I can't even hose him down to keep him cool.

I did manage to do some artwork yesterday. The paint was drying even before I finished the brush stroke. Okay that's a bit of exaggeration but only a bit. I'm still just working on backgrounds until my creative flow returns. Like my good friend Laura says "you got to show up at the canvas" so that's what I'm doing. I'm actually enjoying just playing around with colour and texture without having a preconceived idea. Will have to brave the heat soon and go out for more canvases.

I went out with Julia last night. We went to see an Ani DiFranco concert. The venue was air conditioned YAY! Oh yeah and the concert was great too hehehe. Shame the man next to me couldn't sit still and wouldn't stop talking or singing. Perhaps if you drank less beer you wouldn't need to get up and go to the bathroom so often and disturb all the people around you. Ani is a very passionate story teller and I thoroughly enjoyed the concert. Its great watching people that are passionate about their art. Very inspiring!

Mini Artist Block in Progress

I'm struggling with my art lately. I'm not sure why. I was in a real creative flow before Christmas. That flow was interrupted with Christmas preparations and I can't seem to get it back. I tried something new with my backgrounds and that didn't work. Now I'm able to do the background (see below) but whatever I paint on it I have to scrub back because it hasn't worked. I tell myself its because of the heat. Who can be creative in these temperatures, right? Then I tell myself its the change of routine with Bob being home. Bob does house renovations and that's always quiet after Christmas. Well we'll see. He's off to a job today. This is not a good time to be having a block with the exhibition coming up in May. Well today I've decided to put this piece to one side and start another background. That way I'm still being productive and when my creative flow returns I will have backgrounds completed and ready to go.



The forecast for today is 44C (111F) and the extended forecast shows it will stay hot right up to next Tuesday. The temperature didn't drop below 30C (86F) overnight, phew. Well I'm off to gym to cool down in the nice refreshing pool, do some aqua-aerobics and then come home and do some art. What more could a girl ask for?

Peach Jam

The weather forecast is for quite a few hot days to come. I thought my peaches wouldn't survive out there in the blazing sun so I decided to pick them all at once. I usually like to leave them on the tree and collect the fallen ones from the ground. They aren't as big as other years but so many of them the poor tree needed to be tied up so the branches didn't break from the weight of the fruit. Decided to make some peach jam. Zoe got a recipe from the internet 1.5kg peaches, 750g sugar, juice of two lemons.

lovely fuzzy peaches fresh from the tree

later that day ... jam!

Zoe says the jam is yummy. Perfect with fresh bread. The rest of the peaches were cooked up to preserve them. It means we can still enjoy them when the summer is long gone. Might have some now with a little bit of low fat ice cream mmm.

Change

Yesterday I was clever. That is why I wanted to change the world. Today I am wise. That is why I am changing myself.
Sri Chinmoy

New Work - Finally!

I am proud to announce I'm finally back on track after the Christmas disruption. Have had a lovely time at the easel and feel like I'm back in control. I had to leave the coffee cup series because it was giving me grief and went onto something else just to break the ice so to speak. I usually work in bright colours but thought I would give something dark a try. I was aiming for that dark look like the old masters have. I also wanted to keep the objects transparent to let the background show through. For the darker areas I just let more background show through and applied more paint to the lighter areas. I think I will do a few more dark paintings as I thoroughly enjoyed the process. I think I will do one more painting before getting back to the coffee cup series.

She Grew Gourds in Her Garden

mixed media on canvas

50.8cm x 60.9cm (20"x24")

Master Chef auditions were a lot of fun. Julia is happy to announce she did NOT get in. She was really happy to get back to her no stress life. We met some really nice people and saw (and tasted) some very inspiring food. The show will air here in May and I will be interested to see if I recognise any faces.

The Willow Tree

I had a lovely time with my sister and my mum yesterday. We spent most of our day in Ilka's garden. Ilka and her partner Herman moved about 3 months ago. They have settled in now and look like they have lived there for years. They have a big willow tree in the back yard. The tree looks like it had twin trunks at one time. One of the trunks has been cut down and Ilka has placed a cushion on the stump. Its a great place to sit with your back on the remaining trunk surrounded by the dangling branches and leaves. It was a perfect day with lovely weather and good company.

Julia is stressing at the moment hehehe. She put an application in to be part of the show 'Master Chef'. There were 7500 applications in South Australia and only 100 of these get a chance to audition. Julia was one of them. She only got notified on Friday and has to front up at 7.30 Monday morning with a prepared dish. The dish has to be a cold as there are no heating facilities at this stage of the competition. If the audition goes well you go into the next stage which means cooking a dish in front of the cameras on Tuesday. Julia asked me to go with her as her support person. With such short notice I hope I am able to make it.

Some of my internet friends are in the cold with snow and arctic winds so I thought I would send them a little sunshine. We have enough to go around. Its a scorcher today.

Julia, Zoe and I went on a little photo shoot on Sunday. We like to call it being tourists in our own town hehehe.

One of my favourite place is Kingston Park. Its about 20 minutes from my house and the lookout overlooks the coast. Down below is Kingston Park caravan park which is always busy this time of year as its right on the beach.

Here's Zoe taking a photo of a fishing boat she saw on the water.

Please ignore the added, yet to come off, Christmas weight on yours truly hehehe.

This last photo is near my house. On the left is the park where I like to take Jack for a walk. Its all dry with no green grass due to the season. They are working on the park at the moment and have just made a dog section which is completely fenced off so the dogs can play together without the fear of them running on the road. The plans are for new picnic areas complete with barbecues etc. Now if you look on the horizon you can see the buildings of Adelaide city centre. It looks lovely at night with the lights twinkling. If you walk down the street and turn left at the second round-a-bout, then go a little further and you will reach my place. Drop in for a coffee if you're in the neighbourhood hehehe.

Too hot for artwork today. Still haven't got back into the swing of things. It still feels like I'm on holiday. I will get back to the easel when the time is right I dare say.

A Day of Business

After going to gym in the morning I spent the afternoon working on my cv, a cover letter and a few images of my current work. One of my goals for this year is to get my work out there so I'm getting ready to contact a few galleries. This is quite daunting but I know its the right step to take. I've checked out some of the galleries but still have some to check out. I might do that on Sunday afternoon. I can check out the galleries and view some artwork at the same time. Its like business and an artist's date rolled into one hehehe.

I've been really struggling with the series of coffee cups. I think I will go back to the original idea. I've been trying something new and its just not working. That happens sometimes. I've put the series away for the time being and did some business stuff instead. Might even do another painting before I go back to them.

The weather has been glorious and mild for this time of year but the forecast is for some real heat next week. On Tuesday they think it will reach 41 degrees celsius ( that's nearly 106F). That means closing all the windows and curtains against the heat, turning on the cooler and hiding away inside. Hope it doesn't last too long :(

Been Working Hard

The dinner and movie the other night was fun. Its good to get out with the family and escape the real world by watching a children's movie. Zoe seemed to enjoy it as she laughed out loud quite a bit. In fact we all did. I loved it when it rained gum balls and the ground just became a sea of coloured balls.

Yesterday I got to spend 6 hours doing my artwork (happy, happy, joy, joy). Today I also spent more time on my artwork but it was interrupted by a shopping trip with Mum and Julia. Couldn't miss out on a shopping trip with two of may favourite girls :). Its after dinner now and I will go and do some more painting and stamping and gluing as soon as I finish this post. That's the beauty of summer time - not only is there longer daylight but there are no good programs on tv to lure you. I'm struggling a bit with the series of 3 I'm working on. I'm trying something new and not sure the direction it will take. The time just flies by so I know I'm enjoying myself.

Got mail today from overseas. I love getting mail that's not bills. I now have a lovely collection of cards that my internet friends have sent me over the last year. Mostly the cards are of their own artwork and I treasure them. I am still amazed how close you can get to people you have never physically met. Ok that's enough rambling. Back to work for a little while longer so I have some new work to show you soon. With Christmas etc. it feels like such a long time since I finished a new piece.

A Night Out

I'm going to dinner and a movie tonight with Bob, Julia, Zoe and my Mum. We are going to have pizza (yum) and then see Bedtime Stories. Should be fun. Seems like we haven't done anything like that in ages. My house is clean, the pets are fed so there's no stopping us. We are going to Glenelg so maybe there will be time for a walk on the beach before the movie starts. Tell you about it tomorrow.

Scare

I had a real scare last night. The computer started making this awful noise. I tried turning it off but it had crashed and frozen. I finally got it turned off and thought that was the end of it, the computer was finally dead. I decided to leave it overnight and try it again in the morning. I know computers are just machines but they are temperamental. Sometimes they just need a little rest and all is well. I was a bit worried as I'm just about to start reading You Can Heal Your Life by Louise Hay with my online group and I have been looking forward to it. With a dead computer and not enough finances to buy a new one I thought I would be offline for quite some time. The other thing was I received an external hard drive for Christmas and hadn't got around to moving all my files and saved stuff onto it. Agh! I thought I had lost it all but as you can see the computer started up like normal this morning. I saved everything onto my external hard drive and am back online. Phew (for now)

A New Year!

The start of a new year always brings such expectations and great hope. Silly really, it is just another day. The time frame is a human creation and yet there's a feeling of real cleansing at the end of a year and the start of a new one. It feels great! Plans are made for the coming year and there's reflections of the old year to see what improvements and changes can be made. It really feels like "out with the old and in with the new". Upon reflection I'm quite happy with the growth and inroads I've made within my art practice. I know I've worked hard to develop my skills. I've also worked hard to do regular exercise and to eat healthy and nourishing food. Ok I've strayed off the path sometimes but I always found my way back. I'm not one to make new year's resolutions but I do set goals for myself. This year my goals are to get my artwork out there more (some fears to face there) and to be less critical of others and of myself as well (phew, that's a hard one that will need lots of work).
I actually did some artwork yesterday. Couldn't see the year out without a little dabble. Bob and I didn't go out. We watched the fireworks in Sydney Harbour on tv with Zoe. She managed to stay awake and see in the new year. Today is some much needed grandma/granddaughter time and maybe if I'm lucky I will get a little art time in as well.
HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!