Thursday, April 29, 2010

Portrait of mum by Sam

This is a picture that Sam drew of mum, in a naive fashion. She's a budding artist at age 6 and draws on restaurant paper tablecloths.



Wednesday, April 21, 2010

Life drawing with ink

Over the weekend I attended the sketch club at ArtEst. The model was a man, which was an exception and rather refreshing. I decided to attempt these sessions with ink. At first I used charcoal to outline then a confident brush strokes. Erasing the charcoal left marks.


So I decided to go without the charcoal. Maybe because it was the last session and I was warmed up, the result was better.


An opportunity to sketch Sarina came up in the week. She lives in a house right on the waterfront in the eastern suburbs. What a view! The waves lapped gently and there were boats on the water. She certainly lives well. Anyway we had a lovely time although my sketches were, I thought, mediocre. The best one is this 3 min sketch with loose lines.


I believe that the best sketches in ink are the ones done quickly. The lines are looser and impressionistic. Longer poses end up over worked.

Saturday, April 17, 2010

Botanical ink drawings

Following on from my experiments with ink and wash, I've decided to try some botanical art. Subjects are easy to find : my garden is blooming. The magnolia little gem has these wonderfully waxy leaves that are rust brown underneath. The flower is a delicate white with a pungent scent.


The frangipani tree is just outside my studio which makes it very handy to draw: just open the window. The tree us still in bloom and lush. In another month, the leaves start to drop. Our flowers are white with a yellow heart. There are those that are pink with yellow hearts.



Friday, April 9, 2010

Red rocks in gold country

On our recent trip to the Central West NSW, I was amazed at the colour of the rocks. Over the Blue Mountains the escarpments are sandstone and that fabulous yellowy orange. Near the old mining town of Sofala and Hill End, the rocks become red-orange. My hubby who once was a geophysicist, tell me that 'them hills have gold'. Especially where rivers run through and the gold sediments are leached out of the rocks. I was also amazed that eucalyptus trees grow on virtually nothing, or else how does one explain trees clinging to rock cliffs? This painting attempts to depict the scenery on our drive, rock face in the most vivid colours, with sheer drops on the other side of the road.


Another spot with red escarpments is along the Turon River on Hill End Road, past Sofala. A camping spot exists on the river, the escarpment is wonderfully red. I would challenge the automatic snapper to capture this colour faithfully. Photos flatten the colours and sometimes the features too. But a painter has no such restriction!

Thursday, April 8, 2010

A loose line style

Inspired by Ada I returned to a subject I abandoned using acrylic and decided to experiment with water colour washes and ink outlines. The subject was my daughter and friend on a carousel. This is a dynamic scene whirling and kids laughing which actually lends itself quite well to this technique. The difficulty is deciding when to stop.



Monday, April 5, 2010

Ada Clark in Milthorpe

Over Easter, we made a trek to the Orange region in NSW. We had hopes of avoiding the crowds up and down the coast by going inland. The weather was glorious and scenery spectacular. The region has great diversity in landscape; from the sheer sandstone escarpments at Blue Mountains, to granite tors and hills around Bathurst. We stayed at Milthorpe, a picturesque town near Orange and enjoyed walks around town. I'll write more on the places we went to as I post paintings (not done but lots of inspiration obtained!) up. But what I wanted to write today is about the delightful meeting we had with the nearly 80 year old artist Ada Clark. Her work was hanging at the motel we stayed in and I admired the loose strokes and bright colours. This is her painting of Milthorpe in Autumn.



It looks simple but effective and I wondered if I should pursue that more abstract style for some subjects. The receptionist advised me to visit Ada's Place. Ada turned out to be a sprightly woman, who offered us coffee and cake for free while we were browsing her shop. Ada is obviously a well travelled soul with many paintings and artefacts for sale from Italy, Greece, Turkey and of course, Milthorpe. She is planning a trip to Central Asia next and is by her own account, a popular artist. It is easy to see why: her style would fit well with contemporary interiors. What impressed us is her youthful enthusiasm for life despite her age. She was also generous in sharing details of her printer (who makes her prints, cards and coasters), and offered to send me an invitation to her pre-Christmas exhibition in Molong. An invitation will turn up by snail mail, Ada is definitely non-electronic, bless her soul!