Reflections on water

This painting is a study of reflection on water. Water is one of the hardest subject to do well, it ripples, it reflects but only partially, it is both translucent and opaque in parts. I have always loved the challenge of depicting it and this study is based very loosely on a painting for sale at Norma's gallery.



The water here is very still and reflects the sandstone partially. There is more I can do but as I started on a oil sketch paper, I'm not sure it will tolerate any further rubbing: it might all disintegrate in a heap!

Coledale rockpools

A couple of months ago, we spent a weekend at Coledale, down the south coast. I was really impressed with the Illawarra coast, it is truly where the sandstone cliffs meet the sea. This painting is of the rockpools on the beach. This place is truly magical, full of rockpools that can be explored and reflections on the water... It is one of the special places in my heart.


As Art Est did not have an acrylic class this term, I found myself a class at Gallery NTK in Croydon. The proprietor and art teacher Norma has revolving exhibitions. It is a nice group. The fellow artists and the exhibits provide the artistic touchstone I needed.

Pin up girls of 1940s, 50s and 60s

Sarina invited me to a drawing session at East Sydney which was held every month. The session was focussed on the pin up girls of the 1940's and 50's.


Pin up, as Barry Dean, the teacher explained, was a wartime genre, a precursor to today's Playboy magazine. They were more conservative then, and the girls were mostly clad, with some underwear and stockings/ suspenders showing. Mostly, reasons were invented for this slip: from skirts blown by wind (eat your heart out Marilyn) to inadvertently placed fishing hooks or golf clubs. Pin ups were originally sent to fighting troops to remind them why they were doing the fighting. This was actually a very successful genre for some artists, the best known of whom are Vargas and Elvgren. The session was focussed on Elvgren, with Sarina recreating the poses complete with props and a cheeky grin. As a burlesque dancer, Sarina has a number of dresses and outfits that were of the era. So, complete with songs from the period, I felt like I was transported back to the 1940's! The group was fairly accomplished with some outstanding artists, I enjoyed looking at their art and got some great ideas. Here is one I did using pastels and the original Elvgren for reference.





The second one I thought worth posting is of the sweater girl. Both these were done in 30 mins.





I am fascinated by this genre for although I like nudes, clothed people presents a greater not reduced challenge. Sarina kindly agreed to let me photograph her so I am intending to develop one or two into acrylics on canvas.

Autumn leaves success at last

Having enjoyed a long Indian summer, autumn has finally arrived in Sydney. Our autumn leaves are no way as fine as Canberra or Melbourne. However, this grove of plum trees at Peace Park near my house caught my eye on a walk one day. It was magnificent: well, it was for Sydney. So I resolved to paint these trees but because the camera never captures the colours like life, I decided to paint plein air. Thanks to my friend Doreen taking Miss 6 year old out, I had the opportunity last Saturday, which was a lovely warm day. Plein air or studio, I had to have my iPod play music and was set up with a small table for brushes and paint.



At first there were few at the park and nobody took much notice except for one guy with a dog who conspired to peer at my attempt from the back. Then a woman came with her daughter and talked. I did my best to ignore them but they were persistent. The kid was very chatty and asked lots of questions. She also volunteered a lot of info which further convinced me that school teachers know all family secrets. I had to come back the following day as the light was fading fast.

The following day attracted more mothers with their children and I ignored them best as I could as I was desperate to complete this as quickly as possible, due to the hot sun. But I think that the results are worth the pain of curious passerbys. When painting on the scene, the beauty of the original inspires the painting. Painting from a photo is another step removed. Does this attempt look like a golden autumnal afternoon? 

Haystacks revisited

Many friends who have seen the haystack picture at Young have said how much they like it. I was encouraged to do a tryptich. Unfortunately as I embarked on the exercise sometime after the original was completed, I had to remix and match the colours. This was far harder than I had anticipated. First of all, this was best done in daylight as my studio light was not bright enough and was not the right colour. Finding free time in the day was pretty difficult with school holidays and long weekends and a school age child demanding attention.


The trytitch is a panaroma of the haystacks near Young, as observed from the roadside. The haystacks are machine made of course, and their placement in the landscape is really regular, neat and surreal.  The distant views includes some more paddocks, fields and mountains.  Now that it is complete and hanging on my wall, it looks pretty amazing because of its size (approximately 1.2m x 0.6m).  My husband wants to charge a lot for it, but possibly it just means he wants to keep it for himself!