Summer hydrangeas

It's summer and the hydrangeas are lovely.


These ones came from my mother in law's garden which had to be reached through a very well locked door from her cellar. I know I will never get more than an impression of their beauty - so here it is.
On Christmas Day, mum in law came for lunch, saw this painting and loved it.  So she took it home for a Christmas present.  I seem to give away more paintings over time, it saves me the trouble of exhibiting and selling...

Excursion to Jervis Bay

After a longish hiatus I enrolled myself in a plein air workshop last weekend. It was run by the charming Alison Chiam, of Malaysian Chinese/ Scottish heritage. The workshop was held at Jervis Bay, about 2.5 hours away from Sydney.

The afternoon we left a thunderstorm with hail came down with great effect. The trip took us nearly 4 hours! The next day the weather was dismal - showers and a brisk wind made it rather wintry. Being a wuss I assumed that the workshop would be relocated to an indoor venue. Well, it wasn't and we ended up stuck mostly in a shelter at Picnic Point.




Rowen Matthews the art tutor is an academic and practising painter. His message is to paint expressively - in other words convey the feeling of the place. I'm sure he is right, at some level I know that paintings of places that I've loved always sold first. Being outside, despite the elements really helps. If only plein air weren't so uncomfortable. One is either too hot or too cold. The less equipment you bring the less you can achieve. The balance is a challenge. Despite the conditions I was happy with my first painting - it's a sandbank across the creek. I had to paint peeking out from the cracks of the shelter....



The next day the weather cleared. Hurray! The time we went to Greenfields Beach. I was encouraged to try palette knife painting as a quick way to get an impression down. These are small boards but perfect for field work.


This last one was of another creek. I was struck by the tea stained rocks in the creek. One can only see this in the shadows - the water reflected the sky perfectly in other places. I'm glad to have attended this workshop as it has now inspired me to get out and paint. I've finally bought a tube of retardant which I will be thankful for outside of rainy days.

St Mark's

Everyone who visits Venice would have been to St Mark's - the Byzantine cathedral decorated with the booty from the East. It's certainly the most fantastic building I've seen.


This painting was inspired by St Marks but it's not the colours of the real building which was too subdued to depict its richness and grandeur.

Venetian roofscape

Last year we were in Europe on vacation. And Italy being my favourite place, we were in Venice.


Our hotel was very close to San Marco but in a quieter part of the sestieri. Our rooms had this gorgeous view of rooftops. But my favourite time to admire this was at dusk when the whole place glowed with a soft golden light. Even now when I think of this view I get a warm feeling - how lucky for those who can feast their eyes everyday.

Life drawing in colour

This term I have not enrolled in an art class as the swim season looms and I'm race secretary. I know I'm going to be very busy. But when my friend Fiona asked if I'd go for a casual class, I was quite excited. Firstly because I do like figure drawing and secondly because Fi, who badly needs me-time, is able to go.



We did the usual warm up exercises and then we had an hour long pose. This is really unusual because models usually can't stay still that long. I took the opportunity to do an ink drawing.


We had more time - I then got ambitious and started an acrylic and ink combination- nearly didn't finish it. The pose from this angle was severely fore shortened which made composition difficult. But I'm pleased with the results. Best of all, Fi had a good day and plans to return next week.

Trees

It's officially winter and pretty wet and cold but I guess the trees haven't caught up with the season. Everywhere I go there's still autumn leaves. One evening I was popping by our music teacher's place when I was struck by the street scene.


Shadows are long even at 3:30pm and the sun sets before 5.



I found time to paint these gum trees using watercolour. The wax crayon makes a great effect of the tree trunk. This is the view looking up at the trees.

Last lesson of term

Sadly today's the last lesson of the term. I've had a ball - Susie is just such an inspiring teacher. Today we get to paint landscapes or flowers.


Robyn brought a photograph of these gum trees taken during her trip to the Kimberleys. Some wax resist later, here is the result.


We also attempted to paint this church building- located in UK I'm sure.


Here are my poppies but the following is Susie's. Don't you simply love the delicate petals? Absolutely stunning!


Having eaten far too much cake (thank you Rowena!) I said goodbye. Unfortunately I can't return next term due to work. Bummer but I think I'm ready for a break anyway- it's been so frantic recently. But I will miss the company and Susie's effervescence.

Life drawing and painting

By luck we have an intern at ArtEst Catherine from Texas. She agreed to be our model (clothed). I much rather have a clothed model than nudes as these are so much more acceptable to hang!



We start off with a seated pose. Love the angles created by the crossed legs.


This other one is less natural.


And finally a pose with her chin in her hands. It was pretty difficult to draw this one. Never mind that I tried twice.

Spoleto in Umbria

Last year we went on a family holiday to Europe and rented this amazing farmhouse in Spoleto Umbria. The views were truly stunning looking past the olive groves down the valley with the mountain range of the Monto Sibillini in the background.


I finally found the time and inspiration to paint it. In acrylics as I made a mess of the watercolour attempt. I'm giving this to my sister who shared our holiday to remind her of good times.

Negative spaces and upside down

This week Susie revived her galloping cowboy on horse picture to force us to draw negative spaces upside down. It was as arduous as the last time. But effective in getting a good likeness, especially for difficult subjects.



Then we had a choice of scenes to do the same. I have always found buildings difficult but done the same way it wasn't too bad. Naturally the picture I copied was much simplified already... Much easier. Rowena thinks that we will all have to be bats if painting plein air.

More still life

This week we attempted to increase the contrast and let the watercolour 'do its thing'. The iris actually was an excellent subject for this.


I also attempted these magnolias.


And finally a still life of onions and garlic to challenge us. They have lovely shapes. Much easier of course to paint brown and red onions than anything white.

Flowers again

Today we tackle flowers again but this time experimenting with wet on wet. Some lovely effects are possibly with the colours running into one another.


This ink drawing was super-imposed on a background of colours. I used acrylic ink as it does not run once dry and I can come into it with more watercolour.

Blue mountains

Our recent holiday at the Blue Mountains has inspired this painting of our bushwalk. It was morning and the light was beautiful- ideal time for a walk to appreciate the scenery.


Meantime I've started T2 watercolour with Susie. We did a still life and I introduced this wonderful colour called paynes grey. Naughty of me but its so gorgeous and dark!






For the gumnuts I used gouache white as it was impossible to get the texture otherwise.

Small painting

A vacation at the quiet end of the Blue Mountains inspired me to paint. We stayed at a huge luxurious house with views and Miss 11 fed the neighbour's horse with apples.


Bilpin and its surroundings are apple orchard country. We didn't pick any although we enjoyed an apple pie and ate lots of fresh apples.

Mangrove Cooks river

I've been working on this painting for a little while, on and off. It's a mangrove clump on the tidal Cooks River.


What I like is the reflections of the tree on the water, which is moving. Cooks River is a great spot for cycling and walks at high tide but not so great at low tide.

Large format at last!

This week's focus was on large format and ink (hallelujah!) something I've wanted to learn a long time. Susie brought a2 paper and distributed it around. We were given an ink pot and a bamboo stick to draw with. After drawing, a brush was applied to give it some shading.






I just love the effect! And then I tried putting a wash of colour in first, letting it dry before inking them.





It looks a treat and so quick!



An English scene done the same way. Perhaps best in a smaller format. Or more subtle colouring? Need to work on mixing large batches of colour. This is our last week this term. I'll be back for more next term!

Inspired

The technique of painting first then drawing was put to use with a venetian scene. Reader would know how bitterly I complain about painting realistic buildings. The trick it seems is to paint naively. It's an impression not an architectural drawing!


There was a lot of wet paint dribbling on this sheet. It was fun in a watercolour fun way. I then painted the lines in with acrylic paint. Never mind that everything's crooked.


And here is a painting of the path to our accommodation in Harden. We stayed at a beautiful place some miles out of the homestead. I must be inspired... these were all created on a weekend. Normally out swimming or socialising.

Flowers

This week we painted Susie's favourite subject - flowers. The idea is to let the watercolour be beautiful- spraying it and letting the colours run into each other. Then outlining the shapes before the paints could dry.



The gold pen looks remarkable in these paintings. The mantra is to 'not care'. As it happens I'm very good at not caring!

Class 3

The subject today was birds. I've often baulked at the thought of painting animals but somehow birds are okay. Especially roosters and hens.



Following this we were encouraged to paint a bird perched on a cup. Obviously large birds can't be perched on a cup. To my surprise Jennifer used my bird for her website.


After that I found some sketches done by John Haycraft and decided to paint the subject in watercolour.






It's actually easier because John had already simplified the subject for me. All the tones are there - he draws magnificently.

Class 2 watercolour

On an unexpectedly wet day Susie was held up in traffic so everyone had a go at their own painting. Here is my Wylies special.



When she did turn up, we painted portraits. This one should have been a woman but looks mannish. Oh well....

More watercolour with Susie

When Jennifer from ArtEst rang to offer me a place in Susie Murphie's class, I was surprised as the term had already started. However not one to look at a gift horse in the mouth, I immediately accepted.


It was a colour mixing class - this was to be painted using only magenta, burnt sienna and ultramarine blue.


So many lessons I've forgotten- and of course Susie is a pleasure to spend time with.