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.

Valleys and mesas

Having painted one version of the Blue Mountains in a hurry I decided to reproduce it but in a larger and longer format.


Every time I go up the mountains, I am again reminded of its grand scale. It really is a series of mesas and valleys, each one further away wreathed in a blue mist. It's a lush place, despite the awful fires ravaging now and again.

Reflections from the dam

This is the last painting started last week at the residential art school. This one I took at the CSU campus itself on one of my early morning walks (that was the only time of day the temperature was cool enough for a walk).



It's of the reflection of eucalyptus trees on the dam. Painted on canvas for portability. Of course it means I have to frame but I guess if it doesn't sell I can pop other paintings in at a later stage.

Day 2 of residential art

After months of neglect, I'm posting every day! While I was silent before I was not totally quiet on the art front. Several pieces were in progress and subsequently completed in time for the exhibition at Bondi Pavilion in March 2014. When I get home I shall post photos of these.

Meantime in class Helen decided to demo poppies. I must say that this subject filled me with fear and loathing. The way she paints flowers is similar to those prints sold at $2 shops and Ikea. She's much better if course but my efforts will look exactly like it. I painted this cottage that falling down next to Currawong. Roger took the photo with his new camera at sunset and it looks a treat.

Residential art school at Bathurst

With some apprehension, I set off to Bathurst for the week long art residential program. Not wanting to drive up here I opted for the train which left at an inconveniently early hour and then had to rationalise my clothes plus art material. It took me ages to decide what to bring and what I could do without.

The journey and its attendant adventures are best left out of this blog. Suffice to say I arrived at the CSU on a stinking hot day and found diggings very like the ones I left behind about 25 years ago.
Today I attended Helen Cottle's acrylic painting course. Helen is from Victoria and a blonde petite woman who looks younger than she is; which I gather is about 50 - she became a grandmother recently. There is a demo and most of the class opted to copy her picture.

I was tempted but decided that I'd better get cracking on my diptych. This is of the view from Tiverton Rd at Gerry and Brad's farm in Harden. I had started it in Sydney but didn't get the time and undivided attention to get any further.


Helen is a good instructor - this is evident from
the number of students who are repeating her course. Her groupies speak highly of her. The art residential has 250 students; mainly females and aged over 40. I guess it's hard to find anyone who can afford the tuition plus accommodation and time out. I'm sure many are retired.
We are over fed numerous times a day. Food is good - the best part is that I don't have to cook it! I'm really enjoying the time to immerse myself in painting.

The last eucalyptus

Last year on a vacation to Mudgee, we went for an 8 km walk through a pine forest to get to some rocks and a view. It took an hour to get there and another to get back. The pine forest dominated but here and there the remnants of a eucalyptus bushland was visible. This painting was inspired by the contrast.

The Blue Mountains

Most Sydney-siders would have been up the Blue Mountains, and right around the mid mountains, stood on the edge of the cliff to peer at the stupendous vista unfolding; range upon range vanishing into the hazy distance. Truly the Blue Mountains is our own Grand Canyon - and it's so accessible, really.


Well this week I decided to try and capture the feel. I had purchased a heavy gel medium and thought to try palette knifing it on the canvas to create the texture of rock face. First painted both rock face with exactly the same colours. Then knocked back the one further away using glazes. Transparent white gives that effect of distance which is so lovely.

Expressive acrylics

Those of you following my ramblings must think that the art production has gone into a hiatus of late, and you are not wrong!  Since my break and trip overseas, I have been diverted into other activities, chief of all playing the keyboard.  It is nearly as satisfying and frustrating as visual art.  I learnt the organ as a child and so can read notes but was not taught classical piano although my sister learnt it, so the many pieces for piano exams is familiar.  I have since taught myself to play a couple of Sonatinas and am very pleased with my progress but this is of course, at the expense of painting....

To get going again, I persuaded Jennifer of Art Est to let me do the Contemporary Acrylics course as a casual.  Larissa who runs the course tells me that its aim is to help artists become more expressive.  Art works that are expressive are seldom as easy as they look - I've tried to loosen up but it still does not come easy.  Larissa also reminded me the basics of painting - block in your colours first and cover the canvas before getting into detail, darks should be laid down before light colours, etc.  She said she preferred to use a warm colour as a background wash as that gave the paintings a lovely glow.  Good tip.

To loosen up, she suggested the use of big brushes as that way it is hard to be precise.  I must say I struggled with the palette in this picture of a house set high on the hill with the wineyard before it.  It is a simple composition with those converging lines drawing attention to the house.  This painting was based on a photo I took in Milthorpe.  I am not sure I like my painting - it is certainly more expressive than my other works in the brushstroke.  But what I got out of the class was the spark to do more paintings.  I believe that if I copied a few works in expressive styles that I admire, I would learn much from the exercise.  A lady in the class did a work ala Charles Blackman and it was very colourful but beautifully done.  I would love to try something of that sort. 

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!

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!

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!

Pastoral scene

Tim has gone this week to Adelaide for an art fest and there is consequently no lessons. Technically I am on break but was itching to paint another country scene. This one is a composite of various photos taken of the country around Harden.


The cows are our friends' but the background was of the paddock and hills on our way to Canberra. Grasslands is a dominant theme in this part of the world. I think that farmers are lucky that so much natural beauty surrounds them. Meantime Roger has completed his course on picture framing. I have so many things for him to frame that he won't know where to start. We have reached a point where the pictures are filling up all available wall space in our house. I think I shall rotate the art work as I go with older ones stored (where??)

Haystacks in the country

Our good friends live in the country near Young and on our visit after Christmas I was unsuccessful in getting art on paper but did get some photos. The country is beautiful. They received rain when we arrived and so there was lots of green. The vastness and isolation amazes me.


We drove past these haystacks dotted around the paddocks. Perhaps the farmers do gather them eventually but they look surrealistic in the land. This was especially so where there were undulating hills. As usual Tim was his efferverescent self. The grass in the foreground is applied with a palette knife, paint brush and speckled. I never knew there were so many means to getting a paint effect!

Completed grain silos

I finally completed the grain silos from the farm visit. The shed on the right is very run down and missing a roof. It probably was an old farm manager's residence. My plan to draw more farm scenes has to be postponed till the next visit. Hopefully the greening of the farm continues (with fresh rain much to my friends' joy) as otherwise the palette would change too much to paint complementary pictures.

On a totally different subject I have started a new blog on crime novels I've read. Over the years, I've certainly covered a lot of ground and have decided to record what I read and what I enjoyed.

Visit to Currawong, near Harden NSW

My good friend Gerry moved 2 and a half years ago to Harden NSW. Her husband's family were the original farmers in that area and there is a beautiful homestead dating from the 1800's when the areas was first settled. The homestead is called Currawong, and her mum in law lives there. Gerry's family live near the old homestead in a newer home.

She has settled nicely to country life, compromising by commuting to Canberra for work where the more urbane items were available. Harden is about 4 hours drive south west of Sydney and about 1.5 hours from Canberra. On route to Harden, there were some very tempting vistas, which I attempted to capture but it is difficult given that the vehicle is driving 110km/hr.

The weather was dreadfully cold and wet, with a bitter wind sweeping up the hill. But the country side was so beautiful this time. There was once that we visited some 18 months ago in the middle of the drought when everything was brown and parched. It was dusty and awful, the animals looked liked they were suffering. What a difference rain makes in the country! This time, there was greenery all around and the ewes looked fat and content. There will be lots of frisky lambs this spring!

I was unprepared for the green countryside and brought a whole lot of paper washed in earth tones. Because the weather was not conducive to outdoor sketching, I only managed one plein air drawing and this at the risk of freezing. This view is from Gerry's front verandah looking westwards.

Subsequently I took a few photos around the farm as it is very picturesque, intending to develop them into a series of paintings. I've started work on the grain silos that can be seen from Gerry's kitchen window. They are probably not as rusty as I've made them out to be! Having not finished the picture, I offer a close-up for inspection.