Rough seas

This week I chose another aspect of the ocean to attempt: rough sea with lots of movement and foam. Roger and I had been for a walk from Coogee to Clovelly and walked through the baths at North Coogee. I hadn't been there before and was amazed to see these brave or fool hardy souls diving in and swimming to the rocks. That is Roger on the left with his hat on.


There was another girl who was too terrified to join her friends. Wedding cake island is in the distance. Tim says that I'm doing the right thing by exploring one subject. However next week I will get into country landscape. What I'm amazed by is the speed that I've been painting. Every Tuesday I emerge with a painting after 4 hours effort. I often feel drained but exulted that I managed to get so far. When I'm home I tend to potter around, spend lots of time thinking about composition, stop often for breaks, etc. Rarely was I able to complete anything in a day! I believe that speed is probably good as if it is doomed to fail it would be evident after 4 hours.

Swimmer and water play

Today at the acrylic studio I took the problem of painting water to Tim. I used a photo of a swimmer in the ocean from Sally's blog as reference. The results were unexpectedly good. Of course I asked Tim numerous questions about colours and mixing. Tim has a great box of paints and rather than teaching us to mix he said to use those. But I wasn't going to purchase 20 new colours to reproduce the same results at home! He showed me a few mixes and I had to get phalto green to mix cobalt.

Great Swimming Website

I accidentally found this great website of a swimmer/ photographer on blogger called Swim Sally Swim. She has some fantastic photos of rockpools, pools, beaches and other swimming spots in Sydney, Australia and all over the world (she appears to be well travelled). Her website is: swimsallyswim. I love her photos and observations. Have a look.

Rockpool at Little Bay

For a long time now, I've been fascinated by rockpools. Sydney rockpools are beautiful because of the Hawkesbury sandstone. However I have struggled to produce a likeness. Things submerged look different but how to represent them? This was the problem I brought to Tim Gratten, artist and tutor at Art Est. Here is his response.


The colours I needed were yellow oxide and red oxide to render the stones. The submerged rocks had a wash of the blue over it. I was pleased with the results. Here is a close up.

Sandstone cliffs again

I was not going to finish the sandstone painting I begun but one of our friends Jo said she really liked it and persuaded me to complete it. I think the houses I originally perched on clifftop were too much hard work. It is far easier to remove them but then where is the interest in the composition? This was a dilemma I pondered and finally decided to modify the cliff so that there is another in the back. I also added a grey threatening sky and here it is complete.



Unfortunately it cannot really be Sydney .... Well maybe Sydney around 150 years ago when we hadn't built our shores up like today. However it reminds me of the walks we Sydneysiders have the privilege to do along the coast. How beautiful is this city?

Hawkesbury river Brooklyn

A friend lent me their house at Brooklyn so that I could set up on one of their numerous decks. After a period of 3 weeks where I did no art when we were travelling, it was refreshing to be at it once more.


This was the result of 4 hours on his deck. I must say it is a long drive over the congested Pacific Highway to get there. But once there, it is so tranquil it's worth the stress.

Lifeguard at Wylies

On the weekends, the Coogee surf and life savings club actually mans Wylies. Life guards wear their characteristic red and yellow uniform and have a great job. Most of the time nobody gets into trouble, they get to sit in scenic locations and enjoy the view. The public gets the assurance that somebody is looking out for them and everybody is happy.


I spoke to this guard who is a Pom and told me that Coogee has changed greatly in the 10 years he has been in Sydney. It was more family oriented then but with the growing number of backpackers there is more drinking and anti social behaviour. I tend to agree. The beach is still lovely : you just don't want to live on it!