Reef beach near Fairlight

Sydney can be so stunning in winter - the sun shines and it's just the right temperature for walking. We went for a walk from Balgowlah to Manly a few weeks ago and it was glorious.





At Reef Beach, we stopped to admire the view and the sparkle of the water. This painting is an excuse to use gel medium for a beachscape.

Rework of mangroves at Cook River

This old painting needed a lift so I asked Carla what to do.


And here it is -zing added with those lovely lemon yellow.

Waterhole

I cannot claim to know where the site of this painting is as it arrived as a photo from my colleague Robert and Karen who are doing the grey nomad thing somewhere in NT. But it's a beauty so I decided to paint it.


Carla helped with this popping yellow colour - it really brings a zing to the painting. While it's probably not finished in her books and I will fiddle with it - I think it looks great.

Blue mountains

My painting style is slowly evolving. I was always using brushes but that is slow and the results are more precise and less impressionistic. In a bid to be more expressive, I have now done another palette knife painting and it's growing on me. The palette knife makes more textures and marks on the painting than it is possible with a brush. I'm especially proud of my sky - I don't think I've done one with so many colours that worked.

Honourable Mention

A pleasant surprise as I got this email today advising that I'd been awarded an Honourable Mention for my entry "Summer Escape". This painting prize is for ocean pools - a subject that I've painted time and again. One of the judges commented that this entry was a ‘striking well-composed image capturing all key features of ocean pools’. Here is what "Summer Escape" looks like.

Lord Howe - Mount Gower

Mount Gower is the peak of Lord Howe - terribly distinctive. You can see it and Mount Lidgbird virtually everywhere on the island. Climbing the mountain is hard work and takes virtually all day. I was never tempted but we met a couple who did and they said it was not for the faint hearted or unfit.


Betty Thompson of the Blue Lagoon Lodge where we stayed kindly took us for a tour of the south side. This is less touristy and not easily reached without a vehicle. This painting is of Gower from one of the remote beaches on the southern end of Lord Howe.

Desert cliff revisited

Readers might remember my efforts in copying Paul McCarthy's palette for desertscapes. However the painting required rework. So I brought it in for Carla's inspection and her suggestions improved the cliff face but I couldn't get the foreground right.


Taking a cue from my classmate Barry who had palette knived a lovely streetscape, I attacked it with brilliant colours, moulding gel and palette knife.

As it turned out, the inexact nature of marks left by the knife was perfect for the rocks. As I didn't clean it in between colour changes there was a lot of serendipitous mixes. After the foreground was done, it looked like two different paintings as the cliff face was still brush painted. I had to introduce some palette knife marks on that in a paler colour to make the painting look more cohesive. But now I'm satisfied with the results.