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.

Autumn leaves aborted

Autumn has come and although Sydney is less colourful than colder climes, there are still beautiful earth colours to be seen. There is a street not far from our house where they have only crepe myrtles as street trees. In winter it is bare. In spring, they are simply gorgeous laden with red, pinks and purple flowers. Their twisted trunks are worthy of a picture alone. In autumn, they shed their leaves in brillant yellows, browns and reds.

Inspired to capture these trees, I set off one cold day and parked on the street. It has been showering on and off, so I daren't set up plein air but drew in the car instead. I realised that it was vital to capture the background before painting in these trees but by the time I was done with the houses and the road, and median strip, etc it was time to go.

Since then, there has been a series of awful windy and wet days and when I next had a chance to continue, the leaves had mostly fallen off!!!

As my daughter says: "You can't always get what you want"

Sunday Life Drawing Sketch Club

I was invited last year to attend a monthly sketch club but did not attend as I was already doing another course. This term I am not doing any art courses and decided to give this a go. A Sketch Club is quite different in that there is no tuition and therefore little opportunity to compare what other people have done. Our model worked for BridgeClimb and has broad strong shoulders as a result. I noticed that models have a preferred pose, and this one liked to point her arm up. It must be difficult to hold, especially for the longer poses!

Here are a few sketches I did.

Advice from Artist

As a novice, I am always very grateful to receive advice from more experienced artists... I am still a learner. So one day, I wandered into the Taylor Galleries at Summer Hill to view some nice pastel pieces. Assisting for the day was a woman artist whom I conversed with. I showed her some of my art on my phone camera and she gave me some advice. She said that the pastel I did of the girls on ponies were good but I had to be more careful of my background. The window at the back of the stable was too bright and detracted from the figures. With that piece of advice, I went home and toned down the window. Here is the before and after. I believe she was right!

BEFORE

AFTER

Bird pond at Sydney Olympic Park

One fine autumn day, we went bicycling at the Sydney Olympic Park and to our surprise, found that it was much more interesting than the sporting venues. There was a ship wreck area, where they sank ships that were too old to salvage, quite an extensive mangrove area, picturesque because it bordered the Parramatta River and a bird pond. There was some sort of vegetation that is rust in colour bordering the pond which made it all look unusually picturesque. There are bird watching huts for avid watchers as well.

In short, the landscape was interesting from a painter's perspective. One sunny Friday, I took my pad and materials and set off to see if I could incorporate a walk and some art. The mangrove was a no-no, since I was almost immediately attacked by mosquitoes. The bird pond was more fruitful. It is a serene spot, nobody was around on a Friday.

Roy and Helen Portrait

Roy and Helen are old friends of my family. They are in their 80's and are a lovely couple who have welcomed various members of our family into their home and their lives. I decided to attempt a portrait of them and give it as a present.

They are both sun drenched to represent the fact that despite being in their twilight years they are still strong in spirit. In fact, they are very active in volunteer work and help others who probably are younger than they are! They are a loving couple and what I admire in them are:

1. The survival and strength of their relationship with each other
2. Their ability to seem so young and be such contributors to society and the community when they are already in their 80's
3. Never hearing them complain of any aches and ailments - when in fact, I guess people in their 80's would have more physical ailments than the rest of us

Here are a couple of close-ups:

Stables and ponies

My 5 year old was given some money for her birthday by her doting god mother to learn how to ride a horse. Now that it is the school holidays, we decided to enrol her in pony camp - a 2 day affair to learn how to ride, groom, etc ponies. She was most excited and enjoyed it thoroughly.

While I was sending her to camp, I had the occasion to browse the Centennial Park stables, which are numerous and noted many picturesque possibilities. I took some photos as I didn't think they would take too kindly to me drawing on location. The instructors objected and I had to reassure them that I wasn't some kind of pervert. I told them I would delete the photos and they were for the purposes of art. Luckily I don't look like a pervert myself, or I might not have got away with it.

These two little girls were waiting patiently for the whole camp to go riding at Centennial Park. You can see that the stables are very dark behind them. I used a green wash over canvas. Canvas texture is very rough, so you can see the strokes very clearly.

I'm going to attempt to capture the motion of these ponies as it intrigues me how they can be done. Degas and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec did several paintings of horses galloping, which I thought very impressive.