Monday 18 July 2016

Big Red






This one was so much fun to paint, I went away from the bright background of the last kangaroo piece and really enjoyed using earthier tones for this one. These new boards that I'm using now give a really substantial surface that can take all the scraping back and vigorous brush work. I'm also enjoying experimenting with my new Caran' dache water soluble crayons, which I used to make the fine marks on top of the paint...and some great news...this piece won the City of Belmont Aquisitive Award yesterday. Needless to say, I was very excited and honored :) I feel very lucky for the recognition that I've had in the past couple of years and a little embarrassed, cheers!


Saturday 16 July 2016

Odd Bird 2

As usual I apologise for the terrible photo! Odd bird 2 was finished a while back but I have been sooo busy. He/she is made entirely from recycled materials (except a little acrylic paint and some air dry clay)...vintage frame, clock pendulum, keys, wood scraps, clock parts, our old door lock and a sardine can :) There was a nice old candlestick and melted candle on the top but I accidentally broke it off the night before the exhibition it was entered in so I need to glue that back on. When the old door latch in the top right hand corner is turned, the phases of the moon reveal themselves on an old clock face. The nest is made from old cocos palm seed fronds and some fake lichen sprayed liberally with varnish and the egg is air dry clay. The keys in the surround of the frame came from a mysterious box of keys that were left in the house when we moved in (not one of them fitted a single lock in the house!) Anyway, it was fun trying to keep the materials within the range of recycled, I entered it into the recycled category at the Canning Art Award...I didn't win that section, but I got the Mixed Media Prize instead! :) Cheers!