The Ornithologist

'The Ornithologist' 1 metre x 1 metre

Here tis :) The first few shots are of the little vignettes I made using old clock faces with various little bits of nature embedded in resin, then some more little painted finches. I did end up changing the yellow bird in front of the portrait (it was just too yellow and it looked like Charles was eating it!) I used an old vintage picture frame which I broke up with a hammer, I used stiffened gauze to wrap through the frame and I gave the frame a copper/verdigris patina. The bottom part of the piece is highly textured and I flooded it with inks and dropped gold enamel paint onto it. Little bits of the original collage peak through here and there. I wanted to give the feeling of framed exhibits falling out of the frame and real birds bursting out. It was very popular in Victorian times to have framed feathers etc presented as a stiff kind of museum like exhibit hanging in their homes. I am pretty happy with it now, but that could change! List of ingredients include acrylic, oil, enamel, ink,texture pastes gold and copper leaf, vintage clock faces, bird skeleton and tiny bones, feathers and resin :)
It's called the Ornithologist after Charles Darwin, he was a committed Naturalist and I relate to anyone who is loves nature as much as he did :)

More sneaky peeky :)

Nearly ready for the unveiling :) You might have picked up that this piece has a somewhat assemblagey kind of feel to it...all this playing around has been really fun :)

sneak peek 2 :) and some sketches

Another little part of my current piece, I am really enjoying this one. I have drawn, but never painted a portrait before and it has been quite a challenge, not to mention a lesson in colour mixing. I ended up painting it in oil because I just couldn't get the colour even close with acrylic. Have you heard of this artist ? Adebanji Alade is a UK artist who I have recently come across on Youtube. He has inspired me to get my sketch books out again and use those little snippets of time you might otherwise waste. My hope is to get better at drawing because drawing makes painting sooo much easier. I certainly need some practice drawing hands thats for sure!  :) cheers!

sneak peek :)

Thought I would post a few little close-ups of the large piece I am working on - without giving too much away. This piece is really 'out there' (even for me!) so I want to keep it a bit of a mystery till the end :)

Strange new beginnings

Time to bow out gracefully, I have looked at my commitments - a commission, three upcoming shows and a couple of other issues. Realistically I can't continue with the 30 day challenge :( It was a poor effort so far...only 7 paintings in 12 days...and it was starting to get distracting from the large pile of other art that needs seeing to. Sometimes these challenges can be positive to my energy, but this time it was just a little too much. On the plus side, it will free up a bit of time to check out everyone else in the challenge as I find looking at other artists work very inspiring. So I leave you with the beginnings of a new large piece in its first stage :) Cheers!

day 9 :)

'Bug Flight'
8cm x 8cm

Having fun with the challenge, little doodles and experiments - no pressure to be a finished piece, I am finding them quite relaxing now. This one is only tiny but I enjoyed using my favourite colours and playing with water drops and spray on the pastel surface :)

Day 8

Pastel on Colourfix 10cm x 15cm
'Flyaway'

Well it wouldn't be a 30 in 30 if I didn't include a bird's nest would it?

Day 7 :)

I see fish!
10cm x 15cm pastel on colourfix Elephant

I painted this from an old black and white photo of yours truly when I was about 5 years old. Its really just a quick sketch. I shudder to think now of the sun on that pink skin! Every summer I lived for the beach when I was a kid. Xmas day was normally spent turning red and building sandcastles and collecting shells. Now you would have to drag me kicking and screaming to get me to the beach in summer!

Day 6 :)

'Tingle Forest'
50cm x 70cm Pastel on colourfix Aubergine

The official temperature yesterday was 44.5 degrees celcius (112 F). Yuck who needs it? But not all of Western Australia is like that :) About 3 hours South of here are huge old growth forests filled with incredible giant trees, ferns and native palms...teeming with wildlife and lovely lovely SHADE :) Could do with a bit of that here! Another hot one today but I am slowly getting back into my summer routine of painting from about 6.30 am to whenever my studio gets too hot. Today I made it till 10.

These trees are really strange to those who have never seen them before...the base is usually a tangle of long strips of dark coloured bark that sheds and 'drips' onto the forest floor, creating a little habitat for the ground dwellers. Emerging from the untidy base are the smoothest trunks you will ever see, subtle variations of white, pink and grey blue that sparkle anywhere the light can penetrate and touch the bark (I guess you can tell I like it there!) They grow straight and tall, competing with each other to reach the top of the canopy.

I am hoping for a nice quiet morning tomorrow so I can catch up andstick to my goal of 10 pastels, I am currently two behind...cheers

Day 5 already behind!

Day 5 and I am already behind, it is so hot here today, at ten this morning it was already over 40 degrees C (104 F) and still rising so painting in my studio is not going to happen. Now my hubby has gone back to work after his holiday I am hoping to get back into my studio and get some serious work done now. This little sketch (10cm x 20cm) is a from a photo I took last year during a really thick fog we had one morning. Where I can normally see rooftops and land all the way out to the horizon was a whiteout except for these three giant antennas poking out the top of the fog...hopefully tomorrow I can get a bit more time in the studio, cheers! :)

day 2

Day 2 and I am strapped for time again - hoping to get ahead of the game next week hopefully :)
I am going to try to split my thirty into ten pastels, ten mixed media the ten pencil and or ink but we will see! Maybe by the end I will have done something decent! Cheers :)

Party Pooped Day 1

Happy New Year all! I hope you had a great time :)
Like the title says, I am all partied out! Too much food, too too much wine, not enough exercise or painting! If I was organised I would have painted ahead a little for Leslie Saeta's 30 in 30 challenge...alas this is the pathetic offering I have today - starting the year off with a plllppp.  On the up side - I rounded out 2014 with the cool news that one of my artworks I entered in the Incite 3 - The Art of Storytelling competition has been chosen to be included in the mixed media book which comes out in September this year. It is a lovely hardbound book published through North Light so I am very excited and honoured! Each artist gets a page of their own with their image and a small written piece.  Hope everyone has had a safe and happy New Year - bye for now