YouTube debut

I made two videos for my exhibition to give a little insight into my painting process, both plein air and studio.

This is the studio version. The first half ( without sunglasses on my head) takes place whilst my children are at school, then you notice my sunnies and the light through the window change and I have just made the mad dash to the bus-stop to collect them!

http://youtu.be/jjtrNc7seG4

This is the final painting.

So, I debuted on You Tube. I announced this with great delight to my kids. They were fairly unimpressed . One actually said: cute" . Having done quite a few themselves ( they review games...give me strength) they deem themselves experts. Sometimes I have to remind myself that the option to eat them at birth has come and gone and I am no tiger.

Wait till they have to learn to drive a car, though.......mwhahhahahaha!(very evil laugh)

An experimental age

I started painting with the idea of watercolour-like washes in mind and then, over the next day, had some kind of turnaround and ended up here. Here being NOT where I was going but also very nice.I feel like someone who was meant to go on a skiing holidays but ended up on a tropical island .Same Same but different . Just not what I expected.

I am experiencing an experimental age. I cut my hair off to reveal a healthy crop of silver hair( which I love!) , I am experimenting with fermenting drinks ( non -alcoholic!) , learning to cook real Mexican food and my painting is becoming bigger and , as you can see, I am not afraid of colour or throwing paint around. I think I shall curb my enthusiasm for a while! My dance card is full.

I wish I had them as 2 separate paintings....I like them both!

The start....

The finish

oil on board
1200mmx 600mm

Thursday mutterings

I treat this blog like a confessional, sometimes, forgetting I might actually have an audience . I will then be confronted by something I said here  being repeated to me or referred to in real life and I feel shocked. Am I truly this daft?

So, time for the confessional:
Forgive me, readers, it has been 4 days since I last painted and, frankly, that's 4 days too long. I have been attending to my new exhibition in Te Awamutu, attending to the needs and wants of my family, wrangling with file called "Finances" because it is almost year end and taking more work into town to be framed. I took delivery of some more paint and have yet to even open a tube/ now THAT is a sin.

For my penance,  I took the dogs for a walk (they have become escape artists recently and worried the sheep next door, so I had to offer them a walk), put a load of washing on, went to Pilates class and now I am back in the studio with happy dogs, perfect posture and the gurgle of a washing machine in the background, ready to paint.

A quick glimpse of the exhibition at TE Awamutu Museum. My plein air work of the last year or so.

Monday morning

A glimpse into the studio, whats on the easel and listening to a new band BOY...a german girl duo who sing in English. Europeans are SO good at being multi-lingual. When Charles and I travelled to Holland he always spoke dutch to them  and they always replied in english! He was crushed! Bahahaha!!

Ok, I got distracted there but I love a side-story.

Whats's on the easel

Detail

Detail

I love seeing other artist's studios and their art practises. I am super messy, have everything out on display, and really enjoy the space but continually mix it up and move things around. I lurk around the internet, peering into others studios and then pin them on to my Pinterest board and make mental notes to try some things they do. I saw an artist use a pegboard as an easel...simply genius, really. I want.

I had to tidy the studio as I had guests this weekend and so, yes, this is the tidy version. The untidy version has a full dustbin, a plethora of mugs and the odd beer bottle(don't ask) and canvasses leaning on every surface possible and a varnishing station. And yes, those brushes do get used.ALL of them!

Splatter time

I am becoming bolder and better at establishing what it is I am trying to do with regards a painting. Each time I paint I learn something new.  I understand that accidents need to be assessed before they are wiped in case they are helpful. Quite often, just the oddness of the accident makes me look at it another way. I have come to love splashes and blobs so much for their ability to create atmosphere, that I have taken to flicking the paint at the canvas at times. My poor floor, clothes, walls and windows are covered in splatters! Let's not even mention the hair and face......

120cm h x 60 cm wide
oil on board

Detail(and too purple.Bad photo:-((

What's on my easel

Still painting.

Last week in review

Last week was insane.

You know that torture when they tied all 4 limbs of a person to 4 different horses and made them gallop off in opposite directions, effectively wrenching the poor person apart? Well, that didn't happen, but mentally ,that image was all I could think of for the week when people asked me how I was doing. I was not busy but so mentally engaged in SO MUCH that I felt I was not exactly in the place I was supposed to be at any given time. I have that feeling that I have forgotten to do something important, all the time.Disquieting indeed.

untitled
100cm x 79 cm...oil on canvas

detail of above

Work in progress

Possibly finished, possibly not.

Definitely work in progress.

BTW, if you did not know of that awful torture I described above, I am very sorry I brought it up.

I went on an inspiration mission

My friend Dave took me on an inspiration mission to photograph the landscape. It does not really look like green new Zealand because we have not had rain for a while and it is a summer drought, the maize is yellowing off and frankly, it looks far more african than antipodean right now!

I loved the flight and was buzzing for the rest of the day and half the night. I snuck into the studio late sunday evening  and sketched a little, but with any luck, will have a few paintings on the go by the end of the week. Next time I go up with Dave the landscape will no doubt be back to it's usual verdant green self, but I am glad I captured this monochrome palette.

I took almost 300 photos!

Thanks, Dave!Best pilot ever.