Waikawau bay 2010

I am preparing for the summer camping holiday by putting all of last years photo's in an album. O , the shame of being almost a year behind the photo albums!! Anyway, as I was sifting, sorting and reminiscing about our fabulous getaway(long drop toilets, no electricity at all,solar showers), I found a few photo's that I had deliberately taken to work up into paintings. As my computer has been bad(very,very bad) and in the shop, I found myself devoid of distractions and this is what I did.....

Waikawau Bay, Coromandel

Dandelions

As I look at these I am reminded of what an atrocious photographer I am! If you know how to photograph paintings and would be so kind as to give me a quick tutorial(bearing in mind I use a fairly simple Canon powershot a200is...whatever that means) , I would take it as a kindness.

This year I am taking my french easel and paints and ,hopefully,my wet canvas carrier that Ms.Toni is kindly making for me. I will keep you posted but, given the 11 month delay on the last holiday photos, I would not hold my breath if I was you!

Now I am off to bottle  the strawberry jam I am making.

When good computers go bad

I AM here.
 I AM painting .........................but right now, this very moment,my computer is being dissected, diagnosed and ,hopefully,reassembled and returned to me in a good state so I can once again post some images.I feel amputated from the world...but you know what? I work better without the distraction of my beloved beast of a desktop computer!!! Funny, I know.Sigh. At least I am not kidding you about being  easily distracted. I was that dog from the movie "UP" in a past life. Squirrel!So, you might ask , how is it that you are posting this? Magic, folks,magic!!!

The sting in spring

20cmx60cm

Oil on boxed canvas

Drying on the easel

Wasp and hydrangea

17cmx22cm

Oil on canvas board

Paper wasps and blossom abound at the moment.I sat in my little courtyard, enjoying the New Zealand spring weather ,watching wasps zoot around in that menacing manner they have. Bees waft from blossom to blossom, often flailing around in a clumsy fashion. Not wasps. They are driven and full of purpose.They have been making nests in plants, in pots and even in the rolled up hosepipe!Their sting is legendary but I was most attracted to the way they fly, legs dangling uselessly behind them, as if some afterthought.Junk in the trunk.

Rodeo revisited

Sometimes I surprise myself. I usually paint "alla prima" , all at once,in one sitting,( however you may like to phrase it,)  and once I have a canvas on the easel and an image, I paint till I am done...and then I am done. I rarely go back and fiddle .If it is a disaster, I don't try and fix the problems but torture myself with them and move on.So, to revisit a painting and work on the problem areas is novel for me, but I did it this morning with not one but THREE(yes, I just shouted that) previously painted canvasses.I am pleased I did . Not because there was any great improvement but because there WAS some improvement.

Then I moved on to some exercises in fast painting. I gave myself 30 minutes and put the music on.

 She was sitting outside a big, heavy church door,skewered by light on a cold autumn morning, listening to her Ipod and having a cigarette......I omitted the cigarette as the smoke was distracting with the dark door.

Then I looked at the other painting of a rodeo I painted way back in 2007.I still like it for it's energy.

sold

Sigh. Happy day.
I will have to do more small painting as I see how they help me distill an image and block out the excess details( I obsess over detail and it really is not my forte!!)

Now to clean up the atrocious mess I have created.

Rodeo

I loved the energy of the original photograph.I hope it translates in this painting.

 It is still wet and I will need to fiddle with it ....but, I will leave it awhile.So for now, it remains on the easel, drying. Sigh. I am not a patient person.

Sea Change

My dear cousin Janet sent me an image from far away Canada. She and her gorgeous husband are very involved with boats and the sea etc and sailed from Cape Town to South America, then up through the carribean to Florida and now live near Vancouver.These people are not afraid of challenge nor change! She sent me some wonderfull photographs an this is my interpretation of one of them. Janet, I like to think of this as Summer Love(the name of that intrepid boat that sailed them round the world) relaxing in a cove, somewhere up the coast from you.
Still on the easel and still wet. It has rained relentlessly (spring, wouldn't ya know!) and nothing is  drying.

Gardening hiatus

I had my parents visit me for the last month and have had such a good time, I scarcly saw the computer nor easel. We went on a road trip to the Hawkes bay, the orchard of the north island, in spring. Blossom everywhere and vistas  so bright green they hurt the eyes. Vinyards and orchards and a gently flowing river overshadowed by a steep cliffed mountain range...heady stuff, dear ones..It was ridiculously pretty.There are no words.

Then we came back to the family home and revelled in each others company and the daily pace of family life.I made lots of puddings.

I took the opportunity to rethink my approach to painting and research (by going through all my old Southwest Art and Australian Artistsmagazines) styles I admired or techniques to practise..I also took the opportunity to give my courtyard a bit of attention. I love that space.Peacefull and calming.

So, here is a work up of a cowboy, sitting on a fence, near sunset.I gave  myself 30 minutes to paint this .

I like it. I will do this excercise again and on a larger canvas but with a time limit. I will keep you updated.

Holidays are now over and work begins again.

I am excited!