Browsers....again!

 I reworked the idea of Charles reading in the bookstore, omitted some of the distracting detail and did not add white to my palette till late in the piece.And the result is that I much prefer this rendition.

I shall work on his face(so to speak) at a later date, as I am not very good with that detail when the paint is very wet and thick, as it is now.

And that is all I have to say about that.

Browsers bookstore... a new family hangout

The boys are now old enough to go out to restaurants for a meal without reducing me to tears, so it has become the new incentive for good behaviour. This usually means a trip into Hamilton, our closest town,(God, that makes me sound like a country hick!) in the evening. Both kids rarely go into town and frankly, that's fine with me. But a town at night?! The lights, the sounds, the sights...now THAT is a different story! That becomes education!
After dinner we go for a walk along Victoria street and the boys get to see a whole different side of life...pavement diners, smokers outside bars, bouncers at nightclub doors, restaurant touts,graffiti on almost every surface possible,completely inappropriately dressed girls and the boys who trail after them...it is a whole gamut of experience.They love it ...and then we came to a bookstore called,Browsers. It is a second hand bookstore...but a wonderful second hand bookstore! No Mills and Boon here, just floor to ceiling books of all sorts but mostly, just interesting. It is open late and attracts those , like us, who love a browse and a book after dinner. The wooden floors, bowing shelves and books stacked on every possible surface , every which way, the art deco armchairs for serious browsers, the cardboard boxes of pot-luck books, the mustiness of ink and paper, the door disguised as a bookcase(a thrilling discovery for the boys) and impeccable taste in music(they were playing The National album, High Violet, a recent  discovery) all add to the wonderful ambiance...but I never thought it would become a favourite of the boys! It took me an hour to get them out of there...and $50 worth of books!  I took some reference photos to paint, which I have done. I shall do more and simplify them.

                                                             Charles,mid-browse

                              They had a big red rocket book stand for the Tintin books...we coveted it! It was a paint to paint! All that detail needs to be simple.

                                                 

This is Julius, leaning on Lucien, as they peruse books. They stood like this for about 10 minutes. So sweet.

And then this is a little something I did as a experiment. Daisies in the grass.

Hurry up, Spring! I need some warmth!

Mosaic done and more figure studies

Yesterday was pretty full-on. I had a great art class and then a memorable bike ride.


 I painted over an old canvas board and just did figure studies of boys playing soccer in Africa.

This is a large board and I quite like the idea of multiple images of the same subject on a canvas. This great idea was suggested to me by my friend , author, Jamie B Ernstein. Jamie and I ride mountainbikes together ( when we are not injured.!) We have both just returned to cycling after an extended period of NOT cycling due to various injuries.(mwahahahah! Sad but true) He  convinced me to ride a rather awkward hill slope and I forgot to lower my saddle and was highsided by said saddle and fell down the slope, bike and all,onto a tree stump. I am now sporting some fab bruises and a cracked rib. We continued to ride and I continued to try and injure myself for another hour . Adrenalin is a wonderfull masker of pain. Anyway, that was yesterday. I went for a walk this morning to warm up and this afternoon, I grouted the mosaic watertank lid.Carefully......and slowly. No stretching!

Very swirly.Quite Austin Powersy.I am happy with it and it looks better in real life...the mirror bits and the subltle mauve and blues do not translate very well in this photo...you will have to believe me!

Off to down a few painkillers and occupy the sofa until the hooligans come home.

The week that was.....

I went back to art class and warmed up with a few figure studies,a chat with my new classmates and some colour mixes(as you do!) Had a coffee mid morning from Momento...damned barista called me "Madam'..!

Then I came home to some amazing weather and decided to mosaic the top of the concrete waters. The tanks are sunken and only one ugly top is visible but I have been itching to do this for years..so I started.

 See how ugly it is?! You would DEFINITELY want to do something about that eyesore!

 Look at me, all organised and everything!'

This was the design I had decided on and I was mapping it out...but I changed it all on site and I will take a photo once the weather improves and I can grout it. Right now it is under a tarp, protected from the rain and SNOW. Yes, Snow. The fist snowfall in my area in over 30 years. OK, so it was only a little sneeze of a snow, but it counts ços it's Damned cold right now!!!!

This was the sunrise last Tuesday.Is that not just a wonderfully, peace full scene? It made my day.

And finally, it had to happen, but I rammed a brand new, sharp  woodcut blade into the top of my finger whilst performing a dangerous linocut move.MAN, it hurt and it bled rather impressivly too. I am reviewing my safety technique with the tools and the benchhook is in place and in use. Ow. It hurt ,but not as much as my pride when Charles  said "I told you so".......And he had, not 5 minutes beforehand. Double ouch but lesson learned. You don't need a photo of that.

Random pose

I discovered the kids had posed some of the4 mannequinsI bought on auction in interesting ways(get your head out the gutter, people! They are 6 and 9.....OK, maybe the 9 year old...) and took pot luck and just painted what I saw. 20 minutes was all I had and this is what I got.
This is one of them ...he is minus a foot but somehow, it suits the pose!

First day back to school for my boys and they welcomed it with the usual mix of vocal dismay( school is BORRRRRRRRRRING)  that gave way to shouts of delight  seeing all their friends on arrival at school!Funny little things! They came home full of happy chit chat and news.I feel very calm today.Will let you know how long that lasts......

Santa's little helper and other distractions...

 I tidied......! Nothing looks weirder than a tidy studio!~! Won't do THAT again for a while then.

I have become very interested in printmaking after Michelle Ives( a wonderfull illustrator and friend) send me a lino cut print and an etching as a gift(along with a fab bracelet and necklace.....cool friend, huh!). I also happen to have a set of her tools that she gave to me, almost 10 years ago, when she left Cape Town for Cardiff.

  The prerequisite cup of tea included!

First lino print

Second linoprint

 My first, self taught linocut prints(yes, yes, I can see the mistakes.....but they are the first!) .
 I had so much fun researching( You Tube and the internet.....just amazing) and it made me remember how much I love learning new things (hence the 5 year Bachelor of Arts...it should read Bachelor of Absolutely everything).

And then came the distraction in the form of......................Lucien!

  I took TV away...brilliant, really. I can highly recommend it IF you can stand

1. The wailing for the first 3 days
2. Being told you are the world's worst mother and your license should be revoked(yes, he believes I need a license........)
3. The constant shadowing and effort to be included in everything you do.(The theory being I will give him TV back if he drives me nuts!)

So, he asked to learn how to sew! So I said.....sure thing!

 ....and look how into it he got!! He made sock puppets(ok, no pair of socks is safe anymore) and a felt monster!!! He has asked to go to the local craft store to get some supplies....my mind boggles!But he is like me...easily distacted. Once he has mastered handsewing he will be off on another quest to learn a skill. Although he was intrigued when I explained about the concept of high fashion, design and the engineering that goes into making clothing.....and the money the top(male!) designers earn!

 He has gone to a party.......a 20 min study of my new mannequins!!

And then my bench got messy again! I blame the mannequins...I think they had a party with the turps!

Lessons learned

I snapped this at the local swimming pool earlier this year. My son had  moved from the small, heated pool into the large, unheated lap pool. he was watching, trying to work out the rules of the pool and feeling the change in temperature. An unusual moment in time when he was actually standing still!

The swimming lesson

This little girl was being taught to swim by her Dad. He had great patience with her and , although it ended in tears, he never lost his temper or raised his voice.I saw them in the parking lot after the lesson, all smiles and rosy cheeks, assisted by an ice-cream!

I  realise, when comparing it with the first painting,that I am getting fussy and tight when I focus on something for a long time. I fiddle and change stuff.....it ends up a tight mess.
I was limited to 20 min with this last painting.( I had to make the bus stop to collect the kids from school) .

I have been complaining I never have enough time to paint and have been looking for an answer to help solve this issue of tightness and it seems the universe sent it to me in the form of a busload of grumpy children!
I often ask the universe for direction.... and it seems  all I need is 30 minutes and a kick in the pants!