My life as a bird…or a plane

I love this perspective. Up high, looking down.

Bird's eye view
oil on canvas
35 x 45 cm

Truly, perhaps I was a bird in a past life , but I do love this perspective on things.
 On my last trip back from Australia, I almost pulled a muscle in my neck craning around trying to get a good look out the airplane window as we descended over the Manukau harbour and into the city.Seas gave way to rocky coastline, then patchwork farmlands with lifeline roads and the harbour with sandbars that looked like underwater mazes.
I love a view. In fact, I NEED a view. I can sit and look out over a vista for a very long time and not get bored. That is a good thing ,as very little else holds my attention for that long. When I complete a painting on site, after a long day of looking, I am at my most content, even if the painting is a disaster. This is why my house is a mess. I stare out at the view instead of doing the housework!

It is almost school holidays. I am looking forward to no school lunches or timetables but realise that I am going to have to pay my boys for some painting time!!! They have recently become very interested in the power that currency can wield and have discovered Ebay! I am factoring that in  to my expenses! Children and artistic endeavours area dangerous mix, to be handled with care and skill lest it all explodes in one's face.

Oh, this is the view from Mt.Pirongia, the Waipa river and farmlands, as interpreted by my bird-brain.

Giving thanks for a rainy day.

Summer clearly did not get the memo and is dragging her heels at the moment. Perhaps she is detained elsewhere, but I think late arrivals are diva behaviour….and rude. It is cold, wet and quite revolting.

Grumpy much?

So, today I did my accounts (dispairingly) and then painted. Naturally, that was a disaster. How anyone can mix worry about money with creative pursuits is a mystery to me.

So, I turned to my music collection and asked for inspiration……..and started again. Deep breaths, just in and out, getting into the zone, just painting for myself, muttering under my breath words of encouragement to the artist within who is clearly out of sorts...…be kind, mix well, adjust values, keep going, lovely, now more, what else, adjust,breathe.

And I love it.

Thank you, universe.

The things we do for love….

I am painting at the moment but not the kind of thing I usually paint! I am helping the year 8 children at the local school paint a sleigh that is to form part of a Xmas float! It is time consuming but hilarious. Do you know how much mess red paint makes when mixed with a bunch of kids?….a lot! I have loved listening to the conversations that have passed amongst them as they have worked. The best comment today was from a girl who was rinsing the metallic silver paint off her brush in a bucket of water. "Look, I am sure this is what unicorn blood looks like" indicating the silvery sheen on the surface of the water. Brilliant. And yes, I am sure it does.

I am also trying out new paints in an attempt to become less toxic but have not found the consistency that I like. I struggle with paint that is too creamy…I like it thicker as I work with my palette knife quite a bit and enjoy texture. The answer came in the form of cold medium wax. Added to the paint in equal parts, it becomes a buttery, icing like format that, frankly, made me squeal when I started smearing it across the canvas.

But no painting till the sleigh is done and that is a few more days now.

The sunsets have been taunting me……pretty, no?

Yes, I will paint it as a landscape soon!

Salvation Army Art Exhibition

I have 5 pieces in the Salvation Army Art exhibition to be held this Friday-sun at the Salvation Army Headquarters church in London street, Hamilton.

I have a soft spot for the Sallies( as they are known) as they truly seem to do good work without the overt canvassing that drives me slightly scatty. They have helped out a friend in dire straights and provided her with great support when she was on the bones of her arse, scrabbling in the wreckage of a horrific divorce. They are the touchstone for many who are attempting to get by in our economically savage world and they do it with a gracious heart.

There are lots of local artists exhibiting…..a great time to see local talents before local gets too expensive! I will be doing some Xmas shopping there, myself, as I saw some great pieces when dropping my paintings off.

Windy day
320 x 410 mm
oil
framed
$325

The nocturne as narrative

This was a difficult painting to photograph as it is
a) so dark and
b) varnished with a gloss finish…REFLECT!!!!!


Nikola Mitchell, a clever photographer down the road, helped me and photographed it for me.


I love the idea that this is a lovers meeting spot, a place to park the car and make out with the  romance of twinkling lights and solitude (anybody do that anymore or am I stuck in American Graffiti again?).

My kids told me that that is NOT what this painting is about.(made some eugh sounds and screwed their faces up,noses crinkling in distaste)  It's about a person, lost in the wild, who comes out of the bush to see the city lights in the distance….salvation! ( too many episodes of Bear Grylls, methinks)

Another friend said it was a spot on the rocks at the beach, looking across the bay to the seaside settlement.

I love that the painting tells a story for each and every person. I have been missing the "narrative" element in my painting, recently. I am happy to embrace that again.

Saying that, I am off to the beach with my friend Monique this weekend .No kids, no dogs, no husband ( wow, not the right order) , no meals to cook, no chores. I aim to paint a little, chat a little, drink coffee and tea , walk on the beach, dine out and answer to no-one else. Faaaaaaaaabulous.

oil on canvas
50 x 76cm

Studio painting

There was a thunderous sky and a weather warning for lightning, flash floods and heavy downpours, so I stayed home and worked up a plein air sketch into a painting.

Originally, I stood on the side of the  flooded paddock, cold and wet, breath steaming, and painted this scene of a flooded paddock, cows in the background. Only when I started to pack up did I notice the electric fence was submerged and the clicking I heard continuously was not an insect but the fence short-circuiting in the wet…the same wet in which I had stood! Facepalm.

30 x 40 cm
oil on canvas

Floods and disaster

What a week for flooding. Is it just me, the pervasiveness of modern news, or is the weather becoming more extreme?