Psycho cows and other things

I painted some cows....my monochromatic friends were black and white. I was not excited about them. Then I introduced a good idea(colour) but went a little crazy and hence,psycho cows are on the canvas. I like the idea but I will rework it from beginning with the colour in mind and be more carefull with the placement of paint. But, here they are in anycase....


And then, I painted this for my friend Helene. Well, I painted this with her in mind.

It is not massive, 25cmx50cm, but I really like it's warmth, much like Helene herself!

This is a detail of the painting.

I am on a mission to paint small for a while, not miniatures, but small enough that I have to THINK about my brushstrokes and the paint application as a one stroke exercise, not a three stroke mess!

It's spring!

We went skiing last week, hence the silence. Our family does an annual spring ski and we lasted for 5 days with spectacular weather...blue skies and sunshine all the way. By day 5 I was a bit over it and spent a lot of time gazing at the snow and the rocks and wishing I had my paints with me!
Day 5 coincided with me being bowled over by a novice snowboarder which re broke my rib just as it was healing. I took that as a sign! Off the mountain for me!!Anyhow, it was fun and the kids loved it.That's what it's all about.

Whilst away I celebrated a birthday and I received two of Carol Marine's books on her small paintings. These are gems and I absolutely love her work. Anyhow, I poured over them with glee and good intentions to learn from her. On our return home I discovered, via her blog ,that she and her family were badly affected by the fires in Texas and have lost their home, her brand new studio and all her private art collection.I have to say, I was quite devastated on her behalf. It made me reflect on what I would try and grab if a fire whipped through out home, and, to be honest, it would be other peoples paintings, not my own, that I would rescue. I have a wonderful collection of my fathers paintings, some from friends and family...all are priceless.But then again, if the kids are in the house I better take them first !!!

With that in mind, I studied her two books with great care and endeavoured to do a small painting...a still life. New for me and I enjoyed the process. These are my little glass salt and pepper shakers from Stellenbosch.

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......