Art exhibition

My art classes put on an exhibition of the things that we've done in class at the local art group. It opened while we were in Melbourne so I missed the champagne and canapes :) but I did my shifts on the door last weekend when we were back. It was open both weekends, and we had a few people through, mostly family and friends. And some tourists. 

It's hard to take a good picture of an art exhibition, especially one with 18 different artists doing wildly different works across all media, all subject matter and all talent levels too. Mostly amazing - I felt very much a beginner. We did put in our bottles though, that we started with, in charcoal. It's hard to see because of the reflection but there was a bottle wall. Intriguing how everyone takes a slightly different tack on exactly the same objects.

I put in six, including these two pastel landscapes on the right. And, yes that is a red dot because I SOLD a picture! Can you believe it, an actual person used their actual money to buy one of mine. I am confused but delighted.

Air-drying clay

I firmly blame TikTok for an unexpected foray into air-dry clay. For some reason my feed decided to show me artist after artist making cute little things with DAS clay - and it looked so easy! So satisfying! Just slice, mould, dry and paint! Yay! So I watched a few more detailed Youtube tutorials, dug up the various tools and ordered in some supplies.

It went about as well as you would expect. It is indeed a forgiving material, and fun to work with, but it is very difficult to get even a halfway decent result. I tried slab cutting and some just finger-smooshing but you can't use too much water, so minimal handling is best. They call it clay but it's mostly paper, and dries over time without firing, so it's not food safe or particularly water-resistent but you can make it quite robust with sealing, painting and varnishing. 

I am not neat-fingered, and my first try was absolutely the Year 1 ashtray that we all made, back in the day. Just a lumpy mess. This one above didn't even get past first base - when I went to sand it before painting I broke it in half. The same thing happened to two more little plaques I was doing and another dish I made way too thin.

This was a little more successful - it's a funny lumpy little dish - but I got through all the stages and it's pretty and exactly the right size to hold my rings. So that's good.

Here is a foray into decoupage - the brown flecked stuff is a flocked paper that I had for lino printing when I was excited about that for six weeks - which was quite interesting but the rest is an amateurish sham.

This is an oval one that wasn't too bad, although it's not smooth at all. It looks OK from a distance, to hold buttons or something.

And a square one. Painting it is fun but they are quite clearly made by a beginner in a back room. Nothing like the Tiktok videos! I might do a ceramics class at some point and learn how you do it properly, with a kiln. I've got a couple of other ideas to try but then I might put it gently aside.

Another quiet week

I'm feeling much better now but still not much energy - and it's been raining and cold - so all in all a pretty uneventful few days. I did make it to quilters and art class on Tuesday, so that's something. I didn't know what to paint so took this photo as I was driving off.

This is the work in progress - definitely not finished but you get the idea! A nice splotchy landscape.

I have been raking leaves in the garden. This not a high priority task but it's perfect for low-energy low-brain days. I can quietly rake away, then stop for a bit, and it doesn't matter. Friday I was going absolutely stir crazy so went into Canberra, had lunch with a friend and went to the Canberra Quilters annual exhibition. It was very good, lots of lovely quilts, lots of nice vendors although I didn't buy anything. I took some photos of quilts I'd like to try and was inwardly rude about the judging! Perfect.

Bouncing around

I bounced down to the coast for a couple of days (new car, so much fun, love driving everywhere) and then into Canberra for the day (old car with trailer, got ebike serviced, not much fun driving at all). In Canberra we took number one and girlfriend out for a lovely birthday lunch (Afghani restaurant, absolutely delicious) and I saw the new flat, which is light and lovely and in a super location close to town. So grown up!!!!!

At art class I finished my watercolour of Abbotsford Convent (in Melbourne, where we went in March). It's an awful picture and it kept getting worse the more I did to it. I broke out the pastel pencils as well and I don't think that was a good idea. I wanted to have it a bit wonky and artistic but it ended up in some uncanny valley between correctly proportioned and properly freeform. 

This is the original photo I took.

I finished a quilt finally, which made me feel better, because it's pretty. I pieced this last year some time but just got around to the binding and finishing now. Part of my push to use my solids! Not doing so well, I keep getting distracted.

Sketching in groups

One of the things I'm noticing is how different it is to draw in groups, rather than on my own which I've always done up until now. I tend to do things quickly but badly, and being with other people who do things slowly but well has reduced my pace, which is good. It's useful to get other people's feedback and see the way they've tackled a similar scene. It's also a very good vibe, everyone happily doing their own thing together. Sometimes with biscuits, or wine.

I went to urban sketchers on Sunday in Canberra where we went to the Kingston Foreshore, which is a fairly ugly collection of apartment buildings, canals off the lake and restaurants. Lots of lines and people, so I went a bit impressionistic. The bridge at least was curved. And I even went to lunch with them afterwards! Such socialising bravery.

On Saturday I went to drawing group where we did still life. I got out the pastels again - they are fun! mucky but fun - and did a fairly literal rendition of bottles and oranges. 

There were a few arrangements set up and I had some time at the end, so did a quick pastel of another table which had a flower and a coffee pot ... it's meant to be "free" i.e. a bit blurry. 

And at the art classes I finished the sunset which is OK. I don't like the headland but bits of the sea are acceptable. This is a technique where you do an underpainting of pastel then wash it out with a wet brush. The results are kind of similar to a watercolour underpainting but not the same, and you can't do wet into wet or anything like that. Then you go back in with more pastels for detail - you can add lights which is a different way of attacking it - and pastel pencils too. 

It's a fun technique so I used it again for this landscape, which I am much more pleased with. It doesn't look a lot like the reference photo (artistic license!) but I have put it in a cheap frame and it will be hung in the kitchen, where bad art belongs.

Arty things

I'm still going along to the weekly art classes and enjoying my adventure into pastels. The next project was a drawing of our shed. It was a learning experience and I'm not super thrilled with the result ... but I definitely learned something.

This is the photo I drew from. 

I also went along to the art group drawing sessions on Saturday (bar open) where we drew with non-traditional materials this time; sticks, blossoms, bark, feathers... it was actually heaps of fun but I'm not sure if the end result is any good. Drawing with sticks is hard!!!

We were drawing a heap of branches/flowers so if you squint you can see pine needles and waratah flowers and dead agapanthus heads in there. Kind of. 

Arty things

On Wednesday we went into Canberra to vacuum the-house-that-no-one-wants-to-buy, do grocery shopping and have lunch with number one (who had just finished a lab about the science of reporting the potential for uranium enrichment accurately to the International Atomic Energy Agency ... nuclear engineering, such a roller coaster. We heard about it with great interest and zero understanding). 

Then after lunch we all went to the Cezanne to Giacometti exhibition at the National Gallery  - highlights from Museum Berggruen. It was amazing - lots of Picasso and Klee and Matisse - but also they brought in things from Australian artists with links to the works. It was more coherent than it sounds and we all had a very good time. 

We couldn't agree which one to take home with us other than it would probably be a Picasso - the other two liked 'still life on piano - cort' but I preferred 'still life with blue guitar'. We all agreed that a tall skinny lady from Giacometti would be AMAZING in the sheep pen, to surprise visitors. 

At the other end of the artistic scale, I did go to the drawing group at the local regional art group last Saturday. It was lots of fun - not just drawing but painting or pastels or pencils, whatever you wanted. I was not very good but enjoyed a couple of hours (with a glass of wine). I can't find what I did so I won't post it, but it did inspire me to actually ring an art teacher from a flyer I picked up ages ago and I joined her Tuesday afternoon lessons!

There's about five people in her backyard studio that work on their own things, but she starts beginners off with a few standard lessons, including (of course) a selection of glass bottles in charcoal. Dark and light, shapes and negative space, highlights and shadows. I had a lovely time doing it, she is a very good experienced teacher, and the results are so much better when you learn it properly!!! Who would have guessed?

Advanced brainless painting

This is really about what you do when you can't do anything complex. I have just been putting colours on the page.

I quite like them, they look like fuzzy blankets.

It is not at all difficult to do. So I did a number. 

I think they are pretty. Some colours work better than others.

The main problem is waiting for them to dry - they have between 8 and 12 layers.

Brainless painting

I have not been challenging myself on the art front for a couple of months now ... it's just been splashing a bit of paint on as a distraction at the end of the day. Which is absolutely fine. It usually ends up as flowers.

Lots of flowers.

Although one set of large blobby birds.

And some chickens.

Then back to flowers.

Sketchbook tour

I bought an expensive (for me) Baohong cotton sketchbook somewhere and it's been sitting on the shelf waiting for an important occasion or for my skills to improve. Which isn't going to happen, so I used it the way the people on Youtube say you're meant to use sketchbooks - to test ideas, develop a theme, practice things and generally just chill. It was great to do and it's all in one spot now so I can flick back through it. The pages are about A5 size so not huge, but enough to do some mucking about. I started with an internet reference photo and did various ideas of leaves.

Played about with white pen on watercolour background for a while (there are half a dozen variants not shown! It was all a bit the same).

Moved on to marigolds, or possibly flowers that look like marigolds. And from there to flowers generally for a bit.

Foray into fruits and vegetables was next.

Many pages were really just mark-making. 

I bought some new Kuretake Gansai Tambe graphite colours in Melbourne so played with them for a bit.

And finished with a fiesta of watercolour washes - creepy trees, looming mist and ghostly figures. With varying degrees of success.