Long weekend

It was the Reconciliation Day long weekend - it's a new-ish public holiday just in Canberra and always takes people by surprise. I went to the beach of course, with my husband and the cat this time, and it was lovely. Cold but clear and still and sunny. I went for lots of walks.

On Sunday morning I stood at the headland and looked down at these three blokes cooking themselves some bacon and eggs for breakfast. All perfectly fine, except that to get to that spot you have to either scramble down the cliff or bush bash round from the boat ramp. It's not hard - I've done it as part of a walk - but I've never done it with a folding table, chairs, cooker and food. Why have breakfast there? It's not even a good spot for rock fishing. It smelled good though.

Nothing exciting to report otherwise - no sewing was done. I filled the holes left from the removal of the old blinds and sanded and painted. Not perfect but you can't tell unless you are peering at them very very closely.

Abstract April - people

So this is where it all gets a bit unhinged - abstracts of humans. First up we channelled our anger and worry into this charming portrait. It's giving angst, it's giving nobody-understands-me, it's giving Year 8 self-expression. It has also been giving me the creeps so I ended up turning it to the wall. 

On the other end of the scale is this pretty face. A nice bit of watercolour-technique background and strong black lines. I quite like it, although the 'hibiscus' flower is a bit mutant. 

And a peculiar little family, looming out of the multi-colour mist. This was very interesting to do because the people have no distinguishing characteristics, and they're quite small, so every time you added the slightest line or amount of colour to them it would change the way they related to each other, or to the space. Like, far away, then closer, then not friendly, then related, depending on what splotch you added. Luckily I wasn't trying for any particular look, so definitely succeeded. 

And then the brightly coloured nude lady, who is lolling on some surface somewhere. I re-painted that left shoulder and left forearm about four times and it STILL looks like a giant stuffed sausage sitting on her hip. Why? the right arm has even less definition and it looks like it is plausibly curled about her head. How does the left one turn into a sock puppet? Aaaargh. At least she looks happy.

Abstract April - non-representational aka wtf is this

Some of the abstracts are abstracted objects or scenes, and some of them are absolutely not meant to be anything at all. But they still take ages to do, and lots of thinking. As you smack the paint in almost entirely the wrong spot. First up is my favourite - lots of palette knife - I really like this one. I don't know why. I have varnished it which is the first time ever! That means I can't paint over it again, which is what will happen with the other canvases I think. I am going to put a velcro command hook on the back and hang it on the wall.

I don't hate this one - it is meant to be minimalist abstract with a slight hint of mid-century modern. Which I think it has. 

This is meant to be an abstract idea of fire, but it's a bit half-arsed. Again, lots of palette knife which is fun, but I'm not sure it's giving fire. Perhaps controlled explosion?

This was meant to be completely non-representational but ended up being "floating alien pirate sky ships" which is OK. That's the nice thing about abstracts. I like the impasto splodges. Again, it took hours to do this, I don't think you can tell.

And lastly we have an allover kind of abstract, with Posca pen, which I kind of like but it's a bit wimpy. The completely abstract ones are fun to do but a bit unsatisfying.

Stretchy dress

In between walks on the weekend I made a dress - first for a while. I tend to either swim or sew, not often time for both on a short weekend. So it turns into more of a winter thing. I used my christmas scissors again and they were still amazing! The result was a very simple swing dress in a border print knit that I've had for a while.

Terrible photo into the sun but you get the idea. Highly black and work-appropriate.

This is me trying to show that it does swirl a little bit without also stepping on the cat. Who was quite interested.

This is the pattern - N6618 - despite the tech drawings it isn't longer at the back then the front. I think they did that to show the sewn-in ties pull to the front? Maybe? I didn't make the sewn-in ties, just a separate belt, and the length is definitely the same at the front and the back. Anyway there is no shaping, so it was a very easy sew and EXTREMELY easy to wear because it's so loose-fitting. Basically just a bit tshirt with a bit of colour at the hem. Nice.

Cold weekend

Another weekend of icy winds - I went down to the beach which was lovely for about an hour and a half until 10 am ... when the wind got up and it clouded over. So I went for walks nice and early both days. I could have swum because the water is still a reasonable temperature but it's hard to get excited about a swim when it's not warm enough to take your jumper off. There were a lot of surfers but not much surf.

Here is the sun glinting horizontally towards the horizon in the exact artistically approved fashion. Just dry brush a bit of white over your sea and bobs your uncle. Except for me when it would look like someone sneezed cotton wool on a blue blanket.

And this would be super easy too, just scumbling some white on the edge of the water. So it looks like waves. Hah. I have to stop watching people make art on tiktok - anything that can be done in 90 seconds is not a realistic goal. 

Abstract April - flowers and fruit

On the more representational side of abstracts we have flowers and occasional fruit. A bit of Mondrian, a bit of Matisse?  I like my pear, it looks like it is sitting in a bed of chicken feathers, which is not at all what I intended. It is slightly the wrong shape and colour for a pear.

Here we have some poppy type arrangements and a butterfly with too many wings. 

A vase of perhaps roses. Apparently this is very cool if you paint it big - scale is an important part of abstracts apparently - this is 7 x 9 inches. The smoodgy stripes are intentional. 

This one is a bit of a splodgy mess. I am not doing well with solid chunks of colour, I don't have the brush control. And my white Posca pen is too pale. But I'm still having fun.

Last of the autumn leaves

I did my usual big walk on Sunday - the first time for a long time and I was POOPED by the last stage, staggering up the hill. It was a beautiful day for it though, with lots of people out and about for Mother's Day. Picnics and brunches mostly. 

The autumn leaves are just about done but it is still looking lovely. Look at all those Canberrans doing Canberra-like things. Frolicking by the artificial lake, built for the recreation of upright citizens. Like me.

We don't fuss about things like Mother's Day, but one of my children remembered to text, which is nice, and my husband was in Manila all last week for work and had brought me back chocolate. And we then went round to friends for a Eurovision party, so all in all a very good day! I can't believe that weird Swedish lady in a box won. At least the Australian entry didn't disgrace itself (odd, but not too odd, it's all you can hope for). Why is Australia in Eurovision? NO ONE KNOWS

Acrylic April

After my ten (nine) beginner paintings I am now doing "Acrylic April" with the Art Sherpa - a painting a day for all of April. Obviously I am well behind, and falling further behind with each passing day, but that is what Youtube is for. Painting at one's own pace. Apparently this has been going for a few years now so if I want to I can go back and do previous Acrylic Aprils. This year's theme is 'abstracts' which is good for a beginner like me, because there is a bit of wriggle room for 'personal interpretation'. I am bad but not so bad it makes me cross, unlike realistic painting where it is meant to look like something. And it doesn't.

So we are doing all sorts of abstracts - some are completely non-representational where others are things or scenes, but not realistically, just the abstraction of the idea of the thing. Or something. Here are some abstract landscapes. The sky in the one above is a bit lairy but I like my island with the flaming trees sprouting from it.

They are varying in peculiarity, god only knows what this is meant to be. I am getting the hang of the paint, slowly, and have also bought a palette knife so I can smack the paint on in great gobs. It is fun, but almost impossible to control. I watched a video of someone doing a complete painting with a palette knife and it is amazing, but I cannot grasp how they did it. 

This is a bit less abstract than some of the others and I quite like bits of it. There is always something that isn't hideous in each painting, and for this I am not appalled by the middle clouds. I am appalled by the purple cliff, the lilac trees and the red algae pond at the front...

Oh dear

It's budget week here, which is exciting for parliamentary and financial types but not really anyone else. There is a fair amount of work that goes on behind the scenes and even though I am not in any way responsible for anything, it feels busy compared to the past few quiet weeks. Which is my excuse for getting halfway from the carpark to my office at 8.15 this morning and realising this.

Yes, those are my slippers on the parliamentary carpet at the end of my highly suitable parliamentary blacks. I realised as I was coming up in the lift and said 'oh fuck' out loud, which didn't startle anyone in the lift at all, because budget week, there's a lot of swearing. But then I had to stroll through the long long corridors pretending nothing is wrong and OF COURSE these are perfectly normal shoes and not size 8 Grosby men's slippers in navy herringbone. 

I was in full panic until I found my back-up flats (from when I used to wear heels sometimes that would hurt my feet) ... I did not have time to go home and change before my first meeting so was planning to invent a foot injury and FAKE LIMP all day ... don't judge, that was the best I could come up with. 

Painting with acrylics

For the past month or two I've started to teach myself acrylics using youtube videos and trial and error! It is not quite as sketchy as that sounds, I am following the Art Sherpa's beginner course and it sets out the basics very well. Or I think it does, I have no point of comparison of course. I have worked through the half dozen videos on basic techniques and brush strokes and bought myself the smallest possible number of brushes, paints and canvases. There will be  more shopping in the future (of course!) but I find it is always good to start with the minimum you can get away with. Otherwise I feel overwhelmed and guilty if it doesn't work out.

After the basic technique videos then we do the 'ten basic beginner paintings' which I have done, with varied success! Actually that's not true, my paintings are uniformly terrible, but you would expect that. Eight of the ten are above - I did them on paper, which I have lots of - and one is below - the balloons - which I did on canvas. I don't know why there are only nine, I must have missed a video somewhere.

As you can see, acrylics are a lot brighter than watercolours. The paints operate quite differently on the brush, and I have to resist the urge to water them down to get the colour that I want - you have to mix a new, lighter colour with white paint. Very strange. I also don't load enough paint onto my brush, so I'm learning just to slop it on so that you get a smooth finish. I can't blend the colours to save myself (watercolours just blend themselves) and my brush control is back to horrific. 

I did another 'beginner' tutorial from Step by Step Art which was enjoyable but the end result is pretty bad. All those leaves are just green blobs. But it's stretching my brain, I look forward to it in the evenings, and I think I need lots more purchases...and even though I'm very bad at it I do know something about colour theory now, and basic shapes, which has been helping. Slightly.

Quick trip to Melbourne

Dad left Monday morning and I went down to Melbourne on Monday afternoon for a couple of days for work. I didn't get much of a chance for sightseeing but did catch up with number two for dinner and hear all the news. I also saw his flat, which is great, and met one of his flatmates, who is lovely, so that's very reassuring for me :) He showed me the vegetables in the fridge too, so I'm very impressed. 

We went to a delicious Lebanese restaurant for dinner, then around the corner to a literal ice-cream warehouse for dessert (Melbourne! so cool) and a tram back into town. Above is a very uncool road selfie (trying not to get run over by a tram). I offloaded a bag of quilts that I'd brought down because he'd been feeling the cold and all in all it was a delightful catch up and I heard about the studies and the parties and the shows and the friends. 

Work went well too - although I got rained on every time I stepped outside. Melbourne's weather cliché is 'four seasons in one hour' and it's TRUE. Sunny when I was inside and a rain explosion whenever I left a building. Here is the sky over the bowls club, waiting for my lunch break.

Beach time with Dad

I took Dad down the beach for a few days to potter about - he was determined to find a decent fishing spot and I wanted to get in the last swims of the season! Which I did, Wednesday to Friday were unseasonably warm, and then a huge wet front blew in on Saturday morning for cold heavy rain. This is Thursday, when it was 26 degrees and sunny. 

My swims were probably better than Dad's fishing, but I did go with him to a few places I hadn't been before - there's a breakwater at the other end of the long beach where the big river comes out. Quite spectacular, but no decent sized fish apparently, despite a couple of hours effort. Not by me, I think fishing is boring, but fresh fish is delicious.

Nothing exciting or productive was done by me - a few crosswords, some gentle shopping - we gave up first thing Sunday because it was so cold and miserable and drove back to Canberra to put the fire on! Dad is travelling back to NZ today where it is also cold and rainy... here is an arty shot of reflections. I could never paint that.