Another artist

I did a couple of paintings with Katie Jobling videos that turned out quite well - she is into 'art as therapy' which is nice and soothing! I'm not sure if it took me in any unexpected directions but here is what I did. 

A vivid sunset, and some hydrangeas. She has a cute British accent that is easy to listen to ... this is important! I always end up replaying bits over and over so an accent that isn't good can get very grating indeed at the fifteenth iteration of 'cadmium red light has a warmth that is good for skin tones' while I desperately try to copy whatever it is they are doing on the screen.

Another beautiful beach weekend

The three of us went down this time - me, husband, cat - and spent a very slothful couple of days. Watched some footy semi-finals on TV, went for walks. I cleaned out the food cupboard and threw out some expired food and ate an entire packet of marshmallows that was due to expire soon. Be a shame to waste them.

It was a more normal September temperature - about 20 degrees - so I didn't swim, despite the sunshine. The water wasn't any warmer.

When we got back home the birds started squawking for the Bird Man so he had to go and feed them all first thing. The gang-gangs have brought their babies down to meet the Bird Man but they are a bit clueless and like to land on his head and fossick on his scalp. Hmmmm, sounds like a recipe for disaster to me.

More vases of flowers

I was quite struck by the Jane Slivka vase of flowers and thought it might be fun to do it bigger - those were all A4 and I also have A3 canvas, so I scaled it up. First we have one very similar to the first one. Splotchly splotches.

I didn't love the bright orange underpainting and then painting the pale blue background over the top - I think there is too much going on. And the whole thing is a bit light. So I did another one where I used the same colour for the underpainting and then the background colour - and made it darker towards the bottom.

Kind of OK, but not enough flower types, so I did one with purple roses.

The roses looked odd - as did the rest of the foliage - so I did another one and tried to get the roses a bit more impressionistic. I wasn't thrilled so added some cherry blossom. My daisies/coneflowers are better on this one.

And that was about the end of the line for the flowers. But I did blu-tack them up to the end of the wardrobes in my sewing room, so now when I walk up the stairs I see this! Pretty, they look good all together.

Too hot

We had a weekend of 30 degree days - which is absolutely not OK for the middle of September, and is deeply terrifying all Australians. It could be an evil summer, and nobody wants that. However, silver linings, I went down the beach and swam both days and sat around in shorts and it was lovely.

The water still feels like September though. I bought a new shorty wetsuit online that zips all the way down the front and then down one leg and actually comes completely undone - so no more trauma about being trapped inside your wetsuit and having to get random dog walkers to help you unpack yourself. Yes, it happened.

It was cold but lovely and some good waves and it is SO nice to be in the water again. 

Another artist's lessons

Here is me doing a couple of paint-along tutorials with Jane Slivka, who does impressionist paintings with lots of light and colour. I like them, and it looks super simple....  spoiler alert - it's really hard :) She does a bright underpainting, then paints the main shapes on in a very dark green, and adds a first layer of white while it's still wet. Then the other colours and highlights, and re-paints the background around the shapes. It looks fabulous on her work but on mine it's a bit rough and ready. Here are people on a beach.

I love the way it's definitely in bright sunshine. She says you just go with however the shapes work out - sometimes they're facing the other way or differently proportioned to what you intended. I can roll with that. People on a pier.

And a vase of flowers.

Not my work

Here is the painting that we bought in Inverell, by a regional artist, that is reminiscent of the local landscape. We both really like it, and I like being able to look at it in detail and see just how much of it is 'suggested' rather than painted in. Very clever, to be able to suggest things in a way that makes the brain fill in the gaps accurately.

And this is my work, as I do a more traditional tutorial with Will Kemp again, still life with jug. Or rather still life of jug, nothing else.

It's OK, there are bits that don't work very well. It looks very crude compared to the landscape...

Last of acrylic April

Here are the last two paintings for Acrylic April 2020 - so that means I've done 60 little paintings, all different, with the art sherpa ... so I must have learnt something? Surely? I had a good time, mostly, except when things were going horribly wrong. I am moving onto other artist's tutorials now, and we will see where that takes me. The penultimate one was this galah - she kept calling it a parrot but it is clearly a galah, and trying to paint in the 'jungle' behind it, galahs prefer open woodland for heavens sake - which is OK but its head looks a bit flattened.

Then a storm at sea - I have learnt not to outline the clouds which looks great on hers but terrible on mine. So this is a bit over-dramatic but not the UFO rays of previous paintings. I like the ship, and bits of the wave look vaguely Hokusai, which is nice.

We had a lovely quiet weekend with beautiful spring weather - caught up with friends and went for a walk out the back of their place, which gives a different perspective of Canberra. Off into the mountains, definitely no snow. Not even the ski fields have much snow this year.

And this was their wee happy dog.

Beach, with cat

The three of us went down to the beach last weekend, and we all enjoyed it. I know I did, and my husband said he did, and the cat seemed fine with it. Lots of walks, I paddled but didn't swim, although the weather was actually quite nice. Definitely spring-time.

I also sewed a couple of things. The cat assisted me by sitting on the patterns. Which was fine, until I started rustling through all the paper and she thought it was Attack Time. Shredded both me and a few pattern envelopes.