Local Scenery

Photos from the other day out at the beach...the reflections on the wet sand were amazing. It was bitterly cold though as the wind swept right along the beach.

I have been a bit 'precious' about posting photos that I intend to use myself due to the internet piracy issues but working on that at the moment and this was too lovely a day not to share it... yet today we have lightnening and thunder and hail...

Last photo - very a-typical housing endemic to the area

sketching on Location is always wonderfully absorbing...not always GREAT PAINTINGS emerge - but the ideas they generate and the joy of being there is wonderful

I think it is because you are totally 'in-the-moment- , there is no sense of past and only anticipation of the future, all there really is is the 'now' - it is a mostly very 'still' place to be.

I have had a brainwave. Am beginning now to assemble my home ready for my 2nd inhouse exhibition in July and was not sure how to best go about it but this morning I have recalled I have photos of one other time when the house was assembled like an art gallery so I think i shall have a good look at them, escepially how the end room was assembled as my last year and before work will be in there and can set it up similar. Then i can use the studio for the new work using the limited colour palette and the rest of the house for photography, 3D and new work other than the limited colour palette work.

On the way out to the beach the other day I was speaking with a shop owner and there is a possibility of comission work, they want a painting done of their batch and i need $ for registering the car so i can continue to have the use of it so I need to get in touch with them and formalise things if they do want to go ahead. I just think that would be a great sloution for both of us. A young man I know also would like to do a 'green swap' - getting my car up to warrentable standard in terms of fixing things relating to the stereo system that prevons owners illegally installed in the car in exchange for my speakers in the back of the car. He's a very reliable young man so hoping he knows what he's doing.

weekend work

"Warning - unstable area - please keep off"

had to laugh at irony of a sign which is toppling over the
area it is marking is so unstable a reflection on my own life also - painted in Gouache on card on location.

No creativity for me today after a bit of time on location yesterday braving the bitter wind and sunshine to familiarise myself a little more with Gouache as a medium by going out and doing some small sketches at the beach.

It seems to dry very powdery and is hard to apply unless it is well wetted down (although for the waves in 'Kite Surfer' I applied it directly from the tube for the surf and it has dried almost like a semi impasto feel.)

)This one was sketched for a friends sons birthday - his secret swimming spot - adding gold ink highlights when back in the studio seemed the right thing to do.

Think it demands a bit more exploration.

Seems to be more effective when used in controlled conditions like the studio (see the Cat under the Grapefruit tree).



Currently I am having to buy art supplies on chit - a local retailer allows me to book things up and I just have to pay them back each month. Did a work out the other day and realised I am spending between $90- $100 per month for supplies, even with a discount. {No wonder food has been so lacking...) Apart from one purchase which I have not used they have all been exceptionally useful and necessary.



ARt is my ONE indulgence that does not centre around my health or hospital meetings or surgeons or rehab or physio or ADLs. Art does not care if I can't walk or am in pain or hungry. Creativity is not stomped out by the endless regime of analgesics and opiates and other medication. It doesn't care if there is no money in the bank or if the money is overflowing. Art will always find a way to make it's presence felt.



there are some things going on in my life that MAYBE I will explore on this blog, or not. Have not decided yet. But there is a new 'facet' going onto who I am and what I am about.
Think that is part and parcel of being an 'artist at work' - things change, you grow, things move on