Friday 30 November 2012

APR, eek!! Still life x 5.

Well our lovely Jenn
sure knows how to close the year with a bang.
One of the things I most dread
is the old still life.

Now this week has been crazy, mad, insane
and any other words you can think of.
You see my eldest has turned 21
and she is having a party tomorrow,
so of course I am running around like a nutter
trying to get ready and make table decorations etc.

So the chances of me doing a still life with 5 items
are nil, nada and nutt.

I went through my area of old canvasses
that didn't make the grade and 
decided to let you see my more
embarrassing moments in paint.



Many years ago, I decided to try a painting lesson.
Now I thought a painting lesson meant just that, a painting lesson, 
as in a teacher who showed you what to do.

Boy was I wrong.

I got there and she went through my goody bag
and said "We don't use pencils or crayons of any kind here,
you just get out your paints and paint".
Panic set in and I said that I hadn't been taught how
but she just said do your best.

She plonked this table with some bits on and said
you have and hour now go.

I had oil paints!!!

So, I give you my way out of perspective,
conglomerate of things,
five if you count everything in the picture,
for this last APR for the year.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to everyone, 
this is my last post for 2012.
See you in 2013.

To see some proper still life's
go to Jenn's 
and see how it should be done.

 

 



Wednesday 28 November 2012

My last WOYWW for 2012

Life is super crazy and hectic at the moment.
My eldest miss was 21 on Tuesday
and the big party is on this Saturday,
My girlfriend, also the girls godmother,
arrived from wet old England last Saturday
and the poor thing hasn't had a moments rest.

This week has comprised of
running around like headless chooks,
trying to organise things for the party
and get bits n pieces for table decorations etc.
Plus my little miss had exams and projects due.
Today we went to school for a party in the German room
and then straight on to the shops to get
195 photos printed,
yes,
that was 195 photos.

My kids have put me through all sorts of things and now
I get to seek revenge!!

Every photo is of an embarrassing moment
in my big misses life
and unknown to her,
I have an 8" x 10" 
of her sitting on the toilet
a few years back, when she refused to shut the door.

It will have pride of place on the wall of shame.
Mwa ha ha.


In the midst of all this chaos,
I had two orders for pet portraits
and I have been stealing moments
to do them and
keep a little sanity.




I'm getting there slowly.

As my little miss is finishing school for the year
next week,
this will be my last
WOYWW
for 2012.

I will be back in Jan 2013.

I would like to wish 
all my fellow bloggers
a wonderful and safe
Christmas
and a happy New Year.

I will be visiting blogs 
 when I can
during the summer holidays.

Have fun
and now go and check 
the other desks
around the world,
at Julia's

I hope all the English bloggers
are safe and well
in all that terrible weather.







Wednesday 21 November 2012

APR Turkey Day

Artists Playroom's theme this week is
Turkey Day.

Now that conjures up all sorts of ideas.
I could paint half my family,  they are right turkeys
but I only have a little while
so I thought of the closest thing we have to a turkey
and that is one of our chooks.

This is Noodles,
one of our three delinquent chooks.


I used to have a nice garden with straw bedding 
and a lawn and vegie patch.
Then came the three innocent looking
horrors.
Within a week they had destroyed
or eaten most of my garden.

After a rather hurried trip to the hardware,
we now have a garden split into two.

One half for us and one half for the chooks.

You might say keep them in a chook house
but when you look into those beautiful brown eyes,
there is no way you can keep them cooped up (parden the pun).

My little miss loves these terrors and each afternoon
she lets them out into our side of the garden,
with the promise to keep an eye on them.

Oh sure she will.

Most afternoons, I let out a yell and grab the water spray bottle
(they hate getting squirted)
and chase them off of our outdoor couch.

For some reason they think that we paid all that money 
for the couch, just to that they can sit comfortably 
and enjoy the view.

If they didn't poop and drop half the garden on the couch
I wouldn't mind so much.

On the plus side they do give us three eggs a day
but at 5.30am
they sure let us know about it!!
So they are my idea of
right turkeys
and I think they fit the theme 
well.

Go have a look at the other turkeys,
that's the art not the people,
over at Jenn's
Artist's Playroom.
You'll be glad you did.




Tuesday 20 November 2012

Cleaning for WOYWW

I've been flat out scrubbing and spring cleaning
my house and no art has been done
for nearly two weeks now.
I'm having terrible art withdrawals
and so I've had a very quick dabble.

The postman bought a few goodies for me in the week
and I have to blame my bloggy friends
for making me buy these.



Yes that's right,
I've bought some stamps, an ink pad
and some Dylusions inks.

I keep seeing the gorgeous things that are made with these
things and have succumbed to temptation.

Only trouble is, I don't have time to play with them as I'm flat out cleaning.

Living by the sea is wonderful but you get all the dirt and salt
from the seafront and that builds up during winter.

I got out my trusty pressure washer and 
nothing, it had given up the ghost.

After a lot of swearing and hand gestures,
my husband gave in and we went out and bought a new one.

This is my new best friend.
She is one powerful cleaner
and now they have attachments,
lots of attachments (mwa ha ha).
There is a big round brushy thingy and all you do
is sweep from side to side and the dirt
and chicken poo disappears,
just like magic.

It's fantastic to use and takes half the time,
so I quickly drew her
for you all to see.

I used my new ink for the yellow,
just because I can.

The colours are so bright,
I can't wait to start playing with them.

But not for a while,
it's back to the cleaning for me.

Why not hop over to Julia's
what other people have on their desks,
this
What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday.

Now where's that mop.




Thursday 8 November 2012

Sunset for APR

Today I went down memory lane.
My eldest daughter is turning 21 in a few weeks
and I have been trawling through
thousands of photos to find the embarrassing ones,
as well as some cuties.

The photos brought back such lovely memories
and it reminded me why an artist is so important.
An artist captures a memory,
so that we can remember an event,
time or place. 
A painting is often a stepping stone
for memories to come flooding back.




This weeks APR theme is sunsets
and this is the sunset I see each day.

We live on a bay on the east coast of Australia
but we look back towards the west
and this is the sunset over Manly.

We are not lucky enough to have a beach
and so it's over the mud flats.

I have had this view since I was 15 years old
(mum and dad still live just up the road)
and I have so many memories
of this area.

It's where I grew up and where my kids have grown up
and luckily the view hasn't changed.

So here is my sunset,
painted very loosely,
with a very naughty curly bit of paper.





It's a little sploshy
but I kinda like it that way.

To see what other people have done
for sunset,
hop on over to 
Jenn's

I have a thousand more photos 
to go through.








Wednesday 7 November 2012

One of those days for WOYWW

Yes people,
I am having one of 'those' days today.

It started out with the Lotto,
we didn't win, bummer.  It was up to $100 million.
A rather poor and forlorn hubby left for work this morning,
no retirement yet.

Next, the pool needed topping up after the winds
we have had for weeks, without any rain to speak of.
I put the hose in the pool, turned around
and the darn thing leapt out of the water,
spun around and soaked me. 
I swear I heard it laughing until I hit it with a brick
and held it under the water.
Take that hosepipe!

I went out to give the chickens some food and
they had pooped on my shoes.
I have two pairs (see I'm not silly)
and they had pooped on two of them,
luckily on two different feet, so I still had one pair to wear.
Might leave the pooped on ones and see who puts them on 
without looking (he he).


Now onto my art room,
oh yes, that didn't escape my troubled day either.

I tried to add some things to my Etsy shop and it wouldn't work no matter
what I tried.  Closed down the machine and rebooted etc,
two hours later I had them in.

Not to be outdone I decided to get a start on this weeks APR,
but when I started painting, it started curling.
I am trying to hold it down and paint at the same time.

Plus, I am doing a doggy painting at the same time,
just waiting to paint the wrong thing on the wrong paper,
the way this day is going.

Gotta laugh haven't you. Hope tomorrow is better.
 

 
 You can see the curl on the paper in this photo.  
It doesn't usually do that, just seem to be the day for it.

The doggy still has a way to go but I am happy 
with its progress.

I finished my staircase from last week
and if anyone wants to see it,
the post is here.

Something wonderful did happen this week.
I received this beautiful wall hanging
from Judy at Judy's Fabrications.

 
 It was a prize I won.


Just look at all the detail in that.

Thank you so much Judy, it is so beautiful.


I'm going to be brave and do some more to the curly painting now.

So why don't you have a look at all the other desks
around the world this wednesday
at Julia's Stamping Ground
and keep smiling.





Thursday 1 November 2012

Shadowy scarecase for APR


This weeks theme for APR on Halloween week
is Shadow.

I thought it might be fun to leave something
for the spooky imagination
and drew a shadowy
staircase scarecase (mwa ha ha).




Who knows what lies in wait
at the top.

Is that a footstep????



ARGH!!!  

Had you going there didn't I.

I have to admit, dark and shadowy stairs
give me the creeps.
I hate going downstairs at my house
in the dark.

I also did a creepy forest ages ago,
as a prop for a speech little Miss was doing at
school.

This was charcoal on dark paper and a stick on moon.
Needless to say, little Miss wanted to have a go at the charcoal
and it ended up everywhere.


I thought you might like to see how I did the stairs,
so here are a heap of pics
as I went along.










I drew it up and then decided on the colours for the wall and the curtain.  (sorry it's dark a storm was passing, darn thing didn't give us any rain).

The arch was hand drawn and painted, that's why it's so wonky, just like the artist :)







Then added the black to give it a bit of drama
and scariness.






















Then I started to colour the blocks and stairs.  This is where I  left it yesterday.


Stay awake now, nearly done.











I have added some gray to give it more definition and then I will slowly darken it
to give it more dimension.

















I've darkened the inside of the arch and fluffed around darkening bits all over the place.












It's pretty much finished here, just a few little bits around the curtains















and it's done.

See, it's easy.










The whole painting was done
using these paints, brushes and
a whole lot of swear words!!











Now you can go and do your own spooky staircase, but before you do,
how about you go and visit Jenn's
and see what fabulous things everyone did for 
Shadows.







Wednesday 31 October 2012

Dark and shadowy for WOYWW


Here's my desk mess this week.
I sometimes wonder how on earth I manage
to paint in that, but I am a grot
and can't create if I'm not surrounded
by mess.
That big mess on the wall at the right
is my telephone directory.
I don't have a little book to keep phone numbers in
so I just write a phone number on a piece of paper and staple it
to the last one I put up there.
Sounds crazy but I always seem to find the number I need.
The bits on the clips on the wall 
are school notes for Little Miss
and the rest is my mess.
 
I am doing a dark and shadowy painting for APR
this week.
The theme is shadows.
It's still at the rough in stage
but will be a staircase disappearing into the darkness
when it's finished.
I will be posting the finished picture 
along with a few photos
of the painting as it progresses
later in the week.

Well, this painting won't finish itself,
so I had better keep going.

Now you've seen my mess for the week,
hop on over to Julia's
and see what all the others
have on their desks
this wednesday.

I hope all the bloggers on the east coast of America
are all safe and well
in that awful storm.






Thursday 25 October 2012

A pair of ballet shoes for APR

I'm in doggy mode at the moment.
I'm half way through a dog portrait 
and I have another waiting to be 
done, so I have to go down my 
drawers to find an old piece of art that can fit
this weeks APR theme of Pairs.

I think I did quite well with this pair of ballet shoes
in oil pastels.

 


Now a ballet dancer I certainly am not,
nor will ever be.
I am the true meaning of fairy elephant.

I was sporty in my younger days,
playing tennis, squash, volleyball
and roller skating but ladylike
and a delicate ballet type
I was not.

When I jumped for a ball or hit a tennis ball,
my legs would go in all directions and bodyparts
would fly and collect any poor soul who was brave enough to
stand next to me.
Don't get me wrong, I was really good at sport,
I just had (as my PE teacher called it)
a very unusual style.
Which I think meant klutz.

I have a friend who was a professional ballerina.
She was so dainty and still is, then there was me,
arms and legs everywhere.

So I guess the best I can do is draw those ballerina shoes
cos I'm never going to be
a dainty ballerina,
just daggy old me.
And I'm happy with that.


Because I'm a fishy person at heart,
I just had to add one more 'pair'.

A pair of angel fish in water colour pencil.

I'm going back to my doggy painting,
so why no hop on over to Jenn's
and see what other pairs
are there.

 





Wednesday 24 October 2012

Another doggy for WOYWW

I am painting another doggy
on this wonderful
What's On your Work desk Wednesday,
hosted by the fabulous
Julia over at the Stamping Ground.

I am just roughing him in
so there isn't much to see yet.



Here is a close up



There is only black and gray at the moment,
next comes his blonde moustache. 
I am just starting the eyes so they look a little freaky at the moment.

I also finished gorgeous little Berkley the parrot
and here she is.

If you were visiting last week,
I promised to put up a picture of the doggy
I had finished and here it is.

Well that's it, I have to keep it short and sweet this week
as I still have heaps to get done.
So now you've seen what I've been up to,
why not hop on over to Julia's 
and see what everyone else has been
doing this wednesday.

I am sorry if I didn't get to return visits last week,
I had no power on friday, thanks to a naughty council worker
and a backhoe and I had visitors from Sydney on the weekend,
plus it was a pupil free day on monday, so no time for me
to do much at all.