Uluru art class

In the middle of this year we travelled to Uluru, and saw many
amazing sights, our first desert experience.

While there, I was keen to do an aboriginal painting workshop,
and our indigenous teacher was Barbara.

What was very interesting was the explanations of the symbolism
in the artwork and all the folklore tales.

Aboriginal art and design was everywhere, including on the furnishings
and decor in ouraccommodationn, plus we saw natural ochre paintings
while on tour to Khata Tjuta.

Cockatoo coffee table

My daughter is setting up a house in the mountains. They had gathered most
of the furniture but a good, right size of coffee table eluded them.

I said I would help look. I found a timber one second hand which was cheap,
but needed work.

As it needed sanding back and refinishing, I thought of their color scheme
which was fairly contemporary, with a lot of black and grey. 

A conversation with my daughter mentioning Black Cockatoos nearby inspired
me to paint the top as an artwork, with the subtle addition of Yellow Tailed Black
Cockatoos which I also love.

The base and legs were sprayed black. The top is a variety of greys. The only
colour is spot yellow on the birds.

The composition was challenging, first attempts at a full landscape weren't
successful and painted over. So underneath the paint is the Jamieson Valley and
Govett's Leap.

I painted a stormy sky instead and simplified things. It is far more dramatic this
way and highlights the birds.

It is protected with 3 coats clear lacquer and a glass top.

Life hostess interview

I went for an interview to host life drawing sessions for Hen's
and Bucks parties.

You would instruct those attending how to do guestural drawing
(quick sketches) of the live model.

Of course I could do that bit. However, my hopes were dashed as
I realised I didn't want to do that while wrangling drunken crazy
people.

Yelling over the top of their raucousness to cooordinate things and
basically cheapen art, not my idea of fun at any price.

These are some samples I sent. They did say my art was awesome.

Block printing workshop

I attended a block printing workshop at Tara Dennis store in Wahroonga.
Unusually, but successfully, we used chalk paint instead of block ink.

We made our own blocks in different ways, and also printed onto fabric,
paper, cards and envelopes.

We used cut apples, chokos, and eggplants. Fashioned rubber stamps by
carving into erasers.

Little blocks of wood were wrapped in string or rubber bands.

Masking off with painting tape and using a roller made stripes.

Foam food trays were inscribed with biro pens and made into printing
plates as well.

Quality photography

My son is stretching his wings, and using his tech cred to explore the world of
digital photography.

He did wonderful, crisp and colour accurate photos of several of my artworks.

This was for the purpose of getting good quality prints off the originals.

Flower Commission

I had a tricky flower commission to do. Lots of dewdrops on the petals.
Also couldn't decide on the method.

Started painting in gouache to get vivid colour. Then decided to use this
as a base to draw over with pastel pencil.

It is hard to make flower petals looks soft. This sample was very large.

Some of the steps shown here.
 

 Original photo reference. 

 Gouache paint.

 Starting with pastel, flower still  'stiff '.

 Petals and leaves improving, and a soft background 

rubbed in, as stark white was too much. 

More logic applied to the dewdrops.