Slow going

 

Still just grabbing a moment when the energy is up to do a little creative work. Best I'm doing is my wee watercolours. I think I have finished the two above. And as you can see from the few photos below, I have done the pen work for a couple more.

The pieces with watercolours swipe are what I use for testing colours before applying them to paintings.

Not sure if I will get back to the pen worked pair over the weekend or not.

A few fragments of beauty

 

Still not up to much but trying to get a short walk in each day; and of course there is often a fragment of beauty to lift the spirits - sometimes they can be found in G's orchid house including the one above and those following.

Lorikeets were going crazy in the palm flower frond - you can just make out a couple of them amongst the flowers.

Yesterday morning the kookaburra below sunning itself on the overhead wires encouraged us to lift our eyes to the blue sky.

Fragments of beauty help to heal us.

Not much to show.

 

My head has not been up to much over the weekend as F and I have found ourselves floored by one of the circulating viruses.  Yesterday I managed to develop but not finish the two watercolours of buildings above.

Process-progress photos follow.

I hope to get back to these paintings sometime next week.

Ink paintings

 

During the week I sketched out three images of the fishing poles at the cove in Armadale  Two I wanted to render on watercolour paper mainly using acrylic ink. The third, a repeat of one of the ones I was doing on water colour colour paper, I wanted to do on yupo 'paper' mainly using alcohol ink. 

The two on 300gsm watercolour paper were sketched with waterproof ink; and the one on yupo was sketched with a graphite pencil. I was attempting to do two images of the poles on misty days; and the third I wanted to represent the poles on a dark but sunrise morning. I wanted to pick up the atmosphere of the mornings.

The finished three in the opening image are on the dining room take - aka home watercolour studio.

Progress photos follow.

Some images of the finished pieces follow. The matt board has simply been rested over the pieces to show how they might look mounted.

I'm reasonably happy with what I achieved - I like the different results of the images in the mist using yupo and alcohol paints; and watercolour paper and acrylic ink. Inks are harder to control than watercolours!!!!

Simple local beauty

 

The images in the post are from the footpaths in our village and in the neighbourhood close to home. Again demonstrating the fragments of beauty are often just before us when we wander with open eyes.

I will let the humble blossoms speak for themselves.

The bees were enjoying the nectar of the following magnolia flower.

It was good to get out this morning for a walk even though it was a short one. Iw was uplifting to start the day with fragments of beauty.

Listing and packing

 

As you can see from the photo above, after doing the final framing yesterday, I spent quite a bit of time at the studio-gallery grouping and list the watercolour paintings I'm planning to take to Scotland. White list dots from a past list are exchanged with orange dots and numbers for the present plan.Fiona was working across from me in the studio working on her latest artist's book - love that red colour.

As it turns out there will be 30 works to be packed - that started today with all the works wrapped in pairs in bubble wrap. I did this to estimate what I would use to transport them - I'm hoping a largish suitcase will suffice.

A few more images  of the works in groups. 

Fiona and I hope to do a joint pop-up exhibition in the local village hall whilst we are over there. Below is an image of some of the watercolour paintings that are connected to the village that I hope would be included in such a pop-up exhibition.

Again as we say - it is not just about doing the art there are many decisions about what we will do with our art; and these always lead to many administrative tasks.

Almost there

 

I have been doing a few more postcard sized Scotland inspired water colours in the lead up to our next trip to the cottage. I'm hoping that I might have a wee solo exhibition; and a pop-up exhibition with Fiona. I aim to take 25-30 framed works over when we go. The works will include some of different buildings etc from the village such as the one of the fishing huts in the opening photo.

Others that I have finished include those below.

And there are a couple more I would like to do - progress photos of these follow.

Of course it is not all about the painting. There are many other tasks to do before we go including; negotiating exhibition space, publicity brochure, price list and packing. But it will be fun to take a body of work back to the area that has inspired the work.

Gorgeousness after rain

 

I just love the freshness of blossoms after rain - droplets of pure rain clinging to petals - see above and below; and even the bees came out early to indulge.

A visit to G's orchid house was rewarded with beautiful orchids with droplets.

Such gorgeousness reminds me that all is not dark and that there is much to be grateful for.