Not much to share

 

Whilst there has been a lot going on art wise there is not a lot to share apart from completing 4 wee watercolours of and for Scotland - opening photo and other below. The watercolours will be part of the Pop Up Art Show in the Armadale Village Hall at the end of August.

I have also been working away on two more A7 sized 16 page booklets of poetry - one titled What Remains and the other Farewelling the Light. These two booklets will have a similar format to my Flow Country booklet. Each booklet includes four original fragmentary poems that are my response to four photos I took; and the photographic images are also presented in the booklet.

Preparation for the jewellery workshop is almost completed - all the tools are put aside, all the metal elements for participants cut and findings, such as jump rings, leather necklaces and earring hooks, packed. 

Many projects on the go

 

At the moment I seem to be jumping from one thing to another including: finishing watercolours for a friend (see opening photos; progressing watercolours for Scotland (see below); doing a How to Use Tools document for my jewellery workshop; finishing examples for the workshop; and negotiating the finalisation of my repair work on the Montville footpath.

The watercolours for the friend reflect the colours and subject matters she likes.

I successfully test printed the 16 page A7 sized Flow Country poem booklet on different weight and colour photo inkjet paper. Fiona and I selected some threads to test sewing heavy weight paper; and today Fiona sewed the booklets for me. As you can see from the photos below I think at the tests have worked and I'm good to print booklets for sale at the Pop Up Art Show in Scotland. The thread is a heavier gauge and the colour reflects the bog country - loose threads are deliberate!!!

I'll get around to blogging on the tools and finished jewellery samples soon.

Four for Scotland and two for a sick fellow artist

 On Thursday I returned to Megan's Thursday morning art group - managed to progress 4 wee Scotland inspired watercolours I had started whilst in the cottage. Today I managed another hour to further progress the four.

I was informed that a fellow artist is very ill and a few folk are going to give her a concertina book of small artworks. I started two today - got the under washes done.

The opening photo shows where I got to with the six works today. Some process shots of the four for Scotland follow. The order is a bit random - I'm sure you can work it out!!!!

A couple of process photos of the art for a friend follow.

Hopefully I will get close to finishing all six in the coming week.

A new start

 Yesterday we finished our maintenance tasks for this trip - just in time before the rain sets in for the next week. This meant I have been able to start s few more watercolours (see above); based on the photos taken over the last couple of weeks (see four chosen and printed out below).

A few preparatory sketches follow.

I'm not sure how much progress I will make on these; but given the rainy weather forecast I might get a couple of painting sessions.

Four finished

 

A you will see in the above and following photo I have finished four wee watercolours. They still need the critical eye of Megan run over them; and maybe a touch up with my Daniel Smith watercolours. 

A few miscellaneous-process photos follow.

Good to add these four to my contribution too the planned Pop up Art Show in Armadale Hall later this year!!!

Slow progress

  

Much of our time when we are at the cottage is currently given over to cottage maintenance and garden work. We have been given many many red monbrecias to add to our planting of several hundred orange monbrecias - it will look gorgeous in August-September; but it will take quite a few hours to plant the reds. 

That is a very long way of saying there is not a lot of time for watercolours - but I did get a couple of hours to progress the two I had started and start two new pieces as you can see from the opening photo.

I'm not as happy with these works because I did not bring my Daniel Smith watercolours which I think are deeper in colour - I need to remember to bring my colours with me next time.

A few progress-process photos follow.

With a bit of luck I might get these finished before we head back to our cottage in Maleny.

A little bit of art

 

We are settling into life in the cottage and have started to carry out maintenance tasks. We are now trying to find bits of time for art. I got a couple of hours this morning and started on a couple of wee watercolours. 

The opening photo shows where I got to - a reasonable start. Some process photos follow.

The kitchen table became the studio!!! It takes a bit of time unpacking and packing the art box but it is worth the effort.

Small Scottish watercolours

 

This very short blog post is the first from Scotland - so good that it shows a few images of a couple of watercolours of local buildings - the old shop in Melvin and local aged stone building. Opening with the old store watercolour. Stone building watercolour follows.

Couple of process photos.

And a couple more of the finished works.

Two finished- two progressing

 

We are fast approaching our departure date from heading to the cottage - so many things are on the list to be done. Much jumping around from making an additional leaf form artists' book, finishing the concrete crack repairs on the path sculpture and finishing off a series of watercolours.

So today's blog is about progressing watercolours - two that I have finished and two that I hope to finish next week. The opening photo is of a postcard sized watercolour of the Old Bus Stop in Armadale  based on a photo I took last visit - more of a side angle. Note that I have actually put in background on the most recently finished watercolours.

The other finished work - Moine House in the Scottish highlands.

A progress photo of the lot

And photos of the other two in progress.

Finally a couple of additional photos of the finished pieces. None of the photos in this blog post are particularly good - all taken in a bit of a rush!!!