rain is falling down.

It’s cold and wet. Winter is definately upon us. I sat down last night to do some work (and some painting shhh…) in my studio, which is located at the bedroom end of the house. The little people were well ensconced on the sleepy train, and in the silence, the light spilling from the studio door into the darkness of the formal lounge and beyond made me feel like I was a million miles from anywhere. And then the softest of soft tapping started up on the roof, so gentle I had to strain to decide if I really was hearing rain, or if my mind was playing tricks with me. But steadily it got heavier, and between 9pm and 9am, we ended up with just a touch under 25mm/1 inch of rain. Today has been more of the same. Cold. Wet. Lots of stories and singing. A movie for rest time, and some designing for mummy. An impromptu coffee date rounded out the morning nicely after Mini Minstrels and the news of a new baby. Everyone is back on board now, and happily playing in the studio with me. Bubba Boy is colouring in, coming to me regularly to show off his progress and check I “wike the pick-shures, mama?”. Butterfly is cruising around, playing with my old broken ipod, fabric and buttons. A girl after my own heart. I’m about to do a bit more on my painting I’m working on, and hopefully start up another practice piece. Trim the stars quilt so I can finish the binding tonight. And then it will be pickup time and the weekend can begin, with soccer and church and friends. I probably should think about tidying my desk at some point, it seems to be a mess magnet. Maybe I’ll just work around it. Let’s see how we go. What have you got planned? Friday’s at the tail end, the weekend beckons. Let’s do this!

playing.

I love playing with paint. Taking a blank fresh sheet of paper, or empty canvas, squeezing the paint from the tubes, and watching as each brushstroke brings me that much closer to the image in my mind. I adore the ephemeral nature of watercolours. I have a stash of acrylics, left from various projects and folk-art classes from my teenage years, but I struggle with them, making them do what I want. Oils have fascinated me for a long time, but I’ve avoided them. I mean, only REAL artists use oils. That’s for serious painters. People who know what they are doing. I went so far as to load up a cart over at Eckersleys, and then chickened out. Why bother spending $150+ when I was just going to be crap at it anyway. If I couldn’t make simple acrylics bend to my will, what hope would I have with oils.

But then we were on holidays, and we went shopping. And out the front of the newsagents, was a table. Art supplies 50%. A little set of oils called my name, the brushes joining in the chorus. I looked at them. I walked by. I came back. They were cheap to begin with, so I knew the quality wasn’t going to be brilliant. But now they were on sale. $1.75 for 16 brushes. $3.50 for 12 paints. What did I have to loose? A $1.50 canvas rounded out my little kit, and I walked out clutching them like the nerdy kid coming from the comic book store on pocket money day. I had oils.

I pondered, and wondered, and the perfect project can to mind. I pulled out a pad of canvas sheets that had been in a birthday present a couple of years back. I set up the children with their easel in the sun, and as they happily painted, I tentatively wiped a small blob of paint on to the plastic plate serving as a palette. Another, and another. I selected a brush, and started mixing, suddenly realising why a palette knife is included on the list of essentials for oil painting. That stuff is hard to mix with a brush! The consistency is so different from watercolours and acrylics. But it worked in my favour as I started laying in the not-quite-mixed colours. The texture and feel of the paint curled around the creative part of my soul, and I was lost. The smell of turps cloying in my nostrils, I stepped back, and started the cycle with the next colour. A new favourite has been found. I have requested art lessons for my birthday. A friend has requested a “LittleWhiteDove” original. I do hope she isn’t counting on using it as part of her super fund…

Today, as much as I would love to paint, it’s Friday, and Friday means admin day, especially since I am working tonight. A last minute invitation to afternoon tea with my grandmother tomorrow sees me scratching my head for a last minute DIY gift. Maybe a pin cushion? Or whip a charm pack or jelly roll into a lap quilt? I got one new fabric design nutted out in it’s basic form yesterday, and have set it aside while I work on the rest of the range, before coming back to flesh it out. I have a custom fabric design that I need to get out and ordered tomorrow. I’m stalking the postie for a bead order to complete a bracelet commission. I had hoped to get started on a collaborative project my mum suggested this morning, but as the day progresses it looks less and less likely. If I can get the commissions out the door, and the binding attached to the star quilt I’ll be happy. The weekend is promising to be busy as always. Soccer, parties, afternoon teas, visiting roadtripping. We’ll be looking for Monday for a break. Or maybe not. Four and a half hours to go. The downhill run starts now. Have an awesome weekend. Let’s do this!

gettin’ a groove

It started with a Facebook message. Skipper wanted to know if I’d been painting. My studio was on the way to being clean. So out came the paints, and to ease myself into the process, I printed off a couple of photos to work from.

My watercolour book lay in front of me. Tubes of paint fanned across the desk. Paintbrushes lay beside me. My palette lay empty and ready for colour. Slowly, I sifted and found the pencil I’d been searching for, and sketched out the image to be painted. Pencil down, and I stare at the page, my eyes flicking between the inspiration image and the blank paper before me. I scan the tubes, picking out two or three, the base colours I’ll use. I take a deep breath, uncap the first tube, and squeeze it onto the palette. Slowly, I start with the base coat, and soon find myself lost as I find my rhythm. One painting down, and the results not overly spectacular, but I’m enjoying myself too much to care. I flick over the page, sketch out the next image, and begin laying in the colours, concentrating on creating more depth and interest. A shadow here, a blown highlight there. Slowly, the image comes alive, and with a final flick of my brush to add a last shadow, I find myself much happier with this attempt.

So, dedicated to Skip for helping me find my groove again, I present to whatever small readership may remain, The Babushka Brownie.

 

 

And…of course it’s sideways. But I can’t be bothered fighting with wordpress right now, so try not to crink your neck until I can come back and fix it!

 

xx

old-fashioned

It’s been a while since I’ve done anythign for Illustration Friday, but when the email landed in my inbox a couple of weeks back, a little sketch that had been sitting in the back of my mind seemed the perfect fit. A sign, maybe, to do something about my lack of creativity. So, texta & pencil in hand, I sat at my desk, and just for five minutes, forgot the housework, withdrew from the world, and did something that was just for me.

 

 

Today, I am childfree. I am 40 weeks pregnant. I am surrounded by a messy office that I need to clean. I want to scrap. I want to sew. I want to clear out some work before this baby comes. I want to get out and take some photos. I want to try to make the block of Tropical Pineapple chocolate my mum just gave me last more than 30 minutes. I want to meet this cheeky little person who refuses to come out and play. Come on baby, we all want to meet you!

 

Happy Friday everyone!

A flower from my toddler

hand-picked during a bushwalk yesterday, inspired a little watercolour. (I’m not overly thrilled with how it scanned, it isn’t as washed out in real-life – for instance, the background should be cream instead of white… I think I’ll have to practice with my scanner a bit more.)

 

I came across this blog the other day, and I just love, love, love the sweet watercolours by this talented artist, hence the abstract style I’m playing with in this painting. *sigh* One day I will be able to paint properly. Maybe.

Another attempt at pastels

So I was given a link to a great pastels tutorial, and decided to have a go at a couple of little drawings.

 

My first attempt was a hot-air balloon, inspired by this weeks Iluustration Friday, and the design was inspired by the tutorial:

After seeing the ‘overlapping the frame’ designs in the tutorial, I thought it would be perfect for the balloon design, make it seem as if it were flying across the page. The basket needs a bit more work I think, but I was interrupted by small children waking.

 

And attempt two is pretty much a direct replica of the tutorial. I decided to use the same design so I could compare results and see if I was heading in the right direction. I did change the colours to suit my tastes:

I also didn’t fill in the background, as I felt the deep purple was a strong enough colour to just do a border – I was worried that a full background may have been overwhelming.

 

Now I’m getting the hang of it, I think I’m really starting to like pastels…

Illustration Friday – Opinion

A week late, but never mind! November seemed to be full of politics. The American election consumed the first half of the month, and the second seemed to be full of talk about the anniversary of the Australian Federal election. So when this topic lobbed into my inbox, the first thing that sprang to mind was the phrase, “opinion poll”. So with that in mind, I set to work on this little collage:

 

In hindsight, I think it would have looked better with the graph smaller & the little man larger, but things like that are all part of the learning curve, aren’t they? My aim with the little man was to make him look like a pontificating politician, sharing his opinion with anyone who will listen. This was my first attempt at a person, and I was quite happy with the results.

We are family…

Just another little sketch from the other day. I plan to turn this one into a watercolour painting.

Illustration Friday – “Pretend”

As a small girl, she would stand beside her mummy and pretend to hang the washing. Now she is the mummy, and her own small child stands beside her, pretending.

Am I a bad mummy?

If I can’t stand more than around 5 minutes of Thomas the Tank Engine? The small boy woke up from his nap over an hour early yesterday, and understandably, was in an horrendous mood. With the aim of him either a)resting or, preferrably b) going back to sleep, I grabbed boy, blanket & pillow, and popped on his favourite Thomas DVD. No more than five seconds elapsed before he was batting those eyelids at me and requesting “wie down too, mummy”. My brain is mummy mush enough without subjecting it to Thomas, so I grabbed my sketchbook and “wie” down… which lead to my evil sleep inducing plan falling to peices as a running commentary of my drawing and the Thomas episode began! “tho-as, mummy, and percy! pen-suls? Me pen-suls? Oo, mummy dwaw ba-oon (balloon), pretty birdy mummy. Mummy, where henry? Where’s the Toby? Mummy?…” You get the idea!

 

So with that in one ear, and the Thomas soundtrack in the other, I did a couple of little sketches.

 

Calmness, floating, drifting in th sun on a lazy spring day, forgetting about the world and taking time out.

 

cutting loose, reaching for the sky, riding the breeze & seeing where it leads.

 

More stuff still to show when I have some more blogging time!