Revisit and Renew – Grevilliea 2

Grevillea 2 Reborn Sep 13
Coloured Pencil, Ink and acrylic paint 50 x 70cm

This painting was started in early 2012, and it was in an April blog.  I had given it a dark green background and it didn’t work, which made me sad as I loved the grevillea flower, it is one of my favourites.  So I put it away to wait for inspiration.   It was a long time coming, but it finally arrived.

Grevillea 2 Progress Old background

After cutting out the paisleys and raising them up slightly off the painting, I though that the effect would work for this one.  I loved the 3D effect of cutting out the image and floating it above the page.  The shadows thrown by the image are fabulous, or at least I think so.

Grevillea 2 Detail

So nothing daunted I got out the knife and starting cutting into the picture.  I can’t tell you how happy I was to see the ugly backgound drop away the the flower to reappear again in all its glory.

Grevillea 2 Detail

This time I has wised up and used these great little foam, double sided glue dots, which were so much easier to use.

Happy with the result and so glad to have found a resolution to one of the problems in my portfolio.

Karen

New Member of the Family

Max 14 Weeks Fast asleep with Ratty.

We have a new member of the family, a little man called Max.  He is fourteen weeks old and the wiggly-est and climbing-est puppy that ever won your hearts.  He is a rescue dog so we know his mother was a Kelpie (Australian sheep/cattle dog) but we are not sure who the father was.  Best suggestions so far are Staffordshire Terrier or Doberman, but we will have to wait till he grows up or we can get him DNA tested.  (Yes for only $60 Aus, you can find out the parentage of your dog.)

Hannah and Milo, sitting up very straight and being good.

We already have two dogs, so it was going to be interesting to see how they took to the puppy.  Milo is a 12 year old, chocolate lab, who has already dealt with a Great Dane and a Wesite puppy , so we knew she would just roll her eyes at another puppy and hide in her basket.  Hannah the 4 year old Westie was thought to be the problem one.  She has ruled the roost (Milo never saw the point in trying to be dominant, did it involve food or basket, then what was the issue), and we weren’t sure if Hannan was going to like having competition around.  Westies can be a very determined little dog.

Milo relaxing in her basket, she does take it to an art form.

How wrong we were, she was besotted from the start.  She follows him around and lies there looking at Max waiting for him to wake up and play with her again. So sweet, they are the best of mates and this keeps the puppy from bothering Milo.

Max and Hannah playing.

(First ever Youtube clip for me.  Yvette my social media mentor will be proud of me.)

So despite some damp patches, one chewed pencil and eraser all is going well in our doggy family.  Oops I hear yelling and the dogs have just scattered, someone is in trouble.

Karen

Karen

 

Holiday Sketch

Sketch of view from Hamilton Island  Water colour pencils and ink

For my friends 50th birthday I went to Hamilton Island, where she and her husband had hired a lovely house for a group of family and friends, where we had  three days of great food, wine, friendship and divine scenery. Not to mention tropical warmth after our cold southern winter.

During the three days I managed to do one sketch of the lovely view from our balcony.  It shows the lovely azure blue of the tropical sea around the Whitsunday Islands, and the mountainous islands that make up this group.

Hard life of an artist

We had a splendid time and finished the weekend off with a sunset cruise around the island and we saw whales.  Well I was looking the wrong way and missed seeing the whales, but I did see the whale spout, so exciting, I have never been close to whales before.  Apparently the Whitsundays are where hump back whales migrate to and there was even a whale seen  giving birth earlier that day!

Sunset Cruise Whitsundays Islands

Back home now to work again, though the weather has changed to spring and the flowers are out.  I love spring but am always impatient with it.  I can’t wait for the warmer weather to come and to break out of the winter cocoon, I want to kick off the shoes and fling open the windows and not be shut in any more.

I am at a bit of a standstill with my art at the moment, I have finished the portrait and am having trouble with RSI in my wrist so can’t do any more block carving for printing until I sort it out.  Not sure whether to go back to my flowers or I may do some cut paper work.  I have another couple of portraits lined up but have to wait to get some photos to work from.  I keep thinking something quick and simple but they always turn out larger and more complex than I plan.  No problems, as it is a case of spoilt for choice rather than not knowing what to do.

Karen

Birthday Portrait

Sadhna’s Portrait 46cm x 84cm Mixed Media Collage

It is finally done!  The portrait is finished, it has traveled up to Hamilton and Island and back undamaged and best of all she liked it.  Amazingly enough I am happy with it as well.

Sadhna with her portrait

It hasn’t photographed all that well, but you can get the idea.  It turned into a collage with the paisley design raised up so it floats above the portrait.  It is made in three layers.  One is the background which is acrylic paint with pencil over the top, then the silver ink pattern.  The middle layer is the portrait again acrylic paint, pencil and ink and the final layer is raised 4mm above and they are pencil and ink paisley cut out and stuck on.

sadhna-preliminary-sketch

I have been wanting to try some raised collage for awhile and am pleased to get the chance to use it on this picture and I love the effect.  It brings a new feel to the work.

As you can guess my friend Sadhna is Indian and loves the teal blue.  she is very beautiful and loves the pretty pastels, paisley and bling.  I wanted to show her love of design and pride in her heritage in this portrait and to give her some of the glamour of the vintage posters.  I feel this has achieved it.

Detail of the Paisley 1

I really enjoyed doing this, though you know I grumbled, (see earlier post) it was a different direction but a fun learning curve.  I have another couple lined up by people interested in having their portrait done in this way.  So I am open to commissions.

Detail of the Paisley

But most of all I am happy that I was able to give a great and generous friend something really special for her birthday.

Karen