Barking Gecko Bali Journal, Gouache and inks
I have been working hard this weekend to finish up a lot of the pictures that I started in my Bali Journal. I know that once I move onto other things I will never go back and complete them. So here you are, be ready for lots in this post.
Just to get you back into the mood here are a few pictures of where I was working.
My villa at Hurry Slowly Bingin
My studio at Bingin
View from my villa Bingin
Working with the girls
The Barking Gecko and the Frog, where both visitors to my little villa, the gecko I only heard and he was extremely loud. I thought geckos were small but these were a medium sized lizards and did in fact bark a bit like a dog. The frog was a visitor to my open bathroom, but he didn’t like sharing and would quickly move on, which suited both of us.
Frog Bali Journal Gouache and Ink
The Manatee picture is a favourite, it combined a number of memorable images. Manatees would swim out with the surfers and Angus, the husband of Jane who ran the course, would go out surfing and tell us of the manatees he would meet. Also every evening the local fishing boats would stream out of the port and go past our cliff top perch, then at dusk they would light their lights and fish just off shore. It was like another city of twinkling lights out in the ocean.
Manatee sleeping, Gouache, water soluble crayons and inks,
The dragon flys would zoom past as we were working in the garden, or would come and visit me in the villa. This one is resting just by the hut by the pool looking over the cliff to the sea.
Dragon fly Bali Journal Acrylic and ink
The next two are a double page spread and they are the offerings that would appear each day in my villa. The Dupa is the Balinese offerings to the gods which are seen everywhere in Bali and help to bring good luck to the occupant and ward against evil. The other was the little flower arrangements that the staff would do each day for me. Such a lovely tradition.
Bali Offering, Water soluble crayons, ink etc
Offering 2 Bali Journal
I still have a few more pages to finish and I will be adding some of the photos to the spare pages and I hope to have another lovely keepsake of my trip.
Karen
Karen Bailey Studio 
My goodness, what a lot of beautiful art. “Barking Gecko” is a theatre company here in Perth. I didn’t even know that it was a real kind of gecko. Your art works look lush and tropical – and no wonder when I see where you were staying. (I want to ‘like’ but the like button doesn’t seem to be working.)
What a great name for your theatre company. I could not figure out what was making this rather loud noise in my roof. I had to ask the owner, I had never heard of geckos making such a noise. Disappointed not to see one in the flesh. Karen
ps ‘like’ button works now
What a beautiful place to create art, so much colour and inspiration. I love these new works of yours.
Thank you so much, it was idyllic and so easy to find inspiration. Really enjoyed working with a brighter palette. Karen
It looks as though you had a very productive time in Bali Karen – these pages look beautiful, I especially like the ‘offerings’ page. Having a random background must be quite freeing I think. I used to have a painting teacher who always put random pasted paper or sweeps of colour on the pages of her travel sketchbooks and it gave a wonderful sense of completeness to even a quick, simple sketch. You must be very happy with your sketchbook!
I really enjoyed stretching out and trying new things, I found preparing the backgrounds daunting, but a lot of fun to work on, will be trying some more of them in the future. The offerings is one of my favourites too.
Beautiful and lush drawings, what an incredible time you must have had. What better way to preserve your memories; through your drawings.
I have found doing the travel journals so rewarding, a bit of effort but such a personal reminder of the trip, great to look back on. Karen
Lovely pictures – really captured the feeling of the place. I used to have a lot of lovely geckos living in my house in The Philippines. I never heard them bark, even the big ones, obviously a different type!
Thank you, I am so pleased you thought that I had captured the feeling of the place, that is what I was trying to do. The tropics are so different to our mediterranean climate here in Melbourne. Who would have thought a gecko would bark! Karen
love the frog! He’s great!
Thanks, he is one the opposite page to the gecko, I thought he needed a reptilian friend. Lots of fun to draw. Karen