Merry Christmas

Australian Native Swag

It is the morning of Christmas Eve and I am writing this blog before I get going for the day, still some baking and last minute shopping to do.  It is Christmas in Australia and that means it is hot. Yesterday was 38c (100f) and it didn’t get below 28c (82f) last night.  The cool change is due sometime this morning so it will be cooler for Christmas.

We are having a mixture of traditional and typical Australian Christmas fare.  There will be turkey, ham and plum pudding, but also seafood and ice-cream.  We will be drinking Champagne and mango daiquiri, plus some of our great Australian wines.

I love Christmas and the excitement is building in the house.  It smells of pine from the Christmas tree, shortbread baking and there is the rustle of presents being wrapped.  The dogs are excited, but they are not sure why and getting under everybody’s feet.

I hope all of my readers have a lovely Christmas wherever you are, however you celebrate and your day is as fun and full of family love as I know mine will be.

Australian Christmas Wreath by Matthew-Watt

I had to share this picture with you, it is our native parrots who formed themselves into a Christmas wreath while eating some seed.

Karen

Grevillia 4

Grevillea 4

A few weeks ago I went to the Australian Garden, which is part of the  Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne, located in Cranbourne, a recently established garden which features Australian Native Plants.  It was really beautiful with great ideas on how to use Australian Natives in the garden.  While still a very young garden it was well worth seeing.

Lily Pad Bridge

Display Garden

Needless to say I took a lot of photos of all the gorgeous flowers, and have a great store of images I want to paint.  You will see some in the coming weeks/months.

For my first image I choose another Grevillea. I really love the composition of this image, the colour of the leaves and the bizarre shapes of the Grevillea flowers still intrigue me.  This is another A2 size painting, I do love working at this size.

Karen

Kangaroo Paw 1

Kangaroo Paw 1

Greetings.

Sorry to have been away for so long, I am living up to the name Occasional Artist.  The recovery from my trip has taken longer then expected, damn this chronic fatigue.  I also struggle with winter and July in particular.  But they are my problems and not what you need to her about.

I haven’t completely been flat on my back and have managed to complete another drawing.  This is in fact a great achievement for me as I am still managing to create something.

Kangaroo Paws are another favourite native flower of mine.  So architectural and different with the most amazing colours.  I love that the stems are red while the flowers are green, how contrary is that. This painting is 20.5 x 42cm, getting larger again.

Karen

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Grevillea 1

Grevillea 1

Grevillea 1 is finished for the moment.  Still not sure about the white background, but I think I will wait and see how the other paintings go and see how it fits in.

The movement in the picture, the way little flowers seem to writhe around each other is really pleasing.  The amount of pink worried me, but the lime green stems and yellow pollen gives it enough punch, I hope.  Pretty happy with the outcome.

I can’t believe that I am calling these paintings 1,2 or 3.  Very unexciting I know and I am shamed.  But I am yet to be inspired, so they have to wear their working titles for the moment.   I love a good title to a painting.  I think a good title gives viewers further insight into the work and where you are trying to go with it.

Karen

Sturt Desert Pea 3 – Fixed

Sturt Desert Pea 3

After much pondering and advice I have made some changes to this painting and am now happy it works as a set of drawing with the other Sturt Desert Pea paintings.  What do you think?

Sturt Desert Pea 3

It is interesting where you get your insights from when you are trying to figure out what has gone wrong with a painting.  I always pin my work on the wall as I am doing it and when I think I finish it.  It gives me a chance to ponder on it and figure out how it is going.  I knew fairly quickly that the colour of the sky at the horizon was too pale and that I should put a line across the horizon, but was not sure what else wasn’t working. It just didn’t sit well with the other two paintings.

It was my 16-year-old nephew that picked up the other problem.  Now while he is a soccer expert, art critic has not been one of his skills.  But he said he liked Desert Pea 2 better because he liked the heavy black outline.  I then realised that while the third drawing is twice the size, the black outline was still the same thickness.  So I boosted the thickness of the outline and it worked.  The three looked like they belonged together at last.  Thanks Simon.