Girl with butterfly

She looks rather surprised at a large butterfly landing on her shoulder, so would I. I am getting hooked on these faces! I found some pre gesso'd canvas in the $2 shop so am playing on that. All very wide eyed and innocent looking.
The cat has gone in to the cattery, the list is written for the neighbour who will feed the dogs and the chooks, most of the clothes are packed.
We are heading out for dinner and then off very early in the morning, it will be interesting to see if our plane takes off on time as this morning there was fog at the airport.

This morning

Back to watercolour and pen. This morning as I looked out of the bedroom window I saw very misty and damp hills and sky and the big plum tree in the orchard silhouetted against it all with a very wintry feel to it. I did the background in paint but had to get what I wanted of the tree in pen.
Thank you Tony for saying nice things about my heads, I am still playing with them but today this was so spectacular I had to try and do it.
The calves have been moved so there is no grain and the huge flock of white cockatoos have moved onto the neighbours hill and look like a huge white moving tapestry as they feed.
We are off to Melbourne to see the grand children early Sunday morning and although the lap top is going with us I dont know if I will be able to post until I get home.
Hope to go to the Art gallery and catch up with Wendy from Geelong while I am there.

A fabric face again

this one has an almost Madonna like look to her, done on canvas that is not prepared and with acrylic paints. I am still getting used to using these after watercolours. I am experimenting with different skin tones, it is hard to remember what i have used to make what colour.
Any way I am still play with these faces.

Strange faces

I was so tired when I got home from Adelaide last night that I couldnt think straight. I think the trauma of seeing my mother going down hill so obviously is taking its toll. I took her and a friend out for a short drive and it did have its amusing moments but when my mother could hardly get down the not very long passage to the front door it really worried me. When I got them back my mothers friend looked at me in a puzzled way and asked if she lived here too. Oh dear.
Any way I am still playing with faces so that is what I have put up. I paint them better than do them in pencil but it was just a few ideas of shapes of faces and hair.

Another fabric face

Blogger wouldnt let me load pictures again yesterday. Grrr!
any way this was done on a type of canvas using acrylics, which I dont use normally so it was quite an experiment and I had to think differently to the way I paint with watercolours.
I see I now have a word verification at the bottom of my post. I presume this is new and another thing to battle with.
Off to Adelaide today so probably nothing tomorrow.

Faces on fabric

I am cheating today but we had visitors unexpectedly so not much time for doing anything but look after them.
I have put this on my other blog but I am playing with a few faces to see if I can find something to use them on to sell at next years fibre forum. I am still working on faces and ideas. These were done with blerol pencils that i use for drawing on cloth dolls and the background is the water soluble crayons from portfolio.

Basham's Beach 2

I did this one from a photo I took yesterday. I know that is cheating a bit but at this time of the year its about the best I can do.
I am trying to get some of my proportions right, still not happy with what happened on that central jutting out bit, well not happy with quite a few bits, but happier with some of the other things I did to this one.
Looks better from further away.
Cold and overcast today so feels even colder. The dogs got a quick walk but then I watched the football and tried to get on with the little jumper I am knitting.

Basham's Beach

This morning we collected the papers and went over to Bashams beach to see if we could see any whales, they are in the bay but I didnt see any so I tried to blow the cold away with a walk along the beach and a small sea scape. I keep practicing as boy they are not easy to do.
A lovely sunny day and far too nice to sit inside feeling miserable so I started pruning roses. I did get two wheelbarrows full of prunings and then gave up with bleeding hands.

Sunroom bits

I am progressively feeling worse with a pain in my chest from this wretched cold.I sat in the sun room with the heater on and sketched, very badly this funny little table my mother painted and gave me with the pots on and around it. The hanging doll is actually a clay figure that I think is supposed to be a wind chime but is very fragile so is hanging in here with another wind chime. they only chime if the wind is extremely strong.
Very cold overnight last night and was only 6 degrees at 10 am.
The last few years have been very mild in the winter so we have forgotten how cold we can get.

The fence line

An early flowering Cootamundra wattle brightening up the trees in the fence line. Cold and murky looking when I walk the dogs.

Building site

Wednesday
While John was in the doctors surgery waiting to be seen I sat in the car as I really didnt need any more risk of catching anything and every one in there seemed to be coughing or sneezing. As it is I am being slow and tired and not wanting to get anything done. Sitting by the fire is nice.
They have ripped down the old Elders store and are laying foundations for I think a Rivers store to go in here. Not a lot was happening but the two seagulls were patrolling.

A collection

Blogger, wouldnt upload my images yesterday but this is all I had any waya rather wonky drawing of stuff in my sitting room.
John is not well, off t a doctors appointment, loading this while i can.

Glenside Buildings

I did this with pen but it does still look a bit faded out even though I had gone over it again. I sat and worked on it from a photo, I love buildings and roof lines.
I had a messy sort of day with John feeling ill and I had more to do because of that. A trip into Victor to get the mail, and got caught by a few people who wanted to talk, not that I minded that.
I spilt hot soup all over the stove and floor, grr.
I managed to find a bit of time to get the hard part of the little jumper I am knitting done without any distractions and then I froze in a biting cold wind as I walked the dogs tonight, lost the old male pug while I was about it and had to back track as he is as deaf as a post and doesnt hear me when I call him.

Granite Island and the causeway

I was playing around trying to get some more definite colour, in doing so I think the clouds ended up being a bit too purple.
This is the view of Granite island with a bit of the causeway done from Kent reserve. taken from a photo I did yesterday.
Out to lunch today so not a lot of time to play with paint.

Cold early morning walk

I think there will be a lot of this particular view from slightly different places.
the Bluff and Wright Island in Encounter Bay as I saw them this morning.
Cold cold and overcast with a pink tinge to the clouds and reflected in the sea. Scan is not showing as I would like.
I walked around the bay early this morning while John got the papers.

Inlay design

This slightly wonky drawing is of a wonderful bit of inlay or mosaic that was over a doorway at Glenside yesterday. It was over just an ordinary little door so what its significance was I have no idea but I thought the design was lovely.
I couldnt work out what it was as it was set in the stone work, I wondered if it was metal but couldnt get a good enough look.

Camellias

I was in Adelaide from late afternoon yesterday until mid morning this morning I had a night meeting and didnt want to drive home afterwards so stayed with a friend. Of course out of my environment I didnt sleep at all well.
She had these camellias on her kitchen table and after I had finished breakfast I did a quick sketch and coloured it when I got home .
They are lovely camellias pale pink, with a full ruffle of petals in the middle.
We walked for an hour and a half this morning around the suburbs and the old Insane asylum before 8 until nearly 9.30, cold and very fresh with the odd spot of rain.
I saw my mother on the way home who was going out for lunch and not sure she wanted to!
It drizzled and rained all the way home, not very pleasant.
I am tired and the house is freezing cold.

My rubber boots

I thought as I struggled in after walking the dogs to night and was taking off my boots that perhaps I should draw them. I dont think I realised how many fancy bits are on them. They are just big and heavy and as I put them on to go out I hope I have the right socks on that wont fall down around my heal as I walk.
Tonight I nearly lost them, my boots, in a very muddy part of the paddock I was walking in. And John is worried about the lack of rain! Farmers! They are never satisfied but I do know what he is worrying about as we still havent had rain for days on end to fill up the subsoil and what if it all stops too early. We need a couple of good years, not another in which the season ends too soon.

Plum tree

This morning we had a heavy fog and the plum tree outside the bedroom window was festooned with drops of dew, or fog, or moisture whatever you like to call it. I attempted to show this but how else do you portray it but as little round drops?
My walk tonight was in rubber boots and it is getting slippery on the tracks and boggy in the paddocks, not particularly pleasant but the dogs enjoyed it.
Pen and ink and an A5 sketchbook.

Onkaparinga river

I am into pen sketches at the moment. this was taken at near the Estuary of the river after heavy rains.
Not mountains behind, they are supposed to be clouds. There was a solid bank of them and then whispy bits.
A very wet and cold day and not a lot done although I did walk the dogs and shopped and we had a coffee with our daughter and her partner who happened to be in Victor as well. Amazing who you see on a Sunday morning.
Had a look at the big dead pine tree that fell down behind the house, luckily the only damage was to a fence.

Christies Beach jetty

I have had a frustrating few days, the computer went to be looked at and when it came back, as always the fellow has done something to it that means it is not the same as before and this time John spent all afternoon being frustrated as the scanner wouldnt speak to the computer and now I have to get in a totally different way.
This sketch was me trying to depict the wild seas on Thursday.
I have had an awful tummy bug and not feeling very well for a day either, perhaps I will feel up to doing something today.

Christies Beach roof lines

Today I went over to Christies Beach to do some shopping, I bought a new digital camera, not sure how I like it but I still have the nikkon coolpix, this is a sony. It was on special and is a 7 mpx as against my 3.2, but I am not sure how I will get on with only a led screen and not a view finder. Cant see the screen in bright light.
Any way after yesterdays wild and very stormy weather I went over to take some photos and do some sketching and loved these roof lines looking down the hill from the lookout. It is an old beachside suburb that still has little old fibro cottages that were beach shacks in amongst all sorts of other newer buildings. I must go back and do some more as I found some lovely hidden corners.

Fish

It has been so wet and windy today I have hardly managed to get outside and when I did I was nearly blown off my feet and was soaked.
S o why a fish? well want to paint a fish for our sunroom, in Acrylics as watercolour will fade out there and as I have never used acrylics before I thought that at least I could have a go and see if what I think I would like will work.
I love these mad fish that we used to see when we were skindiving so this from memory is what I painted, I dont think I quite got his stripes in the right place so probably a bit more investigation.
Any way on a day like this a fish seemed appropriate.

Autumn colour

I think my leaves look a bit spotty, but then how do you paint leaves like these without making it look spotty.
This is the view out of the kitchen window, or rather it was a few days ago when the liquidamber was really looking bright.
We are about to have major winter weather again through this week so I was glad I went to see my mother yesterday.

Pumpkin

This was a very quick painting done when I got home from an all day very cold horse seminar in the Adelaide hills.
The friend who came for dinner last night gave it to me, it is a Queensland blue and I very quickly painted it when I came home as I had no other ideas on what I could do. I was also cold and very tired.
I will be in Adelaide all day tomorrow so I probably wont get much done then as I have a pretty full day planned. (Well John has!)