Once upon a time

There was a strange and very large dog who splashed around on a reef at low tide watched by a fisherman in a small boat on a stormy sea....
well you get the picture, perhaps I should illustrate children's books!
I think the dog looks a bit more like a pig, I really have a lot of trouble doing animals.
I really did see this scene but my rendering of it is not all that good.
Still cool, still busy, I have to get everything organised and time is slipping away. tomorrow the house gets cleaned and my chook shed gets its cement in, I hope.

I had a feeling

For mountains and strange trees and a mountain village dominated by a church.
Oh for the days skiing in Austria and Switzerland and the Italian Alps. I felt like a bit of color and having very little time this was thrown together in a rather primitive and childish way.
sometimes I like to paint like this with no regard for how it should be done.
the color in this scan is a bit out, shame.
I am stressed and tired trying to organise everything before we go, but it is cool, although the promised rain hasnt come.
We did have a good walk this morning and finally a coffee.

Sketching indoors

Not to say I didnt walk as I did but about the only time I get to sketch at the moment is when I am still in bed, after my tea and before writing up my diary. So here is my red sleeveless jacket hanging on the door into where the wardrobes and the computer are.
I dont very often do clothing so it was a good exercise I think.
Still cool and yesterday I walked quite a long way around the paddocks, I am trying to get fit for this trip but over 13 hours in a plane will probably not be good.
Its getting closer, Friday morning!
It is going to be a very long few days as we have to leave here before 7 am in the morning and the flight from Sydney doesnt leave until around 3 pm. I hope my silly joints dont give me too much curry at the end of it.
From all of that you will probably realise I am a bit worried about it all, something I have never thought about before.

From my bed

My house is the house of clutter! So this morning as it was freezing cold again and I had no inclination to leap out at least until it got light and I had had my morning cup of tea I did a quick sketch of this corner of the room.
Actually I left out the folded clothes and a heap of other stuff that is on the chest of drawers but this little grouping of paintings and the girl with thunder thighs looked like a fun thing to do, the fact that I made her look as if she was slipping off the little wooden writing box is beside the point. The point is I did something.
Suddenly from that stinking heat we have turned into autumn, really cold nights and cool days and the calves are coming thick and fast and I can hear them bellowing to be fed from the pens down the bottom.
Some have been transferred out to the paddocks and last night as I walked two had escaped and were roaring up and down outside the fence with the others inside. Next minute they had charged the fence and were back in with their mates. I dont think the electric fences are working terribly well.

Breakfast stuff

This is what I drew while tucked up warmly in bed this morning, my mug, bowl and spoon and the odd pill container.
I need to get back into sketching and quickly, I have had too much time doing nothing in that line.
I spent a large part of this morning looking for somewhere to stay in San Diego and having a fit as the no rooms sign came up. I have finally found a cheap place near Balboa Park which seems reasonably close to public transport, and the draw back is that it is undergoing renovations!! Any way the price is right so if we have to use taxi's we have a bit of money up our sleeve and surely they wont be renovating at night.
It will be an adventure.

Terrace houses

I love terrace houses with their lace and balconies and those that are done up with different paint jobs. These were again in Melbourne and the one on the left was pink and Burgundy and the other hadnt been done up or had a paint job for ages.
We had 5mm overnight and another 5 today so far, it is cold and windy and ore like autumn and the dam has some water in it and my colchiums which looked very miserable in the heat have perked up no end. I hope the rain, drizzle whatever keeps up.
We spent a lot of the day on the net trying to find affordable accommodation in San Diego and working out what we wanted to do with our new found 4 days without going broke. Time will tell.

Pub on a corner in Melbourne

I hope every one had a lovely Easter. I had a very busy one with the Mixed media exhibition to set up and man, 11 for lunch on Sunday and today taking down the exhibition which was a great success. I made $205 which was great.
I had very little time to draw or paint, visitors etc take up all available time but tonight I did sketch this pub that I had taken a photo of in Melbourne while we were there in Brunswick st I think. My light pole is decidedly wonky and so is one side of the road but I loved the black and white tiling around the base and the look of the whole rather seedy establishment.
I have walked, had breakfast with an old school friend and generally had a satisfactory but tiring long week end.

Having fun

The house is clean, we have had a cool change and a tiny bit of drizzle, I ache but who cares the weather is much much better.
No time but I did this wet in wet, just throwing watercolor around and this was the result.

Fabric Book

I know this is not a daily sketch but when the temperature has been over 38 degrees and up to 40 in the last few days, I dont feel like doing much, so I have been playing with these paintings and printing them off onto canvas and turning them into fabric books.
The pages are mostly canvas and have been stamped and inked and painted and various things done to them and then I have added whatever has taken my fancy. I hope my mother might enjoy having it in this form. It has also kept me from thinking about the heat and my garden which is dying by inches. We have had in Adelaide a record of 16 days over 35 which is the old 100 and it is not fun. No water and what we have is needed for us and stock so I am almost giving up except for a few areas. Not particularly unusual ( the lack of water) but not like this for many many years.

The "other" girl

Made a bit of a mess of her mouth, these little people are not so easy to do in watercolor but I keep on trying.
It has been a strange day today, I was awake half the night with high winds roaring and visions of fires coming on top of us while we slept, so of course I didnt sleep, I sat and read and finished the DI Rebus I was reading, wandered from room to room and window to window looking at a disturbed night sky.
We had a bit of an early southerly, then it turned to a northerly and roared again and now we have a cooler southerly change so I hope I sleep tonight.
The fires are sort of under control but its not easy when it is so dry and and the winds are high and more high 30's temperatures, hasnt been below 35 for nearly 2 weeks now in Adelaide.
I am all dressed up and ready to go out, probably too dressed but I dont care. An old scholars dinner for John's old school.

More girls

It has been so hot and there is a rather worrying bushfire not too far away ok for tonight I think but tomorrow is supposed to be as bad if not worse than today and stronger northerly winds with no real relief in sight.
One house lost already so a not very peaceful night and the temp not dropping below 25 degrees. Well in the high 30's today, Adelaide over 40. I have just heard of another closer fire to here but I think they managed to control that quite quickly.
tmorning I had an early 8 am blood test, a cup of coffee and a walk on the beach. I thought you might like a photo I took on Monday when the cooler change was in of two Pacific Gulls and cold looking bathers.
Not so this morning but a lot of kelp in the water so dog walkers and not bathers.
I didnt feel like doing much all day and I made a bit of a mess of this girl but she will be ok to go in my fabric book. I painted and spritzed my pages today using Moonshadow mists and some other spray on stuff. Love it It is so easy. May put some up tomorrow.

Another girlie girl

Here is another one of my "girls" for a eventual use in a fabric book, although I have also printed some off for use as cards.
I am really having fun with these.
Blogger wouldnt let me put up any photos yesterday but I am being a bit slow with my painting, although much cooler down here today there is more heat expected and I am finding it terribly tiring.
We were in Adelaide today and getting into a hot car and waiting for it to cool down between stops was awful.

Its hot

So hot I dont want to do anything and I cant put hoses on as it is too hot and we are so far to expect well over 30 degrees all next week. At least it will only be 34 on Tuesday when I have to go to Adelaide again, or so they say, but back in the high nearly to the 40's by the end of the week and no rain in sight.
I did manage two of these odd little watercolor paintings out of my head, I want to print them onto canvas and use them in fabric books, I did these in watercolor, much harder than using acrylics as I cant go over the top. The splatters were intentional. this is the first, you may see the second if I do nothing tomorrow.
It is a holiday here for a horse race which will be held late in the afternoon as it will be almost too hot for horses to race, holding it later wont really make any difference as with daylight saving it is hotter at 4.30 than any other time in the day.
John went fishing off Aldinga and came home with lots of fish which we had for dinner, not all of them and Oscar was very pleased with what he was given too.
When it is this hot you dont even feel much like eating, fish and salad but a nice cold white wine helped.
I have been looking at DJ Pettit's blog and she has been most helpful when I have been trying to work out how she does her fabric books she does wonderful stuff and I wish she would come to Australia to teach but of course it wouldnt be near where I am!

Almost too hot to post

Still very hot outside. I have just gone to turn on hoses, they are talking about an all time hottest March, after a lovely and cool February.
these Scarborough lilies are enjoying the heat and so they should as they are actually from South Africa but I cant remember their botanical name, some sort of amaryllus I think.
I may not post tomorrow as I will be in Adelaide enjoying nearly 40 degree heat and a friends 7oth party.
So a scrappy sort of sketch with color.
I really wilt in the heat.

My mother

A friend has just rung to say I havent had a drawing up, I was and probably still will try to get this done as a painting but I did a quick sketch and made her look like Maggie Thatcher!
I took the photo today while I was in Adelaide, stinking hot, the car got to over 40 degrees but officially it was nearly 39. In Victor it was 23 and out here over 30. I am tired, I find these trips to Adelaide tiring and depressing, although my mother was having a really good day. She looks pretty good for 95.

New boat launching progress

From my sketch book. this was done while having coffee the other day. It shows what they are doing in Encounter Bay and the progress that has been made on the new boat launching facility.
I loved the dinosaur like outline of the grab and the way they had made a little rock causeway for it to go out on.
I will be watching its progress with interest. This is a very important thing being done here and unfortunately not nearly as big as it had been hoped, and not really in the right place but people's might was heard.
There is no safe launching for boats except for here between Adelaide and Robe and with our tricky weather a decent launch and rescue area is long over due.

A different triad

Here I am trying out a different triad of colors, cobalt blue, Cadmium red and cadmium yellow light.
I am also trying to get more intensity of color into things and as I rather like buildings and their geometric shapes appeal to me this is another try out.
Getting hotter over the next week, according to the weather bureau 39 by Sunday and Monday, and 37 when I go to Adelaide on Thursday. Yuck.
John and I had a lovely walk on the beach near Hayborough this morning, the odd dog walking person, we discussed getting Jake in as he would love it but getting him home would be a problem and I dont think he would like it in the boot of the car!
Any way we had to do post and bank and a few other things and ended up with a coffee at Whalers which was very pleasant, but the wind suddenly turned from a southerly to a northerly so after talking to a friend who works there we came home.

Using different colors

This was an odd picture that I used to try out some different colors. I need to have a go at using different mixes and this was one play I did. Maybe I should have only left in the two figures on the left.
I am getting a bit frustrated at the lack of time to do things I want to do instead of the things I should do.

Art class today

I had a lovely day today, much better with a one day class. We did these first from the black and white photo and then with a colored one.
I was really pleased with this although for some reason the scanner has picked up a mark across her hat on the left hand side.
I probably should have done more to her but I was happy to leave her as she is. Interestingly my teacher, who knows what I do with textile stuff was trying to get me to do more in the colors I use there but somehow it doesnt jell with my painting.