Draw Class

It has been an interesting day, the terrible floods in Queensland had us ringing friends this morning, all ok but water damage on new carpets where the wind was so strong it blew rain under the tiles and then onto the (new) carpet.
We have spent a lot of the day watching the progress and thanking our lucky stars that we dont live in those areas.
BUT we had nearly 10mm of very welcome rain today, infact both John and I were soaked on our morning walk along the cliffs near Petrels Cove. Our own fault and we really didnt mind at all.
I am not doing all the draw class assignments, for some reason John didnt think he needed to take his clothes off and pose for me but when it came to abstracted faces done with an eye dropper, ink and loo paper I had to have a go, what a fun thing to do and here are my faces.
I do hope that not too many of my blog friends are being impacted by the rain and wind, but I have to say it, this is Australia, the land of droughts and fires and flooding rains but I am not sure they all needed to come at once.
Take care.

Sketch and paint

 The sleeping Koala was part of my Draw class with Carla Sonheim (see my side bar), we had to find a photo of something we wouldnt normally draw and I found this in a National Geographic and I really wanted to draw something that was Australian and this rather tickled my imagination, he isnt terribly good but better than I had thought I might do.
I dont use pencil a lot, prefer my pen!
Yesterday I played with a bit of paint, I love bird houses and have several, I found someones painting and arranged my birdhouses against our weatherboard wall. I am finding that with paint my hands are not really terribly steady any more so its a bit slap dash and I ended up using sharpies to define things and I think that was a bit too dark, but heck it was fun to get back to a bit of painting again.
Oh and the blackbirds just happened to fly in, not actually on my bird houses but on a branch of a tree so I put them in as well.
The MRI for my knee is organised for Thursday, now to get a specialist appointment, that could be fun.
We walked this morning and it was overcast and cool but it has now warmed up but its a good day to get the washing done, I have almost finished.
Isnt it funny how Monday was wash day, I rarely do the washing on Monday, usually a load here and there through the week but lately I seem to have been reverting to a Monday wash. Is old age catching up?
I hope not.

Carla Sonheim 'Draw' class

I am doing Carla's Draw class and having a ball, here are a few of the exercises we are doing.
I fiddle around and probably dont do them correctly but it whiles away an afternoon very well.
type her name in to google to find her, I have taken a heap of her classes and loved every one of them.
She has such an off beat and very humerous way of finding things to draw and it takes all the horror of getting it right out of a class.
I will try to get my act together to find her blog and put it up, it may be on my side bar.
I am having terrible computer problems at the moment, anything a bit different and it doesnt want to do it, I think we are getting overloaded down here through the school holidays with so many people in the area.
Much cooler today and very pleasant, apart from the flies who bite and are horrid, they get under my glasses and crawl all over me.
One of the joys of an Australian summer.
The old dog is telling me he hasnt been fed, better go and do him and put the chooks away. (Max is just faithfully sitting by the outside door and looking!)

Playing with paint

I have been playing with paint and paper, sprays, stencils and stamps. Fun to do something pretty mindless on such a hot and horrid day.
We have had a not good week, lost a little mare through an accident, we have a nast fire burning north of Adelaide, far enough away from us but it is still a worry, so hot Adelaide got to 43 degrees c I am not sure what we got to, not quite that hot.
We were in Adelaide yesterday but were home early so although I find this weather makes me terribly weary, it was bearable, not today.
So finding things to layer on pieces of paper is great fun and doesnt mean I have to think too much!
Of course I couldnt find the bird lino cut so had to make an awful mess looking for it. I need to label drawers.
I spent most of the day reading, not something I do all that often but when the weather is like this its bliss.
Off to shut the hens up and think about a cool salady sort of dinner.

Its been too hot to do any thing but be silly

We have been existing through the heat, at least we are now a little cooler and there is a southerly breeze but I worry for all those in Tasmania, Victoria and especially NSW where to day has been terrible.
Bush fires are part of our country but with so many more people and with those wanting to live in bushland surroundings, even near the beach it can still be a terrible decision.
We get complacent and then we suddenly get a year like this and disaster happens.
We are terribly dry here, no rain for weeks and all we can do is hope no one does anything silly.
talking of silly, I do rather like playing with these little fellows.
We have been walking early making sure we hope that most of the garden gets some water, but water could be a problem as well here where we have to provide our own.
You walk and watch outside the windows to see if you can see any smoke, and you read or sew, never feeling completely at ease.
Part of an Australian summer on the land.