Mississhippi's Madness

New posts over at my Wordpress blog

2011-10-12T18:24:00.002+11:00

Hi,

There are a couple of new posts over at my Wordpress blog. Please pop over, and if you have my blog bookmarked, please update your link.

Slab Sculpture update

Drawing update - starting a new oil pastel project

I look forward to seeing you on the new blog!

Mississhippi's Madness is moving...

2011-10-06T17:09:00.000+11:00

Hi all, I have decided to try out Wordpress for my blog. I'd love it if you clicked on over and caught up with what's new with my artistic endeavours there...

Mississhippi's Madness at Wordpress

I'm on leave from my arts course at the moment so things have been pretty quiet, what with having the flu during the break as well, but the blog should be up and running again with more news from mid next week - unless I am inspired in the meantime.

Have fun creating!

Printmaking - Screen printing - monoprint

2011-09-23T18:53:00.001+10:00

I had some fun in printmaking yesterday. Had the time to do a screen print monoprint.

Painting - Impressionistic Landscape - Acrylic

2011-09-23T18:48:00.001+10:00

Today we started work on an Impressionist inspired landscape. We had to start from a sketch or idea from our own mind rather than from a photo. We have been learning about tertiary colours and colour mixing so this will be an experimental piece.

I'm quite happy with the way this has started out.

Trajectories Exhibition

2011-09-19T20:27:00.003+10:00

Trajectories Exhibition
WSI Nepean has made an announcement regarding the opening of the Trajectories Exhibition, with a photo. If you'd like a peek at the works on display from the Certificate IV Visual Arts and Contemporary Crafts, please follow the link.

I'll post some more pics soon.

Drawing - Oil Pastels Triptych - Green/Red

2011-09-10T20:41:00.000+10:00

I have had to do some reworking of this drawing at the teacher's suggestion.

She was unhappy with my Van Gogh inspired sky as it was sitting too flat in the drawing, and once again, I have to fit in with the project brief, which I am really finding quite restrictive in some areas, so have changed the sky. The process of working out how to turn the flat into something with depth is a learning experience too, so I shouldn't complain.

The light when I took this picture wasn't the best as it has put a bit too much light in the sky. I think the sky has a little more depth to it now and is not so flat, but it has lost some of the fun for me. Anyway, this is almost complete. I'll take it to class on Wednesday and see what the teacher makes of this version. Every chance she'll dislike this sky too.. I think I need to lighten the distant trees a little more to stop them pushing forward as much as they do. I'm pretty happy with the poppy field too now.

Ceramics - Slab Bowl - complete

2011-09-07T20:53:00.001+10:00

The slab bowl was fired during the week and is now complete. I must say that I am not so happy with the outcome. It is not the glaze I would have chosen for this piece, but we had to use the glazes that were a part of the brief for this project.

Also, as we were a little rushed to glaze these, I didn't take as much time or give as much thought as I would have liked to to how to apply this glaze. The test pots we made didn't turn out right as the honey glaze was not mixed sufficiently to get the right colours. I would definitely have done something different with the turquoise glaze if I had had more time. But it is complete and fits the project brief... and I can remake one next year after finishing TAFE and get it exactly how I want it.

I must admit that I really liked this bowl, and now I don't so much.

Ceramics - Slab Sculpture Project (2)

2011-09-07T20:45:00.000+10:00

I finished building the slab sculpture today. I had just enough time, after doing some preparation work for our exhibition, to put the base on.

Next week there will hopefully be time to start looking at glazes, but we also have the opening of our exhibition on the same day so we will lose some class time to preparing for that.

Oil pastel sketch - Ranunculus

2011-09-03T22:18:00.002+10:00

Last night, I sat up in bed, watched an episode of Project Runway and sketched with oil pastels. I'm enjoying playing with these a lot more than I thought I would. Now that I am getting a feel for how they go onto the paper, it is fun to sketch.

This is from a picture I took in my garden a year or two ago. I've been wanting to draw it for a while.

The main flower is a little out of proportion but I am really happy with the way the colours came together. A few minor adjustments and it is finished.

The sketch is about 9" square, on Canson Mi-Teintes.

Trajectories - Exhibition 12 - 22 September 2011

2011-09-03T21:21:00.001+10:00

Painting - Acrylics - My World

2011-09-01T18:56:00.000+10:00

I spent an hour before going to school on this painting on Wednesday. I spent that time repainting the tablecloth. I think it is looking much better. Now I just have to redo the flowers and finish off some other small details.

I still think I need to put some shadowy details on the kitchen bench under the top cupboards, but I'll think on that some more.

Printmaking - Screen printing

2011-09-01T18:52:00.001+10:00

Managed to get three more colours onto my paper stencil screen print today - only one more to go.

There will be a line of dark blue mountains and I'll use the same colour to mark in the small final marks such as the fish eyes and gills.

This has been a fun process but is quite time consuming.

Painting - Acrylics - My World

2011-08-30T18:22:00.000+10:00

I've been working on this painting again today, whilst looking after my daughter who is home with a temperature - poor kid.

This is feeling like the never-ending painting right now. Still more to go. Will post again once more work done.

There's a Pelican in my garden

2011-08-30T18:20:00.000+10:00

Last year I went to a pottery workshop and created a pelican. After much nursing along, he was given his final firing a few weeks ago, and he made it home to my garden this weekend. Woo hoo!

Painting - Acrylics - My World

2011-08-28T18:16:00.000+10:00

I have had a good day and a bit of a frustrating day today. This morning I photographed a whole lot of work that I hadn't had the chance to do for a while, did some washing, updated my blog, and then went shopping for some essentials (and non-essentials!). I even bought a new desk chair as my old one has fallen apart. But... I was also supposed to get on with work on my acrylic painting.

I think I am procrastinating as I am still not really confident in this medium yet. I finally started at about 2pm. I mixed a palette of burnt sienna and raw sienna in different hues and tones, and then had to scrap the lot as not one of them worked. Aaargh!

Anyway, I persevered and got a bit done but not as much as I would have liked. Here is the progress...

I have blocked in the extra items on the buffet that need to be painted in, I have put another coat of colour on the buffet, I painted a glaze over the wall in the kitchen area below the cabinets, and basically mucked around with mixing colours. I did ghost in some of the things on the high shelves in the kitchen cabinet - I really like how they turned out. Hopefully I will get more done on Tuesday when I have time to get back to this again.

Printmaking

2011-08-28T14:09:00.000+10:00

For some reason I haven't caught up on all the prints I have completed in Printmaking so far this year. So this post will be a catch up of images.

'Roller Coaster'

This was the second lino cut print I created. I was lucky enough to get two prints done for the lino cut project.

Reduction Lino

'Primary'

Collagraphs
We then moved onto Collagraphs - images cut out of mat board.

'Geometry'

'Slipstream'

'Upright#1'

(the next three versions were experimentation with colour and combinations of the plate)

'Upright#2'

'Upright#3'

'Upright#4'

Screen Printing

First week of screen printing we just played with printing one colour onto butchers paper to get a feel for screen printing. As the class progressed we were able to play with colour, which I did.

The following week we worked on collages to prepare for a paper stencil screen print, which we started printing last week. My print will be a four colour print. The following is the first two colours complete.

A slightly surreal image I am calling 'Treading Water'.

I'll post the final screen print once completed - hopefully in class this week. If I get through this quickly I may be able to print onto a T-shirt as well, which would be great fun.

Drawing - Oil Pastels Landscape triptych - Green/Red

2011-08-27T16:21:00.001+10:00

After a nice morning out at the Penrith Regional Gallery with my daughter, I came home and couldn't help but do a bit more work on the Green/Red landscape. I am paying for it now as my shoulder has decided that I shouldn't do anymore art today. First time in ages that my joints have let me know they have had enough.

I have had so much fun with this. I hate having to stop. But I'd better stop now rather than be forced to stop completely and not be able to move later. *grin*

I'll finish this in class on Wednesday I hope, and will leave it alone until then.

Flowers in the Garden (5)

2011-08-27T10:40:00.000+10:00

It is really foggy here this morning. It is after 10am and it still hasn't cleared, but the light was great for taking a few photos.

Have a great day!

Art in the early morning - Drawing with Oil Pastels

2011-08-27T10:36:00.000+10:00

For some reason I have been waking up way too early in the morning the last few days - but I am not going to complain. I have had the most fun. Everyone else was asleep, except the cats, but they soon snacked and dozed off again. I set myself up at my easel and got out the oil pastels to continue working on my current class project - complimentary opposite landscape triptych.

This morning, I pretty much finished the purple/yellow one. I'll take it to class this week and my teacher will soon spot anything else I need to do, but I think it is pretty much done.

And I started on the green/red landscape as well...

I have decided to do something a little different with this one, a little Van Gogh-esque. It is a lot of fun this making marks with oil pastels. I am still surprised by how much I am enjoying it and how freeing it is to just put marks on the paper. Sure, I still need to have an idea of where to put what colour, but these three works are coming together really well for me. With the green/red, I love the way the sky and trees seem to loom over the rest of the landscape. I'll be interested to see if it still does that once the foreground colours are in. There will be a field of red poppies in the foreground, so I can't wait to see how that looks.

Painting - Acrylics - My World - reworked #2

2011-08-26T18:04:00.000+10:00

Today in painting I continued to work on the re-worked version of my My World project. My teacher is very happy with the new direction and also feels that the space is working much better in this cropped new work.

I feel like I haven't accomplished much with this today as I was only working on the background - a lot of grey/green tones. I have also marked in where a few other objects will go. This weekend I have to get to work on this as I would like to include this in the exhibition if I can get it completed by end of next Friday. So I need to add in the extra items, re work the buffet, finish the tablecloth and items on the table, and add some more solid colour onto the flowers, balloons and fruit. *deep breath* Lots to do, lots of paint to play with, lots of fun really, so I can't complain.

Drawing - Oil Pastels Landscape triptych

2011-08-26T17:57:00.001+10:00

I have completed the first work of this triptych. Very happy with it. It is funny how I don't really like the Fauvist style, yet I am really enjoying creating these landscapes.

Orange/Blue landscape

We have an exhibition coming up for the students of the Cert IV in Visual Arts and Contemporary Crafts. This is the work that has been selected to go in for my entry from Drawing class. This is just under A1 size on orange Canson Mi-Teintes.

As you can see form this first landscape I am drawing fields of flowers for my triptych. The second one I have started is the Purple/Yellow combination.

This is not completed yet, as I still have to get a bit more depth to the field and a bit more colour into the background. It is a bit harder working on the purple paper. I had to lay in white under the yellows so that they would show up better. Only using the purple and yellow tones make this one rather surreal landscape, but I like it still.

Flowers in the Garden (4)

2011-08-21T20:27:00.000+10:00

A few new pics from the garden today, even though it was overcast. Didn't stay outside long - too cold.

Painting - Acrylics - My World - reworked

2011-08-21T17:12:00.005+10:00

Today I decided to start again with my painting. I have been feeling stuck, unsure of how to go on with the other one, I think because of the framework (architrave) around the top edge of the picture almost a frame within the picture. So, I had another large canvas already gessoed, and looked at my original picture and cropped it and got stuck in again. Here is how it looks so far.

I am so much happier with this crop. The picture is much more intimate, the viewer able to feel like someone has just stepped out of the picture.

I seem to be in a reworking frame of mind this weekend having redone my oil pastel landscape as well. But I am glad I was able to see that I needed to redo these. I am feeling much happier about working on this now and have progressed further than I had on the original painting. (I am not giving up completely on that painting - I will continue to work on it at the same time as this one. I'm mixing colours for one, I may as well use it on the other as well.)

Here is the old version with some minor additions...

I am actually feeling excited to work on this one now. I certainly wasn't feeling that way about the first version. And I would have loved to say thank you to Margaret Olley, who recently passed away, whose work helped me to see what I needed to do with this.

Drawing - Oil Pastels Landscape triptych - Complementary opposite colours

2011-08-20T15:25:00.001+10:00

Our latest project for drawing is once again in oil pastels but this time we are working in complementary opposites in Fauvist style. Each landscape will be around A1 size (or a whole sheet of Canson Mi-Teintes, for example). One landscape will be in Blue/Orange (on orange paper), Yellow/Purple (on purple paper) and Red/Green (on green paper).

Choosing the landscapes to use was difficult. The teacher said to look for pictures that have the complementary opposite colours already in them, so I spent quite a bit of time trawling the internet for examples, looking through calendars, etc, etc, finally finding one red/green picture that I really liked. Now, because it is a triptych each picture has to relate to another, the main thing in the picture I loved was a stairway in a garden. Now that is not really a landscape but I loved that picture and wanted to do it, so I had to find two other pictures that included outdoor steps. I found them, but I still wasn't happy. I started working on one of them - the Blue/Orange combination - and spent about an hour in class working on it.

As you can see I had completed a fair amount of it in the time in class, but I still wasn't sure. During class last week, our usual teacher was away and she has quite definite ideas about what a landscape is, and I am pretty sure this really doesn't fit the bill. I like it, and I will probably finish it as well, but I decided this morning, just before starting to work on it, to start again.

And luckily, the three pictures came together reasonably quickly. I already had one of them in the photos I had previously collected.

So this is the Blue/Orange landscape I chose instead. I have used mostly blue and orange oil pastels. The only inclusion that sort of creeps out of the bracket is a dark pink. All the greens are a combination of blue and orange, which has worked really well. I still have quite a bit to do to this, but I'm much happier working on this one for this project.

But I will complete the stair case pictures. I want to see where they go - lol

Painting - Acrylics - My World - WIP#2

2011-08-19T18:10:00.001+10:00

I can't believe I spent most of 3 hours painting a tablecloth! But it was worth it. It still needs a bit more work, particularly where the front edge drops to dark shadow, but that can be done.

I'll have to get to work on this during the week as we are supposed to be finishing this at the end of next class.

I think I am going to have to look at some more Margaret Olley paintings. I really like her style for domestic interiors and it is looking like mine is going in that direction. But that is not a bad thing - her paintings are beautiful. If I can achieve even half of what her work looks like, I'll be happy.

Ceramics - Slab Sculpture Project

2011-08-18T17:48:00.000+10:00

The next project in Ceramics is a textured slab sculpture, based on architectural forms. Some of the examples we were shown were fairly rigid, without organic shapes. I prefer something with a bit of fluidity to it so came up with a design that my instructor is happy with.

Firstly we had to make the model with cardboard, so we can build the sculpture around it. Luckily I had some lovely yellow cardboard lying around at home and played with that until I got the shape right. In class, after playing with some test tiles (working out the textures I would like to use on the sculpture), I decided to build a small scale version of the piece.

I had a lot of fun working out the textures I like. Some of the things I used were paper twine, foam beads, corrugated cardboard, hand made paper (heavyweight), bandages, leaves, hand-knitted dishcloth and ribbon. I even had a go at weaving to create some different textural patterns - that worked really well.

Next Wednesday, I start to build this, rolling the slabs and adding texture before cutting out the pieces I need to create my shape. I'm looking forward to this.

My husband said this looks like an Easter Island statue - that wasn't the inspiration for this!

Pottery - Handbag vase - completed

2011-08-18T17:32:00.000+10:00

Back in February, I posted a blog entry about creating a handbag vase. Well, it is now finished. Starting at TAFE delayed the completion as I had to find time to glaze it and take it to BACG for firing, but I finally did it.

The colours are a little brighter than in this picture as the light washed out the pink a bit.

I love the green that peeks out of the inside of the vase and the pocket, that has worked really well. I like that the glaze is not a solid colour, that there is a wash effect - that worked pretty much how I wanted it too.

I'm going to make a few more of these, experimenting a bit more with shapes and colours.

Now to find a posy of flowers to put in it.

Excursion time - Pre-Raphaelites at the Art Gallery of NSW

2011-08-18T17:24:00.001+10:00

Another day in the city today to visit the Art gallery of NSW, one of my favourite places in Sydney. This time it was to see the drawings and watercolours on loan from England of the Pre-Raphaelites.

The drawings were beautiful, and we were also able to compare the original drawings to a couple of the completed paintings, which really gave an insight into the artistic process of these very talented artists.

Chaucer at the Court of Edward III (1847-51) by Ford Madox Brown is owned and displayed by the Art Gallery. We were lucky enough to see some of the initial drawings for this work, the first time the drawings and final work have ever been on display in the same gallery.

The following two pictures of some of the detail in the painting - absolutely amazing.

There is also a small selection of Margaret Olley works on display, which were lovely to see. I hadn't seen any of her works up close before. I hope there will be a bigger exhibition of her work at some stage - I'd love to see that.

Ranunculus and Pears (2004) by Margaret Olley (photo from the Art Gallery of NSW)

I loved the Ranunculus in this one. Her domestic interiors are beautiful.

I also got to see this painting by Lucien Henry. I discovered his work whilst browsing the TAFE library. I was so pleased to see this painting in real life rather than just in a book.

And it is fun just to wander around the Art Gallery and find new areas and nooks and crannies you didn't know were there. Here is our very own 'Hogwarts' staircase, which leads down to the Research library.

I love the architecture of the Gallery... the mix of old and new, but especially the old.

And on the way back to the train, Hyde Park was putting on a lovely spring show...

So much colour in my day today. Should be more of it!

Flowers in the Garden (3)

2011-08-14T09:32:00.000+10:00

Anyone would think it was already Spring the way these flowers are blooming!

Photography

2011-08-14T09:21:00.000+10:00

I have realised that I haven't shared any of my photographs on my blog. We have mostly been working in the darkroom to date, with some use of digital. The projects we have worked on have been about light and shade, space, and currently we are looking at time.

I'm really enjoying the darkroom work. We played with sepia toning and bleaching the other day and also negative sandwiches, which I enjoyed the most of the three. The possibilities of what you can create are endless.

So here is one of my images...

I need to get some more printing done as scanning from the prints is better quality than from the negative scanner I have.

Drawing - Oil Pastels Still Life - Completed

2011-08-11T07:35:00.000+10:00

The still life triptych is finished. Spent a little time in class yesterday darkening areas and lightening others just to finish it off.

I took the photo in class - no tripod so of course can't stop the curving of the image - oh well, I'll have to take a better one at home, but wanted to share the finished piece.

Ceramics - Getting ready for Raku

2011-08-11T07:30:00.001+10:00

Our next project in Ceramics is to make two small pieces to fire in a Raku kiln. One piece needed to be a soft form and the other to have a geometric element.

The soft form has been burnished with the back of a spoon - I really like the texture this has added to the piece, and the geometric has two fairly flat sides and one curved.

I enjoyed the process of joining two pinch pots together to make these. I haven't done it before and it is quite fascinating that these two pieces of clay can be joined together so simply and they stay together. Here's hoping they survive the firing!

Drawing - Oil Pastels Still Life - WIP#2

2011-08-06T14:48:00.000+10:00

Well, it is almost complete. I'll take this to class on Wednesday and find out what I've missed.

There is no way I would have completed this in class time next week so I am glad I got stuck in this morning (took around 4 hours in between hanging out the washing!).

I have enjoyed the oil pastels more than I thought I would. And I really have to thank my tutor at BACG for the grounding in colour mixing I have learnt over the four years of Tuesday night classes. It made it so much easier when working out what colours to use together to get the right values in these drawings.

Painting - Acrylics - My World

2011-08-05T18:38:00.000+10:00

Today we started work on our new project - My World. We are painting something in our own lives, either a domestic interior or exterior, a place we know really well, live with everyday but that we can paint so we see it anew.

Sketched in with yellow oxide and used burnt umber to start marking in shadows. Off to a pretty good start.

This is on 30x36" canvas, the largest work I've made to date.

Drawing - Oil Pastels Still Life - WIP#1

2011-08-04T19:14:00.001+10:00

In Drawing, in the first week back at TAFE, we were given a new project to research - a still life triptych in red, yellow and blue, our first excursion into colour in our Drawing course.Part of the research was to find and sketch in oil pastel three paintings by Impressionists and Post-Impressionists, and to bring in to class items in red, yellow and blue to add to a class still life set-up. The still life was set up last week and we took photographs and worked out the final composition for each segment of the triptych.

This week in class I started my triptych, working on the yellow segment first...

The rubber duck was my (my daughter's really) contribution to the yellow still life. I was really pleased with how quickly this came together for me. I was able to complete the sketch for each section of the triptych, complete the yellow segment and start on the red in the three hour class.

This is how far I got on the red segment...

Oil pastel is fun and quick. Doesn't have the smooth even finish of the soft pastels but more experimentation will prove if it is more versatile. I am pleased I did the sketches of the Impressionists works before I started this as it gave me a chance to see how the oil pastels go onto paper and how they can be blended to get the colours you want. (The Japanese doll and the Mickey Mouse shorts were my contributions to the red still life - had to make sure they were in the final composition!)

The three works are all on the one full sheet of Mi-Teintes paper (rough side) - this is almost A1 size.

I'll post more pics as this work continues.

Ceramics - Slab Bowl - WIP#3

2011-08-03T22:05:00.000+10:00

Finished the design work on the slab bowl today. Just need to let it dry for the week then it can be bisque fired and then glazed.

I decided not to make the hand perfectly human and just the one. There are small circles (like air bubbles) across the plain surface of the bowl but they are hard to see in this picture (I forgot my good camera today so had to take this with my phone).

We'll be using a honey glaze on this bowl, and also a blue glaze, which I think will work really well with this. I'll do some glaze testing next week.

We are also beginning to prepare for a raku firing, creating some pinch pots for that. Photos of those next week.

Flowers in the Garden (2)

2011-08-02T16:45:00.001+10:00

We've got some really early tulips this year - but I'm not complaining. The red and the pinks are out now. Looking forward to seeing which ones appear next.

Hyacinth - can't wait to see them all out in bloom.

First Daffy!

The snowflakes are taking over!

Ceramics - Slab Bowl - WIP#2

2011-07-27T19:47:00.001+10:00

Had to get down to the design work on the slab bowl today. Was feeling really blocked and couldn't come up with anything that I wanted to work on, so left the class and had a walk around to clear my head. Really glad I did that as I was able to come up with a design that I am really happy with, and went back into class and started building.

Here are the results so far...

There will also be hands on either side of the bowl towards the front with the fingers grasping the sides as if the woman is climbing out of the bowl. I have thought of calling it 'coming up for air' - but I'm still thinking about that.

Ceramics - Ritual Vessel - Finished

2011-07-27T19:40:00.000+10:00

Last ceramics lesson I spent pretty much the whole three hours glazing my pot - and today it came out of the kiln.

I am really happy with the glaze I chose. I was unsure about it as the test tiles I did didn't turn out the way I had hoped, but luckily one of the women in the class had fired her pot the week before with the same glaze as this so was able to see the results with this glaze before using it.

Some really interesting colours have come out on the surface and it looks aged, which is how it is supposed to be.

Now I just have to work out where I am going to keep it for the next 4 months until assessment time.

First Spring (??) Flowers

2011-07-18T10:44:00.000+10:00

It is still well and truly winter here, but the first of the Spring bulbs have bloomed.

And there are lots more buds almost ready to pop. Stay tuned for more pics as they bloom!

Portrait Workshop with Nafisa Naomi

2011-07-09T18:31:00.001+10:00

Today I attended a portrait workshop at Sydney Art School in Baulkham Hills with Nafisa Naomi.

The workshop was actually a two day workshop but I was only able to attend one day. It would have been great to be able to go for both days, especially now I have seen the outcome from today, but I am really happy to have been able to go for the one.

Nafisa began with a demonstration of her technique for still life and then portrait, before she broke the class up into two groups, one working on a portrait from life and the other on a still life (we swapped after lunch, so we all had the opportunity to work with both set-ups).She believes that both have their tonal challenges and provide a good mix for the day.

I started on a portrait. I took copious notes during Nafisa's demonstration which were very helpful in working the way she suggested to get the drawing onto the paper in proportion and with correct tones. Nafisa spent time with each of us as we worked and provided great assistance in correct placement of features and how to work it out for ourselves when we go home and attempt portraits on our own.

Lunchtime came way too quickly.

This is the portrait I completed in the three hours we had...

I didn't get the time to add too much tone to the face, but I am happy with the proportions. Nafisa places a lot of emphasis on anatomy and she explained a lot about the anatomy of the face and eyes in particular, which was really useful.

After lunch, it was time for still life. The still life was a mix of reflective, non-reflective, ceramic, metal and paper items - to give us as much to challenge in the tonal drawing as possible. During her demonstration she showed us how she sets up a composition and how to begin sketching the drawing onto the page - so useful.

I'm very happy with this drawing and I received some nice feedback from Nafisa for this.

If I have to opportunity to do another course with Nafisa I will take it. She is a very thorough teacher and shares a lot of info with her students. She is very generous with her knowledge and skills. And I enjoy the atmosphere at Sydney Art School - a great place to go for courses. This is the third course I've done with them and I highly recommend them for classes.

All quiet on the artistic front...

2011-07-06T22:06:00.001+10:00

Having a quiet holiday, spending time reading up on subjects for an essay and a report due after I'm back at college, but otherwise just relaxing. At least, relaxing now the birthday party is over.

Here is a remnant from the party I thought I'd share - there has been some creative activity...

Some little girls had a lot of fun as part of a scavenger hunt. We are going to replace the external walls on this garage sometime soon, so thought this would be a fun activity. (To be honest I'd been thinking about painting something on these run down walls for a while, but this was much more fun to see). They had a blast. My daughter knows how to write too well.

And here is one very sleepy cat...

... all worn out after the party. He looks how I felt.

Painting - Mixed Media Portrait - Complete

2011-06-17T22:07:00.000+10:00

Today was the last day at TAFE for this semester. We are now on a 4 week break. We all had to hand in our work from class for mid-year assessment this afternoon, which was organised chaos!

Before handing in our work, I still had a couple of hours of painting class to finish this portrait. The teacher had some great suggestions so I was able to fix a couple of things I was unhappy with. It is still not exactly what I would like in a portrait but I am quite pleased with it.

Next Friday we go back to TAFE in the afternoon to collect all our work, but other than that I can now relax and not think about art for a few weeks. My brain definitely needs the down time!

Ceramics - Slab Bowl

2011-06-15T21:47:00.001+10:00

Started work on the next project for ceramics today. We are to make a bowl using a slab of clay, rather than coil built. I used the slab roller to flatten a piece of clay and then laid it over the form I chose to use.

Then I just had to press the slab over the form, smooth and trim, and then once happy with the shape use a heat gun to set the shape a bit before removing it from the form.

Next will be decoration, for which I will use a design I came up with for the last project but didn't use.

However, I now have four weeks off TAFE as we hand in everything for assessment this week and then go on holidays. So I will get back to this in July.

I'm really looking forward to this holiday. I think my brain is ready for some down time after the last six months of study. : )

Painting - Mixed Media Portrait - Major work (episode 2)

2011-06-13T17:44:00.001+10:00

Continued to work on the portrait today for a couple of hours. I finished the watercolour on it yesterday and started using pastel today.

This is the final watercolour layer.

I've used pastel in the background and on the figure and face. Probably need some more layers of colour in the hair.

I didn't like the pastel background so went over it with water and I'm much happier with the way it looks. I also added water to the shirt, so now only the face and hair have straight pastel, and I much prefer that.

I've had a lot of trouble with the eyes and mouth - which just shows that I do prefer to work with a detailed drawing beforehand. The angle of the subject makes the mouth very hard to see properly, and it is such a weird angle. And at least she doesn't have crazy eyes, they're just not quite right yet.

Here is a close up of the face as it is now. The mouth sort of disappears into the cheek behind it and there is not much difference in the tone between the two, which makes it difficult to draw.

I'll take this into class on Friday and I'm sure my teacher will have some very useful suggestions to finish this.

Drawing - Portrait - Charcoal and Conte Crayon

2011-06-11T21:41:00.000+10:00

I almost completed the initial sketch for this in class on Wednesday, but I needed to complete the eye area as I was having a bit of trouble getting that right. So today I sat this on my easel and went for it.

I had just started to put in some of the darkest darks when I remember to take a photo *g* How strange the face looks without any of the lines or shadows to give it shape and interest.

I decided to get to work on the background so using compressed charcoal laid in the dark black background. I then used a wet brush and went over the charcoal to try and get a really dark black for behind the head. I also worked on the shirt using willow charcoal - really happy with the way that is turning out.

And this is where I am leaving this today. He has crazy eyes, so need to fix that and when I go to class I know my teacher is going to tell me that I need to darken areas of the face. But I like to get that feedback before I move on. Now if only I can fix the crazy eyes!

Full sheet of Canson (Ivory) using graphite, Charcoal (black and white) and Conte Crayon (black, white, grey)

Painting - Mixed Media Portrait - Major work

2011-06-10T20:32:00.001+10:00

I started this portrait last week in class but really only had the chance to sketch it in and place one small wash of colour onto it before the end of last lesson. Nothing would have shown up on a photograph as the pencil was rubbed back to leave only faint marks. This week I continued to lay on washes of colour using those pencil marks as a guide.

A1 size, Arches medium watercolour paper 300gsm

This photo was taken after the first light washes on the face and hair.

A light blue wash in the background has been added.

A few more washes of darker colour to begin adding detail to the figure.

Next I have to add some more detail to the lower part of the face and darken the background, then I can move onto other media, which at this stage will probably just be pastel. I think ink would be too harsh for this painting. I also have to be careful not to overdo the pastel, since that is the medium I am more used to working in, as I think it could overpower the watercolour quite easily.

I am enjoying working with watercolour on this portrait. It has been interesting to see the shapes of colour and tone come together to form the face. Now I just have to keep it looking like a child's face.

Ceramics - Ritual Vessel - WIP#9

2011-06-08T17:37:00.000+10:00

My pot is still drying but today I was able to add a coat of engobe in preparation for bisque firing.

I love seeing the pot covered in colour, although it won't end up this colour at all. It is just an undercoat really and once I put the underglaze on after this has been bisque fired, the engobe will show through that final colour to give the piece some interesting texture and colour.

It took about an hour and a half to cover the whole pot with the engobeas it took a long time to get the colour into the nooks and crannies of the design.

Drawing - Vanitas style - Completed

2011-06-08T17:33:00.000+10:00

I finished working on the Vanitas drawing today. I'm very happy with the way it has turned out. I have come to love using charcoal through these last few projects. It is so easy to use and manipulate, if a little messy *g*.

Drawing- Vanitas style - WIP#2

2011-06-05T20:41:00.000+10:00

I continued to work on the Vanitas-style drawing in the last drawing class. Finally got around to photographing it today to post.

A1 size, Canson (Cream colour)
Charcoal and Conte crayons (black, white and greys)

Still have some more shadows to darken and need to lay down the envelopes a bit more with some shadows which I have just realised are not there. But I am happy with the way this is looking. Should finish this at the beginning of the next class.

Our next, and last project for this semester will be a portrait, also in black, white and grey. As this will also be A1 size it will be an interesting exercise as I haven't done a portrait this size before. I just need to get a good portrait photo taken between now and Wednesday - in the style of Max Dupain - how do I become as good a photographer as him in two days? lol

Ceramics - Ritual Vessel - WIP#8

2011-06-01T18:37:00.000+10:00

All of the design work is completed on the ritual vessel I have been working on - yay!!

I forgot to take my camera today so I only have mobile phone pics - not the clearest images but better than nothing : )

I enjoyed carving out the flowers - a lot of work but worth doing.

Next step is to choose the glaze and paint it on. As this is based on a 400-600BC Chinese Bronze ritual vessel, we are limited in the colours we will use. I am leaning towards using a bronze glaze. We had a few other options but I wasn't really happy with any of them so I think the bronze is it.

Drawing- Vanitas style

2011-05-30T17:59:00.000+10:00

We have moved onto a new project in drawing - an A1 size (large sheet) drawing based upon a Vanitas painting (Dutch 17th century). We had to choose reference work from that time period and, using items that mean something to us, create a still life that is set up to match the painting. We worked in groups to gather our still life items, so two of us have joined forces to create this still life.

I was hoping to get the initial drawing started on the weekend but I had so much work to get done on other things I didn't get to it. But today, whilst it poured down outside, I finally sketched the pieces into place ready for charcoal and Conte crayons.

The light wasn't too good as I finished this off tonight so the pic is not the best, but you can get an idea of the placement of things.

I haven't worked on a piece as big as this before and now in the space of a week I'll be doing a painting and a drawing this size.

Painting - Mixed Media Portraits

2011-05-29T15:51:00.000+10:00

I chickened out in the last post and decided not to post the portrait I initially painted in class on Friday. I am really unhappy with it - so much so I decided to have another go. Luckily, I took a photo to work from as my class mate is not at home with me this weekend *g*.

Here is the first portrait I did. I didn't draw in any shapes, just basic marks for top of head, chin, eyes and then started using watercolour. It is not a good painting at all. The face is twisted and the eyes to mouth are out of alignment. But I experimented and I feel more comfortable with watercolour after playing as I did with this portrait.

So here is my second attempt. I worked on it for about an hour and a half, about the same time as I worked on the other one in class. This time I drew in the face, and main features.

Now this is more like it! For an hour and a half's painting I am more than happy with this. I have had to relearn how to use watercolour and I am now feeling more confident with the way our teacher has taught us. I was initially taught to water down the colour a lot and then build up layers of colour to get what I wanted. What we have been shown now is to just go for it and water down the colour as we go if needed.

I am not saying that I love watercolour now, that I am converted, but I am much happier about using it after playing at home without the pressure of finishing within class time.

Watercolour and mixed media - landscape

2011-05-28T14:33:00.001+10:00

We have moved onto mixed media in Painting class now. Using watercolour as a base we are then adding ink, pastel and charcoal, depending upon our personal choice.

To start we worked on a landscape. We could choose a new landscape or re-create the last watercolour landscape so we could see the difference between adding other media and just using watercolour - I chose that option.

Here is the original watercolour landscape...

And here is the mixed media version...

I used pastels only over the watercolour. I tried some ink but the picture really didn't suit ink. I'm still not drawn to watercolour as a painting medium, but for this course I will continue to give it a go. I can see things I like in each of the paintings. With more time I could iron out the things that need fixing.

This week, we started looking at portraits in watercolour and mixed media. We started with a small study of one of our classmates.

After the study we worked with watercolour to lay in an underpainting and then added ink, if we chose, and then pastel. The teacher said to just play with it and just experiment, so that is what I did. I wouldn't say it is a favourite or a good painting, but it is experimental! *g* I'm going to do some more work on the painting before I post it!

Ceramics - Ritual Vessel - WIP#7

2011-05-26T21:08:00.000+10:00

Finally started carving into the pot on Wednesday. Wasn't able to get it all done, which was a pity - had to do some other assignment work on OH&S in class.

So far I have carved the outline of about half the flowers into relief but also need to carve out some of the petals and stamen of the flowers to give more definition. I think it is going to look quite good when finished. The way the bulbs are attached isn't quite what I had in mind when I envisaged them on the base of the pot - I went with the suggestion of the teacher. Hopefully they will work okay once fired.

Also need to think about what to do in the transition between designs. The one between the flowers and leaves is okay but I need to do something between the bulbs and the leaves.

So, fingers crossed, I'll get the final work done in class next week and then it can be fired!

Drawing - Interiors Triptych complete

2011-05-18T19:02:00.001+10:00

Today was the last day to work on the interiors triptych in class time - and I finished. I only had a few minor corrections to make, which was great.

I have really enjoyed doing these drawings, even though they were so detailed. The middle of the three drawings was the first that I completed. It is mostly in graphite with a small amount of charcoal. It took a long time, much longer than I was happy with. For the next drawing I decided to do more charcoal - and I was so pleased with the outcome and the shorter length of time it took to complete the drawing. Instead of seven hours, it only took four! A big difference when you don't have a lot of time outside of class to complete work.

And so, because of the success of the second drawing, I decided to use mostly charcoal in the final one as well. I can see the difference between the first and the final drawing. I felt much more relaxed about using the charcoal and just went with where it took me, and whilst I love graphite, I think I am hooked on charcoal.

The other good thing about this triptych is that the building where I took the photos will be torn down in a few years to make way for new premises. These will be a reminder of the great times had in the old art and craft rooms.

Ceramics - Ritual Vessel - WIP#6

2011-05-18T18:55:00.001+10:00

Started adding the design to the pot today.

As there has to be a ritual involved in the design of the vessel, I have used the annual ritual of planting spring bulbs. The design round the base of the pot is of bulbs ready to plant, the next layer is a stylised leaf design and the third layer is flowers in bloom. I have to start carving out the negative spaces between the flowers next week and also add some design elements in between each of the leaves. I wish I had more time to spend on this instead of just 3 hours a week.

Art Gallery Visit - 12 May 2011

2011-05-16T21:56:00.000+10:00

We went to the Art Gallery of NSW on Thursday to see the Archibald, Wynne and Sulman Prizes, along with a couple of other exhibitions.

I caught an earlier train and wandered through the city from Wynyard, up to the State Library and across the Domain to the gallery taking photographs on my SLR for my photography on Illusions of Space. It was a really enjoyable walk and I'll have to plan to do that every time we head to the city for an excursion.

I enjoyed seeing the Archibald, the first time I have viewed this and some of the Wynne prize, but the Sulman was a big disappointment.

We also viewed the Photography & Place exhibition, which was really interesting and had some beautiful photographs by some very talented people, and the Eikoh Hosoe 'Theatre of Memory' exhibition, which was wonderful. I especially loved the 'Embrace' series of photographs that was included and would love to see more of these. I was disappointed that Eikoh Hosoe gave a talk only two days before - I would have loved to hear him speak about his work.

Here are a couple of pics I took around the gallery...

Ink Self Portraits - revisited

2011-05-16T21:47:00.000+10:00

For one of our projects last term we were to complete eight A4 size self portraits in ink. The work will have to be handed in at the end of this semester. At the time, I only completed six and knew that I would have to get to work outside of class time to do the last two. Today, I finally completed them.

It was really interesting to revisit these now after several weeks of tuition. I felt much more confident about doing these and I feel that the style of these two is quite different from the six I completed earlier. This was a positive experience for me and I wouldn't mind doing some more.

Watercolour - landscape

2011-05-16T21:43:00.000+10:00

We completed this watercolour without using a pencil drawing first. The aim was to see how we felt about painting with this medium in this way. I'm still not enjoying the watercolour but I am happy to give it a go. We move onto mixed media with watercolour next week, so that will make it more interesting to me, especially as we will be using pastels.

Drawing - Interiors #2 and #3

2011-05-16T21:39:00.000+10:00

The first two of the three interiors drawings are complete. This is the second one...

...and I have started the third...

This is starting to look really good and I have only really used the compressed charcoal so far (with a few touches of willow charcoal). I will work on this again tomorrow as we are supposed to have these done by Wednesday if possible.

We move on to a new project then, A1 size, using Dutch 17th century still life, or vanitas, as our reference. Not sure how I feel about this style, as most of the paintings include a skull! Very symbolic I gather, so it will be interesting, if not something I would hang on my wall.

Ceramics - Ritual Vessel - WIP#5

2011-05-11T17:23:00.000+10:00

After a busy class today I am ready to start putting design onto the pot. I spent quite a bit of time making six tiles, carving them and painting them with glazes to use as test tiles. And then I was able to move on with completing the handles.

The Chinese ritual vessel I am basing this pot on had handles that were made into dragons, their mouth clasping the neck of the pot, their tails draped down onto the curve of the pot. Dragons don't fit in with my overall design so I had to come up with something that worked. After quite a bit of playing the tulips are what I came up with and they have worked, which made me very happy.

I will have to have a bit of a play with textures and lines to finish them off but they are exactly what I envisioned.

Hopefully I will complete most of the design work on the pot next week. I am really enjoying ceramics. I can't wait to move back into more self-directed design rather than within such strict guidelines, but I am more than happy to be learning the techniques to make that possible.

Painting class - watercolour still life

2011-05-06T21:03:00.001+10:00

Today we continued to work on watercolour, this time a planned still life. By planned I mean that we drew up the still life then painted over that.

As this was just a study to see what can be done with watercolour, I didn't paint in a background at my teacher's suggestion. But now I think it needs it as the glass at the rear seems to disappear into the white of the paper. I may revisit this and wash a faint background in.

Next week, we are going to paint without a plan to see what we can do with watercolour in a different way.

Still can't wait to get back to acrylics!

Ceramics - Ritual Vessel - WIP#4

2011-05-04T17:28:00.000+10:00

Four weeks in and I have added the handles - yay!

Now it is time to add design... the handles are going to turn into flowers and I will bee adding pattern and design in layers up the vase. Here's hoping it works out!

We'll be glazing with one colour - and I may choose bronze - or two colours, but we are limited by the scope of the project. Still trying to find out exactly what we are allowed to do. I have made a couple of small molds which I am getting fired and will hopefully use to add some design to the body of the vase, and I have to make some tiles to text glazes on over the weekend. (First time I have had to bring some clay home).

Drawing - Interiors #1 - WIP#3

2011-05-02T16:20:00.000+10:00

With K. at school I was able to devote some time to drawing in the hope that I will get this first of three drawings complete before drawing class on Wednesday.

This is about 7 hours of work now - I am obviously a slow drawer, or else this is too detailed!

There is still a lot of work to do, especially with the patchwork pieces in the foreground. And probably need to darken some of the darks a bit more - I'm still a bit tentative when working dark.

And there are still two more of these!!!!

Drawing - Interiors (cont)

2011-04-30T18:55:00.000+10:00

I have spent an hour or so working on my drawing for Drawing class. We have three A2 drawings to complete over the next 3 weeks and there is no way I'm going to get them finished during class time. So here is the next instalment of this work in progress...

I'm going to have to try and do less detailed subjects in future : ) !!!

Watercolour

2011-04-29T18:30:00.000+10:00

We were introduced to watercolour in Painting class today. I did some work in watercolour last year but it is not my favourite medium, so I will have to wait and see how using it goes under a different instructor.

We started just playing with one colour and seeing what we could do with it...

This involved using pure colour and then adding more and more water to see the effect we could create. Adding wet on wet, wet on dry and other ways to just play with the colour.

Then, we tried several colours, playing with the paint and just getting a feel for using it...

Mixing colours, laying colour over colour and seeing what happens.

After a break, we then worked with a still life set up by the teacher.

This was interesting. The colours aren't quite right here as the lighting under which I took the photo wasn't ideal. I left most of the page white and just added in the abstract shapes of the shadows to create the drapery. It was a good exercise. I preferred it to painting gum trees, which I did a lot of last year.

As I said, I'll see how it goes over the next few weeks and see if I come to like watercolour.

Art history - using my kindergarten skills!

2011-04-28T20:54:00.000+10:00

Today in Art history, to give us a break from the dry old data dump we got to play with mosaics.

We researched some Roman mosaics and then had to re-create one in our visual diaries using paper or coloured pencils. I chose to go with the paper option as I felt like cutting and pasting - see, I knew those kindy skills would come in handy again!

This is from a mosaic at the Villa Guilia in Rome. Not a perfect copy, but it was fun to do and a change from watching dry, info filled videos.

Still Life (Acrylics) - Full Colour Palette - finished

2011-04-28T20:50:00.000+10:00

I finally made the finishing touches to this painting during the school holidays...

I'm pretty happy with this for a first real attempt with acrylics. There are things I would try and do differently now, but it was a great experience doing this.

Back to school - the Easter Bunny has left the building

2011-04-27T17:32:00.000+10:00

I headed back to TAFE today. K. has a pupil free day today, so she was very happy that Mum had to go back to school but she didn't. She stayed at home with Dad.

Ceramics was first class for the day, and I have finished the main part of my pot. Just the handles to do now and then on to decorating it.

I'm really happy with it. It is not quite the same as the shape that I originally envisaged creating, but I have gone with how it has unfolded rather than get twisted up about its perfection or lack thereof! lol

I have to come up with a design for two handles now, that will curve from the top of the next down to the curve of the pot. Time to think...

And this afternoon in drawing class it was time to start on our interiors triptych. I had to choose which three photos I was going to work from and then get started.

This is the start. I will be using graphite and charcoal for this drawing. Can't wait to see how it turns out. The compressed charcoal looks so rich on the paper.

Me, Myself & I Exhibition - WSI TAFE

2011-04-12T15:40:00.000+10:00

Currently on at WSI TAFE Nepean (Kingswood campus) is the Me, Myself & I Exhibition. It contains hundreds of A4 size self portraits by the students and teachers attending Fine Arts courses at the campus. There is a short article and photo in the latest newsletter from WSI Tafe.

I took one photo at the exhibition...

It is really effective the way they have all been hung in a narrow band around the exhibition space. You can spend hours just working your way around the room. There are some very talented people at Nepean TAFE.

I have three self portraits in this exhibition - a photograph, an ink drawing and a ceramic.

After the exhibition, 101 portraits will be chosen to be included in a publication available next year. The edition from last year is now available from TAFE.

Term 1 down, only three to go...

2011-04-11T08:35:00.000+10:00

The first term of my Certificate IV in Visual Arts and Contemporary Crafts at TAFE has flown by. I haven't been this busy in years, and I'm loving it.

It has been interesting talking to some of the other participants - some of them love a particular subject or two and dislike other intensely, some of them don't turn up (in fact, some haven't turned up since the first week) and some of them, who knows how they feel! Me... I'm a sponge, taking in everything and loving it, even Art History, which I hated in high school, so much so I chose not to do art after the first year.

So to recap...

Drawing - We've used ink, graphite and charcoal, working on A2 size paper mostly, to create 5 works which will culminate in second term with a triptych using all three, focussing on interiors.

Ceramics - I've created three pieces so far, all faces, and I'm halfway through building a large vase. I'm learning heaps and I think this is probably my favourite subject. I love creating in 3D.

Art History - even though we are only doing an overview, I am learning so much about Ancient History and how world events shaped the art that was created. Ancient Greece was fascinating - want to learn more about that period and the art/sculpture that is the basis for so much of what we do today. We have handed in two assignments so far, one of which was a review of an exhibition. We have to complete 5 reviews over the year and will have one essay mid year. I am learning so much about how to look at an artwork... it is not really pretentious art speak - I'm beginning to understand what reviewers are talking about.

Printmaking - biggest learning curve here. Have never done this before. Really enjoyed the monoprints - no control, just have to create and enjoy. Lino cuts are interesting, but I need to do more to see if it really appeals or not. I want to create some hand-made prints at home, so I am going to find out what I need to set up. K. and I can have fun with this at home and create all sorts of things.

Photography - I must have absorbed more about this over the years than I thought. My grandfather was an amateur photographer - he taught my brother so much about photography (I was a lot younger) and he always had cameras with him. He gave me my first Kodak camera at age 8 - an instamatic. He gave me a Canon Demi when I was older - I love that camera. I have always enjoyed taking photos, so it is really interesting to learn how they are processed and what you can achieve in a dark room. It is frustrating to have to wait until I go back to class next term to print the 2 rolls of film I took on Saturday for our next project - I am so used to digital now - I want to see the results. But I'm patient...maybe... there is a photo place I can take it to get it developed... I didn't like getting the film out of the canister in class as they didn't have any of the correct tools to open it... had to pry it open in the dark with my fingers... ouch!

We have completed two projects in Photography so far - Identity and Camera Controls. Identity was a digital print based on something to do with my own identity, and Camera Controls was a project aimed at helping us to learn how to use the camera. I am so happy about a couple of the shots I took for this project. I had to hand them in but I'll post them next term.

Painting - Have completed two acrylic paintings, one tonal, one limited palette and will finish the third one, using the full palette, during the holidays. It was a great relief to find that I can paint using a paintbrush as well as with pastels. Still have a lot to learn but now I can have a go with acrylics and see what I can create in my own time. Next term we start watercolour, which after my experiences last year, I'm not really looking forward to. But with a different teacher, who knows... I'll go into it with an open mind.

The teachers speak about how many who do Cert IV move on and do the Diploma after. Four days a week is a big commitment over two years. Two days a week would make it four years, and twice as expensive. Something to think about over the course of this year.

Printmaking - Linocut Self Portrait

2011-04-07T18:41:00.000+10:00

We got to play with colour today!

This was the original black & white print I did with this lino cut.

This is a two plate print using a plain purple plate, with black on the lino cut. The purple was a bit too dark (but I may use a white acrylic ink or something like that and go back and lighten this up) so I added more translucent white to the purple and tried again...

Unfortunately, some one had loosened off the press on one side. The purple didn't take. I didn't know about the loosened press and ran the black anyway (as I thought I had just not put enough ink on the plate) and it went the same way. We checked the press and found out what had happened. So, we fixed the press and I ran the black again - and it was a lucky mistake as I got a really unusual print.

And finally I ran a two colour print, with blue and purple, which I really like.

Ceramics - Ritual Vessel - WIP#2

2011-04-06T17:50:00.000+10:00

I was disappointed today that I didn't get to start adding the neck of this pot, but it is taking shape really well and I am very happy with it. Over the break I have to work on what decorative elements I'll be putting on the outside of this, but I have an idea of what they will be so it is just doing some designs on paper ready to work next term.

The pot is about 30-35cm high so far and the neck will probably add between 10-15cm onto this. I certainly don't make small pottery pieces! This one shouldn't crack though as I'm using paper clay which is much more forgiving than the raku clay I used for the pelican.

Charcoal Drawing - Tools

2011-04-06T17:47:00.000+10:00

We finished working on the charcoal still life with tools today. I had almost finished one at home on Monday so just had to add some finishing touches in the background.

I also finished a second drawing which I had started the previous week using graphite by accident (or was it memory loss! lol) instead of willow charcoal as I was supposed to. I decided to play with some different techniques on this one including using water - with a brush and with a spray bottle. I didn't want to waste a good sketch!

When we go back to tech next term we will be starting work on a triptych, based on interiors. Over the holidays I need to take some photos of an interior, and I have decided to take some shots at my local arts & crafts group as it has been important in the development of my art to date. I'll have to spend some time there next week and take a lot of photos. My tutor was pleased with the idea so I'll work with that! We will be working with ink, charcoal and graphite for these three drawings, so it will be interesting using them all together and seeing what effects come out of it.

Drawing - Still Life - Graphite

2011-04-06T17:39:00.000+10:00

I have finally taken a picture of the still life with bottles that I completed a few weeks ago using graphite.

Sorry the photo is a little skew-whiff (no tripod set up)!

Charcoal Drawing - Tools

2011-04-04T13:16:00.002+10:00

As part of the Drawing class at TAFE we are drawing tools in charcoal, using Jim Dine's work as a reference. I don't know that my work echoes his, but I was intrigued with how he did his drawings.

Our guidelines were to sketch in willow charcoal and use compressed charcoal for the shading. Then we were to remove areas with an eraser and see the effects we could create as we removed charcoal. I had started a different version of this in class last week, but I forgot to use willow charcoal to sketch and used pencil, so wanted to start again. And it was nice to choose some tools from home - I don't usually hunt through the tools to use them so it was an adventure not knowing what I would find.

I have had a really nice morning today. I came straight home from dropping my daughter at school - first time I've done that this year! - and set up in the backyard to do this drawing. I sat in the shade, surrounded by art supplies and cats - very relaxing.

I don't think it is quite finished, but I'm happy with the progress I made today.

(This is on A2 cartridge paper, using willow and compressed charcoal)

Castle Hill Show - Highly Commended Award

2011-04-03T17:49:00.001+10:00

Just got back from picking up my paintings from the Castle Hill Show. 'Bree' the Chinese Crested Dog painting was Highly Commended in the Pure Pastel section of the show.

Feeling quite happy right now as I haven't had a chance to do any work in pastel since I started the course. This makes me want to get back to it again.

Still Life (Acrylics) - Full Colour Palette - WIP#1

2011-04-01T17:06:00.000+11:00

We started work on our still life using the full colour palette in acrylics today. After completing the colour wheel last week, I realised that I wanted to use the better quality acrylics. Luckily for me, a local art shop was moving and had a sale of 25% off, so I purchased the colours ready for this week.

What a difference the new colours make! I bought Matisse acrylics and they are wonderful. The Chromacryl are great to start out with but just looking at the warm yellow (Cadmium yellow) in comparison in the tubes, there is no contest as to which is the better colour.

The still life is canisters, pumpkins and fruit.

We started by doing thumbnails to ascertain how the set up would best look on the canvas. Then sketched in on the canvas with a light yellow wash. After that we worked tonally with a yellow ochre/burnt sienna wash. And then we got to start using colour!

I hope to get some more work done on this at home before our final class of term next Friday.

Ceramics - Ritual Vessel - WIP#1

2011-03-30T19:41:00.000+11:00

Today we started work on our second project in Ceramics. We are making a ritual vessel inspired by Ancient Chinese bronzes c400BC. I found the pot I am using for inspiration at the Chinese Warriors exhibition that we attended a month ago and we spent last ceramics lesson formulating design and decoration based around ritual in our lives.

We are building the pot using coils (we are using paper clay), which is fun and I built to about 15cm here. The whole pot will be about 40cm high. And then I have to decorate it in a similar style to the way the Chinese decorated their pots at that time using the symbols or decoration that I was inspired to create/design for this project. I'm looking forward to getting back to class next week to work on this.

Landscape Painting (Acrylic - Limited palette) - finished

2011-03-27T14:23:00.000+11:00

We spent about an hour of last Painting lesson finishing off our limited palette acrylic landscape. It is not really finished but the teacher wanted us to stop so we could move onto the full range of colours and create a colour wheel.

So instead of fiddling with detail and 'getting it right' this is the finished painting.

Because it was a limited palette, the colours aren't quite right but it was a great experience in getting the tone of the painting right. If I was going to finish the painting, there is still quite a bit of work to do, but I'm okay with stopping it here and moving on. Considering this is only the second acrylic painting I've ever done, I'm happy with it.

Lino Cut - Self Portrait

2011-03-24T18:32:00.001+11:00

We started working on a lino cut print last week in Printmaking. I haven't worked with lino before, so it was a new experience.

I started with an ink self portrait that I completed in Drawing class. I took a photocopy and then, using an orange based transfer medium, transferred the photocopy onto the lino, so I didn't have to draw the whole picture from scratch. That certainly made starting the work easier.

This is the ink self portrait I decided to work from. It is black ink with some blue and red allowed to run down the face.

It took me most of last Printmaking class to cut the lino. I didn't get to make a test print until today.

After a few minor tweaks to the design, I have now printed 5 editions of the print ready to submit for assessment.

This was taken whilst the ink was still wet so there is some reflection from the room lights. I'll take another pic once the work is dry, but you can get the idea of how the print looks from this.

I really prefer the print to the original drawing, so that is good!

We have another two weeks to work on this lino cut, so as I have finished this, I will create another lino cut and make another edition of 5.

Ceramics - Bisque fired Face

2011-03-23T17:42:00.001+11:00

The self-portrait is complete - fired, mounted and entered into the 'Me, Myself & I' student exhibition at TAFE. I forgot to take a photo before entering it, so will have to post a picture after the exhibition.

The other face I made, which was the test to learn the techniques, is complete. I have to keep it to submit for assessment at the end of the year, so need to find a safe place to store it. (The beauty spot was a happy accident - dropped some paint, and decided to leave it)

Drawing - Still life

2011-03-23T17:38:00.000+11:00

Today in Drawing we continued working with graphite, but with ellipses this time instead of boxes.

We had to use cross-hatching to complete the shading, instead of one-directional shading, which we used for the boxes. I finished three of the bottles and still have to complete the other three. Also need to add more detail in the fabric background.

Landscape Painting (Limited palette) - updated

2011-03-19T17:15:00.000+11:00

Some more work to do yet, but it is on the way. To be finished next class.

Perspective - Drawing with Graphite

2011-03-16T22:14:00.000+11:00

In drawing today we were covering perspective. I was happy with the outcome.

A2 size, 6B-9B pencils and graphite stick.

The tutor was happy with it too, which was good.

Success at the Blacktown Show 2011

2011-03-11T21:51:00.000+11:00

We dropped into the Blacktown Show tonight, so K. could see if she won an award for her artwork (and if I did too) and to see the fireworks.

Unfortunately K. didn't win a prize - maybe next year - but I did.

I'm glad 'Bree' won the Birds & Animals section. Whilst she's not my favourite type of dog, she turned out beautifully in pastels.

I certainly wasn't expecting to win anything in the Pottery section. I just entered the very first piece of pottery I made in the Pottery - under 1 year experience section. I was up against some really beautiful work, so I was very surprised to win this. But it is very encouraging! My husband came up with the title for this piece - 'The Perfect Man'. That may have helped seal the deal!

Landscape Painting

2011-03-11T18:34:00.000+11:00

Today in painting class we started using a limited colour palette - yellow oxide, burnt sienna, burnt umber and ultramarine blue.

After mixing some of the colours to find out what they can do, we started sketching out our landscape.

I took several photos along to class, unsure which one would be best. Our teacher chose one that wouldn't have been my first choice, but it was interesting to learn why he would choose that one over others.

After sketching, we added a thin wash of acrylic mixed with water to start blocking in the colours in an underpainting.

I managed to cover the canvas in the class, but I can already see where the next layer of paint needs to go. Can't wait until next week to get to work on this.

Self-portraits

2011-03-09T18:13:00.000+11:00

As there is a student exhibition coming up with the theme of 'Identity' we are working on self portraits in almost every subject. Today we worked on self portraits in Ceramics and Drawing.

For ceramics we worked on a flat piece of clay, building it up to create a realistic looking self portrait.

Looks a bit like a death mask if you ask me - and I wasn't able to put my glasses on ( a bit hard to do that at this stage) so it looks a bit like me but it doesn't!

In Drawing, it was ink self portraits. I did them but I can't say they were my favourite thing to do. We have to have 8 of them ready for end of semester, so I'll have to do some more at home.

I really like the last one (bottom row, right), but the effect doesn't really show up via the camera. Some of the ones done by others in the class were really effective.

Off on an excursion tomorrow to view some aboriginal art, which should be really interesting.

Garden surprise

2011-03-06T18:07:00.000+11:00

Today my step mother turned up with a surprise for me...

... some beautiful hydrangeas to plant in my garden.

We have been talking about what to plant in the front of our house for quite a while. I am not the best gardener - I like spring bulbs because you plant them and forget them - but I do love hydrangeas. My grandmother's neighbour had two of the most beautiful bushes of them in her front garden. I used to visit there every weekend and loved to see the flowers in bloom. My front garden faces south, so it is hard to choose what to put in the small garden beds near the house. I decided, with some help, that I would like to plant hydrangeas... one day!

But today, my step mother brought these two white hydrangeas for me and we planted them!!! woo hoo!!! Apparently the flowers will go pink/purple as they age. Can't wait to see if they do. Now I just have to keep them alive!! And fix the other garden bed that is clay - the thickest hardest to dig clay there is. I want to fix that bed so I can plant another couple of hydrangeas!

Budding artist

2011-03-06T18:00:00.000+11:00

My daughter decided to get creative this morning, on her own, without help from mum, very rare indeed! She is left-handed and she feels quite negative sometimes about her own abilities - which she doesn't need to feel - especially her writing and drawing. I was thrilled to see her creating and just having a go without thinking about it so much.

She is into Garfield right now, reading the comics all the time. It is the book of choice to take to school.

So she decided to make her own Garfield...

She told her teacher she wants to be an artist like mum... and she has told me that I don't need to go to art school because my paintings are perfect the way they are. My daughter knows how to make me feel good (and she also knows which buttons to press when she doesn't want to have to go to before and after care at school - she wants me to stay at home and be there just for her! lol)

Tonal Painting - finished

2011-03-04T18:08:00.001+11:00

Today we completed the tonal painting. It was a good experience working with the black and white paint to create this painting.

I like the way the acrylic paint mixed with water went onto the canvas. I was able to leave some of that underpainting in the shadows and the background which I'm happy about.

It is not perfect - there are many things I could still change or add to, but I had to stop somewhere. It is going to be interesting to apply this to the limited colour palette we are going to work on next.

So, I have completed my first acrylic painting - putting paint onto canvas wasn't so scary after all .

I Love Wednesdays - Drawing & Ceramics class

2011-03-02T18:02:00.000+11:00

I have had the best day at school today! With both Ceramics and Drawing on the same day, it is full on but a lot of fun.

First up in Ceramics, we found out we are doing a self-portrait (surprise, surprise, considering we have to do one in almost every subject). Next week we have to take in a photo to work from or a mirror and create a flat portrait onto which we add clay to build it up. We bought some paper clay today and had a practice. This is my result - not a self portrait at this stage, just a chance to try out the techniques.

I love the way you can exaggerate the features and just play and get your hands dirty. Can't wait for next week now as it will be a challenge to actually try and make it look like a real face rather than one out of my head.

In Drawing today, we worked on ink landscapes. We used an A2 sheet of watercolour paper, and using masking tape, split the sheet up into nine smaller panels. In each panel we were to create a landscape just using lines and textures/shapes, no buildings or structures.

Now, I really didn't get it when I was learning watercolours - I just didn't like painting landscapes. But I can now say a big thank you to my tutor at BACG, Dawn, for teaching me the basics on how to use water medium. I had a blast. When it is reduced to just using lines and sponge and shapes, making a landscape seems so much easier - no pressure.

(The picture wasn't sitting flat when I took this picture, so sorry for the curves at the edges!).

I can see I'm still a bit tentative about my darks, but these are a great improvement on the watercolour landscapes I did last year - and these were out of my head, not a photograph! My tutor only made positive comments in her critique of my work. She liked how I had left the white paper for my light areas instead of colouring it in. One of the other students did some really moody pieces that were fantastic - he knows how to use the darks really well.

I'm going to have to continue to play with ink.

And I think Wednesday is going to become my favourite day of the week!

Tonal Painting

2011-02-25T20:19:00.000+11:00

Painting today. I haven't really done much painting - with paint that is, not pastels - except with K. and they were usually simplistic, silly paintings just for fun for her. So even though we are just working with black and white paint, it is a lot of fun.

This is the sketch I started with, drawn from life from a set up in the class room. It feels strange to sketch with paint, very different from sketching with pencil or chalk.

This was the result after about 1 hour of class time. Still a lot more to do but it is starting to look interesting. We used thinner washes (acrylic mixed with water) to start the underpainting. And I am really happy with the background.

I have started to go back and add some stronger contrasts, which I think will improve this no end. We were also shown how to blend colours, which I have experimented with on the two smaller bottles. The pumpkin in the platter looks more like a Christmas pudding at this stage, but then I haven't done that much with it yet.

The aim is to finish this in class next week, but I may have a play over the weekend and see what I can do.

Excursion time - The First Emperor: Chinese Entombed Warriors

2011-02-23T20:43:00.000+11:00

I went to the Art Gallery of NSW today. I haven't been there in a while, in fact, since the last exhibition I attended. But this time it was on an excursion with my visual arts course.

(I don't know if you can see it clearly here, but the Queen Mary 2 is docked in the background, and it seems to be almost as tall as the Art gallery and the hill it sits upon!!)

I can't believe how many people were in those small exhibition rooms together, and how quiet they all were! The exhibition is full of some very beautiful artifacts, and it was amazing to see the warriors in real life. They are set up so you can see them without having to look through glass, which makes the detail so much easier to see.

We were there with our ceramics and drawing teachers, mostly to look at the ceramic decoration so we can apply some of the ideas to our work back in the classroom, but we will also have to write a review of the exhibition for art history.

After 1.5 - 2 hours in the exhibit we took a break in the Domain for lunch. I would love to have spent longer in the exhibition but we were shoulder to shoulder in there so it was good to get out. I love the area around the Art Gallery, with all the Moreton Bay Fig Trees. They grow into such amazing shapes, with wide spreading boughs.

After lunch we strolled around a couple of other free exhibitions - a painter, a sculptor and some Asian ceramics. None of them were quite as eye-catching as the Chinese warriors but it was great to walk around with our tutors and learn about the works.

We headed back towards Hyde Park around 2pm and had a drink in the park watching the chess game behind St James Station, surrounded by hungry pigeons, sea gulls and ibis'.

It was a really good day, and I can't wait for the next excursion!

Monoprints

2011-02-17T18:04:00.002+11:00

The first two weeks of Printmaking class have been fun as we have been making monoprints. Onto a small piece of acetate we rolled black ink. We then used the ends of brushes, rags, cotton buds to remove the ink to create prints onto paper.

The first weeks prints ( which were really just finding out how to make the monoprints) I haven't photographed yet, but this week I have. Please excuse the quality of the photos, but I quickly snapped them while the prints were on the drying rack. I'll take better pics once they are dry.

Print#1

Print#1 ghost

Print#2

Print#2 ghost

Print#3

Print#3 ghost

Print #4

Print #4 ghost

Print #5

Print #5 ghost

Each print was created and then run through the press for the first print and then run through again (with less ink this time) to get the ghost print. Sometimes the ghost worked out better than the original print.

I found that I prefer the ones that are not so defined, that haven't got definite lines. These were created using cotton tips and rags to wipe away the ink on the acetate. The colour one didn't work as the red/orange was the wrong colour for this print.

My favourite is #3 and then #1. The theme for the work today was self-portrait, but it didn't have to be a portrait of a face but rather something that was a story of self if we wanted. (My instructor also liked #3, which was really nice).

Printmaking is the opposite of the kind of work I do with pastels, which is usually quite detailed and precise in some ways. You can't be precise with monoprints - I think that is why I like it so much.

New work from Visual Arts course

2011-02-16T23:09:00.000+11:00

Finally getting a chance to post some of the work I am doing in my visual arts course. We are still in the introductory phase, being given lists of materials, so we have just done some basic work.

Today was Drawing and Ceramics. In Drawing we played with ink - using sticks, brushes, leaves and anything else we could find to make marks on the paper and get to know what different tools can create on the page.

I completed three A2 drawings, this one being my favourite. I loved the effect that spraying water had on the ink.

And in Ceramics, after discussions regarding the guidelines and materials, we were given some clay to play with.

I've been wanting to see if I could create a face out of a slab of clay for a while so decided to try that today. I added a hook on the back so if it survives firing it will hang on the wall. I didn't have any tools, so didn't really get it the way I would like but I quite like the roughness/imperfection of this piece.

New Direction...

2011-02-10T20:59:00.000+11:00

I have just started a Certificate IV in Visual Arts and Contemporary Craft through TAFE. I wasn't expecting to do it this year. I decided not to apply back in October as I was going through some health issues that I wasn't sure of the outcome at that time. About a week ago I found out that there might be a place left in the year long course, but when I contacted TAFE was told that I would go onto a waiting list.

Yesterday morning I was phoned to ask if I was still interested as someone had pulled out of the course. I was phoned at 8.30am. Orientation started at 9.30am about 20 minutes drive away. I still had to drop my daughter at school in the meantime. I had to decide to change my life, and my family's life, for a year in a very short time.

I ummed and aahed. I had to work out child care arrangements for before and after school. I had to work out how to afford it all. I kept thinking of reasons not to do it instead of looking for reasons to do the course.

I chose to phone a friend. A very good friend. She said 'GO!!!' She cut through the chaff as I knew she would. I needed to hear that. Everyone needs a friend like her.

I made it to orientation 40 minutes late, but late is better than not at all. Better than sitting at home regretting the decision not to do the course. And today I started Art History and Printmaking. Tomorrow is Photography and Painting.

It is going to be a challenge. But that's not a negative!

I am going to feel guilty about leaving my daughter in care - I feel great sympathy for those mums who have to leave their kids in care for the week while they go to work. But as she is an only child, the interaction with other kids for a morning and afternoon will be good for her.

I am going to feel nervous about new techniques and media. But I'm looking forward to it too.

I am going to have fun.

Pottery - Handbag vase

2011-02-04T14:27:00.002+11:00

Went to pottery today - different class, different teacher. I think with each new teacher I go to I will learn something new, something different, not necessarily something better, but it will be something I need to know. I learnt what not to do when making pottery from the pelican process, as well as some really great skills in how to create it.

Today I made a handbag. I've had the idea stewing away in my brain for a while now, and in 2 hours this morning I made it.

I'll finish it next Friday. Not sure if I'll paint it or just glaze it - something to think about.

It is made using paper clay - thank heaven for paper clay! The pelican that cracked was made using raku clay, which I had to use as the class was out of stock of other clay. I don't want to use that again.

This was a lot of fun to make. My own design, no set plan, just see how it comes together. It made me feel happy to see it come together. I like that feeling. I need to play with clay more often!

And we are going to try and save the pelican. There is a cement that I can use to fix up the cracks before firing the piece. So fingers crossed the cement works and I will have a slightly cracked pelican in the backyard before too long. It will suit the slightly cracked household it will reside in!

Daffodils - Pastel Painting

2011-02-03T21:26:00.001+11:00

I have made a few minor adjustments to this to finish it off. Having left this for a month it was good to revisit it and see what needed to be changed.

I'm still not completely happy with the background - and the changes can't be seen in this photo. But there is only so much tweaking that can be done.