Your Summer, My Window

This is the second year in which I have called out for Summer themed artwork for my shop window in Glen Huntly. Here are some progress pictures of the works.

If you want to participate, my preference is for A3 size works; drawing, sketches, paintings and stories..yes, I am interested in short pieces of writing too. Contact me if you are interested on 0400444138

Thanks so far to those who have sent in their works:

Smuthi:- Love is Art, pencil and crayon on paper

Marc:- Gold Mad Max, acrylic on paper

Thomas:- Dinosaur at Sunset, acrylic on paper

Sam:- Carlo, Jervis Bay, oil on canvas

Rachel:- Summer Rain, words and photographs

Sophie: Sarsfield Fire Unit, oil and bushfire ash on paper

The Tigers' Almanac 2019

Artwork for the Tigers’ Almanac 2019 book cover. Click on the link to order your copy now. Books will be available after the 13th December 2019.

And, if you would like an archival reproduction print of the artwork above please visit my shop for details here on this site. Or you can contact me here

And here are some of of the studies done after game day…

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Hello to a New Year

Agh!! There’s been too much fun, and too much sun and so it has been a while since I last wrote.

2019 is in full swing and I am settling into a new working rythm. I lost a few weeks over Xmas with festivities and school holidays taking from me some precious painting hours.

During the holiday period I had a short break in Central Australia in early December. It was incredibly hot at around 43 degrees but with early starts to each day we still got around the various national parks.

And more recently, I spent a couple of weeks exploring the northern NSW coast. Between each of these destinations I have plenty of energy and fresh ideas to work on.

I am currently working up some recent sketches of Yamba into acrylic paintings on paper, and as of this week will try to begin some new Melbourne works for a show I am planning in May this year.

Also, I have been playing with the idea of the community art window in my shopfront studio. The first one was done over Christmas and I invited people to contribute works on paper to the hashtag Where on Earth is Santa? It proved to be a lot of fun to organise and it would seem appreciated by the passing public… evidenced by the sticky fingerprints on the window each day.

My Melbourne sketchbook continues on instagram where I post sketches of Melbourne daily life. These are observations I gather from the walking that I do.

I’ll be back in a week or so with another update.

My work Sunday Morning, Centre Rd was done with the Glen Eira Artists Society as part of the annual Cityscape en plein air painting day. I did a digital drawing which I printed onto art paper and extended the image with acrylic paint. My artwork came second in the People’s Choice award and was also bought by the local MP. Many thanks to all.

Community Art Window #whereonearthissanta

The Sea Wall…Work in progress

Looking at Glen Huntly; Work in Progress

Open Studio This Saturday 9/9/2017, along with the Glen Huntly Village Street Market 10am - 2pm

It has been a busy few months and I have gradually been producing some new pieces of work.

I am currently working on my Melbourne paintings, as well as following the Tigers with some smaller A3 works (I will write about these in a separate post) and trying to slot in a few commissions here and there.

With my studio located about 14 km out of Melbournes CBD in the suburb of Glen Huntly, I am working with the local environment as my source of motivation to create. I started with my Melbourne works ten years ago looking at some of Melbourne's more iconic places. More recently have confined my subject to the street life within the Glen Eira municipality. 

I began with some of the urban portraits I did of local people with at work, kids coming home from school and some of the local tradesmen I was acquainted with. This year I have zoomed out a bit and have been looking for everyday moments, vignettes of fleeting transactions between the people on our streets.

I am finding this is a great way to work and in having a studio right on a main road, in a shopping strip, I need only to step outside and take a wander in order to find my subjects, ideas and inspiration.

I have lived in this area for almost 20 years and I am seeing a constant shift and evolution in the way my suburb looks, lives and behaves.

The suburb has seen some big changes with the demolition of large homes giving way to apartment blocks. This of course, not being anything new; a short stroll through the streets will show you that such development clearly took place back in the late 1950's and 1960's.

Like many suburbs within a 15 Km radius of the city, Glen Huntly (and the neighbouring suburb of Carnegie) is loosing the classic family homes that once characterised the suburb. Large Californian Bungalows and Edwardian homes along with their sizeable backyards are literally disappearing from our streetscape. More people are living in smaller homes, apartments or flats and often with little outdoor space. 

And so I find it really interesting to watch and observe the rich cultural variety of day to day life that unfolds upon the pavements and footpaths of the suburb.

My perspective is often from my drivers side seat as I sit out the often protracted time spent with the boom gates down at the Glen Huntly Rd. level crossing, as well as that of a pedestrian and a local resident.

You can follow some of these ideas and sketches as I develop them into paintings on my Instagram site..  lookatmelbourne

I recently read an article describing Glen Huntly as grotty and sleepy. Yes, it certainly needs cleaning up in places but I do challenge the notion that perhaps our suburb has little to offer.

If you would like to share your thoughts on our suburb Glen Huntly please do...with respect, naturally, leave a comment, memory or  opinion.

Doggies Paintings 2017

I drew my first footballer way back in my teen years.

It was of one of my younger brothers playing a game on his own in the backyard.

Our back yard was a few blocks from Windy Hill. My brother commentated as he kicked, and he roared as though there was a crowd of 99,000. Of, course there was not. Not even at Windy Hill, was there ever a crowd of 99,000.

There was only me, with pen and paper in hand. I was keen to see if I could draw a moving figure. And so I tried.

Since then I have explored footy as a subject through my art and through my painting.

These paintings form part of a collection of work that I have done since the start of the 2016 finals. It is the first time I have used a grand final as a theme to inspire my work. The Doggies win against the Swans was an uplifting experience for all; not just mad keen footy fans, but for those too, who claim proudly to 'know nothing about footy'.

From the depths of despair at having such a long span between the glory of only one ever premiership cup, the anticipation of having reached finals and the unlikely chance of charging up through the final series to make it to the big day, was...well, such an unlikely story.

Being a tiger fan, I was able to take it in, unencumbered, from the periphery, going into to the city on the night of the Hawthorn final to sketch the grandiose stream of people walking to the G, anticipating all the possibilities of the Sydney/GWS trek, absorbing the atmosphere of the red, blue and white Scray landscape in the days before the granny, to the finality and joy of the big day.

These paintings focus on the footy family, any family, any nationality, any age, any gender, the concern and the weight of possibilities as they charge forth to the final game of the season. 

My families are portrayed at the station, waiting and wondering and hoping the win will be theirs only.

And with this long awaited premiership victory, there came the drenching sense of joy. To me the intensity of those feelings is perhaps, at a contained peak upon the drive home for those who attend any such sporting game and for those supporters in the days, weeks…...and sometimes months, afterwards.

The statement made by hanging ones' team scarf out the car window, is the one simple gesture that epitomises a sporting celebration and for the Western Bulldog fans, the grand celebration that was the 2016 season.

New Life; Easter update

I was away for a little while last month and came home to find my maiden hair ferns dead. I forgot to ask the boys upstairs to water them.

Over the last two weeks I have removed all the brown, dried up foliage and pepped them up with plant food from Safeway in the hope they will resurrect. I had all but given up on them until yesterday morning when I finally spotted one tiny piece of verdant foliage beginning to unfurl. Yay.

This morning I checked again. There are now two new shoots making an appearance..in one pot only. None in the other yet. They have been sprinkled generously with water and are sitting under the eaves of the falling down veranda out the back of the studio.

new growth March 2016

It has also been quite a while since I have either written anything, either here or on my Drawing Life blog www.drawinglife.me. Writing feels clunky when you don't do it regularly.

It has also been ages since I have gotten into a painting. I had tidied up my commissions before Christmas, had a big Christmas Day and a beach holiday up north, then got the youngest two back to school and then away again to catch my husband and son in America. It was my first trip to the United States.

Bryant Park 2016 KB

So, I am finally back putting paint on canvas and thinking about the sort of paintings I want to do this year. With Art Town 2016 coming up, I have given some thought and done a few preparatory sketches. The rest can now wait until April 2, 3, 9 & 10 when the live art weekends will take place. Following that the plan is to continue with still life work and the urban portraits.

One of the commissions I did last year was for a book cover. The brief was that it had to encompass sport in the form of footy, cricket, golf and horse racing. The artwork was oil on canvas and 100cm high by 76cm wide.

Let me know if you would like a copy of the book.

I am still posting some sketches and watercolours on Instagram...@ Look at Melbourne

And on Facebook you will find some in progress pics from the studio.

Got to go...Easter liturgy at school followed by a cake stall.

May there be abundant blessings for peace among all, new growth for the maiden hair and that the tigers remain strong and bold for 2016.

 #GOTIGES

Lots Happening...

Busyiness all round!@ 

Fortunately the cold winter air has taken off, for now, and has finally been replaced with something that resembles spring, and even summer.

Painting continues to slot itself in between the odd gaps between the various school runs, sporting commitments, doctors visits, VCE stuff, meals, meetings, dealing with teenager stuff and dealing with overcrowded inboxes....and sleep.

Fortunately, I have found other ways to create when it gets this busy.

I wanted to paint something on Richmonds loss in the first final. I will do something bigger, but in the meantime, I did a small reflective piece, a week or two after the event. The ideas cured for a little bit until I finally decided upon the best view of that day. I ended up doing a small acrylic piece on canvas paper titled Richmond Fans; After the Game.

I also put some words with it and contributed it to the Footy Almanac.

The piece is titled That Day and you can find it

And recently.... here is a link to an interview I did with Andy Fuller on his Sports and Culture website Reading Sideways