Wet on wet in oils

It seems the painting mojo has returned and I've been up in the studio playing the last two days.  In a bid to change my style of painting and try something new, I've been watching some tutorials on youtube.  It looks SO easy but it's so hard.  Having painted previously in stages, waiting for each layer to dry, working out how to paint well using the wet on wet technique without muddying the paint is proving a challenge.  The following two paintings were both done in one sitting.  I know this is not my best work but I hope to improve in time using this new to me technique.  I figure the more I paint and stop trying to be a perfectionist, the more I will relax and my own style will develop.  It's scary putting my stuff out there when it's a big of a dogs breakfast in my opinion, but I'm trying to be brave.

Anne  xx

Studio progress

Hi everyone.  Things are getting very exciting now as the studio is nearer to completion.  When I say completion what I mean is that the inside will be ready enough for my craft things to be moved inside.  There will still be plenty of things to finish off inside but at least I will then have a vacant room inside the house which will become our guest room and that will be ready for when Mum visits us soon.

So the work that has been done since I last posted was the completion of the interior walls being installed, primed and one top coat has gone on.  The electrics have been completed and I now have power and lights.  :)  The architraves have been installed around the windows which I painted this morning with the first top coat.  The interior is painted in a very light colour so there is as much reflected light as possible.  If anyone is thinking it's going to look stark, just wait until you see how much colour there is going to be in there when I've finished adding my bits and pieces.  We pick up the flooring Tuesday and it will possibly be laid that day.  Hubby is continuing to work on cutting scotia to cover wall joins and yesterday I undercoated about 14 join cover straps.  So we have been very busy.  Here are some photos of our work.

Applying undercoat to the interior walls which are plywood.  I used a brush because it was hard to push paint into the grain of the wood with a roller.  I graduated to a roller when applying the first topcoat.

I had Sophie for company for a little while until she started moving around and I was afraid she would knock over the paint.

  

East facing window with architraves installed and first topcoat applied.  You can see the first topcoat has been applied to the walls too.  All those joins will be covered by cover straps.

North facing window which is going to need a very good clean.

Looking south east.  Notice the CD player.  Painting is much more fun when you are listening to Elton John's Yellow Brick Road album belting out at full volume.

Hubby working on cutting the scotia.  You can see all the cover strips I painted yesterday in the left of the photo.

Starting to look better.  There will be a small landing and steps leading down from the doorway but that will take some time yet.

So that's how it's looking at the moment.  More to come soon.

Take care everyone,

Anne  xx

Special treats

Last week I was off at the hairdressers to get my unruly locks tended to.  Having my hair done is a treat in itself as not only is my hairdresser a good friend, she also does a fantastic job.  I have to travel a little way to get to her but that doesn't bother me too much as not far from her is a Spotlight and a Bunnings store.  I went to Spotlight looking for a particular item which I found out they didn't stock but what I did come home with was this.

The most beautiful quilted coverlet and two pillow shams.  I love the colours and patterns, so appealing to the boho side of me.  The most amazing thing about this purchase was the price which was reduced by $100 so I paid $60 for the coverlet.  Bargain.  I couldn't purchase the fabric for that price.

I recently purchased some books from the Book Depository with money Mum sent me for my birthday.  I chose arty crafty books.  One is about making your own stamps and the the other two are books about creative lettering and mixed media art to help me with ideas for art journaling.

   

There is plenty to keep me busy in these books.

Work on the studio is continuing with hubby working on the roof and roof insulation.  Yesterday I continued painting the outside with the help of my niece.  The last couple of months my niece who is training to be a paramedic has been visiting us and we have been spending crafty days together.  We have so many interests in common and it is a joy to be spending time with her.  She stayed overnight Friday so we had more time with her which was lovely.  She made us the most amazing pecan and coconut slice which is delicious and perfect to have with morning coffee.  

Today it's raining so work outside has stopped and to be honest hubby and I are a bit weary and a quieter day is probably a good thing.

Have a fabulous week.

Anne  xx

Sunday

Hubby and I decided that we would have a day out on Sunday to visit a photographic exhibition and a vineyard with a display of sculptures.  Both places we were visiting were on the Mornington Peninsula which is one of my favourite places to visit and relatively close to home.

Our first stop was the Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery to see '49 Sheds', an exhibition of 49 photos of sheds from across rural Australia by Monash University lecturer and architect Ross Brewin.

 

  You can see an example of his work by going to this link.  Click on 49 sheds and scroll down to the bottom of the page.  We were interested to learn that in June/July this year, the Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery will be hosting the touring Archibald Prize for 2013 and 2014.  The Art Gallery of NSW chose them to be the sole Victorian host so we might head back down again then.   Information about the Archibald Prize can be found here.

Adjacent to the gallery is the Mornington Peninsula Botanical Rose garden planted with 5000 roses in a 1.6 hectare area of the Civic Reserve.  We had a wander around and enjoyed a sea of colour.

 
 It was quite difficult to get good photos as the garden is plonked right in the middle of a very busy urban area with ugly shops in the background and very little beauty elsewhere to use as a nice backdrop.  I did get this photo of a sculpture set in the garden which I thought was quite nice although it belies the fact that a very busy road runs right in front of those houses.

 Making our visit that much more enjoyable was we were able to visit another gallery adjacent to the rose garden.  The Oak Hill Gallery is a community arts co-operative, displaying works from local artists.  The gardens surrounding this little gallery set in an old house were very interesting, more dry climate foliage was growing and seemed to suit the area more than the roses.  I quite liked this display below, the play of the grey foliage against the colourful recycled bricks was aesthetically very pleasing to me.

I liked this sculpture too.  Very simple but somehow more sympathetic to the environment than the one in the rose garden.  The Oak Hill Gallery was in the house you can see in the background.

Inside the gallery itself was a nice variety of artwork from oils, acrylics, sketches etc.  The best display of work in my opinion was a series of nudes by local artist John Trebilco.  I had his permission to take the following photos of his work.  The interesting thing about these painting is they had been stored away for about 30 years, the work having been done when John was at Monash University.  The technique used for this artwork was to cover the canvas in linseed oil and then do a quick 5 minute painting by adding colour.  If I could do a painting like any of these in 5 minutes I would be very happy.

 

During storage a sheet of paper was placed between each painting and when they were rediscovered in the artists shed, he had the mirror image of the painting on the paper and then chose to hang the paintings with their mirror images.   I love the colours in these paintings.  The following two paintings were my favourites.

This portrait is rather lovely too and the photos gives you an idea of the mirror imaging.

I had intended to include photos of the sculpture at the vineyard but as this has turned into a longer post than I thought, I'll save those for another post.

Anne  xx

French clock

This is the clock that started it all.  A gorgeous old French clock spotted as we were walking around the old city of Gordes in France during our trip to Europe in May/June last year.  Hubby loved it and as we couldn't buy this one and ship it home, he decided to make one.

One of the things about my hubby is that when he plans a project, he does it really well.  I'm continually amazed at his ability to nut things out, research in great detail and then make and create.

The things needed for this project were steel, a welder, angle grinder, clock mechanism with hands, paint and lots of patience.  Hubby had to teach himself to weld, read copious tutorials and watched numerous you tube clips to help him out and then practice, practice, practice.

Here are some photos of how the clock came together.

The clock face metal was bent into a round shape by a work colleague of hubby's who had access to the appropriate tool.

Spacers added to keep the clock face and frame rigid.

Adding the Roman numerals which  were individually cut to shape.  Also the addition of metal  framing to mount the clock mechanism.

The clock sitting on the template.

Ready for painting.

The finished clock.  Isn't it wonderful?

Hubby making adjustment to how it is hanging on the wall.  My man is over 6 foot so you can get an idea of how big the clock actually is.

I am so proud of hubby, the work, time and creativity that has gone into the making of this clock.  I just love it and every time I go into this room I just have to smile.  I'd love to know what you think.

Anne xx

At it again

After spending some frustrated time yesterday trying to paint hands, I just couldn't let it alone, I had to have another go.  So I went back to the easel today and made some adjustments.

These look much more like hands to me. 

After working on the hands I decided it was time to start tackling the pattern on the lady's gown.  This really had me really apprehensive because I just didn't know how it was going to approach it, let alone wonder how it would turn out.  Here are my efforts so far.

 

 

A few splodges of colour here and there doesn't look too crash hot but when you stand back...it actually looks o.k.  

 

 

I had forgotten how much I love painting, time just disappeared today.

 

Anne xx

 

 

Highlights and plans

HAPPY NEW YEAR! 

 I hope everyone has had a lovely festive period and enjoyable New Year celebrations.

As I've been looking around blog land the past few days, I've noticed that many people in 2013 are focusing on being grateful and what is making them happy.  Some are posting once a week about four things that have/are making them happy.  Others are writing little notes about good things that happen and putting them in a jar to read at the end of the year.  Both of these ideas are lovely and my aim is to incorporate both of them into my life this year.

I suppose the end of the year and the beginning of a new one is a good time to look back and reflect, to look forward and plan.  There were three highlights in 2012 for me.  Our two month trip to Europe, turning 50 (yes it was a highlight) and our 25th wedding anniversary.

Traveling to Europe was fantastic...something I've always wanted to do and it didn't disappoint.  People ask me where was my favourite place or what was my favourite thing about our trip and I can honestly say that it was all good.  There were frustrating moments like when we received a parking fine in La Colle-sur-Loup and I had to wade my way through French bureaucracy, me with no French, them with no English.

 
There were scary moments, our first time driving in Paris,

finding ourselves on roads that were more like goat tracks than roads thanks to our GPS,

and some days when hubby and I were unwell,

Full of a head cold in Venice

  but we managed to get through those days without too much disruption to our plans.  I loved France, I loved Italy, although I found Rome overwhelming.  And I certainly loved Cornwall and Staffordshire.  A huge part of our experience was enjoying meeting people whether they were hosts at our accommodation or interacting with people in shops and restaurants.  But best of all was meeting Louise and Dave in Staffordshire, what a weekend we had with them!  We also were able to stay with relatives in Shrewsbury which was awesome.  Our favourite French person was Sami who was a night man at our accommodation in Paris.  We sat up at night for hours talking to him about language, politics and culture.

Turning 50, I guess that's a bit of a milestone and it's the best.  At 50 I know where I belong in the world, I'm  not the slightest bit bothered what other people think of me and I'm still young enough to have FUN!!  My kids think I'm crazy.

A 25th Wedding Anniversary...WOW!  Where have those years gone, the good, the stressful when I was sick with post natal depression and other bouts of depression, the raising of two beautiful girls who are now gorgeous young women.  I wouldn't change it for the world, perhaps I would give the depression a miss, but that in itself has shaped me to become (hopefully) a more compassionate and understanding person.

So what's ahead in 2013?  I wish for love, peace, happiness and good health.  I wish for the strength to cope with and support my family in what will possibly be a difficult year with my elderly Father's ailing health.

I plan for 2013 to be the year of walking the talk, to complete unfinished projects.   The hand pieced 20 year old quilt would be a good start.  Add to that the granny square rug for my bed,

and this painting.

This year I'd like to start hiking, become a better swimmer, improve my garden, learn more crochet skills, make all my own cards, sew something that actually fits me and paint, paint, paint.

I hope the year 2013 is a good one for you.  Let's all have a fabulous year together and last but not least, welcome to my new followers.  Thank you for taking an interest in my world.

Have a fabulous weekend,

Anne  xx