A New Beginning

I have had to face up to some facts this week.  My shoulder has got so bad that I am unable to lift my arm much, and painting large canvases is not helping, in fact causing much of the discomfort.  So I am going to do what the physio suggests and lay off painting large.  I may get back to it, I don’t know, we will see.

So this week I have been doing small watercolours and journal pages.  With small scale I can rest my arm on the desk, so all’s good.  I got brave yesterday and decided to redo my picture of Caro on A3 card with a layer gesso.  It worked! No pain as I was able to do it flat on the table, got a bit covered in paint, but loved that.  I used acrylics, gouache and watercolours.  I added the text in Photoshop as the top corner looked empty, will think about it before adding it to original.

I was on a roll, and decided to do a portrait of my sister’s granddaughter Kendal for her birthday.  It was about A4 size on rough watercolour paper.  I did the background first and then drew Kendal and then painted over the drawing with gesso, and then used watercolour to paint her in, the pencil lines of the drawing showed through a little bit, so I found it helpful when it came to painting her.  I know it is not proper water colour techniques, but what the heck, it works!

I am not sure that it is finished yet, so will brood on it for a couple of days before posting it to my sister.

As I am talking about family the other thing I am working on is an art piece for my brother’s wedding anniversary latter this year.  It is digital and I have used photos that he has sent me since he has come back into the family fold.  Although I did use an image from freubels-freebies, you can see it in the background slightly.  The lady on the bike is a reference to the fact that Dave and Liz were bikies and spent their honey moon on Harleys touring Aussie.  This is extra special to me as Liz had breast cancer and it has just returned, so sad.  I want to add text but need to find a quote that suits.

So overall a successful week, a new beginning doing smaller works, sometimes we have to let go.

Just a reminder to anyone who journals about their faith, I have a new weekly linkup - Journal inFaith - on my Stand on Faith blog.  You are welcome to take part.

Have a happy Paint Party Friday 

Linked to Paint Party Friday

Passion Fruit

At the Artist’s Play Room this week the theme is colour combinations.  I chose purple and yellow – purplow.

Actually this is a continuation of last week’s theme.  I was going to do passion fruit as it is my favourite fruit, but I got bogged down in problems. It was hard to get the yellows right without looking muddy!  I had several attempts. See below.

 

This one I felt I had got the whole passion fruit too smooth, wee...ll, it doesn’t look right to me, and the half the yellow is very muddy.  .  I know I am being a perfectionist!  Actually it looks better here than in real life?

This one is actually my favourite out of all the attempts, it has a more natural feel to it and slightly abstract.

 

If like me you love passion fruit and fruit in general, go to and see what my digital playtime with some photos of passion fruit, figs and grapes from my garden, here.

I tell you one thing, out of the 12 passion fruits I harvested last week I have only one left, and that probably won’t last the day!

Happy APR and Jen if you are reading these posts, get well, look after yourself and you are in my prayers.

Hollyhocks

 

For my entry for Diana Evan's 10Minute Warn Up today I have a watercolour of a hollyhock from my garden.  I thought that they had died, but with the recent rain they have spurted back into life.  As it is still hot everything has gone crazy, you would think it was spring instead of autumn.

This picture today is much more successful than yesterday’s, as I haven’t overworked it!  Although I think I went a bit overboard on the magenta in the flower centers, on the other hand it might be what brings the picture into life!.  I timed myself today too!  12 concentrated minutes and 5 minutes later on when paint dried, to add a touch here and there, so 17 minutes.  Mind you they are small, above is the actual size, nowhere to hide, lol!!

Blossom in Autumn!

I always like to challenge myself.  One of the hardest things to do is paint white.  Well I find it hard, lol.  So for my 10 Minute Warm Up at Diana Evans link up is painting white blossom.  Yeah, I know it is autumn here.  But I have actually got blossom on my apple trees!  I think it is because we have had a drought and it finally rained last week.  The trees have got confused.  I can see I was a bit heavy handed in some of the shadow areas, but overall I am pleased.  What would we do without Paynes Grey!

Thanks Diana for getting me to get my little watercolour sketch pad out.