I started this painting last year, actually about 18 months ago. I have a lot of paintings that I start and then put aside to work on a commission painting, for example, which often ignites another idea that I go on to paint, and then abandon it to start another painting and so on. This is ridiculous, I’ve told myself, and have set a goal to start finishing incomplete paintings. The problem is that the way I paint is always evolving and changing. I have a changing style. I can’t remember the technique/s I used to get certain effects or some of the colours I mixed together, or I just paint differently now. Does this happen to anyone else??
Close up of my wing detail
Note to self… finish a painting before you start another, before your style changes again.
I briefly saw the blood moon, the longest lunar eclipse of the 21st century, on my drive to the market this morning. It looked quite small from where I was seeing it. I had planned to take a photo of it but didn’t because I thought it would look rather insignificant taking it just with my phone.
It was a warm and clear blue sky day at the market today. Quite a few stall holders were away enjoying a holiday, and so were many visitors, enjoying a Tasmanian holiday, including a few people from Launceston, the north of the state. A mother, visiting from Brisbane, bought a whale print of ‘Weightless’ to take back and give to her twelve year old daughter.
Weightless
‘Beachside Chatter’ was purchased as a gift for a niece. ‘Helping Hands’ is going to a mother, and a dog sitter this weekend, who lives in Melbourne. She has a bird feeder and Superb-fairy wrens regularly visit her back garden.
Beachside ChatterHelping Hands
A ‘Salamanca Saturdays’ tote bag was bought for a well-travelled sister, who lives in Sydney. Salamanca Market is her favourite market.
Salamanca Saturdays Tote Bag (made in Australia)
A lady from North Carolina, USA bought the Tasmanian series: ‘Retail Therapy, Salamanca’, ‘Salamanca Fresh’ and ‘Richmond Bridge, Tasmania’. A retired teacher, from South Australia, purchased an original painting of a Yellow-tailed black cockatoo and a couple owl prints.
A couple from NSW purchased a few platypus paintings to hang up in a cottage on their property. They asked for them to be framed. They said that their adult son loves platypus and they laughingly said that they will write on the backs of the framed pictures that they are for him when they die.
The whale prints and original platypus paintings were the most popular this weekend.
A thought to ponder: “Tell your own story, and you will be interesting”,Louise Bourgeois
Wishing you a creatively happy week, from the Pjpaintings stall #30 at Salamanca Market.
I’ve just arrived back home from an awesome and fun five-girlfriend weekend away, staying at one of my girlfriends’ shack in Orford on the east coast of Tasmania.
A view from the shack. (I didn’t take the photo from the exact same spot that I did the quick sketch).
We walked along the track at the back of the shack which led to a stunning beach.
Along the way we somberly paused at sheer quarry walls that convicts, living on Maria Island, were brought across the water to quarry. It must have been brutal work and lives lost at the site. The sandstone quarried here was used for buildings in Hobart and Melbourne, including the Melbourne General Post Office, Town Hall and Melbourne Law Courts. The quarry operated in the area from 1870 to 1890. The remains of the tram lines used to transport stone from the quarry to be loaded onto ships are still visible at Shelly Beach.
a view from the walkAlong the track, information posted about the whales that visit the region. More whale species for me to paint! 🙂
In the evening, we stayed up late, talking, reminiscing and laughing over dinner and a glass of wine. In the morning, we walked The Old Convict Road.
We wandered through remnants of a harsh existence for the convicts building the Convict Road.
Sarah trying out the convict cell. The doors of the row of convict cells alternated on opposite sides.It was later decided that the other side of the Prosser River was the better side to have the road. All of the brutal work and working conditions to no avail.Beautiful lichen patterns on rocks along the Convict Road.
We had one final piece of Liz’s to-die-for flourless chocolate and hazelnut cake and then parted ways.
Hobart’s winter festival of Dark Mofo, created and funded by self-made multi-millionaire, David Walsh, and the Hobart City Council, came to a close, ushering in the Festival of Voices. David Walsh is the founder of the Museum of Old and New Art (MONA) and single-handily put Tasmania on the map and increased the state’s tourism.
Each year, a massive sculpture for Dark Mofo is created, to make a large fear-jar, so-to-speak, for people to write and deposit their fears into. This year’s sculpture was a huge spider. People’s fears were collected and stored in the spider’s egg sacks.
A large fear-jar
With much-a-do, music, dance and costumes, a procession walks the sculpture, and the fears of Hobart, down the city streets for it to be annihilated by fire.
I found it to be quite powerful imagery, and the act of articulating your fears then witnessing the burning of it, gone, ka-poot, liberating. The ball of fire was enormous when the spider caught fire. Here’s a couple of photos of the spider’s web and egg pouches burning.
I like Salvador Dali’s gem of wisdom, “have no fear of perfection, you’ll never reach it.”
Soledad O’Brien is quoted saying that “I’ve learned that fear limits you and your vision. It serves as blinders to what may be just a few steps down the road for you. The journey is valuable, but believing in your talents, your abilities, and your self-worth can empower you to walk down an even brighter path. Transforming fear into freedom – how great is that?”
On that note, here’s to fear-burning, whatever the fear/s may be.
It was somewhat difficult to enthusiastically approach today with the bleak weather forecast of rain and strong winds but it turned out to be much better than what was predicted. There were short bursts of rain and light winds but nothing severe. I think the weather forecast put many stall holders off because there were a lot of empty sites today.
Despite the poor weather forecast, there were a lot of people about, maybe because Hobart is hosting the Festival of Voices? One of the first visitors was a young couple, she was from Brazil, and he, from Germany. I had to pass on my condolences for the World Cup Football (soccer) as Belgium defeated Brazil. I overheard three women speaking French while they were looking at my art. They were visiting from Quebec, Canada, so I took the opportunity to give my French a short workout.
I met a lovely lady from Ballarat, who also participated in the 30x30directwatercolour Facebook challenge, and her daughter-in-law, who lives in Hobart, originally from Lithuania. We decided that we have the love of urban sketching in common. Urban sketching is rather new to me. Here’s one of my most current sketches. I’m not sure what to do with the tree in the extreme foreground, so I’ve just left it blank for the time being.
A family from Sydney, whose son plays the saxophone in the Sydney Youth Orchestra, purchased a ‘Black & White + One’ print for his music teacher or conductor. I can’t remember which one.
Black & white + One (the red is a much brighter red than in this photo). I collaged the background with bits of sheet music and treble clefs and then applied three coats of water colour to achieve a rich red background.
A senior lady, from Launceston, Tasmania, bought a ‘Glamour Girls’ print for a member of their “Hens’ Group”. They have been meeting fortnightly for 56 years now! She said that she was the young one and she is in her 80s. Another ‘Glamour Girls’, along with an ‘Outback Glamping’ print, is heading to Victoria, and another ‘Glamour Girls’ print is going to Sydney. The original Glamour Girls painting is going to Jakarta, Indonesia. It was bought at the very end of the day, in the midst of packing up.
Glamour Girls I
A lady bought prints for her two friends’ 50th birthday. ‘Poppy Fields’ is for a friend living in Hong Kong and ‘Glamour Girls’ for her friend living in Australia. A ‘White Faced Scops Owls’ print is journeying to the Sunshine Coast, Queensland. The organiser of the New Zealand and Australia Health Educators Conference in Hobart stopped by too. She said that she was too exhausted to go sight-seeing. She bought a small print to take back with her.
Poppy Fields
Often children are given a few dollars to spend at the market. I thought it would be nice to have something available in the small-change price range. I was able to source stickers and debuted them today. Some children bought them.
stickers
Tote bags arrived during the week and they went quickly again.
One of the tote bags with my painting of Scarlet Robins
This week’s most popular print was ‘Glamour Girls’.
Glamour Girls (I’ve put one in foils in this painting)
A thought to ponder: “The desire to create is one of the deepest yearnings of the human soul.” ― Dieter Uchtdorf
Wishing you a creative and happy week,
from the Pjpaintings stall #30 at Salamanca Market.
Surprisingly, I finished the June challenge of producing a daily paint-only painting. I was doubtful that I would be able to go the distance, but I did!
Here are my final paintings:
On June 26, I painted another echidna. It’s the biggest echidna out of the echidnas that I painted (painted on a 20 x 20 cm paper made 100% from recycled cotton rags).
A hungry echidna
Next, I painted a platypus diving into cool, refreshing Tasmanian water.
Platypus diving session
On Day 28, I quickly painted a kangaroo and joey.
I’m watching you!
On day 29, feeling buoyed by what I have been able to paint without using a single pencil mark, I thought I would tackle the BooBook Owl, an owl that I have been wanting to paint for a long time.
Southern Boobook Owl
On June 30th, the final day of the 30 x 30 challenge, I tried the Boobook owl again. I didn’t quite finish it, but I think I did enough for it to count as my final painting of the challenge.
A Boobook pose
So, what did I learn from this challenge? Well, I can no longer use “I forgot my pencil” as an excuse to not paint!
One benefit of participating in these types of challenges for me, is that I always paint something I’ve never painted before. I get quite desperate trying to find things I can paint quickly to meet the quota. This challenge’s newbies were bees and an octopus. I have had an unsuccessful attempt with an echidna prior to this challenge, so echidnas were a winner also, and falls into the new category for me.
I’m surprised that I could paint as many things as I did using no pencil. From my understanding, the premise of direct watercolour painting is to assist in producing ‘loose’ paintings. Without a few pencil guidelines, I found myself concentrating and giving more thought of where to put the paintbrush on the paper each time. It impacted my painting choices and my looseness. I think I paint looser when there are a few pencil lines to inform me.
All in all, in was a great experience and I loved seeing the posts of the amazing direct watercolour paintings from the participants in the #30x30directwatercolor2018 challenge.
The Unfurling Artist: journalising creative journeying 