Australiana Greeting Cards

Five quality Australiana greeting card sets of my animal paintings are now available through my website https://pjpaintings.com/collections/cards/products/five-australiana-greeting-card-set

The greeting cards feature a platypus enjoying life, a sleepy Tasmanian devil, a family of echidnas, a relaxing wombat and dancing fairy penguins. The animals are all endemic to Tasmania, (so maybe I should name them Tasmanialiana! lol) an island, off the larger island of Australia.

Titled: Devilish Siesta

The beauty of greeting cards is that the recipient can get that warm, fuzzy feeling over and over again, each time they look at the card and/or read the words and thoughts you have written. Do you keep and re-read cards that you have received? Every once in a while, I pull out my stash of greeting cards and re-read them. It brings back smiles and memories. It’s a gift that keeps on giving and the recipient can wear the smile you gave them for weeks.

The greeting cards come in two sizes and are printed on quality card. They are nice to frame too.

Titled: Spiky Bunk beds

Titled: Silent Disco

Titled: Taking it Easy

I hope that you are enjoying a “Taking it Easy” weekend.

Cheers from Patricia (PJ)

Constructing a Nest

I am fascinated by birds’ nests and their construction with only a beak-tool. In my opinion, they are the ultimate functional art piece. I have several abandoned nests as decorations and as painting resources at my house.

I also love birds. The bird that has particularly caught my attention recently, is the Forty-Spotted Pardalote. They are rare and listed as endangered. There are some Forty-Spotted Pardalotes trying to survive on Bruny Island, an island off the island of Tasmania. https://www.bien.org.au/projects/40-spotted-pardalote/ Efforts are being made to try to help the species survive. A major strategy is building nest boxes for them. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-07-21/endangered-bird-faces-new-threat/6735504?nw=0&r=HtmlFragment

Collecting data from a Forty-spotted Pardalote’s nesting box on Bruny Island

I am in the process of constructing a 2-D nest, which I think I’ll be spending more time on than a Forty-spotted Pardalote does to build a 3-D nest!

A Forty-spotted Pardalote waiting for the construction worker to finish building its nest

I hope that you spot plenty of birds today. They always deliver a joyous moment.

Take care, from Patricia (PJ) Hopwood-Wade

http://www.pjpaintings.com

Enchanted Forest I

I painted another Australian forest scene. Birds from top left to right are a: Scarlet Robin, Silvereye, Galah, Kookaburra, Tawny frogmouth, Pink robin, Yellow-crested cockatoo, Yellow-tailed black cockatoo, koala, Beautiful firetail, and wombat.

Sadly the iconic koala, listed as vulnerable, could soon be upgraded to endangered. Fires, droughts, and lost of natural habitat and corridors are all contributing to its startling drop in numbers.

I hope you are able to enjoy a bit of the joy that nature has to offer, today.

Take care, Patricia (PJ) Hopwood-Wade

http://www.pjpaintings.com

A wonky Weaver’s Cottage

My sketch of the quaint and historic Weaver’s Cottage in Oatlands, where wool is spun and being woven into fabulous and beautiful products right beside the front door, as you enter into the shop.

The actual shop isn’t wonky but my drawing sure is! But to quote Liz Steel, “embrace the wonkiness”.

The Weaver’s Cottages Studio in Oatlands, now stocking PJ Paintings greeting cards and A-5 sized prints

Oatlands is a picturesque, buzzing little town off the Midlands Highway, Tasmania. A brand new, large and fabulous gallery has just opened on the main street too!

I hope you can stop in soon and have a wander.

Take care, from Patricia Hopwood-Wade

Enchanted Forest II

I painted an Australian forest scene that was purchased when I posted the painting on my Instagram account (https://www.instagram.com/hopwoodwade/).

One of the birds featured in the painting is the Golden-shouldered parrot that I wrote about in an earlier blog post: https://wordpress.com/post/theunfurlingartist.wordpress.com/6302

Another bird that is seriously struggling that is included in this painting is the Orange-bellied parrot, one of only a few migratory parrot species in the world and it is listed as critically endangered. The parrots breed in Melaleuca, on the west coast of Tasmania, feeding on button grass seeds and fly to the south east of mainland Australia in the winter. https://www.zoo.org.au/fighting-extinction/local-threatened-species/orange-bellied-parrot/ and https://birdlife.org.au/projects/orange-bellied-parrot-recovery

Another species facing an upward struggle, and also is listed as endangered, is the Tasmanian devil. https://www.zoo.org.au/fighting-extinction/local-threatened-species/tasmanian-devil/ and https://www.bushheritage.org.au/species/tassie-devils. European settlers named them Tasmanian devils because of their skin-crawling, night-time howling. Tasmanian devils are smallish in size but look quite menacing when they open their large mouths and bare their teeth. Their strong jaws enable them to munch through bones with ease.

Enchanted Forest II

Birds from top left to right are a: Gouldian finch, Yellow-throated honeyeater, Boobook owl, Magpie, Wattle bird, Orange-bellied parrot, Sugar glider, Golden-shouldered parrot, New Holland honeyeater, Spotted-tail quoll and Tasmanian devil.

I hope that you are able to enjoy time in an enchanted forest near to wherever you are living and that efforts to save species are achieving successes.

Take care, Patricia (PJ) Hopwood-Wade

Salamanca Market September 11, 2021

The morning started with beautiful blue skies but because rain was forecasted, I put the gazebo’s three walls up and awning. It’s surprising how much time this takes. I suppose because I need a stool to reach, which means getting up and down from the stool, and constantly moving it along to attach the wall and awning to the next section. Anyways, business started happening before I had completed my setting up, which is good, considering tourist traffic is significantly down.

A local young man bought “Hair Accessories” for his partner that loves black cockatoos. They are regular visitors where they live, as they are at my house, on the Eastern Shore of Hobart. Next a couple from Hobart visited and she bought two zipper pouches, one for a gift and the other for herself, along with a large “Salamanca Saturdays” tote bag. Another Hobartian purchased a small “Hanging Out” tote bag for her young niece and a grandmother bought an “Afternoon Siesta” greeting card for her 5 year old granddaughter, Fifi, living in France. Christmas cards, destined for various locations around the world: Norway, USA, and the UK, to name a few, were purchased today too.

Salamanca Saturdays tote bag available at: https://pjpaintings.com/collections/bags/products/salamanca-saturdays-tote-bag

A “Lazy Days” tote bag was purchased for a friend that is besotted with wombats. This friend stayed at a hotel that had an adopted wombat that wandered in and out of the hotel and this is where her passion was really fuelled.

Lazy Days tote bag (washable and Australian made) https://pjpaintings.com/collections/bags/products/tote-bag-lazy-days-1

There were heaps of people from Queensland at the market. The border opened and many have taken advantage of it. Another “Lazy Days” tote bag was purchased. A young couple from Brisbane purchased a set of prints: “Hammock Life,” “Afternoon Siesta” and “Devilish Siesta”. Their yard backs onto a bush reserve and these prints fit in with their animal/nature theme of their house’s décor.

A worker from the Royal Hobart Hospital, thankful that she doesn’t have to wear a mask today because she wears it each day at work (but that will be changing next week, we’ve been told that we must wear masks) purchased a framed Christmas Siesta.

Christmas Siesta https://pjpaintings.com/collections/christmas/products/christmas-christmas-siesta

My thoughts are with all those affected by the 11/9 attack.

Take care, Patricia (PJ) Hopwood-Wade