Hello wombat lovers,
Because wombats are so sweet, I have added a “Wombat Sweetness” greeting card pack to the PJ Paintings website https://pjpaintings.com/collections/cards/products/wombat-sweetness-greeting-card-pack. The four chosen cards are: “Garden Meditation”, “Visiting Friends”, “Spotty” and “Flowerpot”.
Wishing you a happy-as-a-wombat day.
PJ Paintings
There’s a house in Lenah Valley, Tasmania that I am drawn to (and therefore draw) lol. It’s a house that says draw-me, draw-me, so I did, again.
My latest drawing of the house:
I decided that I really wanted the umbrella to stand out this time.
Here’s a drawing of the house I did earlier in the year.
Photo of the house from where it was drawn.
Is there a house or building that says “draw-me” when you see it?
Take care and wishing you happy drawing times.
Cheers, from PJ Paintings
Setting up in the rain is not fun. It’s rather dismal, actually, but the stall got set up, despite the sogginess.
The first customer of the day was from Queensland. She informed me that she already has three of my prints. She purchased “Dinner for Five???” to add to her collection.
Three generations, from Brisbane, stopped at the stall. The daughter bought a “Salamanca Fresh” pouch for the grandmother (her mother). Little Violet wouldn’t crack a smile. She seriously studied her surroundings. She turned one year old yesterday and they brought her to Tasmania to see snow for her birthday.
A Tasmanian resident, who is going to visit the United States for two months, bought a “Scarlet Robins” print for her mother-in-law. She said that they often visit her back yard and often tap away at the car mirrors.
A couple, that have been looking for a kookaburra picture, photo or painting for a long time, purchased “The Three Amigos II”. They live on the Murray River and have a lot of kookaburras visiting their property. http://www.murrayriver.com.au/about-the-murray/
A lady, who is soon going to visit Scotland, paid a return visit, and bought more Salamanca Fresh tote bags to take with her for gifts.
A lady visiting from the UK bought a “Family Outing” print. Each time she visits she buys one of my prints, she told me.
Thankfully packing up took place when it wasn’t raining.
I hope all is well in your part of the world. Cheers, Patricia (PJ) Hopwood-Wade
It is winter, so it’s not surprising that the few days I spent in Canberra were wet and wintery. As a consequence, I didn’t do as many sketches as I had hoped.
The highlight of my trip was visiting the National Portrait Gallery and the National Museum of Australia. I attempted to sketch the geometrical sculptures of the museum.
The roofline includes some silver looking tiles with braille. It is a curious sight because nobody is tall enough to be able to read as braille is designed to be read.
My friend and I wondered what was written. We googled it and found quite the story behind these braille tiles!
“Sorry” was written in braille several times as well as “Resurrection city”, a reference to a 1968 civil rights protest in Washington DC. Other messages were: “God knows”, “She’ll be right”, “Mate”, “Who is my neighbour?”, “Time will tell”, “Good as gold” and “Love is blind”.
Howard Raggatt, the architect, said that he chose the politically provocative word, “sorry”, as a personal protest against the Howard government’s unwillingness to apologise to the aboriginal Stolen Generations of Australia.
Not even the museum director knew what the braille characters were. Raggatt nearly got away with it, until an eagle-eyed engineer decoded the writing on the wall just before the building was due to open in March 2001.
The reaction was explosive, he said. “Ballistic is an understatement — they were just beside themselves with anger,” he said. The Howard government was livid and insisted that the braille panels were removed. But he refused, instead offering up a compromise. He suggested installing metal discs across the panels. He got the last laugh though as some of the ‘sorry’ panels survived the purge, and have been there all along, for 20 years. “We censored enough for people to be happy with it,” he said. “I don’t know that anyone checked up on us, and we may not have been as thorough as we should’ve been.”
I sketched the interior of the apartment we stayed at. I drew this standing up and drew it all with an Artline pen, with no initial pencil lines, and then added watercolour paint.
We tried a few of the cafe’s around the apartment. This was the view from one of the cafe’s that I tried to sketch.
I didn’t finish the sketch because it just about did my head in.
We had a short wander through the botanical garden.
Then it was back home to Tasmania.
Cheers, Patricia (PJ)
We’ve entered the winter months in Tasmania: dark at 5 pm, rain and snow on the mountain.
Oh-oh, it’s starting to rain, but not to worry, lady bug friends are helping to keep wombat dry.
“Flower Umbrella” original water colour painting is approximately 20 x 20 cm and was available for purchase at: www.pjpaintings.com/collections/original-paintings (sorry, it has just sold, to somebody who coincidently lives on the same street as me, in Tasmania!! It’s a small world).
Stay warm, from Patricia (PJ) Hopwood-Wade
Winter has arrived in Tasmania and some use the increased indoor time to do ‘spring cleaning’. When do you do your spring cleaning?
I’m going through piles of papers, in an attempt to organise/clean my studio space (a room downstairs in my house). I found this painting I started a few years ago and decided it needed to be finished. Introducing “Holding Hands II”.
This original water colour painting is 21.0 x 29.7 cm and fits a standard A-4 sized frame. https://pjpaintings.com/collections/original-paintings
I hope to finish more paintings that I have abandoned for whatever reason. Often I stop painting something because another idea has come into my head that excites me and I can’t wait to explore it, so I start another painting and forget to go back to the one I started earlier. (I wonder if this is a common occurrence among artists??? It must be.) They are no good to me, or anybody, half finished. Very unfulfilling. When they are finished at least I can stop storing them. They are either good enough to try to sell and put a smile on somebody’s face, or they can go in the recycling bin.
I hope that you are having a sunshiny kind of day and if you are spring cleaning, I hope you’re making good progress. 🙂
Cheers, from Patricia (PJ)
I finished my commissioned watercolour painting, titled “Clip-ons II”.
I was commissioned to paint this watercolour painting after the person saw my larger Clip-ons painting with a blue background.
She wanted an A-4 sized painting of my Yellow-tailed black cockatoo adorned by Christmas Island crabs, on a white background.
I hope your week is travelling along well.
Cheers, Patricia (PJ)
It was inky black when I left this morning, but I didn’t feel cold wearing my thermals and pure wool, thick socks.
My first visitor were two women, who had already purchased my some of my art at Peppercorn Gallery in Richmond https://www.peppercorngallery.com.au/ . They bought a framed print of “Lazy Days”, and a “Double Date” and “Bunk Beds” tote bags.
I met a Canadian couple from Calgary. He was wearing a Canadian rugby hoodie. Apparently, rugby is becoming a popular sport in Canada. They purchased a “Salamanca Saturdays” tote bag.
A young couple from Melbourne visited the stall. As she was looking more closely and perusing my art, she said that my gum leaves look familiar and that she thinks she has bought some of my art. It turned out that she had bought two small original paintings from my stall about six years ago. She has them framed and loves them she told me. They left with four prints.
Another visitor bought “The Bun” and “Bunk Beds” prints for her friend, who loves cockatoos and wombats.
A Swan supporter, (an AFL team, the Sydney Swans) dressed in the red and white footy shirt, purchased “Graduation Siesta” and “Share House” for her partner who is graduating soon.
A lady, who lives in Townsville, purchased three “Glamour Girls” prints for herself and two girlfriends. They went to school together in Townsville and are catching up in Tassie. One now lives in Dubai and the other in Toowoomba, Queensland. https://www.tr.qld.gov.au/ar2017/our-region/52-toowoomba-region-overview-2
A family visiting from New Zealand, purchased a “Lost Worlds” print. The mother grew up in Tasmania and walked the Lost World Track on kunanyi when she was in high school. It was an outdoor adventure excursion. You can’t actually ‘walk’ the Lost World track as it is mainly scrambling over boulders and trying to spot the next orange triangle to find which boulder you have to climb next. Several hours later, you reach this amazing open space, surrounded by the mountain’s glorious organ pipe rock formation.
See you next week. I hope your week goes well.
Take care, from Patricia (PJ) www.pjpaintings.com
The Unfurling Artist: journalising creative journeying 