I was asked to paint three different emu scenes to be made into tiles for a laundry room for a house that is being built in Hobart, Tasmania. These are the three ideas I came up with.
These are available as prints at http://www.pjpaintings.com
Thanks for stopping by and take care from PJ Paintings
Panic-buying and hording during pandemics, or times of uncertainty, is nothing new. During the Great Depression or the build-up to Y2K, people were looking for ways to build their self-reliance, whether it was baking their own bread, building emergency shelters or gardening. The Coronavirus pandemic has created a sense of urgency around chickens. Anxiety about the availability of eggs, boredom or just yearning for something to love and nurture have resulted in record numbers of people panic-buying little chicks. Chick purchases in United States have increased by 500% during this current pandemic.
My chicken ownership has increased 300%, from zero to three. I have a friend who moved in to spend the quarantine period with me, and along with her belongings, she brought her three chickens!: Fluffball (the white hen), Ginger (the ginger coloured hen) and Red Hen (the dark hen, which you can barely see). (Chicken names are quite often funny and funky.)
Fluffball, Ginger and Red Hen have been living here for 8 weeks now and have not produced ONE egg yet, not even one! I thought I might be able to sketch them but they are always ducking out of sight under bushes as soon as I come into the backyard, so they are not even being good models.
Here’s another one of my chicken paintings.
Oh well, c’est la vie or c’est les poulets.
Take care and stay safe.
One good thing that is coming out of the time in Quarantine, is that I’m getting stuck into tidying and re-organising my house – big time!
During my intensive tidy up, I have found forgotten and not-forgotten pieces of artwork.
These were forgotten pieces that I painted about five years ago.
I’ve often wondered why Sympathy cards overwhelmingly picture fields of flowers, a beach or ocean scene, a fence with the sun setting over the hills and the like? These images don’t reflect or acknowledge the pain that many people feel at terrible times in their lives. I understand that the images are trying to help a person to focus on the “the half-full glass” but I sometimes think that an image like “Heartbroken” can help somebody feel that the sender of the card understands the pain and emptiness that they are feeling right now and their immense grief during the early weeks, months, and years they are living with.
I’d be really interested in hearing what you think of this, or am I odd?? Would you send a “Heartbroken” card? Would you like or prefer a card like this over traditional imaged sympathy cards if you suffered a loss? (which I really hope you haven’t or don’t).
I’ve tried to research this topic but I have found very little about it or explanations about the reason behind the image choices of Sympathy cards. Apparently there are cultural differences with grief. I read an article that has studied differences between how Germany and United States respond to grief. According to this text, American culture encourages people to avoid negative emotions more than the German culture. American expressions of sympathy focus less on the negative and more on the positive than the Germans.
I hope that your heart is happy and healthy.
Take care and thank you for visiting, from Pj Paintings
I mostly painted birds until Sea Shepherd asked me to paint something for their anniversary fundraiser and that is when I stepped out of my comfort zone and painted my first whale.
Since then, I have painted many more….
….including my urban sketch of my see-sawing whale. It’s a great de-stressor, especially during the latest quarantine measures. I give it a push, the mouth opens and shuts, the eyes move from side to side and this gentle movement gives the illusion of ocean waves rising and falling. I find myself giving it extra pushes this month. Do you have a calming object in your house?
This is my latest whale painting, an Orca, titled “Life is but a Dream”.
I hope that life is being relaxing and dreamy for you despite the world being in quarantine and having changed so much.
Thanks for visiting.
Wishing everybody a safe and happy Easter at home. Where the Easter bunny is in quarantine, emus are trying to help out where they can but this is a strange new world to them and they don’t really know what they’re doing!!!
Take care everybody!
Happy National Eucalypt Day!
I must admit that this day, unbeknownst to me, has passed me by my whole life but this year I know about it so I will endeavour to hug a gum tree and thank it for being what it is – wonderful.
National Eucalypt Day celebrates eucalypts and the important place that these unique trees hold in the hearts and lives of Australians annually on the 23rd of March.
I often paint eucalypts, and for some reason that I haven’t been able to figure out why yet, I feel very peaceful when painting their soft green leaves. I like painting the gumnuts too because with artistic licence you can add so many different colours into the mix, which makes it fun. The flowers are more tedious and not as much fun to paint but they are worth the effort because they are such an outstanding, colourful feature of the trees.
Take care, PjPaintings
The emus are running around in circles!! Salamanca Market is closed today and the emus don’t know what to do!
Both of my paintings are available as high quality prints at http://www.pjpaintings.com
Take care everybody, Patricia
I had the car packed on Friday, ready to go for Saturday’s Salamanca Market, but at the 11th hour I decided not to go because of the Coronavirus. I imagine that it will be officially cancelled next week because Prime Minister Morrison of Australia announced that starting tomorrow, gatherings of over 500 are to be cancelled. I’m not sure, but that is my guess.
In the meantime, it gave me some time to paint and finish off some of the paintings that I have started.
Take care everybody from Pj Paintings
It’s International Women’s Day and it is well worth celebrating women.
More women are moving into leadership and executive positions in traditionally male-dominated industries. For the past 30 years, women have earned more bachelor’s degrees than men and are also employed as long as males (McKinsey & Company 2018). Women make up 49 per cent of the global workforce, but only 10.9 per cent have senior executive positions among the world’s largest 500 companies.
Researchers still don’t know exactly why companies with women perform better but it is worth reflecting upon on International Women’s Day.
Stronger business and economic results
Studies support that recruiting women boosts companies’ bottom line. Research into Fortune 500 companies who had more women on their boards financially outperformed companies with less women.
More job satisfaction for all
Gender balance in the workplace is associated with positive organisational outcomes for all. A study by the Centre for Creative Leadership and Watermark found that more women in the workplace improves work satisfaction for both women and men.
Women make more supportive bosses
One study revealed that both sexes with female bosses said they felt their employer was more committed to their career development, compared to those having a male boss. A study by an American global analytics firm Gallup found those who work for female managers were more engaged in their workplace and suffered less burnout.
Increased employee retention
Studies have also revealed that organisations with more women also attract and retain more female employees.
Women aid creativity and improve a company’s status
Studies have also identified that companies with women in top management positions experience more ‘innovation intensity’ and produce 20 per cent more patents than teams with male leaders and are also associated with higher status. Fortune’s most respected companies have twice as many women in senior management than less reputable companies.
The radio station I listen to, Triple J, has been celebrating International Women’s Day all week. Their motto for the week is “Girls Up Front”. I love this saying and I often wonder what state the world would be in if ‘girls had been up front’ more for the past three centuries???
Happy International Women’s Day everybody!
Yesterday, I turned on the washing machine, went upstairs and merrily got to work getting things ready for the market, while unbeknownst to me, my basement was being filled with water, not my washing machine! When I went downstairs, I walked into a LOT of water. Everything’s under control now and the industrial fans are whirring away.
My lounge room is full of books, supplies and art stuff. My entire art room was flooded but virtually everything was up off the floor, so there is minimal damage. Thankfully, I went downstairs when I did. It could have been worse. At one point, I contemplated going outside to do some gardening.
As a consequence, unfortunately, I didn’t get to the market today, but I did get to do some painting. It was a real treat and fun to paint emus, especially since my emus have been Op-shopping and have purchased so many new, very funky outfits for themselves.
I’ve almost finished another one. My industrial fans and I are still making lemonade!
Thanks for stopping by and I hope your weekend is resembling lemonade, not lemons.
