Hello everybody,
I hope that your Wednesday is travelling well.
Back to the Wombatober Challenge. I’m zig-zagging from the Inktober to the Wombatober Challenge. Day 3’s prompt word for the Wombatober Challenge is “Cosy Place”.
This little fellow is feeling sleepy and cosy under its wombat quilt.
I hope you are feeling cosy too!
Cheers, from Patricia (PJ) Hopwood-Wade
I’m doing the Inktober Challenge and then came upon Wombatober, which runs along the same line as Inktober. They’ve released a prompt list to do a drawing a day for the month of October. Doing two drawings a day is a bit much but I’m trying to do as many of the prompt words that I can.
Wombatober’s Day 1 prompt word is “adventure”. Here’s my adventurous wombat.
Wombatober’s Day 2 prompt word was “shining”. This little wombat’s face is glowing from the shining light of glow worms.
I hope you are enjoying your week.
Thank you for visiting.
Cheers, Patricia (PJ) Hopwood-Wade
I’m working on a new painting that has quite a few different birds congregating on the same branch.
Tasmania has twelve species of bird which are only found in Tasmania and a number of other species which are endemic at the subspecies level, such as the threatened wedge-tail eagle.
The Tasmanian nativehen and the yellow-throated honeyeater are endemic to Tasmania. The Tasmanian nativehen are a common sight along roadways. Luckily, they seem to be road savvy. I love their comical running style.
There are also breeding endemics that breed only in Tasmania, such as the brightly coloured, endangered orange-bellied parrot.
The tawny frogmouth is a species native to the Australian mainland and Tasmania and the Australian little penguin are only found in southern Australia and New Zealand .
The musk lorikeet, flame robin and beautiful firetail are endemic to south-eastern Australia. The flame robin does range to the Queensland border and into Tasmania, and the Beautiful firetail ranges to Newcastle, NSW, to Kangaroo Island, SA, but is most common in Tasmania.
Now how did a wombat sneak in!? They are endemic to Australia, including Tasmania, unlike the kookaburra, who are now found on plenty of branches in Tasmania having a good old laugh. They were introduced from the mainland of Australia by humans to try to reduce snake numbers. The first recorded release was in 1902.
I hope today delivers you some laughs.
Take care of yourself and keep an eye for the birds around you.
Cheers from Patricia (PJ)
Hello everybody,
Here’s my latest painting of another little wombat. I think I drew its feet a little big, hence titling this painting “Bigfoot”.
This “Bigfoot” title brought back a memory from long ago and the birth of my daughter. Just after being informed that I gave birth to a girl, the nurse said, “wow, she has big feet!” Indeed she did, but now as an adult she has tiny feet, size 5, which I think is size 35-36 European ladies shoe size and size 6 in USA. So, maybe this little wombat will grow into its big feet and then need a name change to “Littlefoot”.
I hope everybody is enjoying their week on healthy feet, no matter what size they are.
Cheers, from Patricia at PJ Paintings
P.S. “Bigfoot”, a cute little wombat, not a sasquatch https://www.livescience.com/24598-bigfoot.html, will be for sale at Salamanca Market.
I’m currently working on several commissions. This one involves painting a bunch of Australian animals and birds. One of the most often posed question I am asked is “how long did it take you to paint it?”. Discounting the drawing and all the decision-making time around composition, it is taking me between 2 to 3 hours per individual animal.
Here are some of the birds that have been painted in the above painting.
This is another commission painting that I’m working on. It is for a little girl’s birthday. The brief was to do something with an emu and wombat. Here’s what I came up with.
Hopefully, I will be able to share the finished products with you soon.
Talk soon, Patricia (PJ)
About 7 years ago, when I was in Sweden, sitting on a stool in a hotel, wearing my nightie and a knitted rabbit hat with floppy ears, I caught a glimpse of myself in a hallway mirror and it intrigued me, so I drew a quick sketch of myself. This gave birth to a host of ideas that have been whirring around in my head for many years, one of them being, “Come Dream with Me”.
I delivered “Come Dream with Me” to the Long Gallery, Salamanca Place, Tasmania, for The Art Society of Tasmania Inc 138th Members’ Exhibition. The exhibition will be running from Saturday, July 30th through to Sunday, August 7th from 10 am – 4 pm daily.
The development of my painting.
I look forward to attending the opening night, catching up with fellow artists and seeing the fabulous work on display.
Thank you for reading and following me. I look forward to sharing my next painting with you soon.
Until then, take care, Patricia (PJ) Hopwood-Wade
Hello everybody. I hope your week is off to a good start.
I’m working on a painting which features many Tasmanian birds. I’ve painted the Tasmanian nativehens, a Cape Barren goose, Superb Fairy-wren, Scarlet robin, Pink robin and Australian magpie. I’ve drawn a Wedge-tailed eagle into the painting too. I have never painted a Wedge-tailed eagle. Just in case I can’t paint one (they look complicated and challenging to paint!!), and I don’t want to ruin what I have painted so far, I drew a trial one on an A-4 size paper.
Here’s what I have painted so far.
The Tasmanian wedge-tailed eagle is an endemic subspecies of Tasmania. Unfortunately, it is struggling and is listed as endangered. https://nre.tas.gov.au/conservation/threatened-species-and-communities/lists-of-threatened-species/threatened-species-vertebrates/wedge-tailed-eagle
I was surprised to find that I often held my breath when I was painting this. I apply the water colour on a feather, and then wait for it not to be so wet, but not dry, to blend in the next colour into the feather. I’m sure working on small scale makes this more difficult.
I’m not looking forward to tackling the feet…. another challenge.
I hope that your week’s challenges are met with success.
Cheers from Patricia (PJ Paintings)
I painted this whimsical and heart warming scene of a Tasmanian Tiger (thylacine) piggybacking a wombat.
I was going to ground it but when I looked at it from a bit of a distance, I liked the way it reminded me of an embroidered table cloth, so I’ve left it suspended.
This watercolour painting is painted on Khadi Mill paper that is made from recycled cotton rags. It is approximately 20 x 15 cm. My full signature is on the back of the painting.
The original painting is available at: https://pjpaintings.com/collections/original-paintings?page=1
Wishing you a great upcoming weekend. 🙂
Cheers, from PJ Paintings
Well…, not really… she’s Off with the Owls.
An emu, with a passion for owls, is off. Where are they going? I’m not sure. Maybe to an owl convention, an owl’s birthday party or to find some fairies??
The original painting is available at https://pjpaintings.com/…/products/off-with-the-owls
Wishing you a chirpy day!
Cheers, PJ Paintings
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
The Unfurling Artist: journalising creative journeying 