What colour is an emu?

Apparently there are many correct answers to this question. One could be a green-grey colour if you’re a statue guarding a house in Bellerive, Tasmania.

or one could be white if you’re the white emu photographed by Nicola Thiele in Snowy Monaro, NSW.

A rare white emu spotted

According to University of Sydney Associate Professor of avian and zoological medicine, Lorenzo Crosta, the emu is a rare sight but it is not an albino emu.  An animal with albinism displays absolute evidence of melanin in the body, including the legs, which would be pinkish or very light in colour.  Lorenzo’s explanation of the white emu is that it has leucism, which is a partial lack of melanin, and thus the white feathers.

If you’re an emu that I paint, your feathers could be beige, blue, black and turquoise…

and you’re pretty good at dancing the Charleston!

Cheers. Hope you’re having fun and kicking up your heels wherever you are.

http://www.pjpaintings.com

 

 

Fashion

Style conscientious emus:

 

I hope it has put a smile on your face. Thanks for visiting PJ Paintings.

Sold

I did gallery duty today and after doing all the gallery-type jobs, I settled down to paint in between serving customers. I thought I would paint a matching pair for this painting that I painted for the Inktober prompt word “frail”. I wanted to paint one with a different coloured butterfly and looking the opposite direction so that they could be looking at each other .

Unexpected Guest

While I was painting the blue butterfly painting, a man bought it. He’s going to give it to his mother, who loves butterflies, for Christmas.

The emu with the orange butterfly was also sold and it is going to be hanging in a Aged Care Residential Centre.

Wishing everybody a peaceful and rejuvenating weekend. Cheers, from PjPaintings

Before & After shot

The Inktober Challenge for 2019, involving drawing a picture with some form of ink each day of the month of October from a prompt list provided, produced a variety of artwork. Here are some before and after shots of some of the drawings I did for the challenge.

Fragile

Fragile

For the prompt word was ‘husky’ I drew a “Husky Wombat”

Husky Wombat 

For the prompt word ‘overgrown’ I drew an emu who has outgrown his bed!

Out grown

For the prompt word ‘dark’ I drew a touching moment between an emu and a twinkling star

Dark

Which do you prefer, before or after paint is added?

Thanks for stopping by.

PJ Paintings/Patricia Hopwood-Wade

 

 

Gallery Duty

I did gallery duty today (Sunday) at Artefacts Gallery located in the Salamanca Arts Centre, Hobart, Tasmania. After cleaning shelves, changing displays and pricing art work, I settled down behind the desk and got my paints out. There were very few people about, so painting some of my Inktober drawings seemed like it would be a good use of my time.

A couple from the mainland of Australia came in and he, in particular, was curious and asked me questions about my prints and then about what I was painting. I explained the Inktober Challenge to him, where we receive a prompt word for each day of the month.  I was painting the drawings for Day #10 “pattern” and Day #11 “snow”. He said he really liked “pattern” and asked me if he could buy it? “But, I haven’t finished painting it”, I said. He didn’t want anymore paint added to it. He liked it as it was. “Would you like me to paint the hat?” “No,” was his reply. “The boots?” “Nope”. So, it was pronounced – SOLD after I took a quick photo of it.

finished or unfinished “pattern”

Has anyone else ever sold a painting before they consider it finished???

He left and returned a few minutes later asking if I could paint “snow” and they would come back in two hours for it. So, in between serving customers I painted. When they returned, they both said “wow” when they saw it and commented on how much difference colour made. Another Inktober drawing pronounced, SOLD. That’s six Inktober paintings in two days.

Painting for the prompt word “snow”

Thanks for stopping by. Hope the upcoming week goes well for everyone. PJ Paintings

More Inktober days

For Inktober’s prompt word “dragon”, surprise-surprise, I drew a dragon (lol).

Dragon Escape

For the prompt word “Ash” I drew emus bushwalking through an Eucalyptus regnans forest. These trees are commonly called Mountain Ash.

the happy wanderers

The following prompt word for Day 14 of the Inktober Challenge is “overgrown”. Those of you have tall children can probably relate to this drawing. I have two tall sons and we had to cut away the end boards of their beds to accommodate their long legs!

I hope you are enjoying Inktober as much as I am.  It certainly gets your creative juices flowing! Take care and thanks for stopping by, PJ Paintings.

http://www.pjpaintings.com

 

Swinging

I’m getting into the swing of this Inktober challenging daily drawing challenge! (lol) Today’s prompt word is “swing”.

 

I’m giving myself an extra pat on the back because I’m visiting my family in Canada while doing this. (I live in Tasmania, Australia). Doing Inktober while abroad has added an extra layer of challenge.  Thankfully the prompt list was released a month or so early, so I was able to get a lot of ideas worked out and a few rough sketches done before the challenge started.

“Swing” (21 x 21 cm painted on paper made 100% from recycled cotton rags)

Hoping your week is going swimmingly, wherever on the globe you are, from PJ Paintings

This original is for sale and can be purchased at http://www.pjpaintings.com

Freezing

The prompt word for Day #4 of the Inktober Challenge is”freeze”. So, I drew an emu that is happily taking full advantage of the the frozen lake to display her graceful ice skating moves.

Thanks for stopping by, PJ Paintings

http://www.pjpaintings.com

A Yoga Aid

I gave an “Afternoon Siesta” print to a work mate as a retirement gift with a card saying that I hope she is able to have frequent afternoon siestas, now that she’s leaving the workforce.  She loved it and was quite visibly moved by it.

She dropped into work last week and told me that she locked her eyes on “Afternoon Siesta” and it helped her relax through her yoga session. She told me again how much she loves it. So, “Afternoon Siesta” is not only much loved in a baby’s nursery, but also in retirement and in the yoga room!

Afternoon Siesta – prints are available at http://www.pjpaintings.com

Hope everybody has a restful and peaceful sleep tonight. Cheers.

Hair Extensions

Last year, I painted Humpback whales to celebrate Sea Shepherd’s 40th anniversary and help raise funds for this non-profit conservation organisation whose mission is to protect and conserve the world’s oceans’ ecosystems and species. (All of these whale paintings are on my website: http://www.pjpaintings.com).

Weightless

Sea Life

Suspended

Sea Shepherd has asked me to support their fund raiser again. This time I focused on other sea creatures, all of whom are suffering in plastic and pollution riddled oceans.

Hair Extensions: Yellow-tailed Black Cockatoos have a short crest on the top of their heads compared to the other cockatoos’ crowns that they flaunt and display ostentatiously. Feeling slightly inferior, this cockatoo set about to find a hairdresser that does feather extensions but alas there are none to be found in Tasmania. An octopus seems like a good compromise, and fortunately for this cockatoo, it found a very obliging one to crown its head with long, flowing, attractive tentacles.

This painting will be for sale in support of this worthy cause at Red Parka, 22 Criterion Street, Hobart, Tasmania, commencing Sept 5th.  It is now at Full Gamut, professional photographers, and then prints of it will be available on the Pj Paintings website.

Now, I’m working on my third and final painting of this series titled “The Bun”.

Thanks for visiting.