Roses in a vase

I am not very good at doing detail, seems to me I like a more representational idea, probably because I am too scared of making a total muck of what I am doing. I had picked these roses and they were at the point of falling and looked lovely and blowsy.
Any way this was my attempt at doing something yesterday in between a farewell for our local MP and an introduction to the one hoping to take his place and trying to get another bit of textile stuff done. Would have been a lovely day for a walk.
The vase these roses were in is an old spill vase I picked up for $2 in a second hand shop a couple of years ago covered in orange paint, when the paint was cleaned off it was a rather lovely little thing. Treasures can still be found if you are lucky.

EDM challenge doorknobs and a textile piece

In Between walking and making dinner yesterday I had time to draw the door knob and other bits on our kitchen door. It is a very old rather battered brass knob, at some time the key hole had been moved but the outline is still there and the bolt is more or less to bolt off the rest of the house if we are away, someone has to feed the cat! Remember this is an old and battered farm house that like topsy "just grew". I will have another go at doing this again as I rather like the idea and this one is very rough.
I have been battling with my playways Module 3 section on 'slips and patches' and I hope that what I have finally made really is a slip or patch, hearts sewn on felt, then stitched back onto a peice of velvet over which painted bonding web was added and then stitched again. I may have another go at this and then zap it back with a heat gun and see what that looks like.

Reeds by the river

I am still with the sketching I did by the river. These reeds were blowing every which way but were fun to do. The shadow behind is actually another sketch I did and when I scanned it it came through. Wish I had actually done it intentionally but I didnt.
Grandchildren for breakfast and lunch today, a walk over to granite Island and they found a couple of penguins, we saw a seal off the breakwater when we stopped for a coffee, and the pink lilies are almost over so I was glad we saw them a couple of weeks ago.
Friends for dinner tonight so a big clean up in the house in a hurry.

River Murray photos

Iam not sure how good these photos are as I hadnt looked at them before I put them up. Very silly of me. One was sunrise and the odd lights are the lights of the ferry going across. The other was evening just on sunset, you can just see the windmills over the river.

Murray River scenes

These were the scenes I saw yesterday afternoon from the front verandah of the little cabin we rented for the night on the River Murray at Wellington. We overlooked the ferry crossing but I just loved the windmills. Weeping willows are very hard to make look right. These were done using my new black Micron 01 pen. I will try to get the photos I took up tomorrow. It was calm and really magic, not that my drawings really do it justice. Thought I would not add colour.

Bus stop people

I had a bit of fun last night playing with this. Pen and wash again, my favorite medium. Trying for shapes and sizes.

Beaded necklace

I dont know what happened but somehow I missed out on posting yesterday. I was so busy trying to finish the doll, still not finished, and tidying up my workroom I somehow forgot. Any way I did manage to get this necklace finished. It is made of shell and freshwater pearls with glass beads between the pearls. I was quite pleased with it. Beading is Tuesday nights, so as well as this I fixed up two bracelets that somehow hadnt quite worked.
Today we are going over to Wellington on the River Murray as John has a meeting and dinner and I will stay over with him and I hope get some sketching done.Of course he has another meeting in Victor on Thursday morning so we have to be back there by 10 am. Animals will have to be fed before we go and the watering done although it has been amazingly cool, but more heat forecast for the next few days.

Ararat Mechanics Institute

I drew this building while having coffee a few months ago on our way back from Melbourne. I love sketching buildings but often my lines are not very straight. This was the Mechanics Institiute and had wonderful swags carved over the windows. It was painted this rather incredible colour. There was a barber's shop with the red and white diagonal lines on the ground floor.

Kings Beach

We had a wonderful few days with the grand children, although an altercation about going to bed last night while their parents were at the wedding. We played cricket, although my eyes dont see balls very well and John walked them up to the cairn on the hills where they added their stones. They left to go back to Melbourne around midday today and later in the afternoon John and I went walking to our favorite beach, Kings Beach, only a few minutes from Victor, I had the camera so took a photo, although this beach has been well documented by me over the years. We saw a seal swimming, we never saw seals in our diving days, these days they and the whales are a much more common sight in our waters. We are now both tired!

on my verandah

I wasnt very happy with this sketch, I think I need to be more definite, or something.I drew it in first with pen and then used my aquarelle pencils. These bird houses are at the end of the verandah on the side of the house. Being a farm house there are all sorts of entrances and exits! When we have people for lunch or a barbeque this is where i put the food etc, but it is too hot at the moment so it has a few of last seasons butternut pumpkins, a large metal pelican and other odds and ends there. The plaque on the wall (door) I have had for years and is pottery in a lump of compressed wood.

native bulbs on Granite Island

Not much happened yesterday so I have put up a photo I took earlier in the week while I was walking on Granite Island. These native bulbs were out all over the Island and looked really spectacular. we were looking back towards the main land. Wish I had time for a bit of sketching as the composition of rocks and grasses was lovely.

sketch done at the baton relay

I did this sketch at the Baton Relay the other night, they were infront of me, next to a post holding the balloons and no one was there for a few minutes. They held this pose for about 7 minutes without moving.They look awfully out of proportion but this is actually how they looked and why they caught my eye. Quite elderly, he was quite short and she had flaming red hair, which I havent put in. Done in my very small sketchbook.

Yesterday we went to Adelaide, John had meetings and I saw my mother, she looks well but is so forgetful, her carer was there and she seems very nice. I did manage to get to the small art supply shop and have bought some soft pastels so I will have to try and have a play with them sometime. They look like fun. The Melbourne family arrive tonight for a wedding over the week end so I will be pretty busy for the next few days.

Simple flowers

Yesterday was busy, I became a tourist in my own town. John and I walked over to Granite Island, walked around it looking at the native bulbs called callostemma which were covering the Island with their pinky red colour. I took photos and also photos of the Horse tram and the general views of the town from the Island. I will post some in the future but today I am posting a drawing I did of some of the pots in my garden, a bright red scarborough lily, a pot of yellow petunias and a couple of kangaroo paws in the nearby garden. They are all what I call simple flower shapes.
We gathered some reeds in the swamp to dry for the basket making course I will be doing in April and in doing that discovered more weeds in the paddocks so spent time pulling them. Quite a nice way to spend Valentines day.

Beads and things

I spent most of yesterday cleaing the house, not a very inspiring thing to do but sometimes necessary. I am posting a photo of the baton in the Queen's baton relay, it really was quite an emotional thing to see. I am also posting a scan of some beaded bracelets that I have made, as a beader as well as all the other things I do I felt it was time. Talking of time I dont have much to of it to actually do my beading, although tuesday night is now beading night and thursday will become for a short time drawing class.

Baton Relay and lips

Well I dont know what happened to trying to put in an entry a day but yesterday it didnt happen. Mostly because anything interesting that happened yesterday was in the late afternoon. I have been watching the Winter Olympics but as they are at night, I am not getting much sleep! As a skiier I am always interested in the Winter Olympics, far more than the ordinary ones. Would have loved to have been in Torino, we did look into going but with the run of bad seasons the money wasnt there.
Today as well tho' the Queen's baton relay came to Victor Harbor , prior to the Commonwealth Games which are to be held in Melbourne in March. We were invited to the official reception and afterwards to see it arrive. Great fun and I have some photos which I will put up today sometime.
My grand daughter Gaby celebrated her 14th Birthday so we had dinner with them afterwards. While there I tried to draw the EDM challenge for last week, lips.Gosh they are hard, what with giggling 9 year olds, silly faced grandfather and pouting Gaby (birthday girl) I somehow made them all look fairly similar. John's is the bottom one, Celina the 9 year old are the two to the left and Gaby's is on the right. Little girls have much softer rounder lips, John has a thinner top lip and full bottom lip, when I could get him to stop pulling faces. I tried Celina with teeth but at 9 she seemed to then be all teeth so I gave up!

drawing workshop

Well I am home very tired, with my head going around and around. I will post the life drawing I did, I have never used charcoal before and it was messy but fun, felt a lot freer using it. We used each other as models so we all had our clothes on! I know the head is too big and there is a lot of messy stuff, but I was quite pleased as at least it looked like the pose. As well as doing that we did exercises to free us up, still life, splattering with found objects and a few other exercises I cant remember. Our teacher was good, not too critical at this stage but a bit into inner self and expressing our selves, being in the 60's age bracket that does not come easily to me as we were all taught to not show our feelings and be brave so therefore I suppose we didnt think much about what our inner feelings were. Some times I am not sure that is such a bad thing, the let it all hang out brigade sometimes dont realise how hurtful they can be. Any way I find it hard to analyze myself and try very hard not to analyze other people. I certainly dont think about what I am trying to express in painting, but then when I am jounaling I am trying to show what I see. This may all change after these lessons and no one will know me!

the elephant in my sunroom

I am up early this morning, Lots to do and John had a meeting in Adelaide so he left early. I decided that it is a bit early to feed the ponies so I sat and drew my Indian elephant who sits in the sunroom I may add a bit of colour later, he is cream and gold, but I dont mind him just donme with the pen.He looked a bit loney so I drew the wooden lillies in the vase as well. Still not good on perspective but he looks quite cute. I hope to go sketching today, but I only have my trusty old toyota farm ute and it is getting a little tired, then again I probably need to get on with the memory doll. I have done a bit more to her. Trouble is my daughter the professional photographer who poo hoo's my little digital camera has taken it to photograph some horse stuff she has to sell and it hasnt come home yet, I would like to photograph the progress of this doll. I must say that having a blog has made me learn a lot more about the capabilities of both my camera and the computer, if only I could remember it all!

drawing and hand sewing

I feel better today, we had 16 mm of rain over night so no watering tonight, and it is cooler as well. Gathering up supplies for this drawing workshop on saturday, couldnt find a 90x70cm board so she will have to make do with what I have found, for just under $13 one that is 58.8x66cm and it has a handle and springs and holds an A2 block easily. I couldnt make one for that. It was in our local "neds" which has all sorts of cheap stuff.
I did draw something yesterday, a weed, called a pie or paddy melon here, it is very nasty and poisonous to stock and spreads like an octopus, this one had flowers but no melons as yet, it is now on the rubbish heap waiting to be burnt. The other image is of a sample I am doing for my playways module, I have called it Australia Dreaming, it is layered, painted and hand sewing, not quite finished yet.

Ponies and guilt

I am feeling a bit guilty today as I have spent all day trying to get an ad together for our Welsh pony Journal and I have done one thing and then lost it, forgotten how to do another. I thought perhaps I should put one of our ponies up as she was Supreme of our youngstock show, and a very nice homebred filly, so here she is with her rug and garland on. Rivington Royal Hiccup is her name a Welsh Mountain (Section A) filly.
I have not touched a thing, well I did go to beading last night and strung more beads onto a necklace I thought looked a bit sparse. I havent beaded for ages. One of the pugs had to go to the vet as he has developed a hot spot on his head, it looks awful but will get better eventually. I dont have the trim I need to finish off the doll so that will have to wait, and I did start to sketch one of the awful melons that are weeds in our paddocks, but the flies started biting so I stopped that! Not very productive at all. I will sit tonight and play with a fabric book page I am thinking about, silk and a tiny bit of Honiton lace I have to go with a photo of my mother I have scanned as she had Honiton lace on her wedding dress. As she is 93 I thought it would be nice to do something about her.

Cloth Doll Workshop

I am back after a weekend away, and I missed my blog ramblings! I spent the week end in Adelaide at a workshop run by the American cloth dollmaker Barbara Willis, Barbara makes really old world elegant dolls and this one is lovely. She is called a memory doll and when I have finished her will have a box that opens to put little bits and pieces in. I need time to assemble the box but have her head and torso done, arms and legs done but not yet on. A very full on workshop, starting at 9 and finishing after 5. I then brought Barbara home here, for the night and morning and then back to Adelaide ( a 4 hour and a bit round trip) to get her on the plane for Perth late yesterday afternoon. We had a quick trip to Spotlight on the way to buy some ribbon and trims, well it can never be a quick trip so we were pushing it to get to the airport on time, but we managed it. I had stayd with Barbara when I was in San Francisco in 2001 so it was great to catch up. She is such a charming person and the best teacher, never fussed, just quietly gets on with things. We knew we wouldnt finish the doll in a 2 day workshop but I think all of us were well on the way. I will put up her toso and head.

fabric samples

Yesterday was one of those days in which much should have been done and wasnt. Phone calls, people coming, a foal with a spot in its eye and so the vet out, all conspired against me. Luckily the foal isnt too bad and only needs ointment but she and her mother will have to stay n the stables for a few days.
While I was waiting for the vet I had cut out another printing block from a foam meat try, actually I think this was a vegetable tray, and printed it out on some tea dyed calico using raw sienna acrylic paint mixed with textile medium. I am finding this an interesting exercise and have a few more "designs" to do. I like the idea of using the fairly rough look for doll bodies and then more embellishment over the top. So this is a scan of what I did yesterday.
Tomorrow I go up to Adelaide for a 2 day cloth doll class with Barbara Willis, so no blog for a while.
today has been spent getting all my class stuff together, as well as clothes etc and leaving things here a bit neat and tidy as Barb will come back with me on Sunday night. I think I may have said this before. how boring of me!

Victor Railway station

Yesterday we had 21 mm of rain, wonderful, the tanks are all full and the garden and the lawns are all growing and looking lush and green. We went to lunch in McLaren Vale, having bought some wine and then on up to Adelaide to have our hair cut and I went on to see my mother.
I was going through some older sketches in my book and thought I should do more in the town, this one of the railway station was done while having coffee one day. We have a steam train called the cockle train that runs through school holidays, and some weekends between Victor Harbor and Goolwa, called the cockle train because in the late 1800's it was used by people who went to collect the cockles from Goolwa beach and bring them back to sell, or I suppose just eat. We still go cockling, we must go soon to use as bait for fishing and sometimes to use in soup, but they are very sandy and must be flushed in clean water for quite a long time if you are going to eat them. We have very long surf beaches all around us, rather dangerous for both surfers and swimmers, both sharks and sudden rips make it interesting. Good for cockles tho'.

soup vegetables

Yesterday we walked on a beach close to us, no one around as school has gone back, low tides so the rocks in this surfing area were showing, not sure I would like to surf here. I havent been to this particular beach for soo long, and mostly it was when I was a teenager, all boobs and pubes and showing off the latest in skimpy bikinis. Well that was a long time ago, the thought of me in a bikini now is not a good one.
I felt I had better get on with my sketching, drawing doing something every day so drew the vegetables I was going to make soup with, I was quite pleased with them and then made a muck of it by drawing in the tiles on the back of the bench. I know not to do that next time. Again done with a waterproof pen and my derwent pencils with water added.
Spent most of the day moving pots around and tidying up a bit of neglected garden. Lots of wheelbarrow work and tugging and pulling. Stable manure on top hides a lot of mess and made it look tidy again.