Memories of Roma Gorge, Northern Territory

Acrylic on paper. 50x60cm

Painting my home

Hills around home. Acrylic on paper. 50cmx70cm

Clouds

There are some beautiful cloudy skies around home at this time of the year. I love Turner's paintings and especially the way he paints his skies. They are so evocative, subtle and heroic. I couldn't attempt to paint a sky like his. It would always appear clumsy. Photos of the sky near home and images of Turner's skies - these two things totally unrelated really.

Idris Murphy. One of my favourite Australian landscape painters

http://youtu.be/Mq53w5URWxA
John Murray
http://youtu.be/zk9TPUOfCVM

Memories of the outback, Northern Territory

    Picasso

Emaile Nolde

Sketches of the Moonbi landscape near home

Sketches done at Floriade in Canberra

Memories of Chamber's Pillar country, Northern Territory

The new Picasso exhibition at the Art Gallery of New South Wales

Floriade

Floriade is Canberra's Spring flower festival.

 

I have recently returned from the Floriad festival in Canberra. For about a month areas near the lake are full of flowers and celebrations. Tulips feature prominently. I love the more complex and delicate flowers planted amongst the tulips. Night concerts with fairy lights scattered through the trees are magical. I have been drawing and painting flowers since.

Abstract Expressionists

http://youtu.be/N6sU6ft9Xjg

Aboriginal art

I have been collecting Aboriginal works of art for a while and love the unique view of family, people and land. The colour and abstraction are so fresh. One of the artists whose work I live with and love is Josie Kunoth Petyarre.

I don't have an image of the painting that I have but it is in some ways similar to this one. You can see from what she is wearing her love of colour.

On my trip last year to the East MacDonnell Ranges near Alice Springs I visited the Titjikala Art Centre in their community and saw the beautiful work being done there. Apart from paintings they had sculpture, the famous bush toys and beads. I bought some beads. Somehow they always seem too good to wear

The trip to the MacDonnell Ranges I am just starting to really understand artistically. I kept a journal/sketch book so might put parts of that on here. It deepens understanding of the art from the region to know where it came from.

http://youtu.be/Q3_mHJzxtgI

http://www.flickr.com/photos/ros2006/page3/
https://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Rosalie-Rigby/119529508057300

Colours of the foliage around home

http://youtu.be/yYz4jrwCii0

I did a pen and wash workshop with Ron Hindmarsh at the weekend. It was very challenging and an exercise in precision and realism mainly in drawing buildings. It was good to learn more and practise using perspective and drawing accurately. It is a completey different way of working from my usual style so I enjoyed being out of my comfort zone a bit.

I started painting last weekend in ernest after a long break. I had been sketching constantly and still am but I have started oil paintings. I am becoming more aware lately, however, of the health hazards of using oil painting mediums. I am painting scenes from my trip to Tasmania where the skies and stretches of sea were really beautiful. This is a quick sketch of one of the boatshed that line the beach at Bruny Island. Two of my sons and mysel spent four days there at Dennes Point at the northern end of the island.

"Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away." George Carlin

I have applied for a couple of artist residencies lately and have my fingers and toes crossed tightly. It would be wonderful to have a clear stretch of uninterrupted time in which to practice my art as well as participating in a vibrant artistic community. Meanwhile I am enjoying my small drawings and have started on a couple of oil paintings. I am going to have another sale of my much older work. This time I will hold it in Armidale. I am clearing out my art storage area.

I have just returned from a trip to Tasmania. I went with two of my sons to Hobart and Bruny Island to catch up with friends and family. Although cold it was a lovely trip. Tassie is still untouched and relatively undeveloped. Northern Bruny Island has a small strip of shacks along a long sandy beach. I was able to take many photographs and do some sketches. I am looking forward to paintings based on the incredibly beautiful skies and sea of the area.