The Sea, The Road, Hands, Flowers and Dreams - March 2019

~ Life is available only in the present moment. If you abandon the present moment you cannot live the moments of your daily life deeply. ~Thich Nhat Hanh

The Long White Line 1: And the road goes on for ever.

The Long White Line 2: Send me a post card when you get there. 
Acrylic on 133x190mm paper.

The Long White Line 3: When the lines get blurred. 
Acrylic on 133x190mm paper. 

The Long White Line 4: White line singing blues. 

Acrylic on 133x190mm paper. 

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Red Dress Smile: Underneath the Poinciana Tree'. 

Acrylic on A4 paper.

'I never thought I'd seen you again

Where have you been until now?

Well how are you? how have you been?

It's a long time since we last met

It seems like yesterday when I

First saw you in your red dress smile

How could I forget that day

I know that time spent well is so rare...' 

- Bryan Ferry.

The little green tree snake and the big green tree frog make an appearance as in the painting below, but they decided to stay in the background (in the tree) this time.

I am I Said (The Small Green Tree Snake). 
Acrylic on 133x190mm paper.

There used to be an old  Mango tree (I think) that grew from almost under the house when I was about 12 - 15, so that as it grew, it turned out towards the light, then back toward the window of my bedroom. One night a small green tree snake decided to visit. On my wall I'd cut out and stuck the words, 'I am, I said' above my window, after the title of a Neil Diamond song I liked. This is an imagined painting of that event I've always wanted to try. You may see more as you look. 

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The Red Shoes: Scoffing.  

Acrylic on 133x190mm paper.

Maybe eating sushi, maybe a surprise, maybe a secret, maybe playing harmonica... but whatever it is, it’s good.

Walking in Papa's Shoes. 

Acrylic on 133x190mm paper. 

Rain droplets on Sedum Flower. 

Acrylic on 133x190mm paper.

                    

                            

Last of the Summer Sun: The Sun Worshipers. Painting 2. 
Acrylic on 133x190mm paper. 

                             

Ocean Road.
Acrylic, A4 paper.  

 The Button
Pencil, A4 paper.  

 Last of the Summer Sun: The Sun Worshipers. Painting 1.
Acrylic, A4 paper.  

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Grans Little Pink Jug 1

Acrylic, A4 paper.  

;)

Grandma's Hands. 

Acrylic on 133x190mm paper. 

'Grandma's hands

Clapped in church on Sunday morning

Grandma's hands
Played a tambourine so well
Grandma's hands
Used to issue out a warning
She'd say, "Billy don't you run so fast
Might fall on a piece of glass
"Might be snakes there in that grass"
Grandma's hands...' ~ Lyrics: Bill Withers.

Ordinary lives, ordinary things, familiar places - the stuff of life - the cycles, the interconectedness of life on this planet, is the philosophy behind what I try to recreate in my artwork; be they drawings, paintings or other 
works. Enjoy

Kids and a Cat February - 2019

~Live in the sunshine, swim the sea, drink the wild air.~

 Ralph Waldo Emerson

Jayke is around 18yo. I did a quick sketch of him sitting in the morning sun, as he often like to do theses days.

 A sketch up for painting of children on beach.

This was going to be a painting, but decided it looked good as a drawing in itself. The painting will come later.

Ordinary lives, ordinary things - the stuff of life - the cycles, the interconectedness of life on this planet, is the philosophy behind what I try to recreate in my artwork; be they drawings, paintings or other works. Enjoy

Valentines Day - February 2019

~ When you have nobody you can make a cup of tea for, when nobody needs you, that's when I think life is over.~

                                                                                                                                                          Audrey Hepburn

Brunswick Green - Valentines Day. 

Acrylic on A4 Paper

Another painting in two days. The title is a reference to the paint colour of that era housing and to Melbourne where the original photo was taken and there is a suburb of that name. Later I found out there is a pub in Brunswick named The Brunswick Green (though the original photo was taken in Fitzroy, not Brunswick). Later, I found out there is one also a pub in Hobart called the Brunswick with similar colour, that I'd once been too... 

I have included images here from start to finish of process, in descending order.

                                     

Ordinary lives, ordinary things, familiar places - the stuff of life - the cycles, the interconectedness of life on this planet, is the philosophy behind what I try to recreate in my artwork; be they drawings, paintings or other works. Enjoy

The Red Dress 1 - January 2019

~ Strawberry Fields Forever ~

J.L.

The Red Dress 1 - Strawberries and Cream. Drawing with red oil wash. A4
There are two more works in progress that will form a series of Red Dress drawings with mostly red wash.


Ordinary lives, ordinary things, familiar places - the stuff of life - the cycles, the interconectedness of life on this planet, is the philosophy behind what I try to recreate in my artwork; be they drawings, paintings or other works. Enjoy

Places of Water, and Rainbow Ribbons. - Jan 2019

~ You must live in the present, launch yourself on every wave, find your eternity in each moment ~ Henry David Thoreau

         Sea Lion                         

Close up of completed work.



These portraits, Sea Lion and Rainbow Ribbon, are the beginnings of another stage of my work. They are an attempt at doing a painting in two days or less. I need to have ways of working quickly to keep producing. I ahve been looking forward to paint in this way and to see the results. My second attempt, Sea Lion, is already better than my first, Rainbow Ribbon, and came more easily to me. The next post will be the entire image completed. 

My drawings of the past months were the first stage in my vision for my artwork - 'The Drawing-A-Day Challenge' which I have been posting on my facebook page. Again, I needed a way to be able to do my artwork regardless of what is going on in my life. Whilst I always look forward to drawing as often as possible - whether 1 or sometimes 4 in a day - I miss painitng after a while. 
I began to wonder about how to set myself up with painting equipment that would not take long to put up or dismantle or do. I need to get a good size painting box/easle that carries everything needed for small works, so that when i am travelling or away, I can take it with me or just open it up, do some and put it away again. 

In the meantime, I set my work up anyway, and I have begun to paint these small quick images regardles. In the end, working at it and making the art is the only way to get better and get the art work out there!

                                Sea Lion - Close up of w.i.p.

~ 'The true harvest of my life is intangible - a little star dust caught, a portion of the rainbow I have clutched.' ~ Henry David Thoreau

 Rainbow Ribbon. 

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~ 'Would you see your mind, look at the sky. Would you know your moods, be weather-wise. He whom the weather disappoints, disappoints himself.' ~ H.D.T

'Place of Water, Winter Morning.' Oct 2018 - Jan 2019

Pretty much done with this one after too long. The colours and light are better in the original than my photo - I really must learn to take better photos of my work! 

Ordinary lives, ordinary things - the stuff of life - the cycles, the interconectedness of life on this planet, is the philosophy behind what I try to recreate in my artwork; be they drawings, paintings or other works. Enjoy

'Not So Sure About This - High Five, Santa', and 'Blogging 101' - Jan 2019

Not So Sure About This - High Five, Santa. 04-01-19

Ordinary lives, ordinary things - the stuff of life - the cycles, the interconectedness of life on this planet, is the philosophy behind what I try to recreate in my artwork; be they drawings, paintings or other works. Enjoy

How to Blog 101
I just got the best advice from Artist Photographer, Thomas Ryan about blogging. I had done everything, I thought possible with my blog. For the past 6 or more years I put images on there of my work, for the most part every few weeks, sometimes more. I write a few words about the artwork and every now and then I change the look of the layout. Not one response in all that time. It was obviously not enough! 

Seeing links on the WWW: Apparently images don't work so well when people want to find you on the WWW, Thomas Ryan explained to me (he possibly tried years ago, but I didn't get it or I didn't know there was even a question to ask about what I was doing wrong!). I'd made my blog and made it public, what else could I do? This is what Thomas Ryan taught me: It seems, one of the contributing factors as to how someone notices your blog, is phrases and words and sentences, especially repeated ones, that come up in people's searches. From there, someone potentially notices something they are interested in. I am guessing that the frequency of how often you post 'words' may also be a factor in whether people see your blog - as well as the repetition. Now it all makes more sense.

I know to most all this may be obvious when it comes to blogging, but if you don't know what you are doing wrong, or that there is something wrong with what you are doing, you don't know what to ask, or that there is a question to ask in the first place! It also makes sense to me now why when you search for info and find a link, there are words and sentences from the link/ blog underneath and why we use those to guide us to what we are looking for on the net. I really thought it was the blog title and that's all, people would have to look for, and well, it must be just good luck that people find you. 

Consistency and Content: Another important factor of blogging is 'consistency and content' to quote Mark E Shellshear, artist, gallery owner and successful blogger. Consistency - a type of repetition as I see it, and Content - the quality of what you do in the blog - make people want to come back for more if what they see holds their interest.

Obviously understanding and applying this knowledge, doesn't mean I'll suddenly get more responses to my blog, but at least I've increased the chances that my blog is more obvious to people out there on the big WWW! 
Now lets see if I can also apply the consistency and content model from here on in!

The Challenge - Jan 2019

To be inspired or not to be inspired? Get inspired and challenged to do one thing you love each day for one solid hour - or in pieces throughout the day - whatever works, but just do it: Do a drawing/ painting, or read a page of a book, or write a page of a book, or play guitar, or create a meal, or work an hour in your beloved garden, or sew, make or build part of something each day... 🤩 
With love from the Drawing-A-Day Challege and Bee Garden Artist @: https://www.facebook.com/BeeGardenArtist/

On second thoughts, don't wait to be inspired, just be challenged,  just do it - like work - the inspiration comes after. It's our craft, our work, our job. If we wait for inspiration and the right time, it just helps us make excuses as to why we are unable to try.  

Not a great one, but a trial with water colour pencils. Drawn and painted dec 2018 sometime.

Ordinary lives, ordinary things - the stuff of life - the cycles, the interconectedness of life on this planet, is the philosophy behind what I try to recreate in my artwork; be they drawings, paintings or other works. Enjoy

And something I learned today: I finally got the hang of how blogs work - well sort of- after 6 or so years of posting pictures and not manyy words. Apparently you need to do lots of words and it helps to repeat some things - i.e. stuff about what your blog is about; that's the way people see things on the WWW when they are searching using a word or groups of words in search of things. So to new beginings. Lets see how this goes. (Either way it won't stop me working at my craft!)