a day to a week

A couple of weekends ago, I downed tools and took a Sunday away from my little studio room. My Mum and Stepdad drove north a few hours, Mr You and I drove south a few hours, and we met up at a little country town to spend a Winter's "exploring-Sunday" together.



It was so pretty, we jumped in one car and drove to lookouts and a waterfall. We perused the little shops in town, ogling the plentiful antiques, filling up at the old fashioned sweet shop, admiring the huge intricate wall mosaic and a lovely little gallery. We stopped for lunch at a gorgeous cafe, went for a walk in the sub-tropical rainforest, and took turns with the binoculars.

It felt so good to have a mini-holiday, filled with all the type of charm only a tiny country town can give.

Tomorrow we're heading on an actual holiday to Sydney to catch-up with friends and favourite haunts.

So I'll leave these images of the country to hold the fort, while I go and drench myself in a weeks worth of city!!!

See you in a week :)

pikazine

August PikaPackage has now officially launched! The PikaPackage Zine is available to download (although you get a printed copy in every PikaPackage). So see here for all the details! (or click on the button over in my side bar there).
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In the past few months doing all my paintings I had been seriously neglecting everything else. And conveniently forgot that I was doing so, resulting in a tidal wave of to-do's landing on me this week. Oops. Anyway, working hard getting through it all. I'm busy, but feeling that good buzzy accomplished feeling too. Onward.
I must say I'm really looking forward to my Sydney holiday next week :)

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One last note. My dear friend Elle's Grandma passed away this week. Losing Grand-folk is always terribly sad, they're such special family members (i miss mine something awful). So here's a big hug for Elle and her family. huuuuuuuuuuuug.

my weekend

This is: how I like to spend my weekend.



This was my weekend. How I like to spend my weekend is probably a bit different... although we did have a nice weekend... add some friends, falafel, and a band and I'd be set! Actually this time next week we'll be in Sydney and will have just spent a weekend with good friends, so next weekend will be how I like to spend weekends :)

Hope yours was lovely.

singing it from the treetops

I've mentioned PikaPackage before, when I got one of my own, but this time I've got even more to say...

For those of you who don't know, a PikaPackage (a brian child of Amy from Pikaland) is a monthly collection of goodies from illustrators and artists, all shuffled around, and bundled up into lucky dip packages for people like you and I to have and adore. I've sent in a bunch of stuff for the August PikaPackage, including giclee prints (large and small), postcards, encouragement card sets (more on those soon), and keyrings. Amy has written up a really lovely summary about my stuff here.

But don't worry about that, check out all the other amazing contributors this month!!!! (I've got my eye on that zine by Julia Pott).

Doesn't it all look so amazing?! Interested? Well, it just so happens that the August PikaPackage will be launched next week, and you'll be able to get one here. If you join the Pikaland mailing list or leave a comment before then you could be in the running to win one for free!

Not only is the actual PikaPackage wonderful, but the idea is great too. I have discovered so many new illustrators via both it and Pikaland in general. So, I'm not afraid to say it...
I love Pikaland! (singing it from the treetops)

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In other news, all my paintings and 4 years supply of bubble wrap, are now officially "shipped"! (singing it from the treetops)
Next is the anxious wait to hear that it has all arrived safely at the other end.

Also a HUGE thank-you to Mr You for constructing the most crush-proof box ever!
THANK-YOU! (singing that from the treetops too!)

And next, I climb down out of the tree, clear my throat and go to bed before midnight. And also catch-up, in general, on lots of stuff. :D

waratah

"What I'm making this week, holding it up under a lamp to get enough light, Wednesday"

This is the final 'sneak-peek' before all these ladies, birds and flowers shape-up and ship-out.

Can't stop to chat, too much still to be done.

Happy Wednesday. Hope it's been kind to you where ever you spent it.

flannel flowers in progress

This is: a work in progress.



This is my final painting (in various stages of progress) for the body of work I'll be sending to the exhibition at artstream gallery for September/October. I hope to finish painting this one by tonight. Next week is my final stretch before I ship all these works off to the grand old U.S. of A on Friday.

In the next few days I'll be documenting and mounting all of them, before wrapping them up with as many meters of bubble wrap that I can get my hands on, and packing them inside a giant flat screen TV box I picked up (sans giant TV) at a local electrical store... nice and sturdy. Then I'll be holding my breath and keeping my eyes shut tight until it all arrives safely in Rochester.

It's been a very busy couple of months working on this collection of paintings - the whole process has been a work in progress in itself. If I get all the fabric pieces finished next week, I will be sending 19 to 20 works in total. The best part has been feeling like a "real artist" drawing and painting every day, and working at a pace where I can't over-think things. Just go. Just do. It's been fun watching how one work leads to something new in the next. The most challenging part has just been the endurance it's taken. Knowing if I was going to get it all done I couldn't stop. Finishing one piece and having to start on the next one right away, without inbetween down-time. That was hard, especially in this last week.

But right now I'm on the home stretch and I'm so excited! I can't wait for the show to open! (I'm almost tempted to book a last minute flight to America just so I can be there!)

The show opens on the 5th September, but I'll mention it again when the time arrives, and I'll show the "sneak-peeks" in their entirety too. eeeeeeeep. I'm. So. Excited.


Thanks to Debbie from Kept in a Jar, for this week's topic.

for no particular reason

Last week the loveliest thing happened. I received a "for no particular reason" parcel!

On the same day that I mentioned my friend's new etsy shop here, she sent me a parcel. We must have been thinking of each other at the same time, arrrr :)

Anyway, it was a great surprise to get the parcel in the first place, but then it was SO beautiful I could hardly bare it. The parcel itself was wrapped in a vintage Italian Ballet poster. I honestly couldn't bring myself to open it, it was just too pretty. But then when Mr You lunged excitedly towards it with a pair of scissors I had to quickly rescue it, and open it carefully before he did any major damage.

Inside I found an intriguing looking book (The Book of Lost Things) with a beautiful embossed cover, and the most gorgeous summer dress. It's white and lemon coloured candy-striped cotton seersucker fabric, with pin-tucks, pockets and spaghetti straps, overall looking very pretty, elegant and vintage. It fits like a glove and I can't wait for Summer so I can flounce about in it :)

I still don't know why I was so lucky, but it made me very happy all the same.
Don't you just think friends are one of the top five things in life?

Anyway, just for that I'm going to plug her shop again. It's called a small ferret, and if it's anything like my parcel, a purchase would be worth it for the packaging alone!

passion flower

"What I'm making this week, holding it up under a lamp to get enough light, Wednesday" (a day late... of course)

Not long after we moved here an old friend came to visit and stay with us overnight. He's a pretty un-excitable person usually, so it was fun to see him get very excited about our new locality. He was overwhelmed at all the nature, and kept asking me what bird is that when we'd hear a bird chirp or sing. I reminded him I'm a city girl, I had moved to the inner suburbs of Sydney as soon as I left high school and had been there ever since, and although I take great notice of them, I still had no idea whatsoever about which birds were which.

Since starting on this body of work that's starting to change. I'm intentionally including elements from this new environment in my paintings, and have been researching to make sure I get the right species, etc. So I'm now learning the names of all this stuff and just how unique this region is in some aspects.

This new painting is bigger than the others. It has no bird, but instead features the flower of the passionfruit that's native to this stretch of coast. Passionfruit flowers come from all sorts of areas, but there are a few native to specific areas of Australia too. This one is less brightly coloured than the South American versions, but freakishly alien and amazing all the same.

There's also a quote by Iris Murdoch included in this painting:

"People from a planet without flowers would think we must be mad with joy the whole time to have such things about us."

Good isn't it? It really inspired me. Is it a sign of me getting old that I'm starting to take notice of flowers? I like to think I'm at least doing something a bit different with them...

trade secrets

This is: my trade secret.

Well it appears my trade secret is to do everything a day late these days... :) (not intentionally of course).

Gosh, I really don't think I have any trade secrets... here's a few facts:
1. I use a mechanical pencil to draw my illos. I say mechanical pencil, but it's actually a pacer pencil beloved since the late 80's.
2. I use watercolour paints from a tube, and then leave them to dry on my pallets so I can add water and recreate the same colours easily again later on.
3. I never stretch my watercolour paper before painting on it. I'm way too impatient. I spray the back of the paper with a fine mist of water after I've finished the painting, and then press in between layers of a bedsheet, under a very heavy board for 4 days. It works a treat! (Note this only works on good quality cotton-rag paper).

Oh, and a really great tip I picked up off someone else's blog a while back (sorry I can't remember who's tip it originally was), is to use the slim slivers of nearly used up soap bars as tailor's chalk. It gives super sharp lines, slides along a ruler beautifully, washes out, and makes your fabric smell lovely! Try it! I know you'll like it ;)
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Sorry for the late, un-pretty post. I've had a bad day which required neurofen early on, climaxed with a full cup of tea having an intimate meeting with my computer keyboard, followed by all sorts of malfunction and hurried replacements to attempt to get all my work done in time. Then there was a mega head-bang on the freezer door (not the Metallica kind), followed by a lump, and more pills, a phone call from my mum to tell me she's decided not to come and visit after all, and tears of stress at how much stuff I have to get done in the little time that the next two weeks holds. Phew.

Tomorrow will be SO much better. Right?

crossing the meme beam

On Tuesday I was separately tagged by Alexandra and Jesska with the very same meme!

Egon warned the other Ghostbusters that crossing the Proton Beams may cause "total protonic reversal" which is apparently very bad... Turns out it was the only was they were able to vanquish the giant Marshmallow Man in the end. Huh! Interesting.

So, with that litmus test done, I guess my being simultaneously caught by the crossing of two Meme Beam's won't necessarily end in disaster right?... Maybe I'll let you be the judge of that.

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Here are the rules:

1. Link to the person who “tagged” you.
2. Post the rules on your blog.
3. Write six random things about yourself.
4. Tag six people at the end of your post.
5. Let each person know that they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.
6. Let the tagger know your entry is up.
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6 Random Things About Me (I'm not doing 12)

1. I'm allergic to canaries

2. While face-painting at a fair once, a little boy asked me to paint his face like the back of a bus. I did, he was thrilled, his parents looked embarrassed. Be careful what you say around your kids people :)

3. My naturopath step-mother used to give me carob easter eggs. As a kid that was pretty devastating. But now I'm completely addicted to carob and would love to have all those eggs given to me these days :)

4. Following on from the previous point, I'm not into carob because I'm healthy - ho ho ho, no sir. It's only because I don't have a sweet tooth. I love dark chocolate and cake, but I can't bear to eat lollies or sugar filled chocolate. They're way too sweet for me.

5. Both my Dad and my Sister can raise one eyebrow. I cannot. I've taken photo's of myself when I thought I was doing it, only to see that my face looked normal, if not a little constipated.

6. Mr You claims I have lesbian seagull arms. No, I don't know what this means either (apparently it's a reference to a song). I just assume he means that they like each other very much and can sniff out a hot chip from miles off. As far as arms go, I'd say those are pretty handy traits for them to have. (no pun intended).

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Six people I am tagging:
- Victoria
- Anastasia
- Hila
- girl ferment
- Melanie
- Esti

(I've tried to choose people I haven't tagged with this meme before, so apologies if you have been).

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Thanks Alexandra and Jesska! :D