APR, eek!! Still life x 5.

Well our lovely Jenn

sure knows how to close the year with a bang.

One of the things I most dread

is the old still life.

Now this week has been crazy, mad, insane

and any other words you can think of.

You see my eldest has turned 21

and she is having a party tomorrow,

so of course I am running around like a nutter

trying to get ready and make table decorations etc.

So the chances of me doing a still life with 5 items

are nil, nada and nutt.

I went through my area of old canvasses

that didn't make the grade and 

decided to let you see my more

embarrassing moments in paint.

Many years ago, I decided to try a painting lesson.

Now I thought a painting lesson meant just that, a painting lesson, 

as in a teacher who showed you what to do.

Boy was I wrong.

I got there and she went through my goody bag

and said "We don't use pencils or crayons of any kind here,

you just get out your paints and paint".

Panic set in and I said that I hadn't been taught how

but she just said do your best.

She plonked this table with some bits on and said

you have and hour now go.

I had oil paints!!!

So, I give you my way out of perspective,

conglomerate of things,

five if you count everything in the picture,

for this last APR for the year.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to everyone, 

this is my last post for 2012.

See you in 2013.

To see some proper still life's

go to Jenn's 

Artist's Playroom

and see how it should be done.

 

 

My last WOYWW for 2012

Life is super crazy and hectic at the moment.

My eldest miss was 21 on Tuesday

and the big party is on this Saturday,

My girlfriend, also the girls godmother,

arrived from wet old England last Saturday

and the poor thing hasn't had a moments rest.

This week has comprised of

running around like headless chooks,

trying to organise things for the party

and get bits n pieces for table decorations etc.

Plus my little miss had exams and projects due.

Today we went to school for a party in the German room

and then straight on to the shops to get

195 photos printed,

yes,

that was 195 photos.

My kids have put me through all sorts of things and now

I get to seek revenge!!

Every photo is of an embarrassing moment

in my big misses life

and unknown to her,

I have an 8" x 10" 

of her sitting on the toilet

a few years back, when she refused to shut the door.

It will have pride of place on the wall of shame.

Mwa ha ha.

In the midst of all this chaos,

I had two orders for pet portraits

and I have been stealing moments

to do them and

keep a little sanity.

I'm getting there slowly.

As my little miss is finishing school for the year

next week,

this will be my last

WOYWW

for 2012.

I will be back in Jan 2013.

I would like to wish 

all my fellow bloggers

a wonderful and safe

Christmas

and a happy New Year.

I will be visiting blogs 

 when I can

during the summer holidays.

Have fun

and now go and check 

the other desks

around the world,

at Julia's

Stamping Ground.

I hope all the English bloggers

are safe and well

in all that terrible weather.

APR Turkey Day

Artists Playroom's theme this week is

Turkey Day.

Now that conjures up all sorts of ideas.

I could paint half my family,  they are right turkeys

but I only have a little while

so I thought of the closest thing we have to a turkey

and that is one of our chooks.

This is Noodles,

one of our three delinquent chooks.

I used to have a nice garden with straw bedding 

and a lawn and vegie patch.

Then came the three innocent looking

horrors.

Within a week they had destroyed

or eaten most of my garden.

After a rather hurried trip to the hardware,

we now have a garden split into two.

One half for us and one half for the chooks.

You might say keep them in a chook house

but when you look into those beautiful brown eyes,

there is no way you can keep them cooped up (parden the pun).

My little miss loves these terrors and each afternoon

she lets them out into our side of the garden,

with the promise to keep an eye on them.

Oh sure she will.

Most afternoons, I let out a yell and grab the water spray bottle

(they hate getting squirted)

and chase them off of our outdoor couch.

For some reason they think that we paid all that money 

for the couch, just to that they can sit comfortably 

and enjoy the view.

If they didn't poop and drop half the garden on the couch

I wouldn't mind so much.

On the plus side they do give us three eggs a day

but at 5.30am

they sure let us know about it!!

So they are my idea of

right turkeys

and I think they fit the theme 

well.

Go have a look at the other turkeys,
that's the art not the people,
over at Jenn's
Artist's Playroom.
You'll be glad you did.

Cleaning for WOYWW

I've been flat out scrubbing and spring cleaning

my house and no art has been done

for nearly two weeks now.

I'm having terrible art withdrawals

and so I've had a very quick dabble.

The postman bought a few goodies for me in the week

and I have to blame my bloggy friends

for making me buy these.

Yes that's right,

I've bought some stamps, an ink pad

and some Dylusions inks.

I keep seeing the gorgeous things that are made with these

things and have succumbed to temptation.

Only trouble is, I don't have time to play with them as I'm flat out cleaning.

Living by the sea is wonderful but you get all the dirt and salt

from the seafront and that builds up during winter.

I got out my trusty pressure washer and 

nothing, it had given up the ghost.

After a lot of swearing and hand gestures,

my husband gave in and we went out and bought a new one.

This is my new best friend.

She is one powerful cleaner

and now they have attachments,

lots of attachments (mwa ha ha).

There is a big round brushy thingy and all you do

is sweep from side to side and the dirt

and chicken poo disappears,

just like magic.

It's fantastic to use and takes half the time,

so I quickly drew her

for you all to see.

I used my new ink for the yellow,

just because I can.

The colours are so bright,

I can't wait to start playing with them.

But not for a while,

it's back to the cleaning for me.

Why not hop over to Julia's

Stamping Ground and see

what other people have on their desks,

this

What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday.

Now where's that mop.

Sunset for APR

Today I went down memory lane.

My eldest daughter is turning 21 in a few weeks

and I have been trawling through

thousands of photos to find the embarrassing ones,

as well as some cuties.

The photos brought back such lovely memories

and it reminded me why an artist is so important.

An artist captures a memory,

so that we can remember an event,

time or place. 

A painting is often a stepping stone

for memories to come flooding back.

This weeks APR theme is sunsets

and this is the sunset I see each day.

We live on a bay on the east coast of Australia

but we look back towards the west

and this is the sunset over Manly.

We are not lucky enough to have a beach

and so it's over the mud flats.

I have had this view since I was 15 years old

(mum and dad still live just up the road)

and I have so many memories

of this area.

It's where I grew up and where my kids have grown up

and luckily the view hasn't changed.

So here is my sunset,

painted very loosely,

with a very naughty curly bit of paper.

It's a little sploshy

but I kinda like it that way.

To see what other people have done

for sunset,

hop on over to 

Jenn's

Artist's Playroom.

I have a thousand more photos 

to go through.

One of those days for WOYWW

Yes people,

I am having one of 'those' days today.

It started out with the Lotto,

we didn't win, bummer.  It was up to $100 million.

A rather poor and forlorn hubby left for work this morning,

no retirement yet.

Next, the pool needed topping up after the winds

we have had for weeks, without any rain to speak of.

I put the hose in the pool, turned around

and the darn thing leapt out of the water,

spun around and soaked me. 

I swear I heard it laughing until I hit it with a brick

and held it under the water.

Take that hosepipe!

I went out to give the chickens some food and

they had pooped on my shoes.

I have two pairs (see I'm not silly)

and they had pooped on two of them,

luckily on two different feet, so I still had one pair to wear.

Might leave the pooped on ones and see who puts them on 

without looking (he he).

Now onto my art room,

oh yes, that didn't escape my troubled day either.

I tried to add some things to my Etsy shop and it wouldn't work no matter

what I tried.  Closed down the machine and rebooted etc,

two hours later I had them in.

Not to be outdone I decided to get a start on this weeks APR,

but when I started painting, it started curling.

I am trying to hold it down and paint at the same time.

Plus, I am doing a doggy painting at the same time,

just waiting to paint the wrong thing on the wrong paper,

the way this day is going.

Gotta laugh haven't you. Hope tomorrow is better.

 

 

 You can see the curl on the paper in this photo.  

It doesn't usually do that, just seem to be the day for it.

The doggy still has a way to go but I am happy 

with its progress.

I finished my staircase from last week

and if anyone wants to see it,

the post is here.

Something wonderful did happen this week.

I received this beautiful wall hanging

from Judy at Judy's Fabrications.

 

 It was a prize I won.

Just look at all the detail in that.

Thank you so much Judy, it is so beautiful.

I'm going to be brave and do some more to the curly painting now.

So why don't you have a look at all the other desks

around the world this wednesday

at Julia's Stamping Ground

and keep smiling.

Shadowy scarecase for APR

This weeks theme for APR on Halloween week

is Shadow.

I thought it might be fun to leave something

for the spooky imagination

and drew a shadowy

staircase scarecase (mwa ha ha).

Who knows what lies in wait

at the top.

Is that a footstep????

ARGH!!!  

Had you going there didn't I.

I have to admit, dark and shadowy stairs

give me the creeps.

I hate going downstairs at my house

in the dark.

I also did a creepy forest ages ago,

as a prop for a speech little Miss was doing at

school.

This was charcoal on dark paper and a stick on moon.

Needless to say, little Miss wanted to have a go at the charcoal

and it ended up everywhere.

I thought you might like to see how I did the stairs,

so here are a heap of pics

as I went along.

I drew it up and then decided on the colours for the wall and the curtain.  (sorry it's dark a storm was passing, darn thing didn't give us any rain).

The arch was hand drawn and painted, that's why it's so wonky, just like the artist :)

Then added the black to give it a bit of drama
and scariness.

Then I started to colour the blocks and stairs.  This is where I  left it yesterday.


Stay awake now, nearly done.

I have added some gray to give it more definition and then I will slowly darken it
to give it more dimension.

I've darkened the inside of the arch and fluffed around darkening bits all over the place.

It's pretty much finished here, just a few little bits around the curtains

and it's done.

See, it's easy.

The whole painting was done

using these paints, brushes and

a whole lot of swear words!!

Now you can go and do your own spooky staircase, but before you do,

how about you go and visit Jenn's

Artist's Play Room

and see what fabulous things everyone did for 

Shadows.

Dark and shadowy for WOYWW

Here's my desk mess this week.

I sometimes wonder how on earth I manage

to paint in that, but I am a grot

and can't create if I'm not surrounded

by mess.

That big mess on the wall at the right

is my telephone directory.

I don't have a little book to keep phone numbers in

so I just write a phone number on a piece of paper and staple it

to the last one I put up there.

Sounds crazy but I always seem to find the number I need.

The bits on the clips on the wall 

are school notes for Little Miss

and the rest is my mess.

 

I am doing a dark and shadowy painting for APR

this week.

The theme is shadows.

It's still at the rough in stage

but will be a staircase disappearing into the darkness

when it's finished.

I will be posting the finished picture 

along with a few photos

of the painting as it progresses

later in the week.

Well, this painting won't finish itself,

so I had better keep going.

Now you've seen my mess for the week,

hop on over to Julia's

Stamping Ground

and see what all the others

have on their desks

this wednesday.

I hope all the bloggers on the east coast of America

are all safe and well

in that awful storm.

A pair of ballet shoes for APR

I'm in doggy mode at the moment.

I'm half way through a dog portrait 

and I have another waiting to be 

done, so I have to go down my 

drawers to find an old piece of art that can fit

this weeks APR theme of Pairs.

I think I did quite well with this pair of ballet shoes

in oil pastels.

 

Now a ballet dancer I certainly am not,

nor will ever be.

I am the true meaning of fairy elephant.

I was sporty in my younger days,

playing tennis, squash, volleyball

and roller skating but ladylike

and a delicate ballet type

I was not.

When I jumped for a ball or hit a tennis ball,

my legs would go in all directions and bodyparts

would fly and collect any poor soul who was brave enough to

stand next to me.

Don't get me wrong, I was really good at sport,

I just had (as my PE teacher called it)

a very unusual style.

Which I think meant klutz.

I have a friend who was a professional ballerina.

She was so dainty and still is, then there was me,

arms and legs everywhere.

So I guess the best I can do is draw those ballerina shoes

cos I'm never going to be

a dainty ballerina,

just daggy old me.

And I'm happy with that.

Because I'm a fishy person at heart,

I just had to add one more 'pair'.

A pair of angel fish in water colour pencil.

I'm going back to my doggy painting,

so why no hop on over to Jenn's

Artist's Playroom

and see what other pairs

are there.

 

Another doggy for WOYWW

I am painting another doggy

on this wonderful

What's On your Work desk Wednesday,

hosted by the fabulous

Julia over at the Stamping Ground.

I am just roughing him in

so there isn't much to see yet.

Here is a close up

There is only black and gray at the moment,

next comes his blonde moustache. 

I am just starting the eyes so they look a little freaky at the moment.

I also finished gorgeous little Berkley the parrot

and here she is.

If you were visiting last week,

I promised to put up a picture of the doggy

I had finished and here it is.

Well that's it, I have to keep it short and sweet this week

as I still have heaps to get done.

So now you've seen what I've been up to,

why not hop on over to Julia's 

and see what everyone else has been

doing this wednesday.

I am sorry if I didn't get to return visits last week,

I had no power on friday, thanks to a naughty council worker

and a backhoe and I had visitors from Sydney on the weekend,

plus it was a pupil free day on monday, so no time for me

to do much at all.