Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

To all family, friends and fellow bloggers. Best wishes for the holiday season.

IF Phenomenon

The moon has always been a phenomenon. Mysteries, unexplained accidents and of course romance. This little seagull is hitching a ride by the light of the moon.

Workshop with Andrea Innocent

A few weeks ago before we finished our course on illustration, we enjoyed a workshop with Andrea, developing some small characters with felt and other materials. Andrea is a great artist with many good stories behind her works. Check her art out on her website. http://www.otoshimono.org/
Check out  our characters  on http://lilcreatures.blogspot.com/

Illustration Friday "Savour"

Just savour those lazy summer days on the beach, watching your children play in the sand. Time passes so quick.
I have lots of happy memories of those traditional holidays by the beach and last year in june  I watched my little grandson experience the joys of paddling and building sandcastles for the first time.

Colours in the Garden

It's spring again!

Illustration Friday "spooky"

Couldn't resist entering this week's illustration friday with this digital illustration. The background is the very spooky yorkshire moors with the milestone in the fore ground.

Whisps of fog across the night, invading the moon's shimmering light,
Obscuring the horrors of the night.

Illustration Friday "Beneath"

Beneath the stars and (Beneath the pigeon). Not a very good place to roost!
This was made using collage, drawing and photoshop. The picture is part of a series of drawings of a cat called Jack, an idea for a children's book.

Two Australian Birds

An Australian Magpie sings such a tuneful song, and a tiny blue wren that  hops amongst the bushes.

"Shameless" in St Kilda

It's been a busy week with the exhibition opening on tuesday evening. Everybody had a great time and the atmosphere was really electric with a friendly crowd. Terry Denton opened the exhibition giving awards to some of the well deserving exhibitors. Unfortunately my camera batteries were completely flat on the night. These pics were taken a couple of days later.

Illustration Friday "immovable"

Who is going to move first!
This was a small drawing in my sketchbook.

"Shameless" our exhibition

It's been very busy these last few weeks as we are preparing for our exhibition. It's called "shameless" after the fact we are all graduating, and shamelessly self promoting our work. Opening night is on tuesday 7th september 6pm to 8pm at Brightspace in St kilda.
Rebecca Fitzgerald painted the great illustration on the promotion card.

Illustration Friday "Caged"

Caged birds no more!
Also called "Bad Hair Day"

Millenium Bridge

Happy Holidays

Sorry for not posting for a while , I've just returned from a great holiday catching up with family and friends. A couple of weeks in sunny england mainly in London and Yorkshire, and a week in Portugal.

City Walk

After a hectic week trying to finish work on my course, I needed a change and some fresh air. We decided on a trip to the botanic gardens in Melbourne. There's always something going on and lunch by the lake is always enjoyable. Lots of inspiring plants to look at. The fig tree and the red hot pokers were great and the succulent gardens with the barrel cacti.

Illustration Friday "Trail'

They followed the trail of mist that weaved between the trees before the night set in.

Another Scruffy Dog

Another scruffy dog, have been experimenting with textured backgrounds. A friend commented that this little dog looks piggy.

Scruffy Dog

Have been busy in class this week sketching lots of dirty dogs, here's one of them. It's not easy to show the fleas.

Autumn Colours

  
We have had some welcome rain this year, after a few years of drought. My garden is flourishing and its a pleasure to see all the new buds on the native plants. The honeyeaters are really enjoying the banquet, which keeps them well fed during the winter months.

Illustration Friday " Fearless"

This little monster is fearless when he comes face to face with a spider.

Feature Artist Karen Erasmus

My friend Karen does really beautiful spontaneous drawings and very soft portraits,  I thought I would share with you. Karen won an award with her cut work piece. I really don't know how she manages to create so much with her busy family of three young  girls, a dog and her chucks.
http://karenerasmus.wordpress.com

En Plein Air

Enjoyed a great day painting at Stony Point yesterday. The weather was perfect and the views were amazing. There was a large group of black swans and pelicans feeding in the mud flats. I took my sketch book and watercolour paints and made quite a few quick drawings.

Ilustration Friday "Detective"

You don't need to be a detective to know who stole the chickens!

Chilli peppers

We seem to have an abundance of chillis this year, any ideas on what we can do with them!

Weekend break

Just returned from a few days in the country. We had a great time with friends and perfect weather too. Our other friends the kangaroos came down to the creek each evening to feed on the grass. This old pepper tree was so gnarled , I had to take a pic of it. One of the days was spent at the Chinese" Awakening of the lion " festival in Bendigo. We really enjoyed the Blues festival too. It was a great atmosphere with people dancing in the street.

Illustration Friday " Expired"

Canberra

Just returned from a few days in Canberra. It was a group trip  associated with the course I'm doing, to see the exhibition of the post impressionists from the Musee D'orsay in Paris. We had a great time as the exhibition was well worth the ten hour trip on a bus. One of the highlights was seeing a couple of fruit bats outside our bedroom window. It's a shame I coudn't take a better photo of them as they were too far away for my small camera. The other photos are of the war museum in Canberra.

Illustration Friday " Perspective"

When you are looking for a mate, it puts life into perspective.
The blue wren is one of the smallest birds in australia. The male changes colour to blue in spring, to attract the female. They are sociable little birds and I love watching them hopping around in the bush.

Inspiration

I often take photos to give me some ideas for paintings. These are some of my favourites.

Small paintings for the new exhibition at the Continental Hotel Sorrento

Focused for Illustration Friday

This week's word is Focused. Thought I would enter my rabbit sketch and watercolour as rabbits tend to focus on the food they eat and nothing much else except perhaps other rabbits.

The illustration was used in my small book, the subject being environmental issues facing Australia. The rabbit population being a real problem as an introduced species, that causes erosion to the land.

Wilsons Prom

A short weekend on the prom fueled my inspiration. The extent of the fires last summer were a shock, but it was good to see the regrowth coming through so quickly. The rocks on the beach were amazing with the unusual colours and texture. The grass trees on our Lilly Pilly walk were all flowering , brought on by the fires no doubt.

Weekend on the Prom

Illustration Friday "Confined"

At last some quiet moments after a busy couple of weeks. Decided to enter this weeks IF with an old sketch of red shoes and some digital work. Most women will agree that fashion shoes are "confined".