Fairy Wrens
Contemplation Simplicity Forever Watching
Magnificence
My entries into the Watercolour Society of Queensland Annual Art Exhibition 9-12th of September at The Brisbane Botanical Gardens, 152 Mt Coot-tha Rd, Qld
Exciting news.
I have once again been choosen as a Finalist in this years Australian Watercolour Muster. This is an exhibition which call all Australian Artists to contribute art works to be judged by a Jury for the top 32 artists to hopefully represent Australia in Fabriano, Italy at Fabriano in Acquarello. 80 countries are now represented in this prestigious Exhibition held every year in May. The last few years have been hampered by Covid so they have run it virtually as many things are nowadays.
The exhibition for the Muster is to be held in Cairns, Qld Australia at the Old Courthouse where the 32 chosen works will be on display from 11th September to 23rd Oct. I put in 7 entries and am so proud to have one of them chosen. There were a few categories being a free size category, an experimental category (using watercolour on different substrates and mixed media) The main category was to be painted on a set size format 56 x 38cm to be in for the chance to be chosen to have works go to Fabriano in Italy should it all go ahead in 2022
A small selection of new artworks added to my collection in the last few months. For more details on these artworks, go to the main gallery.
I Hope you enjoy
Me back again,
Well it has been a hard year gone by for all of us. Thank goodness for art hey? I have been busy producing a few new works for the gallery and hope you all take the time to look and please contact me if you are interested in my works or want something similar.
I have also been teaching a lot over the first few months of this year, it seems the class environment has not completely died. It looks to improve as we all come out of the gloom that 2020 reigned on us.
Art is great for the soul and our mental stability especially in hard times. I love sharing mine and teaching the things I know to others. Of course I like selling my pieces. It gives me great satisfaction to think it makes someone else happy as well.
This year is the year for trying something new. I will be experimenting with my work and all the successes will end up on this page for you all to see.
Here are some of my new works.
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So you see the work is varied.
Hello,
Well the end of the year is very near and I am sure everyone is looking forward to beginning another. I sure am!
I have been busy with teaching a few workshops both local and away. I have started a collaboration with a local venue called The Workshop Bar. This venue hosts artists and tutors to conduct their particular workshop in a very adaptable environment. I hope to be able to post some upcoming dates for my workshops in the new year.
I have just completed a workshop at Wandoan State School at their invitation. It was a great success and the kids all enjoyed the fun of learning to use watercolour. It was very hot there though, 45.5 degrees C. A bit of a shock to the system but air con is a great thing.
So, in doing all these away things, I have not knuckled down to do some painting for myself of late but have sold a few which is always nice when Christmas is looming only weeks away.
I have managed to paint a quick little painting 
of a Scarlet Macaw just to keep my hand in.
Added a few more artworks to the collection. Hope you like them.
A new addition to my art Portfolio. A fun Piece using mixed media, gesso and watercolour.
Hope you like it
So, I have had a little downtime from painting for a little while and as a fun thing to do to get me back in the groove, I decided to paint some Sunflowers, the reference being sunflowers I had bought myself as I love them.
I drew them up on some watercolour paper and then decided to continue in the same vane as my floral series I have been painting on and off for a few months now. I am going to show you some of the process here if anyone is interested. These are the steps I would do for teaching a class.
I start off with ruling a 'box' around the subject to give it a background so the subject looks like it is in front of a window. This seems to make the subject pop out. The next step is to fill in the inside of the box and around the subject. I use 2 complimentary colours and apply this like a jigsaw around the main subject and let the paint and water do their thing.
When this step is fully dry, the painting of the subject begins. (Fig.1) I painted 1 of the flowers and then went on to paint the leaves, varying the colour using a wet in wet approach. With the flower petals, I just blocked them in droping a darker yellow to give some shadow here and there. (Fig. 2) The middle of the bloom was done in a stippling manner using a mixture of 2 browns to add interest.
The next steps are to repeat the flower process on all the blooms. When painting the leaves, try and alternate as painting all the leaves side by side will result in each one bleeding into each other and you loose the definition. Also vary the greens to make them interesting. At this point all the painting part is complete(Fig.3)
Fig. 1 
Fig. 2 
Fig. 3 
Fig. 4
The final step, and the one that brought this little painting together was applying some pen work to add a little more detail and to put a more solid border around the box. (Fig.4)
I hope you found this little process interesting. I had fun putting it all together. The finished Painting is listed on my main page. Enjoy
Hi again,
Being an artist is very rewarding for self and giving something of yourself in the way of a visual story. Do we get satisfaction from what we do? the answer for me, is a big fat YES!
We go about creating pretty much every day, firstly for ourselves but then we want to share, especially if the creation comes together and you get that all familiar thrill that what is there in front of you, what you have created, is actually not too bad. Then the self doubt comes in... What if it is only me who sees it as a good piece of work? Let's gauge it by putting it up on social media.... So you do and see where the comments come from. We all do it I am sure. Then a competition comes up so you think about entering. The waiting begins and the self doubt creeps in again just a little. The deadline for all entries comes to a close and you wait for 'that email' or 'that phone call' to tell you 'YES' or "NO' about making the cut. I am always overjoyed just to make it through that and that my work will hang for all to see.
When you have struggled to hone your skills and learnt as much as you can to get yourself to a point where you give yourself permission to enter your work along with the artists you have held in awe for so long and actually have this work hang alongside theirs, it is a very special feeling. You have to be in to win, right?
I learn so much from this process and am still learning, taking courses to better my skills. You are always in the mercy of the judges for the final part of the journey.
Well, again, I made the cut and happy to say I am a finalist in the AUSTRALIAN WATERCOLOUR MUSTER 2020. I am honoured to have had 2 entries chosen this time around. I made it last year as well with 1 entry.
Originally this competition was to choose 33 Australian artists to be chosen to represent our country with 80 other countries at Fabriano in Acquarello, held annually in Fabriano Italy. Due to Covid 19 this was shown as a digital event but projected via social media to the world that way. Unfortunately this may be the case again in 2021 so we have to wait and see . This year the format was a little different whereby there were a few more categories to enter. The painting format for Fabriano is watercolour on paper that is a specific size 56 x 38cm. This time that category pluse a few others like 2 categories using different substrates and not restricted to the size confines. I entered 5 and had my watercolour on paper entry and an experimental chosen as finalists. My works are below
Colours of the Landscape 36 x 26cm Wild Magnolia 56 x 38cm
For information on any of my art, please contact me on 0403520422
