When life gives you lemons, draw them, 11 x 14 inches dry pastels, graphite on paper

"When life gives you lemons, draw them". (Nikki)

"...the painting has a life of its own. My mission is to bring forth this life". (Jackson Pollock)

"Trust your intuition, it's just like goin' fishin'; you cast your line 'til you get a bite." (Paul Simon)

Australia

Kookaburrahs

Saturday, May 23rd, 2009

 Kookaburrahs, 11 x 11 x 3 acrylics on canvas, gallery wrapped sides painted

Kookaburrahs, 11 x11 x 3 inches acrylics on canvas, gallery wrapped sides painted - finished today

 Kookaburrahs, 11 x11 x 3 inches, phase 1 work in progress.Kookaburrahs, 11 x11 x 3inches, phase 2 work in progress.

March 13th, 2009 Blog post: Kookaburrahs, work in progress.  This painting could have been left at phase 3, but the decision to give the birds more definition and sense of realism created a whole new set of problems. For example, the composition which was unbalanced from the start, is now exaggerated and more noticable, so a third element needs to be added in the upper left corner..not necessarily another object but color or shape that would shift the weight and attention away from the lower left areas.

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The Great Ocean Road

Sunday, February 24th, 2008

                   Weathered  - along The Great Ocean Road, eastern coastline, Australia - 11 x 14 Oil pastels and pencil on paper

The Great Ocean Road, weathered, dead tree, Eastern coastline, Victoria, Australia - 11 x 14 Oil pastels and pencil on paper. 

This drawing has weathered a little time itself - it needed to go a little beyond the ordinary, so I put out of sight for a while and just gave it a few more finishing touches today. A few marks can make all the difference.

Exhibition Opportunity for Artists

Tuesday, December 4th, 2007

For Artists interested in juried competitions and online gallery exhibitions, the American Juried Art Salon (AJAS) gives helpful feedback and critique whether your work is accepted or not. For information about their Spring/Summer 2008 competition visit http://www.artjury.com/art.html

Artists whose work has been accepted twice in a row receive a website page for one year.                             

                                Galahs in Traffic (Australia) - 14 x 11 Oil Pastels, 26 x 22 framed, $550.00     

Galahs in Traffic, 14 x 11 inches Oil Pastels on paper, 26 x 22 framed. Galahs fly in front of cars… unfortunate fatalities along the highway to the Kangaroo Island ferry, South Australia. The trees illustrated are Norfolk Island Pines.  One of the pieces accepted into the AJAS Fall/Winter Online Gallery.

Eucalyptus Tree

Sunday, April 16th, 2006

 Eucalyptus Tree

Eucalyptus Tree (Queen Mary’s Falls, Queensland, Australia) ~ 14 x 11 Oil Pastels on paper, Available, 26 x 22 inches total framed size. This is my favorite tree picture so far, along with Wild Canada in the same series.

Post-dated note: This drawing earned a spot in American Art Jury’s 2007 Spring/Summer online exhibition and gallery http://www.artjury.com

Eucalyptus Tree is part of the Paper Places series, accomplanied by and inspiring the following poem:

It remains

when things are gone

and people

passed and roads

and paths and places

we belong

to the Essence.

Galahs in Traffic, reworked

Friday, April 14th, 2006

 Flock of Galahs

Galahs in Traffic - Flocks of Galahs fly head on into cars on the road to Kangaroo Island, South Australia. 14 x 11 Oil Pastels ~ Available 

All drawings in the series Paper Places are framed with 3″ white mat, 3″ wide white wood classic style frame 26 x 22 inches. Post-dated note: Galahs in Traffic placed in Artjury.com’s 2007 Fall/Winter Juried Online Exhibition.

Galahs in Traffic, version 1

Wednesday, April 12th, 2006

 Flock of Galahs, first stop

Galahs in Traffic - Version 1 - This drawing started out to be a portrait of the Norfolk Island Pines growing in this coastal area of South Australia. Many of the pieces in the Paper Places series have a first stage at the end of a day or two worth of work where it could be called finished, then further scrutiny says that it needs to be changed.

1) This is an area unlike any other, where flocks of Galahs flew directly into the traffic on the main highway leading to the Kangaroo Island ferry. Dead Galahs lay along the side of the road for miles. After two days of work and remembering the horrifying feelings of that scene, it was undeniably clear that the drawing as it is in the stage above, even though it could be called finished, is stagnant, ordinary, and so very unsuitable for the subject and what takes place there every day. 

Flowering Eucalypt

Monday, December 12th, 2005

                              Flowering Eucalypt - finished 

Flowering Eucalypt, Australia - 16 x 20 Acrylics, framed , available

                           Flowering Eucalypt - Stage 2 Flowering Eucalypt - start

Koala - 2004

Saturday, October 23rd, 2004

                  Koala and Eucalyptus - 16 x 20 inches Acrylics on stretched canvas

Koala and Eucalyptus - 16 x 20 inches Acrylics on wrapped canvas. Below: work progression.

                Koala and Eucalyptus - 16 x 20 inches Axcrylics on stretched canvas, just started; Phase 1 Koala and Eucalyptus - 16 x 20 inches Axcrylics on stretched canvas, Phase 2