tulips

Finally back to blogging - apologies to anyone who actually follows this blog. Been spending my days painting - but not the stuff of an arty type - just finished painting a house inside and out and finally I am starting to have a life again....
It's Spring here in New Zealand and our Botanic Gardens are just gorgeous - love the beds of tulips.

" Back on Track" collage technique

     Christchurch tram - tried to describe it abstractly and attempted a new technique of collage over the    top of a drawing. I wanted to capture some of the emotion I'm feeling about central city - trams are running but it still feels far from buzzing in town. New life is starting but it's a bit hazy as to what things will look like yet. All a bit messy still.
Technique wise - I put down a drawing and then layered collage over it with both opaque and translucent papers and then brought back the elements of the drawing at the end by inking over the drawing where I felt it needed to be strengthened.

Alphabet fun letter B

Another blog's theme for this year is using the alphabet - I have some catch up home work to do as the letter 'D' I have currently done I don't like, which means a redo!
Sometimes it's great to have a starting off point to go from so I've decided to try for a botanical theme with decorative letters.

Strathmore 2014 homework week 2 completed

Just in case you don't know, Strathmore have a free tutorial/workshop that is great. Found it a bit hard to get onto the site but the nice lady at Strathmore fixed it up and I can now access the classes.
Having a window of opportunity with older family members at a drama production and littler ones in bed early, I finally got a chance to attempt the homework.
Well worth the time to review the basics.

Art journal start page

Toi toi in the wind

 Ten minute sketch at a TaiTapu farm

Taylor's Mistake

Another ten minute sketch at Taylor's Mistake - one of the sunny days we've had this Summer ( slight exaggeration - maybe we've had a couple more).

Sandpapering water colour pencil into a wash technique

Trialing a new technique - sandpapering water colour pencil over a wet watercolour wash. It gave a nice speckled effect on the petals

It finally feels like summer!

 Summer roses in a new technique/style - trying more abstraction and using a white pen as well as a black ink pen