A cow sighting

I met this gorgeous black Angus cow on a farmstay holiday inland from Kiama. Her name is Sandy - a legacy from a cow that lived on the farm at an earlier time* - she was obviously not named for her colour! When we met her she was calmly munching on grass in a bright glade surrounded by trees and stood very still and let us brush her coat. Her bull calf huddled close by her. This pastel piece I did of her was shown in the Hornsby Art Prize exhibition over the weekend.

Sweet Sandy - Pastel on paper

*In fact there is a childrens story book about the original Sandy who heroically found her way home after sold to a farmer in a far away town.

I went along to the opening for the Hornsby Art Prize with L (P was singing in church that night) and we had ourselves a few adventures. After wandering around looking for my work and trying to take it all in, with L dashing in between the tables of nibblies and myself, I managed to lose L for a short while (I was distracted by the paintings don't you know) then found him a short while later racing around with one of the volunteer ladies looking for me. He told me he nearly cried - poor love!

We voted for our favourite artwork - L liked one of autumn leaves - he has a good eye for colour and pattern. I couldn't decide between a red tinged painting of bare trees and one of the works earmarked for an award - a small work titled 'Backyard Barbecue' which was impressionist in style, with lots of textured paint, high key colours, but somehow just captured the mood and light and the poses of the people really well. 

My friend M also had a jewel-like coloured print (not sure if I am describing it properly) titled 'Fallen' on show which put me in mind of a medieval illumination or stained glass window and was very clever with an apple fallen out of a tree, next to an outcast from the garden of Eden who was in black and white, while the apple and the garden were all in colour.

Then I nearly fell up some steps (how silly that sounds - you would think in the normal course of things one would fall down stairs, not up!). L inadvertently dislodged a painting from the wall - luckily only on canvas - not in a glassed frame. We tried out some fruit punch - L was not a fan - too many 'bits' - though he had a monopoly on the corn chips.

We hoped to hear the speeches and the awards before we left but we only had an hour before we had to pick P up so we didn't get to find out who the winners were - although we had a clue from the generic award labels that were next to some works. I was just happy to have my work hung in the show and be a part of the buzz.

Oh - we did get our bags of goodies - according to L the most exciting item inside was the two-ended purple marker! I was glad to see a copy of the Art Almanac - which lists upcoming prizes for artists. I'll have to go through and mark some for next year methinks!

A whale of a time...

On Sunday we delivered a cake in the form of a whale to my 8 yr old niece's birthday party at Dee Why. It was inspired by a cake in one of those Womens Weekly books, but I like to think I made it a little fancier with swirly silver pipe cleaner spouts and a little friendlier with a shaped licorice for an eye instead of a giant smartie. Approval from my niece came through in the words -  'it looks so nice I don't want to eat it".

Whale cake made for my niece on a foil covered board and wrapped in a gilt edged ribbon

On the way to the beach L was groaning in the back seat of the car - complaining that his ribs hurt (who knew he knew he even had ribs?). As we made our way through the suburbs beyond Lane Cove the moans took on a more urgent note. He said he felt sick and might vomit. We had to stop the car to investigate. After a while his stomach was better but his side was still hurting - I made sure it wasn't in the area of the appendix. He didn't appear to have temperature. He said it hurt when he breathed and when I tried to touch his side. I got in the back seat and tried to comfort him. He kept twisting and moaning so I got out my new iPhone (still getting used to having it and all its possible uses!) to look up a local medical centre. We found one not to far on our way to the beach - no appointments necessary, a 20 minute wait and $80 per appointment. As P pulled up to park I urged him to go into the paid parking behind the shopping centre - money was no object at this moment in time!

When L got out of the car he seemed quite up in spirits and then started running up the ramp to the shopping centre. At that point I was starting to feel he was probably OK. We debated whether or not to go ahead to the medical centre and decided to ask at the chemist first. They were worried by the 'hurting when breathing' bit and advised on seeing the doctor. Even though I felt L was now getting back to normal, the seed of doubt took hold and we went ahead. The doctor couldn't explain it, but said it may have been a muscular pain - maybe a pulled muscle... She gave L some Nurofen and said to come back if it got worse. When we got to the beach L was back to normal and had a great time swimming and running around with his cousins - he even enjoyed a piece of the whale cake!

Moral of the story: go with your gut feeling and enjoy your cake!

Dabbling in digital art...

So I thought I'd have a go at some digital art - I have some new software called 'ArtRage' which handles quite nicely. I'm still getting used to all the tools but have had a go at a still life and a landscape - both based on photo references. I tried for a more impressionist style as you will see. Using a wacom tablet is something to get used to also - it still doesn't feel as natural as a pen or brush on paper...

Dahlias

Street scene

View other digital art work at Ambient Design.

New blog - new era

It's been a long time since I last blogged. So I thought I'd start afresh with a new name, look and maybe even a new focus - howzabout it...?

In my last blog I was filling you all in on the building of our new house and all the adventures that came with it. Now we've been in here for almost two years and it is time to focus on other creative endeavours - although we are not finished with the house and garden yet by any stretch of the imagination. I believe they say it is one of those projects that never end... though for a while there I did harbour fantasies of it all being 'finished' one day!

Magpies are fierce protectors of their young, but are also wondrous song birds who can mimic the sounds from the world around them in an uncanny way. So this blog takes inspiration from their creativity and resourcefulness. All things arty, crafty, yummy and otherwise will find their way here, you can depend on it! From time to time I may show you our work about the house as well.

L has only 4 weeks left of his first year at school and is growing more every time I blink. P and I both work 4 days a week so that we can help out at the school and pick L up at a reasonable time on at least 2 days. It also means I've been able to squeeze in a painting class on Fridays and have just put some pieces in a local exhibition which I'm quite chuffed about.

For those who haven't already seen the exhibited pieces - here they are below.

Long paddock - acrylic on canvas

Morning at the beach - pastel on paper

My turf - charcoal and pastel on paper

Still life with pear - watercolour on paper

Still life with jug - pastel on paper

Boats at sunset - watercolour on paper