The road to success is always under construction

2011-03-14T20:45:00.000-07:00

I've been kindly asked to be this years guest artist at Strathdon community's art show. I would love all my friends who love & support me, to come along and see my work all in one place.

2010-06-06T19:08:00.000-07:00

Trying to paint a picture a month, and apart from choosing a colour scheme, I'm not choosing a style, I haven't thought it through, I've just painted on a whim. Maybe a bad thing. This was from a photo of Bridal scene where the wedding cars stopped and the bridesmaids got out for some fresh air, and one was putting on her lippy ! It was just such a fun picture, I had to have a go.

2010-05-13T05:04:00.000-07:00

Long time between posts, but that doesn't mean to say that I've been tardy by any means. I've done a couple of portraits lately, and have forgotten to post them on here. So here is a concerted effort. I painted a portrait of someones ninety two year old nanna, they liked it so much, that I was asked to paint a portrait of the brother. So here tis. Although, we can all see clearly, that he wears a uniform, I've purposely only suggested the badge on the cap and the checks on the band. I wanted him to shine through as a person, not just an officer.

2010-01-02T00:57:00.000-08:00

This was my xmas gift to my oldest and goldest friend. She asked for something with wavy lines to put on her wall. I really felt out of my comfort zone, as I "DRAW". And here she had asked for something , well, abstract.
So, I calmed myself down, after she told me she would be so proud to tell her friends that I had painted it for her. I freaked out, because, I paint pretty pics, not uncontrolled lines. So, I did paint wavy lines, But in my mind it is the waves that she loves to look at. She of course can see anything that she wants to.
She tells me she loves it.

2009-08-27T01:46:00.000-07:00

Hi all. Today I've added a work in progress. I'm still in my oriental phase as you can tell. I sketched up my idea of Quan Yin, who is a goddess of woman, and health and all things good. I wanted a lot of movement, and etheral colours and serenity, and Instead, I've thrown in orange and mauve and turquoise, and its NOT what I wanted. So many things going around in my head, I cant settle on one thing. My artistic planner in my head is like a washing machine its freaky in there, water going one way, soap powder the other, socks have been mixed in with tea towels........, so is it any wonder this piece is Not serene, and not calming. Whinge, whinge, bloody whinge. I think I need to get a dose of sweetmango's blog and use " calm" as my mantra.

2009-08-06T06:41:00.000-07:00

Thursday arvo is art day...........lurrrve art day. Today grasshoppers..........the lesson consists of-- no structure. You are to paint a fantasy creature with no reference material, just from your own heads.
So it was with those words, that my mind freed up, and my colour palette decided to have NO inhibitions....like I would never normally pick up bright green.!! I had a ball. I just played. For two hours, I couldn't make a mistake cos I was on a journey...........with NO rules. And so, now I would like to introduce......"Mango"

2009-07-16T04:15:00.000-07:00

Finished, at last, I've been able to work my way through this painting to a satisfactory finish, I think. And just in the nick of time as its being picked up tomorrow night. Now I just hold my breath until, its viewed by the new owner, and feedback is received. Now.......a much earned contemporary piece is awaiting me, as a reward for slogging away over these dogs.

2009-07-08T05:23:00.000-07:00

Stage two, and the montage is coming along nicely. I'm happy with it. But must admit the black dog is frustrating, as its features aren't many, and unless, I sketch a pile of fluff, with a few highlights on the fur, it makes for a boring life on Oh well, The bottom right of the pic needs a bit of help. And that is a bit of a quandary, I didn't want to overdo it with the silky, as he is the one who is passed on,and I already have two of him on the page, But I do have 3 each of the others...........and I do feel in my heart that the silky needs to be balanced, so..........looks like I get to do another one ( or painting of one, anyway.

2009-07-02T05:28:00.000-07:00

You may remember the dogs I painted for my friends 50th birthday. Well, they were such a hit, Her friend always admired them, and now it is the friends 50th birthday. So my friend Nise, and her other friends, have commisioned me to paint this 'girls' dogs. She has two little dogs, so I've been given the photos of those two. VEry fluffly......please read........OMG, where are the eyes, how on earth do I find a personality, with no eyes ??
She also has the Love for a little terrior, that passed on last year ( passed on, I sound like a spirit reader don't I ??)
I was trying to work out, how I would place them on the paper. My original thought was that, I would paint the two Live dogs, in the foreground and then in the back, have the little terrior, floating with a little halo on its head.
Nah, Not working.
so,......my end decision was to paint the dogs, as many sketches as I could of them. and intersperse the " dead" dog, thru oat.
This is a work in progress as I will try and breathe some life into this painting.

2009-06-11T06:12:00.000-07:00

How wonderful a model was George. A very pleasant man, who gave two consecutive weeks of his time, to model for our art class. I love portraiture. It is such a challenge to get a likeness, but that is not enough in my books, I try for a personality likeness also. I chose the side view, primarily because everyone had crammed in on the frontal area and I like my elbow space. And I was so glad I had moved. The light skimmed his nose and caught on the philtrum underneath. I would have quite happily kept painting george, he has an interesting profile. And I suspect George loved the attention he recieved.

2009-05-14T05:58:00.000-07:00

I've used a different colour palette, than usual. This piece is titled " Throwing out emotional baggage" or something along those lines. It follows on from my empty nest piece. I've dealt with that one, and now, I think, others may relate, that, there comes a time, when you need to let go of the old baggage, before you can continue on. Sorry about the dodgy photo. I took 3, but, they are all blurry. thats what happens when you multi task at the same time.

2009-04-23T05:52:00.000-07:00

Gifts for friends are probably one of the hardest things to paint. Instead of just getting in the zone, you dont seem to relax into the painting, because, it has to be special. Instead of just evolving on the paper, this piece has taken weeks to finish. Every time I came back to do some more on it, The more I saw. I laboured over this painting, and therefore doesn't have the flow that I imagined it would have. I will hand this piece over tomorrow, and watch my friends face, hoping upon hoping that I have captured her family as she sees them.
After speaking with my friend and mentor this arvo, I have decided to focus on what I do best instead of trying to be all things to different people. Lots of people can paint portraits and landscape, but not everyone does my whimsical look on life.
So from now on, I will be concentrating on being true to myself, just painting one style and giving it 100%.

2009-04-21T03:42:00.000-07:00

I went to the opening night of the strathdon art show on Friday night, and met my friend Linda,( from art class) there. We had a great time walking around wine in hand critiqueing, as you do! An elderly lady was ushering an older gentleman who was assisted by a walking frame up the aisle we were in. "hurry Bob, you have to see it, its called the dinner gong or something , it is so wonderful bob, you just have to see it. !" He then protested that he was hurrying, and I watched them join a group of about 6 or 7 others, they were all huddled around my painting _ The dinner bell_.
They were laughing and identifying and pointing, and then they all declared that it had their vote.
Fast forward onto sunday, when I went to pick up my artwork, only 3 were available, and then the news. The dinner bell had sold. Story goes, one of the residents of strathdon retirement home, had said that it just made her so happy to look at it, that she would buy it and donate it to the home so they could hang it in the cafeteria, for all to enjoy. My heart was singing. My peice was going where it belonged, and it was doing what I hoped for as I created it, it made people happy.
Later on, as I was celebrating with a glass of champers, I had a call from the art committee to say that, votes had been counted, and I had WON the peoples choice award . That is better in my eyes really, than winning best painting, as that is the subjective view of one judge, this award, is the publics vote. YaY !

2009-02-10T02:31:00.000-08:00

This is a work in progress. I'm a bit disappointed, its not at all how I wanted it to be. I wanted it to be fun and carefree and light and well, enchanting. I did have the background dark, and I just happened to have a postcard of David Chen's work near my easel, and it caught my eye.....mmmmmm, nice background David, I might just borrow your colours- half way through, i began thinking.....oh o ! But I kept going urged on by my theory, that worse things have been saved by perserverence. Not this time though, its just too......icky.......mmmm reminds me of tulle. I dont know what to do with the bottom of the page or picture. The reference photo stops at her hips. I've run out of milk, so I cant ply myself with coffee until all hours of the morning finishing. So, I may leave well alone until tommorrow.

2008-12-16T02:54:00.000-08:00

I Picked up my latest painting from the framers today. Have I told you that I hate choosing frames. I have to be honest, its harder than painting the picture. A frame can make or break a painting, I think. Armed with good advise, I have been choosing pale mount board and frames to match. But, when I get this latest one home, I make a cuppa and stare at it. Does it do it justice.....who knows. And to top it off, I've realised that, I haven't photographed it before it went to the framers.......a huge no no on my part.
So, I've tried to get a shot now, and I feature in the glass.......grr. Oh well. Lesson, always lessons. This is a painting of one of my fellow artists a good friend of mine who goes by the name of Kris. She was having her lunch at a cafe one day, and I thought, yep. She would make a great painting. Anyway, I now have this painting in readiness for our group exhibition in march. Now I need to concentrate on some smaller more affordable paintings. I dont usually work small, so it will be good to do something different.

2008-11-17T14:59:00.000-08:00

I recieved a first prize and a blue ribbon to boot, for my scarecrow- " first day on the job. At the lilydale show ,last weekend the 15th/16th of November. Also got a highly commended for my piece the dinner bell. Which is an acylic piece featuring senior citz off heading off to the dining room. all in all a nice surprise for the weekend.

I have just realised, that to be a successful artist , meaning to market yourself and get your name out there, is, just so exhausting, You really do have to keep at it like a dog with a bone, sometimes taking away from the calming nature of painting or drawing the actual piece.

I hope I have the stamina in me, to make it.

2008-10-28T03:11:00.000-07:00

I've decided to do anything that take myself out of my comfort zone this year. Well, theres a drawing exhibition coming up, well the submissions are due in November. I've decided to draw and draw, and then draw a bit more, and hopefully, one of the things that I draw, will be rough copy for " that special piece".
This is my cute little granddaughter Lucy, going off to camp for the first time. Also a quick sketch of her on a toboggan.

2008-10-25T03:16:00.000-07:00

Handed this portrait to my neighbour today. . I was minding her kids one day, and got a photo of Tara on my phone. She had this impish little smile and luckily, I captured it. Tara has cerebal palsy and has no muscle control,she isnt able to sit or eat or speak. and I noticed that they dont have many "smiling photos" of her as they do with the boys. Which is such a shame as she is the prettiest little girl. I just see past the disablement and know when I blow a blurty on her arm and she laughs, that she is just alittle girl and hopefully, my painting will show others to see her as I do.

2008-10-14T03:25:00.000-07:00

For all of you that have been following my work, you may like to know that I have entered into an art show at Mont Albert Primary school - fri 17th,sat 18th and sun 19th of October . If you have a spare hour or so, Head down to Barloa rd Mont albert, just google maps.com.au to get the details. Fri is 7.30-10. sat is 10-5.pm and sunday is 10 am until 2 pm. There is 200 paintings so it should be a good show to view. I myself have four paintings entered. If you cant make it. Please wish me, lots of red dots !!

2008-09-25T03:26:00.000-07:00

This has been a bit of a frustrating excercise. Normally I would be inspired by a colour to work to. This time, I am limited by the materials I have to work with. Purchased a set of wings at the 2 dollar shop, and some cheap beads all in pink. I would put pink and red flowers together, so have decided to run with the pink angel wings. I have cut them in half. Then plucked some feathers off the back, and made a feature on the left hand side. I had an old red earing- one of, so decided to put it on the righthand side of her face. I remembered that I had a pair of pink studs, that had never been worn, so one adorns her nose and the other, under her lower lip. I could keep fiddling, I could dip the ends of the feathers in a food dye to tone them down a bit. But honestly, I'm mentally exhausted tonight, and am actually over this masquerade mask by now. . As for now, its back to doing what I do best.

2008-09-22T02:15:00.000-07:00

I have an idea !!

Alot of the masquerade masks that I saw were venetian inspired. They had a lot of swirls and marks around the eye area. I went scuttling out to the bowels of my art cupboard, where long, long ago, I played around with some paint that I could make t.shirt art with. I used a lovely gold, and it had a nice raised effect. Now I just had to pray that the other bottles hadn't dried up. I had to put a pin down the neck of a few as they had blocked, and had a few swearwords when the liquid blobbed out, out of my control !! I then thought, i will put a few scrolls here and a few scrolls there, and forgetting the old kiss principle ( KEEP, IT, SIMPLE, STUPID) I kept scrolling and flicking and adding, and feel, I have slightly overdone her.

I also have the bowels of a sewing basket, where I used to do crafty things, ( back in the days where I was even stupid enough to darn hubby's socks !)

Well in there , I found what I was looking for, a bag of doll hair, all brown and curly. Dont know if it will work. I really dont want to buy anything for this manequin. The ones on the web, had beautiful feathers............hhmmm........Lot of cockies in the back tree- only joking, they might shed them or something. Anyway, I am now going to go into the bowels of my beading tins, yep,,,,,,,,that was in my " jewellery phase" I figure, I may have some lovely jewells, that I could use..............somewhere.........God knows how this mask will turn out.

2008-09-22T02:08:00.000-07:00

What colour? what style? what what what????????/ I saw one on the web, that was like a jester, with curled pieces hanging down with bells on it....now that inspires me, but, will it go in my friends mums house?? will she want some jester laughing at her, day in day out? Then I saw some rich women looking ones...rich in colour, deep mauves with a gold wash. Deep burgundys.....maybe that is more likely a colour to choose.
I have sponged on a mix of burgundy and gold. Across the forehead, around the eye area, a touch on the nose, and a little under her chin. The lip area, I decided to paint doll like, with a thin lip line on top and a rounded area underneath.

2008-09-20T03:36:00.000-07:00

My friends mum, asked me if I would make her a masquerade mask. To be honest my firsth thought was .........strewth!!! I have never ever made one before, or to be frank had any desire to make one. I bought a mask from spotlight, thinking I would be able to pick up a sturdy papier mache one. Nope, they have very flimsy, crappy shiny plastic ones. My mind has gone into overdrive. To paint on that, to get the acylics to stick, I would have to use tile and glass medium. Sounds like a lot of trouble and then, I'm not assured it wont just scratch off. So, I have used sellys aquadhere, watered down and tissues and layered a few separated tissues and just kept glueing. Then when that was dry, I have painted it a base colour which is titanium white and a skin colour. Having googled masquerade masks, I'm more confused than ever , so, I think, I will just create, and try and have fun. I thought, I may make it a work in progress, Just to show that I'm not off doing housework or baking or some other mundane chore !!!

2008-09-20T03:28:00.000-07:00

My special art friends helped me out with a bit of a critique on this piece which is so, appreciated. So taking their advise, I have softened off the floor, so they dont look so much like on a tightrope, and I have given the lady at the back of the que, one less spare tyre, so it gives her an extended bust line ( so much more comfy to let 'em all hang). I have also tried to link the little fairies a tad more to their gentleman. I declare that I'm happy with it now, and have signed it and matt varnished it..........dah dah.........onto the next project.

2008-09-16T06:58:00.000-07:00

I think the time has come to put the paintbrush down ! If I keep fiddling I know i'm going to mess it up. Had a critique from my sister tonight. She loves it. ( phew) And was suggesting another couple with oldies in them.
I like the colours, and I like a couple of the characters in here. The little skinny old lady was a nana of a couple who got married not long ago. The little old lady in the purple, is taken from my stepfathers nursing home. she always has her walker strewn with flowers and matching earrings and matching outfit. The man walking looking behind him, represents my stepdad, who is daily succumbing to the vascular dementia/ alzheimers, thing and goes from quite vague one day, to escaping the next. The scene is one often seen in nursing homes and hostels, and I love watching them fall into line, some zooming along with their walkers, some just following. Its a light hearted look at a subject where I have no doubt, that I will participating in, one day in the future. Hopefully by then, they will have abba piped thru the speakers and the nutbush set for excercise morning !!

2008-09-15T06:33:00.001-07:00

This painting is taking Hours !! It just keeps asking for more ! Number one critic is not impressed at all. Which makes me go back to it, cos I am determined, it WILL work ! Sadly, Its not doing what I set out to do. I wanted it to be a humourous account of a day in the retirement home and instead, looks like an overdone picture. Oh well, I have my taekwondo teacher a few years ago to thank for my persistence. She taught me, that if you dont finish something when it gets hard, that is how you will spend the rest of your life.......never finishing anything.

2008-09-10T03:38:00.000-07:00

hhmm, notice how I've gone from bold lettering down to Pink !! Number one critic let me know that he thinks this looks like something out of Mr Magoo ! So now I'm doubting myself on weather it is pointless to continue at all. He told me to continue that you never know, someone may like it. So, with my feet dragging behind me, I bring you last night and this mornings work. Hours of it. I just hope, I can pull it around to give someone a smile. .....%# sigh !*#&%

2008-09-08T05:09:00.000-07:00

Its funny, but, the longer the sessions in between this painting are, it seems that my people cant progress down to the dining room for Dinner. Iplan to finish it by this weekend. That is, if I can get out of housework.

2008-09-08T04:58:00.000-07:00

Bit by bit this piece is coming along and I have told myself, that I will not rush it. I will take my time and add small amounts each time. The colours are looking great I think. How I came about this colour scheme was, I was noticing on all the winners from camberwell. They seem to be these colours. so, taking reference from a seaside painting, I am using this " recipe" just as an experiment, and then we can see if it works or not. I have an uncle who has a theory that you have to have dashes of orange in a painting for it to sell. Now for some reason lately, I have begun to believe this theory and well. I have been putting a dash or orange in. HHmm no one has noticed yet.

2008-09-04T15:40:00.000-07:00

Oh, you know when youre painting on automatic pilot, when you dip your paintbrush in your coffee !!!!!!!!!!! Bugger !!
I'm at that stage in the painting where I'm impatient. The paint isn't covering quick enough. I procrastinate at the best of times, so every time I come back into the room to start again, I decide, that I will change the colour scheme and have to slap myself and tell myself to stay focused.

2008-09-04T06:19:00.000-07:00

Well, below is the start to my latest painting. I suppose I should explain how I came to the idea for this painting.
I had a lovely friend who was in a hostel. ( Aged care facility) At lunchtime or tea time the staff rang a hand bell and all these beautiful chronologically challenged people started to file out of their private rooms and form a file of sorts down the corridor. They were in wheelchairs, on walkers, had walking sticks etc etc. There were 95 year olds, 85 year olds and younger and older, frail and robust. It used to make me smile, as I watched the procession, often falling into step with my friend Betty who at 86 did very well in the walker race. She could balance a cup and saucer of tea on her walker and make the return journey to her room. Exhausted !!
So this painting is an ode to them. Hopefully it will be happy.

2008-09-04T06:05:00.000-07:00

Have planned my next painting, and have decided to do it as a work of progress over the next ??? days ??? weeks?? depending on how much painting time I get. Hope you enjoy this WIP ! And cross your fingers that it will be better than my last painting, as the next one has always hopefully to be better.

2008-09-02T04:38:00.000-07:00

I entered my painting of my little girl walking the pram down the brick path into the pastel society's members encouragement monthly awards last night ( 1/9/08) and won 2nd prize, so was thrilled to win that. To get votes from your peers is a real buzz. My friend from my art class- Kay won first with her asian children which was lovely and colourful. I'm sure my lovely art teacher would be rapt to know that two of her students took out the awards last night.

Art Competitions, Art Prizes, Artist Awards, Artist Residences - Australian Artist Opportunities

2008-07-29T05:40:00.000-07:00

Art Competitions, Art Prizes, Artist Awards, Artist Residences - Australian Artist Opportunities

2008-07-18T03:23:00.000-07:00

Well, handy for me, my son went to a fancy dress party dressed as a scarecrow. Got him to pose in the kitchen as he was leaving ( scarecrows leave so much hay behind !) So this painting is inspired from his outfit.

2008-07-13T05:03:00.000-07:00

On a roll this week, No housework done, but I have achieved a lot with my painting which is therapy in itself. This is my husband as a little boy, couldn't resist having a go at a little boy after I had, had so much fun painting my cute sister.

2008-07-13T04:56:00.000-07:00

I received the pastel society exhibition notice the other day in the mail and thought.......what on earth do I have that is good enough, so I've been painting all week hoping for the masterpiece that will enable me to enter.
These pieces I've done from the clever photography of my dad when my sister was little many moons ago. They are beautiful photos, so I hoped to do them justice.

2008-06-23T03:56:00.000-07:00

Hi,
Thankyou so much for taking an interest in my work. I am working hard at my figurative art at the moment, so if youre at all interested, click on my complete profile at the side here, and go to window of the world to winnierose, and hopefully you will be enchanted by what you find. Leave me a comment, I love to get feedback.

2008-02-07T17:58:00.001-08:00

This is an excercise in painting water. My very first time at trying. It was very demanding and only impressed upon me, that I am not a natural where landscapes are concerned, it is something that would have to be worked at constantly.

2008-01-11T04:01:00.002-08:00

Well it had to happen, as I've always had a fascination with all things asian, well maybe not All things, but a fascination no less. This is my study in Red. Red paper, and a monochromatic selection of pastels. I so enjoyed painting her, but deep down know that I need to try again to do it justice, I wanted more light playing on her face and shoulder, than I actually achieved. But each effort is a lesson and one step closer to the archibald. LOL.

2007-08-16T01:57:00.000-07:00

I wanted to paint a picture of my friend Dr Roxy. Who is an accomplished belly dancer. I have actually made a couple of changes since I took this pic, But anyway, you get the gist.

2007-07-07T06:51:00.000-07:00

And maybe, I should display a couple of the dogs also. Max the bluehealer, and Nikki the beautiful beagle.
and Billy, the stocky staffy.

2007-07-07T06:07:00.000-07:00

I thought that I should include my study of Callum on this Blog. It has caused alot of comment, which I take on board, but poor Callum, from the majority of conversation, it seems youre going to be physchologically damaged by the time youre 21 because your parents have displayed your bits on the lounge room wall. As for me, the joy on the face of Callum as he recognised himself in my painting, jumping up and down saying "me,me" with the delight of a 3 year old was music to my ears.

2007-06-28T06:06:00.000-07:00

Here is my latest work in progress, Not far off finishing. It is for my beautiful sister and her much loved Dog- Charlie. It is of one of her favorite walking trails ( No hills of course) on the banks of the Yarra at Warrandyte.

2007-06-24T01:49:00.000-07:00

Just a post note. She loved the pictures. Her eyes welled with tears and she said " oh you've done my boys and you've captured pepe, which is the dog that I was most worried about. Ahhhh dear what a relief. Now what can I get stuck into ??

2007-06-19T14:14:00.000-07:00

Well here they are- Snuffy and Pepe........dah dah..........Funny, once upon a time, I thought that all Maltese dogs looked alike, but not so. Poor Pepe, is a bit facialy challenged, with his underbite, so i decided to paint him smiling, so he looks a tad handsome. And little Snuffy, well he is just too pretty to be a boy. As with all my pics, I hope my friend looks at these and bonds!!

2007-05-29T05:07:00.001-07:00

Oh you know one of those days, when you put your hand over your face and you splay your fingers, and you peak out at the world , knowing that the world cant really see "you" peaking back. Well this is one of those days. Where You want to hide under a rock. Where the craziness of the world seems surreal. You cant hide from it, so maybe just maybe you can view it from the safe confines of a leaf.

2007-05-29T05:01:00.000-07:00

I love Chooks. Chooks and cows, I can stare at them all day. These chooks were in a back yard on the banks of the yarra. I knew one day, I would attemp to breathe life into them.

2007-05-29T04:57:00.000-07:00

Lady in Red, is a piece that I enjoyed doing very much.

2007-04-12T05:10:00.000-07:00

Well, this is the painting that I hope will take me forwards. I saw a girl walking down the road, and I wished, I'd had a camera to record the scene. I came home and sketched it, and it worked !! So, next came this painting. I've called it yummy mummy multi tasking. And from this came more ideas.......yummy mummies power walking......talking on the mobiles........having a champagne lunch.....taking the kids to school, in a yummy mummy way of course......I'm visualising, that this will lead to my dream of becoming a book illustrator.