Autumn Fall

is the title of this painting which is one of those I've sold in the last month. At life drawing group, one of our models was lying on the floor, in this pose, and the idea came to me to compose this image of her as if she is part of the hills. At the time I'd travelled down to Wellington a couple of times on the train and it's fascinating seeing the changing landscape through the North Island of NZ. In the lower part of the island there are beautiful rolling hills that fold in upon each other. It fits in with my frequent theme of the body as the land and the earth mother.

Photo isn't fantastic, it isn't quite the finished painting... but you get the idea...

A painting to complete

I'm busy working on collages for the 2009 International Collage Exhibition and Exchange. Finally I've settled to an idea and so far so good. And sitting on my easel looking at me is this painting waiting to be finished. Its large, 90 x 60cm acrylic on canvas. I've drawn in the basic picture, and blocked in the colours with acrylic paint, ready to work on with. Trouble is I get engrossed in some of the paint effects and hesitate to cover them over. Hopefully by the time I get to it I'll be over that.

2009 - First post of the year

No post for a while I suddenly realised, so its about time I logged in and wrote. But about what? I have been creative...but in a different form...editing a book that I' m close to finishing. All hours of the day and night. The last few days I've been searching for all the -ly words in the manuscript and I can't believe how many times I use the word "slightly". And I use a lot of words that tone things down, so it's a major exercise finding all those -ly words and rewriting. And this is just the start of the process. The eyes are very very tired.

I have been in the studio a little. A friend has been a few times and been creating works that she may enter into the 2009 ICE. I started working on making collaged paper that I will cut up and collage. Its clean up time. By the end of the year it looked like a bomb had hit it. I'm not a tidy worker. Each burst of creativity brings with it a chaotic mess to clean up afterwards. This holiday period is my traditional time for the big clear out..hasn't happened but the pressure is on now. And that's what I always need. Deadlines. Targets. Due dates. You think I'd have more self discipline by now.