Lost Aussie on the loose

Bloom and Grow

The last three or four times we have moved we've been faced with the challenge of finding a house in a scant week or so.  Makes picking the perfect spot quite a challenge and no luxury of looking around that much.
Turns out that we should probably have tried to squeeze the animalia and all our stuff into an apartment in Manhattan as DH now works almost every day in the City, but at the time we thought a place on Long Island would be a good thing.

I do however love my garden out here.  The luxury of an acre of space and as this is the first Spring we have enjoyed here, it's interesting to see just what pops up out of the ground, and where.

Lots of old and unloved crabby evergreens have been painstakingly replaced by new perennials and lots of lovely bedding plants and I am looking forward to seeing the fruits of my labours in the full summer sunshine!

My mother is an avid gardener, my grandfather was too, so clearly this is a 'genetic' thing - and one I'm grateful for as it passes many pleasant hours outside in the fresh air and reaps such lovely rewards!

Oh, and in case you were wondering, we keep and old moving blanket outside for the critters to sit on when it is chilly and we are not home - Max decided to put himself to bed in between the covers all by himself!

A New Bird in the House

...well I can finally stand up and be counted as one of the lucky people who own a piece of jewelery created by my clever friend Catherine over at Happy Day Art.

Our collision in the universe can be blamed on Etsy, after Catherine bought some stamps from me, I popped across to her shop where I fell immediately in love with her PMC creations, wrote to tell her so and our friendship has blossomed from there.

I am going to cherish my lovely new treasure and each time I wear it will be thinking of my "Happy" Art Friend! xoxo

Oh My Eagles...

Living in New York city definitely has it's benefits....I can probably count on one hand the number of live concerts that I have seen in my lifetime, including Elton John in Australia and Bruce Springsteen in London.   In the last four months I have been lucky enough to  see Matchbox 20, Eric Clapton and Santana.

Tonight however caps them all!!   
The EAGLES live was something to behold!  No opening band, they played the whole show themselves with two rip-roaring encores, and it  don't get better than that!

Old music, new music, country music, they played it all and I have to commend them on putting on such a professional show, with great graphics, video...the whole kit and caboodle!

I'm still bee-bopping, sashaying down the hallway, and singing "Desperado" at the top of my lungs!!!!!!

Thank You Gentlemen, you made my night!

Waxing On

After getting caught up on house-wifely chores around the house this morning, I spent the rest of the day experimenting with and refining a few of the ideas I've had in my head after doing my Encaustic workshop. 

My goal is not really to become an "Encaustic Painter" but rather to use the Encaustics as another medium for creating different substrates into/onto which I can incorporate my digital work, and enable me to create pieces that have more texture, depth and meaning.

For today's experiments I re-used THIS face and then pulled together a mishmash of other digital snippets out of the files to use for the second piece.  "Eve" was created on a plain wooden panel and "Speak" has a base of 300lb cold press paper over Masonite.

Oh, and while I was gone over the weekend, seems like the garden got busy without me as when I trooped outdoors for a tour of inspection this morning I was greeted by the sight of most of my Azaleas and Rhododendrons in bloom and this HUGE poppy plant with the first of it's flowers....how wonderful!

To The Gulf and Back

This weekend DH and I braved the holiday travel snavel and headed down to Pensacola, Florida to spend a few days visiting with family and soaking up a little of the balmier weather than can be found here in NYC.
I can't tell you how nice it was to don the bikini, soak up the sunshine and enjoy a few long walks along the beach.
I'm not sure of the scientific reasoning behind the therapy of the beach, but it's the same when I go home to Oz...sea salt in the air, waves crashing around at your ankles, the sun beating down on your shoulders and all of a sudden there is a sense of peace..........

I hope the rest of my American Friends enjoyed a similarly wonderful weekend!

Processing On The High Side

Aside from planting 300 Impatiens, Vincas and sundry other bedding pants in the garden, I've spent most of the past few days sorting out and souping up my new 'baby' - a Dell Workstation with Quad Core Xeon Processors, gobs of RAM and a couple of RAID array hard drives.

I feel a bit like a 21yr old kid with his first flashy car...and who cares, cos' Man, can this baby run!

It's actually my Mother's Day present from DH, and for some might be considered an odd choice, but for me,this floats my boat way better than any bunch of flowers or box of chocolates!!  It runs my Photoshop filters and actions on 130meg files in a heartbeat....and for me..that is heaven baby!!!

ThankYou Darrrling! - who says speed doesn't rule?

Waxing Encaustic

As per the previous post, I've spent the past four days attending an Encaustic Workshop offered as a collaborative effort between R&F Handmade Paints and Barbara Ellman, and what a wonderful time I've had!!!

Barbara is a wonderful teacher and her artwork is superb!

There was plenty of learning, lots of sharing and it was just NICE to be in such a wonderful and enlightening environment.  I could not have asked for more!  Each of the six participants in the class had their own unique sphere of interest and particular goals and as well as the invaluable instruction from the teacher, it was great to gain a deeper understanding of each student's artwork, in particular how and where they would take their new-found skills.

I've come away from the workshop with some renewed ART ENERGY which has been sadly lacking for a while.  My brain agog with new ideas and how I can now incorporate this new technique with my digital art..the possibilities are screaming at me!  How fabulous!

And here, as requested and promised are a few of the pieces that I managed to complete...please bear in mind that these are NEWBIE efforts!!!

The first image is a wooden book cover, painted with encaustics and pigment and then a photo tranfer applied.
The second image is a 6x6' wooden block with encaustic paint, image transfer and oil paint.
Third image is a 6x6" block with collaged papers and image transfer.
Fourth, is a encaustic painted base with collaged papers and two image transfers superimposed on one another.
The Fifth piece is a 10x8" panel, prepared with encaustic medium, painted with transparent layers of wax and several image transfers applied and then over painted with commercial and hand-cut stencils.

Feeding the Artful Mind

Given our arduous schedule of moving and sorting out over the past two years, there has been precious little time for ART Food, be it at Artfest, ArtNSoul or elsewhere!

Happily though I recently found a workshop fairly close to home that looked promising and hopefully offering a little taste of the art community that has been sadly lacking in my life for a while.
It's all very well to potter along by one's self, but so much about the creative process is tangled up with your interactions with others, feedback and adequate sounding boards!

I am Day 1 into a four day workshop with Barbara Ellman, a most gifted and talented Encaustic Painter.  She has a fabulous studio in Long Island City that overlooks the Manhattan skyline - and can I tell you I have HUGE studio envy right now!  Big wide open space, 25' windows and a rustic and funky building that will definitely be the subject of my Nikon before the weekend is over!.

There are only six of us in the class, which ensures ample time to interact with the teacher as well as accessing tools and supplies and my class-mates are a group to die for... a professional photographer from Majorca,  a Professor of  Art from Russia (who lives in MN), a fashion designer from Korea (who lives in NY),  a medical professional from the Phillipines  - who is now an oil painter and lives in NY,  and a fine art teacher and painter from Brooklyn,  and then there is ME - housewife extraordinaire who dabbles in Photoshop!

Interesting to note that tomorrow I am the one taking MICA to the class, my collection of old printers blocks, photocopies to use for transfers and a few other sundry mixed media items!  I guess my classes of the past must have taught me something!

Ciao for now

Birds on a Wire

I'm sitting here procrastinating about going to bed - why, well my Dad's not well and after the phone rang at 11:40pm tonight I'm sort of at sixes and sevens.  I've reached out to all the appropriate folk who can help - while from a distance there is only so much I can do, now I just have to be patient and wait.

Creating art is the universal cure-all for me, I just wish it would work as well for my dear Papa!  Godspeed, I love you!

Illustration Friday - Electricity

Where the week has gone I don't know..the days seem to be flying by!

Anyway, the new challenge for Illustration Friday is Electricity.  I confess to pulling and older piece out of the sock drawer for this one!

Originally created as a piece of artwork for a collaborative "Fat Book" project for my friend Pilar when she was feeling a little under the weather a while ago!