The Agapanthus and a three hour Brazillian

Pen and watercolour agapanthus - day 18

Great news for one and all that I survived yet another night after Phantom tried to drown me, and I am now thinking I am out of the woods and there will probably be no lasting damage. A huge shout out and thanks to all who have offered support and healing with their witty comments that bought many smiles and laughs, with a notable mention going out to Carolyn over at A Colourful Journey who has found a technical loophole which has allowed me to retain my title of Queen of the Float... obviously this talented woman is both and artist and bush lawyer and if you have any issues that need sorting you should head over and get her advice!!!

So to art, which is after all the reason we are all doing this and I did get in and do a little yesterday, though just a little play with making pendants and rings from some recent work...

I was kind of stressing though because I had tried to do a little drawing for this week's Inspiration Avenue Challenge and found myself falling into the old traps and habits of correcting every line and being completely anal about it all... now I blame the bloody Gerbera for getting me back in that brain space, and of course added to the trauma of Phantom turning on me, I was thinking I had lost all the ground I had gained over the month....

Agapanthus version 1

We then headed off to Speech Night, and for those of you not from the Southern Hemisphere let me tell you about this excruciating ordeal... our school year runs from Jan to Dec and so we are at the end of the school year and Speech night is about as much fun as having a Brazillian ...for three hours!!!!...we are talking hours of speeches, short interludes of musical and arts based pieces of performance, the occasional rousing number by the orchestra to wake everyone up and an endless parade of girls who all look the same in their uniforms and pony tails...of course there is that brief moment of complete parental joy when you see your baby stride across the stage clutching her haul... and yes Phantom cleaned up, with three big awards... but once that was done I pretty much lapsed back into a trance state and concentrated on how I was going to reverse the Gerbera damage...

My brilliant idea was to take a botanical I had done previously and maybe try to redraw it and re-imagine it as a looser brighter piece of work, done in about a twentieth of the time. I chose the Agapanthus which I drew early in the year and redrew it in pen and attacked it with my trusty watercolour wheels... the result is at the top of the page and I am pretty pleased with it.. I think the damage may be minimised and I am getting in and starting a larger work this afternoon so we will see if the looseness holds up to a bit more pressure. I still love my original drawing but like the new reworking as well...

I am linking this up with these two great link parties

you should head over and check out the work everyone is doing

and 

and a new link party set up by my good friend

Tracey Grigc Potter

which is called Palette and Paint

the link on the side bar will take you there

Now I know it isn't Thursday but Tracey asks to see our palette and materials so this week so I am showing you my beloved Koh-i-nor watercolour wheels and my favourite 30c brush... I have been using them more than anything else this month and love the strong colours that I get with them...

Why don't you hit all the links and join in the fun ...