Is It Spring Yet?

Spring has well and truly sprung here in my part of the world

I thought that maybe it was a bit of a false spring for a few days

even though I saw the first blooms of jasmine

and smelt its wonderful fragrance

every now and again you get a rogue bloom

so I wasn't quite ready to believe it may be here

Even when I was woken up by a veritable horde of rainbow lorikeets

swarming the tree outside our bedroom window and devouring its seed pods

while screeching to each other at the top of their birdy lungs

I still wasn't quite ready to declare winter done for

and despite having our first mosquito put in an appearance the other night

which was duly dispatched with glee and karate type noises

plus I left that carcass on the wall as a warning to other little bitey buggers

they enter at their own risk people

even the appearance of that annoying little blighter couldn't make me declare it

the bougainvillea in the neighbor's yard was showing a few blooms

and I admit that I was starting to be hopeful

the light is gorgeous, the skies are clear blue, and the breeze has that first hint of warmth

and my hopes were getting higher and higher

but what if it is really one of those false Springs

that send you shivering and diving back into sweaters unexpectedly

might be best to be a touch cautious before I start washing sweaters and blankets

The paper on these watercolours dried fabulously quickly as I finally finished them off

which should be an indicator

especially as these are quite large by my standards

and I used 600gr paper to avoid the whole stretching paper palaver

which always sees me somehow ending up covered in water

with tape from head to tail and still having dry patches in the paper

but it wasn't until this morning that I was ready to finally say winter is done for

And that is because I woke up to that indicator to end all indicators

a dog sneeze in the face... yep the mutt gets hayfever

only in spring and then he becomes a roving mass full of snot, sneezes

and epic snoring that has to be heard to be believed

he opens the day with a sneeze, proceeds to sneeze all day long

and most disgusting is that he likes to sneeze on something

your foot, your leg, or your cup of tea if you let him get too close

then does the best impression of a drunk trucker that a small fluff ball can achieve

So when faced by the wall of disgustingness that is doggy hayfever

I have to call it... Spring is here...

So in celebration of the change of seasons

and as a distraction from the dog sneeze that just hit my leg

I am getting stuck into the suitable bright paintings on my desk

happy painting all...xx

Linking with PPF

and here is the link to Tuesday's post

Coffee Tins and Daffodils...

Coffee Tins And Daffodils ...

I have had a week of epic snot and assorted flu disgustingness

which was actually very weather appropriate

as we had the sort of grey, wet and windy late winter weather

that just screams for being tucked up in bed drinking tea

and feeling magnificently sorry for yourself

I woke up this morning feeling like I am more human than snot bag

and was even happier to see that it would appear that Spring is turning up

there is that gorgeous clean air and the sun is shining

so I have been happily in the studio painting up this coffee tin

sadly not from life as coffee tins here seem to be particularly uninspiring

but Aimee from Artsyville kindly sent me a photo of her coffee tin for me to draw

Aimee lives one of those lives on instagram and her blog that is saturated with color

I get glimpses of her work, life and interesting chotskies

 all beautifully shot and recorded for my drooling pleasure

meanwhile I watch the shelves of the stores

in the hopes that something half as interesting to paint will turn up

Not that all packaging over here is bland, far from it

just the coffee it seems... it is bog standard boring

instead I happily did a vicarious painting of a more visually interesting life

Coffee tin duly complete, I plan on taking in the spring air, reveling in the sunshine

and painting like a madwoman while the weather lasts

so I have two projects on my desk

one is to finish off the larger watercolours of the Chanel bottles I started last week

I can't tell you how much I am loving these... amazing fun

and the other is to attempt to paint these daffodils

which feels seasonally appropriate

happy painting all...xx

Bloody flu.....

Some Days...

 

Some days everything conspires to make you smile

I started the day with finally finishing this boot drawing

which was homework from Andrea Joseph's lesson for Sketchbook Skool

it was done with a Pilot medium ballpoint pen and was actually quite fun

even if it was crazy time consuming

and required me to take the boot with me from room to room as I chased the good light

I love the result and may even head down this style of drawing again

there is quite the sense of achievement in finishing something like this

I was feeling pretty pleased with myself on finishing the boot

so I made another cuppa and opened the paper

and the headline at the top of the page that I opened to

pilot lands plane after losing arm.... well something like that

turns out a pilot had a prosthetic arm and it fell off during landing

which made me giggle endlessly which is probably inappropriate

but I had visions of what it was like in the cockpit as all this was going down

plus it also reminded me of the prosthetic leg incident of many years ago

one of my flatmates from way back when, who shall remain nameless

was friends with a bloke with a prosthetic leg

he would come and stay for the weekend sometimes

and after one particular night out on the town

I was woken by my flatmate looking under my bed in an attempt to see if the leg was there

it seems that at some stage during the night he had misplaced it

and after searching the flat and not finding it

we ended up having to visit the various drinking holes they had frequented until we found it

I still have fond memories of being able to walk into a bar

and asking if someone had handed in a leg the night before

my life was awesome sometimes 

But wait there is more

the morning got better because I saw a dog walk into a lightpole

he hit it with pace too and did that double take and head shake like in the cartoons

I had been watching his owner share his pastry with him while they were standing at the crosswalk and I was in the car waiting on the lights

the dog couldn't take his eyes off that pastry as he trotted along when they started to cross

so much so that he smacked right into the lamp post on the other side of the road

the owner gave him the rest of the pastry to help him recover from the trauma

and it had me giggling all the way home

talk about a great start to the day right

I can barely wait for what other shenanigans the day is going to serve up

happy painting all...xx

linking up with PPF

and here is the link to the last post for you...

Hydrangeas and homework...

Hydrangeas and Homework...

I mentioned on Friday that I have been on a quest to mess up my work a bit

to get the paint doing fun things and generally making as big a mess as possible

and I have to say I managed to take the mess to a whole new level with these hydrangeas

I swear I had paint from tip to toe

and it turns out when your hair is no longer the long brown locks you were used to

but instead is a very sticky-up-y  light grey

that the permanent rose truly lives up to its name

that little splodge that ended up on a tip seems to be in for the long haul

the photo I worked from was truly lovely

and came from Maria over at Cozycomfycouch

who regularly sends through photos of her glorious blooms and garden to inspire and cheer me

and I had a great time painting this from the first splatter to the last

of course the pink tipped hair and blue hands were quite the look

but it turns out that scrubbing the shower without gloves

actually removes the worst of the paint from fingers

even if you are using organic, earth hugging, no nasty spray

I actually considered spraying my hair for a minute

just to see if it would get rid of the pink

because who wouldn't want to know that right

luckily I remembered just how inaccurate I am with any sort of aiming

and I had visions of aiming at fringe type hair and getting my ear, or an eye. or the dog

so common sense did prevail in the end... just

So in order to give my poor hair and hands a break

I decided to get in and do some homework from Sketchbook Skool

Andrea Joseph set one exercise to draw an object using ballpoint pen

so one of Phantom's boots is in the hot seat so to speak

It is quite the change of pace from the splashing paint around of the past few weeks

 but it is oddly soothing in a obsessive compulsive sort of way

happy painting all...xx

Perfume Bottles And Studio Dogs...

Part of me wants to apologise for posting yet more paintings of perfume bottles

while the other part of me thinks tough toenails baby I am posting these suckers

because they are serious fun to paint

I love perfume, but rarely wear it anymore

something in the chemo process changed my body chemistry

which means that most perfumes smell like rancid beer dregs on me

so rather than stink bombing the world I now stick with painting them

I am loving finding the whole splodge and drip thing beyond therapeutic

and am on a mission to try to mess my work up a bit more

to be a bit freer in letting paints blend and swim together

and these are a great way to experiment

of course there are downsides to the paint flying with abandon

not for me of course... all upside there

but the family are starting to mutter and mumble

I swear a little smudge of paint on a sandwich is not going to hurt them

and a few painty fingerprints around the place adds to the ambience

and frankly if you come and stand near me in the studio while I am painting

you can't whinge about some splatters or sprays

yes this one is on a bit of paper with a torn edge

bloody dog put his painty paw on the edge of the painting

while making his way across the benches for a pat

of course he had to walk across the palette and onto the freshly painted JÁdore bottle

but at least I managed to halt his progress before there were footprints across the whole thing

and yes I know if the dog is up on the table it is always a risk

but he likes to see what is going on

and it allows me to pretend I am not talking to myself

This is where he usually sits

well lies actually, but every time I get out the camera to take a shot he sits up

sometimes he creeps closer bit by bit when I am distracted

and ends up resting his head on the paper towel stack that I dry my brushes on

it does lead to a mildly coloured beard type thing at times

which I think is quite fetching on him

and I may have dried the brushes off on his head once or twice

but these are the hazards of life as a studio dog

and he usually accepts the hazards with grace

 though he does let fly with the occasional smelly fluff bomb to express his displeasure

Dog farts aside the studio is looking very inviting

as I am trying to capture the look of the smaller paintings

in a larger form... some on canvas, but these on the table are watercolours

now that is truly gloriously messy let me tell you

Happy painting all...xx

linking with Paint Party Friday

Did you miss Tuesday's Post?

here is the link

Crime Scene Tea Party

Crime scene tea party...

Call me easily amused

or maybe I just have too much time on my hands 

but I love my novelty tea strainer/ infuser thingies an inordinate amount

I have a bit of a collection starting to form

from a weird apple thing that stabs me in the finger every time I use it

but it floats and bobs in your cup in a fabulous manner so I keep using it

and last week it was all about the ball infuser thing with a garden gnome/ Christmas elf 

 I christened him Freaky Pete

He is a weird little thing and has this evil half smirk
but Freaky Pete has been put away for now because at the moment it is all about these two

It is also important to think about what tea goes with which infusers

I like to have a rooibos blend in the shark one

for no other reason than when I take it out

the tea has a slight red tinge to it

which seems appropriate right

And when asked what tea I am drinking

I get to answer with great made up names like

Blood sausage and beet root, or guts and glory

It causes no end of eye rolling from Phantom

But it makes me happy so that is the main thing

Of course yesterday I found myself in the kitchen putting the kettle on for the millionth time
and realised had left my tea cup with Sharky in the studio

So in a fit of obscene laziness dressed up as wanting to use a different infuser
I decided to go with monk pear tea in Dude...

 Which is an appropriate name for a tea infuser who just hangs on the side of your cup

But once both infusers were out of their respective cups and on a plate
which resides on my desk in the studio for just this purpose
I realised it looked somewhat like a crime scene

which then led to all sorts of fun shenanigans

involving the theme music from Jaws

and Dude begging for his life with a Bill and Ted type accent

Which was a great distraction from the bloody deer heads from a few weeks ago

Which persist in looking like road kill on the page

It just occurred to me that maybe there are deer head infusers out there

Now maybe that is the ingredient I am missing

Might need a little googling on this one

happy painting all...xx

The Mutt That Cried Chicken ....

Regular visitors will be more than familiar that we are the owners of a mutt called Mushu

who is possibly smarter than a bag of peas

but there are times when I wonder if the peas may have one up on him

Mushu is the sort of thick that makes you wonder if he is in fact a genius

but no... he then does something to remind you just how stupid he truly is

he is a gorgeous, cuddly, funny, toy throwing, licking, snoring machine

who recently got a rather unique haircut which I talked about in the last post

so unique it may in fact require a visit from the groomer

and what happens every time she turns up just reinforces how stupid he truly is 

adorable but thick is the best description I can think of

if you think I am being a bit harsh, just click on some of those links... this is one dumb mutt

despite his apparent dimness, Mushu does love chicken

which works well as I have been drawing chickens this week

as homework exercises for Sketchbook Skool

and he will pretty much do backflips at the sight of it

which is twice a day... breakfast and dinner

he gets a bit of warmed chicken with dry food mixed in... yes warmed!!!!

and on placing his plate down he hoovers it like he has never been fed

I swear to you if your hand got between him and that chicken you would lose a finger

He loves it soooo much that he has been trying to trick an extra breakfast from me

and actually scammed me the other day

which does reinforce the possibility that he may in fact be brilliant

But this week it all went horribly wrong for him

I came down the other morning after being unceremoniously woken up

by said mutt standing on my chest and licking my eyes... truly gross way to start the day

but it was effective as I was out of bed and downstairs before you could spell dog saliva

and then he started the morning dance

he sits at the fridge door looking hungry and pathetic

he gently taps the door, then comes and looks adoringly at you

then taps your leg and back to the fridge

this dance of patheticness goes on for some time

but after being scammed once I was having none of it

I was immune to his mind games

even when he was particularly persistent

In fact he kept it up all day

every time I headed into the kitchen he would do his chicken dance

he even bought in his rubber chicken toy at one point

though I think that may in fact be chance rather than evidence of brilliance

because he also brought me his moose and his french toast toy...

but I held strong until Sinus came home

and was feeling pretty good about not caving like I normally do

until Sinus tells me that he didn't feed him before work as he usually does

it seems Mushu refused to get out of bed due to the cold so Sinus decided not to feed him

for the first time in 10 years!!!!

Of course Mushu was then lavished with appropriately huge meal

and lots of cuddles from Phantom and I

to make up for the uncaring sod that we call Sinus

but I do have to say Mushu has to take some responsibility 

after the scamming that has been going on...

I can happily report that he has fully recovered from the trauma

and is happily curled at my feet at the desk as I paint my new-ish tea cup

and he is serenading me with his contented full belly snores...

happy painting and Paint Party Friday all...xx

Here is the link to Tuesday's post....

The Holiday Hangover...