Beginning slowly...

As ever, when we come to the cottage I have to think about what I will make and how I will make. We have built up a pretty nice studio space and workshop space and gradually our bits and pieces are coming together. I had been looking at some lovely images online and thought how much I would enjoy trying to paint something like that. So, I thought I would set myself a task of working out how to work with watercolours and how to build up a painting. 

Plenty of scope for error right there!

I got out the 8 watercolour palettes I had long ago made some swatches of.

I was trying to create a warm cream colour from these pretty intense and bright colours. I had previously numbered the palette underneath, so I could at least reference the palette. But it became evident from these swatch attempts that there were oftentimes more than one colour being tested from each palette.

 So I decided I then needed to number the colours in each palette as a better guide.

Which helped quite a lot with my swatches. And you can see that by the end I had worked out how to make the warm cream colour I was after using number 1 in palette 8 plus a bit of number 5 in palette 4.

Because I was on a mission of discovery and recording, my side of the table was pretty organised. I was deep into analysing the colour I was trying to create to replicate the painting, and scanning the early swatches for hints of which colour might go with which colour to create it.

Barry on the other hand was painting away merrily and had far more of the flow about him!

By the end of three hours I had worked out how to make all the colours I wanted to use in the painting. There were 10 I had needed to sort.

And I had also worked out that I should also number each palette on top rather than just the bottom - so I could aways create my reference easily and without having turn the palette upside down; or accidentally re-arrange them.

The cottage and the village have welcomed us warmly and we have little birds on the bird feeder tower; beautiful gifts of rosemary and lobelia from neighbours at our door; and sweet peas and cornflowers from another friend.  So much loveliness.

A fair bit of time is also going into bits and pieces for the exhibition and things are coming together nicely. The show opens on Friday 30 August at 7pm.

Thursday Thoughts...

"Reading is escape, and the opposite of escape; it's a way to make contact with reality after a day of making things up, and it's a way of making contact with someone else's imagination after a day that's all too real." 

Nora Ephron

The older I get the more I try to work out the duality of things. How cognisant dissonance can exist within us all; and that sometimes it truly is possible to hold completely differing thoughts.  

This one I think helps us understand that something (a book) can do two separate things which in a way are also opposite things - the way it can act as both an escape; and as a connector. 

She put this really well. I have often said books let me disappear from life; and that they also make me feel not alone.  They are multi-functional tools.

The Trip North

 We have made it safely to the cottage, after a good trip with no hassles or delays. It is just a long, long trip.

As we headed off from our first night’s stay at Pitlochry a friend asked what was the drive North like? What sort of country did we drive through? Were there forests or water or mountains or was it barren?

That got me thinking and Barry very kindly helped document the view as we drove for about 6 hours.

I compiled these 24 photos into 6 and they sort of document the different parts of the trip, but by no means capture it all.

We started at Pitlochry and headed through the Cairngorms. Heading down the hill into Inverness, and over the bridge.

We come down another hill to cross the Cromarty Bridge, a fabulous sweep of a bridge, past fields with summer crops, and then we head inland into the countryside.

We climbed a fair way and then drove down alongside the Dornoch Firth, going through a few showers. Into Lairg and past the wee hoosie on Loch Shin.

Edging closer, the single track road begins just out of Lairg, and we pass a great big Wind Farm as well. The road into, and out of Altnaharra.

And now we are in our country - the Flow country. Mountains, single track roads, and wild emptiness. Looking down at Melness and the Tongue causeway, then we turn right towards Armadale.

Looking out to the water as we drive through Coldbackie, then up another hill to BettyHill hotel. The road into Armadale, and a wee bit further along, the gate to the cottage (and the bins!).

There is a certain colour theme at play throughout the day.

We are here, we are safe, we are happy.

Thursday Thoughts

"The problem is, we look for someone to grow old together with, while the secret is to find someone to stay a child with". 

 Charles Bukowski

If I could re-write this one a bit, I would change 'problem' to simply 'thing'. I am not sure it's necessarily a problem.

I like the intent behind this which seems to me to suggest that as we grow old, we should also stay young.  There are so many truisms about ageing gracefully; or disgracefully. About staying young at heart; about acting your age and so on and so forth.

My attraction to this one is I think, that I can find my middle ground - about trying to accept ageing as a thing; but in doing so also trying to keep a sense of child-like wonder about the world - about the trees; the birds; the footpath; the rusty nail; the little mushrooms; the light in the sky; the funny clouds; the beautiful flowers...

I also think I can interpret it to mean trying to remain playful and laugh a lot. Giggle at some silly things, some terrible jokes, and funny one liners that no one else gets.

Acting like a child fully isn't all that helpful in a relationship nor as we age; but elements of the child-like should accompany us I think.

Ahhh... that light!

Finishing off

 Well, our Scottish adventure begins in earnest tomorrow as we head off to our home in the Highlands.

We have been working right up until we go, but have also taken moments to enjoy magic and beauty.

This first shot was of my shadow after I arrived at exercises one morning - it was 3 degrees outside and I had taken a lovely shot of the sunrise; and then glanced down and loved the texture and mystery here on the concrete.

But back to finishing the work... I was wanting to hang my burnt bundle in a Perspex frame. Barry very kindly made me an extra long brass rod needle for threading my very fine nylon thread through the envelope so we could tie it on. Here it is on our high tech work bench (kitchen bench) with a hand towel as protector.

We did some measuring and then began drilling the holes. The first hole was a dream. The second hole not so much. The drill bit warmed up so much it began to melt the Perspex, and then when it had, that meant that the drill bit kind of got glued into the hole in the Perspex.

An interesting dilemma.

But lots of patience and ingenuity working out to encourage the drill bit out of the hole were brought into play and after a wee while we had successfully removed it.

We then tested threading the nylon thread through the envelope and through the holes and tying them off and I think it will work.

Our work station.

And as a complete and utter absurd aside - how is this? On Saturday we were alerted to three stags (with excellent antlers) wandering around below us here in sub-tropical Maleny in winter!

I wonder if we will see any when we actually get to Scotland???

And for more moments of beauty, I took this photo of a ceramic heart that hangs off a sculpture near our front door. 

Beginning to spread some peace...

With our trip to Scotland edging closer,we took the opportunity of a sunny and breeze-free afternoon to hang the peace weather grams at our home in Maleny. I have used one of my favourite quotes from Thich Nhat Hanh.

My dad collects the cutlery holders through the course of the year and we then print them, pierce them and thread them, and send them out into the world. This year Barry did most of the heavy lifting as I have been so focussed on getting the work for the exhibition done.

We did however have a bunch of happy helpers one Friday night at the studio - many hands really did make light work of the threading!

The magnolia tree near our front door has settled into its role as our Peace Tree 2.0.

It is beginning to show several years of doves and weather grams and we like the layering of peace it emits.

Sunshine and shadow and peace...

It has become almost a palimpsest of peace...

Thursday Thoughts...

“At its most basic, making art is about following what’s luminous to you and putting it in a jar, to share with others” 

 Ben Folds

Some quotes have been in my computer document called Thursday Thoughts for years...possibly even a decade. Some quotes arrive a day or two before I use them; as it was with this one.

I was reading an art journal on Tuesday morning and came across this and just loved the visual and thought yep - it's art this week and this says art!

The key for me here is the word luminous.  It speaks to me of what lights you up; what helps you see and make sense of things; and what makes you feel shiny and glowing. 

The idea then that this is what you have to share; this thing which is special to you which is unique to you in a way - you pop it in a jar and share away.

I must admit I thought it might be popped in a jar and shaken up so it sparkled even more; but that doesn't appear to be what he had in mind...

My question to myself is what lights me up?

NGV, Melbourne, 2024

Still stitching!

 Honestly, I have written about this stitching for months it seems, but here we are, still stitching.

The excellent news - all seven scrolls are complete! I re-stitched the pale pink one with the steely blue grey and it works. Here they are perched precariously on the couch, in a couple of different sequences. 

 

I was always planning on the sequence of small to large then back down to small again, and was fiddling around with the best colour ways together. I asked a friend who immediately said can't you just mix the widths/heights up and work with colours that way? And so I now have no idea what I will do and will wait to see what they look like in situ!

And here is a sneak peak of what else is part of it - the rusty tins at the bottom of each unfurling scroll.

And the stitching continues because I'm stitching some pieces that go in the tins.

With luck they will soon be finished and I can let out a sigh of relief that all the work themselves are complete, with just a few fiddles and faddles to be done.

And just because nature is wonderful... we had the oddest looking clouds the other morning. They looked like somebody had smudged them as they painted them on.

And a beautiful gentle creamy yellow grevillea where we had stopped to have a coffee this morning...

Thursday Thoughts...

"Books support us in our solitude and keep us from being a burden to ourselves". 

Jeremy Collier

Ahh, the comfort of books. I think this quote suggests that books enable us to disappear momentarily from  our life and our strife. That they can let us forget the troubles of the moment and simply be within another world, with other concerns and stories that engage us.

Books offer respite from our worries.

I also often ponder the difference between loneliness and solitude. How two circumstances may be physically the same - one is by oneself - but the experience is so subjectively different. I like that he references solitude here; it is one of my favourite places.

Solitude.

Making cards of art...

 In preparation for the Scottish exhibition I have decided to print some cards that folk may or may not want to buy as a memento of the show.

The last ones arrived today so I have four different images/details of works that will be displayed.

There are two 'landscape' cards. First up a detail of Travelling Home, and those lovely lovely pegs.

And secondly, a close up of Bundled and Burnt.

There are two 'portrait' cards as well. The first is a close up of the wrapper of The Emigrants.

And the second is a detail of some of the scrolls that make up All That was Lost.

And even funnier, here are some close-ups of the close-ups on the cards!

They are all now wrapped and packed and ready to head off to Scotland. I on the other hand, still have a way to go to be packed and ready to head off...