Back from the flower and garden show.

Hi everyone, I am finally back in blogland after my sidetrip to the Melbourne International Flower and Garden Show. First I would like to show you my entries into the exhibition. I hope you like them. I still like painting different styles rather than sticking to one. I can't decide which is "my style" so I do a few, I like choice you see :)

This is a watercolour batik on rice paper

This was done in Atelier Interactive acrylics then Archival oils

Also done in Atelier Interactive acrylics then Archival oils

Another watercolour batik on rice paper. Still would like to play with this one.

Another done in Atelier Interactive acrylics then Archival oils

And this one, I am happy to say sold. It was done in Jo Sonja acrylics

It was a great show with our art society, True Blue Decorative Artists, selling more than we have previously so we were really happy. I was really happy with my sale. 

 While photos were not allowed of the art exhibition during the show, I did take some photos of set up day. There are around 10 art societies from around Melbourne exhibiting at the show so it is a big event on our calendar.

Here we are setting up the display.

part of one side of our display

part of the other side.

 Thousands of people walk through the show every day and there is so much to see, all the lovely garden setups and of course the lovely flowers. The inside exhibitions are held in the old heritage listed buildings of the Carlton Exhibition buildings while the garden displays are out in the Carlton Gardens in front of this beautiful old building.

Here are a couple of photos of the rest of the show to give you an idea of what a big event this is.

Of course I gravitated to the exhibition of the new release roses. Plenty of ideas for next years paintings. This rose is called Firestar, the official rose of the CFA, honouring the contribution that the CFA makes to our community. Here is a bit about this beautiful rose.      "The Firestar Rose was created as a consequence of the events of 7 February 2009, Black Saturday. The rose honours the lives lost, the many dedicated CFA members who were involved and celebrates the regeneration of new life.

The Firestar Rose is the first rose in the Firestar series.  Funds raised from the sale of each rose in the series will be donated towards CFA and their brigades."

Inside the building. This was looking to the opposite balcony from the Art exhibition. Of course no photos of the art were allowed.

Another inside shot looking in the other direction

Looking up the main hall. The art is on the right

This was an unusual idea for hanging plants but very effective

Standing on the steps of the building looking out the the gardens. See the city buildings in the background. This is right on the edge of Melbourne city.

The front of the Exhibition buildings

One of many full garden displays who were all competing for best and most original garden design awards.

Another full garden set up. The exhibitors set up these full gardens on the grass in Carlton Gardens. They usually have a couple of weeks to set up and then within two days it is all gone. Amazing!

Met this guy while I was walking around. Yes that is a person as the snail.

One of the beautiful floral displays inside.

There were so many people it was hard for me to get a wide shot without people walking in front of me or the shot being full of heads. I guess if you want to see more you will have to take a trip to Melbourne and visit with me next year :)

Everyone who exhibits in the art section has to volunteer for a time while the show is on. My day was the Saturday. My break this year was only a short half hour  between 9am and 5pm so next year I hope I get more time to get some better shots.  

I think I heard that around 20 to 30,000 people walk through the show each day so it can get pretty crowded but it is a great day out if you love flowers and gardens.

Well I hope you have enjoyed my little tour. Maybe I will see you there one year.

For now, I have a commissioned painting to finish today so it's back to my easel. 

My quote today is from Jane Heap

"To express the emotions of life is to live.

To express the life of emotions is to make art"

Enjoy your day everyone, the sun is shining here and it is a great day to be alive and creating.

Namaste

Lee

Christmas is just around the corner.... so I'm told

Hi everyone, thanks for dropping by. 

I really appreciate all the lovely comments you are making and the fact that you take time out of your day to come visit me. So big hugs and kisses to you all...

Each year I paint and then donate Christmas ornaments for my son's special needs school to sell at their annual Christmas concert. All of the money raised goes directly to the school so I am happy to be a part of it. 

My son has been going to this school for about 7 years and this is his final year. Yes that is going to be another significant day for us when he finishes there. They are a wonderful school and have made such a huge difference in our lives and I am deeply grateful for their existence.

 Each year I have families who collect the ornaments so i have to come up with different designs each time. 

Here is the start of the process. I had them all base-coated and ready to go. Then I line them up, usually on my ironing board and paint all the one colour at the same time so by the end they are all finished at around the same time.

As I am not proficient at designing my own and knowing that there are Queens of Christmas out there, I borrow ideas and designs, with their permission of course, and paint those.

These cute little elves are designs from the lovely Kerryanne

These ones are from Jamie Mills Price

 I love Jamie's designs and have painted many of them over the years. I was also lucky enough to paint with her when she came to Melbourne a couple of years ago. A lovely lady and so generous with sharing her painting secrets.

 I used a stamp for the background which was stars and dots and looks a bit like snowflakes.

These are the puddings and cupcakes that I will be teaching at our True Blue Christmas workshop on Sunday.

 I used Jo Sonja paints and painted on some Opal Dust to make them sparkle

And here they are lined up on my ironing board all ready for some varnish all 52 of them.

I also dabbled in a bit of card making yesterday. 

A friend of mine is getting married on the weekend and I made her a card to give her with a couple of little gifts. I found a couple of videos on you tube as inspiration like Natalie's.

I used my Big Shot and the Spellbinders Die Template called Flying Beauties to emboss and cut out butterflies. I distressed them with Imprez ink in Fawn and Jo Sonja Rich Gold paint. I used this paint on the ribbon to get the matching colour and also rubbed it around the edge of the card face.

I embossed and cut the tag from the Spellbinders Nestabilities set which I stamped and distressed with the same ink and paint. I stuck pearls on the body of the butterflies as well. The heart paper on the left hand side is printed vellum. Inside I printed what I wanted to say in matching ink colour on vellum. I really like card making and think I will do more of it in the future.

Well today I have a lot of scrapbooking to do on my sons album and will be going to a scrap night at Scrapper's Warehouse so I can hopefully get it nearly finished by his party. I have my fingers crossed.

Today I offer you a Buddhist saying

"Live in the present and make it so beautiful it will be worth remembering"

I hope you all have a great weekend and remember to find beauty in the present moment no matter where you are or what you are doing. Here it is supposed to be sunny and around 29 Deg so I'm looking forward to getting out in the garden and enjoying the sunshine..... ahhh come on Summer.

Namaste

Lee

Well, aren't I just the luckiest? Being grateful..

Wow, what a day of surprises. Yesterday i logged on as usual to visit with my friends here and as I clicked on Gina's blog I was thrilled to learn that I had one a gift on her last post. I just love visiting Gina everyday and seeing what she is up to.
I then clicked on Roseys blog and was again thrilled to learn that she had picked someone from her last post to receive a gift as well (me). I love catching up with Rosey via her blog and seeing all her lovely creations.
Thankyou girls for your generosity:)

When I signed up for this blog, I didn't know what to expect. I didn't know whether anyone would want to read what I had to say or be interested in what I do. I didn't know whether I had the time to keep up with it every day, but now I find it is the perfect way to start my day or spend my lunch time at work. I have met so many lovely people, who have inspired me, made me think differently, made me look at things from a different angle and generally enriched my day.
So thankyou everyone for being here, I am grateful for being able to participate in sharing our thoughts, creativity, highs and lows.


By the way there is another giveaway happening so be sure to visit Carin's blog to join in on the fun.

Now for the first picture of my little projects I hinted at in my last post. Well done Serena on guessing the cupcake and pudding.

These are a couple of the pieces I will be teaching with another friend, Karen Brouwer, for our True Blue Christmas workshop and lunch - a Christmas Pudding and a Christmas Cupcake shelf sitters. Don't they look like great friends? I have used Impasto Gel on the icing to make it more 3D and shiny although you can't really see it here. I would love to thank Paulette Itzstein for her idea of the shelf sitter. Teaching at our Christmas workshop is a voluntary thing which I love doing. Hopefully they will love doing these as well.
I have one more piece that I am working on and it is a design that Jamie Mills-Price did for our group which she has kindly given us permission to do as a workshop. She orginally did the design for our groups badges and we have adapted it to become another little mate for these two.

I hope you all have a great weekend

Namaste

Lee:)

Ready for the work week to end so the painting can start

I am so ready for my weekly day off tomorrow. 

 Friday is the one day in the week for me, when everyone else in the family is either at work, TAFE or school. It is my ME time. I like my 'day job' but art is my passion and when a girl has needs, well, a girl has needs and they have to be satisfied! 

I have so many ideas running around in my head that they just have to be put on some sort of surface, any surface; wood, paper, canvas...... I feel like a cat on a hot tin roof, my fingers are itching and each night this week I have had no chance to do anything arty... arghhh!!!

So here is a teaser of the things I am painting tomorrow for our True Blue Christmas workshop. 

Can you guess what they will become??

 

Well, till the next time...............

Namaste

Lee

Some new bookmarks and a painting in progress

Hi again, wow two posts in one day - i had better calm down a bit LOL.

Here is a painting that I started in a workshop on our True Blue conference a couple of weeks ago. Today I fiddled with it a bit but there is still a lot to go.
It was with an Aussie artist Kathy Van Ee. 

She is a fabulous artist and it is the second workshop I have done with her in the past couple of months. This workshop was a portrait study of a photo that Kathy supplied. It is done using Burnt Umber, Burnt Sienna, Ultramarine Blue and White using the wipe out technique. I still have a lot of fine details and touching up to to but I was quite pleased with my first portrait painting. it really took me out of my comfort zone as I always say that I am not very good at faces but Kathy really made me see a face differently and she showed us how to pay attention to the little details that in the end make such a difference.

The first photo is the reference photo and step by step photos that Kathy supplied. the second photo is my painting.

 At the moment she has a rather large nose but Kathy said I have the shape correct so I have to adjust that. It also needs more highlights and just more detail. I also liked the way Kathy did her background. We just added odorless solvent to our oils on the brush and let it run. That was a bit scary and I had to stop myself from touching it till it had done its work but I really like the effect.

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 I also made some bookmarks today while I was playing with background papers. They were adaptations of pages I made in my art journal a while ago. Here are the step by step photos

The paper was first painted in stips of Napthol Crimson, Brilliant Magenta and Orange. Sprayed with water and swiped with a credit card. I also pressed over the page with  a daisy patterned paper towel.

1.This is using the end of a cardboard roll dipped in white to stamp.

2.Then I glazed over the stamping with Clear Glaze and Brilliant Magenta and Napthol Crimson

3. Next I used a favourite daisy stamp

4. Here is the stamp. I also used a heart shape brush scrubber as a stamp too with Yellow Deep. They are the yellow dots.

5. Here it is finished with some liner work in Yellow Deep and Pale Gold.

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My next one was with the same background colours but with a different stamp and detailing.

1. a paper stencil for the background pattern

2. This is the background sponged with pale gold

An oriental writing stamp

The stamp was random all over using up the ink each time before restamping.

Added a Peace stamp

The finished page.

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The next one was with Pthalo Blue, Prussian Blue and Diox Purple

Background three colours blended together

Stamped Iridescent Violet with bubble wrap

Used a swirly flourish stamp randomly all over

after the bubble wrap and stamping

then used a birdie stamp set with Pale Gold paint

Finished page.

I have cut them up into bookmark size and tomorrow will write some quotes on the back and laminate them.

Time for a nice long meditation, dinner and then on to painting some Christmas decorations that I will be teaching with a friend at our True Blue Christmas Breakup.

Have a great weekend everyone
Namaste
Lee