Friday, December 20, 2013

Am I crazy or what?

Sitting out on a hot, hot day drawing when I could be inside in air conditioned comfort, must be mad. Came home dripping sweat and collapsed on the couch under the soothing breeze from a fan (I don't like air con unless absolutely necessary).
It was nice though, drawing 'en plein air' and I am gradually overcoming my shyness, doing something which has hitherto been  private, under the public gaze. Thankfully I was left alone, only one person approached me for a couple of dollars!  I saved my change though for the young busker who sawed out a whole hour of christmassy tunes on his violin. School's out today so we shall see and hear more of these enterprising youngsters in the lead up to Christmas.
The flower guy does a roaring trade because his prices are so modest, some of the local small florists seem to buy from him rather than pay wholesale. I bought two bunches of lilies for my friend Jan (remember Jan, she bakes) who is making us a roast dinner this evening, yum!
It was nice to work on real watercolour paper and I am still learning the quirks and idiosyncrasies of both the paper and the pigments.
Today's one.

Wednesday, December 18, 2013

Hmmm, where were we?

A little nudge from my friend Gay in Tasmania reminded me that I haven't updated this blog in over a month, Oh dear!
I have been relatively busy, not in the going out and earning a living kind of busy or doing good works kind of busy, but lazy, self indulgent knitting, origami-ing, sketching kind of busy.
My latest project is sketching out of doors in the hope that it will, (a) get me out of the house and (b) gain me entree into the Facebook group Urban Sketchers who seem like a nice bunch of people, some of whom have promised to come to Newcastle in January to help me get a chapter off the ground here.
 A couple of my attempts:
 A bit 'wonky' but balancing  your sketchbook on your knees is clearly a learned skill!

In other news, during my massive decluttering phase preparatory to moving house I scouted out a few blogs and discovered that one of them, "365 Less Things" (HERE) was run by none other than a Novocastrian who was herself in the process of moving and weirdly only metres from me! Arrangements were made to meet and Colleen and I enjoyed a lovely lunch this week with the promise of follow up meetings, how good is that?
My new year etegami for the year of the horse have been made and I will send them out soon, sadly fewer than last year as the postage has become prohibitively expensive, Australia Post no longer offer postcard rates and stamps to America have risen by a whole dollar to $2.60. One dollar is not much but multiply that by 50 you can see the problem.
Anyway, here is the stamp I carved for my New Year cards and as I have many 'hobby horses' I thought it a good fit. I hope that everyone's 2014 is good and if 2013 was bad for you, maybe next year will bring "a horse of a different colour."
Happy Christmas everyone, especially the faithful few who follow this blog!