Archive for June, 2009
Surprise!
Wow, where did that week go?
Things have been a bit topsy-turvy around here.
My family have hit town. All at once. Together. En masse.
So routine is pretty much non-existent and instead we’re going for a more ‘fly by the seat of your pants’ mindset. Sadly, my pants suffer from an extreme case of vertigo. All in all an interesting month ahead wouldn’t you say.
Photo credit: ‘Ingenues arrive, Central Station, Sydney’ by Sam Hood.
From the collection of the State Library of New South Wales
1 comment June 22, 2009
Only in Matchbox Land…
… will you find veggie loving kids.
I haven’t given up, but I am no longer feeling like it’s a battle.
It’s more like a siege.
(These Eastern European matchboxes are from designer Jane McDevitt’s fab flickr collection, do check it out, she has a knack for finding brilliant vintage ephemera.)
3 comments June 15, 2009
Cravings
Oh boy, do I remember those pregnancy cravings well. Mine were for citrus ~ oranges, tangellos, and grapefruit. I ate an obscene number for six months.
Never underestimate the power of hormones!
This week’s Illustration Friday theme was one I know well, CRAVE.
And whilst my choice is based on a true story, this week has been a bit of a challenge ie. visitors, a public holiday and a snot fest. After all that, and a big fat effort to get something in regardless, I was too late. I missed the IF deadline altogether.
And now, I am seriously craving a sloth-like beach holiday somewhere where there is absolutely nothing to do but swim, doze, have aromatherapy massages and eat juicy fruit… ahhh SEE, it does all come back to oranges!
13 comments June 13, 2009
My Creative Space – Oranges, oranges, oranges
This week our whole family has had one big old snotty ‘welcome to winter’ cold (notice I said one cold). I don’t know who brought it home but my suspicions lead me to the smallest, very generous, poppet who is always trying to give her dinner away… “Try it?! Try it Mummy?!” Bless her!
So around here it’s just oranges, oranges, oranges! Some to print with but many, many more to guzzle.
The wonderful dimpled effect in the image above comes from stamping with your garden variety orange skin. I’m thinking it might be helpful in the illustration I’m working on, not sure yet, maybe…
You’ll find lots of fun creative spaces to peruse over at lovely Kirsty’s Kootoyoo.
4 comments June 12, 2009
The Trysting Tree
In the backyard of my Dad’s house is an old tree. It’s thick trunk is gnarled and twisted, it’s wrinkles and lines are just like those etched in an old man’s face.
It’s the type of tree that just begs to be drawn.
So I sat in the sheltered sunshine of the garden and sketched.
One of my favourite books as a ‘tween’ was The Cuckoo Tree. I loved Joan Aiken’s stories, they were always swashbuckling adventures full of smugglers, strange magic and Hanoverian plots to kill the King. Anyway, in the Cuckoo Tree, the tree itself was a tysting place, a place of secrets that were whispered in the dead of night beneath it’s leafy boughs. And the description of it is so perfect that it’s as if Joan were describing my Dad’s very tree.
I wonder about this tree’s history, about all the whispered secrets it may have overheard, all the secret notes that may have been tucked into the hollows of it’s trunk and all the romantic tales it might tell, if only it could.
4 comments June 9, 2009
Adept at adapting
The Illustration Friday theme for this week was ADAPT.
My first thoughts were rudely interrupted by a scritch-scratching at my window.
It turned out to be a large, glossy Indian Myna bird pecking at a moth in the shutters. Procrastination and I are old buddies so, naturally, I sat and watched.
The bird sauntered along the windowsill and peered in at me, bold as brass.
And there it eyeballed me with a menacing look, as if to say “You gotta problem?”. For a moment I felt like the trespasser.
I guess you could say a good example of ‘Adapt’ was staring me right in the face.
Oh yes, Mynas will still be here long after we’re ancient history.
They can make themselves at home anywhere!
11 comments June 5, 2009
My Creative Space – Bird Brain
I can’t believe how this week has flown. (Warning: terrible puns to be found all over this post, proceed with extreme caution.) Right now my head is full of feathers, fluff, straw and twigs and promises to stay that way until this illustration is hatched. Though time wise, I’m in a bit of a flap.
This is my current inspiration. The beautiful chick here is one of a horded bunch of magazine tear-outs that I find myself regularly migrating to. Check out that stunning eye makeup and she has little pearly bird clips all through her hair, awwwww!
The envelope was a gift from my little chicken after she tried out her new set of watercolours. The quote at the top of the page was found here and is so apt this season that my next project might very well be building a boat.
And finally here is Chef Smurf. He is brought in and left on my desk every day by my littlest. HE IS HAUNTING ME! See, those are probably lentils he is tasting which naturally all the other Smurfs are going to love (not throw across the table) and make up happy songs about. Curse him and his Smurfy smugness!
This week a little bird told me to hide a heart in my space for you to seek. So I have. There is one in each pic though I must admit the top two may be a bit of a stretch. Thanks Kirsty for hosting.
Anyhoo, must dash, no nest for the wicked.
4 comments June 4, 2009
Beneath the waves
On Sunday we went to the Sydney Aquarium. What an amazing place. Bizarre how it can make you feel like you are looking through a porthole at a completely alien world. There were moments when I thought my daughter might self combust with excitement and I have to admit very soon I too felt the urge to run from tank to tank shouting “Wow! Look at THIS one!”.
Even though I’ve seen oodles of ocean-life docos, gazing on the real thing leaves me utterly gobsmacked, everytime. And my rampant imagination doesn’t have too much trouble placing me in the woman above’s high buttoned boots, rowing out to rendevous with Captain Nemo himself on the journey of a lifetime.
Our lights produced a thousand delightful effects while playing over these brightly colored boughs. I fancied I saw these cylindrical, membrane–filled tubes trembling beneath the water’s undulations. I was tempted to gather their fresh petals, which were adorned with delicate tentacles, some newly in bloom, others barely opened, while nimble fish with fluttering fins brushed past them like flocks of birds.
First image: ‘Woman in a rowing boat’ c1890 From the Collection of National Media Museum/Kodak Museum.
2 comments June 2, 2009
