Being on holidays is oh so lovely and the other day after feeling creative but having no supplies on hand, I visited a little art store in Wangaratta and picked up a watercolour pad, some watercolours, a couple of brushes and a fantastic liquid pencil medium in a jar made by Matisse Derivan http://www.matisse.com.au/pages/LiquidPencil.html.  Available in a few different graphite undertones , I bought the Sepia. It comes in a reworkable, rewettable format or a permanent  choice.  I wanted to be able to work with the product on the paper so I went for the reworkable formula.  Although I did use this product for my initial drawing, I then overworked with my watercolours, a layer of black sharpie and a white watercolour glaze over the top of the body work to give it a ethereal finish. As I only bought a couple of brushes, I will play more with the liquid graphite when I get home.  It was great to be doing art, on the verandah with a glass of wine. Too good!

Yesterday we visited the lovely towns of Beechworth & Yakandanda complete with a visit to the famous Beechworth Bakery and the latter town being the place where “Strange Bedfellows” was filmed. If you’re not familiar with the movie, it is an Aussie flick with Paul Hogan and Michael Caton. They even kept the name of the town REAL in the movie!!

I’m currently at my good friend, B’s property in King Valley, part of beautiful north east Victoria, totally surrounded by rolling hills and nestled bang smack in wine country. Up the road, some even a stones throw away are great wineries such as Brown Bros, Gapsted, Pizzini, Rose Hill Estate, Koombahla and the list goes on and on. I am sure we will be doing the rounds in the 9 days I am here.  B & R are totally horse mad and have 30 or so magnificent mares and stallions, some of who I met upclose and personal today.  After a lazy sleep in this morning, I spent the rest of the day exploring and taking photos, eating good food and enjoying good company.  After a perfect blue skied day we were treated to an improptu thunderstorm this evening just as the sun set. Doesn’t get much better than this! I’m truly in heaven.

Still in progress is my canvas “HOME”. Nearly finished but I am in country Victoria for 2 weeks to visit with friends so I will have to add the last touches when I get back, totally have run out of time!  Just love the Tim Holtz distress crackle paints..mmmmmm! This was my first play with them and I was super impressed.  I bought about 7 colours but have quickly realised that I will have to collect the rest as they are just too yummy!!

I’m working on 2 canvases, the one on the left hand side above is painted with acrylics and has a dressmakers pattern adhered between layers (using Golden gel matte medium). I was just having a play positioning the “home” letters and need to add some more paint before anything.

On one of the days last week my sister Helen and niece Clare were visiting, we drove to Eyres Park to feed the ducks. The seagulls were out in force and the girls took turns chasing them away while the other one fed the very eager (and oh so friendly!!) motley crew of ducks. I was clicking away getting photos all the while.  I’m no duck expert but have eyesight good enough to pick out at least 4 different varieties of our feathered friends.  My favourite was the little guy who features LH in the top photo.  He was very endearing and I was sure that at any moment he was going to open his beak and talk, he was so super cute and perfect- he didn’t seem real! I’ve knicknamed him BILL!

I’ve been tweaking my art room over the last few days and discovered all sorts of hidden treasures in boxes, drawers and more.  I’m working on lots of new bits and pieces and decided a good clean out was needed to connect with everything in my room again.  It’s amazing what I’ve found that I can use in my new creations and I am eager to get started!  The collection of knick knacks above sit on the top of an old cupboard and are great to look at and really inspire me!

Yep, it’s been a while and there has been various legitimate reasons why I haven’t been blogging but I’m not going to bore you with details. I’ve missed it so here we are again…

I had a real urge to visit our local tip shop the other day in the middle of taking my sister and niece sightseeing around Albany.  Apologising as I passed our destination turnoff, I followed the creative pull and was in the carpark a few minutes later.  It didn’t take long to do a quick full lap of the stuff for sale, just about everything was nothing I was interested in APART from this drop dead gorgeous red chair, which I proudly walked away with for just $1.50!  Got to tell you that it just made my day…

I’m in the process of making a “Pelican Quilt”.  I’m really itching to get on with it.  It has been one of the few things creative that I have been able to really focus on lately. Unfortunately this project has been delayed due to my sewing machine chucking a wobbly! I’m just about to chuck it through the window. Breathe deep…..breathe deep…..that’s right!! Wish me luck as I go back to being a Sewing Machine Mechanic for the 43rd time today!