Our dog, Stan appears to become obsessed with licking the same spot on his leg, paw, side, unmentionables.
Telling myself I’m relaxing after a workday, I find myself mindlessly scrolling downwards on Insta and FB. At a breakneck velocity.
When I stop myself to doodle instead, creations appear. Some or parts of them may serve as inspiration for future paintings.
Previously, in an attempt to get things right, I sketched and refined in pencil then inked in. This is a valid approach when drawing something specific.
Most of the time I have no idea what to produce. Sketching with ink and trying not to judge the process or outcome frees my mind to wander. It has built my self confidence in using ink.
I considered presenting a blank sheet. After all how do you paint something unseen? Weightlessness came to mind, such a heavy word to describe something ethereal; unseen, lighter than a feather.
My imaginings are viewed through a water element induced feelings lens. Increasingly with age, earthbound gravity anchors me as I am dragged along the ground like a hot air balloon basket being divested of collected paraphernalia. It doesn’t seem to matter how much is discarded I just can’t seem to get my carcass of the earth.
Both versions of the abstract watercolour are posted here.
The first feels heavy, constrained, forced, and overworked.
I am happier with second version.
I was aiming for:
Purple for spirit, and I believe, evolved thought
Yellow for the air element, in my view also sunny hope filled optimism
Blue resonates for me as free limitless sky high thinking
While white space represents light and calm
A decade or two ago, I was fascinated by people who read a book while completing gym based cardiovascular training. In contrast, I felt like I was soaring as I listened to dance music. The beats, sounds, and crescendoing voices motivating my body to pump and work harder to lift me higher and higher.
Nowadays, finding the music in the gym too loud, I can’t be bothered to try to compete with my earbuds. Dialling up the volume sets off my tinnitus. I can complete forty minutes’ exercise in the aerobic heartbeat zone while reading a book on my phone. It works on the reclined bike, elliptical trainer, and treadmill.
This abstract mixed media painting was inspired by the colours of water over submerged sand islands viewed whilst descending towards Cairns off the coast of Far North Queensland, Australia.
Concept sketch 1Concept sketch 2
Whilst on holiday in Port Douglas, using my husband’s 1980s Winsor and Newton Sketcher’s palette, I completed a couple of concept sketches on A6 cartridge paper.
After returning home, I started with a pencil oval outline filled with light watercolour washes in acqua, blue, and green. Texture was created by adding large clean salt crystals that absorbed the water and hues.
The outline was inked in and more washes added.
First draft
Water was sprayed on sections of the picture freeing up the colours to merge, and the edges and outline to soften. Darker shades were added to the water droplets and encouraged to flow into each other. Salt recycled from other paintings was added to create random patches of soft brown and pink.
The above was repeated a few times until the final version emerged.
Last Saturday, having gazed at the bookcase from my chair, I was inspired to create something using three ceramic pieces modelled on nature. A leaf, a shell adorned cornucopia, and a hyacinth leaf vase.
I arranged and drew around the objects in pencil then ink. I decided on purple for the cornucopia using the colour of mussel shell for inspiration, predictably green for the leaf, and finally orange for the vase.
On Sunday, I thought the shapes I had chosen worked well together as there was movement between them from the colours intermingling. Wishing to add depth and luminance, I added yellow washes to the orange and green and redid the ink outline.
After deciding the abstract picture was called harmony in nature, I added three black undulating lines to ground and orientate the central image.
I will brazenly prostitute myself for the chance of being rewarded with free stuff. I am delighted if a free cloth bag contains paper and pens. And boy do I hoard them.
Around a decade ago in Sydney, the local office supply company, Office Works were giving customers a bag weighed down with pencils, pens, pencil case, and bookmarks.
The pink, green, and purple ink pens used in today’s mixed media abstract picture are from that boon. I used the pens to outline the ovoids, washed over with watercolour and drew the shapes again on top.
The stamped circles were outlined in Lipton’s decaffeinated tea with paint added while wet.
I think it depends on how one measures the journey, in time or in distance. Also, there are many milestones and enjoyable deviations along life’s path.
26 years ago we moved from Birmingham, UK to Sydney, Australia, 17,034 km. The journey took three flights and a couple of nights’ stopover in Singapore. It is a distant memory.
When travelling, I prefer to get to where I am going as quickly as possible so that I can maximise the time at the destination.
In comparison to the UK, distances in Australia are gargantuan. The UK is about 965 km north to south. Our move from Sydney to Brisbane in 2018 was 1,000 km, a ten hours drive.
We continue to enjoy our shared highway of 30 years together in the UK and Australia. The ups and downs have brought us closer and reinforced our commitment to each other. We appreciate spending valuable time with our dear friends. The moments shared with them are like dazzling jewels along our road.
This week’s abstract watercolour fits in with the journeying theme. It was inspired by my husband suggesting overlapping ovoids might be interesting.
It took a number of weeks for the idea to sprout into a possibility. On plan it is a bridge made up of piles of alternating purple and green rock hoops topped with an orange capstone. I tried out the concept in Freeform on the iPhone and sketched it with coloured pencils before attempting to paint it free hand.
theINFP 