ovoid

Green, yellow, brown abstract mixed media

/ Robert / 4 Comments

Quite a while ago, in fact when exactly is vague, I designed a zigzag pattern using a watercolour brush in a painting app on my iPad. Its purpose was specific, the background panel for the title block on this blog.

My husband returned home from walking Stan with the gift of a feather. We think it is from a rainbow lorikeet because of the green and yellow colours. I decided to use it as inspiration for a watercolour.

Being fond of ovoids, I sketched out an idea and painted the first wash. A few more layers followed.

Horizontally, it looked a bit like a misshapen footy ball. In portrait it resembles an avocado. At this point, I sprayed water onto it. A soft outline formed from the wet edge. Rivulets of colour settles in the warped dips of the contorted paper. I added reused salt crystals and left it to dry overnight.

The zigzag pattern remained in the back of my mind during the process.

I added the darker yellow oval, fresh salt and darker areas to the green and brown topped with recycled salt.

I think this is the finished piece.

Seven ovoids

/ Robert / 7 Comments

This morning, I was feeling a mixture of trepidation and excitement. My new block of A3, three hundred gram, textured watercolour paper was delivered by Amazon on Wednesday.

Just before I went to sleep the other night, I thought of broad black seaweed like bands containing bright orange ovoids. Over the following days I doodled with chains of circles bounding the shapes.

I started with seven reduced to five, today, I decided to paint three. This is the first time I have conceptualised a painting with inked shapes being integral. To date I have added the rings after the watercolour has dried. Shapes evolved as I went along.

I wondered whether to follow my usual practice of not positioning the ovoids in pencil first. I decided to sketch the path the chains would follow.

During the voyage of discovery, I added four more ovoids.

Abstract avocados

/ Robert / 4 Comments

Even with the air conditioning on twenty five degrees centigrade on Wednesday night, I was sweaty and had a restless night. I awoke too many times to count. I went to sleep seeking inspiration for my next painting, perhaps featuring airhead or more ovoids.

The dream

One of the dreams included a back garden of the house we are living in. Noticing a fallen orchid branch, I stuck it into the soft earth below a tree whose trunk was too wide to get my hands to meet while hugging it.

I assumed the tree was very old. The gnarled serpentine roots appeared to be breaking ground as far as the eye could see. I wondered if this was the reason the concrete pad next to the carport was lifting.

Noticing an avocado on the ground, split open to expose the green flesh and stone, I looked up. Whole fruit hanging tantalisingly from the branches above. Feeling hungry and needing to prepare breakfast, I went to get a dark honey finished high, backed bar stool, setting it below one of the lower branches.

Upon climbing onto the stool, it wobbled frightfully, backwards and forewords. Gaining balance, extending to my full five feet and seven inches, I could not reach the prize. I grabbed the nearest branch, giving it a vigorous shake, I imagined a deluge of heavy thuds.

Nothing happened.

They are not ready to fall, I thought. The vendors of the house must have harvested before we moved in this time last year. Excitedly, I rushed towards the house to tell husband, M. about the bountiful tree.

The reality

We do not have a high, backed bar stool in our household. We do not have an avacado tree growing in our garden. I have only seen and walked under an avocado tree while holidaying in Port Douglas, Far North Queensland. I remarked the other day it is coming up to ten years since we last visited. I miss it.

The avo stone is an ovoid within the flesh ovoid within the skin ovoid; Russian doll springs to mind.

The loops in this picture are each three colours in pencil plus ink on top. As I was completing them, I thought, why did I start this? Later on I thought of Faberge styled avocados.

Mis en place

/ Robert / 3 Comments

I trained in hospitality. Our practical cookery lecturer, Edwin Fellows was a stickler for mis en place and clean as you go. Over forty years later I employ both ethe when creating food and art.

Perhaps it has taken on the flavour a of ritual, getting everything ready before starting and keeping the workplace clean and tidy. I can appear a bit of a headless chook, during the process.

Morning commutes and stilling my mind before Morpheus leads me away brought forth the inspiration for this week’s picture.

Ovoids of citrus lemon and orange paired with turquoise from the sea. The black ink pen is running out and I have not sought out my fountain pen and 1980s black Quink ink from the shed. The bubbles are drawn in coloured pencil.

Finding my way

/ Robert / 7 Comments
ovoids kissing

I can get overwealmed with posting on social media and holding myself to account to do so.

Lately, I have tried sharing a snippet of a watercolour on Instagram with the whole picture being available here on WordPress. I imagine this is what the audience of each platform wants.

This enhanced and cropped image is from yesterday’s picture. I immediately thought, ovoids kissing!