The Camp Fire

I love the smell of smoke from a campfire. I love the heat from a campfire. I love the atmosphere created by a campfire. i just love them. I guess you can tell. I wanted to create the glow and the heat of the fire in this picture which is not quite finished.

Friendship

We went to a friend's farm recently for the AFL Grand final. A group of families spent the day watching the footy, drinking, eating and then spent time around the camp fire. My girl friend and I managed to consume vast quantities of champaign which we both suffered for in the morning. The next day the kids went motorbike riding around the paddocks and my children decided that they too wished to live in the country. This is a picture of two of the children at the farm, hand in hand walking up the drive. I was inspired to try my hand at another landscape with this charming act of friendship.

Aurelio

I painted this picture today from a sitting. His name is Aurelio and he is a native American Indian. He brought all his native dress in for us to see and wore a lot of it and this is how we painted him. Aurelio at break times would eleborate on parts of his dress and their meaning and told us a little of his culture. He comes from a tribe that is medicine based and so a lot of the designs on his clothes were of plants that are used for medicinal purposes. It was great fun and very interesting.

Workshop with Raelene Sharp

Today I attended a workshop with Raelene Sharp. Amazing painter. These gum trees were from a photo image from Raelene. She demonstrated as we worked through the picture. You learn so much from other artists watching them work and from their instruction . I found this piece very frustrating initially as a; I am not used to doing landscapes and b, I am not used to working in her method. At one point I was nearly ready to throw the picture in the bin but I'm glad I didn't because I learnt a lot and I am happy with the painting.

Busking in the City

This is the same person from the picture called "City Buskers". I decided that the last one didn't really work and have depicted the drum playing musician protrait style. I tried to capture the movement of the hands to establish the energy of the music. This person fascinated me with his cool look and fun music.

Artists in the Round

What an interesting day today with my art group! Everyone started their own picture and we had 10 minutes to begin our picture. Then we all rotated round one painting and worked on the next picture with that persons pastels. We kept rotating and finally finished back at our own painting to complete the picture. This picture "Tip toe through the Tulips" is the end result. It was great fun and actually taught us each a lot about each persons paintings and their styles etc.

What makes art sell???????

I have been on nights for the last two weeks, which has meant my art work coming to a stand still. I have to just try and survive the two weeks and any creativity is gone. On a happier note, I have sold these three paintings at different places over the last month. A great feeling selling your art work because you know somebody really loves it enough to buy and treasure it. They appreciate it bydisplaying it on their walls for family and friends to view. But why do people buy your art and what is a winning formula? I have no idea. Do people buy art because they admire the painting, or is it because the colors suit the room they wish to display it in, or are they reminded of a feeling, an emotion that is captured by the picture? A friend of mine has a theory that only paintings with orange in them sell. After this I went around to art shows checking out the paintings that had sold. Sure enough most of them did have orange in them. All I know is that I will keep painting things because I like them. The subject needs to appeal to me, inspire me and bring out an emotion or a thought. Once art is no longer enjoyable I think there will be no point in continuing to paint.