i made another treasury

so go do lots of clicking :)

my creative space

here's a photo that worked out from yesterday' cleanup and work stint. i make good use of our takeaway containers and love to use paddlepop sticks as mini pallets – it's so immediate and the paint looks good on the pale wood.

i've been following the creative spaces of rebecca and sophie for a while and thought it'd be fun to play – go to kootoyoo :)

a little progress . friday

how quickly friday comes around!

i've spent some time organising my workspace – it's one of those things that is really important yet always takes a number in terms of what i actually do with my small blocks of time. making the work is the priority. the job is half done – i'll post some pictures when i am proud of them!

this another in progress piece – 'i remember it like this'. it's more layered that the other ones, which i like. in fact i really like layers! i also like the consistency of this paint mixed with the gel medium, it looks like resin or wax {it's transparent} – i feel like i'm making jewellery!

the others in this series are done {pics coming . . .} and the 'white trees' painting is also done {ditto re pics} . . . i think finishing work is becoming a new addiction for me {fingers crossed!}.

i hope you are enjoying your friday/or the lead up to it :)

48 hours

some pics from my mini break!
it was so refreshing to be able to read, leave the building whenever i felt like it and to think my own thoughts {rather than answer lots of questions, think about logistics and chase my smallest boy around, all at the same time!} for 48 hours. mostly i read and read {a fantastic book that i will share with you as soon as i finish it} and swam. that is my deckchair – i only fell backwards off it once!
and the highlight: hoping into the car full of boys once the time was up :)
hope your week has started well!

a little saturday post of appreciation

. . . yesterday at the start of my sacred block of art time i found myself, almost one hour later, still entrenched in my google reader. eeek, i thought, what am i doing with my time, it's disappearing and i've not got anything started yet. . . and lo and behold the same thing is happening today {i have a couple of hours to work on saturdays, pre-cricket}. what am i doing!?
answer: finding loads of inspiration, catching up, and incredibly – finding answers {which will save so much time}!
thanks janellelile for this post – some very valuable photoshop tricks :)
thanks heather for this post – some visual inspiration {and excellent work}. just looking at this post made something that has been circling around in my brain unsolved click right into place : )

{. . . my new banner, which is also in progress – it's a little too blurry!}

the boards . friday

it's been a week!
one of those busy ones with not much obvious progress in the art department. i've got quite a few pieces that i've started, so they are in progress. and i'm learning the fine art of finishing things. this is an in-progress acrylic painting on one of the boards that i bought at the start of the year – i finally feel ready to paint freely.

this weekend is going to be quite a different and exciting one for me – i'm taking 2 nights off! i'm going to stay in an extremely glamorous hotel in the city and i plan to do not much other than read, swim and sleep {can't remember the last time i did that}. it will be the first whole night/s away from the kids, which is why i chose a getaway that is 10 minutes away!

i hope you have something great lined up for your weekend.
happy friday :)

work in progress . friday

i had some time to paint today, and these are 2 of 3 that i'm working on. i have to say i'm really enjoying my new paints! these are on heavy cotton paper. and they have titles!
1. we think outloud 2. just what i think {not always black and white}. they are about communication and how we can know each other so well that we can almost read thoughts.

am pleased that 2 of the prints i donated sold through the OzBushfireAppeal shop. small steps i know but i'm anxious to contribute something. my husband has raised a bit more than $1500 at work which is great.

a kid/mum moment that was priceless to me happened last week when we were sheltering from the intense heat in a cafe in the city {not realising what was happening in country areas}. we bought our 4 year old a green lego car and were putting it together – it was more of a dad/son task, i was moving pieces around making some kind of image with the pieces that were not so ugly {tricky as it was a kelly green racing car with black and red highlights}. my son looked over and said 'ooh, i like what you're doing there with those pieces. it looks just like some of your work'. u can picture how happy that made me!

hope you are having/about to have a great friday :)

handmade help

the handmade helps out blog is filling up with some great items. thanks again to cindy and pip for putting it up.
go see :)

fires

no doubt you've heard about the bushfires that have taken over victoria and wiped out whole towns, 130+ {edit 173+} lives and millions of animals. out of control.
if you feel like adding to this fundraising auction organised by cindy @ bugandpop go leave a comment. thanks cindy for getting this together. {edit: cindy has now set up a blog for the benefit}.

i'll be sending my crochet characters to kids who have lost everything including their toys and a percentage of sales from my shop to the red cross. there's also an etsy shop set up to help out.

untitled . friday

have been wanting to list these ones but haven't as i 've not been able to title them – and it's making me tense! i think a title is a good thing {even tho mine are mostly obvious}. and i like a description that gives artwork more of a face/depth or helps the viewer understand the approach, or at least gives insight into the material process. but then my other thought is that they could/should easily speak for themselves.

these ones are a taking me in a new direction in terms of collage but they touch on the same ideas as my drawings. i guess they are about inhabiting this planet in one way or another and my wish that there could be enough room for every personality, and also that we could respect the planet a lot more {too much to condense into something that isn't mushy}.

i like to be taken somewhere new but still feel that untitled means unfinished! what do you think re titles?

happy friday to u! am going out tonite, very exciting :)

pretty pretty paper

this popped out at me and gave me a surprise this morning when i was having my coffee and squeezing some blog reading in! many thanks to christine for the post :)

i made my first etsy treasury!

am very excited about getting a treasury spot! i thought it'd be tricky but not so :) can cross off one of my new year resolutions now.
go see it!

masculine/feminine work

when i did my creative writing/editing course years ago i had to read out my own writing in front of the class {the horror!} and a couple of people commented that my writing style was masculine. they had visualised the narrator as being male {even tho they could see me reading!}. this thought/memory popped into my head when i was making these collages!

1. yellow light 2. cement

hope your week has started nicely :)