Well here we are in the year of the Global Pandemic of Covid 19 which followed devastating bush fires at the beginning of the year.  I think many of us will be glad to say goodbye to 2020.  I'm especially sparing a thought for those that have experienced tragedy in their lives this year.

I've been lucky to date and not experienced anything apart from the inconvenience of lock down and the fear of the unknown. Art wise, I found, rather than becoming creative, I withdrew from my art for a few weeks. But have  since bounced back with ideas swimming around in my head for new work. 

As soon as we were able, my husband and I went for a trip along the coastline to North Queensland as far as Cape Tribulation and then across through Georgetown and Croydon to Normanton and Karumba.  Then south to Cloncurry, Julia Creek, Winton, Emerald and home to the Sunshine coast.  

It was a wonderful 10 week journey of great bird watching and collecting thousands of photos of birds for my reference library, absorbing the spectacular colours of the landscapes of outback Queensland, wonderful interesting towns and lovely people.

The landscape colours of Australia vary so much.  My interpretation of the colours of my journey were the blues and bright greens of the coast, the reds, purples and ochres of the outback, the bright yellow Mitchell grass plains and then the olives and greys on the eastern side of the Great Dividing Range.

I'm hoping to transfer some of my experiences to new paintings in the near future.

Recently  I spent time as Artist of the Day at Buderim State Primary School with a class of Grade 3 students and their lovely Teacher.
​I demonstrated to the children how to draw a Jumping Spider, namely a Bark Jumper and wow, these children knew so much about Jumping Spiders, more than I did I suspect.....and I had done my research!
We ended up with some marvellous creations. There was a pink spider with fat legs, a glow in the dark spider, rainbow spiders, green and blue spiders, spiders with crazy hair and others that were expertly coloured in.
I just love the artwork of children. They are so enthusiastic and creative and a lot less inhibited than adults.
What a wonderful experience that was.

Here are three of the 22 wonderful creations by the Grade 3 students.

Hi Everyone,

Once again life has intervened and I haven't been in contact for awhile.

Have just been on a road trip through western N.S.W to South Australia.

The drought has really hit hard in both states and I saw some heartbreaking scenes.  

On the Barrier Highway in N.S.W there were numerous goats roaming the countryside.  I have never seen that many goats out there before and I was aghast at the thought of the environmental damage they are causing on an already stressed landscape.

Broken Hill is thriving because of the mining and I enjoyed visiting the art galleries there including the fabulous acrylic mural, The Big Picture at the Silver city Mint and Art Centre.  It was created by a single local artist Ando.

It's 100 metres long and 12 metres high and is quite beautiful to just look at and get a feel for the local landscape.

Also visited John Dyson's studio at Silverton and had a drink at the famous Silverton Hotel.

I feel so inspired when I'm in that area and found myself one morning sitting in a sandy creek bed sketching one of the beautiful River Red Gums that grow in the creek.

We travelled on to the Flinder's Ranges in South Australia. We've been there before but this time it was tragically dry.  The foothills were eaten down to bare dirt and we often saw the poor old emaciated kangaroos sitting under the small trees beside the road.  A Wedge tailed Eagle was still making a living out there and of course the Australian Ravens are ever present.  

Amazingly we did see a few birds along the dry creeks including a Red Capped Robin and amongst the rocks of some escarpments were the shy Yellow Footed Rock Wallabies which were a delight to see.

The mountains were still beautiful of course, cut by dry creek beds lined with magnificient River Red Gums.  It makes for an iconic Australian scene and many artists, including Hans Heysen have spent time out there painting the many landscapes.  

We then travelled onto Adelaide and Kangaroo Island before heading home.  

I came home inspired and anxious to get back into my studio.  I hope to have some new work on my website soon.

​ 

NOOSA OPEN STUDIOS is now done and dusted for another year.....

It was a great event where over 60 artists opened their studios or shared with other artists.
I so enjoyed talking to all of my visitors and appreciated their comments on my work.

My studio was shared by Janey Richards who is an impressive abstract expressionist. Our work, even though different, complemented each other and provided a colourful visual display for our visitors.  We both connect with nature in our work and that also tied our display together.

Looking forward to the event again next year.

Please check out my attached page for this exciting event.  I have been working in my studio and producing some new works which I'm excited about.  Just love bringing  my subjects to life and never enough hours in the day. 

2018 has been marvellous as my clever husband has built me a new Studio under the house. It's such a great space for me to work and overlooks our garden, forest and mango trees.  Of course my ever present companions, the birds, are always outside busily getting on with their lives.

A Willy Wagtail stepped inside for a look yesterday.  Luckily he found his way out again without any prompting from me.