Last week we were able to get up to the bushfire affected area of Marysville. We took the children to see the snow and have a play on Lake Mountain. We hired some gear from a shop operating out of a portacabin because it was burnt to the ground six months ago, along with most of Marysville. There’s a clear feeling of hope there though and alot of small businesses operating alongside the constant clear-up and rebuilding.  As we drove up the mountain the bright green young leaves of regrowth lined the burnt trees with the sun shining through. The further up we went the more dead and dramatic the scenery became with black black sindered trees against white snow.

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I am soo excited. I finally received my copy of  ‘The Happy Hooker’ by Debbie Stoller that I order ages ago and it is truelly fabulous. Since my sister left I have been manically crocheting using fairly basic stitches. I have inflicted it on my poor innocent children.crochet-hat01

Thankfully, after a protest and a scream of  “I’m not wearing the brocolli hat!”,  this got a rethink and was made into this.GREEN-SCARFBut I didn’t stop attempting to get the kids to wear my creations.

pinkhatcolouredhatThese two did actually come in handy during a recent trip to the snow.

And lastly my lovely snuggly warm scarf.

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I have inflicted my new passion on my mother…she really did need a new hat and scarf. And a couple of new born twins. They can’t protest until they’re old enough to see the photos and laugh.

In my quest to find victims who can’t protest even Barbie has been given a new item of clothing.BARBIE

I have been busily trying to get my pieces together for The Derinya Art Show and I think it’s done. Although I am not enitirely satisfied with each piece that’s all part of the learning process I suppose.

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Wild Child

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The Dancer

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Hilary

They’re all different sizes. This last one is huge. It’s acrylic on hardboard.

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Derinya Art Show is coming up again. I have two pictures complete and the other two well on their way. This is the only one I can get this stupid system to display. Ahhh computers can drive me nuts sometime.

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Last night I said goodbye to my lovely sister who went back to England after a short visit. She taught me to crochet whilst she was here and claims to be a rubbish teacher but something must have got through. This is what I made this morning when I should have been catching up with college work but just felt too sad.

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This is an assignment piece. It’s a self portrait using an alternative part of the body to reveal something of myself.  It was intentionally painted onto  a copy of my well used cake recipe book, and the childs drawing was a happy accident – nothing is safe in this house. Like most females of my age and especially post babies, I obsess about the size of my stomach but thoroughly enjoy the occasional chocolate brownie or six.

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It’s Easter so I’ve got rabbits on my mind. This was based on a silly scribble I did for the subject ’superstition’ ages ago. On the subject of rabbits though Emily Gravett is the absolute illustrating queen of rabbits. Her books are hilarious and fabulously quirky and interactive. Her book ‘Wolves‘ was just wonderful and I’m really looking forward to checking out ‘The Rabbit Problem‘.

Happy Easter!

longlegsWe’ve been given another drawing assignment involving playing with words. ‘The Girl who Grew Very Tall’ appealed to me ,  so here are some initial thoughts. Another movie poster comes to mind aswell, but that’s aready been done.  The Easter holidays are in full swing so I have loads of inspration in the form of three mad little girls running around and saying daft stuff.

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I just love 50’s movie posters!attackofthecrabmonsters

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We had an assignment recently that was very open-ended and started with putting random phrases together. I got all inspired when I found a book on movie posters and thoroughly enjoyed trawling through heaps of them. I was struck by the theme of the over-the-top evil,  sexy women in 50’s posters and decided to do my own take on that.

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It could do with more work ad the writing is terrible but I had alot of fun doing it.

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weathered wood

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Rather uninspired titles I’m afraid. These are for an exhibition named ‘Little Landscapes’. All the pictures are on 9×4 boards. These were an attempt at exploring the effect of looking for the negative spaces. I got really carried away with it.

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Continuing with the ‘breezy’ theme set by Illustration Friday this week. It immediatly made me think of this fabulous illustrator. This is the first page of the book ‘The Witch’s Children’. My children love it because it’s hilarious and I adore the illustrations. They seem simple but are very effective and very very funny. Just what all children’s illustrators are aiming for I suppose.

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Trying to keep up the practice of drawing every day.evie_edited-1

I can’t believe I let the date of my blogaversary pass unmentioned. Somewhere between doing countless school runs, trips to the gym, cricket, scouts and music classes it slipped my mind. So what should I do to to mark this auspicious occasion…… apart from challenge myself to spell words like auspicious correctly? It’s so good I had to write it twice.

Anyway,  I can’t think of anything special to do so instead there’s……more of the same! Some of the scribbles i’ve done this week and a mention of a fabulous quirky artist. I stumbled upon this wonderful website that made me laugh outloud sometime in November 2008. I immediatly emailed my sister the link because I was to struck. I didn’t know at the time that she’d already posted my Christmas present. She’d been in a book shop with my other sister and they’d agreed that I’d love this book and should be sent it for Christmas. Sisters are just fabulous aren’t they? Well, mine are better than anyones. Don’t waste any more time! Click here right now for  Little People. A Tiny Street Art Project by  Slinkachu I think my favourites are ‘They’re not pets Susan’ and ‘Crappy Christmas’. There are also a bunch of wonderful links to other artists on this site.

This week  I did this little scribbly sketch of my middle daughter sulking over her supper and fiddle about with it with photoshop. There’s other stuff in progress aswell.

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It’s been ages since I wrote and things haven’t been very productive on the drawing front. It’s the first week back at college though, so things are warming up again.

Last night we took some overseas visitors to our favourite spot to watch kangeroos. My eldest daughter, the one who wants to be a vet and live in Africa,  took a bag with her in case she found a couple of bones. After seeing heaps of beautiful kangeroos and their cute little joeys hopping about we stumbled upon a complete skeleton. Well, it was like we’d hit the jackpot and it was all I could do to stop her from bringing the whole thing home. We compromised with the skull,  some vertibrae and lower leg bone.  So now I have the grim task of boiling these things, but how long for? The only good thing in this for me is that bones are great to draw…….and I have one very happy eight year old.

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