While The Studio Is In The Lockup

I miss my studio. I am currently living in temporary accommodation in New Plymouth. The rooms are small but cheap and though I am saving some money each month, I really need to find something bigger. I am kind of going stir crazy. Today was a holiday in NewP and I took the time to finish off a small painting on canvas. I started this a couple of weekends ago after walking the coastal walkway to the Rewarewa bridge. It is a beautifully engineered bridge whose brilliant white paintwork makes it stand out against the Taranaki landscape like a large whale skeleton. I love this walk. A friend Aturo Pelayo showed me the walk and the bridge a month back. Ever since that walk I have wanted to go back and paint several places on the way. The canvas is small but at least I am making art again.

Six Quick Cats

Again this morning, to help speed the bus trip in to work on my final few days in Wellington. I have sketched up six cat images.

Swedish Style and Art

I have a deep admiration for the European artistic style, characterized by expansive areas of white that are accentuated by vibrant and colorful paintings. This aesthetic inspires me to showcase my art in European galleries.

Art Makes a Home.

I love impressionist art there are hundreds of artworks out there that have a homey appeal. Simple subjects with a sense of intimacy. I love older style frames as well, broad simple wooden frames that add to the narrative by way of being slightly grand. This image from "My French Country Home" blog is a good example. By the way MFCH is one of my favorite blogs.

Another Canopy Sketch

During bus trips and lunch hours I love to sketch ideas for paintings. I use a painting software called MyPaint that you can find for free on the internet. I use it on my HP Touchsmart notebook, bought well before the ipad and other such tablets.  This is a quick one I did for another Canopy painting. Its of the Camellias growing in the garden at the moment. When I have the studio up and running I will possibly get around to doing this and a couple of others.

One More Before I Move.

I am moving away from Wellington to New Plymouth in the Taranaki, land of the volcano. I have taken another job there and will be up rooting and its likely to be a few months before I set up another studio. So the plastics will get stored and my art and dreams of a book will also get stored. Before I head off though, I thought I'd post a couple of artworks I am planning. These are some sketchy almost complete images of some new plastic works I will do once my studio space is sorted out. I hope you like...
I am trying to capture the buzz of spring as plants pop into colour and the garden becomes alive again. Its wonderful to see the newness of another years burst of blooms even in the weeds around the house.

This abstract almost naive style has been inspired by some of my favorite artists. Colour specialists like Australian Ken Done who's use of colour as a language or a rhythm is very effective. This image "Another Sunday" sets a mood of lazy and content afternoons in the summer warmth.

Magnolias - Canopy

 

This Magnolia painting was the original Canopy type painting. Unfortunately framed in budget framing but  beautiful none the less.

Another Finished Image - Canopy

I have just created another of the canopy images. These started titled Bali but to be true to what they represent I am calling them Canopy 1, 2, 3 etc. The others are not yet completely finished so this is now Canopy1.

Weekend Play On Words

Maybe A Self Publish

I am also concidering a self publish as a first trial.

Open publication - Free publishing - More ruskin gallery

Researching Book Mechanics

So today I thought I would look at how a children's book would get put together. I don't want to get suckered in to buying software to create one so I downloaded the open source software called Scribus. you can get it here. Its a page layout software and I'm told it does all the right stuff layout wise. The other software you could use would be OpenOffice.org which I always install on new computers, as its handy as bro'. The next thing is to look at how book mechanics works. A book is not just illustrations and words. There is a pace to how a book operates and it is detailed in various pages across the internet. Tara Lazar has got some good technical details on her blog. I suggest if you want to write a kids book you have a good look at what she has to say. The main thing of interest for me was the number of pages an average kids book has and how many illustrations you have to do to fill them.

I also am looking at stories of other illustrators. This documentary on You Tube was most interesting as it unveiled a lot of techniques like using a sketchbook the same size as the finished book.

Tilting At Windmills

Poor Donald Trump has been very upset about Wind Farms lately. He has a point about their effect on birds but maybe he needs to concider his hotels and golf courses displace lots of animals as well. I did this little cartoon to propose a sollution to his stress.

Megaupload Cat

I have been following the trials and tribulations of the Megaupload case and decided to do this.

From Weed To Wonder

These Bluebells were all over the yard and got treated like a weed instead of a lovely flowering plant. So I gathered them all up and put them in this pot last year. Now they are in full bloom greeting people at our front door. Visitors ask where did you buy them.

Possible Zodiac Bookmarks

It's August and I have been doing more digital illustrations. Here is a Zodiac bookmark design. Sorry about the poetry, it's my first attempt.