Happy New Year everyone! "謹賀新年"! 2021年もよろしくお願い致します。
Based on the firstly sketched red house, I enjoyed
developing the snowy images into a realistic scene and an illustration! This process is much like a "Colour Rough" called in picture book illustration. If the image conveys the atmosphere, it's successful. First, I
created the landscape after snowing. Don’t ask me if Dundas Valley has snow.
The original image is here. A red house on an open field was
very appealing in Dundas Valley in 2018. Ants bit me. Only a soft breeze talked
to me. A quiet and rich afternoon.
The
original image inspired me to create the night scene, below. I explored images. In this
illustration, I added a character, a rabbit. “The poet is a liar who always
speaks the truth. – Jean Cocteau.”
Friends, Stay Safe and
Happy Painting at home!
Thank you for visiting and encouragements.
Merry Christmas to you all! Let’s enjoy a festive season! (*Santa on Boxing Day) Thank you very much for your support. With your incessant cheers, I could have a very fruitful 2020 against the pandemic.
My May Gibbs Fellowship is rescheduled to Oct in 2022 due to the Covid restrictions. I greatly
appreciate May Gibbs Institution’s support and you, friends’ encouragement.
In the subjects, a pear and a pasta plate, Yuko Nagayama taught us how to draw a plate mathematically and meticulously. She passionately talked about the importance of drawing skills. Drawing skills are equivalent to a person's car driving skills which allows a person to go anywhere she wants to go in work. Another interesting topic was the variation of greys mixed by other colours. Me, too, studying greys to create the harmony in work. The participants were required to submit fruits and a plate. I'm enjoying biting pears! Sweet and yum!
Friends, Happy Painting. Take care and stay safe in the pandemic.
I sketched waves at Narrabeen in 41’ C. Strong winds broke
the wave heads. Btw, ah, heaven, a big and cool watermelon slice from an esky!
I love capturing the movement of waves and its colours. The beauty of life I
feel in nature and an ocean. Friends, let’s enjoy life and drawing!
We, Australians love gum trees or eucalyptus. We, participants required to work on white flowers in Yuko Nagayama's workshop. To find white gum tree flowers was not hard like white bottle brushes. So, here we go! A bit tricky and hard to depict it. Bees and birds enjoy honey.
Btw it's wonderful that Yuko's workshop has opened up my eyes and inspired my hands for flowers and still life! I've begun to enjoy background, too.
In the subjects, flowers in a glass cup, Yuko Nagayama taught us how to handle a background as well as the subject. The participants were required to submit white flowers. I chose our native flowers, bottle brushes. But it was a bit hard work to find the white bottle brushes.
Lovely, Yuko demonstrated the procedures and the any colours could be background that wiped off a narrow colour theoretical approach. Rather, she embraced emotions in an individual. Thank you very much, Yuko! You respect each participant and encourage us to be what we are. "You don't need to draw better (than others). Draw your own style and enjoy it!" I perfectly agree with her.
Now, I'd like to "enjoy" painting a background. I've got interest in still life or flowers for the first time in my life!
I look forward to the final session, a third one. Friends, Happy Painting!
People's choice has masked off the direction to go. Congrats to Joe Biden and USA! His daughter is a social worker that has impressed me much. I hope he will understand people's pain and advocate the disadvantage in a difficult time. We wish the very best to America's future.
Sean Connery dies, best known for his role of James Bond, 007 series in movies. Once, we discussed about the absence of a super idol or a cultural icon in sociology at uni. Sean could be one of the idols who symbolised time and embodied cultures. For the time is there is a changing. Btw, Scotland's national flower is a thistle.
An old couple has the beauty of life and marriage, I feel. They share ups and downs in lives to today. My setting is rain and a bus stop. In general, any old couple's caring tells me love and a “life long story.” The same is true of old people, too. So, I often ask them to be my models. I’d like to create picture books on an old couple in the future.
Technically, I enjoyed soft edges and wet in wet in this illustration. I'd explore watercolour more. Friends, Happy Watercolour and Illustration!
Friends, pandemic
is the chance to grow and try online workshops. Very happy to attend my admiring
world leading watercolourist Yuko Nagayama's course. An online workshop was my first experience. I want to grow. Her say most touched me
was, "Life! When life comes up in work, it’s a beauty.” Lovely. I'm learning from
A to Z. We studied about materials, how to draw such as the importance of observation, value study, colour mixture, colour use etc, etc in two hours.
I enjoyed painting apples after Zoom. Thank you very much, Yuko. She encourages me so much. Two more sessions to go! Happy, Happy Painting.
Honoured and very happy. My work, "Publisher
Helen Chamberlin" was selected as a finalist in the
2020 Hurford Hardwood Portrait Prize. Biennial, included in prominent portraitists. $10,000
for a winner, open to Australia wide, acquisitive in Lismore Regional Gallery.
The judge, the artist Abdul Abdullah. The exhibition from 7 Nov 2020 to 31 Jan
2021. I still can’t believe it. Helen has only encouraged me and let me draw her freely for ages. Oh, thank you for Helen, supporters and you, all
the friends.
Love your Bookshop Day in Booktober or October. I ordered books at "Books
Illustrated"! https://www.booksillustrated.com.au/ Ann James and Ann Haddon have promoted
Australian picture books and creators through projects, events and exhibitions
in Australia and overseas. Thank you, Ann, Jess!! You're our superheros and a motor engine in our industry.
Friends, enjoy reading and painting!
"Reading shaped my dreams, and more reading helped me make my dreams come true,"-- Ruth Bader Ginsburg. I believe so, too. I've moved my May Gibbs fellowship to next Oct because of the pandemic. I'm working on the new picture book project that requires research, critical analyses of collected raw data and writing. I will make my dream come true! Friends, thank you for support.
Eryldene is the most exquisite place, they say.
Quite an interesting and inspiring man, Prof Waterhouse was
a linguist and expert of the camellia! He co-founded the Australian and New
Zealand Camellia Research Society. His house is designed to look along
camellias, a temple, a fountain and a tennis court etc. Click this map. https://www.ticketebo.com.au/the-eryldene-trust/eryldene-open-weekend-sat-11-july.html
Camellias are very popular and common in Japan, do you know?
As if boats were our lives in the ocean. I, as a captain, want to sail across a stormy sea even on a tiny boat. A dear friend says, "Hope you take plenty of sea sickness tablets. Lovely boat
though." Good point! I'll keep her advice in my mind, because I easily get sick even on a ferry. The rusted boat
and the reflection were charming, btw!
It was lovely to sketch together. I love watercolour painting.
Friends, Happy Painting! And we will get through this pandemic. Take care and stay safe.
