Back again after big changes

The two years since my last post have been challenging. Lots of changes in all areas of my life. I returned to a job which I hadn't done for 25 years - teaching piano to young people. So I've been pre-occupied with re-training myself and getting up to date with syllabi and repertoire. Not to mention the technological revolution which enables me to instantly send sheet music to a student along with an audio or video file. Using my phone. It's mind-boggling.

So my visual art took a back seat for about 18 months. I was simply too physically, mentally and emotionally drained to attend 3 hours of life drawing, and then teach 4 hours piano. My brain is low on serotonin at the best of times, and my new music teaching job was greedily eating it all up.

Last September I took a painting class at the Workshop arts centre, Willoughby. The teacher, a professional full time exhibiting artist, Jo Bertini, inspired and encouraged me to do more.

Around the same time, a remarkable person came back into my life. John Hancock was my creative director when I worked as a copywriter at Ogilvy and Mather Direct in Melbourne in the 1980s.
I was lucky to reconnect with him for the last few months of his battle with cancer, during which, despite hospitalisation, heavy duty treatments, and palliative care, he was an energetic and powerful mentor. As he was when we worked together all those years ago.

So I have experienced unexpected and incredible generosity of spirit in the last 6 months. And I am painting again.

Also, my music is different from when I used to play years ago. I no longer feel pressured to perform, to achieve, to live up to family expectations (I grew up in a musical family). The impulse is coming from within me, something I thought I would never experience. I was one of those kids who dutifully   did all the classical exams, practised 2 hours a day, and never questioned it. But it wasn't coming  from my heart.

My grandmother said back then "don't ever give up your music". But of course I did. I had to. I had to drop it, forget it, then rediscover it and claim it as mine. And my grandmother was not a painter, so she didn't really "get" the art thing. I am a far, far better painter than I am a musician. Now I feel free, and entitled to enjoy both on my own terms and no-one else's. It probably sounds weird but that is
important for me. My own terms.

Through all of this, my piano playing is the best it's ever been, my painting is the best it's ever been, absolutely incredibly and profoundly satisfying. I'm still battling with my severely depressive brain which is a constant. I've been through worse and survived. Menopausal symptoms don't help (ironic chuckling) but that too shall pass.

More to come, plus new and wonderful paintings. I am planning an exhibition soon which will be both online and IRL. Excited.

New paintings and other things

Here is one of my recent life paintings of "Kim", a model at the RAS NSW. I painted him several times years ago at another class, and he's always great to paint. I don't think I've done his back before though. It's good to return to the same subject, years later, and see how much easier it is than before. And of course I'm a lot looser now. I wanted to contrast the transparency of the flesh with the opacity of the background. I love the layers of glazes that resulted. The finished painting is about 100 cm square, I used a 4 inch nylon housepainter's brush with acrylic and matt medium, using the brush's side edge for the thin lines such as the creases on his neck.

My daughter insisted I remove this self-portrait from facebook because I "look deranged". Success at last! Seriously, the reason for the weird colors here is that I was in the car, waiting for Her Royal Highness the Princess to get off her horse. I had just painted a lovely study of a pumpkin, using watery acrylic on watercolor paper. I had another small piece (A5) and looked in the rear vision mirror, saw my reflection, and painted. The fact that it was dark, and I only had limited colors (cad red, cad yellow and phthalo blue) meant a "deranged" self-portrait was the end result. I love it.

It's amazing what I paint when I have limited resources, a tiny space, no light, and only the vegetable shopping in the back of the car. One is forced to paint oneself.

Notes on my blog...

Well, once again, yes, it has been rather a while since I've updated my blog. Something called my daughter's HSC (matriculation) got in the way. Then we had a long summer break, then she started (gulp) University. Now, she is driving herself everywhere so I have been sacked from my chauffeur job. Yay! I have a LOT more TIME to spend at classes and in my studio now!

These are about 1% of the things I've made since my last post. Since January, I've been focussing on painting, and I'm doing a weekly life painting class with Leyla Spencer at the Royal Art Society of NSW. I've been in Leyla's drawing and painting classes on and off over about 8 years. She taught me to draw properly!

(legwarmers and gloves custom made for a client in the USA)

However much I try to avoid "handcrafts", I always end up with a crochet hook and a ball of wool when painting is impractical. It's like meditation for me. I crochet and knit while I watch TV with Rick, and while Rick's driving. Then while I'm sitting there I'll come up with all sorts of other ideas for other stuff I want/need to make. Such as furniture/clothes/accessories/decor. Oh, and more paintings and drawings. So it's one big circle of create, create, create. It all feeds onto something else.

Today, I'm excited about a lovely loose watercolor portrait that a colleague did in class the other day. I rarely see people painting in watercolor, (except for the botanical class I sneak through every Tuesday, trying not to bump anything on my way to the sink). So now, after many portraits in oils and acrylics, I'm thinking "I must try THAT" i.e. watercolor portraits.

Anyway, Leyla had me working on lost edges on Saturday. Lost dark edges (shadows) and lost lights. She showed us work by Matisse, Degas, Rembrandt and another guy I've forgotten his name. Yet another way of simplifying and defining the form, with minimal visual explanation. It's got my brain going in yet another direction. So I did another large nude, started off linking the shadows, and ended up linking the lights, when the lighting changed. I'll show you in my next post. Please remind me!

now, which end do I hold the paintbrush???

Well I don't know what happened, someone put a bomb under me perhaps, but I completed two small watercolours on the weekend. I had a massive mental block, created by a few weeks' break from painting due to "Daily Paintworks Challengeslife getting in the way". Daughter's exams, school holidays, husband starting new job, husband spending a week in Europe on business, oh yes, and the dog ate an easter egg and almost died. So, it was all I could do to put dinner on the table, let alone sit down and draw or paint...

Anyway, enough about all that. The heater in my studio isn't working, and it's freezing down there so I don't want to paint in oils or acrylics. Even pastels are a bit messy for upstairs, so out come the old faithfuls, the water colours.

If you want to have a closer look at these, they're in my Etsy shop and also on the Daily Paintworks Challenges pages.

coloured pencil drawings

Last night I did these little still-lifes with coloured pencil, can't help myself. I scanned them but maybe should photograph them next time, it takes a long time to download them.

two more paintings

Here are two more paintings - the first is a small still life of nail polish bottles, for my daughter. The second is from the Daily Paintworks Weekly Challenge, the 10 minute Challenge, where you have to paint an object (in this case, my apple) in 8 different "poses"for a maximum of 10 minutes each. Each apple is about 3 by 4 inches. Not for sale - I don't think anyone would want to buy it! LOL

I loved painting the pinks - luscious reflections and shadows. I hope to do more like this one (top).

creative crisis and a solution

When I got back to Sydney, I had a small crisis. I thought the broken colour/impressionist style worked well for portraits of men and boys, but for girls and women, who have softer complexions, I was convinced it wasn't suitable. I didn't want to make my girls look ugly!

THEN, I saw a program on Studio channel about Lucian Freud. Just what I needed to see!!! I could never in a million years make my sitters look as ugly as he does his! He has painted his daughters, for example, and although they are in real life quite attractive, he manages to make them look like monsters.

Lucian Freud painted the Duchess of Devonshire (another Deborah, above!) when she was in her 30s, and she said now, in her 80s, she's starting to resemble the person in the portrait. Anyway, talented painter, interesting paintings, but pretty? No!

So with renewed confidence I set to work on another picture of my daughter, this time in acrylic, just to get away from the linseed fumes for a few days (the whole house smelt like cricket bats). Very happy with this one. And to my delight, it dried in an hour or two!

portraits

in addition to painting and drawing each day (usually small sketches/paintings), I've been pursuing my interest in portrait painting.

I started exploring broken colour a few years ago, then my old dog got sick, then I spent 3 years nursing him, then we got a new dog, then my husband left his job, etc., etc., etc., you know, life kind of interrupts my art.

So I booked in for a week long workshop at Mitchell School of Arts, Bathurst, this January. My tutor was Lesley O'Shea, another of my favourite painters. I love the way she uses colour. Anyway, my first painting was fairly traditional :
Then, after a few reminders from Lesley, I "went to town" on a picture of my mother, getting all carried away with brushstrokes, colours, everything, which matched the joyful expression on my mother's face (I worked from a photo).With all that going on in the portrait, I didn't need a background at all, so left it white.
The next day I got stuck into a picture of my husband, and then one of my nephew who had recently visited us in Sydney.
So that was one painting each day - Monday to Thursday - at Bathurst. On the final day I decided to paint a friend's horse - I'd promised to do it a while ago, as a gift for her 21st birthday. Here is the initial painting, just needs final tweaks now (like some EYES for the poor creature!)

The beauty of this week-long workshop was that after my initial half hour with Lesley, I was again on the right track and worked on my own for the remainder of the week. You can probably see a similarity in my style once I stuck to the technique.

I am very happy with the results, working in the broken colour technique. Horses are really really complex, even more so than human figures. I've drawn and painted hundreds of humans, and horses are much more difficult. Anyway, I can only improve! LOL

new direction for me and my blog!

As you may have guessed, and as so often happens in blog land, I haven't posted in a long time. I'm doing more painting these days, and hope to do a lot more, because it's only with practice that I will learn more. I am trying to paint every day. Or at least draw, because I don't like to spill oil paints in the car. So I take my pastels when I travel.

So from now on I'll try to post my regular works - maybe not a "daily" painting or drawing, but hopefully "almost daily".

I've been taking part in the Daily Paintworks' Weekly Challenge, and I'll post those entries here, also anything else I come up with. At the top is my first entry, a Zippo lighter in oil pastel, and above is an oil painting of a blue teacup. Both are available in my etsy shop.

roeffel's new coat!

My friend in Belgium, Annemie, has a beautiful west highland terrier called Roeffel. It's been a cold winter over there, so I made a crocheted coat for Roeffie, so he could keep warm on his walks. Here is Roeffel, wearing his new coat! It fits nice and snug around the neck and front legs, and is really warm, as it's crocheted in softest merino wool.

It's red, with two pockets, one with the letter "R" and on the other side, one with a little West Highland White Terrier. These are knitted into the design.

You'd never guess how old Roeffel is - he's 14!!! Isn't he just beautiful! So handsome and so SWEET.

PS let me know if you'd like to know more about my dog coats - they're made of superfine, machine washable, pure Australian merino wool, naturally water-resistant and soil-resistant. I make to order and mail anywhere on the planet. I made one for my old dog Frankie, and I'll make another for Hamish if he ever stands still enough to measure!


Here is Frankie in his coat, about 2007. I made it because he had a back injury and he needed to stay warm as he got older, with his arthritis etc.

My Etsy shop for valentines...

The Dear Child is back at school, the Dear Husband is back at work - after a day home alone with the animals, I'm looking for things to do.

Valentines Day is a day to bring love to everyone - kids, animals, friends, family, and of course partners and sweethearts. Thankfully it's not all about champagne, chocolates and satin lingerie. Well, not for me anyway!

So I cleaned up my Etsy shop and made some new listings. Just for Valentines, my shop has a theme of perfect pinks, flowers and hearts, including some very cute little baby hats. Have a browse at debproductions.etsy.com. I hope you enjoy it.

As you know I'm also an oil painter. So it's time for me to go back to school too, part time. I'm planning to paint 4/5 days a week this year, in my studio, when I'm not at classes. I'm not exactly sure WHAT I want to paint just yet, but no doubt that will happen. I've opened up a second etsy shop for my paintings, so far there's only one item in it, but I'll be adding more,

http://www.paintingsbydeb.etsy.com

First ever clearance sale

It's January, and time to clear the decks, so I can make more room for my new creations.

I'm having my first ever, half price clearance sale in my etsy shop:

debproductions.etsy.com

pop in and have a look, you might pick up a bargain!
Airmail anywhere on the planet 3 - 10 days (in reality, usually 5 days to UK/US)

enjoy!!!

one door closes...another opens

I have been in an emotional crisis since my last post which was long ago. My old dog died and I have a new puppy. But it's taken a lot of hard work and tears to get to this point, where I can sit down and write without drowning the keyboard with tears.

A couple of weeks after that post, and a month after my 50th birthday, on August 5, my dear dog, Frankie, died. It wasn't a shock, he was 17 1/2 years old. It was sudden however, he was simply eating his breakfast and went to stand up, then collapsed and died instantly. I was in the same room making a coffee, it must have been a heart attack or aneurysm. Thank heavens it was painless and instant for him. I am devastated, always will be. He was a huge part of my life. I joined an online support group (lightningstrike pet loss), which is fantastic.

I'm not at all religious or spiritual, but I know my dear Frankie is with me in spirit now and forever. He's guiding and protecting me all the time, I just know it, and I know it especially since he left his dear old body here on earth. There you go, call me spooky.

Anyway, I knew straight away that I would love to have another dog in my life. Not as a replacement, but as an addition. I thought I would need a long break after being Frankie's carer 24/7, which meant round the clock vet nursing, medications, carrying him up and down the endless stairs in our house (45 stairs, count 'em, I've never needed to go to a gym LOL).

But no, I'm a hopeless romantic. I'm sure that I would bond instantly with a funnel-web spider if it needed looking after.

No one could ever replace Frankie. Nor would I want them too. And I know that Frankie wants me to share the love of animals, especially dogs, that I am blessed with.

So we got another West Highland White Terrier! I love the breed, and Hamish is quite different in personality - very self-assured and fearless, and very obedient (whereas dear Frankie was nervy and never obedient! LOL). Hamish is chilled, very laid-back, which suits me fine at this stage of my life. I think pets come into your life at just the right moment for whatever it is we need to learn from them.

Frankie taught me everything I know about love. I was just married (he was born while we were on honeymoon), and Frankie was 2 when my daughter was born. He protected me through thick and thin, through a nervous breakdown and hospitalisation, through therapy and recovery, and managing my everyday life living with severe depression. For some reason I tend to attract people who take advantage of my kindness, and Frankie helped me to be more selective about who I spend my time with.

During my time with Frankie, I learned how to: run a house, be a partner, be a mum, say NO (well I'm still practising that one), handle kids, and above all how to love my daughter and husband. Add to that learning to handle horses, dogs, possums, cats, reptiles, birds (yes, even birds, and I used to have a major phobia of birds), and the wonderful confidence I've gained from spending time with animals of all species, even spiders and snakes.

Who knows what I will learn from little Hamish. Already he's teaching me to be more laid-back and confident. And he's only nine weeks old LOL.

So, here we go again, another chapter in life's big adventure. I am carving a headstone for Frankie's grave, have to find some nice stone for that. And Hamish is keeping me busy, he is an absolute sweetheart.

He "chose" us, if that makes any sense. As soon as he met us, he just decided that he was part of the family and that was that!

new works on redbubble and flickr

ranunculus
Originally uploaded by debproductions

I've been uploading lots of my paintings onto the above sites - this one included!
I'm debproductions on both redbubble and flickr!

painting again

After a very long break, I shifted all the laundry out of the rumpus room and started painting in oils again. Many of the paint tubes have dried up and are messy, but I spent three solid days painting and cleaning up. Which is a start.
I'm concentrating on brushstrokes, trying to recreate the style of a portrait I did a couple of years ago. Kind of impressionistic, getting out of my realist rut and moving towards something looser I hope.
When I get my photo software working, I will post my progress.
I also plan to do a weekly class to boost my skills. I haven't been to art class since we bought the horse!

my work was on the Etsy front page!

Etsy Front Page 7/1/09 badcatjewelry
Originally uploaded by Etsy Front Pagers

What a lovely early birthday prezzie - melanie posted on my facebook page that my work was featured on Etsy's front page yesterday!

mine is the bookmark pictured middle column, second from the bottom.

melanie is also a fan of my dotty bookmark... thx mel u r a treasure!

Blue and White

My 70's kitchen has royal blue benchtops and white cupboards, so things have gone a bit blue and white in there over the years. It's such a fresh, timeless combo that I never get sick of.

Pictured above are some ceramic pieces I painted years ago. And the newest addition to the family, an old plywood tissue box which was looking very sad until I gessoed it and added my own blue and white patterns.

Blanket for Bushfires

Imagine if everything you owned was reduced to ash. Summer is almost over, and there are some cold months ahead, particularly for the survivors of the Victorian bushfires, who have nothing but the clothes they were wearing when they fled.

So a mate of mine on Ravelry, Dawn, announced she'd organise to collect knitted and crochet squares, to sew into blankets, to be distributed to those in need. There is a blog if you want to find out more.

The address to send finished squares (30 cm x 30 cm or 12" x 12") to is Blankets of Friendship, PO Box 488 Traralgon, Vic 3844

I started out thinking I'll just do a few squares, then it was fun, so I did a few more, then I thought, well, I can do a few more and make a whole blanket!
So here it is, about to be posted to the lovely ladies in Traralgon distributing the "Blankets of Friendship".

Etsy bushfire shop

There's a great way to donate to the Red Cross Bushfire fund, and also enjoy some fabulous shopping at the same time. A dear friend, feliciafairy, at Etsy's Dust Team has set up a special Etsy shop, where 100% of proceeds go directly to the official Red Cross appeal. Red Cross has also promised that 100% of the appeal will go directly to the victims, so you know ALL your money will go straight where it is needed.

Here's the link:

http://OzBushfireAppeal.etsy.com

It's made almost $3000 in just a few days, and it's only just started. There are heaps of gorgeous items donated by Etsy sellers from Australia, and all over the world. They are also kindly donating postage, so that means free international postage anywhere in the world.

bright little treasures

Over the summer break, I've been making little medallions and joining them together, mixing up colours as I go. I sewed them up when I got home and photographed them today.

Hope you enjoy the bright colours! Some of these will be made into scarves, hair clasps and bags, and will be available in my etsy shop, so pop in and check to see what's new.

Ouch!

When we first moved into our house about 12 years ago, there were many tall gum trees (eucalypts) on the property. Since then, we've lost, um, let me see, one, two, three, four, ooooh about eight, plus a 60 metre liquidambar.
The latest branch/es, about 30m, fell off the tree at the front of the house, just before we left for our summer holiday. The power lines came down, and we had to replace a few tiles on the garage roof.