The week spins by so fast I'm dizzy

Here we are back at Sunday. It is a beautiful day today with the sky clear blue. Quite a few places around the state experienced sub zero temperatures this morning and the snow has been falling steadily in the mountain regions. Snow is not something many people outside of Australia associate with our giant island home. Sun, surf and beach goers are the stereotype people think of when 'Aussie(pronounced Ozzie)' is mentioned. Plenty of people are sharing photographs of the snow in their part of Oz and my first born shared this photo of the weir at Lake Eildon. I haven't see it that full since my teens which was during the Jurassic period apparently(according to my teens)

I am glad that there are so many water saving behaviours we as a nation, have learned since my childhood. Water is a precious resource and we need to treat it with intelligence. My water bill came in recently and I am pleased to say we are relatively conservative in our usage. My electricity bill came in too and our household still uses less than the average single person not at home during the day and that is in spite of adding an extra heater to the draw this winter. I dream of having an all solar house some day. I am trying to minimise my impact on the environment and have gone back to the bicarb soda and vinegar cleaning routines. I don't know why I lost the good habits but somehow along the way I became a victim of advertising and began purchasing product. I use bicarb in the dishwasher instead of highly caustic pellets and my dishes are cleaner, I use bicarb and vinegar on my hair as a wash and rinse and my hair feels fuller and softer and I no longer get an itchy scalp or dandruff. I use bicarb with my non flouride toothpaste and am winning the war against the tea stains of my serious tea attachment. I have tried to train the kids about recycling, reusing and reducing our waste and aim to reduce our need for kerbside garbage collection. it is hard when everything is wrapped in plastic at the supermarket, over packaging of any product from department stores and far too much reliance on plastic to cart things around. I have a long way to go before my impact diminishes to the level I can feel good about but every time I purchase something unpackaged it is a step in the right direction.

So art this week. I joined 'The Drawing Club'. A once a month gathering of local artists who wanted an outlet for unstructured drawing time with others. It is housed in The Artery in Timor Street Warrnambool. The Artery is the brainchild of a group of local artists who wanted a space to come together with like minded people and they formed The F Project. On Friday 1st I joined the F Project and became a member artist. The building housing The Artery has more than thirty rooms and each room is claimed by an artist as his or her own studio. They offer short courses, exhibitions and a variety of other art related activities. Art is not confined and embraces; performance, poetry, writing, fine arts, creative arts, textiles and photography just to name a few. I felt so positive being there. I met new people and came home smiling and anticipating being part of it all.

So here is one of my still life drawings from The Drawing Club. 1st August.

The others can be found through my gallery button which will take you to my pinterest.
 The 52 week challenge this week is LINES.  So many ideas can spring from one word. I am enjoying experimenting with different styles and ideas and here are the ones I uploaded to FB.

 Darling daughter did a piece for this week's theme and three other people have taken the same path for their idea. Interestingly they are all very different. They all contain a tracing of their hands and all have lines of colour but they are each as individual as the artists.

 I am setting out to assist darling daughter with her next cosplay costume and while tracing a pattern onto bakers tissue I realised that sewing patterns were perfect for the week's theme. I scanned and uploaded and added the text.

 

This little fellow reminds me that we need to understand the message. I enjoyed playing with this idea and the coloured pencils. 

 Finally my fairies. These girls are proving very popular amongst the participants and viewers of the 52 week challenge. I loved playing with the lines to create a picture and the mood of the piece. Line proved to be lots of fun.








My other art this week was the Derwent Academy.(http://www.derwentacademy.co.uk/) I discovered the six classes Derwent offers online and have gone back to basics to discover just how to make things happen with my pencils. The first two lessons were simply refreshers for me but the third and fourth so far have been very helpful. Since I did not study art at a tertiary level I am always looking for avenues to improve my knowledge and skills and appreciate that Derwent is offering these.

Lesson four was about colouring and blending. There are an astounding number of videos on youtube to help anyone improve their art and some generous and amazing teachers. The Derwent classes are short simple and very clear and I would recommend them for beginners.

This is my rooster, blue tit and chicken. The scan is not particularly clear but I am very pleased with the original.


So have I managed any writing this week? Not much of my own work this week however I did have the priviledge of editing and critiquing several other people's work. There are some fine stories in progress out there in the world. I must also do another review or two and I have one more person to make art for. I have missed my characters lately and really want to get back to torturing them through love and battles.

I had a funny experience recently where I met a particularly annoying person. I was clenching my jaw he was so annoying then suddenly I thought 'write it down, he will make a fantastic character'. So I did.