Twenty-second

52 week challenge theme for week 38 is, you guessed it, Giraffe. Several times throughout the year other people have produced art works using coffee. The colouring of a Giraffe lends itself to coffee tones. I started off staining the canvas with a weak instant coffee mix then using various thicknesses of coffee and a few drops of water colour paint I produced this little guy. I am so pleased with the final product.

In the Botanic gardens and apparently several other gardens and parks around the state there is a giraffe swing. It did have all four swings attached not so long ago but as our nanny state filled with cotton wool helicopter parenting styles increases, all things that challenge a child are removed, anything that might be fun for someone over 18 months old is gone so now only the infant seats are still swinging. I am surprised some paranoid person hasn't complained that it is not a native animal and should not therefore be in our park or some other idiocy to have it removed.Can you tell I am miffed that there are no more swings for big kids like me?



Off my soapbox... I went to Portland on the weekend which is why my blog post is late. Portland Victoria Australia that is. It was a beautiful spring weekend and I decided to become a tourist for the day on Sunday. Portland has a little tram http://portlandcabletrams.com.au/  and I purchased a little magnetic Tram driver to help support this delightful little tramway. It is kept running by a dedicated troupe of twelve and I thoroughly enjoyed being on it.

I started off at the Botanic gardens which have an awesome number of dalias and roses but none in flower so I have to go back. Then down to the depot where Pete sold me my ticket and I purchased a little tram driver magnet.

The noise of the engine was easy to ignore as the conductor spoke about the history of Portland and the various places of interest the tram line circumnavigate.

 I was also totally delighted to be able to sit on the open sided trolley and feel the cool sea breeze on my face.

I made sure my little tram driver hung on around the corners as we headed across to the War Memorial in the old water tower. This was a fascinating place to spend and hour in while I waited for the tram to return. The old water tower was converted into a multistory space to house much local memorabilia about how the world wars affected local people.

I traveled back to the Botanic garden, waving back to all the children big and small picnicking in the park. I wriggled my bare feet into the carpet soft grass of the croquet lawn then drove out to the light house at Point Nelson. 

My tram driver photo bombed the light house picture.  It is certainly a picturesque drive and a pleasant little town.

I am also a little bit sunburnt. Not a sensible thing for me.

So more art coming up I am doing INKTOBER  the brain child of Jake Parker
 http://mrjakeparker.com/inktober  I quote directly from his blog and the facebook group....

31 Days 31 Drawings

Every October, artists all over the world take on the InkTober drawing challenge by doing one ink drawing a day the entire month. I(Jake Parker) created InkTober in 2009 as a challenge to improve my inking skills and develop positive drawing habits. It has since grown into a worldwide endeavor with thousands of artists taking on the challenge every year.

Anyone can do InkTober, just pick up a pen and start drawing.

InkTober rules:

1) Make a drawing in ink (you can do a pencil under-drawing if you want).

2) Post it on your blog (or tumblr, instagram, twitter, facebook, flickr, Pinterest or just pin it on your wall.)

3) Hashtag it with #inktober

4) Repeat

Note: you can do it daily, or go the half-marathon route and post every other day, or just do the 5K and post once a week. What ever you decide, just be consistent with it. INKtober is about growing and improving and forming positive habits, so the more you’re consistent the better.

That's it! Now go make something beautiful.

so I am going to make ink art as well as the 52 week challenge weekly theme 

The week has been full and awesome. I went out to the Warrnambool Books 30th anniversary. It was a trivia night and a fundraiser for The Leila Rose foundation. There were nine teams and my team won the trivia and two of the three awesome  raffle prizes. We had three very interesting authors talk about their books. 

Regina Lane, author of Saving St Brigid's
Jock Serong, author of Quota
Clint Greagen, author of Reservoir Dad

Held at The Last Coach on the corner of Timor and Kepler street in Warrnambool, it was a delightful night and I enjoyed it immensely. 

I have some commissioned art to make and a competition to enter so I plan to do a lot of art before the end of the week. I have polished up my 12 x 12 picture book draft for September and intend to send it off to RYS on the 1st of October and double check the criteria this time so it wont bounce back at me. Lots of work to do and a trip to the city in the middle. A couple of critiques to complete and life rolls on. Hope your week ahead is awesome. Love and hugs.