Happy New Year to you all. I hope it will be a good on for all artists and art lovers. Particularly I hope it will be a healthy year, as if you don’t have good health then life becomes much more difficult, as we are finding with Margaret’s broken ankle. But, she’s hopping around and has been for a few rides in the wheelchair, so we’re on the right track. The plaster should come off in early February.
Meanwhile, at the coalface of art, I have not managed to find much time to paint, but I have managed a little. Here are two new paintings both done using my travelling watercolour kit that I squeezed into the already bulging suitcase.
The first painting was done after a visit to Split Point lighthouse, on the coast of Victoria near the start of the Great Ocean Road. We were touring round of few of the villages that dot that part of the coast, all with very British names such as Torquay and Anglesea. We stopped at the lighthouse, which makes an imposing view, and I might have hauled out the easel there and then. Except, the car park was jammed with cars and there were several million flies ready as eager onlookers. So, a few quick photos, and the painting was done later on at my “Ocean Grove studio” where we were staying as guests of our good Aussie friend Merridy.
Merridy also has a house in central Victoria, near the town of Maryborough,and that’s where we are now. A very different place to Ocean Grove, with the emphasis on farming, vineyards, and the country life. The house in in 20 acres of paddocks and woodland, so I wandered out late one afternoon and found this typical Australian back yard view, with rather arid soil, eucalyptus gumtrees and a few bits of fencepost and old corrugated iron scattered around. I did the painting on the spot, using an old shed for shade as the temperature was pushing 35 degrees Centigrad. Phew! Even hotter today, over 40 but thankfully some rain has come and it’s cooled off. I had intended to paint another different scene today but suddenly realised, I’m out of paper! Next stop the art shop.