Icons

I painted this 2 years ago, as my first attempt at an Icon. It is on a 6" x 6" inexpensive wall tile - I did it as a practice but really love the way it turned out.
I hope some of you professional Icon painters don't throw up your hands in horror !
One day I am going to sit down and paint an Icon seriously.




























This was painted at a similar time, but the photo is not all that clear.
The buildings were out of my head, and the Madonna I copied from a book.
The vivid red background was sponged on with water based medium; just one fire produced that depth of red!

Wembly and an Urn.

Wembly is one of our favourite bears, and he wanted his photo on my blog. I made a deal with him to add one of my urns in the pic and he agreed to this.
Anything to get on my blog he said!

I ground laid the urn with maroon, and used soft pink for the roses and a mixture of colours for the supporting flowers around the border. The handles and base (and also the rim of the lid) has burnishing gold to make a nice rich looking finish.

Dinner!

An hour before, this flounder (flat fish) was swimming in the water below where we live.
Straight after this pic was taken by my Blog Maker, the fish was cooked and eaten for dinner.. 'twas delicious. You can't get fresher than that.
To finish was strawberries and ice cream - one of the nice things about summer is picking and eating fresh strawberries.

Sun Set and Roses!

My Blog Maker took this picture from our garden the other night at dusk (my favourite time of day actually) the silhoutte of ferns are native to New Zealand and called Ponga. The trunk of the Ponga when dried and polished has a beautiful pattern of various dark darks and are made into vases and small bowls and sold in our tourist shops.
Carrying the silhoute theme, I thought this vase would look nice against the dark foreground. There is black ground lay and pale pink enamel and black penwork enhancing the rose design.
The scripture from Psalm 19.1-2 states......."The Heavens declare the Glory of God....." and seemed fitting to be placed on this lovely scene.

Peonies on Bone China

I have just finished painting this 10" bone china
plate with peonies.(It is a delight to paint on bone china) .


I have tried to get "dark darks" with a good contrast of colour. I have always been a very
soft painter, and it is a challenge for me to get
more colour on the plate with more contrast and
values.


There is raised paste around the edge of the plate, which has been covered with gold and then painted with tan paint and textured with gladwrap.

Peonies and Lilacs

This 12" plate was painted in a class with Andrew Orr, in Ballarat, Melbourne, Australia in September of 2007.
This is the second class I have taken from Andrew ( the first one was two years ago on delphiniums). I find his teaching clear, concise and practical. And easy to follow!
Well, easy to follow but I don't find it quite so easy to DO. My brain and my hand and the brush don't always do what I am wanting to do!!