Painting #2

Kookaburra Sits In The Silver Birch. Oils on slate

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It's half past midnight and I have just come inside from my studio. I have installed the gallery hanging system, hung some of my paintings and emerged with another finished painting under my belt.
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This one, I'm really happy with - my first ever oil painting. In the past I have shied away from oils. They take too long to dry, you need turpentine or thinners to clean up, it is smelly and just seemed like too much of a hassle.
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Now, I have discovered that I love oils!
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I like trying different things with my paintings. Rectangular canvases can get a little monotonous. That is one of the reasons I have experimented with painting on leaves in the past. I found a nice, oddly shaped piece of slate half buried in the backyard. After digging it up and brushing the dirt away, there seemed to be an image trying to break out of the stone. I sketched about on the surface for a while and found the kookaburra hiding inside.
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What do kookaburra's usually sit in? Old Gum Trees. That's why I sat this kookaburra in a silver birch. What can I say, I like being different.

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A Space to Write - A Space to Paint

My Studio.

After years of being stuck in a corner, I finally have some space of my own. No longer do I have to listen to what my son assures me IS actually music, while I try to concentrate on writing. Music is a mood setter and I have discovered heavy metal doesn’t enhance the mood in a book about a sensitive young girl trying to bring a

little magic to her world.
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No longer do I have to take half an hour to set up my easel and all my paints only to have to pack them away again half way through the painting so there is room in my

corner to do the other things I need to do. That is the fastest way to lose inspiration.

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Now, I can write to my own soundtrack and leave my current painting works out and still have

room to move. It’s like heaven!

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The studio still has a few touches to go before it is completely finished;

· I have to install the gallery hanging system to display my paintings.

· I still need to add book shelves on the wall above the work bench for my resource texts and favourite books.

· I also need to rebuild and update my old desktop computer for writing.

· And I have to find a bigger rug for the floor and curtains.

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But it is workable already and I opened my studio for business over the weekend. It has most of what I need. A wet area to paint, working bench space to sketch and paint watercolours, a desk to write, a light box to help transfer sketches onto canvas or watercolour paper, storage cupboards, a heater, a stereo, a coffee machine and privacy.

What more could you ask for?

I have even been productive over the last three days. I have finished the first painting from the studio and have two more partially completed.

My first painting is titled;

Opals, a watercolour on watercolour canvas.

My two partially finished works are seen below.

Pickets by the Lake - Oils on canvas & Kookaburra Sits in the Silver Birch - Oils on slate