The Painting has taken over again

 The painting on paper has been a welcome change.

.... a diversion from painting on wood and in buttons or decorations... 

I might just confess I have become addicted.....

It allows me to illustrate and then ink in & paint an entire story.....

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The paint does not flow in the same manner, this is watered more ....but stopping mid brush stroke is damaging in both....

I have a lot of papers now all painted & am having a slight lean to maybe doing some more fabric painting,.????

What all this paper stuff has done has moved me along to packaging the buttons for the coming seasons ....now I want a certain paper at a decent price to give it the look I can create on water colour paper but falls flat on smooth papers...

It is great to have challenges.

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Of challenges... I have a huge grevellia tree in the back lawn which the magpies have as their sing song tree... which is absolutely beautiful.

They sing to me for ages & I noted this morning some singing and also 2 magpies & 3 native corellas wanting the same space...

2 baby corellas & mother as she was feeding one.... later I spot them picking the bark in the tree....and the magpie about 3 bird spaces away from these invaders....

Much noise goes on until I walk outside.

Magpies sing & I talk to them all....

The corellas go silent for the time.

Interesting to observe on & off during the day.

 

So the painting evolves

My Christmas Designs are continually filled with Santa, his reindeers and the selection of snowmen.

Many are buttons... 

I wonder if you recognise some of these ????

I love painting and the water colour paper has given me another dimension to illustrating and straight to paint desk....

I am pondering some options on how to use these painted designs.

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Something in the heat of summer, the times leading up to Christmas triggered memories of when I sat from light to dusk painting large Santa decorations to go to 2 stores in New Zealand who were doing shows.

My time was tight as...and to make matters even harder a designer was using the Santas in a fabric hanging heart if i recall ....

So I had 2 "bosses" of expectations to hold enough stock, paint, detail , spray the items , package and then box into posting boxes and tape up and off to PO....to enable them to further the sales for their own businesses.

I also was pressurising my wonderful machinist who also would work into the night when the machine was happier with cool night air..

Aust Post express delivered my raw wood designs....

And my life frittered away.

My bank balance should have been looking healthy but it did not...what came in went out of costs !

I was selling too cheaply with wholesale and each next business layer earnt more than I did.....

So I thought 

I am not growing fatter sitting here with no time

 to walk,

 to shop except for food supplies & post.

I raised the prices 

and lost the trade.

It really was not worth the ego trip of painting because so many loved my work.

My work is good, very good. 

But ,with many artists the fine line of pricing is so so hard.

In an economy used to buying cheaply ...not really caring at times for the artist way way behind that mass production creation & idea in another country....

We may quit or we may adjust the vision as the pursuit will remain that love of the creating.

So when you buy a product take a special look at it....

Think who made it, who thought of the way the Santa is formed and then painted, who used it to enhance a fabric design....many spoons are in the pot at times...

copyright Barbara Smith
 

Some Days we spend time...

I love painting on the water colour paper and moving my illustrations in a different direction from stitchery designs ( although these can be) and buttons where I often design stories around a button,

This is a more complete picture and the paint moves so differently over the design.....

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I am sadden to read in the newsprint over last 2 days of people who have been stuck in border states and have not been able to make it home because of the pandemic rulings on each state.

People living in their cars and moving around not to be ? by the local council authorities... 

Too Expensive to stay at a caravan park .

Funny when you now mention the costs of caravan parks friends have been astounded. Gone are those days of cheaper stays for even a weekend.

The society had been built on many fault lines from wages, to permanent staffing , medical structures, affordable housing and how people moved about is another ignorance factor. Homelessness is just a word now but how dare it ever happen.....  

Real estate has boosted many a pocket and enjoyed the commssions & the power from a massive structured boom which is now attempting to repeat itself by auctioning ... go look on all the eastern states most big popular areas are all auctions WHY ??????????????

I am happy to paint and have a roof over my head. 

 

Christmas Nears...without certain things

The days tick by...towards the arrival of Santa Claus.

I paint and I draw and experiment and find much peace in that.  

It has been a long year one way and another... and does not help that my age also ticks up...each day really need to be lived well....but often frittered away.

The weather is more wintery than summer. Which I don't mind except winds do blow hard. I think it is unusual and disturbs the serenity...a bit

My toe has been sadly infected and much has gone on to fix that....as well as in amongst that I have discovered gout....

The fillings and issues after being filled with new dental practice has all just been a daily kind of grind.

On the one hand I am grateful BUT ....

well I am grateful for the ability to sit and draw and paint and imagine a creative world and life....

I am grateful I have almost finished a major work with PTSD.... that has been with me for so many many years...from the violence etc due to alcohol in my childhood family....it is now hard to walk over those words that I guess I do not want to be misinterpreted.

I have needed to finally clear the memories that triggered one way or another or another and find of course my beloved father underneath the bombing of Darwin for which he carried PTSD and his memories.

He self medicated and lost himself and rejected all else .So sad that loss of lives through beer and the need to cope or not......

Now I can go back before the heavy drinking began to the beautiful memories of a father I adored and vice versa...

Then I discovered the family unit us 3 Mum. Dad . Me 

 I felt the wholeness come back & is still coming back, I knew I was dearly loved and understand why the rejection at about age 8 was so raw for me.

Then I questioned does arthritis come with carrying such long deep wounds for years...?

I already had a diagnosed arthritis with a genetic identifer and the gout has added to the party.

is it just the toxic finding a way out...I'd love to think so...

Could be, I keep an open hopeful mind. In the next blog my travels and how, why that came about.

Most artists are complex and have lead complex lives in one way or another....

but I am grateful I have been give a gift of painting & drawing and creating. 

Then I will