Alpine Flowers

This is a semi impressionistic painting of Alpine Flowers (Gentiana), and I have taken some liberties with the base stems, and finally given them a impressionistic twist. I hope you like the final outcome!

Lady's Slipper Arch: one of my early artworks

This is one of my very early artworks.  The arch exists, I painted in the wall to make the painting work!

Guyra Gum Tree No 2

I am not sure about this painting, as I tried to make the old trunk of the gum tree a center feature of this painting.  Good paintings do not usually have the main feature smack in the middle of the painting, but I thought I would try something different with this one... any comments would be gladly taken on board!

Ginger Cat: artwork looking a little mean.

My first try at a portrait of an animal.  This is my Ginger Cat, looking little mean.

Fuchsia in the Wind: A Windblown Painting

This painting is a little different, as I have tried to give it a semi impressionistic windblown look.

This is the first of about six 'flower' paintings I completed a couple of months ago. 

More flower power painting to come!

Painting with Lights 2010: A different kind of artwork

I have not put paint to canvas for the last week or so.  I have been putting up and fussing with my Christmas Lights for 2010.  I consider putting up lights and the way you assemble them to be Painting with Lights!

Here is one of the first video clips I took of our current Christmas Lights setup, I will post one later on when I finally complete the installation of all the Christmas Lights.  This year has been very wet in Australia, so our Christmas Lights have been delays over the last few days on account of rain, rain and more rain!

My original Blog of Painting with Lights contains a small video clip of Lights that I had put in in 2006. 

My Blog - Painting with Lights Part 2 contains a video clip of our Christmas Lights 2009.

I will be back to putting paint on canvas, instead of lights on the roof from today! (Dec 5, which is BTW my birthday).

Wisconsin Lake Sunset: artwork with comments.

These comments were sent to me by my friend the Rev Rick Anderson on November 16, 2010 after I sent him a print of the painting.  His comments on my artwork mean a lot to me!

Notes on Wisconsin Lake Sunset, by Rev Rick Anderson, 16 Nov 2010.

Re:  Your painting of the sun reflected over the water.  I think what caught my eye first off and then later, when I studied the painting is the way that the sun’s rays seem to “skip” across the tip of the ripples in the water – and then approach “the observer” as if to invite “the observer”  (me – in this case), to actually enter the “experience” of the contrasting blues and other colours of the scene as a whole.

 (Sorry about such a long sentence, but I wanted to write exactly the impression I get from the details of the painting as they invite me into the overall or total picture – very effective).

Also, despite the predominance of light blue there is evidence of the “intrusion” of darkness in the trees and the darker areas of the blue in the sky and on the horizon that tells me that the sun’s beauty is to be truly appreciated in the few minutes before the compete scene is permanently changed by the immanent movement of the sun.  You have permanently captured the brief moment in time that is soon to be completely change by the passage of time.

Parfreys Glen Wisconsin USA, artwork of light on shallow water.

 This painting was probably my first attempt at painting a shallow creek / river. I was happy with some of the light and reflections in the water. 

My stepson Shane waded across this stream on a visit to one of the many great State Parks in Wisconsin, USA. I think that from what Shane has told me that this shallow stream is only about 6 inches /15cm deep.

Green Twister No 2 - Abstract artwork



I have liked the way my Green Twister abstract was received, and that I had some favourable comments by people who liked it.  I have modelled a second larger painting based somewhat on my original Green Twister abstract.

I showed this picture to my stepson Shane and he said that he had a feeling that the painting showed post atomic desolation of a city!

I am sure that many people will find something different in this abstract.

Self Portrait: Artwork commenced at the Portraiture Workshop

I have been working on this painting from November 7, 2010.  I am really sick of looking at myself, but as no one else in the family wanted to volunteer I had to paint a self portrait.

The Portraiture Workshop was really great, and I learnt some good tips, that will be of use in the future.  I have written in detail in one of my earlier blogs about the workshop so will not go into further details here.

Left Hand of Darkness: artwork in black and white

This artwork is my first attempt at using white paint on a dark background. 

Wisconsin Flora

This painting is my impressionistic view of some flora that grows in Wisconsin, USA.  I have just completed this artwork yesterday. 

Portraiture Workshop

I attended a portraiture workshop yesterday, organised by the Ipswich Arts Society.  The teacher / tutor was Cynthia Hargraves.  I was very impressed with all our practice portraiture drawing exercises. 

We had to draw a quick portrait sketch in three minutes of an image that was projected on a screen.  We completed ten sketches in thirty minutes.  I was happy with my ‘early’ sketches, but towards the end of the thirty minutes, my sketched were not so good.  Cynthia gave us heaps of good tips about portrait painting, and even gave us tips on matching skin tones via the computer.

Cynthia Hargraves is a professional portrait painter, and if any reader would like more information on Cynthia, you can visit her website at www.cynthiahargraves.com.

In the afternoon we painted a portrait using your own medium of choice.  I used acrylic paint, as I have been working only in acrylics for the last six months.  I painted a self portrait. I wanted to paint a portrait of my wife but she declined, so I had her take a digital picture of me on the night before the workshop. I processed it on the computer, and then laminated it, so I could peg the photo on the top of my easel. 

I started using a brand new / different brand of acrylics for this workshop.  This was a mistake as the new brand of acrylics had an entirely different feel.  This expensive brand was thicker and ‘sticky’, compared to the acrylic paints that I have been using.  I did get my self portrait about half completed.  Everyone had a digital camera, so everyone took photos of each other’s work, including my half competed work.

This is a photo of Cynthia giving us some tips on setting up digital cameras for photographing portraiture paintings, to check for skin tones. 

Guyra Gum Tree: Artwork in Black and Yellow

I visited Guyra a couple of times in the last few weeks to see my brother Bruce. After visiting I took my father around the local township to see the sights.  In Guyra, Australia there is a lookout where you are supposed to view the Mother of Ducks Lagoon.  The viewing platform was a little rundown, with a plank missing in the middle of the floor.  The view is not that great either, as the viewing platform should be some 10 feet higher.

I looked around and at the back of the viewing platform was this twisted gum tree.  I took some photos and proceeded to paint several paintings based on these photographs. 

Green Twister: abstract artwork

Green Twister is an abstract showing my fascination with higher and lower aspects of nature.

American Blew: an abstract painting

When I showed this abstract to my stepson on the internet, he suggested that I call this painting American Blew.  My stepson Shane, lives in the USA.

Can you tell or suggest to me why he picked that name?

River on the Dells of the Eau Claire - Wisconsin artwork

The Dells of the Eau Claire is a great place to visit in Wisconsin. 

This painting shows the river downstream from the dam.

Frosty Snowscape, Alaska.

My cousin Bob sent me a whole set of photos from Alaska.  Here is the first painting of a series I hope to have completed within the next six months.

Bob and his wife Linda lecture and work at a Bible College in Glennallen, Alaska.

I have a fascination with painting snow.

Shane’s Front Yard, Wisconsin Winter – my first snowscape in oils.

This was my first snowcape oil painting.  The snow in the Wisconsin winter is reasonably heavy.

As an Australian living in a land of sun, where we rarely see or experience snow.  

I have only ever been in snow, trying to ski that is - twice in my whole life!

I have a special fascination with painting snow.  I suppose if I had to drive to work everyday in snow and rain, I would not be so fascinated about snow!

The Wave - An artwork of surf.

This is one of my 'early' paintings, of waves on the ocean.  I watched a number of videos on the ocean waves before I finally painted this artwork. 

I have completed over 300 SCUBA dives so, I am familiar and love the ocean waves and water. 

The ocean can be calm and a wind can blow up some serious waves in a heartbeat.  I can remember the time I was diving in the ocean off Jarvis Bay, New South Wales, Australia...

The ocean was calm when I submerged, and after a 45 minute dive, I surfaced to find that the ocean waves were running at 6 feet or more and the dive boat was running about, with the captain really worried, to make sure that he picked us all up OK.

We all made it.

Green River - an abstract painting

This abstract reminded me of a river, hence the name. Abstracts give you freedom, free to let your brush do things that you cannot do when painting realistic subjects.

Eclipse Theatre - a spooky artwork.

This old theatre is in a little country town of Deepwater, in the state of  New South Wales, Australia.  The town has a  population of about 300 souls. 

This theatre looks like it has not seen a show for many years, as TV has made such country venues obsolete. I imagine that this building is haunted by ghosts of begone films and productions.
Hence - I made this painting as spooky as possible.

Rainbow Farm, a painting of a sign ~ from another place.

This is a painting from a photograph I took a few years ago. 

My wife and I were driving down the New England Highway from Brisbane to Sydney, Australia to see my mother who was very near death.  My brother called me on the cell / mobile phone to tell me that Mum had passed away.  This was in the middle of the afternoon and the sun was still out in the sky.  We were still a long way from Sydney!

I had not driven a more than a few more miles down the road when I saw a complete rainbow in the sky.  I jumped out of the car and took a number of photographs.  I managed to get a complete set of pictures of the rainbow that ended on a farmhouse.  My last picture was a zoom or close up of the house and the rainbow.  This painting is based on that photo. 

I looked at this rainbow, the first time I had ever seen such a complete rainbow, as a sign from God that all was well with my mother, and this was a great comfort to my wife and me at the time.  I still consider this to be a sign from another place, to give understanding that life goes on, and all is right in heaven. 

Blue Mermaid - an art abstact in blue

This abstract was created at the same time as my prior posted Desert Track abstract.

I see in this painting the deep of the ocean, with maybe a suggestion of a mermaid lurking in the water.

I love SCUBA diving and find great relaxation when floating weightless in the depths.  When I have been SCUBA diving in clear water on the Great Barrier Reef off the Australian Coast, I have the sensation that I am 'flying' above the white sandy bottom.

Desert Track: An Australian Abstract Painting

This abstract was painted in the style of Australian Aboriginal artwork.  This painting reminds me of the color of the Australian Desert.

I was flying to Asia in a QANTAS jet some years ago, and the flight path was right over the Australian Inland. I looked out the window of the plane and saw that the landscape of Australia was red for thousands of miles.

Painting of a Wisconsin Grassland Sunset.

Wisconsin is a state of lakes and reasonably flat land. 

Now before any Wisconsinites take offence I do not mean anything bad about the word “flat.”   I live in Australia, but have made four trips to Wisconsin in the last ten years.  My darling wife (who comes from Wisconsin, still gets blown away with the mountains she sees as we drive home - in Brisbane).

Wisconsin does have mind blowing beautiful nature parks with hills and vales, just no high mountains.

I have used some ‘heavy’ acrylic paint in this particular artwork, making this sunset an impressionist glimpse of the sun seen through long grass.  

Roche A Cri State Park... a Painting in Purple

This is a painting where I tried something a little different.  I cranked up the purple paint and gave this painting a different slant. 

The Roche-A-Cri State Park in Wisconsin, USA is a rock basically standing up from the ground some several hundred feet. 

The Roche-A-Cri monolith has rock art from the Indians, and even graffitti from the civil war!

I like this painting as I love the color purple, but this painting also shows the rock in a 'different light'.

Abstract Painting - Face of a Clown

I have been painting abstact artwork on small sized canvases for some time. 

I have read a good book on abstracts by Rolina Van Vliet.  Her book has given me some insighst into the painting of Abstracts.

Here is an abstract artwork called Face of a Clown.  My first abstract painting for this blog.

This artwork is named because my stepson Shane looked at this painting and said that he could see the face of a clown within the painting.

Can you?

Hatten Park - My First Snowscape Painting.

This painting is my first snowscape.  This painting shows the last fall of decent snow, as spring time was just around the corner.

I have walked down the road in this painting.  One summer while walking through this park, I saw three deer that were looking curiously back at me.  They held still long enough for me to get a photograph. 

My stepson Shane walks throughout the park on a regular basis to keep fit and healthy.

The park was named after William Hatten, who owned a lumber company in New London, Wisconsin, USA. He was a major contributor to the formation of the park.

The park has 120 acres of woods as well as plenty of open spaces needed for regular recreational activities.

As I live in Australia, where the warm sun shines all year round,  artworks of snow have a special fascination for me.

Strawberry Fields

Strawberry Fields

Let me take you down...to Strawberry Fields Forever...so sang John Lennon.

I took a trip from Australia to visit England on a Beatles “Rock n Roll” trip.  My friend, from Sydney, had placed a coupon in a competition, (he bought two bottles of beer) and stuck the coupon in the little box on counter of the bottle shop on the way out.  The local radio station called him some time later to let him know that he had won the trip! 

He called me at work and I said jokingly that I would carry the bags and pay for the booze for the trip.  Little did I know that a few days later that he called me back and offered for me to accompany him on a 7 or 8 day tour of Liverpool and London!

My friend’s wife had twins and was in no way able to make the tour. 

We had a great time despite some trouble flying over the USA without visas (that is another story!).  We assumed (incorrectly) that as we were flying to England, via USA that we did not need visas (we do not need visas for short stay in England, as we are from Australia). We had some troubles but made it across the USA from Australia to England and back.  You could not travel without a visa now across the USA!!!

One of the highlights of the trip was a bus tour of Liverpool, and on one of the stops we all piled out of the bus to view the gates of Strawberry Fields.

My painting shows (I hope), a contented John Lennon looking on to one of the happy places of his youth.

Mind's Eye

This painting was inspired by a Wolfmother song.

I was driving down the road with a Wolfmother CD playing full blast, when I thought of an eye coming out of the Id, and looking at the world.

This Mind’s Eye is the eye of the inner soul, the eye of your “knowing”, the eye of your understanding of the world, which cannot be put into writing.

Life Drawing

My first Life Drawing workshop was a new art experience for me. 

I have sketched some human figures before from pictures, but never from life.

When I normally paint, I take my time, painting on average for about 45 minutes to an hour per session.

This workshop lasted for three hours. We used paper and charcoal on large sheets of paper.

The real challenge was the time factor, the model kept changing poses after five minutes, ten minutes etc.  I have never painted, sketched, with a stopwatch or time limit.  I remarked to the artist next to me that this was ‘hard work’.

I was happy with my sketches as they improved dramatically over the session and by the end of the afternoon, I was producing something that looked like the model!

We had a coffee break about two hours into the workshop and finally finished up with a long 45 minute pose, that enable us to get a good sketch.

This workshop was provided by Artisan Wonderland: An Ipswich Council Workshop Series 2010.

Painting with Lights - Part 2

Blog No 9:  Painting with Lights - Part 2

 I really enjoyed creating and assembling Christmas Lights.  I have a passion about getting a good Christmas Lights Display up and running.  I have inspired both my neighbours to also put up lots of lights.

The way you display your lights is always important, they have to look ‘right’ for your house.  I change my display, as much as I can, each year.  For years this was my outlet for painting - ‘painting with lights’.

Christmas Lights can be expensive, so you have to watch all the specials that appear in the local shops.  After Christmas clearances are a must. 

Ebay can be a source of good Christmas Lights, at the right price.  I have lots of patience when it comes to bidding on ebay, you must have set yourself a maximum bid price and stick to it.  Do not get carried away and get into a bidding war with someone else who thinks that they must have the current item up for sale.  I have found that there is always another item (usually the same), offered for sale.  I sit tight till I finally get the item I want...usually at the right price.

Christmas Lights are fun to assemble and you spread the joy and message of Christmas to many people who come to look at the lights. 

I have a short video clip of my 2009 Christmas Lights, and I will have them up again this year for folks to enjoy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xFfZdmargaE

Painting with Lights

I was talking to my next door neighbour Bill several years ago, and I was explaining to him how I felt about putting up Christmas Lights.  I told him that I looked at Christmas Lights as painting with light.

I have always been fascinated with coloured lights.  I remember as a child being at the Royal Easter Show in Sydney, Australia where one of the displays had a sound and light exhibition. I sat cross-legged on the floor and watched this pillar of lights pulsate to the music that was playing.  There was a frequency module in the display that would show the high sounds as bright yellow and reds, while the bass notes came out as blues and purples.  Now-a-days the disco and light shows would have put this display to shame, but remember this was early 1960!  I really loved the way the music and lights interplayed.

 I like coloured lights, and Christmas is a perfect time of the year to go “full on” with all the lights you can afford and display and they always put a sparkle in everyone’s eyes.

Here is a youtube short clip of what I had going in 2006.

http://il.youtube.com/user/paulsd124

My next blog will show what the Christmas Lights look like in 2009!

Freshwater Croc

This painting of a freshwater croc was the first painting that I put on public display.  The Ipswich Art Society had an exhibition that was associated with the travelling art work “Three Well Know Australians” by Martin Shaw. 

http://www.couriermail.com.au/entertainment/arts/martin-shaws-three-well-known-australians-keeps-em-guessing/story-e6freqkf-1225829834399

Martin Shaw’s painting travels the countryside and people are asked to guess who is represented in the painting, write it down in diaries that become part of the exhibition.

The Three Well Known Australians Exhibition, along with lots of art works by the members of the Ipswich Art Society, received little publicity. This was due to the fact that the local papers did not publish the fact that the exhibition was on.  The President of the IAS had given the local newspaper the story and had even been photographed. 

The newspaper published the story the following week, and the paper came out about same day that the Three Well Known Australian Exhibition was due to close. 

IAS kept the exhibition open for an extra day.

This painting floated from the back to the front of our house during the flood of Jan 11, 2011. The painting still survives and I smile at the fact that my painting of a crocodile actually went for a swim in water!!!

Flowers – Progression in Brushwork

I have loaded up two paintings of flowers.  One picture was painted last year when I was just starting out.  This painting is called “Flowers...Towering Over Your Head,” and was inspired by the old Beatles’ Song “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds.”  I was challenging myself to paint different scenes from the song.  This is my painting of the words from the song that go, “cellophane flowers of yellow and green towering over your head”. 

The second painting is semi – impressionistic; just called “Flowers.”  It was painted in July of this year and has nothing to do with the Beatles’ song. This painting is one of six that I have worked on, all with the theme of flowers.  I can see the improvement in my brushwork, in the space of six months or so.  The first “Flowers...towering over my head” was painted in oils and “Flowers” was painted in acrylics.

I have swapped from oils to acrylics, as the medium suits me at this point in time.  Acrylic paint dries very quickly, sometimes too quickly, but you can always slow down the drying time.  I do not have the racks and room to dry oils.

My favourite painter is Monet.

What Kind of Art Paint to Use?

When I started to paint I thought that painting in oils was the only way to go. 

 Wrong! 

 After reading books from the library, magazines from the local newsagency, and watching / reading information from the Internet, I realised that there are a mind bending range of paints, mediums and products to choose from. 

There are oils, acrylics, pastels, pen & ink, watercolours, gouaches, pencils, oil pencils, crayons, and many more.  Each product has its own range of extras that complement and vary the performance of the original.  Some mediums extend the drying time of the paint; some make the paint to stay wet forever - till you heat it, some mediums take a tint of paint to make glazes etc. There are just too many to mention here!

When I first came to realise there were so many products out there, I felt like I needed to go back to school and check out my old science teacher.

We all need a teacher! An art teacher!

Starting Out

I now had this passion to paint.  What did I need?  Where was I to go to get art instruction?  I could not afford the time to go to classes or be away from home for long periods of time.

The answer presented itself in books, VHS tapes and DVDs borrowed from the local library.  The local library was a godsend as it showed me the way, having a very large section of books devoted to all forms of arts and crafts.

I watched an ‘old fashioned’ VHS library tape, by a Queensland artist Val Osbourne. Val has been teaching art at TAFE colleges for many years and had produced a series of tapes on painting in oils and acrylics.  I really liked his style of teaching.  I searched on the Internet to see if I could buy a Val Osbourne set of instructional DVDs.

Val Osbourne lives in Queensland, Australia and I found his local art group in Mackay.  I sent an email off asking if I could get in contact with the artist.  The secretary of the art group, http://www.grapevinegroup.org.au/artist/valosbourne was more than helpful and passed my request on to Val.  I finally contacted Val and he put me in contact with his local media production company.

The wonderful world of art was opening up for me.  I watched all the DVDs (I had bought about a dozen), and absorbed all the art instruction like a sponge.

I was on my way.

The Ghost of Skype

The picture that I am using on this blog is really my first attempt at a self portrait.

I painted this on a whim, from a snap that was taken of me while I was talking to my step-son Shane, on Skype one night.

I was wearing a light blue coloured beach shirt and for some reason my web cam only picked out my head, leaving the rest of me out. Shane then took a Skype picture of the result and sent me the photo via Skype file transfer.

I am a bodiless head floating in space. Ouch!

My First Art Lesson

My first art lesson really happened a long time ago. My uncle Harold was an artist, and has produced some wonderful landscapes. We all looked to him as the artist in our extended family.

I was staying with the family at my grandmother’s place when we were on our school holidays. We had been to church on the Sunday morning and after dinner we all took a walk at the local recreation area. The family group split up and formed a straggling line along the pathway. I was walking next to my uncle and we started to talk about trees.

“Look at all the different colours in the trees,” remarked my uncle. I was a teenager, or younger so I replied. “Trees are green, what are you talking about different colours in the trees?”

Then my uncle went on to show me how the sun shone on the trees causing different colours to form, the bright side of the tree, the shadows that form on the dark side and all the many shades of yellows, greens, and browns that were present. My eyes were opened and I never looked at any tree or landscape ever again without seeing all the shades of colour.

This really was my first art lesson!

Paul's Pen and Paint Blog No 1

This is my first attempt at a blog on the Internet. The blog will be mainly about painting and any associated topics, but I may stray into other esoteric areas.

I might start with a statement that I am surprised and filled with wonderment at the wonderful world of art!

I have never put paint brush to canvas till November last year, and I did so to try to encourage my 87 year old father to re-commence his painting of Australian landscapes. I was very surprised when my painting took off and now has a life of its own, but sadly my father has still not really tried to paint again.

I paint in a corner of Dad’s large lounge room in his granny flat, and this provides me with a chance to chat, paint and hang out with my Dad. I can chat and paint provided that Dad does not embark on too heavy a subject like Armageddon - the end of the world!