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!