Charcoal drawing of my dear friend

I completed this drawing of my wonderful friend a long time ago and gave it to her for her birthday. There are acid marks on her forehead etc now, as I could only afford a cheap frame back then. It was of my first charcoal portraits, so it could be more polished, but I feel I captured my friend, as I saw her, and I am still happy with that.

A few years after she tragically died at 34 years of age. Her parents asked me if I minded if they kept the portrait on their wall. Her parents passed away in old age, and my friend's sister had the drawing for many years. She returned it to me on the 30th anniversary of my friend's death.

I am very pleased to have it again, as I see my friend's thick, wild hair blowing in the wind at the fun picnic with friends. I can remember enjoying that sunny summers day in the country. She was a gentle, intelligent, kind person with a great sense of humour and made my  family and I laugh and smile, and I still smile when I think of her, even though sometimes it is through tears.

Graphite drawing of Banksia bush by Tricia

Botanical style graphite drawing of a Banksia

I drew this piece of Banksia bush that I picked at a friend's place. I have always loved the texture and patterning on Banksia bush blossoms, since my childhood at Coogee, where they grew on the cliff top at the north end of the beach. They still grow well there, and I also have a thriving tree in my yard now in the New England region of NSW. I have found doing such detailed botanical type drawings to be a meditative experience. I do drawings like this every now and then. I plan to do some intensive work on detailed nature drawings in January next year. They are my way of mediating, rather than using the now popular adult colouring books.

"Turners Light" watercolour

"Turner's Light" is a watercolour painting, that I very much enjoyed doing. In this abstracted landscape I used a very free loose broad brushstrokes and primary colours. I was loosely inspired by Turner's paintings of the Rigi in Switzerland. I love Turners more abstracted free wash style paintings.

"Turner's Light" (23.5cm X 15.5cm)

Turner Inspired Watercolour

This is a watercolour that I called 'Turner Inspired' for obvious reasons. I entered it in the Daphne Young Watercolour Art Prize, and I was very pleased it received a "Commended" Award. I enjoyed making this abstracted landscape using free loose brushstrokes. Mind you, I did a few unsuccessful paintings using a similar technique, before I was happy with the results. That is the thing, when you are being very free, the paintings will not always work, but I am learning all the time, so none of the unsuccessful paintings are wasted, even when I throw them away. They are all part of the creative process, and the development of the painting that does work. I love leaving my paintings open to chance and going with what comes, rather than planning them precisely.

"Turner Inspired" (35cm X 26 cm)

Open House Postcard Show at NERAM Armidale and EMSLA Exhibition at Coffs Harbour

There is an opening this evening at 6pm New England Art Museum Armidale NSW of an exhibition called 'Open House Postcard Show' that has three of my paintings on display. I will put some photos of them up on my blog soon. These small paintings will be on view until 21st Jan 2016.

In the meantime, I must let your know about the wonderful exhibition I saw recently at Coffs Harbour Regional Gallery, NSW. It was the Eutick Memorial Still Life Award (EMSLA) show for 2015. I would love to pop some images up for you but I could breach copyright if I were to do that. However, I recommend you have a look at: http://www.coffsharbour.nsw.gov.au/our-community/facilities-parks-and-places/regional-gallery/Pages/EMSLA.aspx.

The entry paintings were from artists from all over Australia, and it was judged by well known art critic John McDonald. It was a real treat, and well worth seeing, even if only on-line. I enjoyed viewing this strong exhibition.  I'd be very interested to hear what you think of both of the above exhibitions if you get the opportunity to see them.

Here are two acrylic paintings on canvas that make up a diptych that I completed about four years ago.   

Welcome to my blog.

Hello readers. Thank you for visiting my blog. My goal in making this blog is to let people know more about my art and my art making process, as well as receiving comments, tips and ideas from others. I use various media ie oils, watercolour, acrylic, ink, pastel and mixed media and various techniques to create Chinese and Japanese (Sumi-e) brushwork paintings, representational and abstract painting.