Christmas and cartooning in Australia

I had a wonderful Christmas with my family. I hope you did also. We are enjoying wonderful summer weather, but Christmas wasn't as warm as it usually is here in Australia. Members of my family made these creations, which made the Christmas extra special. I love to see that there are many arty creative people in the family. I have been enjoying learning to draw Japanese manga and anime cartoon characters with a young fellow in the family.

We went to the Cartoon Bunker in Coffs Harbour today, where we learnt more about the history of cartooning in Australia, and we saw many original hand drawn cartoons.

Happy 2016 to you all. I am looking forward to doing a lot more art this year. To start off this new years resolution off, I am going to do some intensive nature drawing everyday for a week in January. I will pop some photos of the drawings later this month.

A watercolour sketch from the kitchen, of a Japanese Maple, my parents gave me.

I enjoyed doing this sketch from my kitchen table looking out the back window. It was done quickly to record the wonderful colours on a Japanese Maple that my parents gave us.   It is a simple freely painted sketch, but I still enjoy it as it takes me back to a happy times in our first home with a young family in Tamworth NSW.

Small Japanese Maple watercolour sketch

'Bellingen Home' Traditional style Watercolour 2013

'Bellingen Home' Watercolour (28cm x 19cm) 2013

This older style home at Bellingen NSW appealed to me as it had so much character and seemed to have a story to tell of families who had lived in it and still do. It seemed typical of many country old Australian weatherboard buildings of it's day. My watercolour sketch was done on site, sitting under a tree, to get shelter from the oppressive summer heat. The style harkens back to the style of painting I did 30 years ago, and it was comforting to do it. A bit like  chicken soup for the artistic soul! A traditional old style of painting for an old style home. The photo is a little darker than the painting.

It is certainly a contrast to the more abstracted acrylic and oil paintings I have been doing over the last couple of years.