"Treasure" - acrylic portrait on canvas

So after a rather lovely weekend camping I thought I'd best get back into the swing of things and show you all what I've been up to.......and here it is. The painting is based on the sketch I posted earlier of my daughter. It captures her serious, thoughtful side well and although I'd still like to tweak it here and there I am rather happy with the outcome.

Handmade Decorations for Starship Hospital

These are my take on the Christmas bell - I made them for a fundraising initiative of the NZ Art Guild for Starship Hospital in Auckland. They were a challenge in that I usually work with paint. However as I moved through the process of designing and constructing them I found myself enjoying the change. It was a chance for me to broaden my skills and remember long forgotten ones. There are four of each colour. Sadly photos don't do them justice but the general idea is there.

The Summer Landscape

Just finished this piece is acrylic on boxed canvas and depicts a semi-fictitious landscape. Now there will be farmers out there pulling their hair out at what I'm about to say but here goes anyway........I love the colours of summer!(not the heat but definitely the colours) When the land takes on the parched golden tones there is something awe inspiring about it. The afore mentioned farmers will obviously find nothing attractive about drought season - and this I can totally understand, this is their livelyhood we are talking about, however it does give the landscape a certain rich glow one which I am intent about capturing.

Portrait of my girl - pencil sketch

So as you may well know I've been rather busy lately - too busy in fact to paint. I have however been able to take time to revisit the humble pencil. The above pic is a sketch I just completed of my daughter - I worked from a photo taken a couple of years ago which I always thought would make for a great painting, I'm rather happy with the results. It did take a couple of false starts but once I started I remembered just how much I enjoy the simplicity of a pencil! No major cleanup, no major set up - rather fantastic concept really. It lead me to thinking about my world series and how I've been putting it off for bigger canvases when in reality perhaps all I needed was a different approach. I shall think further on this - and in the meantime shall definitely explore drawing further.