Twitter Art Exhibit 2017

The fun Twitter Art Exhibit this year is in Stratford Upon Avon in the UK. The exhibition runs from the 1st to 19th April.

The charity being supported this year (by sales of the art postcards) is Molly Olly’s Wishes, who do brilliant work for children with terminal or serious illness by making their ‘wishes’ come true and also by being there as a support for their families and giving away therapeutic toys and books that help the children understand the treatment they are receiving.

from Twitter Art Exhibit website

I’ve sent one of my pine landscapes again…

So if you’re interested in participating yourself, (from anywhere in the world as long as you have a twitter account) get your paints and pens out.

Deadline to get your work to the UK, is 17 March 2017.

All information about participating is at The Twitter Art Exhibit website. Or go to their twitter site.

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Summer Threads and a Nude

I’m staying at my mother’s house at the moment and I found one of my old sketchbooks from 2009.

It’s always interesting looking through what you’ve done. Seeing any threads that you weren’t consciously aware of but that later developed more fully.

Sketchbook abstract Summer Landscape

One thread that I don’t really paint is the nude. Here’s a female nude I did at a life drawing meet. I must get back into it.

Sketchbook female nude

Leonie’s life drawing meets in Melbourne and is one of the best if you happen to be in Melbourne and love drawing live from the model.

Feng Shuiing the Studio

It’s been a pretty intense couple of weeks. Full of ups and downs. (And then Prince died… thankyou for the music Prince.)

Getting spiked by a falling Aloe Vera

I suddenly became obsessed with ‘feng shuiing’ the house, (I don’t know if there is such a word but it sounds like you’re shooing things away- which you are) to try to improve my health.

Supposedly having a feng shuied house- which means the energy in the house is energising you rather than depleting you- is one third of your prosperity, health and success.

Supposedly… you should walk in the door and feel fantastic. And if you don’t- you move or add appropriate items to each direction of the feng shui bagua.

I went the whole hog and bought a compass. And worked out the directions for all the rooms in the house.

 

Interestingly enough, we’d intuitively placed many things in the right sectors.

 

Gouache from one of my sketch books that I stumbled upon while moving shelves and things.	Another gouache from the same sketchbook.

 

My tiny studio is actually in the creative sector which is west.

(The other directions are north west – helpful people, north – career, north east – spiritual growth, east – health, south east – money, south – fame, south west – love and marriage.)

It’s taken 2 weeks to finally decide that everything is in the right place.

After moving books and printers and boxes of art materials- from the north to the south and back again- including my aloe vera plant that spiked me in annoyance. I’m now sitting in the feng shui power position – which is facing the door.

 

Supposedly, you should be able to see directly who is coming in. I must say- I did feel a subtle energy difference when I moved into this position.

It doesn’t seem to make you more creative though.

Read how to do it at Feng Shui for Artists

 

Why Am I doing This?

Still working on the watercolour and gouaches. Sometimes I think why am I doing this?

Recently my creativity just disappeared… which it hardly ever does. I mentioned it to Hiie, but then as soon as I did, it was back again.

Who knows?

 

	Rock in the local forest. Can you see the face?
First stage of watercolour.

Black and Blue and a Tutu please

It’s inspiring to look at other people’s art when you’re feeling lacklustre.

Before I came to live in Stockholm from Melbourne, I used to think ‘oh there must be so much art to see’.

Well no. You see more in Melbourne. The main National Gallery in Stockholm is closed for years. And there’s barely a shred of anything much in the temporary gallery. Though it doesn’t look like it when you first enter it.

 

Temporary gallery for the National Gallery Stockholm.

 

Andy Warhol in sverige

Sweden is well and truly captivated by conceptual art and artists. Though they have got an Andy Warhol show starting soon. He is a painter and printmaker- so I can’t complain- though a rather conceptual one. (“The reason I’m painting this way is that I want to be a machine” Andy Warhol – shivers…)

(I must say I enjoyed his diary – it was very funny.)

They just had a huge Warhol show in Melbourne. Hemisphere to hemisphere Andy Warhol.

You get desperate to see a great painting show here. And now there’s going to be a huge David Hockney show starting in Melbourne this November. (I’m jealous.)

I love that he loves colour.

…you can never have too much colour up the top of the world… with the gloomy weather and all.

The Stockholmers get about in a lot of black and dark blue  – you’d die to see a hot pink tutu on someone.

Inside houses and public buildings the style is more light with colour accents though. But outside. No.

Though our house is yellow.

Like Van Gogh’s yellow house…

 

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Always there like a great friend…

Another forest drawing. This will probably be most of my art activity this year. Drawing the forest that is. I just love those trees. So majestic and generous and always there like a great friend.

There’s another twitter postcard exhibition in 2016 which I’m entering with this mixed media pine landscape. It’s in New York this year and if you want to enter you can go to http://twitterartexhibit.org/ Anyone can as long as they have a twitter address.

Still working on this oil painting of swans. You think ‘oh I’ll finish this today’. Well no. And because it’s oil you just have to wait to put another layer over the other unless you want murky colours.

A sketchbook energy drawing of a pine tree with a watercolour base layer. Just a few lines for the tree. I was feeling exhausted that day I think.

I’ve been busy mounting a number of older and new gouache paintings on paper and board. The mounts are called passepartout in swedish. It really feels good once they’re mounted and framed. Then they can go out into the world happily.

Some framed watercolours with a christmas tree.

Basically a black and white drawing of a larch tree in my local forest but with a splash of yellow. The sun .

The National Museum in Stockholm along with many other galleries and museums is now free from January 2016 which is fantastic if you like to go regularly. It has been around $20 everytime you want to go which is pretty steep. So you hardly ever do unless something great is on. The Moderna Museet has a Matisse which I love and now I can go to see it more often. The National Museum is closed for a few years and it’s been moved to this building in the picture. But basically nothing is on display. Like the Goya and impressionists. They have some contemporary swedish painters on at the moment. Old fashioned paint on canvas. It was great to see.

This small (32 x 24cm) oil painting I’ve submitted to be part of an exhibition called Park Art Fair in Triberg, Germany in March.

Here’s what the local landscape’s been like with the recent snow snap. Just beautiful.

Sea Orb Blues: today’s sketchbook drawing 5

Sea Orb Blues gouache on paper 17 x 17cm

Penguin suits on the way to Estonia

We’re just in Estonia- a small, beautiful country on the Baltic Sea- for a couple of weeks for holidays.

View of the Baltic Sea through the cabin porthole.

I’m not quite used to having holidays in the middle of the year, being from Australia, and keep having fleeting feelings like it’s Christmastime. On the ferry last night they had some children’s entertainers dancing in rabbit and penguin suits and  was confused for a moment.

It constantly surprises me how your physical perceptions are so programmed by your experience.

Very nicely on the walls they had two Van Gogh posters. Kandinsky decorated the hallways. Van Gogh just brings that earthy, summer heat to you especially if it’s raining outside.

 

 

Watercolor Mania

Watercolour. It’s hard. You feel overwhelmed sometimes when you’re trying something new. I’m trying to find the spot where I can express my vision. The spot which is the balance between realism and abstraction in relation to the subject.  So there’s a bit of variety in style with the images at the moment.

I looked at some watercolours I did the other day – you have to be so careful- it’s easy to alter one thing and the harmony and radiance is gone. You’re always on a knife edge doing art but when everything works you feel triumphant even if it is only a little piece of paper with an image on it.

Susan Wellington ‘Akalla sketch’ watercolor on Hahnemuhle Paper rough 200gsm 17 x 24cm (6.7 x 9.4in)

Sue Wellington ‘Still, I Couldn’t find You’ watercolor on Hahnemuhle Paper rough 200gsm 17 x 24cm (6.7 x 9.4in)

Susan Wellington What did you expect down at the Beach? watercolor on Hahnemuhle Paper rough 200gsm 17 x 24cm (6.7 x 9.4in)

Susan Wellington ‘Pine World’ watercolor on Hahnemuhle Paper rough 200gsm 17 x 24cm (6.7 x 9.4in)

Tasmanian Tiger in Tassie

The thylacine or more commonly the Tasmanian tiger or Tasmanian wolf was the largest known carnivorous marsupial of modern times. It’s now extinct (1936).

The photo of the stuffed tiger was recently taken by my uncle on a visit to the Museum of Old and New Art, Tasmania, Australia, which by all accounts is meant to be a fascinating gallery to visit though I haven’t been there myself. Maybe one day.

A Dream Of Water in February

‘Dolphin Dreams’ CD Cover by Jonathan Goldman

On February 14, 2014 there is a sound healing day for the planet. It’s initiated by Jonathan Goldman who’s a sound healing pioneer. But this year as he writes in the article below, a special part of the healing is for the healing of the waters of the planet.

healingsounds.com | A Dream Of Water.

It’s simple to participate. You just go to his site and he’s set up a sound healing ‘temple’ which you intone into at 12:00 midday your time. I’ve done it a couple of years and it doesn’t take long and according to him it is affecting positively our planet’s energy field. I really don’t know. But you can see for yourself  Dr Emoto’s work showing the power of words and sound on water, so I don’t doubt it.

A water crystal from water exposed to the Beatle’s song ‘Yesterday’.

To me we have to do these things for our beautiful planet.  You certainly cannot rely on your politicians or the governments of the world. We the people have to do it.

healingsounds.com | A Dream Of Water.

Aqua Sea and Rocks in Chania, Crete, Greece

Aqua Sea and Rocks in Chania, Crete, Greece, a photo by sawelli on Flickr.

Oh the sea! How I love you. The sea in Crete was a real surprise. You see the pictures in magazines and you think there’s probably a bit of exaggeration. Well it’s not. It’s just so beautiful. The water so aqua I couldn’t believe it. Not everywhere but in the harbours. And so clean. Swimming in it was deeply relaxing.
And the Cretan light. I overexposed this photo a bit to capture a bit of the blazing brightness which hits you when you get of the plane from Sweden. It’s like someone lifted up the blinds.