Inertia in the Studio

Do other artists suffer from a state of inertia after an exhibition? After all the last minute work to complete paintings, inventories and photograph work when it’s all over it’s almost an anti-climax. Instead of being fired up and inspired I found that I was drifting around the studio. Perhaps it also because over the last couple of weeks  the studio has been busy with workshops; perhaps because Brisbane Summer has arrived early and with a vengeance; perhaps because the end of 2015 is rushing towards us at breakneck speed and we'd like to put the brakes on and slow down just a little.

But last week I had an injection of enthusiasm, well a couple of injections to be honest. Firstly, I received a couple of commissions which is a lovely way to end the year. I’ll tell you more about these paintings later when they are completed. 

The second is that I've been doing a couple of Sktchy portraits again. I'll share one with you now.  I'm happy to say the drawing it was chosen as a Sktchy 'Pick'. The weekend theme was #WAXforeshorten. When I saw this image it made me think of my mother and her hands so I was quite emotionally vested in the subject.
I intended to add watercolour to the graphite but in the end I decided to leave the drawing as you see it.

Grandma's Hands - Graphite on Fabriano Grana Satinata

And here's the Sktchy screenshot:

Peace and Quiet at the State Library Queensland

On Saturday I was one of the tutors helping at a painting workshop held at the State Library Queensland. The activities during the afternoon were part of the final days of  Distant Lines: Queensland voices of the First World War.

Members of the public were able to create a painting depicting their concept of peace. Canvasses, paint and brushes were provided. We used tubs of Mont Martre Dimension acrylic paint in wonderful vibrant colours. All the materials used during the workshop can be purchased at  Art Shed Brisbane.

Peace and Quiet
There are opportunities for artists who are invited to contribute an artwork of a peaceful landscape to be displayed in SLQ Gallery as part of the exhibition. This can be a painting, drawing, print, photograph or stitchery, and must be a figurative or semi-figurative work (ie. not abstract).

Some wonderful paintings were created – here are a few of them. I had a business card with the artists’ details which unfortunately went into the wash – never to be the same again so unfortunately they must remain anonymous!
A selection of the paintings will be exhibited with the exhibition from 28 November 2015 – 14 February 2016.

 Nature's Bonsai by Maureen Young 

( I took a  photo of the reverse of this canvas so I can credit the artist)

Another activity was to make a badge for peace – I couldn’t resist using some paint to make my own. Here's my badge on the  SL T-Shirt. 

When we were packing up there was a lot of paint left over so while emptying the palettes I created my own “painting” – just a pity it was on newspaper and not on a canvas!

A reminder that the text within the post in colour is a link to the relevant website.