I haven’t abandoned my knitting over the winter. In fact, I have been rather busy. This boy’s jumper was knitted up in late autumn/early winter for my friend’s son E. It has many variations but I chose to do a collared jumper as I don’t think three year old boys like hoodies very much!
Last summer we grew our first pumpkins. Having never grown them before, we weren’t quite prepared for how the plant literally took over the garden. The runners seemed to grow inches overnight! For all that, we were gifted with three pumpkins – two of a grey variety, and one of a patchy green variety. We picked them back in May, but didn’t eat them until two months later. The grey pumpkins have been rather starchy with not much sweetness, but the green one was absolutely wonderful, full of sweetness that we couldn’t quite believe. We certainly enjoyed our pumpkin soup that week.
Back at home, I have been busy painting bigger works out of my photos and smaller pictures.
Of course, the cliffs were a big feature. I just can’t seem to get enough of them.
And the white trunked gums – they’re so elegant.
Well, that’s all from Central Australia. It’s been a very inspiring and creative time.
Remember the clay pan and how we all used the clay to paint with? I really liked painting with it to recreate the clay pan surface.
I also did a few pure watercolour works: of the grasses on rock and the trees at sunset.
But our biggest project that week was to create a concertina book, and fill it. I used all the techniques and mediums that I learned:
1) Oil pastels covered by black ink and then scratched
2) Watercolours
3) Inks
4) Clay with ink and oil pastels
Yes, there was also plenty of art-making going on at camp. I had my trusty sketch book so I could do quick watercolours on the go.
We learned how to work with oil pastels and ink – new mediums to me. Their strong colours really worked when depicting the outback. I learned how to combine these with watercolours, as this work demostrates.
One final look at the cliff that has dominated our week, glowing in the dawn light.
And the reflections that had been the focus of our contemplation.
It was now back to home, but that didn’t quite mean the end of the adventure.
The sun soon peaked over the horizon.
Even the light on the pebble bed was enchanting.
I slept through the final night, and before I knew it, it was the dawn of our final morning.
And what a glorious dawn it was.
Time flies when you’re having fun, and it wasn’t long before our week at Running Waters was up. Time for one last artwork – this one was Deb’s dedication to our beloved brumbies.
And for one last sunset.
A few more shots of this beautiful water hole before we go back to our campsite…
We asked Deb and Charlie (our hosts) why they didn’t choose this water hole as their campsite. The answer was that there was too much soft sand for their vehicle to get down here! So we’ll just have to enjoy it from afar.
Static and Silence 