And this wonderful, creative journey continues.....

Hi all,

We are finally back home after a wonderful break with the folks!!!!!!!!!

We are well rested after spending our summer days lazing around the pool, seeing beautiful friends and family and enjoying a holiday away!!!

There is so much that I need to write about I hardly even know where to start.

Firstly I was so busy being creative before I left that I didn't get a chance to share what I had been doing.

Here are some peeks at what I got up to on my creative 10 day retreat......

My selection of paints, on the floor!!!!!!!!!!!!! I actually took over the lounge room and used that as my studio!!!!! (Close to kitchen for a cup of coffee:))

These are the 3 Lighthouses I completed all lined up in a row. I drove them all to Latitude Gallery in Geraldton and they have all already sold. YAY!!!!!!!

A gorgeous friend of mine has the blue and gold one and is taking it back to America with her!!!!!:)

Here is a close up.

Then I have remained inspired by my Salt Dish Tree and painted this one. I love how bright and full of life it is.

This one has sold too!!!!

I also did a midnight blue tree but forgot to take a photo of it!!!!:(

I think that I might have one on my iphone so will try to upload it to facebook. So please check it out there:) Yes it's there!!!!

Then after Christmas I painted madly to produce 2 pieces for the Midwest Art Prize. Unfortunately my work was not accepted. But I am thrilled that 2 of my great friends Donna Heart and Helen Ansell were successful. Way to go girls!!!!!:)

These images are close ups of a seagull tree that I painted titled Liberte d'sprite....Freedom of Spirit!!!! I absolutely love it and thoroughly enjoyed painting it!!!!!

The wings of the birds have detailed, hand drawn Australiana flora on them to create an intricate pattern.

This is the top of the tree.

Then the waves below!

And then the detailed ground...made into a freeze, with fish, sea weed, seeds etc etc

I also added a quote from Marianne Williamson. (I think that Nelson Mandela also used it in his Freedom Speech.)

"Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond message. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us."

I also seem to have not photographed my final piece or the peacock that I drew. Once again I think that they are on my iphone and will try to upload some images onto facebook!!!!

(It's there so please have a look and let me know what you think!!!)

Then after all that it was my gorgeous girl's 5th birthday:)

Look at that cheeky beautiful face!!!

This was her Ariel birthday cake!!!!! Phew!!! Thanks mom for your help here!!!! I am so not a baker!! Poor Starzia:(.

And this was her dressed up as Ariel for her birthday party!!!!!

She had such a wonderful day. We all did!!

Then I started painting again!!!! Besides trees I am also madly into mandella's.

This is my peacock mandella in progress.

I will show you the finished piece as soon as its done!!!

So now I am home, and loving it and ready to paint up a storm.

My goals are to get my work into the Gallery here in town, take a Tafe course so that I can be a student again!!!, approach some shops to take my clothing label and strive to get my business off the ground.

(And yes get my Etsy site rolling too!!!!!)

Plus it's my big birthday on Monday so it has been a whirl wind of an ending to 2011 and the beginning of 2012. But what a lovely way to live life....... :)

Skye and Starz xx

Hi all,

I have had such a wonderful time spending these past few days being creative.

Today I painted from 7.30am until6.30 pm with a 1 hour break.

(I had lunch at 2.30:)

Exhausting but fantastic at the same time.

It is so incredible to have the time to completely immerse myself in being creative....... without stopping.

Not having to be a mother.

Not even having to stop for lunch.

To spend the whole day totally and selfishly surrounded by paint.

It reminds me of my youthful days when I would wake up and spend the whole day in bed reading a much loved, hard to put down book.

I have so much to show but am going to have to save it for my next post......my eyes are closing as I type:)

I am away until next early Jan so I hope everyone has a very happy and safe festive season. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

Skye:)

10 days

Hi all,

I have just arrived back from Perth where I dropped my daughter off to her grandparents. She is spending 10 days with them, and I have 10 days by myself to be creative. Such an alien feeling!!!!

Then I will join them for Christmas:)

So stay tuned and I will blog my process over the next 10 days:)

How exciting!!

Skye:)

Fire.Dancing.Painting.And sewing.

Hi all,

I know it has been a while...but between seeing flames on the hill from our window....being evacuated from home for 5 days and..............

life has been a bit crazy!!!!!!!!!!

It makes you realise though, what is important in life.

Loved ones and love!!!!

First, obviously, on my list is Starzia.

When I saw flames on the hill I thought if you can see flames then they are too close!! My priority is keeping my baby safe regardless if I am over reacting or not!!

And it ended up that we weren't.:(

All I packed besides the 2 of us was my photo albums, my computer and a change of clothes. Life definitely becomes immediately simpler and material possessions mean nothing.

I am just happy and grateful that we are safe.

I am also in awe of our amazing community and those around us. There is so much to be grateful for.

On the subject of gratitude..........I am so grateful for my gorgeous and talented daughter Starzia.

For the past 2 days we have been at her dance concerts!!!!

She performed on Sat and Sun afternoon and I must say that I am in awe of my daughter.

The feeling of love and pride and overwhelming happiness at seeing my confident little girl up on stage having the time of her life. Just amazing!!!!!

Here are some snaps. Not brilliant on my behalf :( but anyway........

Posing before we go. Front.......

and back!!!!! Cheeky little monkey......she just can't help herself:)

Then the first dino dance....serious business!!!

Then their gorgeous bikini dance.

And finally....kicking up a storm....

Now I am not usually one for making Whooo hoo noises at shows!!! But today I couldn't help myself!!!!!!!! I whooooo hooed like crazy!!!!!!

An amazing performance, an amazing teacher, an amazing little girl.:)

To continue on the subject of Starzia............. she decided she wanted to make Christmas cards for her teachers and she said that she wanted to print some using printing foam. "Like in the Art classes you run mummy!"

"Ok." I said ...and there was no stopping her. She knew exactly what to do and how she wanted to do it!!

So here is her Mother and daughter Christmas card.......

and her Christmas Tree Christmas card!!!!

As for me............................

I have a hard time keeping up with my extremely talented 4 year old!!!!

But I have managed to do some paintings of my own.....lots inspired of course by my precious muse!!!!!!!

I loved doing this one and enjoy working with the patterns created by the spray paint:)

And this one is a collection of pieces about my little girl starting to grow up...all too quickly:)

I have been playing with this image a bit lately. I just love the innocence of it!!!

Then I did this Angel face and included butterflies.

I have also enjoyed working with lots of colour of late...like my latest tree. So I got inspired to do a mini mini canvas of a colourful owl. Or maybe I was inspired by my own toowit-too-hooing!!!!:)

And yes I have even squeezed in a bit of sewing.....here is my latest apron top. Very festive....and doesn't Starzia look gorgeous in red?:)

So from fire to dancing to painting to sewing.......the thought that I am going to leave you with is "Love those precious to you with all your heart and love what you do each and every day."

Skye and Starz

Drawing whimsical girls

Hi all,

I have been playing around with creating my own whimsical girl image for a while now and this is my latest "play" in my sketch book.

This one is titled LOST BALLOON.

I love the plaits and the eyes aren't too bad.

I have been thinking about how popular whimsical girls are in the art market and would love to try one or two girls of my own. Maybe I should try and base an image on Starzia, as she is my little special whimsical girl!!!! Food for thought!!!

This was my next one. A heart balloon. And instead of putting the wings on the girl I put them onto the balloon. Not sure if it works yet!!!!!

Then the last image is a girl from the back. I have done a painting of Starzia from the back and there is something intriguing, captivating and interesting about not seeing the face....and wondering what the child is doing, or looking at, or thinking!!!

This one is called GIRL WITH A RIBBON.

I would also like to do a painting of a girl and put her into one of my handmade dresses. Actually have the dress in/on the painting....merging art and fashion!!!!!!!

I think that this might be my next project!!

This is the painting of Starzia. It is not the final image but part of the process. (I seem to have forgotten to take a photo of the final image, once again!!!!!:( )

I am also fascinated by the "grungy look" for want of a better word. I love this in paintings and often try to do it myself. Sometimes I succeed....sometimes I don't. But I try. And that is the important thing:)

This is a Halloween card I tried a while back. Inspired by Tim Burton's work. A bit more dark then grungy, but it was fun drawing it. I like the scratchiness!!!

This is my grungy looking pregnant princess fairy!!!!!

I absolutely love the background, especially at the very top!!

This is my purple princess who I have been working on today. She is still in the process phase!!

I hope that you try something new in your creative endeavours and whether you succeed or not it might take you somewhere................!!

This is where my endeavours took me today. Still not completed but I am happy:)

Skye:)

Lots going on as always!!!!!!

Hi all,

Starzia and I woke up this morning.....well let me rephrase!!!!

Starzia woke up first, as she always does, and started making lots of loud wake up noises.

(She used this strategy because I told her that I didn't enjoy being jumped on to get me out of my dream state!!)

Anyway it was a much more pleasant way to wake up....so we both agreed, in a more amicable state that it was time to get up and organise some breakfast.

While I was putting my coffee percolator together I looked out the window and saw these gorgeous birds.

So we both ran outside and started taking some snaps.

A "happy accident" snap.

A "lucky it was in focus" snap!

A "bird on the wire" snap!!

A "2 in 1 snap!!" Love it:)

So we had a lovely start to the day.

It was so nice that we decided to have breakfast outside.

Pancakes with greek yoghurt, banana and maple syrup!!! And coffee for me of course:)

Then we did a little more face painting......... because why not!!!!

Then I finished my own little bird painting. Well not little....... and it took ages because of all the detail!!!

Very colourful....but I love it!!!

This work was inspired by my Salt Dish Peace tree commission.....

just adding colour and lots of it!!!!!

This is a close up of the centre!!!

Then because I have the Handmade Markets tomorrow I finished off some of my small canvases after dinner. Starzia joined me and watched, then mimicked some of my painting strokes to copy a flower painting I did.

Just amazing to see and watch.

She has such incredible control over a paint brush!!!!!!

My girl and a tree.

Our joint effort for the night. :)

Well my shoulders feel like they are on fire and my foot is going to sleep and I have markets tomorrow.....so time to go horizontal!!!!!!!

Hope you like all of the above.

Wish me luck tomorrow and I will write and share the day with you.......probably on Sun:)

Til then.....

Skye:) and Starz*

Being crafty and arty

Hi all,

Well Starzia and I have been busy being crafty and arty!!!!!!!!!

I have been working very hard on my new lighthouse commission and I think it is finally finished!!!!!!

The completed lighthouse....

Then Starzia and I got into a little paper mache outside in the sunshine!!!!!

We had to wait overnight until it dried and then the next day Starzia just wanted to paint.

So we did.

Starzia's paper mache elephant..............."Rosie"

....because she is covered in flowers!:)

Front

Back

Isn't she just gorgeous!!!!!! I want to put her on the mantle piece but Starzia wants to play with her!!!!!

Then I did a little start on one of my new little paintings:)

Little painting..................

Starzia wants this one. She loves it!!!!!!

We have also been making horses out of paper and tape. They actually stand...but I took the photo with my iphone and haven't worked out how to upload it yet. Hence no picture. But I am sure that you can imagine how good they look.:)

They even have riders!!!!!!

Then today Starzia wanted to do some more construction!!!!!!!!

So we made some long necked puppet giraffies!!!!!!!!

Our girraffies.......

The mommy giraffe is the red one called "Red" and the baby giraffe is the pink one, also called "Rosie", it is Starzia's favourite name!!!

They are not complete yet.

I wonder what Starzia will want to make tomorrow....my creative, gorgeous and talented girl!!:)

Be creative. Make something. It's fun!!

Skye and Starz x