Midnight Madness Challenge #8

Thank heavens this one wasn't linked to Cinema Saturday because it would have done for "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon". All that waving clicking tall bamboo forest! Lots of fun with skinny strips of card, and my lovely new heat gun to bring out the black of the "Eastern Bloom".

Circe Invidiosa

This is my very favourite work by JWWaterhouse, which has something to do with the colours he used, and the air of mystery about the subject. It sits beside the Book of Days in my study, and seems to pour knowledge (or is that something more evil??)direct from the bowl of luminous green onto the pages. When I extended the painting to fit the board, I had to continue the water around her feet and the bubbles caused me no end of trouble, but they finally came together. Its a dark and brooding piece and I love it.

One day I'll get to the Adelaide Art Gallery and see the original.

Seascape for Jill

I wanted to create something for a dear friend.... something to remind her of the sea she loves, and walking in the dunes, and watching the sky; and I'm fascinated by the patterns in nature, especially horizons. This painting is a combination of a photograph I took while away in the Kimberleys (the foreground with its shell midden and grass) and the feeling of endless beach that parts of the back beaches of the Mornington Peninsular give you. Well, the sea looks a whole lot quieter in this painting than the real back beach, but it was the feeling I wanted to capture. How easy it is to feel diminshed by the world around us.

Another old platter given a new lease of life.

Boreas

This is one of the last pieces of "extended painting" that I created at a series of workshops with my friends Ali, Lydia, Ev and Dot. I started with an enlargement of an image painted by John William Waterhouse and a very sad old wooden platter. It took a while to get the colours, but then its all about extending the painting and adding what looks sympathetic. I am indebted to my teacher, and to my friends who encouraged me to try something ambitious.