rain's thursday art date

Hi everyone, 

I hope you've been enjoying a lovely week.

I think this may be my first time participating in Rain's Thursday Art Date.  The theme for this week is 'Pink'. I hope the pink Easter egg in my finally completed Easter spread will do. I know Easter was back in April but I've gradually been adding elements to the pages and only completed it last week.

The eggs, chick, and bunny were done with watercolours and ink. I collaged some stamps and the packaging from the vegan chocolate my son and I tried for the first time over Easter — it was delicious! The Carrie's Coconut bars remind me so much of the Bounty bars I used to love — I actually like the vegan ones better which is saying something because I've always been very picky when it comes to chocolate and the English-recipe Cadbury's was always my favourite. 

To see the work of other TAD participants for this week, click HERE.

Temperatures have dropped a bit here with Winter officially arriving on the first of June. I do love our winters despite the fact that the cold, dry air brings on frequent asthma attacks. I have to remember to wear a mask if I go outside in the mornings or evenings. If I forget, like I did the other morning, I suffer with violent fits of coughing followed almost immediately by chest congestion which makes breathing difficult. I end up feeling quite ill and weak for two to three days. Not fun at all especially when I'm still dealing with neck issues from the fall. I'll battle on regardless.

Before I close off this post, I thought you might like to see a picture of my studio muse. If Kya isn't draped across my art desk, she will sometimes lie on the rug directly behind my chair, mostly because I've kept putting her down after her failed attempts to lie on top of my work — while I'm actually trying to work. I'm fine if she lies on the desk right beside me but that isn't always the case. Instead of an art muse, I should call her an art block because she hates me working at my desk and constantly tries to stop me. Crazy cat! 

I hope you enjoy the rest of your week and the upcoming weekend. Stay safe and well. 

Love, Light and Peace

what I've been up to

More catching up to do as it's been a month since my last post...

I had another fall on the 21st. Not kidding...

 

Same reason as my previous fall — slipped in water dripped by Scarlett, Aaron's poodle, after she had a drink.  I swear I'm not clumsy but, unfortunately, water and tiles just don't go well together. We have a mat under the dishes but Scarlett always drips a trail of water as she walks away. My feet went out from under me but, this time, my poor neck and shoulder slammed into the storage box near the easel in the studio ('X' marks the spot in the pic below). Lucky the box is padded but my neck and left shoulder are still on the mend. Needless to say, we are trialling another position for the water dish. Wish me luck.

I hope you all had a lovely Easter. Our Easter was nice, quiet and peaceful. Beau, my son who lives away from home, came down with Covid over the Easter weekend. He was fully vaccinated so his symptoms were fairly mild — sore throat and a fever mostly. He did lose his sense of taste and smell though which he didn't like at all. Apparently, loss of taste and smell happens to about 13% of Omicron sufferers and it can stay that way for months afterwards. Thankfully, Beau's senses are back to normal now.  He isolated at home for 7 days and is already back at work. 

 

On a Easter sweet treat note, Brad and I can vouch for the deliciousness of the NOMO vegan chocolate eggs....so creamy! YUM! 

Another delicious vegan snack/meal we often have is nachos with vegan cheese and vegan sour cream. We like our nachos topped with Sriracha sauce and some cayenne pepper because some like it hot!

 

The past couple of nights, for dinner, we've had vegan Sausage and Potato Madras on brown Basmati rice made by me. We do love Indian-style curries in this house. Vindaloo is my favourite.

All ready for May in my bullet journal — both analogue and digital. 

This is my analogue Month View, then I work daily from there. 

Click on image to view it larger.

I've even managed a bit of sketching here and there since my last post. This page spread is all ready for the journaling/handwriting. LOVED The Hobbit movies! The hobbit is drawn with a BIC ballpoint pen while the plant is inked.

Today, I started this giraffe in graphite pencil. He is just roughly plotted out at this stage so definitely a work-in-progress. Not sure yet if I will end up inking him or giving him splash of watercolour. What do you think?

I'll leave you with a pic of the Queen of the Castle nestled on the back of the couch. 

I'm planning to post frequently in May so stay tuned...

 

P.S. - If anyone is having trouble leaving a comment on my blog would they please let me know via email. searen3 at gmail.com.

Love, Light and Peace

sketches and drone delivery

This is the latest page spread from my pocket sketchbook. 

 

I had sketched the pizza and garlic bread in ink on Saturday and, yesterday, I thought I'd sketch Liz Steel while watching her Live-stream from her Edges class. I took the class a few years back but, now and then, Liz does a run-through with her classes and the Live-streams are a great bonus. Liz is one of those teachers who goes the extra mile for her students. Great teacher, great personality. I enjoy her classes a lot.

Liz's Live-stream this morning showed her sketching a Stanley knife (box-cutter) and, seeing as how mine has been getting quite a work-out of late, I decided to add it to my page spread. We've been getting lots of deliveries over the past few months and this knife is my favourite tool for cutting the boxes into pieces for the recycle bin. 

OH, and the following monstrosity is my foot. lol I'm giving myself some leeway here as I did this sketch in an almost dark room while we were watching a movie on TV. We like to watch movies with the lights off. The proportions are way out but it does resemble a foot at least.

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After mentioning about drone deliveries in my last post, Aaron (youngest son) decided to give the service a try. He signed up and they offered a complimentary delivery of Tim-Tams (chocolate biscuits/cookies) - free of charge. 

Order placed and we were told it would be just over 4 minutes for delivery. It actually arrived in just over 2 minutes. No kidding.

We'd had rain and it was a very cloudy, dull day so please forgive the dull photos. 

And here it comes...

It arrived overhead and we could see the package tucked up under the belly of the drone.

The drone lowered the package.

Below - The eagle has landed!

The drone automatically unclipped the package, 

wound up the cord and flew away.  

This process only took seconds from the time of its arrival.

Here is a close-up of the package. 

Tim-Tams AND a bottled water inside.

We were impressed with how fast the service was. This has been our only drone delivery so far and I wouldn't rule out any more. Our neighbours a few doors up have been getting drone deliveries also. Surprisingly, the drone was not as loud as I thought it would be. 

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I love when Kya curls up in a doughnut shape beside me. 

Too cute!

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The Delta strain of Covid has been identified in Australia, via people returning from overseas and in quarantine. Some areas in NSW are in lock-down and Queensland is now on restrictions where masks are mandated for 2 weeks. We have already been social distancing, sanitising, and using QR codes at cafes/restaurants. Hopefully, this strain won't spread any further but we may face a lock-down also if any new cases arise in the community.

 

Stay safe everyone, 

Serena x

rose drawing and happenings

Another week has flown by. This winter has not been kind to me as far as my asthma goes. Cold, winter air is a big trigger for my asthma and I had another bout of Asthmatic Bronchitis, though not quite as bad as the previous one. Poor Aaron has been sick with flu and his brother Beau was also sick with flu...negative on the Covid test. Phew! 

I thought I might have been getting their flu too but was spared a severe dose, probably thanks to the annual flu shot and taking cold medication as soon as the first sniffle appeared. 'Nip it in the bud' as my ex used to say.

This is another graphite drawing I did in January, back when I was on a roll. I used charcoal for the background. 

 

 

And below was the graphite drawing I did before adding the background and a bit more detailing.  I love how the dark background made the rose pop. 

 

The reference image credit goes to Karsten Paulick on Pixabay. A direct link to his photograph can be seen HERE. Thank you, Karsten...much appreciated. 

 

You may remember this Sumi ink painting of daisies I did back in 2017 for INKtober. I think I might try painting the rose above in Sumi ink also.

 

 

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Over the past few months, I've been hearing a lot of buzzing/whirring from the sky...kinda like a remote controlled car.  Earlier today, I snapped a rather fuzzy pic of the culprit. It was some distance away. A commercial drone!

 

 

After further investigation, I discovered that our area now uses commercial drone delivery! Cool! Apparently, commercial drone deliveries are only active in our area (Logan) and Canberra, as far as Australia is concerned. Do you get drone deliveries in your area? The company hopes to expand which could well happen as it seems to be quite popular around here. You can order coffee/tea/hot chocolate drinks, snacks, hardware, hair products, clothing, pet products, and even some grocery items, etc...as long as it weighs 1.2kg (2lb 10oz) or less. You can learn more about commercial drone deliveries HERE. I wonder what the delivery costs are?

Another thing I saw in the sky recently was a cloud funnel. I get a kick out of seeing stuff like that so ran for my phone to take a pic.

Apparently, a cloud funnel is made up of condensed water droplets, associated with a rotating column of wind and extending from the base of a cloud but not reaching the ground or a water surface. Interesting!

To end this post, here is a pic of sleepy Kya wondering what that thing is that I'm always pointing at her.

Her look makes me think of the following meme that circulated around social media ages ago. So true...in Kya's case anyway. lol To be fair, she is the perfect cat 99.5% of the time.

 

Will post again soon, 

Serena x

handicraft and sketches

Thank you all so much for the caring comments you left on my last post. I am so grateful to you all. Thanks for bearing with me. 

During my blogging break, I did manage to do some sketching and even some crochet. With the colder weather approaching, my son wanted me to crochet some doggy coats for Scarlett and Violet. We officially started our Winter on June 1st. 

Not an easy feat considering I have advanced Osteoarthritis in my hands causing chronic hand pain. I was just getting over a nasty arthritic flare but I do think working my hands helped a little.

Anyway, Violet is a tiny Chihuahua size and even the Extra Small winter coats in the shops were way too big for her.  So I made the girls 2 coats each, Scarlett has 2 different shades of pink coats, while Violet has 2 different shades of purple coats. I looked for a pattern online and had to make my own adjustments but you can check out the original pattern I used HERE. I mostly used the pattern for the neck, the rest I just winged it as I went, fitting them against the girls at different stages.

 Violet below

Scarlett below

Out for a morning walk. I even made hole area for the harness to fit through, something the shop-bought coats don't allow for. 

Of course, I would be remiss if I didn't include a pic of precious Miss Kya doing what she does best...sleeping.

As for sketching —

I've had a pocket (14.5cm x10.5cm) sketchbook waiting to be finished so I did some daily Sketchnote-style entries of daily happenings. Just a few more pages left to finish it. I started this sketchbook in 2017. That's my problem — I always have more than one sketchbook on the go and, sometimes, one may be put on the back burner for longer than I'd like. Different sizes and paper. Some of the most recent pages, shown below..sorry if they're a bit blurry, must have moved when I snapped the pic. They may be rough, free-hand ink sketches but they capture the memories for me. I love looking back over my sketchbooks at a later date.

I've not long got over a pretty bad bout of Asthmatic Bronchitis. Cold, wintry air is one of my main triggers. Sometimes, a severe bout of asthma can turn into bronchitis....not fun at all....but I did get to rest and watch some series and movies on Prime/Netflix.

On that note, I will finish this post here. 

Wishing you all a beautiful, happy week! 

Serena x

AEDM - Day 24 - More on Kya

Hi everyone, 

I was hoping to work on the Puffin for posting today but I came down with a nasty tummy bug and it drained me of energy which, might explain why I was so exhausted yesterday. So it was rest and recuperation instead. 

So in lieu of art, you get a photo post today for AEDM. 

Do you ever get the feeling you're being watched? lol

Kya is actually sitting on an empty box that contained a vacuum cleaner that my son bought last week. I cut a hole out of it so she has herself a little cubby. She likes that she can watch me in the kitchen from this viewpoint. I will turn around and there is her little head looking over at me from the end of the dining table. She's so cute!

Kya loves when we buy things that come in big boxes, even huge boxes. 

It is taboo to throw out a cardboard box if I think Kya might enjoy it first. 

She will climb in and sleep for hours.

That goes for broken washing baskets too. 

As you can see, she had this one shredded. 

Yes, she made quite a mess everywhere but she loved it. 

And that's about all for now...I'm still not feeling well.

To see what other AEDM participants have done for today, click HERE.

Hopefully, I will be back tomorrow with the finished Puffin. 

Love, Light and Peace to All.

An update and my latest painting

Happy October everyone! 

Can you believe we are in the final stretch of 2020?! What a crazy year it has been so far with this pandemic looming over us. 

UPDATE on my brother - Thanks so much for the caring words regarding my brother's horrific ordeal at sea. He has been released from hospital now but will continue to see his doctor for blood tests and such until he is fully recovered. Billy's Creatine Kinase levels are continuing to drop. His leg swelled up quite badly from a large hematoma which they will keep an eye on. He is resting and very glad to be home. Charlie, his wife's brother-in-law, is also out of hospital and checking in with his regular doctor for follow-ups. 

I'm just so very relieved it wasn't worse and that my brother and Charlie are both alive to tell the tale. 

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As I mentioned in a previous post, I have another painted piece to show you. Meet Chico. You have probably seen Chico featured on my blog in the past. He was called Phoenix for a while. 

Here is the framed finished piece (sorry for the glass glare - can't be helped)

And some of the progress pics. 

I usually start with the eye

Laying in more feathers

And more feathers, 

I work in layers so more layers will follow

Layering and building up the feathers for more depth

Starting on the head features

And pretty much finished. 

Acrylic Gouache on 360gsm paper for acrylic paints - 5"x7"

Framed together

Next up on my desk easel will be a miniature poodle.

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It feels so good to be back blogging again. I thought you might like to see some gorgeous sunrises I've taken over the past few months from the front yard. I'm a sucker for skies!

One morning in June - 6:30am

One morning in July - 6am

One morning in August - 6:30am

One morning in September - 5:30am.

Red sky in the morning, 

A sailor's warning.

We are officially in Spring although our hot, summer-like weather is not far away. Here in Queensland, it's more like two months of reasonably cold mornings and evenings which we call winter, and the rest of the year it goes from hot — to hotter — to downright unbearable! We are now in our 14th year here and finally got around to asking our landlord for air-con. He very kindly obliged so those dreadful hot and humid days will be more bearable now. 

Our lounge-room air-con above the painting. YAY! 

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Recently, my soft hyacinth woven laundry basket started breaking away near the base so I bought a new basket. I sat the old one beside the dining table and Kya loves it! She sleeps for ages in it and likes to shred it too. 

I think Kya may well be a frequent model for my blog. She is so photogenic! I will do a follow up post soon on Kya's story to let you know how we ended up with her officially. For now, I wish you a happy week. Stay safe and well.