I WORK WELL UNDER PRESSURE

All guns are firing at the moment

I had booked up an exhibition for October 2012

And then all sorts of things happened

Mainly my youngest daughter decided to get married in October 2012

Somehow the exhibition was almost forgotten

I was sort of thinking pretty seriously about calling it off as life was starting to get a little crazy

But the gallery rang and were all set for my work to hang through October

and as sometimes happens it all seemed to come together

My daughter in law had booked me up to baby sit my beloved and hardly every seen grandson
while she and my son organized and competed in the Roma Campdraft

which just happened to be on the some weekend as the opening of my exhibition.

So that sort of worked

BUT the million dollar question

Have I done enough work

the Gallery isn't that big so that in it's self is good as I don't need a lot of work to fill it
And sometimes well most of the time

 LESS IS MORE

I decided to call it   PINK

because most of my knew stuff is PINK

 I can thank  an old friend who told me quite bluntly that I needed to use more colour

and I think this lot of work is all about colour....and I'm enjoying it

anyway yesterday I got STUCK IN and painted like a women possessed

I finished a painting that had been sitting looking at me for about 2 weeks

I painted another one which just happened and worked of a magpie with attitude

I finished another one which I call Loopy Cow it is a bit of fun

I then did another one of a white/pink Cockatoo flying

I was a little worried about this one but I think I got it in the end

Like I said ...nothing like pressure...

I have another big one planned for to day ......lets hope it comes off

I have my eldest daughter home and she has been a great help

yesterday I shoved a paint brush at her and she took on the job of varnishing all the new paintings

It's all the little things that take the time

Also to day we have to wrap all the paintings and pack the car

just had a phone call from my son wondering if I can bring my saddle!!!

Here is the invite to the exhibition

Love to see all and sundry at the opening on Thursday night

......OMG ..... thats tomorrow night!!!

ANOTHER TRIP TO LONGREACH

        Just returned from another trip to Longreach to see my Dad who is in the old peoples home there.


          I was joined by my son Bill his wife Kellie and the their new son Charlie, my grand son.


     We took Dad to the Stockman's Hall of Fame and also to the show that is held at the back of the hall every day at 11am.

                  It is called the The Stockman's Show. It was extremely good and well worth a visit.

This is the bloke that does the Stockman's Show.

 One of the horses he calls Red White and Blue Cavier!!

He does amazing work with bullocks  

                                                 Dad was born and breed in Longreach.

 And as happens quite often had been through the Hall when it was first opened some twenty odd years ago, but hadn't been through since.

Dad and Bill

Dad with is grand son Bill and great grand son Charlie

Dad is quite amazing as he has written 3 books about his life. 

He loves to write and can remember things that happened years ago. He can even tell you the names of all the horses he ever rode, all the men he ever worked with , and being a great old sheep man you only have to hold up a random photo of a ram taken 50 years ago and he will tell you it's name and every ribbon it ever won.

Dad was born in the Longreach in 1931 and raised on a station called Strathdarr which is between Longreach and Winton .

This is the Strathdarr Homestead . Sadly it was burnt to the ground in the late 60's.

Interestingly I was born in Longreach as was Bill.

After settling Dad back into the home we drove to Isisford. 

Isisford is a small town south west of Longreach 

It is my husband Tony's hometown.

His father Dick McLean managed both Emmet Downs and Isis Downs when Tony was a child.

They are now owed by CPC.

It is interesting that when Dick was the manager of Isis there were up to 50 or more staff needed to run the 200,000ac property. Now due choppers motorbikes and the fact that Isis Downs now runs cattle instead of sheep the men it takes to run the place has come back to a very few. 

I wanted to show the town and Isis Downs to Bill and Kellie as Kellie had never been there and Bill hadn't been back since he was a pre-schooler. 

After Dick retired he bought the property Mt Grey at Emmet which is not actually a town but a railway siding  on the Blackall / Yaraka line. When Tony and I were first married we lived at Mt Grey. Tony's parents ahd bought the ajoining property Lone Hill and lived there.

Both Bill and Lucy were born while we were at Mt Grey.

The first thing we did on our arrival in Isisford was to have beer in one of the 2 pubs in the town. 

When Tony and I were young and before we were married the watering hole where everyone from the surrounding large stations gathered was the pub with the iconic name of Clancy's Overflow Hotel.  

Sadly it was closed so we had our beer and toasted our return  to Isisford in the Golden West Hotel.

From there we visited a tree which was planted behind the town hall in memory of Tony's father who was Chairman of the Shire from 1976 to 1984.

There was also a tree planted for Tony and I and our 2 children Bill and Lucy

 ( our youngest AJ wasn't born at that stage)

On the same plaque it was also in memory of Tony's brother Ian who was killed in 1976.

Next we drove out to the cemerty where Bill saw for the first time his uncle Ian's grave.

Ian was 21 when struck by lightening and killed while drafting sheep at Isis Downs. 

From there we drove on to Blackall along the Paddy Behan Way. 

On the way we called into Isis Downs which is only 20 odd k's out of Isisford.

We were in Blackall to attend the engagment party of my nephew Andy Picone , my sister Wendy's son.

There I met someone who actually reads my blog!!

I left Bill and Kellie and Charlie to drive home and they to drive home to Stratton Roma.

It was lovely to see little Charlie who is growing like a weed and as cute as a button. 

Next time I see him will be at the Roma Campdraft where I will be baby sitting all weekend while Kellie works and Bill rides.

That's all for now as I am up to date

Check out my art work on my website

http://www.theoutbackartist.com.au

Back into it at last

This is the image that I decided to do I liked the way the horse was really getting along and the legs will look good in a drawing but I didn't like the composition so I had a little fiddle and cut the picture and joined the together more so that the horse and beast were connected and there for made a more pleasing overall picture 

You have to agree that that looks better

This is what I started with a full sheet watercolor paper 640gsm good heavy paper it is a little on the expensive side but it is wonderful to work with

I then cut it in half and then in half again then  I drew in some lines and sketched the horse and rider and the beast

     

I then started to add the red ink I started off using a new very fine nib that I have just bought but found at about this stage that it was too fine for the paper and was picking up little bits of the paper and this was making the line too think and was wrecking the drawing so I reverted back to my tired and true old one. I will try the new nib on some smooth paper and it will be fine I think, the idea when I bought it was to see if I could get a really really fine mark....we will see.

You can see my nib pen in this image that's the one I pretty much use all the time 

I have got the horse finished now and things are going along well

This is the finished Campdrafter Drawing I will probably come back to it in a couple of days and do a couple more little things to it but all in all it is ok for what it is.  I think I have managed to capture the movement and rush of the horse and the beast, this will go to Roma Campdraft as a trophy