Today I met with the fortnightly Hotham Park sketchers group. The sun looked lovely but as I sat in the shade drawing thisI got chilly in the wind. The Park looks wonderful but in need of a good shower as we have not had rain for a long time.
Yesterday I started a new painting of a bare hazel tree which had lovely greens and yellows and complex twisting shapes. I decided to wing it and began to draw straight onto the natural linen canvas with an oil stick and thinners. This is the work after two sessions. using alkyd paints which dry overnight…
Today I went to the Park early (ish) to sketch in the misty conditions. I used an A2 size Pastelmat with a dark slate surface. I bought three of these sheets some years ago to try but never got around to it. Truth is they were expensive and I didn’t want to mess them up…
Yesterday I tried to sketch a very complicated Hazel tree during the Park Sketchers meeting. I must say I didn’t make things easy for myself. The colours were wonderful with mustard and green showing up when the sun came out. I’ll post a photo I took after. The other is a quick demonstration work for my…
There was a bitter biting wind wind when I arrived in Hotham park for our fortnightly sketching group. We normally sketch outside for an hour then into the cafe for coffee and share but today the three of us migrated to the warm cafe to sketch from the windows there. I did manage one sketch…
Last week I sat on cold sunny day to do some pastel sketching but today I joined the sketching group for our fortnightly draw. We were very quickly forced to the shelter of the cafe as the wind came up bringing sideways rain with it. The small pavilion I was in had not provided protection…
This morning I had all sorts of plans to catch up on housework, finish some illustrations and move my geraniums to the garage for the winter but when my husband suggested it was a warm sunny day and so ideal for sketching in the park it didn’t take much arm twisting for me to hop…
Today is the day I will, for one night only, be exhibiting my park paintings in the Hotham Park Cafe. It’s going to be a bit of a scramble to do it all in one and a half hours but as much forward prep has been done as possible and I will be posting some…
Went to the park yesterday to dicuss preparations for my one night exhibition to be held on Monday October 24 from 6.30. I arrived about half an hour early for the meeting in the cafe so wandered into the Mediterranean garden to do this quick sketch of the ravishing autumn colours which were so intense…
Earlier I posted a photo of this in progress and here is the finished version. The canvas is jute and working on it has been a delightful experience as it won’t allow one to get too fiddly. The gravel garden was created last year and the landscaping is coming on nicely.
ritasspot, a blog about Hotham Park by it's Artist in Residence 