I was watching a really inspiring art series on Youtube called Colour in Your Life, hosted by Graeme Stevenson. He’s a fellow in leathers who goes around interviewing different Australian and New Zealander artists, and occasionally he goes overseas as well. There were some very exciting and inspiring artistic styles that really spoke to me. So I decided to do some experimentation this weekend.
I am still rather hooked on the jacaranda tree, so I decided to do a painting inspired by an old farmhouse close to my home. This is the original farmhouse that once stood alone in the area, surrounded by large pieces of agricultural and pastoral land, before all these got sold off and developed. In fact, all the streets nearby are named after members of this farming family. All very old fashioned names that we don’t really see kids these days sport. This lovely old house is guarded in front by a couple of magnificent and HUGE jacaranda trees. Every spring, the trees are devoid of leaves except for these clouds of purple, reaching so high into the sky that you can see those purple clouds stand out against a pure blue Queensland sky. Except this year, blooms came late, so we are still getting to enjoy this sight in mid-November.
When we first moved here, there were still many acres of sheep pasture land close by and we could often hear bleating in the middle of the night. Sadly it’s sold off to developers now, and it’s all being divided up into pencil box sized plots for the McMansions springing up. The soil is extremely fertile though, you can grow almost anything in it.
It was hilarious but sad when the bulldozers came in to dig up all the grass and trees. We had peacocks running away and sitting on our roofs raising a racket. For such a beautiful bird, I can’t believe the unholy sound that comes out of their beaks. The sheep were sold, but a few feisty ones escaped, and an ad got placed in the local Gumtree website that anyone who could catch them, could keep them. So for a while we saw a few old hands bringing in utes to corner these old animals who insisted on chewing up the pretty ornamental plants that the developers had planted in the new housing areas. One family managed to snag 10 of them!! We went up to have a chat with these guys and they were going to turn them into pets. Whatever, as long as they don’t turn into Christmas mutton.
I was also surprised to see quite a few hares around these parts once the bushy areas were cleared. Obviously they don’t know that they are illegal migrants here. Queensland doesn’t allow rabbits, although I don’t know how they go about stopping these hopping furry creatures crossing the border from New South Wales.
Back to the paintwork. I did some splashing around of paint. Let gravity do some work. Used a piece of cardboard and a toothbrush. And finally application of Posca markers. I nearly trashed it half way in because it looked like it wasn’t going to work. But the end result surprised me, as it almost always does.
