Painting with Carol

As I will be leaving Sydney for my Queensland painting tour on the 19th. of August, I thought I had better let you know how it is all going. In one word: terrible. I am so behind with everything - my poor husband, Linden, has been very ill and is in hospital, but thank God he is now on the way to recovery. Consequentally, I am behind.

It’s not all bad, though.  I am back on track and today I have already achieved quite a lot. It is amazing what you can fit into your life when you have to. My daughter has created a picture gallery of some of my paintings and I hope everyone will have a look and comment on them. Unless I get feedback on my blog I am not sure if you are enjoying it! I thought I would take pictures on my trek to Queensland as I go and post them here - that way you can travel  with me. What do you think?

I must get back to work. Nice talking to you. Regards, Cas

I have been asked to exhibit my camel paintings in Hughenden, Queensland at the Arid Lands Australia Festival  on August 22nd, 23rd, and the 24th, 2008. Because of this I am going to be running a series of workshops in Queensland. At this moment I am unsure of the dates but they will be the end of August and in to September. I will let everyone know as soon as they’re finalised.

I will go from Hughenden to Innisfail where I will teach “THE DOLPHINS” and “THE GOLDFISH”. From there I will go to the Atherton Tablelands, then back to Innisfail again to teach “THE DAYS AWAKENING” and “THE CHOOK YARD”.

Then I’m off to Townsville although I am not sure how long I will be there yet. Brisbane will be my next destination, where I am lucky enough to have my dear friends Margaret and Charles. Margaret also is a wonderful painter so I am looking forward to seeing what she has done through the year. Margaret and I are like little girls when we get together with our show and tell - one thing is for sure we can always have a good laugh together, think about how many of your friends you can do that with.

I am so looking forward to the trip, as I will be seeing parts of Queensland I have never seen before, I will also get to see the camels I have been painting and visit the friends that I have been lucky enough to make through painting.

Always when I return from a trip, I kick myself for not having taken more photos of my workshops. The problem is of course is that I am usually so busy during the workshop that I forget to take them until it is all over and by that stage, of course, everyone is rushing to get away and the opportunity has passed. I did take photos of the workshop I did in Rosewood, however, which I have posted here.

Rosewood - how I love it! You can smell the clean air, smell the eucalyptus and it is one of the few places where I love to rise early so that I can see the mist lift from the Snowy Mountains that surround it. When the mist lifts you can see the snow on top of the mountains. Love it, love it, love it! Rosewood is a stopover on the road to Tumbarumba and it is worth the stop - if you are in the area you should go and have a look. You can even have a good cup of coffee at GONE BARNY which is run by Jenny and her wonderful family. They have built a barn and have made it into a coffee shop filled with beautiful gifts. I love the smell of the place; it smells not only of good coffee but of the Eucalyptus oil that they distil themselves.

I would like to thank Jenny Mursett, who is the teacher and the organiser of my Rosewood workshops as she does an incredible job. Most of the students come from the surrounding districts such as Wagga Wagga, Batlow and Tumbarumba and over the years we have all become friends and I look forward to catching up with everyone. I have found that country people seem to have time for each other. I like this way of life and I just wish that city people could stop and draw breath a little more. I guess I notice the hustle and bustle of the city and its people more because I travel to the country so often.

I have more to tell you but I thought I would write more tomorrow.

I took these photos during the workshops at Rosewood. I had a wonderful time teaching everybody. I haven’t included names but if you’re in these photos, please add a comment!

Just to let you know I will not be around for 12 days as I am leaving for Victoria to conduct some workshops.

I leave on Wednesday morning at 4am. I like to leave early so that I miss the early morning peak hour traffic through Sydney. It will take me about 12 hours to get to where I am staying, just outside of Ballarat. I will stop to have morning tea at the bakers in Holebrook where I meet Jenny who owns the studio in Rosewood, she will take the frames and paints etc. that are required for her workshop on my return journey home. It  means I will not have to take them with me and then bring them back again.

The bakers make good coffee so it’s a good excuse to stop. It is a long drive but I love it. I love being on my own driving through this beautiful country of ours, I just have to be very careful that I don’t pick up another speeding ticket, not that I speed as I have speed control on my car but I somehow have lost points in the last four years and they mount up. Anyway I am prattling on now,  I will take some photos of my workshops to share with you, there are some very talented painters out there. Till then Bye for now.

Cas

It has taken a while, but here is the promised free pattern packet of the gum blossoms watercolour. This is a beginner pattern so it’s a good starting point. There are two parts to the pattern packet:

• The tracing. Download the file here. It’s currently A4 size, so you will need to enlarge it to A3 and print it out onto tracing paper. If your printer doesn’t do sizes larger than A4, take it to a print and copy centre such as Kinkos - they should be able to enlarge it and print it onto tracing paper.
• A step-by-step instruction guide.

Both are PDF documents so you will need a reader such as Adobe Reader in order to view them.

Click on any of the thumbnail pictures above to see the paintings. I hope you like them.

You gotta laugh

Hello all! I am sorry I haven’t updated for a while but I have been very busy painting camels and I haven’t had much time for anything else.

I thought I should let you know that I will be away teaching in Victoria for 12 days. I leave on Wednesday June 4 and return Monday June 16 2008. Originally, I was travelling to Victoria for the Avoca Camel Cup because that is where my camel exhibition was to be held. However, I received a phone call on Saturday saying that the Camel Cup had been cancelled. I was very disappointed at first, of course - disappointed for myself but very disappointed for the people that were involved in the organisation of it all as I know how much work has been put in to it. But I have always been a believer in one door closing and another one opening and by the looks of things that is what has happened.

I won’t say much more about it at until things are definite but, as they say: “watch this space”. In the meantime, I will be displaying a few of the camel paintings here so you can see some of my hard work. They are for sale if anybody is interested.

And here are the dates and locations of my workshops:

• Saturday: 7/6/2008 “THE SHEEP STATION HOMESTEAD” ROUGHING I will also be teaching, “NOVEMBER LILLIES” with watercolours in the same workshop
  Where? Wardlin Craft and Garden, 344 Kayleys Lane Brewster
  Phone 0353440641
• Tuesday 10/6/2008 “CHOOKS ON THE RUN” watercolours
  Where: Leony Hoekstra Phone: 0352419866 22 Waurnvale Drive Belmont Geelong
• Saturday 14/6/2008 “CHOOKS ON THE RUN” watercolours
  Where:Gone Barney, Rosewood, on the way to Tumbarumba.
  Phone 0269488380

There has been a great deal of interest on how to use the ruling pen. Maybe I should try and explain a little better how I use it. Many years ago, I was an apprentice draughtswoman. In those days you were allowed to say draughtswoman, these days it is called draughtsperson. I know it has nothing to do with how to use a ruling pen but I thought a little background may help you to understand. The Engineer would pass his sketches on to the draughtsperson and the plans were then drawn to scale in pencil. Once they had been passed by the Engineer the plans were then drawn up in ink - and this is where the ruling pen comes in.

You can buy different quality pens - I use a good quality pen such as “WILD” Heerbrugg made in Switzerland, but another very good brand is “STAEDTLER”. There are ruling pens that are not as expensive to buy. I have found that cheaper ruling pens take a lot longer to run in; you will find that it is inclined to scratch the surface of whatever you are working on, be it wood, canvas or paper. You can use a very fine sand paper such as 000 and gently sand the tip of the pen to help overcome this problem. I have also found that everyone is quite different with the amount of pressure they use, so treat your pen like a feather, gently does it. Providing the pen is filled properly it should work for you.

To fill the pen, I mix the paint on my pallet to the consistency of ink. You can use an eye-dropper to fill the pen or you can just pick up the paint with your brush - whatever you are comfortable with. I find it’s best to hold the pen upright in order to use it properly. My daughter has told me that she could make a little movie of me using a ruling pen, if that would help. Please let me know.

Source: WikipediaI just thought I had better explain to you why all the “camel paintings”. I have been asked to paint camels for an exhibition that is to be held on the 8th of June 2008 at the Avoca Shire Turf Club, which is at the base of the Pyrenees ranges in Victoria. It is to be held in conjunction with “The Country Wool and Wine Festival”. Some of my work will be for sale, so come along and enjoy. I know you would have a lot of fun with not only the camel races but with the country hospitality.

For more information, check out the official website.