Chillies

Not feeling very chatty today - my head is a bit blank - so I won't talk. Must need another coffee. I will make one after I hang out the washing. Just posting a mixed media work on canvas. (Not the best photo, I know! In fact if you click through to the larger version you can see cobwebs across the painting!) There is tissue built up under the chillies for texture. Mainly acrylic paint with a bit if charcoal. This was a still life from my own objects with a lamp giving a strong directional light. I am a bit disappointed with the colour scheme now I have finished it, but I am pleased with the 3-D feel of the dish and the chillies. Au revoir!

Lake Opouahi

The other week my friend and I and our kids went on a trip up North of Napier towards Wairoa to a reserve at Lake Opouahi. There was a gorgeous reserve called "kiwi creche" which has been fenced off as a nature reserve for raising kiwis. I took over a hundred photos (thank goodness for digital cameras!) although only some of them have captured what my eyes actually saw. The nice easy track around the lake was a mossy green tangle of nature that was a joy to explore. We even took sketch pads with us to do a little art. Didn't really have enough time to relax and draw, but below is the sketch that I started there and finished at home.

The feeling of damp and beauty that I was looking for in this drawing is better felt from this beautiful scrap of prose I stumbled on thanks to a comment left behind by the author "Spot".

http://inkhaven.blogspot.com/2008/06/like-runaway-tattoo.html

I urge you to follow the link and experience it for yourself!

I will post a couple of the photos too to give you an idea of the little piece of artist's heaven that Lake Opouahi is!

The next image is a little different but it was a photo I took under a ledge of droplets of water that just begged for a little digital magic! Enjoy!!