MORE CHOOKS

After playing around with watercolor and gouache for a while, I somehow drifted on to acrylic and ink in an effort to capture the wild, manic character of these killer chickens. I always took chickens for granted. It’s not till you start to draw them that you come to realize – behind all that innocent scratching and clucking lies a vicious, terrifying bird of prey!

Here are three more.

“Leghorn Watching” – Gouache, Acrylic, Ink, Watercolor and Charcoal.

“Rhode Island Red – Best of Breed” – Gouache, Acrylic, Ink, Watercolor and Charcoal.

“Black Australorp Considering”– Gouache, Acrylic, Ink, Watercolor and Charcoal.

STRANGE BIRDS

Calling this a flock of corellas is probably an understatement. More like a swarm, descending on one little lonely house on the border of South Australia and New South Wales. The cleanup must be a nightmare!

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MARGARET RIVER WORKSHOP

Our Accommodation for the first few days of the Margaret River Workshop was at the old Karridale  Homestead Complex. The homestead was built in the late 1800’s and moved to Margaret River in the early 1960’s. Motel style accommodation was later added, the homestead serving as a restaurant and conference room.

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Our first morning painting was in the comfortable courtyard of the Homestead.

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After going through all the techniques and materials I like to use everyone chose a small part of the courtyard and, using just two colors, concerntrated on composition and tonal contrast to squeeze as much out of their subject as possible.

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That afternoon we walked down to the river. The overcast sky illuminated the gatehouse on a small foot bridge. It was a great subject, but the chilly wind forced us to retreat around 4:30

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Next day we traveled down to the South West tip of WA to Cape Leeuwin where the Southern Ocean and Indian Ocean meet.

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We found a small sheltered beach and spent the morning painting the lighthouse and surrounding buildings.

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The old Post Office and general store at Witchcliff was closed down a few years ago and is slowly starting to crumble

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The interesting shapes and textures kept us busy painting for the afternoon

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A workshop in Margaret River wouldn’t be complete without painting in one of the wineries. We chose a windy hillside in Voyager Estate. The cold breeze and beckoning cellar full of excellent wines just up the path, meant the painting session finished fairly quickly.

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Voyager brought out some of their best wines for us to sample before sitting down to a great lunch in the dining room.

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After lunch we found an interesting door at the back of the winery.  A simple subject, great surroundings and the warm fuzzy feeling brought about by good food and wine made this a lot of fun to paint.

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The next day we traveled to Pemberton and the giant Karri forests of South West WA.

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After the windy weather near  the coast, the stillness of the Karri forests was a welcome change

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Vertical lines of the Karri trees descend into a chaotic mixture of bushes, ferns and flowers. The formal verticals and varied colorful textures make a great subject.

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The last three days of the workshop were spent at the Kari Valley Resort just out of Pemberton. You can hire a fishing rod and catch trout from your balcony.

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The resort is on the edge of Lake Beedelup. There are walking tracks around the lake and a suspension bridge over the spectacular falls

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We had our own private dining room perched over the lake.

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Our farewell dinner was a great night – Steak, Barramundi and local wine. It’s always sad saying goodbye to everyone but hopefully we will all catch up again sometime.

Many Thanks to Amanda Sloan, our tireless, hardworking tour guide, for making this such a great workshop

MOUNTAINS OF IRON

KARIJINI NATIONAL PARK

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The Karijini landscape is dominated by the Hamersley Ranges. These are probably the oldest mountains on earth, the rocks dating back 2,500 million years. Driving through the Hamersleys is unique and beautiful. The undulating hills are covered with spinifex and broken by exposed weathered faces of deep red rock.

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Cutting through the landscape are numerous gorges. Some are accessed by a short walk, others require climbing and scrambling over rocks and ledges, and some can only be reached with ropes and climbing equipment.

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Some of the gorges narrow down to passages just wide enough for a person to squeeze through

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Others are broad and open with clear pools at the bottom

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Looking down into the deeper gorges is an awesome sight. The surrounding country is undulating and fairly unspectacular, but the gorges seem to drop way below the surrounding landscape.

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Passing sculptors have installed some impressive structures using just rocks and gravity.

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Waterfalls and waterholes are found throughout the gorges

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The water is usually freezing cold but, somehow, backpackers seem to be tolerant to near freezing water

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Whistling Kite – Pentax K20D 18 -250mm lens

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Scattered through the gorges are veins of blue asbestos. The Wittenoom and Yampire gorges have been closed because of the high concentration of asbestos

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KARIJINI VISITORS CENTRE

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Architect John Nicholes designed the Karijini Visitors Centre to weather into the landscape. Most of the exterior of the structure is built from heavy welded steel panels. These are acid washed to rust, echoing the iron ore outcrops of the landscape.

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It is an impressive building that also hints at the rusted remnants of the areas pastoral history.

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Old rusted Pilbra sheepyards, built from flattened oil drums

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Power is provided by a large solar array with a thumping big diesel generator, waiting for a rainy day.

BEAGLE BAY / CAPE LEVEQUE

The Coast north of Broome looks amazing with turquoise water and red desert sand punctuated by mangroves. We decided to drive up to Beagle Bay, Cape Leveque and One Arm Point to have a look at the settlements and landscape.
The red desert sand is great to look at, but makes a really lousey road. From Broome to Beagle bay is non stop corrugations covered by a central ridge of sand and high sloping sand sholders, so keeping in a straight line was a bit of a challenge at times.
Beagle Bay is a sleepy little Aboriginal Community with an amazing church built by German Missionaries in 1917 The alter and much of the decoration inside is made from thousands of mother of pearl shells.
One Arm Point is another small Aboriginal Community with fishing shelters built along the waterfront
They are watched over by a pair of extremely laid back guard dogs. The one on the left could wag his tail slowly – that was about as active as they became.
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Pentax K20D 500mm mirror lens
It was a lot of fun photographing this Osprey feeding its young chick not far from our camp at Gambanan, near Cape Leveque. The mother fed  the chick for almost half an hour, just as the sun was going down. The light was perfect and the bird wasn’t disturbed by me, perched among the rocks with a tripod and camera. After she had fed the fish to the chick, tiny piece by tiny piece, she carefully picked up all the scraps that had fallen beside the nest and gave them to the baby. Once the feeding had finished she mad a sharp squeek, the baby sat down in the nest and she took off.
Fifteen minutes later I was back at our camp. I heard another loud squeek and there was the mother Osprey in the tree beside us. (Dead tree on left)
Pentax K20D 500mm mirror lens
She had another large chunk of fish she spent the next 20 minutes eating. Just as it got dark her mate joined her.
When I woke at 5:00 next morning they were still there in the tree.

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The Coast north of Broome looks amazing with turquoise water and red desert sand punctuated by mangroves. We decided to drive up to Beagle Bay, Cape Leveque and One Arm Point to have a look at the settlements and landscape.

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The red desert sand is great to look at, but makes a really lousy road. From Broome to Beagle bay is non stop corrugations covered by a central ridge of sand and high sloping sand shoulders, so keeping in a straight line was a bit of a challenge at times.

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Beagle Bay is a sleepy little Aboriginal Community with an amazing church built by German Missionaries in 1917.  The alter and much of the decoration inside is made from thousands of mother of pearl shells.

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One Arm Point is another small Aboriginal Community with fishing shelters built along the waterfront

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They are watched over by a pair of extremely laid back guard dogs. The one on the left could wag his tail slowly – that was about as active as they became.

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Dog on holidays

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Pentax K20D 500mm mirror lens

It was a lot of fun photographing this Osprey feeding its chick at Gambanan, near Cape Leveque. The mother fed  the baby for almost half an hour, just as the sun was going down. The light was perfect and the bird wasn’t disturbed by me, perched among the rocks with a tripod and camera.

After she had fed the fish to the chick, she carefully picked up all the scraps that had fallen beside the nest and gave them to the baby. Once the feeding had finished she made a sharp squeak, the baby sat down in the nest and she took off.

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Fifteen minutes later I was back at our camp. I heard another loud squeak and there was the mother Osprey in the tree beside us. (Dead tree on left)

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Pentax K20D 500mm mirror lens

She had another large chunk of fish and spent the next 20 minutes eating. Just as it got dark her mate flew in and joined her.

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When I woke at 5:00 next morning they were still there in the tree.

KEEP RIVER

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After the workshop finished we flew back to Darwin, picked up our car and caravan, had a cracked fuel tank repaired, replaced the caravan springs and stocked up on food and water.

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Our first stop, after crossing the mighty Victoria River, was Keep River National Park. It is listed as one of the 10 best rock art sites in the country.

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The landscape around Keep River is open bush and grassland interspersed with spectacular sandstone escarpments and ranges.

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The temperature hovered around 40 degrees most of the time so we did most of our walking early in the morning or late in the afternoon.

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The Jarrnarm walk is an 8km loop that takes you up onto the escarpment and back through a  series of beehive domes very similar to the Bungle Bungles. At the start of this walk is one of the regions most impressive rock art galleries. Unfortunately the traditional owners had closed it to the public. According to one of the rangers they want to repair some damage and will reopen it in the future.

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A shorter walk following the Keep River had a number of interesting art sites

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We could find no explanation for these strange figures. Von Daniken would have seen them as visiting astronauts. Maybe they were pearl divers encountered on the coast?

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300 million year old sandstone domes, ancient rock art, Livistona Palms and pockets of permanent water make Keep River an impressive National Park

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Spinifex Pigeons wander over the rocks.

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Red Winged Parrot

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Small rock lizard

OUTBACK WORKSHOP 1

DARWIN, KAKADU, KATHERINE

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We arrived back in Darwin, put our vehicle into storage and met Amanda and Gordon, our tour guides, at the Mindil Beach Markets. After wandering  around and watching the sun set into the ocean, we all headed back into the city for dinner.

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Monday, the 26 people that form our group got to know each other over drinks on the balmy veranda of the Holiday Inn.

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Tuesday, our first painting day,  we headed down to Government House , spread ourselves out on the rolling lawns opposite, and filled in the morning painting under the shade of a banyan tree.

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The afternoon was hot, so we found a shady spot opposite our hotel and painted the fringe of vegetation between us and the Arafura Sea

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Off to Kakadu and three days at Cooinda Lodge, Our coach driver had a tremendous knowledge of the aboriginal people of the area, having lived and worked with them over the years, He took us around Nourlangie and filled us in on many of the aboriginal customs and beliefs.

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Nourlangie

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Whistling Ducks – Yellow Waters. Except for the fact that these guys are walking around, they are the most artificial looking animal I have ever seen. They don’t  like getting wet either, happy just to stand beside the water.

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We watched this Croc cruise past our boat accompanied by a large Barramundi with a death wish.

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Red Lillys – It may not look like it, but every bit is edible!

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Pair of Jabiru (Male with dark eye)

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Cruising Black Cockatoo – they fly slowly in formation like a flock of B52’s on a mission.

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Wetland Waterlilies

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In the afternoon heat, an old Akubra in front of our lodge was a more comfortable option for a painting subject. Just so things didn’t become too comfortable, we limited ourselves to just two colours.

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Home Billabong at Cooinda Lodge was dotted with shady clearings looking across the water – great places to paint.

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Home Billabong – Cooinda

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If this little fellow hadn’t hopped, we would never have seen him

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South Alligator River, meandering across the wetlands

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Arnhemland Escarpment

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Ranger Uranium Mine

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South to Katherine

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Gold rush architecture, Pine Creek NT

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Another shady Banyan tree, this time in Katherine

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Some transparent watercolor washes and a lot of pale Ultramarine Gouache made this demo a lot of fun.

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Splashes of Alizarin, ink marks, charcoal pencil lines and fine rigger strokes suggest a lot of complicated detail without being too descriptive.