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Join me painting this beautiful little waterfront village in the South of France. Learn new skills and techniques with a simple, straight forward approach suitable for all skill levels.
On the coast of Vietnam, east of Hanoi, is the world heritage listed Ha Long Bay. Scattered throughout the bay are around 2000 spectacular limestone islands. The constant heavy mist (either coastal fog or Hanoi smog) adds to the mysterious appearance of the region.
Early morning bathers.
Sunrise
Paddling out to sea
Traditional Fishing Boat
Fishing Boat with net booms.
Artist in funny hat entertains local fisherman.
Traditional floating fishing settlement.
Here are some of the demo paintings from the Tasmanian workshop.
Cray Boats moored in the bay at Bicheno – Gesso, Gouach and Phthalo Blue
Further around the bay at Bicheno are rock formations covered in brilliant orange lichen
Old boat sheds at Coles Bay made a great subject – interrupted briefly by the retrieval of a dozen yellow kayaks paddled into the bay.
Dove Lake at Cradle Mountain is a spectacular sight. We were lucky to be able to paint it – the mountains are usually blanketed in thick fog.
Hobart Waterfront – watercolor, ink, gesso and gouache
Macquarrie Harbour from the hotel balcony, Strahan.
Two weeks in Tasmania and not a sign of rain! The workshop was great and all the foul weather plans were unnecessary – talk about lucky. After we all said goodbye in Launceston, Dianne and I found our truck in the car park of Launceston Airport and headed south to explore some more of Tasmania.
Port Arthur from the cold waters of the bay.
Oatlands Mill
Island of the Dead – Port Arthur
Hells Gate Lighthouse on a rare sunny day.
Six obedient seagulls – Bruny Island
Long forgotten graves
Fog towards Cradle Mountain
Winter wood – New Norfolk
Convict graves – Ross
Low Head lighthouse
Ripples on the Gordon River
Shop Dummy – Ross
Painting at Dove Lake – Cradle Mountain
Architectural Minimalness -Oatlands
Bichneo fishing boats
Architectural Practicalness – Zeehan
Banks of the Tamar
Cheap Beer
Port Arthur get away car
Archictectural Impressiveness – Ross
Architectural Awesomeness – Rosebury
It’s fun to be back in the studio. A bunch of painted heads have been keeping me busy this past week. The first one is based on an old black and white photo of Woody Guthrie, the rest are accumulated sketches and ideas.
After our workshop at Dillmans in Wisconsin, we picked up a hire car from Rhinelander airport to drive up to Sudbury, in Canada, and visit my brother Wayne and his family. We ordered a mid sized sedan but ended up with a Mercury Grand Marquis with all the electric fancy bits, a big V8 engine, full leather lounge chairs and shiny wood trim that looks like plastic (or maybe plastic trim that looks like wood). Anyway, it takes up a lot of road, gulps down gasoline and would have looked really ugly, even in the 1980’s.
The Northern region of Wisconsin / Michigan is known as the Northwoods. It is a flat, green maze of lakes and creeks. Much of the country is covered with heavily wooded forests of birch, maple and a variety of conifers. In winter the region is covered with feet of snow and the temperature stays below freezing till spring. The green grass and dense growth of the woodlands was a surprise in such low temperatures. We managed to spot a coyote, many squirells, chipmonks, deer and loons, but bears and moose have evaded us.
Northwoods towns are quaint and tidy
Patriotism is always evident.
The rural properties try to out barn one another.
Waving Chipmonk
Towards the end of last year our youngest son, Tim, kicked of Studio Breeder, a post production/ film/animation company based in Brisbane. We are mighty proud of the amazing stuff they are producing. This is an add they have just finished for the Red Cross to help rebuild Japan.
Splashing Paint 