I've been tagged by doeeyed, so here are five things that you didn't know about me:

I.  I grew up in the crater of an extinct volcano

II.  I'm descended from nobility, &, apparently, royalty

III.  I've had psychic experiences

IV.  I'm working on a commissioned pastel portrait

V.  I'm a Director, on a Board.

You are now tagged!

What five things don't people know about you?

 

We've had a couple of visits by black cockatoos lately.  When I was a child growing up in south east Queensland, my mother told me that a visit by black cockatoos meant that good rain or storms were coming.  Up here in central Queensland I've heard that the number of black cockatoos indicate the number of days before a good rainstorm.

We've had much needed but light rain over the last couple of days.

Check out this cute bird nest, complete with bird, from my garden!

It must have been 'Baby Banana Bird Learn to Fly Day' here recently, my son kept finding baby birds on the ground:

 Love the hairdo - & can you see his little eyebrows?!

Here's one of them, after being put back into a tree:

I've added a couple of artworks to my online art gallery, so click the link to the left if you'd like to see them.

 

 

Oh, just had to post this here in case anyone else reading this is a Cold Play or Chris Martin (lead singer of ColdPlay) fan too, especially because it's almost Christmas, it's Chris Martin singing Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas!  Click here to listen!

I'd never heard of the hype website before, although I do use Pandora (internet radio, lets you listen to music like music you like!).

With Hype you can just type the name of the artist you're interested in listening to in the search box to the top right of the page, & up pops a box with a playlist from that artist, & you can just listen as one song plays after another - no signing up nor logging in, I'm listening to ColdPlay right now, lovely!  :-)

You'll notice I'm still alive!  If I make it until the 23rd (see previous post about my dream of only having a month - or less - to live), perhaps I'll stay up until midnight, just to see in the 24th!

Here are heaps of "Christmas Science" articles, makes interesting reading!

Merry Christmas everyone!

 

 

I've almost finished the pastel portrait!  I just need a pointy rubber tool to blend the lips, because that area is too small for my finger.

From this painting I have learnt not to go over teeth drawn with a lead (ie graphite) pencil with pastel, until I've erased enough of the pencil.

I used five colours to make up her hair. 

When painting one need to frequently stand the artwork up & look at it from a distance, to see what isn't right, & what needs to be done next.

 

I've started a portrait of Marion.

I thought you might like to see the progress so far?

I started with pencil (normal lead, ie graphite, pencil) on pastel paper, followed by pastels & pastel pencil.

Remember, it's not finished yet.  There's more to do on her hair.  I have to make her nose easier to see from a distance (it's all hair, eyes, & mouth at the moment).  I still have to do her blouse, & the background.

It is so hard to take a good photo of a pencil sketch!

Here it is so far:

Do you have any idea how difficult it is to paint accurate portraits?  You see, we know our loved ones face so well, we have studied it up close for years, we know what every little expression means, perhaps there is nobody who knows it better - so if the artist cannot see what we know, or sees something different than our perception of our loved one....!

For your visual entertainment, my latest painting, entitled "Night Blooming":

This one has already gone to a good home!

The night sky was inspired by the work of Kathy Hatt, from Show Low, Arizona, USA, see her art here!

It was a full moon here last night, when I delivered this painting to its appreciative new owner!

Hello everyone, I have a new painting to show you, it's called Forest Meets Dune:

It's acrylic on canvas board.

Can you see the seagull?