Tuesday 31 January 2012

Fringe Lily.

I thought that I had better show a picture of the original plant before I begin making a stamp or any other artwork deriving from it. You can see the buds on the right that I manipulated in Photoshop and posted a day or so ago. Whilst I will make an actual rubber stamp, here is one made in Photoshop.

Monday 30 January 2012

Bird Orchid

This little orchid is named after a nestling with its open beak waiting to be fed. The angle of this photo doesn't show it very clearly, but if you use your imagination you can see a gaping beak in the centre of the plant.

Sunday 29 January 2012

New Artwork Design.

This is the beginning of my work on a new Wild flower series. This is the elegant bud of a Fringed Lily, one of the prettiest wild flowers in the bush, you can see the flower in an earlier post.

Saturday 28 January 2012

Friday 27 January 2012

Photoshop Phiddling.


It's amazing what a difference a simple filter in Photoshop will make to the look of a photo. This seed head lying in the leaf litter was quite interesting, but invert the colours and I think it now looks like a group of sea urchins in a tide pool.

Thursday 26 January 2012

This one is easy, it's from an Eastern Rosella, a very pretty parrot.
                         This one is from another parrot, it's from the crest of a Sulphur Crested Cockatoo.
                                              This is probably from a black and white Magpie.

This is probably another one from a Sulphur Crested Cockatoo.

Since my topic at the moment seems to be birds, I thought that I would photograph the feathers in situ that I came across on my morning walk and see if I could identify the ex-owners of them.

Wednesday 25 January 2012

You can't see the beak of this bird properly, but it's long and curved, just right for getting nectar from these Red Hot Poker flowers.  The bird is a juvenile Eastern Spinebill.

Tuesday 24 January 2012

           It's been so hot here for the last few days, so the birds really appreciate a cool drink and a bath.

Monday 23 January 2012

                            This is what yesterday's caterpillar will become, a Dainty Swallowtail: Papilio anactus.

Sunday 22 January 2012

                What a handsome caterpillar that will grow into a beautiful butterfly.

Saturday 21 January 2012

A Hyacinth Orchid growing in the bush.  This orchid is dependent on fungus in the soil and will die if moved.

Friday 20 January 2012

This is the work of some small ants, isn't it wonderful? It only stands about 2 inches high and is so beautifully made.

Thursday 19 January 2012

Stars, Detail.

                        The machine stitching is finished, but it probably doesn't show up very well in this photo.

Tuesday 17 January 2012

Raw Material.

This is just a view of the cut face of an old log, but I'm sure it has potential for computer manipulation.

Monday 16 January 2012

Return to the Clematis Scene.

     I thought that the black and white version was a bit stark, so here is a warmer version.

Sunday 15 January 2012

Saturday 14 January 2012

More Linocut Fun.

This is another lino cut that I played around with in Photoshop. I'm not at all sure that I like the colour scheme however.

Friday 13 January 2012

Eat Your Heart Out John Lennon.

                       Another item from the old house clear-out, thousands more to go!

Thursday 12 January 2012

Unidentified Objects.

These tools have turned up in a box of bits and pieces from an old house that is being cleared out by a family member. The box apparently used to hold fishing flies, but what are these brass items? They look as if they might be for cleaning a musical instrument, although they are a bit too heavy for that perhaps. For cleaning some sort of small machinery?  Any clues would be gratefully received.

Wednesday 11 January 2012

Flying a Kite with Grandad.

                                             

Tuesday 10 January 2012

Back Massage!

            The  19 year old cat loves to have a back massage (lick) from the 3 year old dog. Everyone's happy!

Monday 9 January 2012


Do you recognise the mouldy peach? With the simple invert option in Photoshop, it looks to me like an underwater scene. Hence the fish, looking somewhat surreal in their skeleton form.

Sunday 8 January 2012

What a Shame!


Unfortunately some of the beautiful peaches became mouldy before they could be eaten, however they made interesting subjects for photos, and a starting point for manipulations in Photoshop.

Saturday 7 January 2012

Fresh Ripe Tomatoes.

At least the animals have left our tomatoes alone............at least for the moment anyway. There were 3 different varieties of tomatoes ripe enough to pick this morning. The orange ones are a new type that I tried this season. thinking that they would be less acidic than the red ones. I've grown yellow varieties before and they seemed to me to be less sharp, however this orange type is just as acidic as the red ones and just as delicious.

Friday 6 January 2012

My Maternal Grandmother.

Anne Louise, my maternal Grandmother in the 1920s. How about the headband, isn't it wonderful?

Wednesday 4 January 2012

This booklet was recently found amongst a huge heap of publications from an old family home being cleared out prior to selling. I don't think that it's ever been opened and read.

Tuesday 3 January 2012

With an extensive vegetable garden and several fruit trees, it's always frustrating to lose fruit and vegetables to the efforts of the wild life, birds, possums and rats! The peach and nectarine trees have been shrouded in nets for weeks and bait has been put into PVC tubes for the rats, replaced almost daily as they enjoy a good meal of rat poison! I gave up today after finding 8 or so beautiful nectarines, almost ripe with a bite out of each one. So I stripped the trees of the remaining fruit even though most of it is bullet hard and still unripe. The beasts hadn't started on the peaches yet, maybe put off by the furry skin, but I'm sure that once the nectarines had vanished they would soon turn their attention to the peaches. I got about half the number of nectarines that were on the tree a week or so ago. Grrrrrrrrrr!

Monday 2 January 2012

Clematis under the Stars.

As it was just too hot (38 C) today to do anything much except play on the computer, I put together a little scene using all the various Clematis stamps and lino cuts. I love Photoshop brushes too, so combined several of them with everything else as well. Goodness knows if I could actually get any stitching into this, it's really too complex. Unless of course I enlarged it perhaps.

Sunday 1 January 2012

More Work with Clematis Designs.



Happy New Year!
Continuing on with my Clematis theme, here is another simple design as a stamp. Not long before I can put it all together, fun, fun, fun!