Done & Numbered.

I decided to go ahead and paint the tram windows a pale grey colour and to neaten up the numbers indicating the bays for each tram. I added the central buffer to the front of the trams and also indicated the lights on each side. I only have the 3 prints that are more or less O.K. so they have been numbered to indicate that there are the 3 prints.  Framing is a little tricky, as  cut off some of the original lino and so the size of the prints is a little odd for a standard frame. I did find some that will do however at the 'Op-Shop' (Thrift shop) but unfortunately the paper surrounding the print on all but one is not the correct measurement for the weighting on the lower edge of the image. Maybe I'll have to mount the image on another piece of paper.

Rain at Last.

We've had quite a long run of hot and dry days, so when the forecast is for a cool change and rain, we're all very happy here. The first few drops were caught by this leaf.

Museum of Old and New, Hobart.

 On a recent trip to Hobart I visited MONA for the first time. Quite apart from the exhibits in the museum Here I was fascinated by the iron wagon and carriage displayed outside.  I couldn't find  any information on the site as to who was responsible. It's just amazing!

                                                Each wheel on it's own is a work of art.

                                            These panels look to have Gothic influences .

                                         Now these parts seem to suggest medieval banners.

Trams.

Out of all the tram prints that I did recently, only 3 of them are worth continuing with. The others are either too dark and the details don't show up, or too blotchy. I've painted these 3 from which to choose just one to be mounted, but I'm undecided about painting in the windows a pale grey or leaving them white. I like the idea that the trams are sleeping in the tram shed, so perhaps colouring them in would be more like they were eyes closed for the night.  Decisions, decisions...............

Ripples.

                                                  Patterns can be found so unexpectedly.

            Here we have a dog, a ball and a country dam with a stand of reeds at each end.

     When the dog disturbs the water, the reflections of the reeds make the most amazing patterns.

Glass.

Like many buildings that want light in the room, but not visibility, our bathroom has glass bricks in the window. Outside is a green hedge with some bare branches and this is what the glass bricks look like from inside, with a tweak of Photoshop of course!

   Here the sky is reflected in the panes of glass of a high rise building. The glass in the narrow panels must be a slightly different colour.

A piece of car window smashed onto a bed of leaf litter.

A car mirror broken on the road.

Painted Trams.

Here are a couple of trial runs with painting the tram lino cuts. The top one is with water colour and the lower one is with acrylic paint. Although there are many shades of yellow and green on our old Melbourne trams, I think I might stay with the same shades across all 7 trams.  I much prefer the look of the water colour green to the  more olive green acrylic, and I think that the more translucent water colour fits in better with the naïve look of the image.

Printing.

 I thought that it was about time that I actually printed my lino cut trams, just to see what more needs to be carved or changed. I've cut away all the excess lino and reduced the overall size quite a bit.

I can't decided if I prefer the print to be dark black and white or a bit speckled to show the marks on the asphalt and the wall of the tram shed. I'll colour some of the obviously 'no good' prints and decide then.

More on Trams.

 This was another trial print using a stamp pad and coloured pens. It became obvious that I needed to carve out the sides of the trams, even though some of the perspective is a bit out of kilter.

 This is the piece of lino after using the stamp pad. I rather like the effect of black & white and grey.

Another trial print with a stamp pad and pens. It's beginning to look O.K, a bit naïve but O.K.

 

 

Trams in a Tram Shed.

 I think that I might have bitten off more than I can chew with this lino-cut, as I'm having trouble deciding what to leave solid and what to carve away. The more modern trams don't look to bad, but the more boxy older models look rather odd. Added to which it's all very small to carve the finer details.

 I think that this above is the earlier picture before I carved some of the details of the more distant trams.

This is a quick crayon rubbing to see how it's going. I intend painting the top parts of the tram around the windows yellow and the lower sections green, just as they are on the old Melbourne trams.

Nasturtium Post Card.

 I forgot to take any photos earlier in the process, but here you can see 2 of the flowers on each card still to be stamped. You can also see where I dropped the stamp, ink side down onto one of the cards.
How clumsy, and what a nuisance, as it was otherwise a good print.

 The background in yellow was a printed mini screen all about the naming and history of the nasturtium plant. It makes for a subtle but interesting background, especially as I chose to print the image in the opposite orientation to the text. An unexpected bonus is that the text shows through the inked leaves and to a lesser extent the flowers, giving them more interest too.

                             The name Nasturtium actually means 'nose-tweaker' apparently!

             Here you can see the text just showing through the inked leaves and flowers.

A batch of post cards finished, some on a white background and some on the heavy off white paper.

I  also decided against a printed border, as not only was the one I carved too heavy, but I never could get a nice even print. I've just used a marking pen and ruler to get a thin and subtle border.

 

 

 

 

Cranbourne Australian Garden

Just one of several signs in the gardens that I visited yesterday warning of snakes in the area. It was a very warm day and not surprising that snakes were about and about, especially near water as this sign was. All our snakes are venomous, so this sign is not something to ignore!

Another Garden Visit.

 This Australian Garden, Here,  part of the Royal Botanic Gardens Cranbourne, some 45 km out of Melbourne, is looking particularly striking at this time of the year, with the vibrant red of the soil and the swathe of yellow desert flowering plants down the middle.

Some friends and I planned our trip to see the annual Australian Textile Exhibition, but of course a cup of coffee was first on the agenda.  Here is the view of about two thirds of this part of the garden taken from the café window.