Where has My Home Gone?

 Walking in the local park this morning I was saddened to see that a big old Gum tree had been felled. We had very strong winds a day or so ago and it looked as if a large limb had broken off. I think that the arborists must have decided that the rest of the tree canopy posed a risk to anyone walking under it and therefore decided to remove the rest of the upper branches. The Rainbow Lorikeets were NOT happy!

 I usually walk with my camera, but this time I chose to only take my phone, what a mistake! The Lorikeets were screeching, landing and taking off again in a great display of agitation.

 The resulting photos are taken from too far away and therefore slightly out of focus. Moral of the story? Take a proper camera when out walking.

                      I'm not sure how many birds there are in this picture, perhaps 8 or 9.

 They are very pretty birds with colours of green, blue, orange and yellow on the body and wings.

                 The male birds are brighter than the females, but all are very striking in colour.

I suppose that they'll get used to the lack of a very large roosting and breeding tree, but for now they are pretty upset. I hate that the tree has been chopped down too, but I'm sure that it was deemed necessary by those that know about trees!

Eco-Dyeing.

 These pictures show the results of some eco- dyeing  that I have just done. The sandwich of paper was held compressed by some old aviary wire, which shows in the pattern of squares on the photo above.

 The yellow colour is from some Coreopsis flowers and the paler ones from various Geranium petals.

   More of the same combination of flowers and also some narrow leaf Peppermint Gum leaves.

                                                               More gum leaves above.

This was the paper on the outside of the bundle and the wire has really made a grid pattern.

Last One!

                         With the stamp carving and digital artwork, the series is now complete.

                 The 12 Aussie Days of Christmas, finished in good time for Christmas 2019.

Sprekelia, Maltese Cross Lily or Jockey's Cap ?

 At this time of the year these lilies always make a welcome appearance, however what to call them? I always stick to the name Sprekelia, but I have heard them called by at least 2 different names.

Although spectacular to look at, they are very hardy and multiply year after year. I can't bear to throw any of the bulbs out, so I have them in the garden and in pots and troughs all over the place.

One More to Go.

Down to number two, 2 Pink Galahs. It was quite a challenge to get the pink colour onto the birds as well as the brown branch that they are perched on and the grey wings etc. I ended up stamping the birds onto scrap paper, and making a couple of stencils, one for the branch and one for the breasts of the birds. The wings and tail were stamped in grey, then the branch through the first stencil and then the fronts of the birds through the second stencil. Since each picture is only 15 cm x 21 cm in size, the slightly misaligned stamps are not really visible. One more to go, the Emu in a Gum Tree !

Three Kookaburras.

 Above are the first prints from my carved stamp for the 3 kookaburras laughing page. The one on the right hasn't got enough white on it's front, but I'm happy with the one on the left after a little more work in the white areas.

The photo is one I took in a forest quite recently and although I didn't see any kookaburras there that day, there isn't any reason to suppose that they don't sometimes settle in those trees even though the trees aren't native to Australia.

Nearly Finished.

 With Christmas just around the corner, I will have finished  my Aussie 12 Days of Christmas digital and stamp series just in time. Above is a photo that I took looking along under the Point Lonsdale pier with my carved shark stamp added in various sizes.

This is a photo that I took of some bush that is vaguely the sort of area that one might find lyrebirds in. The stamp was quite hard to carve with the delicate tail feathers, but I think that it looks O.K in this setting. Only 3 more stamps to carve and 3 more photos to choose.

Services Resumed!

Having been overseas for 3 weeks and then spending  a couple of weeks trying to get back into the swing of things again, posting here has been very much on the back burner. However with exhibition dead lines looming I have had to try to find time for some more printmaking. I'm still fascinated by the process of collagraph making and printing, so of course that's where I made a start this week.

This fantasy butterfly was made with pressed leaves, making sure that the veins were in the appropriate place. Unfortunately parts of the leaves began breaking away after a couple of prints, but by the end of the season real butterfly wings are pretty tatty too. It's always a fine balancing line with collagraphs using natural materials, too much shellac blurs the details, too little and the elements often break off with the rubbing of the ink.