Despite what many people may think, kangaroos are not a common sight for most Australians, especially for aussies who live in city and urban areas. We are among the lucky few who get to enjoy these beautiful creatures in their natural habitat several times a week, as our backyard is part of their natural habitat! Although the native wildlife is abundant in our area, kangaroos in the backyard is not a common occurence for most people.
I took these photos of this Western Grey Kangaroo from the back steps of my house. As cute as she looks here, the ‘roos that come to visit and mow our back lawn are wild animals and the closest I can get to them is about three metres. Not that you really want to get too close to a wild kangaroo - the males can grow up to two metres from head to tail and can weigh 50 to 60 kgs (120 to 144lbs)!

Scenes like this is enough to inspire any artist!

They quite often spend the night grazing on our lawn, and occasionally we see one that spends the day dozing in the shade under a tree but usually in the wild they can be seen at dawn and dusk grazing in jarrah bushland and open paddocks.

Female kangaroos are known as does or fliers, the males are called bucks, but are also known as boomers or stinkers (they have a very strong aroma) and baby kangaroos are called joeys. The most we have had on our back lawn at one time is five which is a pretty small family group (mum and previous years joeys), normally a kangaroo mob will be larger in size.
Michelle

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I’ve just found out about Squidoo, and have officially become a “Squidoo lensmaster”. LOL while that sounds really technical (or maybe just plain bizarre), it really is a very simple way of sharing your recommended links on a particular topic in a portal and possibly earning a few $ through the Squidoo system (you get paid based on Google Adwords, Amazon, cafe press etc).

I strongly believe in coincidences and as I have just recently begun a personal quest researching art history, famous artists, art movements and styles (all the things you propably would learn in art school), I thought it would be a good idea to put all the great information that I find together in a new lens All About Art for my own reference and maybe it will also help out other people who are interested in the same subject. I’ve also added a section for art lessons and demonstrations because, as a self-taught artist, I firmly believe it is possible for anyone with the determination and persistance to develop their artistic talent which we all have if we nurture it!

If you would like to join squidoo and set up your own lens, please consider using this link as your referral and when you earn your first $15, we’ll both get $5 free!

Refferal Link

I finally finished the commemorative portrait of Cleo the Bull Terrier cross that I mentioned in a previous post. I am really pleased with the way it turned out - especially as it was the first time I had attempted to draw a white dog in graphite. It was for a 60th birthday present and Cleo’s owner loved it thank goodness!

Unfortunately I did not have time to scan it and the digi photos I took really didn’t turn out very well, so much of the detail and fine shading was lost. This is the best photo of the lot however the shadows on the original are no where near as dark as they appear in this photo, and there is a lot more detail on her brown ear that is obscured by glare in the photo. Oh, the joys of photographing graphite artwork!

“Cleo”

Bull Terrier Cross

Graphite, 11″ x 14″, 2006

Technorati Tags: art, artist, artwork, graphite, dog portrait, bull terrier, squidoo, dog art, lens, art history, art styles, art movements, famous artist, art lessons, art demonstrations

I posted a couple of cat ACEO’s (original Art Cards) on Ebay yesterday. I decided to try the Aussie ebay site for a change, I usually list ACEO’s on the US ebay site as ACEO’s are much more well known there (A search on Ebay.com.au for the term ACEO reveals all of 92 items today compared to several thousand on the US site). ACEO’s are not very well known over here in Australia though, so it is a bit of a gamble at best. More and more Aussie artists are now creating them though, so hopefully they will become well collected in the future.

I have also removed my Ebay Art Store as it is not proving to be worth the cost or effort, largely due to all the messing around Ebay has been doing recently. I might consider re-opening it in the future, but until I can have a really good number of items in the store it seems pointless to keep paying Ebay for low views!

Marmelade and White Kitten
Click to view on Ebay

Marmelade and White Kitten

White Persian ACEO

White Persian (Closeup view)

Click to view on Ebay

Technorati Tags: art, artist, artwork, ebay, aceo, art card, color pencil, persian cat,
cat art, kitten , australian artist

This is the latest piece I have been working on, an acrylic landscape painting created in a modern minimalist style on gallery wrapped chunky canvas. This painting developed quite differently from my original inspiration, so differently in fact that I initially started painting purple clouds! I am quite pleased with the way this one is coming along, as it was the strong contrasts in the light and darks of a desert sunset that I wanted to capture, and in particular I wanted to achieve this with rather bold brush strokes (considering the size of the canvas) and some pallette knife work for added texture. After looking at this piece for several days I am contemplating whether or not to further lighten some of the area around the sun, and some of the reflections in the middle of the painting.

One of the things that I am finding rather surprising with the modern, minimalist, abstract/contemporary styles that I am experimenting with at the moment is just how long they take to complete to my staisfaction - simple and less detailed definitely does not necessarily equate to less time to create, and I can definitely say that I have a new found respect for artists who work in these styles!

“Desert Sunset”, Acrylic on gallery wrapped canvas, 2006

Right side view

Left side view

Cheers

Michelle

Technorati Tags:art, artist, artwork, painting, acrylic painting, modern art, desert sunset,
desert painting, landscape, minimalist art, contemporary artwork, sunset painting, abstract

I thought it would be a good idea to post some links to various Artists Resources websites that I frequent - I hope that you find them as useful as I have! This post will be edited from time to time when I add new links, but I will also place a link to this post in the links section under ‘Artist Resources’ on the right hand side of the blog for easy reference in the future.

Discussion Forums:

Wetcanvas - One of the largest and best Artist’s websites on the internet
Australian Art Forum - Online forum for Australian Artists
Art Papa Forums - Art Lessons, demonstrations and discussions

Art Societies:

Colored Pencil Society of America - Dedicated to artists working with colored pencil
Wildlife Art Society of Australasia - Promotes appreciation of Wildlife art in all media.
Pastel Society of America - Professional and emerging artists who work in Pastel
Oil Pastel Society - Promotes the knowledge and understanding of Oil Pastels
Pastel Society of Australia - Promotes the art of soft pastel paintings
Plein Air Painters of America - Dedicated to Excellence in Outdoor Painting
United Kingdom Coloured Pencil Society - UK promotion of Coloured Pencil Artists

Online Sales Venues:

Art By Us - International Art Auction site
Yessy - Online art sales
Art Cards Wanted - International gallery of ACEO’s for sale, direct from artist
Etsy - Independant shop owner online mall for a variety of handmade items

Art Information:

In The Artist’s Footsteps - The lives and works of famous Australian Artists
The Painters Keys - Robert Genn’s Twice Weekly Inspiration and Information

Technorati Tags: art, artist resources, art society, art links, art information, art sales venues,
art for sale

This is probably my favourite piece that I did in 2005. The look in this dog’s eyes just says it all, he is laying there patiently waiting for his owner to come back.

“Waiting” Coloured Pencil, 11″ x 14″, 2005

This piece was completed purely in colour pencils on cream Stonehenge paper and took well over 55 hours of work to complete. It was worth it though, because it was awarded First Place in the Painting & Drawings: Animals class at the Art Show I entered - pretty amazing seeing as colour pencil is such a new Fine Art medium and because the other entries included oils, acrylics and pastels!

Technorati Tags: art, animal artist, art award, painting, bullmastiff, coloured pencil, color pencil, dog art

We lost our little girl Jack Russell Terrier over two years ago to a brain tumor. She was nearly 11 years old and such a gutsy, happy little dog - a true Jack Russell Terrier in every way. Even though I am a pet portrait artist, it took a long time for me to be able to do her portrait.

Created with soft pastels on black Art Spectrum sanded paper, this is one of those pieces that just seemed to paint itself and I am really pleased with the result. I can now really understand why many of my clients who have commissioned commemorative portraits of pets they have lost as it feels almost like having them back again, that probably sounds really strange, maybe its being able to see that familiar loving face every day. Of course a painting can never replace a dearly missed pet, but it certainly does help to heal the pain a little.

‘Harley’ in pastel: 9″x12″

At the moment I am working on a commemorative portrait of Cleo, a Bull Terrier cross. I had the choice to do it in graphite or colour and decided on graphite, I’m not quite sure why as apart from one ear she is a white dog, and rendering white fur on white paper with graphite is a bit of a challenge! I will post a picutre of Cleo’s portrait when it is finished.

Technorati Tags: art, artist, artwork, pet portrait, jack russell terrier, pastel, pastels, dog art,
bull terrier, art spectrum, commission portrait, pet portrait artist

This is the first floral acrylic painting I have done, of a tropical Bird of Paradise that I have growing in my front yard (I have a ‘brown’ thumb so its lucky this poor plant is still alive:). I really love the striking colours in this tropical flower, which is actually a native plant of South Africa and is also known as a Strelitzia.

This piece was definitely experimental, and a lesson in completing the background first - originally I had the flower backlit with a studio style background but I couldn’t achieve the halo lighting effect that I was visualizing so settled on a more abstract background.

The first image shows the whole painting, but after playing around with it in my graphics program I think for framing I prefer the closer crop of the second image. Overall I am happy with it, but at this stage I’m not sure if it needs more glazing or if it is ready to spray with gloss varnish so I will leave it for a couple of days and then take another look at it.

Above: Full painting Below: Cropped

“Bird of Paradise”, 8″x11″ Acrylic on canvas

More information on growing this beautiful tropical plant can be found on the Tropical gardening website.

Michelle

Technorati Tags: art, artist, artwork, floral painting, acrylic painting, floral art, bird of paradise

The Art Of Selecting Your Home’s Art

By Sandy Knoll

Art should be personal. Selecting pieces that you really love should not be influenced by the color of the carpet or your couch. To really make a statement, art should be chosen based on it’s own merits.

You have just moved into a new home. Perhaps it’s your first real home that you plan to invest time and money into decorating and styling. You are eagerly looking for ideas to help make your home comfortable and beautiful.

You have just been looking through a magazine for decorating ideas and admire a gorgeous home that highlighted the owner’s fantastic art collection. You realize that the bare walls in your home create an emptiness that is crying out for attention.

With this sudden urge to fill them up, what are you going to choose for art?

It is not hard to find art - whether you choose originals or reproductions. The variety and diversity of styles is enormous, so where do you begin in making your selection?

Try to purchase art as you would any other piece of furnishing that you plan to have for years. You want to select pieces that you will love and appreciate for a long time - whether you keep your couch or not.

When you admire artwork in a gallery or even in a fantastically decorated home you will notice that it is the art that sets the tone, not the other way around. Artwork should be featured, and not chosen to compliment it’s surroundings.

You will likely find that you are drawn to works that are in colors or themes that suit your home anyway. If you do like traditional decorating styles, it is quite likely that you will been drawn to more traditional styles of artwork as well. The same is true of more modern or contemporary tastes.

Talking to a gallery owner or interior decorator, you may also find them able to give you suggestions on how the artwork could best be appreciated. Using picture lights to illuminate the artwork will add enormously to it’s appeal as well as to the mood of a room.

Your artwork will make a significant statement about you personally. It is well worth your efforts to select pieces one at a time and choose art that truly reflects you instead of filling your walls with mediocre work that you will tire of quickly. By making thoughtful choices and viewing each piece as an investment, you will always find a special place for your art in any home.

About the Author: Sandy Knoll is the webmistress of http://www.frloghomes.com and is a real fan of log homes and everything that they represent. If you have a site related to homes, email her about exchanging links: sandy@frloghomes.com with “exchange links” in the subject line.

Source: www.isnare.com

Technorati Tags: art, artist, selecting artwork, home decor, original art, interior decorator, art investment

In an effort to streamline things and hopefully be slightly more productive with my time, I have transfered most of my available artwork to Art ByUs (ABU) including ACEO’s and some of my sterling silver jewellery items (I do have some additional jewellery that I will also be adding there later).

I will still be listing a few items on Ebay from time to time, but most likely only the pieces that I create as part of the ‘theme’ challenges that happen from time to time (some weekly, some monthly) on the different Ebay Artists groups that I belong to, such as this acrylic painting that was part of the April ‘Spring’ theme organised by the Small Format Artists Ebay Group. This painting is 4″x4″ acrylic on canvas and is titled ‘Tall Poppies”.

To find other artwork on Ebay created by other artists as part of the ‘Spring’ Theme week, simply search Ebay for “SPRING theme week SFA”.

Michelle

Technorati Tags: art, artist, artwork, painting, acrylic painting, floral art, floral painting,landscape, modern art, contemporary art,