New greeting cards available!

I am very pleased to say that I now have some of my illustrations available as greeting cards. I've always found that the best way to express myself is through words and pictures together, and now you can too! I'll provide the pictures, but it's up to you to add the words! The cards are blank inside so that you can write your lovely messages to your favourite people. Also, you can feel good about yourself because the cards are printed on 100% recycled paper with a 100% recycled envelope too! Have a peek at my Apple Tree Cloud Shop on Etsy for more info.

Hello Ladies

Here are some lovely ladies which I completed as part of a fundraising project for our local Neighbourhood Centre. These drawings of staff will be printed onto tea towels along with handprints of children who attend the centre. Drawing the women started me thinking about how we see ourselves is often different to how others see us. When I handed the drawings over to the centre, the staff remarked that they all looked so young. ‘There’s no wrinkles’, they chuckled. I told them that’s what they’d look like if they were cartoons. Cartoon ladies.

Do you remember the first time someone called you a ‘lady’? It’s a weird term, polite on one hand and slightly patronising on the other. We go from girls to ladies in one swift moment and it can happen anywhere, anytime and there’s not a thing you can do to stop it. Because it is how others see you. You might still feel like a rebellious spirited girl who likes to climb trees in your spare time, but that’s not how you look to your neighbour when you’re in your 30’s and perched high up in your pittosporum tree. You’re a weird lady in a tree.

Now that I am well and truly a ‘lady’, it still freaks me out to hear a kid talk about me as ‘the lady in front of us in the queue’ or to be collectively welcomed by someone with a ‘hello ladies’. Maybe it’s time to embrace being a lady. Doesn’t mean I’m always going to be ladylike.

Reflective distance

This is the theory.

The more control you have over your art material, the more time you have to think about what you’re doing when you’re making a mark. The messier your material, then the less time you have to intellectualise, and therefore this is the way to access your emotions and if you like, unconscious imagery. And if you’re using a tool to make the image, like a pen or paintbrush, then the physical distance created between you and the image also contributes to your ability to second guess yourself and analyse what you’re doing. If on the other hand you are touching the art material directly with your hands as in the case with clay work or finger painting, you increase your chance of spontaneous expression.

That’s the theory, anyway

So here is a portrait, one side using the most controllable tool, a fineliner pen. Lots of time to think about what I’m doing there. Neat, clean, graphic. Creating form through suggestion and leaving white space to do the talking. The other side uses a soft pencil. Still an easily controllable tool, but one step removed from the fineliner due to its ability to move a bit quicker and create light and shade.

In recent years I find myself drawn to art materials that allow more reflective distance. Not out of a conscious decision, but rather because I love the look of stark contrast of black ink against crisp white paper with touches of soft watercolour. In the past I was very heavy handed with the oil paint, working quickly and alternating between brushstrokes and finger marks.

When I draw now, I try to create images that have ‘breath’ to them. That is, I don’t want to fill in all the blanks, I don’t feel the need to explain it all in the image. Not sure if the reflective distance theory is being applied with what I do now. But one thing I know is that a pen and small sketchbook is easier to carry around than a canvas and easel.

What I learned today...

When it’s hot, I want to draw pineapples.

Turning over a new leaf

Do you think it's possible, really, for a person to change? I've known people in their 90's who have told me that they still feel like the same person they were when they were 17. As for myself, I still like drawing and writing just as much as I did when I was a child. Cheesy, sentimental music can still bring tears to my eyes just like the first time I watched the movie 'Beaches' and left the cinema sobbing. And I have never, ever been able to tolerate the taste of caraway seeds. Yuck.

But even if some things about us always stay the same, there are other things we have choices about so that we can make changes. Just like this ornamental Manchurian pear tree leaf who chose to buck convention and wear stripes of different colours instead of the usual green. It’s still the same leaf, just with a fresh new style.

For the time being, I'm starting small. I'm taking my cues from nature. I may always shy away from caraway seeds, but I can try on some new stripes.

Santa’s energy snack

This year at our house, this is what Santa will be eating. It’s all of our favourite foods. I’m sure he’ll share the apples with the reindeer, apparently he’s good that way.

Happy Christmas everyone!

Little everyday tsunami

Hokusai lost everything. Starting over at a time when he should have been taking life at a slower pace, he kept making art. It was after this time that he achieved his greatest success. Strange to think that we know him best for his archetypal image ‘The Great Wave Off Kanagawa’, which he created as an old man, after he had worked all his life as an artist. An image which he created several times in different perspectives.

We all have our archetypes as artists. Our themes, the stuff we like to draw over and over. Sometimes we know why we repeat the images. Perhaps we like the form, or it reminds us of a happy moment, or we are confident creating it and we want to tap into that confidence. Other times, we may not know why we draw something repeatedly. The meaning might emerge at a later time, or it may not.

As kids we copy and repeat images to learn how to master our skills. That’s part of our development. At some stage we build our own repertoire of images we love to draw. For Hokusai, the wave is a cultural and historical representation of the time in which he lived. It’s a powerful reminder of nature’s effect on our human lives.

For me, the wave is a little bit of a tsunami in everyday life. Scattered down the supermarket aisle, looming on the meeting table at work or rising in your own bath at home, the wave can show up, unassuming and gentle or as a tremendous threat to the moment. Thankfully, everyday tsunamis eventually just become calm pools of water. Just like Hokusai, we keep going, doing what we love and making images about it.

(Hokusai (1760-1849) was a Japanese artist producing work in the Edo period)

Sit and draw

The things is, some cafés invite you to linger more than others. When you want to sit and draw, the last thing you want is stressed out wait staff hovering behind you, removing your cup the moment you finish your coffee and slapping the bill down as a non verbal goodbye.

I often draw when I’m out and about. I like the challenge of creating an image in different environments with nothing more than a sketchbook and a fineliner. I make it a game, no pencil, no eraser, no second chances.

That’s why a good café where you can take your time with a delicious cup of coffee, maybe even munch on a biscuit and have brief chats with friendly unobtrusive staff is such a precious find. In the end, I have a new drawing and the café gains a repeat customer, singing their praises to one and all.

House in a serviette holder

What are you doing?

Um, drawing.

Why is that house in a serviette holder?

Because it is.

That makes no sense.

Bingo.

Work in progress...

Apples in the apple tree, pen and ink ©jb

You really like apples, don't you?

Yeah.

And wood.

Yep.

So is this what you're working on at the moment?

Uh huh. It's part of an alphabet series where foxes will be in the forest, reindeer will be in the rain and snowflakes will fall into the sea.

Ooh, the snowflakes sound nice, can we see that one?

Um, in a little bit...after all, it is a work in progress!