whats been keeping me busy of late?

In January I could no longer ignore the obvious... if I wanted to feel focused this year the studio required complete reorganisation of all available space. Here are some images from after the clearn-up... no 'before' shots... far too hectic then indeed!

My new scrubbed up table with a basket of macadamia nuts and carved seed pod all the way from Central Australia thanks to the wonderful Candy Herne who lives in the rainforest near Montville, north of Brisbane.

Low res photos...  can see the floor and the table top... pop the cork ... I am celebrating at this point.

Its as if the space has expanded...

A new vista for when working at the desk top computer in the room next to my studio. I'm loving that separation between studio and computer!

I got this already in a hurry last weekend in time for Sundays first workshop here. The walls needed something so I found various pieces that were ideal to place here.

Every book, art material whatever it was found a home... shelves were repacked and anything possible to get rid of was sent elsewhere!

Love these filing shelves

 The tall shelf is where the desk top used to be... but in the end it was just too crammed in and this is neater... so I am very pleased with the new arrangement.

Cup of tea in the studio anyone?

 The nearby kitchen is always handy!

... and a table on the back veranda next to the studio for those times one wanted to sit or ponder or work somewhere more open.

Loved having a small all day workshop here last Sunday...  worth cleaning up the studio for! Messy work was conducted out the back on the grass by industrious participants Sue, Lorraine and Wendy.

This was the day before the heaviest rain we've had in ages... I was glad for the excellent weather... we had a great day!

From outside back into the studio

Two of the class members were continuing ideas stated last year in the Colour workshops. Sunday we worked  on calico rather than paper... it will later be collaged onto canvas. This is a technique Ive been using over the past five years and it worked really well here. I shot a couple of pics... missed out on getting all the work.... must have been side-tracked!

some work was done in journals...

The rest of the time calico was the perfect canvas... lots of experimentation was the order of the day... finding what worked on fabric and how that was different than paper.

Great to see the range of approaches. We looked at diverse artists for inspiration. Brice Marsden's work led to collecting twigs and trying them out as painting tools instead of brushes.

Geometry in various forms of art was another tangent.

 This was a fascinating botanical item we had trouble identifying ... any ideas!

Great rethinking colour and surface...

after the workshop... the table top has disappeared.

The room was well and truly christened for the year's work to take place in. It feels so much better than the highly packed space it was before. I spent the week working on concertina books ...picking up where the class left off.

Photos of that to come next!