The St Kilda mangroves are finished...

Today I finally got back to the studio.  It has been a busy week,  but now I've finished the mangrove painting that I began a couple of weeks ago...

 I've "re-painted" a landscape from Gundry's Hill...  from a sketch that I made several weeks ago...

 .... and I found a painting that I made a long time ago (when I used to paint in the kitchen) of the shelf above my kitchen bench....

Studio day

I've been out to the studio again.  I tried another still life...  only half done,  but on the way...

 
After that I was looking through a book of reproductions of prints and drawings that are in the State Gallery in Adelaide.  I saw a photograph of a drawing that I know well...

Several years ago, I had made a copy of that drawing...

Drawing pieces like this is how I find out how they were done.  I copied my drawing from the original and it was incredible to be looking right at  a drawing done in the 16-17th century... amazing.

I found another drawing that I'd done too....

 ... and the original in the reproduction... once again I copied my piece from the original

 ... and made notes about it.  It was drawn in Holland in the 19th century.

I copied quite a few others also... it is the best way to see how a drawing (or a painting) was done.
This is how I came to be copying paintings by Cezanne a few weeks ago.  I will be moving my "still lifes" to Cezanne-style brush strokes... or at least that is my hope...  more to come....

Still life

My plan in the next few weeks is to paint from "life" though it will have to be "still life" as I don't have any models or even the best organised working space...  though it's getting there.  Today I spent some time to begin a new painting.... it has a long way to go....

... but having the studio out at Hamilton means that I can leav everything there and spend some time on it tomorrow.  The odds and ends can sit there until I'm finished...

A long way to go.

Difficult day of painting.

Today feels like an opportunity lost.  I spent much of the day at the studio,  but found it hard to paint in the way that I'd wanted.
I've been trying to paint some "Kapunda" pictures, but finding it hard for some reason...  sometimes it is all so easy, and then there are these patches.

Both are variations on the Eastern view from Gundry's Hill, and neither is finished... I need to let these dry a bit before I get back in there... or end up with mud!

This one I have actually painted over...

...or at least wiped from the canvas, unfinished.  I'm not sure that I should show these messy bits and pieces.  Perhaps one should keep them secret.

Friday at the studio

It's interesting that after a few days at work when I can't get to the studio, I find it hard to paint.  Today, after catching up at home, I went to the studio and made a start.  I made a sketch of a studio window...

....  not particularly happy,  but that's how it is after a week in the real world.   Thank goodness for my four day weekends.

Landscapes near Hamilton

More local landscape... somehow this gentle and productive landscape always catches my eye....  

Near Hamilton....

 ... and I've finished the fence line on the painting that I made of this tree....

... also not far from Hamilton.

St Kilda mangroves

I've done less painting this week,  though I've thought about what I wanted to do.

This painting is only half finished and it's not much more than a sketch, but it's made from a sketch and some photographs that I took last week at St Kilda in the mangroves.  I'll add another photograph of this painting when I finish it.