So Mum who has been my biggest critique since I started painting as a teenager popped around last week. After much deliberating she pointed out the fact that the foreground in Lady Emily at the Cass was looking a bit uninteresting, something that I’d been struggling with for the past weeks, while working in the many layers of colour. She pointed out the hint of speargrass bushes dotted around in my very terrible reference image (as I took these snaps in quite a hurry as I only had a minute of nice light before the sun vanished after a very stormy day) and mentioned that I had not included these. So now they are being included amongst the tussocks, and I must say they are very much improving the foreground…
St Arnaud Range is very easily accessed from below, in fact so much so that I took my kid’s along the range recently to explore one of the places I find most beautiful. Here is the route that we took along the range and down Powder Valley. Also some...
Not much sleep was had sausaged between two kids that flung their arms into my head all night long and with a full moon lighting up the tent, but I emerged well rested and to a most spectacular and still morning. A few of us wandered around exploring the plateau while others stayed cocooned inside while the first fingers of sun...
After many seemingly endless weeks painting in the studio and in the middle of the school holidays before the first winter snow, the perfect weather window approached. Boots, packs and gear were scattered throughout the house half packed and ready to go, however I was still only half committed. The looming dread of listening to the kids 7 & 8 fight, whinge and moan while I carried over a third of my body weight up 1100 vertical meters...