Public service announcement

Mini-exhibition

Look! It exists! It is a thing! My exhibition opens on Thursday, and between you and me I'm almost finished with the pictures for it. Everyone is invited, not that I'm exactly expecting a crowd. I don't really know what to expect, in fact, especially as there is another exhibition opening same time, same place, and I'm worried that some distant aunt or something will think the other artist's (much better) artworks are in fact mine, and embarrassment will ensue.

Help, I'm stuck - artistically, that is

Hey, anyone out there? I'm looking for someone to tell me something that will magically make it all better. Emotionally, artistically - I just can't. I feel like a bike with square wheels. Only in terms of my work, though, in the rest of life and my little day jobs I'm just fine, but I've got so much art stuff I need to do and I can't do it. Can't start, can't finish. Scared of the blank page, scared of a half-done picture. Convinced I'm going to screw it all up most royally, and the longer I wait the worse it gets. Feel like a fraud, like a bad artist, bad person. Help, Internet, anyone. Course I'll get through this, but I don't feel like it now. Decided to throw it out there in the hope of getting an encouraging note from somewhere.

"Autumn leaves" miniature

This is a miniature inspired by my biggest and possibly boldest painting. Which I haven't shown you yet. I wonder why? Let me try and figure that one out and perhaps remedy it. Same size as the other miniatures, watercolour with a bit of pencil and ink.

New Rain featuring Daleen Roodt

The amazing Daleen Roodt (see this post) has collaborated with Martie Erasmus of New Rain Clothing to produce a Summer 2013 collection that features prints from Daleen's paintings of indigenous orchids. I can't tell you how much I love these dresses, so I'm going to post a few photos from my sneak peek at the lookbook. Also, Martie and Daleen modelled the collection themselves; they are awesome.










That's Martie's email address you see above. Mail her and she'll send you the whole lookbook. There are also some custom options available, so get your orders in before the 26th of July.

Please note: I was not paid in any way or even asked to do this post.

Interested in archaeology? Don't miss your chance!

I'm so excited to show you this - 13-year old me would have been bouncing off the ceiling! Don't-ask-how-old me is still pretty darn excited, and is going to be in charge of one of the trenches.

And you absolutely don't need to be in high school. This course was originally targeted at high school learners - and is thus suitable for absolute beginners - but we've opened it up to anyone who's interested. The project is coming up soon, so get in contact with them and book your place. You do (naturally; unfortunately) have to pay - but it's only R1500 for the full, 7 day course including 5 days of fieldwork.



Interestingly enough, this fort is on a funny little hill that's visible from my house, and I have always, as long as I can remember, wondered what was there. I even had fantasies about being able to fly and flying over the hill to see it. (Somehow the idea of driving there never crossed my mind.) It's also a closed nature reserve, so this is your only chance of seeing the Mystery Hill in person.

So if you want to take part in a serious dig (and meet your favourite blogger ;D), don't hesitate!

"Do I dare disturb the universe?"

That couple of lines from "The Love-Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" (which I adore) was given to us as an essay prompt in English class when I was about 13. My then best friend wrote a story about a child-goddess playing marbles, and that story inspired this little picture an alarming number of years later. Thanks, Sheila, and I still miss you.

My mother-in-law bought it from the gallery, for which I am most grateful! This was another polarising picture like my lighthouse one; some people loved it, some people hated it. The lighthouse picture, incidentally, was bought some time after I posted it, by a guy with a compulsion to buy lighthouse-related things. As a mentor of mine once said, every picture has a buyer out there, someone who will love it. You just have to keep putting it out there until that person finds it.

"Archaeology - Lagomorpha"

This little drawing of a rabbit skull is inspired by my friend Karin who is writing a thesis on hare bones. The materials are pen, pencil, tea, dirt, salt and paper cutting. The original is only 6x8 cm, as it was done for a miniatures exhibition. The gallery guys liked it a lot, and hopefully I'm going to have a sort of mini-exhibition in September! I'll keep you updated.

Out of the Attic: Morpho butterfly

This is one of my favourite OOTAs, but sadly it doesn't scan as well as I would have liked! That's because it's another of the very mixed media pieces that I can't resist doing. This one is oil pastel / pencil / ink. The oil pastel is heavily diluted with turpentine to make something that feels a lot like watercolour but doesn't buckle the paper. Pencil over that goes on very dark and looks great - I used it for the shadows on the flowers. It wasn't quite dark enough for the black bits of the wings, though, so those are permanent marker. Looks wonderfully black in person, but scans a bit too matte in comparison with the other media.

The white and coppery markings in the black are also ink, this time those lovely Pentel rollerballs. Remember Milky Pens and then all the spinoffs? My aunt once gave me a giant pack of them, but once they ran out I couldn't afford more. And now I can't seem to find them anywhere - lots of other brands, but not the Pentel. And I only trust Pentel.

The angle of the butterfly looks a bit awkward, doesn't it? I copied this wholesale from a (not-online) photo - if it is your photo, drop me a note so I can credit you! These days I'm very particular about working only from my own photos, or stock from people with generous terms and conditions, or adapting things into unrecognisability. (Is that even a word? If it isn't, it should be.)

Pink hair - success!

Well, it worked! Not without a couple of scares though. First, my husband looked at me like I was crazy when I said I was going to sleep with the dye in. He said, isn't that going to damage your hair? I said, who knows? It's only the ends, right? He said, it's like half your hair. Look on the internet to see what they say.

So I looked on the internet, and everyone was like HALF AN HOUR AT MOST OR YOUR HAIR WILL DISINTEGRATE LIKE THE BAD GUY IN INDIANA JONES AND THE LAST CRUSADE! All right, they didn't actually use the Indy reference, and thus their advice was not worthy of being listened to. So instead I took it out of the plastic bag and tugged on the ends, and they were kind of crispy but it was a "you have sugary cooldrink in your hair" kind of crispy and not a "your hair is turning into powder" kind of crispy. So I put the plastic bag back on and went to sleep.

The second scare was when I was sleeping, I dreamed I woke up and washed my hair and all the dye came out and it was no different from before, and I was all AAARGH THAT SUCKS and then I woke up again and realised it had just been a dream, so then I went and washed it out for real this time, and conditioned it, and dried it in the sun, and now it looks like this:



I am exceedingly happy with the way it's turned out. My husband likes it, my mother is amused/shocked, my father amused/indifferent, and I've got one non-family compliment so far. Can't wait to see what people think at the gallery, since I am in possibly the only field where pink hair will enhance my professional image.

Action shot (I can't model):



Oh, by the way, what do you guys (anyone out there!) think of the etiquette of posting photos? Narcissistic to show my face? Creepy not to? Are outfit posts irredeemably shallow, as I've been thinking of starting to do them occasionally?  Help me out here, please!