Off we go!

To the mountains today, a mini break. 2 nights, 3 days. Short, but
much needed.

A week since Chris finished work. Hope we can relax and enjoy this.
We'll worry about the big stuff when we get back.

Staying at historic Leura House. An old hotel, but I believe we are
staying in a garden cottage.

Sightseeing, and looking at Real Estate. Some time off retirement,
but it's a good plan to start working this out early.

Not just business though, also nice cafes, good dining etc.

Pics to come.

Mountain dreaming, new valleys and vales.

I never thought I could leave here easily. With all it's frustrations, damage
and never being finished, good doses of bad luck, termites, floods, leaks
and more, still our home.

The house was improved and enlarged, with a better layout, and helped us
raise 3 children, gave us all stability.

Really it was never so much about the house as the space, the view, the
connection with nature.

Room to look into and beyond the valley, rescue and care for wildlife, sight
so many brilliant examples of fauna. Wallaby sightings, echidnas, parrots of
brilliant colouring. Our children to have this experience.

Room for an old fashioned childhood, like sandpits, water play, cubby houses,
ponds, making gardens and growing things. Seeing birds, bugs and butterflies,
hearing frogs, owls, and flying foxes at night.

Suddenly retirement looms, we must plan ahead, though our grown children
have not fully formed their plans. Two still live at home and are studying.

If we do not want to live in a 2 bedroom box we must go further afield to have
some semblance of a life we are used to. A little space, room to view, trees,
and space to grow things.

Not as big, not as spacious, scaling down, but I need a creative outlet and a
shed or studio preferably. Less of a hill to climb, less stairs.

So the Blue Mountains beckon, an adventure of new experiences, still some
way off but forays there will let us see the possibilities.

Meanwhile, the house will be spruced up, emptied where we can, and the plans
of our children and our own will come to some fruition.

Mother's Day

Mother's Day was nice this year, morning tea first, then afternoon tea later.

No cooking that day - could get used to that idea!

 A very yummy cake, mascarpone, and a mug of cappucino, 

baby cacti in an abalone shell.

 Rebecca and Chester at Redfish Cafe Gallery, in the back courtyard.

 A short stroll from there, along the waterfront, sparkles on the water. 

 Looking across the bay.

 Driftwood and stones.

 Little boats, and a great climbing rock.

Nice honeycomb rock and shingle.

More Pics

Here are 3 more of my artworks to display on my employment poster.
Old but diverse techniques, and some colour.

Random pic of Bobo The Wunderkittten, always around to be cheeky,
naughty, entertaining or look beautiful.

 This is a stylised technique using gouache paint, and breaking a picture into shades of grey.

This is an ink line sketch using minute detail, and lots of imagination, 

basically displaying many different types of marks.

Gouache paint again, but a bright colour scheme this time. More of a surreal painting.

Preparing to go back to work.

I whittled down work over the last few years. Various reasons, the twins HSC
had to take precedence, and then overlapping the last years of that, my mother
getting repeatedly ill and finally passing away.

Then 18 months of processing the estate of her home and possessions. That
period has passed in intensity, with just  a residue of things to deal with.

Our son left home and settled with his partner. His work is going well. The
girls have settled into year 2 of Uni now. They are doing well with study
and work.

It's time to regroup, think on other things. Train for a new career. Consider
part time work while studying.

Try to promote myself again as an art tutor, because it is the main thing I
know. Here we go again.

Here are some images to go on my poster, letters, resumes, interviews to
organise, who to teach and where and how.

What to show in different techniques: such as pastel, ink and wash, ink line,
fine art and illustration styles.

Commercial Art

Sometimes you need to do artwork that is very commercial illustration,
cartoon or caricature.

These things are designed to be printed in various ways, on Tshirts or
for signage.

Sometimes caricatures are commissioned for special birthdays or occasions.

This is sometimes more of your bread and butter work.

Here are some of my commissions.

 For a scout group TShirt, printed in white on a blue background.

 For a computer repair and IT company.

 A birthday present caricature.

40th birthday caricature, this has photos collaged in.

New Camera

Just a couple of new pics from the new camera.

Focus pretty good, even on a nature shot, colour pretty good.
These pics from our own backyard, cute native visitor, and
produce from the garden as well.

The raised garden beds have worked well this year.