the swan lake

I have a thing for swans. They feature in my childhood memories quite a bit. I could possbily write an essay on how weird, amazing and strange all of that is - but instead, here's "the swan lake" 

august birds

August birds... are flying off to somewhere slightly warmer. Not too hot, not too cold... somewhere nice and in between.  New gouache bird work.

August Birds

The Owl and The Inaluxe, Mr. Inaluxe that is

Today mark's two events, the first ever Inaluxe post by Mr. Inaluxe, that's me, Jason. And secondly, we have now been at our new house-business locale, for two months.   The house still needs some work, and our studio space is not complete, yet we thrive and continue.

I've also started work on a new owl painting, which will hopefully grace the pages soon.  Why an owl?

Many years ago Kristina and I wrote a short story with an owl as a character (more on that another day).  When I grew up here there were a series of old dead-end mines to explore.  One large carvern (sadly no longer exists) used to house an owl that looks similar to the one I am painting now. A lot of the old shafts that were scattered across the town have since been dutifully filled in. In other words, what was once a magical wonderland, is now landfill. 

Speaking of local.... Up until my recent knee operation, our afternoon walks with our little dog were an interesting distraction from the more humdrum side of working at home, (although there is much fun to be had from a home studio), a break is great.

The area we live in is on the quiet edge of the semi-industrial side of town. To paint a picture - this is where old turn of the century miners cottages (re-configured into suburban homes) are one block from the last industry on this side of town, which leads into scrub, farmland and bushland. 

In the weeks since we moved, I wandered around a small radius of our local area, sometimes taking a camera to document what is out of our view, but still within very easy walking distance. Most of the following pictures were taken just a few minutes walk from our home.

And lastly, a shot from home:

Now, that's what I call office lighting.  J.

Birds + 3

One of the weirdest things about the creative process is getting side tracked.  Suddenly an idea I have and am totally mad about gets lost in the chaos of everyday, the latest best thing, the newest tick, scratch, itch, and so on. The idea to have a series of 10 birds paintings is one of those that constantly gets put on hold - by my brain! But, the good news is, it's slowly making progress - with a new bird now added to the flock! Meet the stylish jetsetter! That's the red pigeon with our little friends - peach rainbow and aqua bird. 

This is a new pack of three titled (aptly so) Birds 3. Printed (again) on 100% recycled velvet matt, and available in our etsy for worldwide customers - in US dollars, and at inaluxe online for Australian customers in AU dollars.  

three's a crowd

I've started a new series of work - the animal portraits. This has come about through my admiration for Belgian linen (having had some of my art work printed on it recently) and liking how look when they are framed. Here's the first one I did. It's one of my Nest Pattern birds as a giclee on linen, which I then framed in this adorable vintage Italian metal frame I found in an op shop. It's special to me, and I may be inclined to stab anyone that tries to take it from me, but soon... there will be more animal portraits available for sale.  We'll see, who knows.  I get side tracked, and move on... Manic as ever.

birds + blogs + bulbs

Well, if you're a regular visitor to my blog, you may have noticed that every time you came by in the last week, the header keeps changing.... what can I say? I'm going through "header blues" rather than heather blues. (bad joke, and not even funny. so it's a "bad" non-joke really). Ah ha ha ha - still, I'm laughing. Such a sociopath!  The blog needs big work, and for that I have a Graphic Designer in mind... more on that soon! So I will stop molesting my blog html, header, and size of things and just try not to let it all bother me in the meantime. So that's the blog update.

I bought some bulbs. Mostly white, some cream and some blues, and well, that antique blush apricot colour too. I bought them from garden express and I can't wait to plant them.  And last but not least, more bird news.... Some new birds - pigeons infact! One of these sweeties is very lucky to be going onto a blog header for a pretty cool new blog! More on this when it's all ready.

Hope you're all having a great week... xo

new bird

some new work + news soon.

some birds

As requested by Catarina, here are some images from my new vintage bird book.  I love how the birds look rather out of place, or fake due to the colours.  They almost look like they've been cut out and placed in these natural environments! I love vintage books.  My favourite is the 'scarlet tanager' how cool is that bird?!

our little friends

Thank you to my lovely new bird book, here are some weekend paintings. For now, lets call these "our little friends" I hope you're all well, and having a blast!

Seven things + Vintage Bird + Uppercase

I found this wonderful 1972 hard cover pictorial bird encyclopedia last week. I will be getting very cosy with it - asap.  Aside from this, I am going to actually just try and relax this weekend. But! before I go.... as promised, and as part of the Kreative Blog Award I recieved from the awesome Catarina of bichos da matos, here are seven things about me.  I'm sorry I think I suck at this...

I love jazz. I just love, love, love, love, love, love, love, it! There you go. 

I hate wearing gloves. Just hate it. My hands feel hot, and tight:  as if they will self combust. It's terrible. 

My favourite perfumes are Agent Provocateur, Coco Chanel, and Fracas. 

I don't understand G-strings. Sorry, but what the? 

I have never seen anyone wear bright yellow and look good. ha ha ha. True!

I don't read books. Okay, I read, rarely. I can't relax enough to read a book. It's some sort of disease I think.  

My favourite shape at the moment is the triangle.

And now I would like to pass this Kreative Blog award to Carmel, Belinda, Kylie, Kay, Jessica, Susie, and Colleen. You're all lovely. Thanks Catarina, I actually really enjoyed this! xo   Before I go, I have some awesome news! One of my Fox pieces has been accepted for publication in the next Uppercase issue. I can't wait to have it in my hot little hands and see it!  Hope you're all having the best time - and hi Carmel! xo

avoidable catastrophe

The ball wants the bird to move, but the bird will not budge. Not an inch. Any second now - accident!

New Card Design Ordered

Well, a bit of too-ing and fro-ing, but I decided on this design to print up. Titled "when I think of you" it will be available in a postcard format size, and a larger print.  Should be ready in about a week! Then into the shop! 

This is an extension of the previous post.  The first draft for the work had the big bird in it, minus the fox, and well, a few different aspects. I really like the first work, but this revised and finished piece just kind of spoke to me in a slightly different way.  It's hard sometimes to step back from it all, and look at it with fresh eyes - especially when you've been working on a design for days.

I love the fox, and I still love that corny "sea within" part. Now it's just double fun (fox + bird).

a white weekend

I had a very white weekend, as opposed to a wild weekend. I don't think I remember what those are like - feeling so old these days! 

Anyway, back to my white weekend.

I pretty much painted everything in sight that I could find that wasn't white - white.

A hall table that was brown, two frames that were brown, two ornate carved boxes that were brown, and lots of little hand cut rounds from cardboard that were brown.

I think this is due to the fact that I miss snow. And maybe I've been watching too many American Christmas films. There's always snow. Snow on rooftops, trees, people, snow in beards, eyebrows, snow on windowsills, snow snow snow. White all over the place. It's beautiful.

It's a rainy day here, and our house is dark, so taking photos of the frames, boxes, and hall table are out of the question, but here are the little white rounds - with trees, and park benches, and birds... in not so white.  I bought some rubber stamps, and they arrived yesterday.... so finally I had something to do with my little white rounds. I've decided to call these "little worlds" (for now anyway). Until I change my mind.  I don't yet know what I'll do with them. Any ideas you might have would be welcome.

winter wonderland

After much deliberating, I managed to come to an agreement with myself that I quite like this piece, so it is now on its way now to Bec at Blanket Magazine for the calendar submission. I call it Winter Wonderland.  Winners will be notified this Friday the 20th November.  Not long now, but I'm not holding my breath: there's so much talent out there, it's amazing. :) I'll leave you with the birds for now. Off to Bunnings, because when you're an Australian, that's what you do on the weekends! Ha ha ha.

inaluxe postcards!

O M G !

I was so excited when these arrived this morning - I've been waiting and hoping they would turn out well, but as this is the first inaluxe postcard I just didn't know what to expect. And I have to say they are way cool! and it's so nice to see my art work reproduced in a way that looks good, and will hopefully be something people will want to buy for a cheap-as-chips sort of price!

Well see.... ha ha ha.

They're in my etsy store, and my madeit  store.

So excited!

bird in the hand

These little artworks are small enough, they almost fit in your hand. 

A bird in the hand is.... well, it's a very special thing! Unless it decides to go to the toilet on you, which these promise not to do!

I'm slowly adding to my etsy store... they are original little one of a kinds. Buy one, collect more... I think they would look amazing framed in a group - a row, or box or any way you like.  the textures are beautiful, and I'm really loving working with paint and paper at the moment.

nest pattern series

Nest pattern.

I can't get enough of this new series I've just started. It is so much fun - I can't think of the last time I felt so inspired, and had so much fun! The two images above are seperate works. You can buy these in my etsy shop. woo-hoo!

Nest Pattern

september birds

b  i  r  d  s
My bird explorations continue.
The process is interesting (to say the least).

birds

A friend of mine asked me if I'd be interested in doing a logo for her. I was flattered she asked me, and it's taken me some time to get thinking and start working on it. There's something of a bird in the logo, so here are my first explorations of a bird. The logo won't necessarily have a bird in it, but this is my process of working through it.  The first bird is black bird.  A little black bird with an odd and (rather large) beautiful wing. The second bird is red bird.  A red bird in flight, with a voluminous wing span. I like the one above best. But it's just the first day with the birds, so hopefully there'll be something else that tips the balance in terms of favourites.