Nightshade

It's so cold in the country - so much colder than the city, but I do love it. There's a certain freshness in the air, and that smell of a wet and decomposing autumn.  The gum trees look beautiful in the morning with the dappled sunshine coming through, and it looks like most of our trees have buds - the promise of Spring for sure! I can't wait to see if any are flowering.... I'm totally in love here.  Jase and I have been busy pulling apart our kitchen. It's rewarding learning, and wonderful to see the slow, but sure transformation. The other day I dug this lamp out of our studio (amongst the many still unpacked items) and it now resides on our fridge in the kitchen. Such a wonderful additional light! It's definately my favourite corner of the house right now. 

And the play with the new symbols continues. This is a bit of an extension in some ways.... It's called "Nightshade" and the title is courtesy of the rather ace Mr Jase! (ha! that rhymes - sorry).  I imagine it larger than life printed as a giclee on linen. Might have to get me one of those!  More later in the week-  we hope you're all having fun. xo

symbols continued

And here's one more work (for now) in the symbols range. Not sure which I like better - the first version of "echo chamber of commerce" (see post below) or this version of it.  In other news? We got our first water bill today. We nearly passed out when we saw the amount. It costs a good five times more in the country compared to the city.  Apparently Grampians Water tell me this is what the Government say they can charge, so they do, and apparently it's cheaper in the city because there are more people in the city.  I'm beginning to understand (first hand) some of the challenges people in the country face. On that note, I'm off to have a cup of tea. Although buying a bottle of coke would be cheaper! 

symbols (for organisations that should've existed)

From my last post you can see I've been busy with new shapes, and pattern.  Jason said they look like "symbols for organisations that should've existed..." and I instantly saw what he meant by that. So much so, it has inspired a new series of work, titled just that " symbols for organisations that should've existed."  within this series each work will be an organisation... like the two below - first of many draft ideas, until we decide which ones will make the final cut!  It's all very fun working on these.

This one is titled "the midnight lovers" It's an Association set up for people who feel compelled to engage in extra marital affairs. Ha! well, ok, maybe not that, but it is titled "the midnight lovers" what happens in this association is probably more like listening to jazz wearing lots of black, smoking like it's going out of style - think 1950's 1960's. For fine lovers all over.... midnight lovers!

This one it titled "echo chamber (of commerce)" where there's a whole lot of yibber yabber, without much actually getting completed due to the overwhelming echo of everyone speaking over each other. So many smart people, who largely lack in the listening department. Ha!  

These are the first two to go in the set to whittle down. We are thinking postcards, with a few making it into print format. Hope you're all having a blast of a time! We are working on the house today. Pulling down some old exterior plastic roller blinds, and hopefully planting some more of the garden. xo later dudes (and dudettes).

shape

Not much to say right now, but here are some hand painted gouache patterns I worked on yesterday (as well as my own cross hatch background - that was fab fun!) which all need some work, and some sort of design process, placement etc. I've thrown them together in a pretty much haphazard fashion for now - it's nice not to be precious! Hope you're having a great weekend.