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| From the Border Mail newspaper - I am bringing up the rear! |
I went to Tumut for Easter and thoroughly enjoyed the caravan park atmosphere, and as luck would have it, it was right next door to their wetlands where I went every day to do a little birdwatching. I got up close and personal with one of my most elusive birds - the White Throated Gerygone (which is actually a little yellow bird with a grey back and a white bib under its beak) which is not native to my area but I have seen it fleetingly at the coast before - up the top of HUGE gum trees or heard its beautiful tinkling voice. But at the wetlands it was down low and leading me on through the trees and shrubs and each day I got another look. I even got some photos with my poor little camera, which were not great, but at least I can kind of see the bird. There were hoards of Corellas and Cockatoos at the site too - roosting at night, and the din made it feel all that more Australian. I really enjoyed the landscapes and went to Blowering Dam on a day which was closed in a foggy at first, and then opened up to sunny and clear.
I have starting doing a little running in the mornings, and walking whenever I can. I think recording my active time is helping to urge me on. I am in the top 5 at work, which I am a little surprised over, as there are lots more very fit people at work than me.
My painting is going extremely well and I sold two paintings at the end of March/early April. A sheep portrait and a flower painting. I have sold more paintings now than Van Gogh. I have also completed a painting for a charity auction in July - copy or use Van Gogh paintings for inspiration. I chose Starry Night - but I turned a local downtown scene into my starry starry night. Its not a big painting, but I spent a fair bit of time on it - blasted modeling paste - should really have put a colour into that rather than left it white - took me forever to get into all the cracks with paint!. Now the art group want to use it in the advertising! Crikey!
I have so many things I want to paint but so little time! I try and do a bit of painting each night and then let fly on the weekend. I went back out and did some painting outdoors again, but not as successful as last time. I used paper instead of canvas and I think that was a problem. I really like painting on canvas with acrylics. I also got some paintings of mine framed for the first time in 20 years. So much has changed. They can whip the canvas off the canvas and stick it onto a board to enable framing without canvas protruding!
I have made a list of things I want to paint, so when I am in the mood, I can just go-go-go.
