surgery

Is boring.
I mean, doing the surgery is probably very interesting. I imagine they have to train for many years and decide what they want to specialize in and then there’d be many fascinating cases and the human body is so interesting. But then, even then, I’d imagine that that would become a little humm drumm too.
But here I am, in bed, bored AF but healing nicely. Today is the first day I have woken up and not been aching or stinging. I know I got to take it slow and easy, but it’s time to get the hell out of bed and start moving. Thank goodness..

The day after, when I was like oh hey I feel fine and thought I could just keep going and I was very wrong..

Kidlet held my hand, cuddled me, made me fruit salad and drew me this game to keep me entertained.

I felt pretty messed up and some friends took Kiddo for a bush walk and I like slept ALL DAY.. ( thank you dear, dear friends for everything .. )

She did some observational drawing – I love, love, love these little mushrooms.


And so, it is done. I did a bunch of preparation work before this so now I can slowly start getting back to it. It is hard to put things down when I am inspired, and it is hard to surrender to the body and it’s needing to heal. But I did, it is done. Thank you family and friends for being so loving and kind and helping me.

Drawing together

Ah, school holidays.
Movie, draw, draw, movie, movie, draw, draw, eat, wee, sleep…. Kidlet did hang out the washing without being asked and weeded some of the garden. I felt like these holidays were a huge abyss opening up in front of us all and now I can see the end of it already so quick sticks gotta make the most of it… And so, here are some of the drawings we have been doing together:

Movie watching.

I love how there is an arrow used to demonstrate that Kitty has transformed into a Pegasus. Super hero Kidelt is like “Let’s Save the World!” and casual-kitty-now-Pegasus still has a meh attitude of a cat “Okay”.. haha.. Okay. LOVE it.

NYE was SO BORING. But that’s ok. Just a night, I drew my new jug, it’s blue.
The jar with the dying flowers was one of about four at the time. Kidet will often come inside announcing “MUMMY, I HAVE PICKED YOU SOME FLOWERS!” and her fist will be full of various weeds. I will fill a jar with water and it’ll sit about the house until they have wilted and the water is putrid. But I never deny them. I do ask her not to pick flowers too much though, there’s got to be something left for the bees.

Snowman drawing, I assume it’s because we are still watching all the terrible Christmas themed movies just to really get it out of our systems.

Sleepy face, we have been very active despite me just telling you about all the movies we have been watching. But I don’t have to share everything 😉

This just in – found my wedding ring. PHEW.

Drawings from the sketchbook, drawing on the drawing board

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Quick drawing I did of a beautiful teddy bear my Grandmother made before I left Brisbane last week.

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Blind contour line drawing of Jeanette Winterson when I saw her a couple of weeks back.

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Growing my hair out, sort of like a hair helmet at the moment! I am thrilled about it, as you can see 😉

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Quick sketch I did at the dinner table while waiting for the vegan red beans and rice to cook down.. Kidelt drew next to me.

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Naked!

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More naked!

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Today I found a wooden toy phone for $1, it’s pretty cool and kidelt loves it.

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This is a very large drawing I have been making a start on this week.. It is so hard but I am really happy with how it is going/ growing.

Quick drawing, walnuts

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While I am baking a walnut and banana loaf ( 45 minutes ) and wait for it to cool ( 10 minutes ) I do the above drawing. I say to my husband I am so tired and he says but you’re drawing walnuts and I say I have to and he giggles at me.

My neighbour left a box of them on my doorstep the other day as a thank you. How much joy they have brought into our house. Husband is happily munching on them, Kidlet doesn’t like the taste but she loves to open them up and marvels at the insides, she says they look like brains. We’re all cracking them out of their hard shells and sorting them so I can bake the loaf. Even the kitten is playing with part of a shell. So much joy.

Thank you BB.

Quick drawing at bedtime

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Routine, routine, routine. Most of the time it grounds me, sometimes it fuels me and other times it just crushes me. Yesterday eve I thought poo you routine, and kidlet and I sat at our dinner table drawing together. She numbers up to forty, me putting the finishing touches on my sketch of Civic Hall. I had started it out in the rain, with my hands going numb.

When I came in to cuddle her later on she said I like your drawing mummy. I’m still glowing.

Sketches, Clunes Bookstown

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This weekend I saw April out and May in at Clunes booktown. Clunes is a town I like to visit regularly because it is *so* beautiful, and book town is something I didn’t get to experience until last year and then only very briefly.

I went to many things. The launch of Goldfields and the Gothic – edited and compiled by David Waldron, Writing Goldfields History, Mad Poet’s Tea Party, Ordinary Places with Cate Kennedy chaired by Michael Williams, ( This was the absolute highlight of the whole festival, Michael and Cate were warm and generous ) The Mothers with Rod Jones chaired by Jo Case – ( I purchased the book after this and have read quite a lot of it already, what a truly touching talk and book ) and finally Infidelity, Open Marriage and Journeys Through Time and Place.
That’s incredible for $10 over two days.

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bclballaratcreswick_lily_mae_martin Blind continuous line drawing on the train from Ballarat to Creswick

pen_lily_mae_martin The Empty Chair“Since the 1980s PEN International has used the Empty Chair at events to symbolise a writer who could not be present because they were imprisoned, detained, disappeared, threatened or killed. The Empty Chair often represents a specific case, rather than all writers at risk, and regularly takes centre stage at such venues as the Melbourne Writers’ Festival.”

book_earrings_lily_mae_martin Book earrings!

home_lily_mae_martin I had a magical, meaningful weekend and I am so grateful for Clunes Booktown and the amazing people who made it happen. Thank you.

One Hour Drawings

salt_pepper_kitties_lily_mae_martin Grandma’s salt and pepper kitties

Over the last week I have been back in my studio, I begun a drawing that I think will take me about three months to complete. It’s new and something I have wanted to explore for a while, yet wasn’t ready – until now. Also this week I pushed myself back into drawing from life. I have slacked off a bit with that. So I set myself one hour for each of these drawings, and pushed myself to get as much as I could on the page to a timer.

tetris_kitchen_lily_mae_martin Tetris Kitchen

elephant_ear_lily_mae_martin Elephant ears plant

table_stuff_lily_mae_martin Table Stuff

phallic_banana_lily_mae_martin Phallic Banana

Seriously – how phallic is it!
see

nose_dive_lily_mae_martin Nose Dive

The last one is a drawing of a bird that I found this morning. I was walking past a hospital and saw something fall to the ground from my peripheral – it made a noise when it landed that made me turn. I thought it dead but when I looked closer I saw it’s tiny body breathing, little black eyes blinking at me. So I called wildlife rescue and while giving my location details, so a rescuer could come and collect the bird, it opened it’s beak up super wide and then it just stopped. Last breath. It blinked no more. So I told the lady on the other end and she asked that I could at least move it so people wouldn’t step on it, which I did. And then I drew it. What a strange thing to witness but at least I was there in it’s final moments so it didn’t get stepped on.