July is the very best month of the year – it is the birth month of our incredible kid. Born overseas she was our little summer baby, now back on the other side of the side of the world birthdays are always in the depth of winter.

It is amazing to see young people become who they are. This generation is smart, funny and incredibly creative. Their self-awareness and empathy are something my and previous generations unfortunately lack but are also growing into.

Happy birthday month amazing young human. We are all very proud of you and you are always loved and supported by your people.

(Sketch by kiddo).

Where to begin, you just begin.

We are halfway through 2025, and I still don’t feel as though I have caught my breath from 2024, or the year prior, or the one before that. What I do feel, apart from winter has definitely set in (please more rain), is content. Life is a lot, all the time, and will keep being as it is but I am afloat and yes, I ate yoghurt out of a tub with a fork yesterday (ineffective) but the bills are paid, there’s a roof over my head, and I have been drawing and filling my life and time up with good people and animals and art.

I also now can really SEE. Literally. I was drawing at my drawing desk a few months ago and finally tuned into the discomfort. Usually, I’ll explore discomfort from an emotional / psychological point of view but then it dawned on me – maybe it is just my eyes? I visited an eye doctor and yes, yes, it is my eyes. When I put my glasses on to read and look at my drawings well, it has changed everything. I’ve been back to spending long shifts on making art however it’s still slow going because I decided stippling about a hundred or so orchids was a fine idea..

The success of this choice in drawing is still pending – after months and months of work.

I am happy to have finally written something here. The artwork grows slower these days, but I do think it is also about discernment and craft rather than being lazy and unfocused. I still want to make more than I do, and I will. I only just got my glasses and plus it is comic con this weekend ( I am hand sewing costumes..). Looking through some amazing art books last week it occurred to me that no artist will ever feel like they have made enough work. Even over an entire lifetime.

Well, that’s an update for you and for me. I won’t make promises to write again too soon because I seem to have made that promise and not kept it time and time again. But I am still drawing, so there is hope.

Take in some sky and pat an animal.

There is something about black cats. When my daughter was little, she would get indignant about how people would say that black cats are bad luck. “That is rude! They are good luck!” She has always wanted one and recently this little one came into our lives. He was the smallest in the litter, his favourite place to sleep is in my daughters (very long) hair.

When I am home, I can hear the galloping of a tiny little kitten going from one end of the house to the other.

Is this thing on? Hello, it’s been ages. My website crashed and while there are many, many learning resources online on how to do website things – my brain says no. So, I have a very excellent human helping me out to get this back on track.

This year flew, I am sure I say that every year. Someone said we have like two more pays before Christmas. DON’T SAY THAT TO ME I AM NOT READY.

Art is as slow as it needs to go at the moment and my scanner died a premature death (bloody built in obsolesce) but I have an amazing babes scanner to use so I will get to that in time.

SEE YOU SOON

This month has been very special with my daughter’s birthday – she is well into her teens now. I scored a manga series that has just been translated to English but not available in Oz yet. She read two out of the 19 in less than 24hours of getting them 😀

We went to the big smoke and had Okonomiyaki and stayed in a sort of OK hotel and watched British Bake Off.

Happy Cake month kiddo x

I was very lucky to see Reuben Kaye perform last night just before he heads back to the UK for a while. What a show!

REUBEN KAYE 

I had the very fun opportunity to sketch REAL cats and dogs at the National Gallery of Victoria this week for the announcement of the Cats & Dogs exhibition opening November 1st.

Info here: LINK

This is me drawing Poppy, she looks like the kitty in the Grace Cossington Smith’s Quaker Girl painting in the background. My face says how happy I am:

I did see some of the news footage for this and I have Very Serious Concentration Face on which is very stern but that’s me in the zone.

Here’s one with all the good bois and girls:

There’s Floyd, Jess, Abbey, GG, Choffee and Teddy.

Thank you for the opportunity NGV it is a career highlight!

While I am meant to be working on some other things I procrastinated with drawing this gorgeous pup friend. I have no regrets 😛