Botanical Gardens

Botanical gardens

 

It’s before dawn and I’m up doing admin stuff so when I get Kidelt off to her day of school I can just draw. There is always a lot to do, and it’s tricky trying to do many things well. I’ve really been trying to step out of my bubble and be part of things but I’m also aware that outside of family and art I have little to no time left. It won’t always be like this, but it is how it is at this point.

Recenely I recieved a phone call from an artist I connected with over instagram many years ago. It blew me away as I didn’t relaize how much I needed that chat. She sparked the fire in my belly – in regards to making art and you know having to do things a little differently because we are both mothers but hey, we can make it happen. She was full of ideas and sounded so enthusiastic – it caught on.

Thank you Jasmine, you are a true treasure!

I’ve been working in my studio on a project I can’t write about or share with you at the moment, but that’s ok. It’s nice to have focus and to do things a little differently. So you’ll just have to put up with the drawings I do of my daughter for now. There’s quite a collection. She’s turning nine this year. We’re about to head off on a family holiday so this space will be quite until mid June.

Thanks for reading and all of your support.

 

Inky Dinks

Again I have been overthinking social media and worrying about what I post and trying to only put up finished works etc. But that’s not true to an artists practice, for every decent drawing there’s a heck of a lot of sketches or smaller drawings that may not be as refined. Look it’s school holidays and that means I get to be playful with things rather than doing the same thing everyday.

Shadow Poppet 

 

Me: “Kiddo you can’t leave that there, please take it off..” Kiddo: “But it’s a kitty, and I made it” Me: “It’s slime and it’s on the coffee table. Clean it up. Now.” Kiddo : “OK then, but can you draw it?” Me:

 

 

Splotch Kitty 

 

Sir Boots

 

Ink Splotch Swans

 

Self

 

Daughter

 

Currawong / Magpie 

 

Weekend drawing that failed 

 

Monstera Deliciosa that was my father in laws.

 

So that’s a lot but not all. 🙂

More soon!

Little drawings from lately.

I haven’t been able to write in a long time, so I’m just going to post my drawings. There’s a lot I haven’t shared, but at the moment, as long as I am making – that’s my priority.

I know stories with the drawings is lovely, details and describtions and full blog posts are ideal. I just cannot do it all. Marketing and networking, grant writing and researching ( reading, writing – why are you so hard ) There are only so many hours in the day, week, months and years. Lately I have been pretty proud of how prolific I am in my sketching, drawing and painting. And doing it with my kid too. Wow eight year olds are bloody fantastic!

 


Lake Wendouree, there are many birds to watch and visit and enjoy.

Ballarat, Victoria

Enviromental distruction from 100+ years ago.

Goldfields, Western Victoria

” This is our favourite tree” – Botanical Gardens, Ballarat

 

( Always ) Drawing unicorns – a gift for a special friend.

 

Sleeping through Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.

 

 

Whee

It’s amazing how powerful the story we tell ourselves is.

I’ve always thought myself to be limited in terms of juggling family and art, and in someways I am; the structure of  Australian arts is not family friendlly .. That’s a whole other post I could write, I don’t really want to today, I want to focus on the positive 🙂

Over this last month I have pushed myself to get up very early and begin work. 5/ 5:30AM. I go to my studio and am scratching away with the inks or pushing paint around a board until the sun comes up and the birds are awake. I have completed three of my large drawings in under one month and finished four small paintings. I’ve still had some great times with Kidlet and friends. The house is a little messier than usual but hey – that’s summer holidays and life with a kid who is endlessly creating.

I am really proud of a lot of the work I have created. It’s dark, a little wild, silly, technically challenging. I am really proud of myself.

So hopefully I’ll have some news soon.

Whee

 

5AM period pain and drawing

That title just about sums up my week so far. A lot of the unexpected keeps on happening and my body clock is all out of whack – daylight savings! Title of this post courtesy of waking up at 5AM in a lot of pain, with the cat jumping on my face and me finding off the drawing above.

I’m working on bigger drawings but needed a little break from them so decided to do a little series like some of Dürer’s hand studies. He is a favourite artist of mine, I thought of two things while researching him recently.

1.) In the past it was perfectly acceptable for an artist to draw, etch, paint, sculpt, woodwork etc while these days I feel the pressure to do ONE or the OTHER.

2.) MASTER artist is definitely a word reserved for male artists.

Yesterday I had a very big day in Melbourne looking at a lot of art. I really want to write about that but my thoughts are still formulating also I am running out of time as today is also a big day and then Friday I will DO NOTHING.

 

Hand, study drawing

Hand study 
By Lily Mae Martin
18x25cm
Ink on cotton paper
2018

 

I’ve identified an issue in my approach to drawing so I’ve been working on some little drawings to try and train myself out of it.

It’s super important to me to tweak my technical approach – I want to be better, keep getting better.

I feel I have a tendency to over render, which works with some things but not everything. It’s also taking up time that I could be doing much moer useful things in the works. So this little drawing is a success to me. It’s technically a study as it is a plan for a larger work, but I think it’s still an accomplished drawing in its own right. My plan is to send it down to Melbourne with the other small drawings I have made in a couple of weeks.

Just going to have a look at it again. Proud. Now onto the other work 🙂