The Early Days

As promised, a picture at last. I will briefly focus on the early days of my art and the works I created from things around my world that brought me joy. 

First of all, I love birds, especially little birds, like this fairy wren. They are fascinating and lovely and brighten my day. I love nothing more than the little visitors I get in my back courtyard, especially when the males are in their brilliant breeding plumage. 

I also love rambling country gardens, vast fields, old country fences and weathered wood.

This picture was done very simply and in stages. Collage is one of my favourite ways to create. 

Using cheap coloured pencils from the supermarket, I started with the bird as a solo figure. Then I found a photo of a weathered old fence post with barbed wire, which I just had to incorporate in a scene with some of my favourite, simple flowers- Geraniums and Black Eyed Susan's. When each piece was finished- bird, fence, barbed wire, flowers, I then carefully cut each section out and pieced it together. I remember using an actual razor's blade for some of this process- the thin, flexible blade helps get the fine detail cut out without damage to the paper. The slow, laborious effort is actually part of what I enjoy the most :)

With the cut outs, I am able to piece the picture together and fill in any gaps with more drawings if needed, such as extra leaves, flowers etc. In this case, I opted to fill the background with sponged mottled greens over a lime/yellow background, creating the illusion of a field, and allowing the sharper, detailed foreground to stand out.

I also chose to shade the spaces between the lower flowers black to further allow them to stand out. Though not visible in this picture, the leaves spilled over a drawn, thin gold inner frame, and the black extended under each piece as a shadow. With a white background before the outer frame, which was yellow with a darker painted inner groove, matching the Black Eyed Susan's perfectly, the picture looked stunning.

I held onto this work for a few years before selling it a decade ago at the Banana Festival Art Show at Murwillumbah for $300. To date, it is one of my favourite pieces :)

There, art work number one is done! More to come guys :)