Dogs

The sun's been shining, we've been hanging out at the beach and the skate park, and here are some dogs that were hanging out with us!

Around here...

Fishies...

I want to call these flame trees but I'm sure they have a proper name - anyone? They're gorgeous and such a bright red.

Small collage on wood...

Looking up from our garden last night...

More rain coming - when you can see it on the horizon you know it's time to run home (except Molly casually saunters along - she's too cool to run...)

Grown Up Day

I finally got round to visiting the current exhibition at The Art Gallery of WA - Van Gogh, Dali and Beyond - a visiting exhibition from MOMA.

It was really worth a visit - lots of familiar paintings, and a few new ones. Here are a couple of my favourites:

I loved this painting - 'Schwenk' by Fairfield Porter. I had to wait for about ten minutes until a man with an audio guide moved out of the way... I don't know what his guide was telling him but it took a while!

And Picasso's goat skull sculpture - which just made me laugh really - I love his eyes.

Then I went for a wander around the permanent galleries and these were my favourites down there -

Arlatyite Dreaming by Emily Kam Kngwarreye

Kirrwirri and Kulyakartu by Daniel Walbidi

And my very favourite for their very Perthness - Flatland Fig A, Fig B, Fig C and Fig D by Joanna Lamb

Collage frenzy...

I seem to have my creative mojo back! I hadn't really done any illustration work since we moved to Australia but in the last couple of weeks I've started work on a new range of cards and prints which I hope to have available for sale soon.

This one is just about the joy of living by the sea -

This one is inspired by walking around our eclectic neighbourhood and includes a few of my favourite houses! (Ours is the white rectangular one in the top left)

And this one was inspired by my kitchen shelves!

Postcards or greeting cards - any preferences out there?

What I read in July...

My favourite read this month was...

A story of neighbourly relationships in Newcastle. (The Australian Newcastle..)

I also read, in no particular order -

The Twelve 
Justin Cronin

(Scary)

Peaches for Monsieur Le Cure 
Joanne Harris

(The sequel to Chocolat and The Lollipop Shoes)

The Last Girls
Lee Smith

(Mississippi reunion)

The Camomile Lawn 
Mary Wesley

(Wartime Cornwall)

The Forgotten World 
Mark O'Flynn

(Coal mining in the Blue Mountains)

Cutting, pasting and a little bit of drawing...

I've got myself a part-time job (with a local community arts charity) and losing two days a week from my relaxed dog-walking, tea-drinking, email-checking lifestyle has kickstarted a bit of a creative frenzy.

I've also picked up a bit of freelance design work for another local charity - this is a mock up of the logo I did for their new Pop-Up Shop project.

Think I've just got time to have a cuppa, check my emails and walk the dog before school's out!