Apple and Chalk

A small study in progress. Realised that I had put aside this old packet of chalk more than 20 years ago to maybe paint sometime because I liked the blue and white.. It is a very different teaching and writing world now.

Olives

I love the colours changes that olives go through as they ripen, and I love this little pot I brought back from Florence. In viticulture the term veraison is used to name the onset of berry ripening and the colour changes that herald this. I'm not sure if this term can be applied to olives.

Pear Essence

There is something reverent in unwrapping a pear packed in tissue paper to reveal some perfect fruit

Paper Fortunes

As kids we had hours of fun making paper fortune tellers and wrote all sorts of futures for each other. We used to pretend that paper daisies were made of gold and therefore priceless. The real paper fortune that anyone can have is being able to write

Marigolds and Moleskin

I love marigolds with their crinkly petals like Elizabethan collars and their aromatic perfume which makes the nose feel crinkly too. The blue moleskin sketchbook holds some little studies from a trip to Italy. Field notes take you back more intensely than photos

Starting a new study 'Fresh Figs'

It was market Sunday in Mildura today, and I could not resist the colourful plate of figs, to paint of course. It took the afternoon to lay down the foundational layer for a study.

The fig tree was regarded as sacred by many people. The ancient Hebrews looked upon the fig tree as a symbol of peace and plenty. Mohammed’s followers called it the "Tree of Heaven." One of them was Buddha’s famous banyan. Power and life, the axis of the world, inhabited by genies, they stood for knowledge acquired by meditation.

Figs symbolise abundance and initiation. The many seeds in the fig are supposed to signify unity and the universality of true understanding, knowledge, and sometimes faith.