Murmuration

Ceramic plaque with Sparrows using scraffito technique

 

HI folks,

I just started working on these wall plaques using a scraffito technique where you scratch away to reveal the white areas (grey in the picture til they are fired). These are inspired by the wall art I saw in Santorini Greece at the Ancient site of Akrotiri. The sparrows were a part of wall murals uncovered by Archeaologists. These works will be appearing at SALA Festival in South Australia in August at The Forge Creative Warehouse.

A murmuration is a display by a group of birds at dusk as part of a survival technique for nesting. It can be quite amazing to watch. I’m planning to do a wall full of these plaques grouped together, hence the title…plus its a cool word to say.

Love and Art
Sarah-Jane

Kid’s school holiday art

Portrait with freckles by Isabella aged 5

Portrait by Mitch aged 5

Portrait by child aged 8

Portrait by Kayla aged 5

 

Well, it’s been a couple of weeks since the first school holidays this year and I was lucky enough to by employed by a number of different councils to run school holiday programs for kids. These works were done at Trott Park, south of Adelaide in a ‘pop-up’ art space run by Marion Council.

I have done a similar kind of thing before with children where we teach a bit of anatomy of the face and use colour to show emotion.

It’s amazing the response you get from kids with this exercise and I really love the results.

Love and Art
Sarah-Jane

 

More girls of the world

Girls of the world

Inpired by ‘Frida’

Eleni

Kumiko

??? Not sure what to name this girl, any suggestions??

Frederique

Princess

Nisha

???Not sure what to name this girl either, any suggestions?

Jelena

Howdy folks,

I’ve been doing a bit of sketching lately and am obsessed with all things Mexican and of course Frida Kahlo. I started off drawing this cute little version of a Mexican girl inspired by Frida wearing a sombrero and then got the idea of doing a whole lot of sketches of girls of the world. I used to have a collection of dolls of the world when I was a kid and I loved them. I have researched quite a bit online and with friends and family about traditional clothing of different cultures. I’ve been inspired by the different nationalities of friends and family. I’ve named these drawings after the friend or family member that inspired it.
Love and Art
Sarah-Jane

How to make a funky miniature garden and cure depression

My good friend and fellow blogger Ilianthe Kalloniatis

Some ingredients needed for this project

Pot painting in progress

Recipe to Cure depression:

Ingredients:
one good friend who is a fellow crafter (see above)
numerous cups of tea
some cute little teracotta pots
some paint and modge podge
bad t.v shows on home improvement
one beautiful long afternoon.

Method:

1. Go to your friends house, drink a cup of tea. Do some outdoor gardening in the overgrown front yard, prune some plants, have another cup of tea. Talk lots.
2. Go to a local cafe and have lunch. Talk some more.
3. Drive to the local secret plant pot shop.
4. Interact with the very lazy shop guy who gives you are really good bargain.
5. Go back to your friends place and have another cup of tea.
6. Put on the T.V. to a home decorating show, craft show or gardening show.
7. Break out the modge podge and coat the inside of the pots. You can also use watered down PVA or wood glue. This stops the pot from being so porous and it will hold water better.
8. Mix up some funky colours. Talk some more with your friend.
9. Undercoat in white acrylic or gesso first for brighter colours.
10. Go crazy painting patterns, designs and colours on your pots. Leave to dry.
11. Spray with outdoor varnish.

Voila!! depression overcome and you have some cute pots ready for planting. I’ll post how to plant up the pots in the next post. Thanks to Illy ( http://yarn-bombing.com/)and to my friend Branwen for the inspiration for the layout for this post)

Love and art
Sarah-Jane

Istanbul Graffiti

Turkish Graffitti

Turkish Graffiti

Protest Graffiti Istanbul

Here is some fab graffiti from my recent trip to Istanbul. I loved Istanbul!! Such a fabulous place, so cosmopolitan, cultural, creative and interesting.

I love the hilarity of the ‘Yo Ahmed’ wall, but my favourite is the Istanbul fists. You may have heard about recent protests in Istanbul against the government there and I spoke to many people who were protesting a wide range of concerns, at the core of which were issues of freedom of the press, freedom of expression, freedom of assembly, and the government’s encroachment on Turkey’s secularism.
Art is often a method for expression and commenting on the social issues of the day and graffiti particularly, is often used in this way. The U.K artist Banksy springs to mind as one of the most well known of this kind of work.
If you want to know more about the Turkish protests there is much to read on the internet about this issue which despite a lack of International media coverage is continuing.
Love and Art
Sarah-Jane

Sketching my journey- part 1

One of the many churches in Mykonos, Greece.

Mykonos, Greece. Restaurant on the beach at Megali Ammo beach

View of the church and town hall from my room in Kampos, Ikaria

View of Armenistis church and buildings from a very tasty Greek sweet shop in Armenistis, Ikaria, Greece

Cafe in the Hora, Amorgos.

View from my room in the Hora, Amorgos.

Here are some little gems from my travel sketchbook. These are a selection from Greece of views, buildings and landscapes. Its not really my preferred subject matter but when you are surrounded by such amazing and stunning views everywhere you just can’t help yourself!
These are pencil sketches with watercolours just 10x14cm in a little sketchbook given to me by my friend Kim-perfect for travel. Not sure what I will do with these little sketches but now it’s time to reflect and ponder for a while and digest everything I’ve seen. Any suggestions?
Love and art
Sarah-Jane

Painting Greece

Priest portrait (oil on canvas) bought from a local artist near Acropolis, Greece.

Water colour reprint bought in Mykonos, Greece from Basso Ziaka. Painting done by her brother but not sure of his first name.

Same artist as above.

Print of original work bought in Oia,Santorini, Greece.

Grecian Travels

Hi folks,
I’m here in GREECE!! Woo hoo!! I’ve seen so much interesting and amazing stuff to blog about that I have been overwhelmed. It’s hard to pick just one thing to write about. I’ve been drawing in my little notebook and taking lots of photos.
For this post I thought I would show you some of my little sketches from my notebook which cover a number of themes and subjects areas, people, places and things. That way, you get a broad smorgasbord of what I have been doing, seeing and experiencing.

The sketch of the red vase is of a ‘loutrophoros’ which is a ritual object used for bathing prior to getting married. There were lots of these in the New Acropolis Museum. Each one has a story drawn on to the side of it to do with the wedding. Kind of like a comic book format in rows with a series of images. The more beautiful and decorative they were the more wealthy the bride and groom. These were from around about 500 BC!! Wow! Pretty amazing.
The image of a Japanese/American tourist I saw on the boat is of an actual person on the ferry to Santorini. Now I know I’m a tourist too but if there ever was a uniform for the tourist this guy had it all!!
The lady with the leopard print thongs worn with stockings also was pretty interesting!

I have taken to drawing the view from our hotel windows and there is one abovenfrom our Santorini hotel. Santorini is actually a volcanic island and this view is of the volcano centre.
At the time of writing this post I am on the island of Amorgos. There is a sketch from our room window here above too. It is very different to Santorini and a lot less touristy. The view from our window here is of rocky mountains and ancient windmills. We have been noting the daily goings on from our window. The donkey in the paddock below has been providing much amusement through it’s actions and the incredible sound it makes.
Well I think that’s it for the moment.
Love and Art
Sarah-Jane

Drawing from Life

Life drawing of Nadia by Bill

Angelo hard at work on his second drawing

Life painting by Sara

Life drawing by Branwen

My first life drawing of the day

Angelo’s first drawing of the day

My third drawing of the day

Hi folks,

These drawings and painting are from my Active Art Studios Life Drawing day. I have a little art school here in Adelaide and the children’s work I have posted so far has been kids from Term Art Classes I run. This work is from a group of adults that come regularly and draw from the figure.

This was a full day of drawing starting at 10am and finishing at 5pm. Bill and Sara’s works (above) took the whole day to complete. The rest of us did two or three drawings.

It’s really great and really relaxing doing a whole day of drawing. The day goes so fast!!!

Being the teacher or tutor I am usually too busy to actually draw but with this smaller group I managed to knock out three pretty decent drawings so I was quite happy!!

Nadia, our model did a fabulous job of holding the same pose for the whole day (broken up into 20minute blocks  with stretch breaks in between).

We were discussing in the session a TV show that I saw a couple of days ago which was about how to make quick extra cash. The final tip was to be a life drawing model!! Some people think all it takes is to stand their naked. Let me tell you it takes a LOT MORE than that to be a GOOD life model. Have you ever tried to stand completely still in the same position for 20 minutes?? Try it and you will see!

Love and Art

Sarah-Jane