Celeste Goulding

No 22 He Gave Her a Rose + No 23 The Perfume Maker

2011-12-08T13:15:00.000+11:00

Two paintings, No 22 He Gave Her a Rose and No 23 The Perfume Maker.

I decided to do something a little bit different this time and create a pair of paintings.

No 22 - In the picture at the top, we see a lady in her home who has received a rose, whilst through the gate we see a man driving away in a little white car.

No 23 - In the second picture, we see a man in his rose garden tending the flowers. Inside his house we see baskets of rose petals and perfume bottles on the shelf, whilst through the gate we see through the garden archway, the front of a little white car. He is the man who gave the lady the rose.

I've used quite a bit more gouache than usual, hence the brighter colours. I used to use gouache exclusively for the first 20 years that I painted before I switched to watercolour but these days I find myself using more and more gouache. I suppose it's a sort of old friend. Some of the gouache is laid down quite thickly in these two paintings, making the surface a bit rough and textured. The gouache has mainly been used on the sections depicting building walls.

The two paintings have been created as a pair. Both paintings have the same dimensions with a figure on the right, an architectural feature on the left and a garden in the middle. Both paintings feature roses and cats.

These two paintings have been designed for something special but I shall tell you about all that in a few months when things are further down the track! Super secret shhhh! :)

Interview - Tea With Celeste

2011-11-06T10:30:00.002+11:00

In October, I was invited to talk about my work at a virtual tea party with the wonderful English artist Valerie Greeley, whose work I have admired for more than 20 years. You can find the interview here at
http://acornmoon.blogspot.com/2011/10/tea-with-celeste.html?spref=fb
and while you are there please do take a look around at Valerie's wonderful artwork and blog :)

No.21 They Waited In The Blue Room

2011-10-19T09:23:00.000+11:00

Here is the painting I finished last week. It's called They Waited In The Blue Room. It took almost a month to paint and is the 21st painting in the current series which I am working on. The picture shows a woman and a cat seated in a window seat. The walls are tiled in blues and greens with various pictures - each tile is different. The woman looks out the window, out to sea where there is a sailing ship anchored. In her hand is a golden locket with an anchor on it.

The lady's body was drawn from myself in the mirror. The cat is my cat Daisy, who is my companion as I work, she follows me around the house and is always at my side. Daisy modelled very sweetly for me, she sat up straight and didn't move until I had finished drawing and taking photos. I wonder if she knew? Many items in the tiles are things from my home. The lady's dress pattern is based upon a traditional Kashmiri (India) papier mache pattern. The ship is based upon the Hindostan 1795, an East India Company ship that sailed between China and England with Tea. The locket in the lady's hand is an inscribed mourning locket which I own, dated 1862. The birds at the top of the window are the Indian Roller on the left and the Velvet Fronted Nut Hatch on the right.

A lot of my friends seem to like this painting. Some people say that it is my best to date. I'm quite pleased with how it turned out. I'm glad that people like this painting ...I suppose that might be because the structure is simpler than most of my paintings, less busy, as is the colour pallette. Also, I guess that a lot of people feel more comfortable with primary colours - blue, red, yellow.

The tiles were torture to paint! Details. I don't think I shall be painting tiles again in the near future, hehe! I rather like the way the birds turned out and the window shape, as well as the ship.

Finding Inspiration in Blue and White

2011-10-18T13:25:00.000+11:00

I've been wanting to do a painting featuring blue and white for many months. It's an idea which has been bubbling in the back of my mind for years, ever since I visited City Palace in Udaipur, Rajasthan, India in 2003 with my sisters. But even before that, my mother had two English dinner sets which were blue and white. My sister also has a dinner set in blue and white, hers from Vietnam. So I suppose that a love for blue and white has been with me for a long time.

Other thoughts about blue and white came in 2009, when I did an online art theory course with Oxford University called Islamic Art and Architecture. One of the things that we looked at in the course was the spread of Chinese blue and white pottery throughout the Moghul Empire by Genghis Khan. We looked at the way the Dutch created blue and white Delft pottery to imitate Chinese pottery. We also learnt about the materials used to create the blue glazes, Turquoise, Lapis Lazuli, Cobalt, Manganese, Indigo - names that I have seen for years on paint tubes but had little understanding of until that point.

And so I have found that I seem to have acquired a lot of blue and white things in my home: Spode plates and mugs, Delft tiles, Sheridan sheets, tiles from Jaipur, Chinese calligraphy brushes, jewellery, cushions and, well, all sorts of things ...not to mention the violets, plumbago, agapanthas and Jacaranda tree in the garden. It seems that blue and white are a part of my life.

And so I decided to create a painting celebrating blue and white...

Visiting an old friend

2011-10-14T17:33:00.000+11:00

Do you ever revisit old paintings or drawings? I do. The painting on the left, is one that I did in 2002 called Crystal Ball. On the right is my new creation which I finished just yesterday (October 2011).
I didn't set out to recreate the first painting, or do a version of it, I just did it subconsciously. I suppose that there are certain forms which we feel are "just right". Of course, it's not exactly the same but both paintings have a lady sitting in a window with a cat and the colours are similar but reversed. It's interesting to see how my work has changed in the last 9 years - there is still that element of stillness but I've fallen in love with detail, that much is clear. And I've learned to draw cats! :)

No.20 Visit From A Puppet

2011-08-29T14:46:00.001+10:00

Story: A giant puppet, operated by three men in a tree, dances to the beat of a drum. There is a yellow paisley house in the middle of the picture, in the colours of mango, orange, cumin, cardamom, coriander, turmeric and saffron. The lady of the house leaves her slippers by the lotus pool and claps her hands to the beat of the drum whilst her daughter watches from the window above. They are entranced by the puppet. A boy on the house roof throws flowers of blessing onto the visitors, while Richard Parker, a tiger, sees a flying fish leap out of a bush.

This was one of the most difficult paintings that I have done. I struggled the whole way, from concept to finish, particularly with the colours.

For the previous 2 months, I had been reading about 18th century Rajasthani miniature paintings. I had been reading how there were rules as to how a face should be painted, and a hand, and a foot. I had been reading that there were names for various figural positions and how different types of compositions depended on the placement of architecture and figures. And after a long while of this reading, I took out all 19 of my paintings (this current set), laying them out in a row around the room and took a long hard look at what I had been painting. What I realised was that I haven't really paid much attention to traditional composition. And so I decided to approach the painting in a different way, a more formal way but I still allowed myself to run free with decoration and colour.

As usual, I have used watercolour, gouache and ink pens. I seem to be using more and more gouache these days - the favoured paint of my teenage years!
A few months ago, my husband and I joined a book club. This month, the book was Life Of Pi, which is about an Indian boy and a tiger named Richard Parker - so, this painting has Richard Parker standing on the top of the house! :)
The puppet in the painting is painted from a puppet which came to me in 2001. His head is made from painted wood and his clothes from old saris. I've called him Raj. I have painted him as closely to real life as I could. Also in the painting is a Rajasthani perfume bottle as a tower in the background trees - I talked about the perfume bottle in the previous post.

Painted Perfume Bottle from Udaipur

2011-08-25T14:12:00.000+10:00

When I was in India in 2008, I purchased an old perfume bottle from an Antique store in Udaipur. It was a tiny store, barely wider than the single doorway, with wonky, dirty glass cabinets lining the walls and piles of stuff heaped up, around, above and under. Everything was covered in dust and jammed together. I bought two things that day, one was a glass tile which was absolutely exquisite and probably about 200 years old, the other item was this painted bottle, which I found covered in dust and tucked away in the back of a cabinet behind dozens of other little bottles. The man said that it had been a medicine bottle, or perhaps a perfume bottle and estimated its age was about 100 years old or more. I have seen Victorian bottles like this with similar caps, so I think that his estimation was about right. As for the painting, well, it's hard to say how old it is but i think that it's at least 1950s, if not earlier. Anyway, before I started the sketches for my latest painting, I was lying in bed one night and suddenly had an idea ... I saw this perfume bottle as a tower in the distance with trees all around. And so, that is what it became in my new painting Visit From A Puppet! - a tower.

No 19 Another Navaratna, 9 sisters + 9 brothers

2011-07-19T14:38:00.003+10:00

Returning from our trip to England and Scotland, my mind was filled with images from those places - dozens of beautiful country houses, castles, Georgian paintings and textiles - and I wondered if my next painting could be Indian. I wondered if I still had India inside me. I mentioned the fact to my artist friends in London, Maya, Clare and Chichi, and they listened and nodded silently. Time would tell. After we got back home, for a few weeks, I didn't draw anything and just allowed myself to settle back into my routine of piano lessons and pussy cats and dining out and reading and whatnot. I waited.

Then, one day, I found myself picking up an old ivory brooch that I had, it was more than 100 years old, probably made from ox bone. It was the image of a four armed goddess playing an Indian musical instrument. Turning it over and over in my hand, I then I knew that it was time to paint again. And so the image of the 4 armed goddess became the central part of the new painting.
In this painting, we once again visit the Navaratna - 9 gem stones, garnet, tiger's eye, emerald, sapphire, ruby, diamond, pearl, coral and yellow topaz. Previously, I had painted a Navaratna of 9 sisters and then I painted a Navaratna of 9 brothers. In this painting, the 9 sisters are with the 9 brothers. In the centre of the picture is a building based upon one that can be found in the middle of Lake Pichola in Udaipur, Rajasthan.
Above the building, in the clouds, a brother in a sailing ship and a sister in the Little White Car toss flowers of joyous blessings onto their siblings below. To the right of the building are a pair of peacocks. To the left of the building, we see a sister doing the Cosmic Dance. In the front, a brother plays the Cosmic drums.
Other than that, there is not much meaning to this painting. Not such a detailed story as we see in many of my other paintings. I suppose that this painting is just about joy and happiness. That's all.

Visiting Oxford

2011-07-19T13:42:00.005+10:00

After painting the story of Robert Monk, who was from St Giles in Oxford, 1780, it was an amazing experience for me to travel from Australia to England, to the very street where he was born and photograph buildings which would have stood there at that time. Pictured, is one of the buildings that I featured in the painting, you can find it on the right hand side of the block of buildings in the central part of the painting, it has Wintry trees and an orange sunset behind. The trip was part of a month long trip around England and Scotland that my husband and I did in June 2011. It was lovely to see Robert Monk's St Giles in Oxford. I'm glad that I went.

No.18 - From Oxford to Madras - Robert Monk

2011-03-07T13:30:00.017+11:00

It's taken almost an age but after months of umming and ahhing over painstaking research about what to draw and what not to, a flurry of activity struck me about three weeks ago which propelled this picture from the rough drawing stage to completion! And i have to say, i'm quite pleased with how it turned out :)

Photos 1 + 2 - I decided to go back to the central architectural layout that i've used a few times because i think it gives a nice structure to the whole picture. This time, i chose the Chennai Art Gallery for the main building which i chose for it's shape more than anything else. I wanted the main building to be Indo Saracenic, a style which was an Indian Muslim style of architecture developed by the British. In the second picture, you can see a row of buildings which are clearly not from Madras - these are buildings from the village of St Giles, Oxford, England where Rob Monk was born in 1780 and i chose these 3 buildings because they were standing at the time he lived there.

Photo 3 - The sailing ship is based on the type of ship that Robert would have sailed to India on in 1806. I wasn't able to find out the exact ship but I think that it's pretty close. And there's the little white car again! This time, i'm driving! it's my journey :) The yellow flowers are taken from a design from a early 1800s gold necklace from Madras. The blue and white tiles are a reference to Dutch settlement in the area where they lived.

Photo 4 - Robert and Mary's nine children on the wall presented a problem because they were born over a period of about 26 years and many of them had died before others were born, so i was not able to portray them in any particular year. I thought about depicting a cemetery to show that Robert and Mary had suffered the loss of 5 children, in fact, i thought about it for a long long time - months but decided to show them all alive simply because family history is about learning of people's lives, even if that life was brief. The story that I have depicted is about my search to learn about their lives. One of the children has the letter J on his shoulder - that's Joseph Monk, he was my ancestor.

Photo 5 - The two portraits on the upper left and also at the front of the building are Robert Monk b.1780 and his wife Mary b.1801. We don't know what Rob looked liked, so i've based my Rob on a photograph of his greatgrandson Patrick, who is my grandfather. Rob's portrait also looks a bit like my Uncle Larry :) I'm quite happy with the way Rob's portrait turned out, he looks like a nice chap - i suppose that we all like think that our ancestors were nice people, don't we. I've dressed Rob in clothing he would have worn in England - whilst a poor tradesman breeches maker, as a tailor he would have dressed well. I've done his portrait in a fairly traditional English way, whilst Mary's is more designerly, in the Indian style with silver mirror pieces around the border. As for Mary's appearance, that is entirely unknown - though we can assume from the general way things were at that time that she was probably an Anglo Indian with Portuguese leanings or else Hindu, so i have painted her as a Hindu and also an an Anglo Indian to express my imaginings about this mystery. The tree around the portraits with the Forget Me Not flowers represent the Family Tree. The footprints represent the 1000s of kilometres that Rob would have marched around India in the Army.

There are also loads of other details which i haven't discussed - tiles, embroideries, the elephant, the Maharajah of Tanjore, my cats Horatio and Daisy, south Indian jewellery, Idlies, Forget Me Not flowers, trees ... lots of things!

Hope you like my painting, thank you for viewing :)

Alistair McGowan - Who Do You Think You Are?

2011-03-07T11:08:00.011+11:00

Yesterday, i watched Alistair McGowan's Anglo Indian story on Who Do You Think You Are? and i have to say that it was great! and very similar indeed to my own story. I've seen quite a lot of the WDYTYA shows on the tv but this is the first time that i actually bought one of their dvds to watch at home. A friend of mine had told me about the show last week - picture a noisy little art gallery in a Surry Hills garage in Sydney, with Argentinian wine, latin music, paintings, and chatting about family tree research - chatting about Alistair. Imagine my surprise when said show ends up being the very dvd that i purchased! Well, who'd have thunk it.

Anyway, back to Alistair. I have to say, searching his face, he doesn't look like your typical Anglo Indian but then again ... hmmm, i don't know, something about the eyes ... indefinable, it's there, that mysterious Anglo Indian quality that you just can't put your finger on. Each time i look at his photograph, i'm half expecting him to give a little head wiggle ... "yes yes yes, Celeste, i am understanding what you are thinking" he mumbles "come, let's go for a nice roti ... i know a place ... are you veg or non veg?". Like Alistair, my family were also in a sort whimsical and innocent denial about our Indian-ness ... oh, our brown skin? well, um, there was a Portuguese lady somewhere in our tree, well, apparently so, somewhere, sometime, don't know who she was though ... ahem. Like Alistair, an Indian connection that we expected to find around 1890 ended up in the 1700s! Unlike Alistair though, in several lines of my family tree, British soldiers travelled to India and settled in the 1700s ... maybe his family did too, anyway, I could totally relate to his story every step of the way, it was almost like he was telling my own story. Great show! Lots of laughs. Thank you Alistair :)

Researching Robert Monk

2010-12-22T14:52:00.010+11:00

I've been doing quite a bit of family tree research lately and this is reflected in my Art work. I suppose it's been on my mind a lot - family tree research is like that, it sort of sucks you in and you become consumed by it. And so i find myself painting about my ancestor Robert Monk b.1780 in St Giles, Oxford, England.

Earlier this year, whilst on holiday in England, my husband and I drove through St Giles - we didn't know about Robert back then but we took a few photos of the place because it was quite pretty. St Giles is very small, just one street that runs for two blocks and many of the buildings are as they were in his time, indeed some of the pubs/inns there have been standing there since the 1500s.

I don't know much about Robert's early years but he joined the British Army in 1806, aged 25, After one year's service he was posted to India until he retired 21 years later. He was in the 30th (Cambridgeshire) Regiment of Foot and worked as a breeches maker - mens short pants down to the knee, like in the photo above. Breeches were very popular for a few hundred years but sort of died out in the 1820s, which is about the same time that Robert retired from the army. As a breeches maker, he wouldn't have been fighting in the army, he would have been living in the cantonment (pronounced cantoonment) which is sort of like an army village or army base. Hence, from the movements of his regiment, we can surmise that Robert lived in Madras (south east coast of India) and several cantonements around Madras, in Trichinopoly, in Cannanore (south west coast), Masulipatam (east coast), and in Secunderabad/Hyderabad (middle of India). Robert would have lived with his wife Mary, as we know that Mary had three of their children in Hyderabad. After Robert retired in 1827, he took an army pension and lived in a village for retired soldiers near Madras, where he and his wife had another six children, bringing the total to nine. Sadly, the first five of Robert's children died before the age of twelve. My family are descended from the 7th of Robert's children, Joseph. Robert could have returned to London when he retired but chose to remain in Madras, India and continued to live there until he died in 1853, aged 73.

So, that's the background which i have been researching about Robert Monk.

For the painting, i've been looking at the houses in the street of St Giles in Oxford, trying to ascertain which houses would have been standing when he lived there in the 1780s. I've also been looking into breeches - the cloth, the sewing, the tools, the patterns and the fashions. I found a book by a man who spent his early years as a breeches maker in London, he was just 5 years older than Robert, and he talked about the conditions of the workplace and what his home was like for several chapters - I imagine that life might have been quite similar for Robert. Another thing which i have been researching is uniforms in the British Army. I've had a bit of difficulty determining the exact uniforms that Robert's regiment had between 1806 and 1828, but i've got a pretty good idea. As for Robert himself, we have no photos of him but his military record describes him as 5'6", black hair, brown eyes, dark complexion - so that's all i have to work with.

That's it!

So what's with the little white car?

2010-11-22T09:58:00.022+11:00

So what's with the little white car? I've been asked this question many times! :)
Well, the little white car is actually a Hindustan Ambassador and, over the years, it's been a part of my travel experience of India. It evokes happy memories for me.
The first time that i visited India, it was with my father Matthew in 1983 when I was 20. One of the first things we noticed when arriving at the airport in Madras were the Ambassador cars ... they were everywhere! In fact, there only seemed to be one type of car - the Ambassador ... and they were all black. It was a strange thing to see, kind of like being in a time warp. The vinyl seats were bench style and had springs, squeaky springs. The windscreen was small. The door handles retracted in your hand and the door clicked as you shut it. And on the doors, there were little triangular windows which you swung around at an angle. It was fun being in an Ambassador.

We spent a while in Madras (Chennai) exploring the area where my father and mother had grown up, where she had worked at an engineering company and where he had studied Medicine. Next, it was on to Bangalore where my cousins lived, and finally to Coorg to visit a friend's cardomom plantation. All in all, we spent quite a lot of time driving around in Ambassadors. We didn't drive them ourselves, there was always a hired driver. I recall one driver, who had a particularly flashy Ambassador, which he lovingly cleaned and polished every day, demonstrating the features of his car to us - it could reach a speed of 80km per hour but the fastest we ever seemed to reach was about 50km out on the highway in the middle of nowhere. But, to be fair, that was just a guess because the speedo didn't actually work, come to think of it, nor did the indicators, or the windshield wipers, or the fuel gauge, and all the mirrors were missing. The driver said that he didn't need those things in India ... that was just for places like Australia, besides, he drove like a tiger, so everything would be fine. So, we hung on for dear life - oh, did i mention that there weren't seat belts? ah, yes, well, you get the picture anyway. That said, we managed to survive the month ... and we loved every minute of it :)
When i returned home to Australia, i found that many travellers had happy stories about Ambassadors and they seemed to regard the cars with fondness in the same way that i did.
Twenty years later, i returned to India. This time, with my sisters and my husband. On the flight over, i had wondered if there would still be any Ambassadors around, and to my delight there were! This time around though, we hardly saw any black ones at all, they were mainly white, and sage green. A few other cars were making an appearance but i reckon that at least half of the cars i saw in Mumbai were still Ambassadors. So keen were we to have an Ambassador, that my sister had arranged from Australia, to book a driver with a white car for a few days ... it was great! I'll never forget it! :) This time, the car had seatbelts in the front, and a speedo and our driver was proud to be the owner of an Ambassador.

When i returned to Rajasthan, India in 2007, i was struggling to find any Ambassadors at all - the Tata cars had taken over. Still, our wonderful driver Raj who hailed from Kashmir but worked in Delhi for 6 months of each year, said that he was saving up to buy an Ambassador.

During my 2008 trip, there were even less Ambassadors to be seen around. I saw them now and then but i wasn't able to find a single driver (for hire) who had one. And I wondered if Raj was still saving up for one?
I suppose the Ambassador car days are coming to end but I am sure that there are many people who still love them as I do. And so you see, they live on in my memory and in my paintings :)

Whenever an Ambassador car appears in my paintings, you will usually find it bouncing along in an odd situation - driving on lily pads across a lake; driving over treetops; driving across a garland of marigolds; driving along a lady's arm whilst carrying a wrapped present on top of the car; and even being born from a flower. So, for me, the car is happy, pretty, humorous, a little bit ridiculous, fun, adventurous and loved. So far, the Ambassador has appeared in six of my paintings and I hope that we shall see it many more to come.

Funny Ambassador Advertisement ... :)

www.youtube.com/watch?v=GuP79_txcPg

No.17 - Meenakshi and William

2010-11-16T16:13:00.012+11:00

November 2010 - Here is a detail from the unfinished painting William and Meenakshi where I imagine the fanciful late 1800s meeting of Meenakshi, my greatgrandmother who was a Hindu Brahmin girl, and William, my greatgrandfather, who was a soldier in the British Army. William is one of several British Army ancestors of mine who travelled to India, as is Meenakshi one of several Hindu ancestors. The scene is one of gaeity, music and laughter, with a garland of orange marigolds linking them together. Between them, are some paint brushes - William was a painter, and a violin, which was an instrument that their son played.

The peacock in this painting is the reworking of an idea from painting No. 7 Ganesha and the Peacock Ladies where the peacock stands in front and his tail sweeps back and up to form the three ladies at the back. This time, the peacock looks quite different, being based on an antique Rajasthani ruby and enamel ring that i have which is 100 years old. The painting of the peacock was quite tricky and had to rework it several times using ink, watercolour, gouache as well as adding gum arabic to make the paint shiny and textured.

Through the window we can see a town and two towers. The towers are based on Gwalior Fort, India. Some of the design and decoration is similar, except that the real thing is yellow and part of a wall, not free standing towers.

The town is inspired by Pushkar, which has been a holy city for a very long time but has more recently become a sleazy hangout for western hippies - I found the place creepy but the photos are beautiful and i suppose that it must have once been a very lovely place indeed.

The lamp hanging in the window is based on a jumkha earring. I love how form repeat themselves in different ways, in architectural domes, in hats, in earrings ...

If you look closely, you will see cat Horatio sitting in the window. He doesn't look at us, the viewers of the picture, he's more interested in the view - cat's are like that ;-)

And there's the Ambassador car. It appears in nearly all my recent paintings.

The three sisters are myself and my two sisters. They are present. Watching.

My new palette

2010-11-16T15:01:00.006+11:00

I've known traditional watercolourists to be horrified about the way I use paint!
I use the paint the way i do because it works for me.
This is my latest palette. A $2 ceramic plate from a homewares store in Berry. I like it because (a) it is flat, and (b) it has grooves which catch the paint and prevent the colours running into each other. Highly recommended :)

No.16 - Coromandel Chintz

2010-11-16T14:05:00.007+11:00

September 2010 - In Coromandel Chintz, i took a risk and went off on a tangent. In some ways i was successful but in others, it left me dissatisfied.

The Coromandel is a coastline area of India - the south eastern part, a long strip of coastline which was been visited by traders from the west since at least 300AD. The traders sought pearls and spice, and furniture, and then much later in 1600 and 1700s they came for the painted and printed fabric known as Chintz. In the west, this chintz was used by many different social classes, for furnishing and for clothes. It was a huge business, particularly for Dutch traders. One of the most popular designs in Chintz was the Moghul Tree of Life design. The colours used in these chintzes were reds, pinks, and turquoise blues. As with much of Islamic design, there were usually not figures (people) included in the designs, but flowers, birds and fruits were used in abundance.

My father's mother's family were from the Coromandel region. Leading up to this time, i had been immersed in history of the region, mainly about pearl diving but also about chintzes. I planned to do two paintings, one about chintz and the other about pearl fishing.

And so, i decided to create a Tree of Life inspired by Coromandel Chintz. I think that the drawing/design part went quite well, and the painting of it was pretty good too but i found that i did not like the chintz limited colour palette of pinks, reds and turquoise - which seemed to work beautifully in textiles but not so well on paper. And, more than anything else, i found that i felt unhappy without figures/people in my picture! I felt that the picture had no soul without people. I learned an important lesson about myself!

The Colour Pink

2010-11-16T14:01:00.003+11:00

Did i mention that i like the colour pink? Well, I do! :)
Potter's Pink, Rose Dore, Bengal Rose, Permanent Rose, Carmin, Rose Madder, Alizarin Crimson

Brothers of Bundi details

2010-11-16T13:37:00.003+11:00

I had a lot of trouble painting the Maharaja of Bundi - the real Maharaja is far more scary looking than my guy! The jewels that he is wearing are copied from a tiny, blurred, black and white 1800s photograph ... not sure if i got them right but i tried!

I rather like the four brothers closest to him. They've got nice faces :)

No.15 - Navaratna - The Brothers of Bundi

2010-11-16T13:17:00.006+11:00

July 2010 - Once i had completed the Navaratna Nine Sisters picture, i knew that i couldn't have 9 sisters without also having 9 brothers! ... somewhat like the film Seven Brides for Seven Brothers :) And so, the The Brothers of Bundi came to be. After spending 2 months on the last painting, I had been thinking that i would not do another picture that was so large but there you go, it simply had to be! However, despite being a pair to the other painting, this one is quite different ....
This painting is about the town of Bundi in Rajasthan. Everything about it, is Bundi. I immersed myself in the famous miniature paintings to study features of painting from that particular town and then did my best to include them in my picture. I learned about the crops of Bundi, its geography, and its history :)

Some of the features of Bundi painting are: - a particular way of drawing the face; profuse vegetation including a lot of banana trees; pairs of birds, particularly cranes (pairs represent fertility); a blue pond or lake with lotus flowers growing.
Some of the Bundi items that i included: - the entrance to Bundi Palace; the Maharaja of Bundi from the late 1800s wearing his own jewellery; crops of Bundi (guava, lemons, oranges, pomegranates); the Char Bargh of Bundi Palace (garden divided into 4); the monkeys that live at Bundi Palace; a green ring necked parrot from the area.
There are more details that relate to Bundi but i shall leave it at that. It's ALL Bundi! :)

In my painting, instead of the usual blue pool of water, i have painted the blue town of Bundi itself, with lotus flowers arising from between the buildings. I thought that was fitting.

Of course, above the main gateway are the nine stones of the Navaratna - garnet, tiger's eye, emerald, sapphire, ruby, diamond, pearl, coral and yellow topaz. The 9 brothers each wear the colours of the Navaratna, which in turn represent the 9 planets of Hindu astrology, the cosmos. The stones aren't in the real palace gateway, i just made that up!

Why Bundi? Well, I've been to Bundi twice and on the firt occasion, when we drove into the valley, i got the feeling that i had lived there before. I knew the place well.

Navaratna Sister - details

2010-11-16T12:48:00.005+11:00

oooer! ... silver sparkley bits! :)

The yellow bird & the peacock - another opportunity to paint birds from my bird book! :) My peacock has a funky floral tail.
The gods in the clouds - images like this appear now and then in paintings from Rajasthan, particularly in palace murals. I have seen many in Rajasthan - there are a few in Bundi.

The veils of the Navaratna sisters are painted in the colours of the 9 gem stones.

No.14 - Navaratna Nine Sisters

2010-11-16T12:41:00.006+11:00

February 2010, Navaratna Nine Sisters is probably my favourite painting over the last 2 years, i love it. Mind you, it took me 2 months to do as it's quite big! the biggest painting of this type that i have ever done.

Navaratnas - The gods shower floral blessings on the Navarantas, the 9 extraordinary people in the king's court, who in this instance are 9 sisters.
The archway of the palace's middle dome, is adorned with a silver Moon and the Navaratna - a sanskrit word for 9 gems which represent the 9 planets of the Hindu cosmos in Hindu Astrology. The colours of the gems appearing again on the veils of each sister.
Of the 3 sisters in the palace, one reaches out to touch a ladybird, one receives a sprig of love from a bird, while a third sister holds a lamp of enlightenment in her hand.
Outside in the garden are henna hands, flowers and butterflies near a stone wall bearing sculptural reliefs of a harmonium (keyboard), dancing elephants, a sitar and flowers. Atop the wall sits a peacock with a paisley tail.
In front of the palace is a pond where lotus flowers grow and silver fish swim. Two sisters paddle in a horse-headed boat. One sister drives an Ambassador car on floating lily pads, while another sister sits on the car's roof meditating.
In the foreground, an open lotus represents enlightenment on the right, while on the left sits my cat Daisy on the ghat steps decorated with the tiles which my husband and I brought back from India in our hand luggage for the splashback of our kitchen stove.
Behind the palace is a forest of greenery and towers of other palaces. One tree is a sarpech, a jewelled turban ornament with a pearl hanging from the tip. The white tower is based upon a tower from Gwalior Fort.

For the first time in a long, long while, I used gouache in addition to my usual watercolour. I think it was a success too.

No.13 - Meenakshi and the Cenotaph of Orchha

2010-11-16T12:21:00.004+11:00

August 2009 - The Cenotaph from Orchha, India, has a stepped conical dome which resembles the headdress of a Hindu goddess at it's side. That goddess is Meenakshi (means fish-eyed), who represents lifeforce and beauty combined, and who ruled a kingdom with her skillful administration. Meenakshi is also the name of my father's grandmother. Behind her are forget-me-not flowers and at her feet is a lotus, symbolising wisdom. Around her neck and reaching down to the floor is a garland of flowers, whilst in her hand a parrot balances on a bunch of flowers.
Above Meenakshi, are two hands of a woman. One, decorated with henna in marriage. The other, a hand in the position of sacrifice as it presses gently against a wall to leave its mark. Where the fingers of the hands meet, a lotus flower blooms and bells jingle jangle to keep away evil spirits.
To the left of the cenotaph's dome, a Rajput Sun is high in the sky. Some Rajputs, particularly the Rathores, believe that they are descended from the Sun itself. On the right of the dome is a Crimson Backed Sunbird from Tamil Nadu.

This picture looks prettier in real life than on the digital screen. Some paintings are like that. I suppose what i was trying to do here was mainly to draw the architectural form of the cenotaph - which was quite tricky to do. Also, the bird ... from my new bird book, of course! I think that if the architectural form had been a cool colour, like grey or whitish blue, then this picture would have worked better - the brown doesn't work, but it is the actual colour of the real cenotaph in Orchha, India.

I think that the embroidered flower is nice. Also Meenakshi. I would like to paint her again.

No.12 - The Shoe Merchant's Haveli (mansion)

2010-11-16T12:02:00.003+11:00

August 2009. Quite possibly the weirdest painting that i've done.

The Shoe Merchant's Haveli - In this painting, the shoe merchant family live in a house of shoes, with its curly toed domes and embroidered walls and columns. Inside the building, between the arches, stands the tree of life, flanked by the merchant couple and birds of love. At the front of the building is a balcony with jali screens made from flowered tapestries and a blue jaipur tile. To the sides, columns arise on two levels, to a white archway over the top. In the distance are layers of trees and an orange marigold Sun. Three henna footprints track the path of a bride as she enters the house for the first time.

I had a problem painting this because i bought the wrong type of paper. I think it might be blotting paper because the pen ink was blurred and the watercolour wouldn't run in the way it should. Also, the paper itself stank! Consequently, creating this picture was an uphill battle.

I don't think that the "shoe palace/haveli" idea worked very well, though it seemed like a great idea in my head. I suppose we live and learn.

I do rather like the blue jaipur tile though. I also like the key, which was inspired by a key from a heavy brass Ganesh padlock. And I quite like the henna footprints too. The footprints were inspired by those made by Rani Mukherjee in the film Paheli where she is a bride arriving at her new home and she dips her feet in a red liquid and walks into the house, leaving the footprints of a bride.

No.11 - The Bulbul Whispers a Secret Message

2010-11-16T11:33:00.009+11:00

Painted in July 2009, this is the Christmas/Holiday card i painted for that year ... yes, i know it's not very Christmassy but there you go, that's how it turned out anyhow : / However, I had a lot of problems with the printing, as all the white bits printed as purple! so i ended up sending people a different picture instead.

On a moonlit purple night, a Bulbul bird whispers a secret message to a lady from her lover, who stands in his red domed palace, next to his computer. The message is that her lover has sent a gift to the lady strapped to the top of an Ambassador car which will soon arrive at her doorstep ...

You might think that this painting was about people i know but it wasn't. There is no secret code, or anything like that. It's a sort of generic Indian Miniature Painting theme which appears again and again around the 18th century - not with the Ambassador car or the computer, of course, but you get my drift.
I quite like this painting. It's very ME. I like the way the lady's veil and arm sweep in a big curve and the way the car drives through the impossible dip. And what's the elephant doing, strolling up the dome? - well, he's out for his evening stroll, of course!
I chose the Bulbul bird because, as it happens, we have some living in my garden and sometimes they nest in the bamboo trees by my sitting room window. I've grown up with Bulbuls in the garden but I didn't realise until recently that they are Indian birds. And anyway, i had recently bought a book about Indian birds on eBay, so i was dying to paint a bird!
I rather like the use of embroidered floral motifs - i use these again and again in future paintings.
I am also happy with the interchanging use of cool and warm colours in foreground and background (red and purple in the background + pink and green in the foreground) i don't quite know how i managed to pull it off, but i did! :)

This is one of my favourite paintings :)

No.10 - The Temple Dancing Girl

2010-11-15T12:51:00.012+11:00

On April 20 2009, I wrote "The Temple Dancing Girl - A bollywood couple dance the dance of love under a mughal styled glass dome, which also serves as a bird cage. An extinct Asiatic Cheetah with his Sanskrit name on his tail, guards a Lotus flower of enlightenment and 2 tiles - one a sandstone 12 petalled lotus of the Heart Chakra, and the other is a blue pottery tile from Jaipur. A garland of marigolds curves around a 19th century temple dancing girl (Devadasi) wearing jewellery of gold and rubies, with bells on her wrists and ankles, she curves her body around a pink archway. A doctor in bombay rolls a chapati shaped like a formula 1 race track, while an elephant follows 2 salwar kameez biker girls, who are in turn following a man in an Ambassador car. A visionary boy writes a poem which branches out into a cosmic eye and a swirling galaxy. Bells jingle and jangle.
Asiatic cheetahs are now extinct in India but i have seen them depicted in miniature paintings - there are only 70 asiatic cheetahs left in the world and they are all in Iran. The word cheetah is Sanskrit ... i've written it in the cheetah's tail ~ so, my first Sanskrit word has been recorded here in this painting :)
I've been developing a bit of a liking for marigolds lately, dissecting them, examining them. I now understand why indians use them as garlands - they have hollow stalks which can be threaded easily and they last for many days :)
I also learned that Hindus give a flower to a god for each wish/prayer. And a marigold has the appearance of many flowers within a flower. So, it's like a multiple blessing of sorts. What a beautiful idea. :)
The woman on the right is a temple dancing girl, or devadasi. I've been reading a lot about devadasis in the last few years - including 2 PhD theses. I find them fascinating. Over the course of nearly 2000 years their image has changed from sacred to profane - holy and powerful, to prostitute. Devadasis were the developers and the keepers of Indian Classical dance, they could read and write, they sang and played musical instruments, they knew poetry, they taught yoga to the community, and they could buy and sell property (the only Hindu women who were permitted to do so). "

This is the first time that the white Ambassador car appears in my paintings. It will appear again and again from now on. It is a happy image for me.
The doctor rolling the wonky chapati in Mumbai is my friend Tanmay. At that time, he had't any knowledge about cooking, so he made an effort to help his mother in the kitchen but the chapati he rolled looked like a Formula One race track and his mother chased him out of the kitchen!

And then there were Nine!

2010-11-15T11:53:00.004+11:00

So, eleven months after I had tentatively completed the first picture ... I had now completed nine, each slightly more confident than the previous one. At this stage, i began to feel like i would like to do something with just as much detail but a bit bigger in size. So these nine ended up forming a set and i haven't done any of this size since that time.

Despite being small, they are still important to me and I constantly refer to them while i am working on larger works. Sometimes i revisit ideas, working them up into a larger scale, and sometimes the images jog my memory about way to fill small spaces. I like doing this because it forms a sort of continuity in the works.

No.9 - The Pachewar Kathputli

2010-11-15T11:43:00.005+11:00

On March 18, 2009 I wrote -

"The Pachewar Kathputli - I recall one night, at Pachewar, watching the puppet show in the grassy courtyard, and lying on the grass looking up at the stars, listening to this man's singing voice rising out into the night sky, up into the air and filling the silence of the valley, songs that were 100s of years old - i had never seen such a starry sky as that! the music playing, the puppets, a glass of rum, and smelling the fragrance of the flowers ... it was heaven :)

I think i've seen about 10 puppet shows in India. Putli means puppet, and kathputli are story telling string puppets from Rajasthan.
This particular show was at a village called Pachewar, near Jaipur. The puppet's head and hands are made from wood by the puppeteer, and the clothes are made by his wife and daughter (the puppet has a stuffed body, and no legs). The puppeteer's brother sings and plays the harmonium and drums. This family have been puppeteers for 100s of years, passing down the songs and puppet making traditions for many generations.
These particular puppets, that you see in the painting, are based on two that i purchased.
The blue embroidered and beaded floral background is reminiscent of the famous Blue Pottery from this region - blue, green and white colours in bold floral designs.
The male puppet in green holds a drum and his straight fingers snap on the drumskin - it's quite difficult and tiring to make the sounds for hours on end. Behind him, we see a gourd pipe. Near the orange female puppet, we see a harmonium with it's black and white keys. To play this instrument you pump air in with one hand, and play the keyboard with the other - it's tricky!
The puppet show is held in a tented little stage on the grass. On the front at the top, we see painted on the material, Pachewargarh (Pachewar Fort) where we were. We can see the wall and the turret of the fort - I slept in that turret on two trips to Pachewar, it's round and it has slits for arrows in the one metre thick walls.
A family of peacocks lives nearby and sometimes you can see the males chasing the females round and round the top of the turret."

Looking back on this picture, i quite like it. By the way, Kathputli means "puppets" in India, though you probably figured that out. The two puppets in this picture are sketched from two exceptionally beautiful puppets that i bought in Udaipur, Rajasthan from a puppet maker. Unfortunately, the female puppet had a borer in her and i had to destroy her. I've still got the male puppet in my house.

No.8 - Lady With The Lotus Pond

2010-11-15T11:12:00.004+11:00

On March 12, 2009 i wrote -

"In Lady with the Lotus Pond, the lady sits contemplating a lotus pond. She is surrounded by life and abundance. One henna hand touches the top of her head and gently pulls her veil down as it flaps in the breeze. The other henna hand touches her face.

The pond that the lady contemplates is blue, notably Celeste Blue. From it, emerge tndrils and lotus flowers, representing enlightenment in its various stages, as buds, and also opened. Amongst the lotus flowers is a large, pink unidentifiable flower - a mystery flower, what it means, we do not know. Behind the Lady, a large beautiful blue bird with hooded tired eyes leans heavily upon her, he is her conscience and her friend who is a lawyer. Behind him, are two tall white marble towers of purity and strength, representing Law and Art. Far in the distance, we see a dark clear night with a crescent moon, stars twinkling, and huge Wintry trees upon which a pair of lawyer pants flutter in the breeze. Directly in front of the lady, is a quilted purple flower sewn with running stitch in the exquisite style popular in Gujarat. Around the edge of the flower, a girl with a yellow sari and a boy ride on a motorcycle, and a man drives a tuk tuk ... we don't know where they are going but they seem to be having fun. In front of the lady, rests a yellow bird. It seems to be communicating with the Lady and he has gold spots on his neck and his tail. They are friends, and that friend is You. From the sky, the bluebird of happiness swoops down to the Lady with a sprig of love in his beak."

When i painted this, i had just begun to study Law at University (in Australia). I quickly realised that i could not give up being an Artist. Law was exciting and wonderful but i preferred being an Artist.

The Law pants, refer to the fact that in India, lawyers wear pants made of a certain material, a black and white fine checkered pattern. When you see someone in the street wearing those pants, you know they are a lawyer.

Leaving the Law degree was a very difficult decision but it was the right one for me.

Inspiration in the workplace

2010-11-15T11:01:00.004+11:00

I like surround myself not only with my tools and materials but also the objects that i am drawing/painting and other objects of beauty.

On this day's table, clockwise from the bottom left - Pencil sketch; Fluorite crystal; Taschen's book "Indian Style" ; Chai in a Moroccan glass, a ceramic plate with a Neo Classical design of winged goddesses and a chariot; bottle of Gum Arabic; some of my previous paintings in the same series; wooden textile printing block; old limited edition book about Indian Paintings (no ISBN); bowl of paints; inks; artist's rubber; asthma puffer; pens and pencils; palette plate; brush water in a Portmerion ramekin.

No.7 - Ganesha and the Peacock Ladies

2010-11-14T09:02:00.006+11:00

February 2009
By this time, i'm on a roll. The paintings are coming forth every few weeks ...

In Ganesha and the Peacock Ladies we see flowers and jewels adorning the elephant headed god Ganesh - the remover of obstacles, lord of beginnings, patron of the Arts and Sciences, and deva of intellect and wisdom. Ganesh's mouse attendant sits on his shoulder, and in front of him we see a bowl of laddoos, his favourite food (and mine!), and a pink lotus flower gently opening (wisdom).
Behind Ganesh, a peacock bends it's neck toward him, holding a sprig of love in his beak. His long blue neck bears a henna-like tapestry of flowers and hearts, while his tail sweeps upward at the back, turning into 3 beautiful ladies wearing green saris ... you can see the peacock feathers softly arising from the tops of their heads.
In the middle of the picture, we see a pink and purple marble palace, glimmering in the moonlight. It's dome is like the cap that Ganesh wears, and also like the purple flowers around his neck. I love repeated forms which appear in defferent ways!
To the right, we see a colomn from the interior of the pink and purple palace. The column is inlayed with semi-precious stones in both geometric and floral patterns. In one of the panels, we see a turbanned man with a tooth embroidered on his jacket - he is a dentist, i knew many at that time.
At the base of the column, a sitar stands, it's music softly wafting through the scene. This is the first time that i paint a sitar and in the pictures to come it will appear many times.

No.6 - The Rabari Man

2010-11-14T08:47:00.005+11:00

February 2009

The Rabari Man loves the merchant's daughter!
In this picture, we see a moustachiod Rabari tribesman wearing his characteristic huge red turban, white clothes and jewellery. In his left hand, he holds a many carriages train rope, signifying long journeys across vast plains, attached to a camel decorated with bells, tassels, braids and sequined embroidery. In the Rabari man's other hand, he holds a sprig of love which is intended for the textiles merchant's daughter, who stands, wearing silks and gold jewellery, watching him from her beautiful and ornate haveli. The base of the haveli window-box has become a woven dhurrie, and the merchant peeks out from behind it. Above the Rabari man's head is the god of Ganesh, he who helps us break down barriers and overcome obstacles. To the right of Ganesh are sati handprints, sometimes seen outside palaces and forts, and in this picture symbolising sacrifice and trust. To the right of the camel's ears, are staring eyes - darshan.

I like elements of this picture. I like the idea and i like the layout but the Rabari man doesn't look relaxed and his face is too feminine.
I met several Rabari men on my trip. I love their outfits!!! :)
Once, i made an 8 hour bus trip sitting next to a Rabari shepherd with his crook! ;-) It was a rickety old bus and, at one point, a monkey jumped in through the window and ran down the aisle! :O

No.5 - The Lady of Spice

2010-11-13T10:10:00.005+11:00

On Jan 19, 2009, i wrote - "The lady of spice wears a tapestry of spice - star anise, cardomom, cinnamon scrolls, mustard seeds black and white, cumin, coriander, peppercorns, cloves, and green chillies in her skirt which rises to the right. Laying upon the edge of the skirt sleeps a tiger, her friend and her strength, with his paws closely guarding a glass of chai which the lady has made with her spices. She wears a tumeric veil and in her henna hand she holds a sprig of love .... and to the rear, in the marble palace stands her lover, waiting with his own glass of chai sitting on a table next to him."

I recall that after painting the previous 4 pictures, i was feeling the need to have a theme. And i chose spice. Why? Well, this was a time of experimentation in the kitchen for me and my husband Ross. We were making curries every weekend, both of us in the kitchen, not with curry pastes but using spice with a mortar and pestle. And so i suppose that we were thinking a lot about spice at that time. My husband Ross is the Master of Chai in our house ... he's quite good too! he has a general recipe but he's always refining it with a bit more, or less, or ginger or pepper or some such thing.

Again, we see domes featuring in this picture.

And, a tiger! The only one that i have ever drawn or painted! I once met a girl in Udaipur who ran a jewellery shop. She made some of the jewellery that she sold but most of it was bought stock. I bought a few things from her and we chatted over chai on many an occasion. We would sit on either side of the counter of jewellery and behind her on the wall was a poster of a tiger. I asked her why she had a tiger behind her and she explained that the tiger was the symbol of strength and power. She had deliberately positioned it so that when her customer looked at her, she would have the tiger behind, surrounding her shoulders ... and that would make her seem powerful.

And so that it why my Lady of Spice has a pet tiger.

Workspace clutter!

2010-11-13T10:05:00.005+11:00

I work in clutter!

Whether it is inside the house or outside!

I like to have all my paints around me ... and pens ... and pencils ... and bits of research like sketches of photographs from books! Usually, you'll also find a cup of chai on the table too, or a glass of orange juice or coke.

My palette is a ceramic plate and my water container is a Portmerion ramekin :)

No.4 - The Henna Bird

2010-11-12T16:03:00.008+11:00

The Henna Bird, Jan 2009

Here, we start to see the beginnings of where my journey carries me over the next 18 months. We see, strange combinations and layering. Juxtapositions without story telling. I suppose that what i was getting at was that this was/is how India seems to me, a kaleidescopic jumble of images, smells and sounds - at times confusing but also dazzling and beautiful. Yes, i know that there is filth and rubbish piled up everywhere too but i suppose that what my work is about is the Artistry of Rajasthan, India, and the love of ornamentation and decoration.

In this picture, we see many things.

Domes. Now, i have to say, i've got a bit of a thing about domes. In fact, i've even got a group on Flickr called Domes in Architecture. I love them. In Rajasthan, there are domes everywhere! gorgeous domes of many shapes and sizes. In one of my painted domes, we see a bearded man seated, thinking, meditating. On the yellow dome, we see a strand of pearls (reference to my greatgrandfather who traded Gulf of Mannar pearls in the early 1900s), and also a Rajasthani tribal necklace. We also see an elephant - there are many tame elephants in Rajasthan. Elephants are greatly loved and they walk in the streets alongside trucks, motor bikes and cars - usually carrying a tourist, or on their way to a wedding, or some such thing.

At the top, is a Rajasthani woman. She is beautiful. This is the first time that I draw an Indian face. I pretty well keep to this style thereafter.

And of course, the henna bird. Why a henna bird? Well, when i was in India, i had henna drawn onto my hands 3 times, not by choice but because the women around me felt that it was a necessity! I have to say, that i could quite relate to the attitude of the henna painter as being somewhat like myself ... happy, whimsical, and loving decoration and beauty. Anyway, i was going to paint a bird and it occurred to me that, if a bird could choose it's own decoration, then perhaps an Indian bird might choose to have henna. Why not? And so it does :) In Rajasthan, the finger tips have solid colour and the rest of the hand or arm is pictorial - so, my Hanna Bird has the tips of wings and tail in solid colour, just like a Rajasthani Lady :)

No.3 - Marigolds & Peacocks

2010-11-12T15:35:00.010+11:00

Well, here we are in December 2008. Shortly after my painting No2, my father died. It was a difficult time. As you can see, even though i had broken the dry spell from painting, the journey back to being an Artist was tentative and slow.

This painting was prompted by an inclination to flirt with Japanese rice paper. I cut little pieces of rice paper and glued them to the painted surface. You might think that would disturb the watercolour or the pen but it didn't. Here, we a bird of my creation ... sort of like a peacock but a bit different. The reason i chose a peacock is that they were wild in Rajasthan. They jump from tree to tree, and came to drink water from the hotel swimming pools. They were gorgeous. Peacocks feature in many of the paintings that i did over the next 2 years.

Also, we see a tiny elephant climbing a flower stalk, a henna hand and a marigold.

When i was a child, i didn't like marigolds - i thought they stank! :P But since travelling to India, i have grown to love them. In India, marigolds are everywhere, floating in bowls of water, hanging in garlands around window frames, and as garlands for weddings and happy events, even on idol/gods in Hindu temples. And they are beautiful! When i returned to Australia, at the time of painting this picture, i went through a phase of growing marigolds in pots ... dozens of them! And so we see a marigold in this picture too :)

No.2 - The Mawari Horse at Jaipur

2010-11-12T15:10:00.012+11:00

Well, I have to say, it was a great relief to have created even something so small as a doodle after 1 year without painting! but it was another month, in May 2008, before i dared to attempt another picture ... as you can see, it's still quite tentative, but just a teensy bit braver than the first picture.

This time, i chose a Mawari horse. The horses in India which come from the Mawar district are very beautiful. They are small and have peculiar ears which are pointed ... a little bit like Yoda! :) In the picture, we see a white Mawari horse with a fly whisk around his neck, and a pink peacock wearing a jewelled collar at rear. Yes, i know peacocks aren't pink, but mine is! so there! The building at the back is reminiscent of Jaipur's pink buildings - Jaipur is called The Pink City. At the sides, left and right, are branches of millet - this refers to a friend of mine who had a property in his village growing millet and he had sent me a photo of himself holding a branch of millet while they were harvesting. Whilst in Rajasthan, my husband and i had eaten a lot of foods containing millet - i have to say that it wasn't a favourite of mine but there you go, each to his own, i suppose.

No.1 - A River of Gold

2010-11-12T14:44:00.010+11:00

When i painted this, in April 2008, i had not painted anything for over a year. It had been a time when i had lost faith in being a painter and illustrator. Crossroads.

A few years prior, we had travelled to India, - Mumbai, Udaipur, Jaipur, Agra, Delhi - a whirlwind trip with my husband and 2 sisters. We had a fantastic time but much of what we saw shocked us, the poverty - India was hugely different to the country that i had visited 20 years before that with my father. Years later, in 2008, my husband and i went on a Rajasthan tour - it was amazing, we had a fabulous time and i loved the artistry of Rajasthan. But still i found myself asking questions about the complex nature of Indian culture. I needed to understand what i was seeing. And so i began reading - dozens of novels about India, and watching - 200+ Bollywood films. But i think that the thing i was most struck by in Rajasthan was the artistry in every nook and cranny. Artistry was everywhere, in architectural domes and arches, in painted walls, in jewellery, in embroidered clothes, in henna painted hands. No matter how rich or poor people were, they created Art - everywhere! And they did it with joyfulness.

And so i found myself picking up a pen one day and drawing a doodle ... just a little thing, with swirls and twirls and curly cues, with birds and flowers and tiny insects ... and i felt the joy that i had seen in the artistry of Rajasthan. And then, i picked up a paint brush and painted a little bit green, and a little red, and through the middle of the doodle ran a river of gold.

A new beginning - India

2010-11-12T14:25:00.005+11:00

It has come to my attention that i have not made a post on this blog for 2 years!
Well, a lot has changed in that time - I am no longer doing commissions as an Illustrator and I just paint for myself now. Also, after two trips to India, the country where my parents come from, i have embarked on a journey of discovery, both of my Indian family heritage and also to understand the wonderful culture of the country. At first, 2 years ago, my steps into including Indian-ness into my Artwork were hesitant, subtle and tiny - like a whisper in the darkness. But slowly, very slowly, my has confidence grown. How did this happen? Slowly! travelling to India and getting stuck there after i lost my passport; watching 200+ Bollywood movies; reading a whole bookcase (floor to ceiling) of Indian fiction and history; making friends with some wonderful Indian people on Facebook who gave me feedback on my Artwork; and researching 200 years of my Indian/English ancestry. And so, I know find myself firmly entrenched in creating Art with Indian themes ... :)

Paradise

2008-05-28T17:51:00.001+10:00

One of my all time favourite paintings.
I particularly like the birds, with their sideways human eyes ~ I have drawn birds in this way ever since.
I originally did this illustration for one of the Catholic educational books, but it was reused for the cover of the book Breaking Free, an anthology of poems, as well as a poster and pamphlets to promote the book.
Watercolour and gouache paint on watercolour paper.

Book cover for The Wine Regions of Australia

2008-05-24T22:10:00.003+10:00

This is a book cover illustration that I did for Allen and Unwin a few years ago.

The book is called The Wine Regions of Australia by John Beeston.

As you can see, they altered the colour of the art in the hardback version of the book to give it a Chardonnay look. The soft cover version of the book has the natural green colour along with a burgundy coloured background for the band of text.

It's quite a large book, 608 pages.

When I got this assignment, I had only one week to get it done from start to finish. So, i headed off into the countryside to visited a winery, only to find that we were in the season when the vines are just dried sticks with not a leaf in sight. Luckily, I was able to dig out some photos of vine leaves at home that i had taken many years prior. So, the drawing was a composite of those old photos, and took an afternoon to sketch up. After the sketch was approved, which took a couple of days, I painted the pic up in one day. I rather like how it turned out.

Watercolour and gouache on watercolour paper.

My book won an award!

2006-10-24T10:49:00.000+10:00

My book won an award!

The Extensive Reading Foundation
2006 Language Learner Literature Award Winners
http://www.erfoundation.org/winners2006.html
http://www.eltnews.com/home.shtml
http://www.seg.co.jp/cgi-bin/kb7.cgi?b=sss-news&c=e&id=652

Gosh!
I've only ever won one award for my illustration work before :¬)
The award isn't a super prestigious illustration award, it's just an online award made by teachers and students around the world ... still, it's an international award and it's always nice when your work gets noticed, receiving a tick of approval, especially when it's a project which I really enjoyed working on ... Oxford University Press, and the editor Sophie Swaine were great to work with. :¬)

Red Apple

2006-08-10T14:50:00.000+10:00

And now for something completely different ... a red apple.
This watercolour sketch was done about 10 years ago whilst I was at Uni. I did it as a quick sketch during a drawing class but it turned out rather well, I think, and I've kept it as part of my portfolio ever since.
I was going through a bit of a fruit phase painting and drawing apples and pears mostly. Whole apples, cut apples, chewed apples ... apples in groups, and apples on their own. Often, I would find myself hanging around the fruit department of the supermarket looking for apples with twisty stalks and dried up leaves ... it became a bit of an obsession. Apples apples apples ... after about 6 months of appling around I found that I just couldn't look at another apple in the same way. So I stopped painting apples and have never painted another one since. My love affair with apples changed me forever.

More Thumbelina

2006-08-10T14:45:00.000+10:00

This is my favourite pic from Thumbelina. This was the first illustration that I did for the book, I was asked to do this illo as a sample before I was selected to do the book by the publisher, Oxford University Press UK.
This scan looks a bit washed out, the colours are actually a bit darker and richer.
You can see a larger version of this pic here ...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/celeste33/211497194/

Thumbelina

2006-08-05T08:21:00.000+10:00

This was the cover illustration of a book that I did last year for Oxford University Press (UK).
Watercolour, gouache, pen & paper.
In this scene, Thumbelina climbs onto the swallow's back and is carried high into the sky.

This book is one of 3 finalists for an award in the UK from the Extensive Reading Foundation.

Paul's "Chamber Music" CD

2006-08-05T08:14:00.000+10:00

Pen and Ink drawing.
The guy in the cello is my ex-piano teacher Paul Stanhope, who is a composer. He wrote a piano piece for me called The Celestial Waltz which available on CD.

Now and then I do pen and ink work ... and when I do, it generally looks like this. Mostly, my black and white work is a lot more detailed than this one, but you get the general idea. I haven't had much B/W stuff published because they tend to end up framed on the walls of my friends' houses, but the B/Ws are my favourites and I'm currently working on the concept of a book in this style.

The Wild Swans

2006-07-21T13:23:00.000+10:00

Here is a close up of a painting which was part of a set I painted for my Masters.
This pic portrays the moment in The Wild Swans story when night falls and the 11 swan brothers turn back into human form. They are flying across the ocean carrying their sister Eliza in a net, but they must spend the night on this rock until daybreak when they turn back into swans before they can complete their journey. Here they stand on the tiny rock, arms locked, in a circle with Eliza in the middle, while the storm lashes around them.

The swirling wind and wave curls were inspired by Cypriot pottery, as was the general colour pallette of yellows, greens, browns and blues. The fish at the bottom looks contemporary and cartoony, but is actually based on a 14th century drawing of a fish that I encountered on a piece of Cypriot pottery whilst work on an archaeological dig.
The pock marks in the sky are the result of the heavily textured paper ...a very beautiful effect, but it was extremely difficult to paint finely on paper like that.

Approx A4, watercolour and gouache on paper.

You can see the complete painting here ...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/celeste33/194442291/

Lily and the Puzzle Cat

2006-07-20T13:14:00.000+10:00

This is a close up of an illustration that I did for a fairy tale book called Lily and the Puzzle Cat. The book ended up not being published, so the pic is framed in my house. It's probably the most detailed painting that I have ever done in recent years. I loved painting Lily's dress fabric, there are 17 layers of paint in it ... I've used the technique several times in other illustrations since doing this pic.

This illustration is one of my all time favourites.
I would love to do a whole book in this style, but it would probably take a complete year.

Watercolour, gouache, paper.

You can see the whole illustration here ...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/celeste33/193683582/

The Traveller

2006-07-19T08:09:00.000+10:00

I did this illustration for an educational children's book a couple of years ago. It was an Aesops folk tale called Two Travellers and a Bear. In this scene, the Traveller is lying on the ground pretending to be dead, whilst a bear approaches and sniffs him, with nostrils flaring and mouth watering. Eventually, the bear moves on, and the Traveller survives.

I was experimenting with collaged squares at this time. I only used the collaged technique a few times, but I rather like it and I might return to it.

The Journey

2006-07-18T09:26:00.000+10:00

This watercolour painting has seen many incarnations over the past 10 years.
It started off as a biro doodle which I did in a rather dull Art History lecture at Uni. Next, it became a B/W scraperboard pic which was made with scratching tools, then it was a sculpted ceramic tile, then a watercolour painting with different colours, a second watercolour pic with a dark stormy sky painted into a wooden box for an archaeology exhibition, a smallish sunny cartoon watercolour and pen illustration for a government booklet about sustainability, a large A2 watercolour illustration of a bigger boat carrying four people in a starry night sky for a children's book, and then finally this picture which is just for me. :¬)

This picture shows the beginning of a journey.
The boat has been pushed into the sea.
The wind blows strongly, snatching leaves from the tree and sending them on a journey of their own.
The woman stands at the rear of the boat, holding the mast, while the man sits in the front with their cat (modelled by my cat Jimmy), behind the man is food stored in amphorae.
The boat has eyes at the front, to help guide them through stormy weather.

The Birdwoman Meets Her Lover

2006-07-17T14:15:00.000+10:00

Here's another pic from the 2004 Birdwoman exhibition series.
In this illustration, the Birdwoman meets her lover in the forest. For me, this pic was a bit of a love fest ... indulging myself in one of the things which I simply love to paint, gorgeous luxurious brocades inspired by the 18th century Indian clothing of royalty.
The flower and tendrils represent life and journeys ... one of which becomes a life giving stream of water carrying fish. The birds represent messages and song, the church is the sanctuary, as is the birdhouse with a bird peeking out. The ladybirds bring good luck, and the egg in the middle of the flower arched over the couple protectively, speaks of fertility. The lace on the cuffs of the Birdwoman are shaped in hearts, as are the vine leaves on the right.
The cat is my cat Jimmy and is wearing goggles for no reason at all other than a moment of whimsy. Whilst at the exhibition, I asked a child why the cat was wearing swimming goggles and she replied "He wants to catch the fish!" ... I wish I had thought of that!

My favourite thing about this picture is his large hands ... I love them!

This pic is approx A4 in size. Watercolour and gouache on paper.

The Birdwoman as Lakshmi

2006-07-14T14:32:00.000+10:00

This was part of a series of paintings which I created for an exhibition entitled The Birdwoman.
The exhibition followed the life of an imaginary character who lived a forest alone with nature. The paintings documented the character's life - her loves, her pastimes, her dreams.

In this painting, the Birdwoman manifests herself as the Indian Goddess Lakshmi. I had just returned from a trip to India where I had visited a miniature painting school in Udaipur, Rajasthan ... there, I had seen many paintings of the goddess Lakshmi, so I guess this was tribute to that experience.
Here we see the Birdwoman with the lotus bud of potential held in her hand, and another larger lotus curved gently over her head like a protective arch. She steps forward to the future on a path which becomes a stream of water - the power in life ... but she turns her head back to feed the hungry birds the love which emanates from her being.

There are some photos of the exhibition space here ...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/celeste33/6480054/in/set-168260/

Beginnings

2006-07-14T14:26:00.000+10:00

This is one of early pencil drawings. It shows an old man on his death bed.
I did it in 1979 when I was 16.

In those times, during my teenage years, I did a lot of drawings ... 100s and 100s of them, mostly lead pencil on paper. I also did a lot of gouache paintings, which was my most used medium until I went to University and changed to Watercolour.
Since that time, watercolour has been what I work in most of the time, but I rather like black pen work as well, and these days my watercolour paintings are combined with gouache.

In 1995, at the age of 32, I commenced a Bachelor of Graphic Design, and I stayed at uni until 2000, when I graduated with a Masters in Illustration.
I work now as a children's book illustrator and I've had about 20 books published, mainly in Australia where I live, but also in the US and UK. Occasionally I do some advertising work too.
Oh, and I teach piano ... I've been doing that for 24 years, so I kind of forget about it sometimes, it's a bit like brushing my teeth, just part of my day and not a really career thing.

Studio

2006-07-14T14:01:00.000+10:00

Well, here we are, at heart of where the day dreams begin.
The drafting table.

Actually, I took this photo last year, when my desk was a lot neater, but let me take you on the tour anyhow ...

Starting from the lower left corner and moving clockwise ...
Sketchbook - I picked this book up in Rajasthan, India. It has an embroidered cloth cover.
Work journal and a couple of books - a 1960s book of roses, and some fairy tales illustrated by my favourite illustrator Errol le Cain.
Lamp - holding cancer foundation magnet (my mum died from cancer), a sachet of lavender and Dana Scully who keeps the bad guys away from me.
Radio/CD player
Water container for watercolour (white pot with pink flowers)
Glass of Coke
Gouache paint tubes
Wooden caddy with paintbrushes, drafting pens, stapler etc
Wooden caddy with writing pens and pencils.
Bottle of Gum Arabic
Plastic container with multicoloured paper clips at rear
Marble statue of Ganesh surrounded by crystals and flower offerings for the day
1860s Staffordshire Jug with paintbrushes, rulers and lavender from my garden
Watercolour paint tubes in yellow sugar bowl
Grey book - Beatrix Potter's the Tale of Johnny Town Mouse
Stack of CDs - music from India, U2, Il Divo
Bird's nest from my garden
Paint pallette plate
And in the middle is the brief that I am working on

That's it