Monday, October 1, 2018

Three New Paintings - All Women.

I had an urge for more portrait paintings and these three women emerged. They all have their own little stories to tell, of course.

Veronica

Marion

Martha
All three paintings are available at my Daily Paint Works gallery.

My newest painting, not quite complete, is in my favorite Trompe L'oeil style, and all about food and wine. Should be finished this week.

Just a reminder: Many of my earlier paintings are available as prints. You'll find the link at Daily Paint Works.


Thursday, August 23, 2018

"Olden Days" -- 19th Century Australian Figurative Landscape Painting.

I had a lot of fun painting this. There is something therapeutic about the detail I incorporate. The work took ages to do, of course, and would have been finished much quicker if I hadn't constantly gone back to it and added a bit of this and one of those. The last thing I painted, before I finally forced myself to say "enough!", was the pigeon on the roof.





The whole time I was painting, I was working out little stories for the people I created. I suppose it's another form of writing, even if it remains only as images.

Thing is, I did say I would spend part of the week writing, and part painting, but that's not how it worked out. I don't seem to have much control in this area, although I did try.

I have another painting in the preparation stage, and I will try to get back to the  novel, really I will. It's just so much fun watching my pictures emerge on the canvas.

And writing, particularly in the revision stage, can be downright frustrating.


In closing -- nothing to do with art or literature -- a very mischievous cockatoo cruelly destroyed a plant I was nurturing in a pot in my garden. My "Silvery Moon" Convulvulus had survived our drought and the cold winter, and promised to bloom soon. It is, after all, nearly spring here. But when I took my coffee outside just now, I saw the remains of the plant scattered around the pot. All that's left in the soil is a stump.

I've put most of the stems in water and the twiggier bits in a small pot of soil -- perhaps they will root. As this sort of thing has happened before, I'm not too shocked, but it is a shame that for the first time in ages we are about to have a good solid rain spell. The convulvulus would have loved that.

Oh, if any of you can recommend a plant that these naughty birds would never touch, please let me know. I was thinking of chilli peppers. Probably too harsh. I used to enjoy cockies in my garden but I think they've outstayed their welcome.

Until next time.

Tuesday, June 19, 2018

Cindy Zoglmann at Daily Paintworks.

I used to post my favorite art at this blog all the time. I became so busy I just couldn't keep it up, but I am making a determined effort to start doing it again. We all need promotion. We all need to know that people are seeing our work. And please remember that your comments are so precious to us. It means we are not invisible.

Today I want to introduce you to Cindy Zoglmann -- gallery name, Zoggie -- who paints wonderfully zany and colorful pictures with a great emphasis on cats. As a cat lady, I adore her sweet felines.





Cindy paints other things, naturally. But I have this thing for cats. Check Cindy's gallery out at Daily Paintworks. It will put a smile on your face.

Monday, June 11, 2018

Latest Painting (I'm on a Roll) - "The Usual Stragglers". Because I Love Sheep.

The last couple of years had a strange effect on me - as it undoubtedly had on many of us. The world changed dramatically. It became far more stressful, more worrying than anything I could recall. I reached the point where I just didn't need to hear the latest farcical news reports even as I was always a news addict. Finally I developed the ability to look at the headlines and move on. I've become a bit of an ostrich. Most shocking of all? CNN no longer holds my attention. Why add to the day-to day challenges we face in our lives? There were some personal difficulties during this time, too - illness in the family, the usual life upsets, and my own self-made, pointless pressures. These were enough  to leave me without much energy to create anything new, and then Global Affairs threw in its two-cents' worth.

I was unable to write or paint. I felt I had nothing to say. What could I offer when things seemed out of control?  I retreated to knitting, watching movies, and gardening, rather obsessively. Oh, and napping a lot. All things little old ladies do, right? Not this little old lady. I was always a bit of a rebel, a little eccentric (ask my kids). I decided this bit of history we are going through was not going to dictate the way I live my life.  I've come back to my first loves. Not so much the writing, although I've been doing a lot of mental composition - sometimes jotting things down, but mostly believing I will remember the ideas, the lines of dialogue, whatever, when I'm ready. But the painting is back. Thank you, Gaia.

It's a relief to know that the pure absurdity of what's happening in politics hasn't changed me. It just numbed me for a while. I actually laugh a lot these days, even if it's sometimes a touch cynical. It's  ridiculous to be ruled by forces I cannot influence (so much for voting). So I reject the hype, the babble. And I am back, ostrich-like though I may seem.  I needed to say all of this today, even as I appreciate that we all have much shorter attention spans than we once had. We ordinary people have so few outlets for venting. Luckily I have my blog. Thank you for reading. I will bore you no further on the subject.

My new painting, "The Usual Stragglers" is lighthearted, peaceful, and calming. I hope you like it. Perhaps you'll smile.

"The Usual Stragglers"
Acrylic on 16 x 20 inch canvas

I told you about my new sales site in my last post, but I've now found one I like even more. Check out my gallery at Daily Paint Works Not only is there NO commission for direct sales, but it also offers an auction service (for a tiny commission), separate "store" pages for sales links to prints of sold work, and a page where I have linked my novels for sale. I've had such fun setting this up, and there is so much at the site in terms of reports, tracking, feedback, etc. I highly recommend it.

I've sixteen paintings listed there at present, including "The Usual Stragglers" above, but I'm gradually adding more. Perhaps nothing will sell - the art market is a mysterious one, after all. But it is pure pleasure to know that my work is out there, available. And I've become a bit more entrepreneurial - I now regularly plug myself on Facebook and Twitter. Why not? If I don't do it, no one else will.

Until next time...


Saturday, May 26, 2018

Finally. A New Painting. Folk Art Cityscape - "The Mall"



I'll never get rich as an artist. So few do. We obviously do it out of love. But I do apologize for taking so long to revitalize this blog. You are a patient lot, dear followers.

Hope you like this new one.

"The Mall"


I hardly ever shop in-store now, but it's definitely more exciting than online shopping. Bustle, perfumed air and people! But I'm getting to the stage where it's so much easier just to press links on a screen. I'm turning into a recluse.

Until next time.

Saturday, March 17, 2018

My Folk Art...Apology and a Reminder

Although I've prepared a few canvases for some new paintings, I have yet to actually start something. I do appreciate how patient some of you are when I see that you've visited, imagining that you probably shrugged yet again at my inactivity. I'm sorry I've been so distracted lately, but I promise there will be new work soon.

The next time I post, I should have some new images on the page!


Friday, February 2, 2018

Where have I Been?

So very long since I posted. I feel quite guilty seeing the date of the last one...where have those years gone?

But I am still here, still painting, although not as much. Still writing, but with less gusto. I have to admit to some slowing down of late.

And this is where it gets really boring. I've been doing rather a lot of gardening. It was always a special love, but it came back with a wham in the last few months.

Gardening in Australia is not for the fainthearted. Gloves are a necessity, they say, so I wear them, imagining one of the million poisonous critters in this country just waiting to spot a bare hand. In fact I haven't come across anything scary. I have a blue-tongue lizard who pops in for a snack around the first month of each year (their mating season - don't know what's particularly mate-conducive in my garden, but it is quiet. Perhaps they like their privacy.) She (I think) wanders in for about two hours, soaks up some warming sun, eats a bit of banana, moves to the shade to cool off, and then leaves. Mysterious. I don't know where her permanent home is.

Cockatoos are monstrous. They are colorful, entertaining, extremely noisy and demanding of food. They sometimes arrive in gangs of thirty or more. If I'm slow to give them some tidbit, they attack the outdoor table and benches, ripping off great shards of timber, or they pull new, very tender plants out of their pots and toss them away. So far I've managed to rescue these and shove them back in the pot. Amazingly they survive the ordeal. It's a bit much when you have to keep checking outside to see what these birds are up to...reminds me of when my twin boys were very young. Couldn't be left alone for a minute.

I could stop feeding the cockatoos, but they come up to the patio doors and peer in with such an imploring expression.

But I do get about twenty very gentle doves each afternoon, looking for seed...which I buy for the cockatoos who, it turns out, prefer people food. And there are many rainbow lorikeets. They seem to eat anything.  I have to confess to a true love of wildlife, and I do worry about them - you know, during heatwaves, stuff like that.

If you look closely you'll see how damaged the table is, that one solar light is bending under the weight of a cockatoo, and the poor first-year Jacaranda tree in the forefront has lost all the top leaves. Thankfully, these came back.


If you're still following this, you can see that I've been off-track for some time.


But, in the last week, I've set up my new art store. I was with Etsy for years, but they became so over-regulated that it became impossible to continue with them. When I first opened my shop there, it was mainly rather small-time artisans who simply wanted to sell their hand-made creations. Boy, has that changed. Etsy become a huge, highly-polished entity, listed on the stock exchange. Just the thought of that put me off, let alone all the hoops the artist was meant to jump through in order to keep selling. Interestingly, I still appear to have a shop, with no paintings of course, with the words - "HafandegFolkArt is taking a short break". As it's been over fifteen months since I declined my "upgrading", this is a somewhat understated.

Needless to say, I am now with Artfinder. I only have around twenty paintings up for sale at present, but it takes time to organize new listings, and I also need to paint some new ideas. But just the act of listing here has brought back the old enthusiasm - that jump-out-of-bed-to-a-new-day that's been missing.

Please, when you have time, take a look at this link to Artfinder. Please let me know what you think.

I just wanted to share with you all, if you're still interested!

Until next time. Don't know when...