"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.

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...