Inviting and volunteering

My sister has invited her husband and herself over to my house for dinner tonight. My house is a shocking mess - it always is a bit messy but I've been ill with a flu, making fancy dress costumes for Chicky Babe and her friend- I was volunteered for that too- and the dishwasher has now gone out in sympathy with the old washing machine and the vacuum cleaner! ( As I've been paying Bantam Boy's phone and giving him $500+ a month for his gap year holiday I can't afford to buy a new one of either!)

Dishes done the old fashioned way.( Added some time later!)

Must stop wasting time browsing here in blogland and get back to cleaning up the old fashioned way! I also have to shop for food and get to my last painting lesson. I didn't get any extra painting done this week and if it were not for the fact I've paid for this workshop my creative time would once again be pushed down the list.
At least having people coming over for dinner has given me motivation to start cleaning this disaster area!

Bounty bought for tonight's Thai coconut and lemongrass fish soup and Massaman chicken curry. (Two favourites from my Thailand holiday.)

P.S:

Dinner was yummy and my sister bought desert and she and hubby did the dishes after tea too so it doesn't even look like there was a dinner party. In fact I think it looks better than it did before!

Can we keep him?

My painting this week. This little illustration came from my childhood memories. As a little girl I lived in Katherine in the northern territory. I remember having a cat "Tom".

I thought Tom was the most beautiful creature in the world. He was enormous and I'm sure his legs almost dragged on the ground as I carried him about lovingly- around the neck.

He was an outside cat and was never allowed into the house. Looking back with the eyes of an adult but looking through my childish eyes at mothers face as I asked if we could keep him, I suspect he must have been a stray 'moggy' that happened to wander (or maybe encouraged by the loving grip around the neck) into our yard.

To me he looked lovely but I fear he may actually have looked like the cartoon character "Old Tom"

Back in the saddle...so to speak.

I started a painting class today at my local art centre. Oooh it was nice to buy some new paints, a couple of new brushes and bits and pieces and spread them out on the table with anticipation and a touch of apprehension as I always worry that I am kidding myself and I won't be able to do anything at all. ( This is what really stops me at times is a flood of self doubt.) The coffee was nice too, and the Greek shortbread was delicious. It didn't survive long enough to make it into the photo!We started wit the general 'play' of discovering what our new paints could do. This course was advertised for beginners and although I'm not really a beginner, gouache is a newish medium for me and I really needed to make time to begin painting again.Firstly our teacher asked us to draw a landscape of some sort, just off the top of our heads...Then a character that would fit in our landscape. We then came back and painted them after our 'play' session. I quite like this little sketch, it really reminds me of my cherubs when they were little...but I keep using the gouache like watercolour, I'll have to keep practicing. I find the blending of tonal gradations difficult to achieve with gouache when I use it as an opaque colour. Hmmm..I guess I've got some homework to do. Finally we used the images we had bought in to create a slightly larger piece to work on next week. I chose my daisy photograph which is something I've wanted to paint since I took this photo ages ago.

Three hours went by in that lovely dream like rich time state that seems eternal but like no time at all at the same time. I love that state that comes from being totally engaged in creating something. And it is this that is important, I need to remember to paint for myself, for the sheer delight and meditative quality of it and not give a damn if others like what I do or not.

Cat and the crow- painting

Having read Rachel's post asking how mothers in particular make time for their art work I started thinking about how I usually manage to find time to do my art work. I've kind of let it slip a bit with the kids and day to day grind of work. It has been a bit too easy to find my creative time filled with other things and a little crochet to keep the creative urges suppressed.

So after reading that particular post I made a date with myself and went down to the local Art Centre and booked into a course "Illustrating with Gouache" It starts next weekend but magically after having consciously made time for it and paying for my art time, I've got my paints out and have almost finished "The Cat and the Crow- Wishing." (There are a couple more of these little illustrations to come I think.) I started this back in February!

PS: Chicky Babe thinks this reminds her of an Aesop's Fable, she's kind of right it is one of my life lessons! The good thing is as I paint it is seems less significant- No not less significant but a little less painful maybe.