market day

 I was at a market yesterday (Sunday) and i noticed that it is always the same folks at every market. I saw a stall lady eating messily from a lunch box. she gave me an unfriendly look.  there were stains from bird's poo on the glass window behind her. i wanted to take a photo of her with the stains on the glass but her standoffish expression stopped me. I can't even remember what she was selling....maybe posters of the Tasmanian Devil? All I remember was the white bird shit on the windowpane. I made this painting inspired by that encounter.

love is born

 Love is born

With a dark and troubled face,

When hope is dead

And in the most unlikely place;

Love is born,

Love is always born.

- Michael Leunig

Cocky and Dave and Elvis and Geraldine

portrait of Dave

Dave lives down the road. He has the most amazing garden. 

Dave is also a veteran. He has set up a little museum in his house showcasing war memorabilia. 

I once saw him outside the local grocery store during Legacy Week raising funds for the widows and children whose loved ones have served our country. 

I took a photo of him that day and that photo inspired this portrait of Dave.

I can't wait to show Dave his portrait! (UPDATE: Dave loves it:--))

doggie at the window

 

power

 

art school

 

the artist's fault

 

the Arnott family

 the Arnott family is full of eccentric cookies and some nut cases. But I do love them all. 

Len Len and Lou Lou

I met Len again today! And I finally met his pug, Lou Lou! How lovely!!!

I made a painting of Len and his pug (I did not know her name then) some weeks ago and forgot to post it here. Now that I have seen Lou Lou close up, I think I can draw her better!

I am gonna make more portraits of them soon. Currently working on another series of caricatures....can't wait to make more portraits of the people I meet near where I live.

2 free cameras (part 2)

 so I played around with the 2 free Kodak cameras and had no idea how to focus on things consistently. I guess I need to understand them better and only use them in the best lighting conditions! Here are a few shots!

this is one of the few that I managed to focus, when using Close Up setting. I love those dandelions!

this is taken with the 10 mega pixel camera, which has those weird horizontal lines in some of the photos. It is not doing that here, and the colours are pretty saturated, which is lovely.

this looks nice but hey, those flowers are white and pale yellow!  

this is a normal looking photo that came from that weird 10-megapixel camera. I just wanted to show this plant on our front deck, which I think is beautiful.

OK. so the verdict with these 2 cameras that got thrown out - now I know why they got thrown out.  I still like them, especially the 4-megapixel one, and will have fun experimenting with them! BACK TO PAINTING!

self-portrait in green dress

acrylic on canvas, 20 x 25 cm

 

2 free cameras!!

 I found 2 cameras in a box of free stuff outside someone's house 2 days ago on my walk. It has been raining a lot lately and those cameras were wet, but I thought I took them home to see if they worked. And they did! I ordered some new batteries for them and boy, I can't wait for the batteries to arrive so I can go take some photos with them!!! They are small Kodak cameras from 2004 and 2008. Really old! No wonder they got thrown out. I put some AA alkaline batteries in them, and they ate the batteries in just a few shots. I am out of batteries until the better one arrives next week. But here are the test shots straight out of the camera! First 4 photos are from the 2004 camera and the rest from the 2008 camera.

 look at the warm saturated colours! Yummy!

today on my walk

quite nice, isn't it?

Yeah I like it!

the horizontal lines on the image actually makes me think I can do a lot of fun stuff with the camera. This effect happens because the ISO was 1600. When newer camera sensors try to shoot in higher ISO, the images have more noise. But the sort of noise does not look anything like the "noise" here. This looks like a printer running out of ink. And I like it! 

here is another example. It is nice that the colours are so saturated.

 Our lemon tree shot through the window. The horizontal lines remind me of VHS videos. Photos taken in lower ISO don't have this problem. I took another shot in 200 ISO and it looks fine. CAN'T WAIT TO PLAY AROUND WITH THESE CAMERAS!!!

some cats

Mr. Red and Mr. Green, 20 x 25 cm

White Ribbons, 12.6 x 17.8 cm

Big Cat Big Chair, 20.2 x 20 cm

Stripes, 15.3 x 20 cm