Someone to Watch Over Me  Artist: Susan Boyle (Vocals)


When I write I love silence, when I paint I enjoy beautiful light classical music and glorious voices like that of Susan Boyle.  This would be my chouce as studio music.

Someone to Watch Over Me
You Have To Be There 
Unchained Melody 
Enjoy the Silence
Both Sides Now 
Lilac Wine 
Mad World
Autumn Leaves 
This Will Be the Year
Return 
Someone To Watch over Me


Performer Notes
Produced by Steve Mac, Susan Boyle's third outing, Someone to Watch Over Me, features a diverse set of hits, including takes on classics like "Both Sides Now" and "Unchained Melody," as well as more modern material from the likes of Tears for Fears ("Mad World") and Depeche Mode ("Enjoy the Silence").
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When I was a child of four, we had hens and my eight year old sister collected the feathers and together we made these quill pens which along with the charcoal we made for ourselves but making fires in the back yard behind the chook shed, where out mother could not see us, became our first art materials.
Then I did jobs for pocket money and saved up to buy black Indian ink and butchers paper to create my art on and my next tool of trade was to buy a fine mapping pen.  I was in heaven with these art materials.

How to Cut and Make Your Own Quill Pen

First you will need a long feather and you will need to temper it. The best way to do temper it is to take an oven proof bowl and fill it with sand. Put it in the oven for 10 to 15 minutes at 350 degrees.

When you take the bowl out of the oven, remember its hot, use pot holders. At this point, put the end of the feather in the sand to temper it. It will go... from a kind of clear to an opaque color.

The feather will become much stronger by doing this. Before cutting the tip, you need to strip the quill of any feathers that will get in the way of your hand.

When you cut the quill, make sure you hold the quill in your hand to find the most comfortable writing position. Hold the quill away from you and slice at a downward, but not sharp angle. (Think of how a pencil looks after you sharpen it.)

Now you will need to hollow the quill out, a toothpick will work.

Then you will need to cut the slit on the writing point. Be careful. You can easily crack the quill.

You will need to cut a curve in the writing point, if its too long, you'll flick ink everywhere.

That’s it and now you have a Quill Pen, made as it would have been in the middle ages. I still remember the fun in the making of these pens.

I maintain a safe working environment in my art studio and all my students are taught health and safety in regards to choosing art materials from their first lesson.   This is partly why I prefer to start teaching a beginner over an experienced painter, they are responsive to learning from the start and do not want to skip over the all important lessons about how to choose art materials.


Many pigments and materials used in paintings are cumulative poisons.  The effect of small repeat doses of a poison are the same as if you receive a large dose because the body is not able to effectively rid it self of many of these poisons, so the artist needs to be aware of what they are using and know how to safely use materials and also know what to avoid using.

A painting is usually made of coloured pigment in a binding agent, in early days of painting this might have been vegetable gum, egg and oil as in egg tempera, or wax.

Artist Quality Oil Paint,
In recent centuries oil paint has been made by mixing pigment in a drying oil,usually linseed oil but this could be poppy seed, walnut, safflower, hemp seed or other oil that dries slowly though oxidation without discolouring too much to affect the colour of the pigment.

Fast drying oil paint is made by the addition of dryers, these are toxic.

Student grade oil paint is made with the addition of fillers, these distort the tone, colour and quality of the finished work but are usually safe, non toxic substances.

Water Soluble Oil Paint,  is achieved by the addition of toxic chemicals to make the oil soluble in water, I will not use these paints.

Watercolours are made with pigment bound in Gum Arabic.

Acrylics are pigment mixed in a synthetic resin base.

Special Effects are achieve by the addition of chemicals to create Suede and glaze effects.

Pastels are powdered pigment with just enough gum or resin to bind them together. The health risk is increased as there is a risk of inhalation poisoning from breathing fine powder dust, if you choose to use pastels.

In my next are lesson on line I will explain about the poisonous properties of some of these pigments and which ones to avoid using.

No one knows what artist was the first to use a camera obscura. Aristotle described the technique in the 4th century BC. and  in the 15th century AD Leonardo da Vinci wrote a description of the camera obscura, though it is not probable he used such as an artist. It has been suggested (though not proved) that 15th century Flemish painters used it. Some claim, the camera obscura was not invented until the 16th century. We do know that Jan Vermeer and other Dutch artists used this early version of the camera, in the 16th century.

I love to have my camera with me to take advantage of those moments when birds and wildlife come on the scene, moments you rarely can pre arrange. When this happens, an auto focus, with a zoom lenses, compact camera that you have on you, right then and there, like today, when coming home from Christmas dinner, my neighbours the White Australian Ibis were a few meters from my home, presenting a great photo opportunity and a good subject for addition to one of my photos.

All my photos are of course copyright to me as art my art images, I show them for your viewing enjoyment and to illustrate post and encourage artists who wish to have birdlife to add to art works to get themselves a camera that will do the job well.  My choice was a Cannon IXUS 990 and I love it.

I don’t personally use a camera as an aid for subjects I can post, like people and flower studies nor for my en plein air, (on location landscape painting work.