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Oil Painting of a camp fire beside the Robe River, WA.
One of the things I love about bush camping is the outdoor fireplaces  we sit around and often cook our dinner on.

After dinner we enjoy the atmosphere, surrounding the fire, to talk and sit gazing at the stars, especially enjoying the first hour or so of darkness when the flying objects , in the sky, the satellites and if we are lucky the shooting stars, are most visible.

A fire, in a painting of dusk, adds a special effect and many times I have worked for an hour every evening for up to a couple of weeks, capturing the special effect of fire in an art work.

Often I have sat gazing into the fire, trying to capture, the image of those dancing flames, the light and the colour, in my brain, trying to work out how to paint, a near impossible, to paint moving subject.

There is something quite amazing, beautiful and almost magical about a controlled, useful social fire. J.
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Dinner in front of the camp fire that is burning in an old washing machine, inner tub.
 
 
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I have had some wonderful excursions in the Grampians this week. Reg and I have enjoyed ourselves so much we have booked to stay at the Grampians Gardens Tourist Park for another week and we will be putting Indigo into day care, every few days to go on one of the longer bush walks together.
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In the Stawell to Halls Gap Road, there was this derelict house in a rural setting that makes a perfect subject for an artist to paint.

I stopped to take photographs and was amazed that, with the house in such disrepair, the door was still intact on its Door Hinge. 
I loved the Door Handles made from old twisted wire.  
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Reg and I just returned from a steady paced nine-kilometre bush walk, up and down hills. 

The instructions in the map said to ask at the General store in the country town for the detailed map.  We did, and the storeowner was rather vague about the walk, said it had, just been cleared, so it was passable and she had no brochures left. 
We set of, happily, in the direction she said, to go and this was backed up by the information on the map we carried so we were quite happy at that stage.
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As I got within view of the mountain range we were supposed to scale in what was described, on the map, as a medium difficulty walk and rock scramble, I was having a few doubts about Reg’s choice of a walk, I did not think he was ready to tackle it. 
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After four kilometres and still nowhere near the mountain range base, I could see that, the information on the map was incorrect. This was no 3.8 kilometre walk over a mountain range as we had already covered a greater distance than that and I was concerned looking at the steepness of the mountain about Reg’s ability to climb it, so I suggested we turn back.  Reg agreed that was a good idea.  It proved to be a very good idea.
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We were walking back the way we thought we had come, when we got to one of the many forks in the unsignposted, bush track and Reg, wanted to go to the right and I wanted to go left. He was so certain, I let him lead, and I think he was actually right at that point, I am not sure where we took the wrong turn.

I knew there was a main road out on our left somewhere and we could always find our way out, by turning left.  Just the same, when you begin to walk through areas you have not seen before on unsignposted bush tracks I do find it unnerving.

Lol, we were not lost, we just had no idea, J, exactly where we were

 
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We were within 5 kilometres of a little country store, somewhere vaguely to the left, or was that left right or right left?

I steered us left and we found a road, not one we knew, this took us to the main road, not sure which way to turn from there, left or right, we turned right, knowing we could stop a car and ask if we needed to.  Reg by now was favouring one leg, it had been the longest walk he has done since before he got whooping Cough last August.

 I was doing fine, the little bit of anxiety at not being sure where we were, had gone, now we were on the main road. 

Heaps of relief, when the little general store, appeared in the distance. Funny, but as I reached the car, my energy flagged. I felt ready to flop 
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To think that back in my thirties I never considered going for a two-hour brisk walk and healthy portion controlled eating as the way to becoming and maintaining a slim body, no I looked for solutions that took the work away from me. Diet pills, generic adipex, I think are versions of the phentermine drug, type, products I used to pop, hoping they could make me slim.  What a long way, I have come since then. 

 Reg and I probably should have turned back sooner, or not even have gone on that walk when the directions were so vague. I did follow the safety rule of making sure someone knew where we were going, by telling the people in the general store we were going to do the walk and I left our car parked in sight of the store so people would have known if we had had a problem and not returned.

 While the walk was not as we expected, we both feel great now, knowing we had a great exercise session, and we are both steadily improving in fitness each day with the exercise challenges we are giving ourselves. 

 
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I have illustrated this blog post about today’s walk with images of the art fridge magnets I have made from landscape paintings I have done. 

I saw some views,  today, I would love to paint. How will I paint it, Impressionist style or romantic realist?  I favour impressionist style and Reg and most of the public prefer romantic realism. When I begin a painting, the scene dictates to me, how it wants to be painted. 
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216mm x 279mm Landscape Prints,
from the Art of,Acclaimed Artist,
Kathy Shell
Available now from http//www.campfire-yarns.com  website. 
Also available 'direct from artist', at the caravan awning studio.

I am looking forward to the outdoor life again, bushwalking and trekking up hill with my easel and art supplies is more effective than the best weight loss pills, I always  feel I get fitter and stronger when painting these landscapes out of doors and fully recommend, on location landscape painting over studio  painting to any artist. The paintings also take on an extra dimension as you hear the bird song, smell the leaves, feel the breeze and the temperature variations, and use all senses as you create the painting, painting as the human eye sees, rather than copying what a camera lenses has captured.