 "Love what you do and you'll never have to work a day in your life." I love that quote. That is a fantastic way to live your life. In many ways I do live my life that way. I am not conventional; I do not try to do what is, expected, of me. I am comfortable in a mess as long as I can find the things I need and things are clean and hygienic. After all nature has litter around the place and I love the landscape with its fallen leaves and fern fronds with insect chew marks, the landscape and my home does not need to be perfectly manicured for me to be happy. Too much tidyness would cut into my creative time, my 'work', that I love too much to call work. My idea of beautiful hands would be hands reaching out to aid someone or up to their wrists in wet clay or other creative medium. My vision of beauty is different to the conventional. I see beauty in eroded mountains and scars on trees and wonder that people view these things as flaws in people when they give such character. I am certain artists see life differently. You do not need to be a trained artist to feel this deep satisfaction from creativity, there are web programs like slideshow that can help you turn your regular photo collecting into art forms to share. The writer in me has overtaken the painter, and just like when I was a painter I am now turning away work I don’t have the time to do and choosing, only the best assignments or the best businesses to do work for and enjoying planning the novel I hope to write in November. Creative people, never retire, we just reinvent ourselves. Yes, I am a carer, but I retained my creativity, by adapting my talents to those compatible with my new lifestyle. Where I once was, the painter who wrote, I am now the writer who paints. By adapting to my changing needs, demands and environment, I have retained the love for my work. My work is my play, my passion. My sister was a writer, by profession, she also painted, (the reverse of my early career choice), so we mentored each other. She then adapted to becoming a painter, then as her life needs changed, she returned to our early life upbringing, that of working with fabrics. We were born into 'the rag trade', my mother being a fashion designer. My sister now makes beautiful art quilts for galleries in San Francisco, loves her work and is highly respected for it. My family, past and present, have all gravitated towards doing what they love and turning it into a profession. This is a great way to live if you can do it. "What do you love enough to make your life's work and then never work a day in your life?"   I tried a total routine change beginning 2 weeks ago, it has petered out, did not make the 21 days to form a new habit, is not working right for Reg or me. I've had a couple of frustrated that I'm not getting what I want to get done days, and I have two new ideas came to me tonight, one concerns finding time to paint on location and the other concerns the novel I plan to write. I begin a totally more radical routine change tomorrow morning at 6.30 am . No I am not getting up at that hour to exercise, I am going out to paint a sunrise. I have been going to Gym around 10.30 am each morning, I am doing Body Pump class three times a week, striving to build some healthy strong muscle, kick my metabolism up a bit, more effective that taking something like nuphedragen to get your own metabolism stimulated by having more muscle though it does require some effort. I am enjoying it. Having a bit more muscle, is going to help me too when I need to carry my French Easel any distance for an outdoor paint out. J    The finished artwork, The Warby Hut by Kathy Shell is on the left A photo enhanced brighter version is on the right hand side. Which version do you think would be most suitable to make the print? I have received a lot of requests this month to paint commissioned art works. This is my training, this would be my love, but my lifestyle does not allow me to accept commissioned art work now, I paint for the love of it when I can fit it in. I am in retirement as a professional artist The few paintings I now do are entirely 'free choice both in subject and how long I need to take to complete them. This is the only way I can fit painting into my lifestyle, which has changed from being the artist who writes to the writer who paints. My writing takes me across a wide variety of subjects from short story writing, a novel in planning stage, reference books, booklets and articles through to wrinkle cream reviews and my ten blogs where again I can enjoy free lance creative freedom. I write about Art, in this my 'A Creative Life' blog at Kathy-Shell.net Travel, in my 'gone bush blog' at gray-nomad.com Fitness at Artslim.org. Blogging in my 'A bloggers's Muse' at bloggermuse.com My Kathy Shell page in facebook, is where I publish all my blogs. The photo for the Warby Hut, artwork, as provided by one of my Kathy Shell page on facebook’s, ‘fans’. Kathy Shell on Facebook If you have a photo of your own, you would love to see painted,, (if I do use it I always send a print as thank you), then view my Kathy Shell page, and click ‘like’, then place your photo in the fan’s photo album on the left hand side of the page and every time my fan’s page increases,, by another 100 , I paint one of my fan’s photos to ‘celebrate’ and say, ‘thank you’, to my fans. J . Thank you for your support of my gallery items for sale and affiliates advertised products, so I can afford to continue to do E How lessons. My sincere appreciation to all those decent people who do the right thing and respect copyright and support artists who give their time and skills over the internet, by supporting their web sites, with a purchase. Thank you :-)   With beautiful soft artist quality pastels and loving the texture of the paper, I lightly worked over the acrylic underpainting, lightening the sky so it contrasted with the mountain. Show in the side image, I am creating haze over the mountain. I also took this softening with the pale ultramarine blue into the tree line behind the hut, creating an airial perspective appearance of greater distance and at the same time reducing the overall appearance of green as I wanted to create the effect of softer lighting of early morning or late afternoon, much as I had viewed this scene myself. Working in a confined caravan setting I made a compromise on the composition of the finished art work due to the available time I have to paint. I am not fully comfortable with compromising any part of my art standards and that is the reason I do not paint very much anymore. I am very much an all or nothing person. I do want painting to become a part of my new life as a carer though know it can never be what it was when I was the Internationally acclaimed artist with my own multi award winning gallery.  I have 9 trays of pastels with three trays placed in each of three boxes. One box is for my cool colours of blue and blue green or blue violet. I have a yellow to yellow orange, yellow green and white box. Then a red to red violet and orange box. Then within these boxes, I have divided my trays into the dark, the medium tones and the light tones. I find this system easy and efficient to work with and pack for travel.  Working into the shadows over the entire painting, placing dark ultramarine blue everywhere it is medium dark regardless of the actual colour of the object, as I want a beautiful colour harmony for this painting, that at least I have the time to do. I accentuate the split opposite colour harmony of blue blue violet, yellow orange and red orange. I subduing, though do not totally overwhelming the green in the original photo and underpainting.  Close up detail of part of the painting. This is the time in my life for me to share the skills I learned with those who now have the time to pursue painting as a career or lifetime skilled hobby. Painting works better than a herbal phentermine for me, it takes my mind off food and the effect does not wear off, it always transports me to an inner peaceful world, J, no matter how long I have been doing it.  I use a dark orange gold pastel for small areas on the mountain, the trees, and the ground, especially in the foreground and the corners as I wanted to darken these to keep the eye within the work. I have used this as accents on the building and the rough texture of the paper helped me achieve the effect of the colour only on a few high points, not a solid cover. My next bog with show the work at stage four, detailing completed.    Working in the confined space of a caravan, I chose to work in a small scale of A4 size on a 300 gram textured 100% cotton acid free watercolour paper using flow formula acrylic paint to create a simple copy from the photograph - view side image. The paint brands I used were Maimari a very high quality Italian brand. I also have a few other brands of acrylic paint in my kit, chosen for convenience, as they are commonly available.  This shows the small amount of flow formula paints I have placed in my wet palette, my brush box, box of flow formula paint and the simple block in underpainting copy from the photo.    I had fun completing the stage 2, block in of Warby Hut, in acrylics. It was more fun than reading apidexin reviews, lol J and I cut back on my exercise time in order to do it and was not game to do my weekly weigh in this week. First time I have totally slacked off during the 12-week body transformation program (which is nutrition and exercise not diet or diet pill, based)I have been doing. I just needed some creative life transformation this week a great deal more than I felt I needed exercise. Having said that, I remained aware of how the sedentary activity of sitting painting for long hours is not good for an artist’s health. I have seen the effects of a sedentary creative lifestyle on members of my own family and myself in the past and these days I am more aware of the need for balance. I am still working towards this balance. This is the year I hope to achieve a greater mastery of the balance of the creative and physical. Below is the pictures of how I made my own wet palette with a shallow tight lidded container, 1/ a rack goes in the box first 2/ a sponge goes on top of the rack 3/strength paper towel wraps goes around the rack and sponge and the sponge and base of box is dampened so that the top paper towel stays damp but not flooded in water. The paint applied to this paper will stay damp while working. Place the lid on the box will keep the paint usable for days.     The next stages of the painting, stage 3, the refining of the work and stage 4 the detailing f the painting, will be the topic of my next blog.  Janice Bartholomew submitted her photo of the Warby Hut to my fan's photos and I chose it as the winner of the Signed and Numbered 1/25 Limited Edition Print. 216mm x 279mm from the Original Art Work, thay I have just painted from her own photo below. There will be 25 limited edition prints made from this art work, enquiries welcome for pre orders. Two of corse are already 'taken', one for Janice and one for the artist. Price for the limited edition signed and numbered print is only $40. for Australial delivery. The original is on 300 gram textured watercolour paper A4 size and is avalable for $400. including packaging and postage. within Australia.  This is the photo entered into my Kathy Shell facebook page, fan's photos by Janice Bartholomew was my pick as the photo that will inspire an original painting by me for me to send a signed and numbered limited edition print from the work to the provider of the photo. Janice I need to organize the prints, this takes a while, just like may art these days, but it is happening :-).  I did not copy the photo literally, more 'used it' as reference to work with my own memories of this area that I drove through just over a week ago. I went for a more atmospheric haze and golden glow over ultramarine blue shaddows. Having the images of Warburton fresh in my mind and having camped overnight close to this area and soaked up the scenery in my mind, partly influences my choice, as there were some fantastic photos sent in and some may STILL BE CHOSEN to follow this one, as my reward to my kathy shell page fans. You are invited to 'like' my Kathy Shell page on facebook to be involved in the competitions I run and when the number reaches 200 people, I will draw and paint another fan's photo and forward the signed limited edition print to the winner. International fans may enter my competitions but I only cover the postage within Australia, international shipping cost must be paid by the winner or I am happy to post to any address within Australia, for them Kathy Shell on Facebook  It is high time I got myself some new images of me painting. The above picture was taken back in 2006 when I was a size 22 going on 24 and i am now size 14 going on 12. Problem is I plan to paint at night while Reg my photographer is asleep. Never mind, I will paint by grabbing these private moments when he sleeps, like tonight. lol, talk about being eager for a bad night on TV so he will retire early. I am feeling too tired after the long drive to intelligently blog, (what I usually do while he watches TV), while at the same time I am inspired by the beautiful scenery I saw today and this makes me want to paint more than ever. The tiredness will pass once I pick up the brushJ. People who are not artists often feel that artists are inspired. But if you work at your art you don't have time to be inspired. (John Cage) A Satisfyingly Creative Week. 05/03/2010
         What a fantastic holiday, we have had here at Ballina Beach Tourist Park, with great meals and performance art by, Byron Circus Arts giving lessons on the Flying Trapeze and the great entertainment of live music and stunning fire dance performed by Utopianfire. I am working on the painting of the Warby Hut J. I have done an ink block in plan of the subject on to 300-gram 100% rag content watercolour paper. Other creative activities I have been up to, have involved quite a large amount of creative writing and web design work Oh and lol, does clipping the poodle, count as creative art? If so that is one more art experience I got my hands into this week and I was the receiver of a great style cut and foils, myself. This has been one of my most satisfying creative weeks for this tour. I have enjoyed a very creative week, here at Ballina Beach Holiday ParkJ. Tomorrow we head towards Maleny and the beautiful Glass House Mountains of QLD.  The Warby Hut. Photo subject for my current painting.  I am working on the painting of an old shack in Warburton, at the moment and I do hope to have this work finished next week and the prints ordered before we leave for Queensland. I have a full week at South Ballina Beach where I can set up the studio table and focus on my artwork. I plan to share the work in progress photo story here in this blog. It is happening, even if it is happening slowly, I like to do a good job rather than a rushed work. The photo of the Warburton shack, was provided by one of my Kathy Shell, facebook, page, fans. Any of my fans are welcome to leave a photo on my Kathy Shell, facebook, page with permission for me to use the photo. I will periodically choose one of these photos, to create an artwork from, then I will send the photo provider, a signed limited edition print from the work. You are invited to join my Kathy Shell page, I am not seeking commission work, I have mentioned before that the few art works I do now are mostly to form my life insurance policy as it is what I have to leave my grandchildren to form their art investment collection. I am not actively seeking sales of the originals at the present time. Community Celebrates, Ritchies Hut, Rebuild. 04/18/2010
 What a great subject this would make for an artist to paint. Tomorrow, Parks Victoria staff will be joined by the volunteers with the Victorian High Country Huts Association, the Ritchie family, local schools, and members of the community to celebrate the completion of Ritchie’s Hut. The hut was rebuilt after the original was lost in the Great Divide Fires of 2006-07. The decision to rebuild the hut followed close consultation with the community and was based on the high social, cultural and refuge values of the original hut. “Rebuilding of the famous High Country Hut started in May 2008,” said Parks Victoria Ranger Chris Clarke. “It was a labour of love for many of us. It was also a lot of hard work.” “This was a true community effort. So many people were more than willing to pitch in whether it was with materials, services, or their time. We are extremely grateful for the fantastic efforts of volunteers from the Victorian High Country Hut Association, trail-riding groups, scouts, venturers and school groups who contributed over 2,500 hours to the project. ” The original Ritchie’s Hut was built by the Ritchie family in 1947 at the junction of 14 Mile Creek and the Howqua River, near Mansfield. The hut was built with materials from the surrounding land, with timber for the walls and roof cut and shaped by hand from nearby trees. Ken Birch, President of the Victorian High Country Hut Association, said that many of the traditional techniques were kept alive in the rebuilding of the hut. “We’ve seen a lot of the materials used in Ritchie’s Hut carried up on pack horse. It’s great to see everyone involved in the rebuilding embracing the heritage of the huts in the Alpine National Park.” Parks Victoria’s Chris Clarke said many weekends were spent prefabricating the hut at the Blackbird Hut depot in the Howqua Hills Historic Area. “Volunteers sourced timber from local forests, which they cut into slabs using a traditional adze and broad axe,” said Mr Clarke. “The hut was then dismantled and transported to 8 Mile Flat, where pieces of the hut were carried in by hand, pack horse and helicopter.” “Although the hut’s remote location created some problems for the builders, it also gave the volunteers a taste of what life was like for local designer Fred Fry and the Ritchie family at a time before power tools and helicopters.” Robert Ritchie, son of founder Bob Ritchie, said that this was a fantastic day to celebrate the completion of a lot of hard work by many people. “For Dad and his friends in the 1940s, spending days on end fishing the remote areas of the Howqua was their dream. It was the reason the hut was built in the first place. We’re delighted to see that dream, re-imagined by so many. I, on behalf of my family, would like to thank everyone involved. We encourage visitors to come up and enjoy the simple pleasures of one of the most picturesque areas of the park.” Below is a hut at Warburton that I am preparing to paint at the moment. I plan to show some of the stages of the art work here in this blog.  | Kathy Shell on Facebook What is RSS
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