Wesak Full Moon

The Wesak Full Moon in Scorpio
women being influenced by the rays of the Full Moon
old woodcut print of unknown provenance on the front cover of “The Lunar Almanac” by Rosemary Ellen Guiley 1991
the heart of a pitcher plant in the Melbourne Botanic Gardens on Saturday
all the traveling has been fun but it’s time to get my feet back on the ground with a huge week of gardening and hope to get back to drawing Beauty very soon!

a tropical interlude

the spirit keeper of Dragonglass Studio in far north Queensland
the Dragons Blood Tree that has formed a 7 branched mandala crown
the  circle in this magic stone was carved by Mother Nature
contrasting textures of bark and aged paint on wood
Nyleta Wetlands
this photo was taken from a two story hide you can read more about this magic place here
a ten day old orphaned red flying fox at the Bat Hospital
the bat burrito is designed to make the baby bat feel safely wrapped in his mother’s wings whilst holding onto the rubber teat so he won’t fall off in his dreams of flight
read more about the Bat Hospital here
These cycad seeds look like dragon food
the best girlfriends in the world
a tropical paradise
now it’s time to get my feet back on the ground and back to drawing those crows!

Rough Beauty

Beauty in process on a big thick sheet of the richest black Somerset paper.
This morning as I was working on the space & the bars of the rain Jude Hill posted  her  Early Planting Moon and made me think about how often when the world is at it’s most shakey that’s when the focus comes true straight from the heart, trying to draw these lines with shaking hands & getting there!
here’s the roughs from the past few days in preparation

beginning of Beauty

here’s the first rough sketch in soft white pencil for the next Old Man Crow song Beauty (just click on the link to listen)
Jackie Morris has given me permission to use this fabulous photograph of Merlin one of the 7 ravens who live in the Tower of London
you can read all about Jackie’s meeting with Merlin, some friendly wolves and even the crown jewels here
will work with black paper this time using Titanium White Golden fluid acrylic, Dr Ph Martin’s bleed proof white and white coloured pencils with black calligraphic ink for those deep darks ’round the eyes and the edge of the wing for the first verse:

“Beauty,
I see it all around
Yeah, beauty,
While a whipping’s coming down
Beauty,
It’s sight and smell and touch
While I’m rattling the cage door,
Kicking at the hutch”

seems apt as although the ravens in the Tower of London are beautifully kept & have a great life, they do have their wings clipped as we all do in some way or another…the wing will morph into a vision of the night sky… with a crow perched on a Sputnik-like satellite for the line
“Put me on a satellite
Shoot me into space”
It’s a fairly complete vision already totally sparked by Jackie’s great photo now I just have to work at getting it right!

Inconsequentiality is finished for now!

Inconsequentiality is finished for now, just click on the pic to take a closer look.
Came very close to cutting out the black crow king in the foreground to leave a black silhouette but heeded a good friend’s wise words to just let it go and put it away for now & so I have. The next song is cooking already, inspired by Jackie Morris’s fabulous photos of the raven “Merlin” in the Tower of London.
To have a look and a listen to the “The illustrated Lyrics of Old Man Crow” finished so far just click here.

Inconsequentiality is almost there….

Inconsequentiality  is almost there…
just click on the link to have a listen to Old ManCrow’s song & on the pic for a more detailed view
just a bit more fiddling with the light and shade & it will be finished by the dark of the moon this weekend.

Inconsequentiality in process

Halfway along with illustrating Old Man Crow’s song from around 1985 “Inconsequentiality”
(just click on the pic for a bigger view)
you can listen to it here
Inconsequentiality 031004
focusing on the line-
“I said I know that all of us are pawns in someone’s game
It’s just it makes me feel a little edgy all the same”
you can read all the words in Rod’s Shed

there’s still quite a long way to go with balancing all the lights and darks,
am loving getting back to using black ink, the bold lines are made with this fabulously flicky glass pen my friend Dotti bought for me from Parkers Art Supplies in The Rocks a treasure trove of every kind of paper paint, brushes, pens & pencils imaginable.
The chess board has been borrowed from Tenniel’s illustration for Through the Looking_Glass by Lewis Carroll