Seasons Greetings with Best Wishes for 2020!

Seasons Greetings with Best Wishes for 2020!
Mo & Rod (aka Old Man Crow)

digital print of moonsong Mo19
printed on Hahnemuhle Photo Rag Satin 310 gsm
mounted on Canson Edition Antique White 250 gsm paper
edged with knotted & stitched cotton string & cotton rope bound with no 18 natural linen thread

PS it’s December 19th, 2019 my iMac is giving up the ghost
to quote Captain Lawrence Oates of the Antarctic ( but not so heroically)
“I am just going outside and may be some time.”
x fingers will see you with a new confuser next year!

Seasons Greetings!

Xmas 18 I dream of a world where love is the answer photograph of graffiti in Newtown by Rod Morgan
embellished with white ink & stitched antique vellum parchment star (1812) by Mo print edition 163
all the xmas cards are posted, the year is nearly gone & the Silly Season is upon us
with deep gratitude to the worldwide circle of wonderful women and two good men making this dream come to life

with just over two months to go all the pieces of the puzzle are falling into place, we have 12 days off in a row from tomorrow lunchtime, will celebrate the Solstice on Saturday, catch up with friends, go to the beach, read, relax, then take a deep breath and ride this wave of love into 2019!
the Queen of the Night flowered last week
the spent flower with the garden angel
namaste

The Solstice

Honesty Mo17
may you have a suitably Silly Season, a magic Solstice & wonder-filled New Year!
Michael Leunig is a national treasure, his cartoons have kept me almost sane for nearly 50 years!

Seasons Greetings

Honesty Mo16

it’s 3am on this long hot Full Moon night

with best wishes for much magic & wonder!

the crows were calling and there was another feather at the base of the tree
Hakea archaeoides seed capsules
gathering
Actinotus minor (lesser Flannel Flower) Mo15
Actinotus minor flowers, Brugmansia suaveolens ovary, grape vine tendril, emu feather, lichen, passionfruit vine tendril, vintage lace, clay bead from Africa, Bangalow palm inflorescence, linen & silk thread, Moulin de Larroque handmade watercolour paper, Japanese Abaca paper, 3H graphite, Golden Titanium white acrylic, and black ink

with best wishes for much magic and wonder in 2016!

it’s the Silly Season!

It’s the Silly Season, the temperature is soaring & the xmas card is well under way. Each year we send out 150 cards to customers, suppliers, friends and family (you can see the past 23 years of cards here) Settled on the Moab Somerset Museum Rag 300 gsm for printing the photo of Actinotus minor mounted on hand deckled Canson Stonehenge bright white 245 gsm printmakers paper, the red stitches in the corners in the pic on the right were fun but superfluous.
Started very early this morning so all the card backs were ripped to size, hand deckled and printed by lunchtime, here’s some pics in process
the bone folder to score and rip the edges
test print for font & size
smoothing down the deckled edges with a moist bone folder
all the card backs are printed inside & out & photos are ready to crop & mount
it’s a production but that’s enough for today, it’s Hot!
the garden is a cool oasis
Kangaroo Paw at midnight

testing inkjet papers for the xmas card (done)

2 sample boxes of inkjet papers from Moab & Red River arrived yesterday, loaded the ICC profiles and tested all the matte papers for the xmas card
these are the sort of decisions I enjoy making!

next day… the Moab Somerset Museum Rag 300 gsm won hands down, just ordered 2 boxes

need to tweak the colour in the photo file & do some more test prints, then it’ll be time to go into production, we send out 150 cards each year!

the 4 images in the lower row show very slight adjustments in brightness and contrast… that red thread needs to be redder….

Actinotus minor (Lesser Flannel Flower)

Actinotus minor (Lesser Flannel Flower) Mo 15
a day of sampling inkjet papers in house and tweaking the scan in Photoshop to get the colour balance & detail right
have ordered some more inkjet paper and card samples which will arrive early next week, the xmas card is coming together!
there were no Flannel Flowers available at the wholesale nurseries on Tuesday or at the Flower Markets on Thursday
so I bought a bunch of gumnuts and a couple of allium flowers for fun
drawing helps me understand what’s going on…

Seasons Greetings!

‘Grevillea intricata’ by Mo 2014
With Best Wishes for Much Fun & Wonder in 2015!
My bench is back under the window, all the repairs are done inside and out and it’s xmas eve!
Just a few more hours of plant tending then lots of days off in a row with time to relax and read, dream and draw
& go to the beach until next year!
classic Norman Rockwell illustration from 1939
Hope you have been very good this year & Santa brings you lots of goodies!
PS next day, early xmas morning
just finished my second cup of coffee out of this beautiful new mug that Old Man Crow found for me ( well with a bit of help,  I took him to the Italian coffee shop just up the road spotted this one in the shop window and said buy that!)
two of my all time favourite books that I am rereading this week
Jay Griffiths is such a deep hearted, fiercely brave & passionate writer
& here’s a good translation of Federico Garcia Lopez ‘Theory and Play of The Duende’

Summer Solstice and New Moon in Capricorn

Boab Dreaming (Adansonia gregorii) by Mo 2008
Celebrating  The Summer Solstice and the New Moon in Capricorn at 12:25pm here on the East Coast of Australia
This is a good day for focusing intent concerning work related goals for the New Year
I did this painting for our xmas card in the middle of packing up & moving here 6 years ago
here’s Ariel on December 1st 2008, our first day in this beautiful old lady of a house enjoying the sun on my workbench
and a pic of the nearly completed repairs to the ceiling & walls
just needs a few delicately painted spider webs to complete “the ruins of Detroit” feel & I will have my bench back under the window by Xmas Day!