Recently I did a short course with Christine Wilcocks and Michael Cusack from the Byron School of Art. The course was called The Natural World. We went on a couple of field trips. The first was to Broken Head near Byron. I found a nice spot out of the wind and enjoyed drawing outside directly from nature – something I hadn’t done for a while. I started with a drawing of one of the three sisters.

Then a more abstracted version, which lead to some other drawings and thinking about islands – something that might come out in my work sometime later on.

And some drawing from memory’s of the day.

Also this work with pencil which is influencing my current work heavily.

We then went to Minion Falls. I mainly took lots of photos, but also got a bit free and expressive with some ink and natural brushes.

For the next three weeks we worked at Michaels fabulous big studio in Mullumbimby. To start with, we were presented with some rocks which became increasingly interesting. I enjoyed drawing them and thinking about the relationships between them.

It was a great opportunity to do things a little differently and use different materials. I really got into using white ink, and got a bit more painterly than I have been lately.

Rock with dots

Curled leaf from Minion falls.

Mixed Media – An island??

White Ink is on my post Christmas shopping list.

Lucio Fontana styled Christmas beetle. (With gold pencil)

House paint scratched into.