blogging is about discovering your inner voice

I was just looking at Pam Carricker's Artful Blogging this morning and the message is just wonderful (you'll have to visit to find out what it is) as well as Pam's art - so inspiring - people often ask me, 'why do you bother blogging?', and I have never been able to share properly why I find it so fullfilling. I can tell by the blank looks after I tell them what I like about it, that they don't understand what I am talking about. I think you have to be a blogger or have visited blogs to understand. I enjoy writing myself and adding my artwork, but I also enjoy visiting a wonderful network of artists and journalists, home makers and food writers, who share some of their day-to-day creativity online. It's being a part of an online network of people that I would never have met otherwise. A glimpse of life in another country, that would have remained unknown to me. A teacher that I would never have met before. A friend that would never have crossed my path.

"Blogging is about discovering your inner voice, finding your own path, experiencing growth, and sharing what you learn with others." Pam Carricker
Artful Blogging

art offers space

'What art offers is space - a certain breathing room for the spirit.' John Updike

mandala - freedom to grow

This is a mandala based on freedom to grow that I drew, as I was working through Susanne Fincher's book Creating Mandalas.


art junk serenity prayer

I love this prayer I just read at Artjunkgirl's blog...

God grant me the serenity
to accept the fact that I can't make every room in this house a craft room:
Give me courage to clean the studio I have;
and wisdom to know the difference.
Love, Artjunkgirl

click here to see ART junk Girl's blog

art journal

Loved this art journal... on you tube

paper house

Random blogging looking for how to make a cardboard castle I came across this you tube video...

collage a day

Magic Wand image by Randel Plowman: http://acollageaday.blogspot.com/

I love random blogging, and finding a treasure each day... This is the latest treasure I found when I happened across Randel Plowman's blog, A Collage a Day.  Randel sells his collages on his site, and if this one was still available it would be on it's way to me right now.  But it's sold sad for me, I love this little magic wand image. 

art - just another way of keeping a diary


Pot with Indigenous Art by A.L Barlin


The pot in the picture above means a lot to me - it is a pot my father painted. My dad spent a lot of time in Darwin and New Guinea during WW2 and during his quiet times painted and sketched. This is the only piece of his art that I have and it is really precious to me. My dad's pot reflects the time he spent at Katherine Gorge. He told many stories of the min min lights and his time with the local people there. This piece of artwork reminds me of those stories. His words of advice when I wanted to start painting was; 'well do it... don't go to art class, just get some paints and paint'. So I did, and in the process have had lots of fun.

There is a quote by Picasso that says 'painting is just another way of keeping a diary'. I know that the artwork that I have painted reflects my journeys in recent years. I think buying artwork is another way of keeping a diary as well - a piece can really speak to our inner selves as we look at it. Even though it may mean something totally different the buyer than what the artist intended. My artwork shows pictures of homes and Hawaiian women, of prayers and food - I am always fascinated when I listen to what others see in it and how it shows me a glimmer of their inner life.

art plates


This is a plate I painted some years ago now - I learned from Suzi down in Sydney. Suzi now owns a gorgeous Japanese style shop that is adjacent to the The Buddha Belly restaurant (click here to for a online tour) in Terry Hills and is selling some of her work there. If you are visiting there, stop in for a coffee and have a calming walk through the Japanese garden, listen to the little waterfall, chill out in the zen rockery, be inspired, and visit her shop, you'll be in for a real treat.

video by jan phillips on making art



Video by: Jan Phillips.com I saw this on
Creative Workshops.ning.com

food for the soul

collage - first layer food for the soul

Finally found an art journal that can take gel medium and paint.  It came from India, is only $6 and is sold in Target.  I am off to buy some more today.  This is the first layer of a collage I am working on - the magazine pieces came from an old Inside Out Magazine. 

installation piece floating bowls

I was just visiting Alicia Tormey's Blog and was fascinated with the you tube video of the bowls shown here...

relax and enjoy life



art journalling on small canvas
I hope one day I'll end up with an art journal like some of the others I have seen online on you tube... this is a start

Too cute owl to make

I just found this gorgeous scrappy owl to make...

Fairy doors in trees

No great artist ever sees things as they really are. If he did, he would cease to be an artist. Oscar Wilde

I was so glad to read this quote, I went to a drawing class, with a certain local teacher, and we took our sketch pads with us into the wilds of downtown Laurieton. Well we had to draw a tree, gnarly wonderful old tree it was, and as I sat drawing, I started to draw a fairy door into the tree. Well did I get into trouble. "Only draw what is there" I was told as 'he' took my pencil off me, grabbed the eraser, and rubbed out my door.

Poor soul, he couldn't see the door in the tree. (I didn't go back for another class.)

a painting is what you make of it

A painting is what you make of it, besides which, 'Moon, Weeping' has a better ring to it than 'Paintbrush, Dripping.' Robert Brault,