This timber house is safe(relatively) from bushfire

January 7, 2013 | 1 Comment


….But many similar houses in Tasmania (and other places in Australia) are no more- a brick chimney, a heap of metal roof sheeting and ash is all that remains. My heart goes out for all those that have lost all of their earthy possessions… but life is more than the things we own… and none of us knows what a day might bring.

Here is a moving piece about one family’s adventures (friends of friends)
www.abc.net.au/7.30/content/2012/s3665494.htm

And a special appreciation for the work of the fire fighters… it is hard to imagine what they do and go through to save the lives and properties of others!

Here in Sydney and my state of NSW we have a ‘CATASTROPHIC weather warning’ with forecast of 43C (I don’t think I have ever seen a forecast like that before … I was in Scotland when we had a 45C new years day a number of years ago)… So stay safe and cool for all my local friends. Say warm and safe for snow and blizzards to those in cooler climates.

As for this sketch… I am starting a little mini project of exploring using my squirrel mop brush and working a lot wetter in my Sketch & Walk each morning. You might remember how I used these morning walks a few months ago to develop marker techniques… this is going to be the opposite end of the scale. I am still planning to work fast (10-15 minutes) and am excited to see what will happen. This regular sketching ‘exercise’ is good to test out what is working and what I need to improve, change, try. It also will train my sketching reflex actions… which is very important to me as I often sketch by reflex in order to spontaneous capture the moment on my page.

Thoughts from this morning:
-I realised that I need to be using fresh or at least still moist paint (and not pans that have been used for a couple of weeks.months)
-Still don’t have a good splashing technique… I do not intend to become a true ‘Singapore Splasher’ but it is a useful skill to have- particularly when , as in my case this morning, I accidentally got some paint/splash on my page while I was working…so more splash was needed to hide it!

1 Comment

  • Anns Art says:

    This is such a lovely sketch. Have watched the clip of the fire…just unbelievable that this going on, my heartfelt good wishes are sent out to everyone having coped and preparing to cope.

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