Jessica Blythe: Art Studio | Arts and entertainment

Jessica Blythe: Art Studio

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25.01.2022 After reading the catalogue for the Pre-Raphaelites exhibition at the NGA I was surprised at how many 'policy decisions' (realism, narrative, figurative,colourful) that I use, have their source in this 19th century style. Not really surprising though as I have been exposed to this kind of work for a long time. These guys were illustrating my books since childhood and I guess were even my inspiration for taking up art in the first place. I'm booked to see them in the gallery very soon. (Yeah, just in time for a cyclone!@#$%^%$#).

24.01.2022 Progress report on Rainforest watercolour: I have it all set up to finish it over this weekend.

24.01.2022 Here's the bird sound experiments I did in ink. The Currawongs come in groups around 15 so a wide variety in sounds. The 'look at you" and the "annoying" birds haven't been identified yet. The Orieole is amazing to create. Say the word and that's the bird sound. And we all know the whip bird. I hope you will try these yourself and post your experiments here to share. You can use pens, crayons, paint or whatever you like. If you are local you should hear these birds everyday. Try it!

23.01.2022 Feeling really depressed about the massive wildlife (flora and fauna) in bushfires, so after locking myself away in my own self care for awhile, I asked "what would make me happy while brightening up someone's day"? Answer: I started a new rainforest painting to let people know just what has been lost. Now that's not easy to do with all my art stuff packed up ready to move. I'll post some photos of progress once my internet settles down.

21.01.2022 I'm on a journey with my new website navigating templates for responsive pages (ones that respond to size changes for laptop/tablet/phone). As Adobe software has aged, it's become more complicated and moved onto Cloud, so I'm trying to create with outdated software. Ho hum! that's the tech world we live in. I'll get there in the end. The website coincides with a new business idea and both have to come together at some point so this will take some time. Roll on Life! I did enjoy the rain. I can use water without counting every drop now Hooray!!! Today I had a wallaby sitting in the grass outside my window until a silly bird flew in and freaked him out. He's gone off to graze elsewhere now.

20.01.2022 My website should be actually offline sometime this week for major structural change. Then incrementally, New pages will be uploaded as they are completed. There's a LOT of new information on summerthoughts and beeblossoms, but jessicablythe.com.au will be much the same until end of the month.

20.01.2022 Well like most of us reeling from carona virus ridiculousness, I've had enough news reports full of politicians, health professionals and economists ranting and raving to last me a lifetime. Its has been months since I have been able to put all this crap aside and clearly see MY path forward. And today it is just a glimmer. I have had a watercolour rainforest on my desk, but I can't seem to finish it. I have good news on my health score - getting back to a physical level I e...njoyed in the past (gardening, swimming in creeks and walking the hills), so feeling refreshed on that score. I am finding it difficult to concentrate though, but trying hard nonetheless. I'm aiming for a plein aire session this week (somewhere to hideout from the virus police) and am so grateful to still have my property. I pulled my paints out from storage, dusted them off and set up my easels again in the loungeroom. My car is cleaned out ready to take my plein aire baggage, so let's go! Fresh air, mind clear of news items and land washed clean from recent rain. Painting here I come. See more

19.01.2022 I made the comment to a friend that I was grateful to have my property at this time of Lockdown because the sky is still blue and the birds are still singing. So I got out my inks and paper and really listened to the birds. They've shifted into sunshine these days (further away from house) but I can still hear them. I've taken to running to my inks when there's an interesting sound and trying to capture the sound onto paper. I'll post my experiments when I open my big compute...r later. There is so much to capture. What does a squawk look like on paper? How to differentiate between tinkling bell sounds (silver cerulean) and deep quarks of a crow? Very interesting exercise. The Oreole bird makes the same sound as we do with the word. Amazing? Yes! Now how do you put that into 2D on paper with colour, texture, tone and line. Wow! This is what art is about. Wonderful problem solving. Why don't YOU try it and post your experiments here so we can share ideas. That could be very interesting. :-) See more

18.01.2022 Well the Cethana painting wasn't accepted for hanging in "Anthropocene", so I'm entering it into the 2020 Glover Landscape prize for Tasmania. In the meantime, I'm continuing to sort and pack up ready to sell my property. Now I have a new car I can also continue working on the Headland series with renewed vigour. Life has been a little depressing lately, shifting boxes, throwing things out and watching my beautiful things go into cardboard boxes.

18.01.2022 Love this magazine, so podcast looks good too

17.01.2022 Well I lost my website the other day. I tried to fix it but had to contact my web host, Smallpond.com.au who found it again. His solution has opened up a whole lot of new possibilities, so I'm hitting the computer over coming weeks to create not one but 3 new websites. Most will stay the same for a few weeks but If you find errors, email me or just check back later. There will be staged upgrades for awhile. Rose's message should remain onsite, opened from the blue box at bottom of the jb website. Available on her birthday.

13.01.2022 I'm making good progress at last. Those trees are not finished and I have plans for the ground area behind the house. I'm pleased to get back to work. But great progress on figure and foreground. Feeling much, much better. Yeay?

12.01.2022 Well I missed the deadline for the Glover prize for the Cethana painting, but there's another prize due in June that I'll try to meet. "Anthropcene" is the theme - people's impact on the natural world and that fits my Cethana theme well. So here goes!

11.01.2022 Well my website was down for 2 weeks before my webhost bothered to address the problem, so I transferred to a new webhost and am, at the moment, trying to get old webhost to let my files go. I've started a new website with totally new information but the old jessicablythe website is offline. Won't be long as my new webhost is wonderful and addresses problems within the hour. Why did I put up with that old webhost (grumpy old man) for so long? We are talking days for the new one to be released. Watch this space. :)

11.01.2022 So much to do..... I've made progress on the Headland Project selecting views of local headlands which I will paint later and getting ready to update my wordpress blog /art_thoughts. I also need to update my two websites as I've made changes to my product lines. Nearing completion of packing too. My recent visitors seem to like it here.

10.01.2022 Well thank you Bob Ross and the ABC for showing his Howto.videos from the 1980's. I loved his work, looked him up, discovered Magic White and tested his theory. As Bob would say "Fantastic"and "Fun!" Here's the progress report for my first painting using his technique. Magic White is a brilliant process. I finally found fireflies around my house after 20 years of looking so I couldn't wait to paint them. This is Fireflies 2: with Scorpio, Jupiter and Saturn (and oil paints are notoriously difficult to photograph). Watch the line of trees against the sky change and hopefully you'll find some stars of Scorpio and the planets Jupiter and Saturn.

08.01.2022 Well here it is. "Cethana, Spring 1974"...finished. Thanks go to Malcolm for getting me back on track and valley folk for support along the way. It is destined for the R&M McGovern's "Anthropocene" competition in Ringwood Vic in November. "Anthropocene" is about significant human impact on ecosystems/geology. If I'm chosen for hanging, I'll drive down in November and take a proper holiday.

07.01.2022 This painting is about my siblings who, as part of the "Back to the Land" movement of the 70's, moved to a bush block in NW Tassie and set about making their home. Some in the movement went onto the Franklin Dam demos and saved much of Tas forest. Irony is many of these folk (incl my siblings) were chopping down trees to build their homes, setting up windmills to drain off spring water and introducing goats to eat the blackberry weeds. Further irony is that this area gave birth to Permaculture too - very conflicted message, but I think my painting sets the scene. Hope you like it.

05.01.2022 Progress report on Rainforest painting; 1st and 2nd layer The light for photo is quite different. progress shots only.

04.01.2022 jessicablythe website is back up. I will replace summerthoughts with seasonalnature.com.au and build a new blog in the weeks ahead. seasonalnature will be updated slowly as I edit the mountain of material. I'll be uploading all the general info from my defunct Spirit of the Seasons diaries. A new independant section is nearly finished for The Open circle.

03.01.2022 I've had to take time off after Canberra as my health declined till the crisis landed me in emergency surgery on Mother's Day. Fortunately my years of good food brought me through. I'm on an excellent weightloss diet but my poor liver couldn't cope with eliminating 1kg bodyfat per week. The good news is, after recovery, I should do much, much better. So back to work painting, but I've been thinking about healing the Family tree by acknowledging those little souls lost through miscarriage, stillbirth etc. I've done up the first rough draft of a major painting while I finish Cethana Tas. And prepare to move house.