Tomorrow's the Show!

Well, it's taken a while for my Hot Seat Millionaire episode to air, but it will be on tomorrow night (28th) at 5.25pm.

All my friends are very excited and their friends as well ..... so the local ratings for the show will lift marginally for a day.

I was given a bottle of Bollinger by Mr Bliss for Christmas and have been saving it for a special occasion. A few local pals are coming to watch it on our big screen, so it seems like the perfect opportunity to pop the cork!

Talk about 5 minutes of fame!

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Apart from that, I am practicing on my new Wacom pen tablet, and having a lovely time. I have always loved scratchboard art, which is board with a layer of kaolin clay, then a top layer of indian ink. Scratching the surface with a special tool creates fine lines of white.... perfect for creating fur, and anything else you can come up with.

I decided to bypass the board and do it digitally, which has worked a treat. When I want to print some, I will do a limited edition giclee print on quality paper and have a finished artwork. Anyway, here's my first one.

Yummy Baby

A small watercolour of my youngest grandson, Asher
~ a much loved baby boy ~

"A smile is the same as a tight pair of undies, it holds your cheeks up!"

The Pastel Plonkers

'On the Beach'

10 X 11.5cm
Watercolour and Pencils on paper
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It's been difficult getting out in the studio again after such a traumatic road accident, but today I did, and I'm quite pleased with my efforts.

For around 9 years, I have had a group of gal pals/aspiring artists come to my studio on Tuesday afternoon, where we drank a glass or two of champagne and ate delicious nibbles while we worked. We have dissected many problems tabled, supported when times were hard, and rejoiced when they were good.

These days it seems harder to get everyone together on the same day each week, but we're still going. Over those years, we have all become fast friends, and many works have gone out the front door to be framed and hung proudly on a wall.

My friend Pat was the only starter today, but she not only finished a work of hers that had been calling her, she also got me working again.

Our Christmas dinner/ annual celebration is coming up next month, and we're off to a beautiful beach side hotel restaurant to close down another year and welcome in the new.

"You can always tell a real friend: when you've made a fool of yourself he doesn't feel you've done a permanent job."

... Laurence J. Peter

Back to Reality

Well, my birthday week is now over, and the new week begins. It rained relentlessly on Saturday night, leaving the garden sodden, the water tanks overflowing and deep channels gouged into our long sloping driveway. The sheep stood miserably, weighed down with wet wool, and the lambies shook themselves cheerfully to clear the rivulets running into their eyes.

We had loaded a deep layer of mulch onto most of the garden the day before, so the expected rain would leave the soil warm and moist underneath. A timely achievement! It's amazing how mulch makes your garden look finished off, like a rich carpet, enhancing the colours and shapes of your plants. Of course, the added benefits of fewer weeds and less watering throughout summer are very important as well. Even my scrappy beds look cared for now. Time for more plantings..........

It pips me off big time I don't have two hands to do all I would like to. I use a sharpened kitchen knife to circle and sever weed roots single handed, which works quite well, and I can aerate or rake the surface of the soil at the same time. I can't rake, or use a shovel, and that is very frustrating.

My man and I took the two hour Sunday drive down to my daughter's home for a barbecue lunch put on for my birthday. It rained all the way, and the traffic was considerably slower than normal. We fondly viewed the beautiful baby grandson, now sitting upright and playing, cuddled the wonderful eight year old, drank champagne and ate a delicious lunch.

It was still drizzling all the way home.

This week will bring the serious matters of more physiotherapy, and a doctor's visit, but that starts tomorrow. Today, I am dabbling away at my watercolours...........

This is another effort of one I have just done. I have reduced the bright colours, and experimented with watercolour pencils and acrylic inks on top. I like this one better.


On Friday, the Water Water 07 exhibition opens in Sale, with some fanfare. We will go and stay overnight to attend the opening. I am looking forward to seeing my painting framed and set in context with the other works.

This weekend's heavy rains were pretty much state wide, and sparked flash flooding in areas that were under water only months before; the subject of this exhibition. I was visualising the gallery in Sale being under water, which would have been an odd state of affairs............

"Grandmas hold our tiny hands for just a little while, but our hearts forever. "

... Author Unknown

Watercolour at Last

"No matter where you go or what you do, you live your entire life within the confines of your head."
... Terry Josephson

I used to love to watercolour, and won quite a few prizes over the years. Then my Post Traumatic Stress struck and my concentration went down the tubes. Trying to plan, as you must with watercolour, became an impossibility. Suffering 'brain burn', as I call it, means your head goes into overdrive and generates physical pain - not a headache, but an intense burning sensation, causing an inevitable panic attack. It's a feeling you go out of your way to avoid, so I avoided doing watercolours.

I have pondered and planned endlessly to get back into them and now I am having a go.

This is messy, but nice. It is of my beautiful daughter and my dog Dempsey having a bonding moment many years ago. Dempsey is no longer with us, but thankfully my daughter is.

I'll keep going and do some more................

Zara's Teddy

Fresh out of the washing machine - no eye no nose, just lots of doggy slobber, the occasional errant trip outside, many flights through the air for pickups, and numerous times in Mum's lap for a cuddle.

Zara's Dolly

"Think what a better world it would be if we all, the whole world, had cookies and milk about three o'clock every afternoon and then lay down on our blankets for a nap."

... Barbara Jordan

Today's drawing is one of Zara's favourite toy. We call it her 'dolly' to differentiate between that and her 'teddy'. She does know the difference between the two words. Both are stuffed poodle toys, and she has had them for most of her life with us.

This one was given to me by my friend Janis when we got Zara, and she would probably be quite surprised how this little toy has lasted puppyhood and many cleansing trips through the washing machine. She is very soft mouthed and gentle with her toys, and this one has survived with only its nose chewed off. I got to it with black thread and closed up the hole, thinking I might form a new nose, but now the poor thing has only a lop sided grimace left. She doesn't care and carries it around proudly to drop it in my lap so I can have a pretend wrestle with her. She loves it when I make little squeaking noises and pretend it's hiding down behind my chair, only to pop up and delight her.

She is happiest when she has a toy in her mouth so she can start a conversation with me about it. My sock in the morning is a good substitute if no toy is nearby. I have to grab at it as she goes outside to the loo, or my socks and her toys would be spread all over the yard.

Our Wild Child

This is today's drawing of our crazy teenager, Zara's collar. Her breeder likens her to a 'wild child', which sounds wonderfully romantic, but to me she's my 'little nutter'.

She is the dearest, funniest, most affectionate creature I have ever had. She's the first on my lap when I sit down for the evening, even though bits of her hang off everywhere now she's so big. She is full of love and kisses for everyone. She worships the 'Princess' Lily, after copping many beatings when she was a pup. Together they run like the wind around the house yard, going neck and neck like racehorses, stopping to tumble at each other on the lawn like puppies.

When we return home after an outing, the front gates get closed, then I let them out; Connor and Lil from the first run, then Zara from the one behind. Lil, in her joy to be out, always waits for Zara to be released, then chases her mercilessly around the yard, grabbing at her legs and bowling her over. Zara has learned to tiptoe out near me, peering round the corners, expecting to be steam rollered at any minute. If I can, I hold her collar, and lead her out safely, holding on until Lil's ruthless exuberance subsides and peace returns.

Zara is now 18 months old, and we share her with her breeder, Katherine Whitely from Aglaia Poodles at Cannons Creek. I met Kathy 11 years ago when she gave me Connor, my first standard, when she retired him from show at two and a half as an Australian Champion.

Zara's father is the highly decorated Viola Canadian Club. 'Richmond' now has 108 Best Exhibits in Show, and the highest collection of wins for an Australian Bred Show Dog.

Her mother is the beautiful Australian Champion Aglaia World's a Stage

Her brother Aglaia Leaps and Bounds (Gilchrist) has recently become Australian Champion, and is growing into a beautiful dog. I decided not to show Zara because our lifestyle doesn't support keeping a standard poodle in show condition, especially a lively gal like our Zara. She'd be mooning behind the bars of her run, while the other two ran free.

When she is three year's old, we will put her in pup, which we are really looking forward to.

All that aside, she is a glorious ray of sunshine, guaranteed to brighten even the darkest day.

"There is no psychiatrist in the world like a puppy licking your face. "
~Ben Williams

**** As a postscript to this, I have just had a phone call tonight to tell me Gilchrist has gained Reserve Challenge at the Royal Melbourne Show 2007, next to his father, Richmond. Huge excitement!

My Old Johnny Rebs

I am determined to get back to work again, so am setting myself a drawing task each day to try and get back into some kind of creative routine. This drawing didn't come easily, but maybe tomorrow will be better.............



These boots have gone everywhere with on my biker adventures, and are battered and stretched and molded to the shape of my feet.

They took many months of breaking in, ruthlessly tearing off skin from my heels; wearing off protective bandaids to bite chunks out until I bled and hobbled. They cost me so much, I was determined to get them to fit, so fat socks, freezer bags and bandages finally tamed them and they became part of me.

In the rain, the water has run down my legs to pool them with water, sloshing between my toes as I braked and changed gears. On long trips where the soggy weather continued to saturate and freeze my feet, I learned to put shopping bags over my socks and tie the handles around my ankles in an effort to keep the water out. It worked, but didn't look as 'cool' as Harley riders should. Of course, longer boots would have done better, leaving no gap below my wet weather gear, but I never got the courage up to go through that pain again.

Around two years ago, the side elastic began to loosen, leaving the top a bit floppy, so I got very creative and hand stitched a tighter elastic band around the inside edge, which worked quite well.

I am sure they have protected me in the few tangles I have had in my biker history. I also remember the sides of the soles scraping the ground when I rode pillion on my man's old Harley Heritage, which always gave me a fright.

But then, Heritages scrape on everything that require a slight lean.

Well, my dear old Johnny Rebs, we'll see whether the broken body comes back together enough for me to need you again. Time will tell.

"Life is a shipwreck but we must not forget to sing in the lifeboats. "

...Voltaire

Birthday Present for Glynnis

'Fergus' ~ 8" X 10" Oil on canvas board.

I can't wait until Saturday to give this to Glynnis for her birthday. This is also one of my 'small paintings' and I did it this morning.

I guess she'll spot this on my blog, so an early Happy Birthday dear! You can have it when it's dry.

This painting is done from some photos I took of her proud 'cavoodle' daddy, Fergus', whose three babies were born a week ago.

"A true friend is one who thinks you are a good egg even if you are half-cracked".
... Author Unknown

Seaview Morning

Sometimes the light is just right, and this morning it was. There was some cloud cover which seemed to make the colours richer. The shadows are not too stark, but there is plenty of contrast for interest. I was going out to photograph a particularly beautiful area on a nearby road, but time got away again and the light changed, and my feeling of well being.

I was fondly waving my beloved off for a weekend boys-own motorcycle sojourn and took a heavy fall onto the gravel! Needless to say, he continued riding on oblivious of my distress, and I lay there pondering on how youngsters fall all the time and get up and go on. Oldies like me need a week and counselling to recover .........

So a photo of a view from out veranda had to suffice. Nursing a bruised and skinned knee, I staggered out later to the studio and this painting came into being.

The steepness of the terrain still carries good pasture for grazing, and the slopes become 'stepped' by the cattle feet.


This painting is 8" X 10", oil on canvas board, and is available for sale @ $100. unframed. Please email 'robynrinehart@dcsi.net.au' for details.

"Nature is an infinite sphere of which the center is everywhere and the circumference nowhere."
.... Blaise Pascal

The Princess

Do you love me because I'm beautiful, or am I am beautiful because you love me?
....Oscar Hammerstein II

Lily came to us in 2001 as a meltingly beautiful 8 week old, with a pure white coat and eyes as big as saucers. I just couldn't stop looking at her, she was so lovely, and vulnerable. She frightened easily and would leave a trail of 'poodle piddle' across the floor and under the bed, when someone strange came into the house.

It took a long time for her to get her nerve, and even as an adult she would skirt visitors, barking to warn them she was watching them for any wrong move, and would deal with them accordingly.

After observing them for a time, she would then decide whether to approach or not. Some people she would never trust and allow into her inner sanctum, and others, she would put her long legs up to their shoulders and solemnly sniff their faces. That was an honour and only accorded to special people and earned her the name of 'the Princess'.

When our new pup Zara came, Lily bashed her up regularly, just to get her to heel. Every few days I would have to rush outside to rescue the poor frightened pup, screaming loudly as she was thrown on her back in the gravel, and given a heavy dose of 'doggy discipline'.

Finally, they have found some peace together, and they race at breakneck speed around the yard, with Zara now equally as fast as Lil, and I can finally relax and let them enjoy each other.

Couch Potato

We don't allow our dogs on the furniture. Living in the country means there are often muddy or sandy feet, and it's hard enough to keep the floors clean without obsessive washing and drying of paws, let alone our nice leather couches.

Our Lily has developed a sneaky habit of waiting until we go to bed, and then bedding down on one of our recliners. Mostly she is so careful that I would not know, but every now and again, a cushion is dislodged onto the floor, or a throw rug is scrunched down. Sometimes I hear her hurried dismount as I come around the corner.

As we prepare for sleep I now put a tray onto each chair to dissuade her, and it usually works, but I often feel her eying me, knowing I am onto her nighttime habits.

Very occasionally, she makes a serious error of judgement, and gets up during the day. This painting is of one such moment when I caught her. Her eyes not wanting to meet mine show her discomfort at being sprung. But she looks very tucked in and comfortable. Needless to say, I had to keep the standards up and she was hustled off the chair as soon as I snapped her picture.

"From the dog's point of view, his master is an elongated and abnormally cunning dog."
.......Mabel Louise Robinson

Rita 'the Egg Beater'

We bought a small poodle around 1981, and called her Rita, which quickly expanded to Rita the Egg Beater, or Rita the Meter Maid, depending on our mood. She was a Silver Beige, a reasonably rare colouring, and came to us as a tiny apricot shaded through grey. As she matured, she paled off to a beige with dark tips..... a very attractive little girl. Sadly, we got her very young, at about 5 weeks, from a breeder who didn't care for her babies, and was full of worms, and then Parvovirus.

We had some worrying times as our cute fluffy baby fought for her life, but we won, and once the crisis was over, she thrived and grew into an energetic happy puppy, much loved by her family.

She was so vibrant that her Egg Beater name stuck, and her noisy enthusiasm for EVERYTHING made her well known in the neighborhood. If she needed to go in the car, the yapping was overwhelming, and taking her for a walk was somewhat embarrassing, but she never bit anyone and loved whoever was around at the time.

We had two litters of 6 puppies each from her. The first were multi coloured, which gave hint to her mixed colour parentage, and the second were all a glorious apricot.

She lived to the ripe old age of 16, still having loud opinions about everything, and maintained her beautiful lush coat until the end.

Here's to Rita!


'Happiness is a warm puppy' .... Charles M. Schulz

I love to do pen and wash, and have been meaning to get back in to this medium for a long while. I get a bi-weekly newsletter from Robert Genn from the http://painterskeys.com/ , where he offers his moments of artistic wisdom for we passionate slaves locked away in our studios. Quite often I can get a charge out of his pearls of wisdom. This week, he talks about getting out there and using up your last bit of wet paint, or playing with a new idea and having no attachment to the the result. This way, we can pull something unplanned and good out of that fleeting moment.

Sooo, I practised up with some used paper on the other side, and then started afresh. Rita is the result.

This unframed drawing is for sale @ $35, measures around 6" X 6" on quality 'rough' watercolour paper, in Art Spectrum acrylic ink. Please email robynrinehart@dcsi.net.au for details.

Lovely Lily

Having three wonderful standard poodles, and being an artist means I must paint them occasionally, so Lily is the subject today. She always poses for photos with a very pained expression, and it is rare I get her looking happily at the camera. This one was taken with some yummy food on offer, so she forgot her self-consciousness and looked straight at me. Being a white dog, and living in the country, she is rarely tidy, so when she is freshly washed and clipped, I snap away to remind me how beautiful she is on her 'grubby' days.

She is a truly magnificent lady, now 6 years old. I bought her with a view to having some puppies, but she came to me at 8 weeks old with an horrific infection that took 6 months to resolve. I tried twice to have her mated, but no luck. She has just finished her latest heat 3 days ago, and I will bite the bullet now and have her spayed. I couldn't bring myself to before, because I always harboured a tiny dream that we would get a litter. She's getting a bit long in the tooth for puppies now.

This painting is 8" X 10", Oil on canvas board
and is for sale @ $100.
Interested? Please email me at robynrinehart@dcsi.net.au
This painting is now SOLD

"No one appreciates the very special genius of your conversation as the dog does."
....... Christopher Morley

Landscapes

I have never done landscapes. I have always found them somewhat empty and boring. I always liked to have something happening in them ... animals, people, trains, boats, whatever. What does that say about me?

I live in such a beautiful place, and look out on spectacular landscapes every day, so I am trying hard to get going on some, and get really interested enough to keep going. I look at other works and try to find what it is about them that inspires me.

The internet is such a distraction, with so many talented people doing wonderful work, it can also confuse and dilute ideas.

BUT, I have started some small landscapes today, and post one here which I am very pleased with .............

This is a view from a property belonging to our friends.
It is 8" X 10", Oil on canvas board.
It is for sale @ $100 unframed.
Please email robynrinehart@dcsi.net.au if you are interested.

Note: my flood painting is drying ready for its next coat.

"If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away."
...... Henry David Thoreau

'Nude 2' - 5" X 7" original oil on canvas board.

'Nude 1' - 5" X 7" Original Oil on canvas board.

'Green Bottle' - 5" X 7" Original Oil on Canvas Board

I was shopping in town today, and thought I would go into the local Opportunity Shop to see if I could pick up some quaint pieces to paint. The building was quite large and bulging untidily with heaps of secondhand goods.

'What a tangle!' I thought, and began to wander about. After about five minutes, a small, officious looking lady called out to me asking whether I was looking or had some other business. "Just looking' I replied. Well that cranked up the poor dear, and she told me in no uncertain terms, that it was the 'sorting room' and the shop was up the road. The only goods for sale were in the window.

Duly disciplined, I left with what remaining dignity I had and went obediently up the road. I did find some small treasures, one of which you see here below.














This painting is for sale for AU $50 -
Please email robynrinehart@dcsi.net.au
Payment :
Paypal for overseas. Direct Bank Deposit within Australia

'Egg' - 5" X 7" - Original Oil on canvas board

This painting is for sale for AU $50
Please email robynrinehart@dcsi.net.au for purchase details.
Thanks!