What is a Tuck Shop? It is Aussie for a Canteen.

Sunday, October 31, 2010

Unleashing Your Artist


One of the first books which I loved and which would finally lead me on my way was "The Artist's Way" by Julia Cameron. I did most of the exercises and to this day, still write 3 pages a day in my journal. It is an excellent book and very inspirational.

Here is a link to her blog:

The Artists Way by Julia Child

Thursday, October 28, 2010

When Reading Books Is Sometimes Too Much!

Lately, all I have been doing at night is reading books -usually fiction. And I realized, I could be doing so much more with what little time I have at night. Don't misunderstand me, I love reading and reading is wonderful but sometimes you can read too much and not do much else especially if there are things you want to do. Usually, I have about an hour and half before I need to go to bed. So I came up with a list of about 23 things I could be doing that would help me move my art career along.

I won't bore you with all 23, as some of them are not arts related but I will list the things that are. I could be drawing, working on my art journal, coming up with ideas for drawings and paintings, researching other artists' blogs and commenting on them to generate interest for my work and blog, marketing my own blog, creating an Etsy account so I can put up my paintings/drawings for sale, creating my own logo and letterhead for when I actually sell work.

Instead of reading books, what could you be doing?

Wednesday, October 6, 2010

Visual Mandarin

I am now in my 2nd year of learning to read, write and speak Mandarin. On a Saturday morning, I take an adult beginner conversational class and then I sit in on my sons' 2nd grade class. I am hoping one day it will all fall into place if I practice every day.

I do believe that the best way to learn a language is to fully immerse yourself into the culture of whatever language you are learning. But the possibility of moving our family to mainland China in order for us to learn Mandarin is not on our horizon for now.

For your interest, I found this interesting article about Mandagrams which is using visual pictures to learn Mandarin.

Mandagram-Helping to Understand Written Chinese

Monday, October 4, 2010

Pavlova!

What is Pavlova? It is considered the quintessential Australian dessert! It is meringue based, topped with whipped cream and usually with strawberries and kiwi fruit. I only added strawberries to the one I made.


Pavlova, Oil on Canvas, 11" x 14 "
This is a painting of the pavlova that I baked.













This is the photograph I took of the pavlova. Doesn't it make you want to eat the whole thing?