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A Little Time Alone

Posted on by Sandy Webster

I akangaroo bones in drawingm cherishing the time alone at a friends home in Medlow Bath, a town west of Sydney and perched in the Blue Mountains. The yard is full of gum trees, vegetable gardens, black cockatoos, sunshine and a bower bird with the most amazing collection of bright blue plastic clothes pins. My laundry is finishing up in the washer and ready to be dried. The watercolors made of Australian soils are laying next to the sketchbooks, carved wood blocks and torn sheets of printmaking papers. It is time to record more of Australia, try to get down on paper what makes this country so magic for me.

Tomorrow I am moved closer to the location of my last two workshops here in the Blue Mountains and just like last time, I miss the country before I have even left it.

farm sketching
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The Land of Australia

Posted on by Sandy Webster

ochre in Bacchus Marsh
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I am making watercolors from these beautiful colors of Australia. After this trip there will likely be close to two hundred recorded memories via color. These are near Bacchus Marsh in Victoria and when I use them later in my studio I will think of the basketmakers who shared this area with me.

Back at Baldessin

Posted on by Sandy Webster

Baldessin pigments
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I have settled in here at Baldessin Press Studio in St. Andrews. The Gite Cottage is complete, comfortable bed, Australian wines in the refrigerator or on the counter, fresh bread from the Saturday market, mushrooms and other produce ready and waiting to be tossed into a meal. But the best part has been the students for two days of making earthen pigments into watercolors and then using them in white line wood block prints. Kangaroos hop through the yard and birds of extraordinary color and sound move through the Eucalyptus trees. It is a bit of heaven here.

After a full week of teaching in Halls Gap by the Grampians Mountain Range with wonderful energetic and adventurous students, I have found it no different here. The Australian student is simply put – game for anything – and I come prepared to learn so much from them. I am forever feeling that I am in debt to those who want me to come back time after time. Thank you so much, Janet, Vanessa, Marion, Tess and all those who sign up for the classes they offer.

The First Impressions

Posted on by Sandy Webster

eucalyptus drawing melbourne
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I have noticed that in all the sketchbooks made for documenting my experiences and impressions of being here in Australia, almost every single one begins with a drawing of an Eucalyptus leaf.  To me it is the quintessential embodiment of the land down under. And they are so accessible. They are everywhere in all sizes and shapes. Those graceful lines that curve gently downward from such delicate stems that seem too thin to support them. Their colors range from the most dusty of grey greens to the palest of rose through all the shades of yellow ochres.

Some like these will have tiny dark spots ad some have perfect little round holes that pierce through the tough waxen leaf along either side of its center vein or on an edge looking like some small creature took a bite and said, “No, not this one.”

I would be happy doing nothing but spending my five weeks here just trying to capture their grace on the page. But there are students to meet and stories to hear and wine to drink. I will show you more drawings as I turn the pages and record the special things with pencil, brush and watercolors made from the land of here.