First Day in Bello

G'day
Everett and I are now in the lovely coastal town of Bellingen. It's a bit warmer here than Sydney but not by much. I nearly froze my fingers off this morning painting the Wharf St. Bridge. From my vantage point I had a beautiful view with light trickling across the water and highlighting the bridges ridged feature. Though it is winter, the gum trees were still full of color, which easily reflected off the rivers glassy surface with olive shades of silvery green--a strong contrast to the European trees of red and yellow. A bit of morning fog still lingered near the banks, hiding in the shadow of the trees and the Australian Great Dividing Range stood in the background like a sleeping Giant. The scene was simply amazing, yet sadly my painting was not. It still needs a bit of work. I don't think structures are my thing. Too many strait lines. I enjoy the free flow of clouds and waves with the occasional sail boat or two. Hey! that sounds like the painting from Manly Beach I whipped up before we left Sydney. What do you think? I might have to touch this one up as well. I'm sort of learning to paint waves as I go.

Well, Tomorrow Everett and I will be starting our first day WWOOFing together. How exciting.

And I will be sure to post the bridge painting as soon as I have finished it.

Take care.

First Blog

Hello,

This Journey started a few weeks ago in Jindabyne, NSW where I was first introduced to oil painting by the landscape artiest, Alan Grosvenor. The first lot of my paintings were done there in the Snowy Mountains with Alan. He gave me a few lessons on the importance of color mixing and composition, we painted a boat(left), and i was hooked! Eager for more, I spent the following two days in his studio slapping paint to canvas creating puddles of mud and the occasional work of art. I quickly learned to plan my attack prior to poking color around. Alan could tell that I was enjoying myself a little too much and that he wasn't getting his studio back anytime soon. So, in an attempt to liberate himself, Alan set me up with one of his old paint kits which contained everything I would need to destroy the world.

Since then I have Traveled to Sydney to meet my brother Everett who has come out to see the country. Tomorrow we will be heading north to Bellingen to WWOOF. I hear it's a lovely place. I will paint you the area when we get there.

Until then

Leighton