sky a natural blue canvass

The weekly chore of hanging washing on the line becomes creative playtime when you take the camera with you visually capturing the process and surrounds. It's early morning, often the moon is still high in the sky even though the sun has popped over the eastern horizon. 

A collection of images captured over several early mornings throughout this Winter. 

I do enjoy borrowing the sky as canvass - seeing how objects natural or artificial dance against it. 

hello February

Happy Happy New Year

Welcome to a New Year, here's to a year filled with many creative and inspiring moments.

everywhere, everyday

 enjoyed an omelet for breakfast and popped the plate on the side table

wondered off to top up the coffee pot, when I returned back to the room

 the early morning sun streaming through the window onto the plate caught my eye

inspiration everywhere, everyday

everywhere everyday

I'm revisiting a project I enjoyed a couple of years ago. For a twelve month period I engaged in a weekly project of using the camera to capture everyday moments around my immediate surrounds, our humble home. At the end of the twelve month project I compiled a few of these images together into a book called "A Gathering of Moments" I gained so much from doing the project and it truly does show you that creativity surrounds us everywhere everyday even amongst one's daily tasks. We commence this years project with a collection of kitchen moments including one of the yummy breakfasts I've made recently - home baked banana bread, drizzled with chocolate, a dusting of icing sugar and a couple of scoops of ice cream - a beautifully decadent way to start the day.

rising moon, setting sun

Being winter here we're having shorter days and this week we're also having cold nights & mornings. 

This afternoon we enjoyed one of those sunsets where the moon has risen and the sun is still setting. I like the hues of the skyline that occurs when this overlap happens. I also like the contrast between the bright moon and the lighter sky. It was a good opportunity to practice taking shots at dusk and become more familiar with the various camera settings, shutter speeds and the focusing points in dim lighting.

 an inspiring afternoon

Busy Bee

An opportunity came up for me to grab a week in the studio. 

I've enjoyed working on a couple more pieces for my upcoming solo exhibition.

also captured a few shots of the flowering ginger

and it's visitor

while myself and the bee were busy

my studio companion had a more idle time happily sending up ZZZs 

while I happily cut, sewed, printed or painted

around her

getting up close

enjoying the new macro lens

a new perspective to the weed that has gone to seed

can even appreciate a normally unwanted pest

Very excited to have received an email during the week to let me know that my piece "Platforms #2" has been selected into 'State of the Art (SOTA) 12' which is an annual juror-ed exhibition. This years juror was the talented Sharon Hall. The exhibition will have it's premiere showing at Gallery 159, 14th - 23rd April 2012. The collection will then tour for about 12 months. I've now added an exhibitions page to my blog listing current and upcoming exhibitions/displays which I've had work selected for.  The page will be up-dated from time to time as new opportunities evolve. As the next tour spots are announced for the SOTA exhibition I'll also add these to the page.  

Also here's a link to the very talented calligraphy, lettering and textile artist Tricia Smout. I so enjoyed exhibiting with Tricia last year with our 'Undercurrents' exhibition. And Tricia has been successful with her application for a 12 month Artist-in-Residence at Brisbane's Botanic Gardens - Mt Coot-tha. 

Tricia has started a blog to document her journey throughout the residency and also to keep people informed of upcoming workshops etc. I've also got a link to Tricia's blog in my blog list.

Tommy Toes

We've got back on top of the veggie patch this year, today's harvest was some Tommy Toe tomatoes. They just looked so good I decided to have a bit of a play with setting up still life shots and photographing food.  

Everyday Objects

Honouring Time

One of this years resolutions was to become more confident with using the settings on my camera and take more indoor shots. I've started with taking photos of some of the pieces that were given to me by my Grandma over the years. This series of photos will be called 'Honoring Time' in memory of all the fun times we had together, she was age 98 when she passed away earlier this year on February 22nd.

It's arrived - My first book

 A Gathering of Moments by Mel Forrest | Make Your Own Book

Expand/Expansion

Upon reflecting on one's activities and achievements during 2010, the common element was new beginnings and re-focusing so I'll be heading into 2011 with Expand as my word. My initial thoughts are with the following: expand my confidence, painting skills, drawing, stitch drawing, design ideas in my quilts and collages, expand my print range available through redbubble (maybe even work out how to put some of my prints onto the T-shirt and sticker range they have available), expand my fabric range through Spoonflower  Basically expand to gain confidence and skill with creating and promoting my work.

The 2011 journey kicks off with me putting together some of my photo project images from 2010 into a book which will be available very shortly through Blurb. While putting these images together I've realized that many of my 2010 photos have been taken outdoors so in 2011 I plan to expand my mind and creative eye to see creative shots in-doors as well. I've started with the top photo which is a shot of my husbands drill bit roll. The bottom photo is of our Blue Java Banana hooray it's flowering and fruiting. Looking forward to tasting it, this variety apparently tastes like vanilla ice-cream. 

natural Line, pattern and color

While I might be looking forward to a few days break from the constant rain, the garden on the other hand is loving it. Early Early this morning it wasn't raining so I started the day with this weeks photo project and just focused on taking photos of leaves.  When we start to work on our art projects we consciously or subconsciously use the elements of design: color, line, shape, texture, and form. Mother nature provides us with so many natural examples of these elements. The veins (line) on the leaves form patterns, shapes and texture. For example: the veins of the Monstera Vine (bottom photo) are quite thick and raised creating texture.  So as well as taking the photos I was also able to lay a piece of fabric over the leaf and do a rubbing using "Shiva" oil sticks. The red vein on the Strelitzia leaf is the complementary color to the green. Complementary colors are colors that lay opposite each other on the color wheel - other complementary colors include yellow/purple and blue/orange.

a garden full of flowers and food

My weekly photos this week are of a few of the natural delights that we are enjoying in our garden at the moment following the recent rain. Late this afternoon we picked and enjoyed a bowl of fresh strawberries then picked some corn, Asian greens and dug up some fresh ginger for tonights' stir fry.  

It really is a great time of the year

succulent flower

from this

to this

When I went up to feed the chickens on Thursday morning the flower on one of our succulents had finally opened, even though it was raining, photos were still taken before heading off to work. Our renovator home also included renovating the garden. It's an older style garden with many mature trees and old style plants. As we cleared out the back section we discovered a couple of hanging baskets filled with different types of succulents that had fallen to the ground. We re-potted them into half style baskets and hang the baskets up along the side of the chicken house. The next step is to work out what type of succulent it is - I think it might be the Cryptocereus anthonyanus Ric-Rac or Zig-Zag succulent.

anyone for tea

The Leaves of Pineapple Sage

a bit of Lemon Grass

and some mint

Totally enjoy a good cappuccino and especially love an affogato but I also enjoy wondering around the garden and gathering together a selection of leaves from the herbs we have planted and drawing a fresh pot of tea.  Mints, Lemon Grass and the leaves of Pinapple Sage is one of my favorite combinations, periodically I add a little bit of Lemon Balm.

Enjoy the cuppa and many thanks for the wonderful comments