Soulsong Art - Australian Wildflowers & Wildlife Art Studio Diary » Artwork

SALE ON WILDFLOWER CARDS FOR CHRISTMAS!

Lyn Weir — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 23:36:02 +0000

I have decided to put my wildflower cards on sale for Christmas. I have now sold out of the older cards but am putting the set of 6 cards above on sale for $5 a set. For larger images click here. Orders can be made from my website found here.

Eat Chocolate and Cry – Australian Flute Music – CD Cover

Lyn Weir — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 03:25:35 +0000

One of my designs – Paperbark – was recently used on the cover for a new CD by musicians Christine Draeger, Lamorna Nightingale and Jocelyn Edey-Fazzone. It is called Eat Chocolate and Cry – Australian Flute Music 199-2009 featuring Australian contemporary composers. As part of the HSC Music course students must study this content and so this CD is designed a a resource as well as for highlighting contemporary composers and musicians.

The CD was launched at the Australian Music Centre in The Rocks Sydney at the end of September – more information about the cd can be found here.

Apart from all of that I do like the concept of listening to beautiful music, eating chocolate and crying!!

Kookaburra Illustration Drawing

Lyn Weir — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 02:15:00 +0000

I have just finished this drawing of a Kookaburra.

Again it is drawn using light washed of watercolour and many many dots made with a fine nib rotring pen.

It is a drawing I started last year and is part of my mission to complete unfinished projects.

I am still carving one of the unfinished projects in my linocut work but am still keeping it low profile until it is completed. But it is exciting and I am hoping to get it completed in the next couple of weeks.

I am also designing a few new things. I have to take regular breaks from carving lino and so am mixing it up a bit with the illustration work, new designs for linocuts, some extension design work in relation to more commercial projects like cards and drawing. It sort of suits me to work this way in many respects I just need to be careful to aim to complete work as well as look at all the new possibilities!!

Waratah Illustration – just finished!

Lyn Weir — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 04:29:47 +0000

I have just finished this illustration of a Waratah – Telopia speciosissima. I know back to waratahs again! But the two local plants have put on a real show again this spring and I just couldn’t resist.

In this particular illustration I have used a very light wash of watercolour and use fine dots (many many many fine dots) with a Rotring pen to build up the image.

For those that may be interested in papers I have used an antique white rag based acid free watercolour paper. I like this paper with its slightly rough texture – it is cold pressed watercolour paper and so has a ‘bite’ on its surface. The hot pressed papers I mainly use for the linocuts has a smooth surface.

On the RSI/arm/shoulder/neck pain front – I am carving lino again but the advice from the physio is ‘pace yourself’ which is incredibly frustrating but I guess not as frustrating as 2 months without carving and not doing much else. Just need to keep up the exercises, pilates, anti-inflammatory meds, posture correction and warm wheat bags!! But still some progress forward is something to be grateful for.

Now onto a bit of carving this afternoon I think….can’t say what yet…but it is getting there albeit slowly….

Update to website – Tawny Frogmouth Linocut

Lyn Weir — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 04:15:05 +0000

I have finally started to get back to work – although slowly – and have just updated my website with the final version of the ‘Tawny Expressions’ linocut which I have called ‘Evry Move You Make…Watching YOU’.

The local ‘tawnies’ as they are affectionately known are back of an evening hunting under the street lights and sending out their thrumming oom-oom. Each year I hope they will find the trees in our yard to nest in but so far no such luck! But I look forward to thei summertime visits and hopefully they will bring a young one or two around again for a visit.

Still here…

Lyn Weir — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 04:12:20 +0000

Yes I am still here…I haven’t actually fallen off the face of the planet…well not yet at least!!

I have been busy with some family/life matters for the past few weeks which has put the artwork on the back burner…again…
I have struggled with issues around neck/shoulder RSI type things for a while now and this has been flaring up in recent weeks. It doesn’t help that my work involves lots of looking down so my posture needs severe attention as well!

I have completed one major project recently – well almost – and will post about that when it is finalised. I am also hoping to finish another major linocut project over the next few weeks if I can get my neck etc to co-operate!

In the meantime I have started back on some botanical illustration work as a break from carving and printing and will post about that asap!

It doesn’t help now that I currently have all my children at home, they have managed to use ALL the broadband allowance for the past month up and we are currently on dial up speed – not impressed. However, I am still stubbornly refusing to purchase extra in the valiant hope that they will all learn…maybe…to curb their usage. So uploading images is pretty slow but just a couple more days!

The Big Ride for the Big Issue – Jerseys

Lyn Weir — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 01:28:04 +0000

Just a quick update on the girls doing ‘The Big Ride’ for The Big Issue. Anne and Jo completed a fundraising ride on May 23rd – you can find their blog about this event here. Here is a photo of the participants wearing their new jersey’s with my Australian Floral Emblems design on them! Very impressive!

On 31st May, Anne – who is also a singer – held a fundraising gig – and here she is in the new jersey! My jerseys should arrive in the post this coming week – can’t wait to see them. Also great to see the amount raised by Jo and Anne to buy new equipment for The Big Issue office in Melbourne has almost reached their goal of $10,000 – great work!

Tawny Expressions Linocuts – first hand coloured drafts

Lyn Weir — Wed, 20 May 2009 02:03:52 +0000

It is wet windy and cold here at the moment with a ‘weather event’ looming – according to the weather forecasters. Nice weather for being inside drinking coffee, making winter comfort food and well procrastinating which seems to loom large for me in recent times.

I have however managed to complete one set of colour drafts of the set of 12 tawny expressions linocuts. I wasn’t sure how much to hand colour at this point so have gone in this set for the full colour with glowing yellow eyes look.

Below are the template images with just yellow eyes…

Tawny Expressions Linocut Templates

I was planning to have them framed using black core black mountboard with a black frame so the second image here is to give some idea of that.

I will probably sit on these images for a while (yes more procrastinating!) so I am going back to carving some more work and also further working on the Barn Owl image. I did the original drawing of this barn owl about 5 years ago and it has waffled around for all that time. I have come up with a whole new way of looking at it and may even drop the orginal idea in favour of developing the new images. I will post the process at some stage as it can be valuable for an artist to look at their own processes in a more ordered fashion required for blogging and may provide some small insights for others. Well hopefully anway!

Emu Linocut – what a difference a background colour can make

Lyn Weir — Mon, 18 May 2009 03:39:44 +0000

Having finally carved, printed and now coloured this linocut (after working on the original drawing over a year ago and the pre-sketch ideas are over 2 years old!) I finally have finished!

I had hand painted the emu first as you can see but it felt a bit empty so added a graded wash of ‘Australian Red Gold’ which I am quite pleased with. I must say this one of my favourite watercolour pigments as it just seems to have a glow about it. I think the background colour can make a huge difference to any work and often it may take several tries to create the effect you want. So now it is a matter of completing the edition of this design.

Oh and still deciding on a final name for this work? Any ideas?

New linocuts printed! Unusual birds – Tawny Frogmouths and an Emu

Lyn Weir — Thu, 14 May 2009 06:19:43 +0000

As I indicated in yesterdays post I have finally printed some of the numerous unfinished designs that have been sitting around on the ‘to do list’ for in some cases years!

So here are the black and white versions- can’t wait for the ink to dry and starting playing with some colour ideas on these 2 works – I already have the framing ideas.

Firstly is the set of 12 tawny expressions. These started as drawing studies of Tawny Frogmouths which I couldn’t resist taking into linocut designs.

The second is a madcap emu that was originally what I considered a less than successful drawing. In the end I went for the slightly unhinged quality of the drawing – especially as emus seem to have this quality about them. As for the design I decided to extend the lines created by the feathering into the background to add to this whole mad type impression.

Any suggestions for the title of this work? “C’mon, make my day” for some reason springs to mind!!