“Old places have souls.”
Sarah Anderson
This is a rather eclectic collection of subjects and mediums. You will find old vehicles, lamps, and ramble down streets here.
Old vehicles
This old car was an wonderful discovery during one of my photography hikes across a local mountain. I can only wonder how it managed to find its resting place in the rugged foothills surrounded by rough gullies, huge Basalt rocks and the stunted, twisted trees of the North-West Qld dry scrub. Rendered in tinted charcoals, I could only imagine what it’s original colour was.
The next piece is an ink and watercolour drawing of an old truck from Redford Station – a large cattle property in SW Queensland, Australia. Fully loaded, the old girl was ready to move out to a paddock due for a seasonal cattle muster for branding, weaning or sale. When beds were swags on shearer’s stretches, supplies were basic, the work was hard but an era of so much more innocence and freedoms. Gifted to my father who was one of the musterers at the time, back in 1961.
Lamps
Simplicity is a quick study and my first lantern watercolour. Minimalism brings all the focus to the lantern and all its intricacies.
If anyone is guilty of having a secret love affair with lamps and lanterns – that’s me. I adore the history they are reminiscent of, the quaintness and welcoming warmth they seem to exude. This small minimilistic collection are watercolours, added to periodically, and are a combination of detailed and loose.
Creating a luminescent glow using watercolours in these lamps means choosing colours that react with each other. Colour changes hue, transperancy and brightness depending on the context. A glow requires contrast between light colours and a complementary dark colour, and the value and temperatue of the chosen colours should be considered. I have kept warm tones in the browns for the dark frame of this lamp which are almost black near the white glow of the bulb. The warm cream tones of the brick building behind the lamp also enhance the feeling of warmth the darker yellows inside the lamp suggest.
The weathered stained glass effect was produced by using wet on wet, dropping in the dark colours over the lighter, and letting them do their own work of mixing and spreading. By judging the drying process and precise placement of colour I was able to create the stained old glass effect.
Ramblings
Ink & Watercolours are one of my favourite mediums used here with Cotswald Cottages. I like to lay down colour loosely, then draw in the details, before adding a final layer of shadow details in watercolours. The remainder of this collection are limited to watercolour only. I’m excited to add to these soon.
The Cotswald Cottage style lend themselves beautifully to skewing and playing with perspective with their pointed roofs, chimneys and clustering habits.
Just a Place – I challenged myself to using a limited pallete, and my trusty Windsor & Newtons didn’t let me down. I loved the looseness of quick swatches of colour overlaid on the more organised lines. Small quick works are food for the creative soul.
Andrea Hayes Fine Art & Illustration 