Blog: Sydney Opera House

Making Memories – Art Journal

“We didn’t know we were making memories, we just knew we were having fun.”

This is using another page from the sold out Artist Almanac Calendar (the original painting is still available here though). It was fun getting inspired by this older artwork of mine, depicting the Sydney Opera. It made me not only revisit the way I created the background, but also the visit to Sydney itself.

In fact I was there twice and I remember how much I loved strolling through the Botanical Garden right there as well as seeing Herbie Hancock in the Opera. Pretty cool btw, sitting in the nose bleed seat wayyyyyy up high, last row with my back to the wall, and Herbie so tiny down on stage. And yet it didn’t matter – the sound being so phenomenal in this building. I digress though LOL!

I used some heavy bodied and soft bodied acrylic paints right out of the tube on the page, and then blended the colors with a brayer. It is one of my favorite ways to create texture on canvas, but since this is in my ledger, I took a piece of paper and carefully dabbed it on the background to flatten the peaks of paint out a little bit.

I used some acrylic markers to add marks and also my Embroidery stamp set for added mark making. I love the mixture of a repetitive stamp as well as a hand made mark.

Here are some of the supplies I used:

Comments (2)

  • Sue Clarke

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    Nat, I just love that background! I find it funny when people say we’re making memories as they are doing an activity…of course you will look back on them…but it IS just fun! Much later one will realize just how much the activity was enjoyed=wonderful memories. I don’t know if I made any sense, but I agree with your sentiment.

    Reply

    • nathalie-kalbach

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      I totally get it! we do not set out with that premise from the beginning, it just turns out that way.

      Reply

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Sydney Opera House Painting

2016

I was lucky to be invited twice to teach in Australia and I have fond memories of Sydney. The first time I went to Sydney we were able to get some tickets to a Herbie Hancock concert in the opera – the very last seats in the back …the sound was good..Herbie was a tiny ant- but it was pretty cool :) Australia is fascinating and a real Artful Adventure – for this painting I used an Australian Dictionary for the background, made a stamp with gum tree nuts and also used actual gum tree nuts. The painting is part of the travel chapter in my book Artful Adventures in Mixed Media. Maybe some day I will be back but until then this painting is my little Australia at home :)

Acrylic paint, ink, marker, charcoal, paper ephemera, gum tree nuts on canvas 9×12 -Available for Purchase – email me if interested .

 

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