Since my last post, I've been patrolling areas looking for subjects that I think will work well as an illustration sequence. I would like to include a scene with water, so I set out to Elkington park in Balmain which overlooks the harbour. Above are a couple of photos I took recently. I set out at 8.30am, 12.30pm and 4.30pm to capture the different lighting conditions.

Today I am off to Turon, near Mudgee. Hoping to get some country scapes with a mountain goat.

Me and Monet

While working on my landscape illustrations, I have been revisiting some of the landscape artists I studied years ago. Claude Monet and the Impressionists (mid 1800’s) have always struck a cord with me. I am particularly drawn to their use of colour, light and textured brush strokes.

A couple of years ago I visited the Neue Pinakothek Art Gallery in Munich. The gallery was exhibiting one of Monet’s artworks from the Water Lilies series. I stood in front of it for a long while, I got a bit lost in the texture of the brush strokes... I’m sure I could almost hear the water.

I have been inspired by Monet’s obsession with the outdoors and the effects of weather and light on a subject. A great example of this is his painting series Haystacks. The idea of doing a series to reflect the change in conditions is something I would really like in incorporate in my Sydney landscape illustrations.

Unlike Monet, I’ve been visiting different locations armed with my camera to capture the lighting effects on a number of subjects, rather than taking multiple canvases out to the fields for hours or days. I’m pretty excited about this project, I’ll publish more as I go.