This is a small portrait of my Dad painted in oils on a canvas board. Its going to be a gift for him as he has just started drawing again at the grand age of 76 which just goes to prove its never too late! I remember him drawing people and faces when I was just a kid so it makes me so happy to see him finally pick up the pencil again!
Despite its small size, it has been a real struggle, taking me 3 days at my painting class to complete. I have threatened to paint over it (or throw it out the window) so many times! However, thanks to the encouragement of my incredible tutor, I finally finished it today (sigh of relief...). This time I have tried not to get so bogged down with detail (like I normally do...) and focus more on capturing the character and essence of the subject. Thought it would be easy to paint my Dad but it was actually quite difficult!? Still, I think (hope?) I have captured him here...
Kazart Gallery
The art, sketches and ravings of an artist, graphic designer and illustrator on the verge...
Monday, 30 April 2012
Thursday, 26 April 2012
Illustration Friday: Heights
Step by step she climbed, until finally she reached the top. The height of heights. Top of the world. Dizzy heights? Phoebe had made it! From there she could look down over the top of everything (luckily she wasn't too scared of heights...). Now what? Fly? There was really only one thing left to do... a perfect swan dive back down to reality. It was way too lonely at the top.
Labels:
character,
illustration friday,
Phoebe,
sketch,
watercolour
Sunday, 22 April 2012
"23 April 2012" by The RedBubble Homepage | RedBubble
"23 April 2012" by The RedBubble Homepage | RedBubble: 
Wow! Excitement! YAY!! Phoebe has made it to the Redbubble homepage!
Shame she's asleep and will miss it though... WAKE UP PHOEBE!! For crying out loud, she picks the worse times to take a nap.
Seriously, check out the link above or go to my RedBubble shop. This has absolutely made my day. x

Wow! Excitement! YAY!! Phoebe has made it to the Redbubble homepage!
Shame she's asleep and will miss it though... WAKE UP PHOEBE!! For crying out loud, she picks the worse times to take a nap.
Seriously, check out the link above or go to my RedBubble shop. This has absolutely made my day. x
Wednesday, 18 April 2012
Phoebe hits Etsy!
Very exciting! You can now finally buy Phoebe prints at my Kazart Gallery Etsy shop - yay!
There are heaps of different Phoebe 10 x 8" prints available. Each print is on quality archival paper with a white border for easy framing. OR for something different, go to my Redbubble shop where you can buy Phoebe cards and framed prints as well! The Phoebe Good Book design (minus swirl background) is also the only one available on a T-shirt so go check out Redbubble.
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| Kazart Phoebe "Good Book" - super, revised updated swirly version. |
Sunday, 15 April 2012
Mulch, mulch, leech!
True story... yesterday I decided to attack the huge pile of mulch and finish spreading it in onto the humungous garden. Humungous as in we live on acreage so everything is on a much larger scale than an average suburban garden. Gardens take days to weed - its a big job - and I never seem to have enough time to get it done. Anyway, yesterday I planned to get it finished no matter what, so dressed in my thick denim straight leg (hopefully snake bite proof) jeans, long socks, big leather work gloves, sun hat and thick leather snake bite proof work boots, I set out with a pitch fork, wheel barrow and our dogs. The dogs are my protectors and can suss out any danger lurking about (and deal with it!). Now that its autumn, its much cooler to work in the garden and hopefully there are not as many snakes lurking about. It also hasn't rained for a while so hopefully there are not too many leeches either (they lurk around the wet leaf mulch and rocks in the garden). Yuk! I HATE leeches! Last time I weeded the garden I ended up with two on my legs, so this time I checked regularly. They sneek up over my boots and under the tight ankle of my jeans and move quite quickly... argh! I still love working outside though...
Anyway, all went well, checked for leeches a few times (hundred?) and none (phew...). No other wriggly things were lurking around and I actually finished the whole garden - mulched. I was absolutely drenched with sweat and hurting in places I didn't know I had muscles - shoveling, wheelbarrowing and spreading wet mulch is heavy work. After stopping for a rest, I decided to do a bit of weeding in the vegie garden and happily spent the rest of the afternoon potting around. Away from the mulch and the rocks, I had completely forgotton about checking for leeches...
Finally I called it a day and went inside to have a shower. Ripped off my socks and my jeans, and then I noticed a big black blob on my ankle... AAHHHHHH!! Girly screams echoed through the house as I ran down stairs and out the back door. "GET THE SALT!" I yelled to my startled husband. I jumped around outside, stick in one hand, salt shaker in the other, yelling at the leech "GET OFF!!" in between little girly screams and dogs jumping about with excitement. Anyway the disgusting little sucker finally dropped off. I then tried to bash it with my boot to kill it. Blood everywhere - it was a massacre. Far out they are hard to kill! There was so much blood I had to wash it away with a bucket of water (seriously...)! Did I mention how much I hate leeches?
![]() |
| Ready to start work - calm, collected and prepared for anything... |
Anyway, all went well, checked for leeches a few times (hundred?) and none (phew...). No other wriggly things were lurking around and I actually finished the whole garden - mulched. I was absolutely drenched with sweat and hurting in places I didn't know I had muscles - shoveling, wheelbarrowing and spreading wet mulch is heavy work. After stopping for a rest, I decided to do a bit of weeding in the vegie garden and happily spent the rest of the afternoon potting around. Away from the mulch and the rocks, I had completely forgotton about checking for leeches...
![]() |
| Yep! This is no exaggeration. By the way, a stick is completely useless in getting a leech off... |
Finally I called it a day and went inside to have a shower. Ripped off my socks and my jeans, and then I noticed a big black blob on my ankle... AAHHHHHH!! Girly screams echoed through the house as I ran down stairs and out the back door. "GET THE SALT!" I yelled to my startled husband. I jumped around outside, stick in one hand, salt shaker in the other, yelling at the leech "GET OFF!!" in between little girly screams and dogs jumping about with excitement. Anyway the disgusting little sucker finally dropped off. I then tried to bash it with my boot to kill it. Blood everywhere - it was a massacre. Far out they are hard to kill! There was so much blood I had to wash it away with a bucket of water (seriously...)! Did I mention how much I hate leeches?
Thursday, 5 April 2012
illustration Friday: Return
A single tear ran down Phoebe's face as she watched her love disappear into the distance (don't go...). All she could do now was wait (and wait) in hope that her true love would return...
I had to dig deep for this week's IF topic and as I delved, this quote came floating to the top and then continued to circle around and around in my head:
If you love something set it free,
If it comes back to you, it's yours,
If it doesn't, it never was.
Not sure who wrote it, but it was something my father used to say every time I had a broken heart (which seemed to be quite often...). Back then I was usually too impatient to wait around for too long so Dad would then throw another gem at me: "Good things come to those who wait."
He must have been so relieved when I finally got married... x
I had to dig deep for this week's IF topic and as I delved, this quote came floating to the top and then continued to circle around and around in my head:
If you love something set it free,
If it comes back to you, it's yours,
If it doesn't, it never was.
Not sure who wrote it, but it was something my father used to say every time I had a broken heart (which seemed to be quite often...). Back then I was usually too impatient to wait around for too long so Dad would then throw another gem at me: "Good things come to those who wait."
He must have been so relieved when I finally got married... x
Labels:
character,
collage,
illustration friday,
Phoebe,
sketch,
watercolour
Saturday, 31 March 2012
Portrait Workshop
Today I attended my first ever portrait in oils workshop with local artist, Frank Hodgert, as our tutor. It was very exciting to be spending a whole day painting in such an inspiring artist's studio, surrounded by his amazing paintings of landscapes, country buildings and people. I say inspiring but to be honest, his paintings are so amazing that they are almost intimidating to an amateur artist. 12 eager artists (including myself) attended the workshop - it was great to get hands on hints and tips for painting a portrait in oils from such an experienced proficient painter. The best part was there were no interuptions or phonecalls or distractions - just a whole day of painting with other artists doing exactly the same - bliss...
Amazingly, everyone painted a portrait of the same person using the same techniques which resulted in 13 (including Frank) uniquely different interpretations of both the technique and the subject. Incredible! They all looked fantastic! Not sure if you guessed who the Australian celebrity is but he's very cute (which made painting that much more fun...).
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