Radio Kidnappers Interview

I had my interview on Radio Kidnappers last Tuesday (16th Sept). I was so nervous beforehand but told myself that I needed to move out of my comfort zone. Got to the station at 9.50am as the manager had said that the interviewer would ask me a few establishing questions before we went on air. Helen Charters was extremely efficient and took most of my nerves away. I had taken along my small portfolio to show her a sampling of what I do and she flipped through this over the next hour. She asked about everything I did so I managed to mention my jewellery, the pet portraits, pointillism as well as The Learning Connexion and Otane Painters.

Throughout the hour Helen played songs from a couple of CDs I'd taken along. Unfortunately most of my favourites are on tape so I only took along Hayley Westenra, Yulia and Crowded House. Helen also did a great deal of advertising of my site, blog, contact details etc. although as yet I haven't been flooded with new business (although Helen says she'll get back to me as she wants to order a couple of things).

I never thought I would be able to talk for an entire hour about my work but I managed it although I have a feeling I waffled in parts. Radio Kidnappers have recorded my interview so I'm getting a CD in a couple of weeks. Two people from Otane Painters listened in as did my brother and sister in law. However I think they were the only ones as all my friends tell me they forgot!


This conte pencil sketch is of my friend Gine embroidering last summer. I really want to work up a painting from this sometime as the backlighting made such a wonderful composition.

June In September

I've just looked at the calendar and realised how long it is since I posted. The past few weeks have just flown by in a blur. The Otane Painters' Exhibition in Hastings was well attended and favourably remarked upon. Unfortunately due to the depressed economic climate only one painting sold during the two weeks and surprisingly it was my "Patchwork Rabbit No 1". Gine helped pack up the paintings last Saturday and collected my three unsold works for me.

In the meantime I was frantically trying to finish my entry for the Pukeora Festival Exhibition which was due in last Monday. In desperation I positioned the easel in front of the sofa and settled in for the long haul on Sunday, staying up till 1.30am. I managed to grab two hours sleep before falling out of bed to spend another hour painting. The bad news is that I was out of film for my camera so didn't manage a photo although I did get two fuzzy scans of the painting and just need to work out how to merge them together to get one cohesive image.


My marathon painting session did not do good things to my body as I spent two days crawling around in a state of complete exhaustion. By Wednesday however I was feeling much better and able to enjoy portraiture at Otane. Our model June had long hair caught up in a bun which proved great fun to sketch. I did a couple of heavy graphite drawings which I brought home and covered with linseed oil to get the dark effects you see here. Even where the oil has soaked into the paper there are interesting effects which I think add to the spontonaity of the image.