Summer Cocktail and what inspired my return to relief artwork on wood

This bold, bright and colourful artwork marks a return to my creating mixed media relief artwork on wood. Following a break of about two years, during which I researched and explored other techniques and a variety of painting skills and media I was -quite unexpectedly- inspired by some ceramic sculptural plant pots.

Process Video: Creating Fuscia Twins mixed media relief artwork

While updating my website recently I realised I never posted this process video of the making of Fuscia Twins.

My Birthday Girl, a Watercolour Portrait of my Daughter and a process video

On my journey to learning watercolour, and while last week was my daughter’s birthday, I thought I would have a go at painting a portrait of her to surprise her, pleasantly I hope!

How I got my joy of painting back and learning gouache with Lena Rivo

About a couple of years ago I was looking for an easy and practical medium that I could use when travelling in our camper, so I decided to try out gouache as it resembled acrylic and oils in its opaqueness, which I was mostly into at the time. Now, you might think watercolour would have been the most obvious choice as a travelling medium, but I was still a bit wary of watercolour, imagining it to have a huge learning curve for me and something I would find hard to tackle. Additionally, I come from a predominantly designer background so I thought gouache would suit me better.

Colourful Seashells in Watercolour and Gouache

A while back I did a rough little sketch with watercolour in my little travel art journal that I really enjoyed making and recently wanted to try painting it on some good paper.

Portrait Painting: A Girl and Her Dog and a progress video

Always happy to paint a portrait of my number one muse, my daughter, and her dog! I had heaps of fun creating this painting!