Stanthorpe Paintout April 2023
With high hopes I travelled to Stanthorpe to participate in a paintout with other artists. I assembled old works to be made into new surfaces for the week – painted with acrylic and Free Flow; wet them and /or washed; covered with pastel primer; collaged; covered in pastel and pushed the pastel into the paper with a wet brush. All different sizes and shapes. I also prepared a bunch of old mats with backing boards, and packed a small bag with acid free double sided tape and scissors, and took along some Krystal Clear packs and glassine paper so that I could bring the works home somewhat protected. I had one bag with my pastels, a towel and paper towels; another smaller bag with my drawing implements and a container for water and brushes; my light easel and boards with papers.

The first morning I was out the door by quarter to five and set up in the Quart Pot Creek area by the Information building. It was quite challenging setting up in the dark, but I was determined to try to catch the emerging light of the new day. A few joggers and walkers stopped by to ask what I was doing and were bemused by the fact that I couldn’t see anything. I had a small torch which sufficed. My phone photographs show much more light than was actually present that morning.

2. Here I have the paper on my easel (it is an old landscape with textured primer, that I had covered with water to mix all the pastel of the old work into a lovely dark grey) and I have set up beside a seat bench, where I have laid out my pastel box.

3. I quickly drew in the silhouette of the trees in front of the emerging light and in the water, selecting the pastels solely by tone.

4. I was able to work more easily when the streetlight on the opposite bank was not as bright.

5. I found out with the increasing light that I had selected a pthalo green as the darkest tone, but I covered a lot of that with charcoal to blunt the green. I am please with the way the texture of the paper leant itself to portraying the light. “First Morning Stanthorpe”.
After packing up I moved on to the Sentimental Rocks – sitting quite mysteriously immediately behind a building on the end of a cul-de-sac, with many glorious images awaiting everywhere on the walk. I settled in with this formation of rocks with a crevice and found the perfect piece of repurposed paper which had lots of collage under.

6. This photo shows the lovely texture.

7. I finished this study and then went searching for the other side where I had seen an interesting tree in front of another larger rock. 7.a “Cleft”

8. Here I have set up the easel again and begun the work with pastel, pushing it into the white paper with a wet brush.

9. I felt like this work could be looser than the rock study and had fun, feeling the morning sun on my back and finally warming up!

10. Off to Girraween Environmental Lodge, where the owner allowed us to wander and set up to paint – I settled in beside the deer enclosure – they were quite interested in what I was up to – to try to catch the beautiful golden light on this magnificent tree.

11. Here I have again begun with wet pastel and working on trying to have the warm colours bring out the glow of the light.

12. I am not happy with this study. I hope to try this again in acrylic paint, to try to make the glow on this tree more real.
Feeling a little disappointed, I drove to the lookout on Mt Marlay and had a wonderful walk around the track up there. I settled in to draw the town in the distance and wanted to drag myself up again so chose bright colours.

13. I could see the wide area around Stanthorpe and decided to abstract the shapes.

14. What other colours for the town of Stanthorpe but the red and green of apples!

15. “Sun Through Clouds”. A big day – and different works to show for it.
The next day, Thursday, I went early again back to the Sentimental Rocks. I had noticed yesterday a certain rock that appeared as though it was a sculpted figure and I wanted to try to draw this. We were all supposed to meet to travel somewhere later, and I wanted to squeeze this study in beforehand.

16. I had a lovely piece of paper where I had gone over an old drawing with clear pastel primer and a comb, which resulted in a linear texture. I sketched in the form with a hard pastel.

17. I am not happy with this study – it is too soft and does not reflect the solidity I am searching for with this rock formation – the colours are too pretty. I have run out of time and decided that I will come back again early the next morning.

We met all together and then drove to Stone Pine Ridge on the Bookookaraara River in Wilsons Downfall. Horses and cattle were all very interested in us as we drove by (very slowly due to the rocky road and having to ensure all gates were closed after the last car drove through) – I guess they had never seen so many cars in convoy.

18. I found another wonderful piece of paper with lots of collage underneath the primer, with snakeskin and hessian placed perfectly for trees on either side of the water. I set up quite close to the water’s edge so that I could see the rocks more clearly.

19. As you can see here, I had to shift position. A gust of wind came up and blew my easel and everything into the water. Others were wonderful in assisting me in fishing it all out – one woman actually walked out on to the rocks with a long tree branch and caught my pastel-catcher as it floated down the river. I had to leave this pastel catcher off the easel until it dried out. I assured everyone that the paper was fine as it has so many layers of primer over old paintings that it was quite waterproof. I was going to start with a wet pastel underpainting anyway!

20. The backing board dried out quickly, so I was able to continue on with my soft pastel.

21. After a couple of hours, I decided to move on from this one, and look for something I could do in black and white.

22. The texture of the paper was a pleasure to work on but I am not too happy with the final colours. “Stream”.

23. I found a large tree which has two smaller trunks morphed into it on one side. On an old drawing of rainbow lorikeets, I placed charcoal and white pastel and washed in with water.

24. I began to place some details.

25. This is as far as I got before we had to pack up and go home.

26. I worked on this later – “Tree Group”.

27. Once again, I began early the next day, Friday morning, on the site of Sentimental Rocks, and decided to do this drawing without trees. I had a piece of watercolour paper on which I had monoprinted ink and gesso, which seemed to be perfect for what I was trying to achieve.

28. I am pleased with how heavy she is appearing on this paper (I decided that this rock was defiantly female).

29. I used Payne’s grey pastel pencil to finish off – “She Ain’t Heavy”.
Off to meet the others once again, before heading off in convoy to Heritage Winery. After walking around, I glimpsed a bright red roof through greenery and decided immediately that was going to be the subject for a painting.

30. After working in the morning in black and white, I wanted lots of colour. This is on an old floral work where the golden yellows are still peeping through the layer of primer that was placed over it.

31. Got it finished before lunch – “Red Roof” – subtle hey!

32. After lunch in the winery and sampling their wares, I set up by the vineyards. You can’t see in this photo, but the leaves on the end of the vines were beginning to turn bright autumn colours. Not sure if it was the wine, or the beauty of those colours waving around in the sky, but I was certainly very happy painting this!

33. I approached this with loose strokes, leaving parts of the dark gray paper showing through.

34. “Vineyard Stanthorpe”.
The following day, Saturday, was blustery and uncomfortable. I did not venture out early, but met the others at the appointed time and we drove out to “Dalmoak” Homestead, across the NSW border. Trying to find a sheltered spot was impossible – I settled on a field out in the open and drew – even though the easel blew over several times I was happy with how the drawing was coming along so persisted. I used hard pastels and lots of scribbly strokes, drawing along with the wind.

35. This photo shows how I tried to put the easel into the shelter of the car.

36. A detail photo showing the strokes.

37. Almost finished – and getting quite fed up with the wind and the easel blowing over.

38. I decided to crop part of the work for presentation – “Windy Field”.

39. I found a skull and the owner was quite happy for me to keep it – I can’t wait to draw it and use it in a work.
It was a worthwhile trip as I have ended up with many references for future works.