Kelly Casanova Weaving Lessons

Drawing/painting

Sketch Tuesday – on a tree

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I thought it was high time that we got back into joining in Sketch Tuesday over on the Harmony Fine Arts blog.

The girls were reluctant to have a go – I think they are too used to drawing what they want rather than within a theme. It’s a great way to challenge your drawing skills and expand though, so I told the girls that I intended to draw a picture and so they could too. It worked!

This week’s theme is “on a tree”. The youngest decided to draw a tree in bloom.

My 9 year old girl drew a kite stuck in a tree.

My 11 year old drew some Barn Owletts. 

And I drew a Fairy Wren. Do you know how long it’s been since I actually sat down and drew something? Me neither! Too long! 

I think I will try to do this more often. Maybe you and your children want to join in the fun too?



Watercolour workshop

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I’ve been stumbling along by myself with watercolour for some time, waiting for the right time to do a class. Last week, I was very blessed to attend a one day workshop with local Melbourne artist Stefan Gevers.
Although my results weren’t brilliant, I did learn a great deal and solidified a lot of the knowledge I’d gained from books. I feel like a few gaps have been filled in and I’m better equipped to move forward with my painting.

And mostly, I really enjoyed the intimate class in Stefan’s home studio. I would really love to take some of his regular classes, particularly the botanical ones, he is very talented and a great teacher too.
You can view Stefan’s work here and find out more about his classes and workshops here.

Random creativity

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I thought I’d share with you a few of the things that have kept me creatively busy this week (and no, obviously blogging has not been one of them!)
A little weaving cotton.

A little dyeing cotton.

A little watercolour painting.

A little cloth dyeing.
And a little photography.
Not bad for one week hey? I squeezed a fair bit of sewing in too, but that is unfinished.
How about you? Did you get any time to be creative this week? What did you do?

The sea and a garden

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We recently spent a few days in southern New South Wales. The weather was perfect and the scenery was even better. The water is so clean and teeming with life.

I thought the textures here were interesting.
The kids would love to have a jumping pillow at home šŸ™‚
And I spent part of my afternoon back at home doing this watercolour study of the Werribee Mansion gardens. I was surprised at how much I enjoyed working with the brush and watercolours again, however, was reminded that I really do need to take classes and improve my technique. Actually, what am I saying, I don’t really have a technique!

The 4 year painting

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I started this watercolour of gazanias about 4 years ago and abandoned it, feeling I’d bitten off more than I could chew. I got it out last week and said to myself “Right, you’re finishing this, even if it means you stuff it up totally”. So it’s finished. It’s better to have something imperfectly finished than have it lurking as a reminder of a failed attempt.
Yes, I’m very glad I finished it šŸ™‚

Completed watercolours

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Yes, I’ve been painting again and I must confess I’m loving it!
This is a first attempt at a wet on wet background wash. I need practice with this technique but I’m pretty pleased with the overall result. I worked from a photo I took one summer out the front of our suburban house. The sunset was so beautiful and created a silhouette of the foliage and utility lines. I used a little ink here and there to highlight.

I used a photo I took at the Melbourne Zoo Butterfly House as inspiration for this one. I like the butterfly but am not really happy with the rest, once again, I need practice.
 Both were worked on A4 300 gsm paper using watercolour paints, watercolour pencils and ink.
Would love to hear your thoughts/ opinions!

Cottage rose in colour pencil

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Inspired by a beautiful pinkish rose outside my bedroom window. I used my watercolour pencils but didn’t add any water. My next step is to print the image onto fabric with transfer paper and test my thread painting skills! That is, when I get time – it’s one thing to complete a drawing in an hour or so, but to embroider it is a very different story!
What do you think?

Honeyeater in watercolour pencil and ink

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 You may recall the photos I finally nabbed last week. So here is my first attempt at capturing the little guy on paper.

My scanner doesn’t do a very good job of reproducing images so it looks worse here than the actual piece. I left the background plain purposely because I wanted to focus on the honeyeater.
I used my watercolour pencils then finished off with black ink on some cheap watercolour paper (because it was all I had!)

This was my first rough sketch. It’s so long since I drew or painted anything that I wanted to challenge myself by making the first sketch as uncomplicated and fast as possible. I was pleased it only took a few minutes and this sketch became the basis for the watercolour.

Next time I’ll try putting in some background, and then there is the embroidery idea, not to mention the linocut……

A few art works

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As there hasn’t been a whole lot of crafting going on here, I thought I’d share some of my art pieces with you. All these were done in watercolour pencil, I hope to do some more some time soon.

This was a gift for a friend.


I was inspired by a french provincial work in an art magazine, so this one isn’t strictly original, shall we say “strongly inspired”.

This is the least original of the three, I did this one from an art book when I first received the pencils as a gift from my sister and wanted to try them out. The colours turned out beautifully.
I love the watercolour pencil as a medium, it’s drawing and painting all in one – fantastic!