the beautiful side of rain

Clouds reflect off the mirrored surface of Lake Eyre SA, by Peter Elfes

It was announced this week that Australia has had its wettest two years on record.

Again large areas of Queensland and New South Wales are currently under water with many towns and communities cut off. In the 13 months the rain at its worse has caused many loss of life, devastation to property and disruptions to thousands of peoples lives.

Brisbane floods 2011
(source University of Queensland, Brisbane)  

The rain at its best, is showing a beautiful side with dramatic changes to the landscape.

One particular landscape is a desert, usually and unsurprisingly known for its dryness. La Nina has brought water flowing, filling the lowest point in Australia, Lake Eyre. 

With the rarity of the lake having so much water comes a wonderful array of colours, erupting with life and breathtaking landscapes on a very large scale.  To give you an idea of size, at its fullest the lake is 9,500km²  which is roughly 6 times the size of Greater London.

This unusual event has inspired new art.

John Olsen, a great Australian artist takes inspiration for many of his pieces from the Australian landscape, in particular he has been fascinated by Lake Eyre since his first visit in 1974.  His latest series of Lake Eyre paintings captures the landscape, viewing it in such a unique way, that continues to fill me with awe.  The collection can be viewed on the Tim Olsen Gallery website

source Tim Olsen Gallery

Currently exhibiting in Sydney is Peter Elfes collection of photographs taken at low levels from a helicopter. Life and colour is captured in a place normally barren of such features

A selection of postcards showing Peter Elfes 'The Green Desert'

Enjoy the beautiful side of rain.  'The Green Desert' is on until 27 May 2012 at Custom House, Circular Quay Sydney (free entry M-F 10am- 7pm, weekend 11am-4pm).

not wasting an opportunity

Recently things seem to have got in the way of up dating the blog. It started when I sat down to start a post a couple of weeks ago, found something out and ended up have a night never to forget.

There was a mad rush of grabbing food, toys and my 4 year old, into the car, then on the train into the city.  The destination was King Street, but other people were quicker and we ended up on York Street.  We joined the end of the of the queue and waited as it slowly moved forward.  At least our queue was moving unlike the one the other side of the road - they still had over 4 hours to wait until Apple started selling their latest gadget.

Trying to get into Red Eye Records

Then it was down to numbers, there was only a limited amount but there were all these people in front - would there be enough?  2 hours later (and still with a very patient good 4 year old), getting closing to the front, it was anounced there were 20 left.  Phew, only 5 people infront of me.

5 minutes later I was excitedly wearing my green band.

The Foo Fighters were in town and they were playing a gig.  These guys can fill the largest of stadiums up many times over, but that Friday night they were playing to just 600 people, and I was lucky enough to be no more than 3 metres away from Dave Grohl for nearly 3 hours. 

They rocked big time. What was inspiring to me, was that they looked to be enjoying every single moment - I've seen some big names who turn up on stage, looking like it is was the last place they want to be - but when the Foos were smiling, giving it their all, carrying on when the equipment failed, it all added to the experience.

And if this was not enough, they played in Auckland to raise money for the Christchurch earthquake and in Brisbane for the flood victims there.  Even if you don't like their music (why?), you have got to admire these guys.  And if you do like the music, then the album is out tomorrow in Australia, and if you can't wait then you can hear it now Wasting Light


Find something you really love to do, and don't waste an opportunity.

inspiration: harry seidler

They are many places to find inspiration. What to do with that inspiration can sometimes come quickly, other times there can be many steps of development to not only come up with a design, but where and what it can be applied to.


Having in mind that Seidler like to connected the indoors with views to the outdoors, as was the case at Rose Seidler House which has large floor to ceiling windows looking out onto the bush, the product subject to the design became curtains.

He like to incorporate art to his buildings, so the aim was that the curtains could be seen in some small way be seen as a piece of art.

His commercial work were many high-rise buildings, I wanted to portray this grandeur of tallness.

I'm particularly fond of Australia Square in Sydney, and have lovely memories of taking my parents to the revolving restaurant at the top, which of course has some wonder views.  I also am partial to patterns, so the  lines from the window frames and waffle slab ceiling leapt out at me.

Image by roryrory via Flickr

Turning these lines 180° created the pattern for the curtains.  The heading was kept simple and helped to emphasis the lines to create the tallness.


© decoro creativity 2011


Taking it several steps further can lead to a design that can be difficult to recognised from the original inspiration.  The curtains kept to the straightness of the lines, in this design those lines became more fluid and playing with colour creates new patterns within the design. 



© decoro creativity 2011

Don't you find it amazing that the same inspiration can result in drastically different results?

Have a good weekend.

when to stop?

Last night there was some time without distractions. That is the benefit of being in someone elses house and babysitting a beautiful girl that quickly and easily goes to sleep at bedtime.

A recent addition to my collection is the rather lovely book by Orla Kiely called Pattern - I have yet to read many of the words, as there are plenty of pictures of her patterns that are a feast to the eye for a gal that loves colour and surface design.


Orla Kiely Pattern: Conran Octopus Ltd

I still did not succeed in reading many of her words: instead the cover gave me inspiration to do a little drawing.  The repetitions of the flower shape and its' roundness gave me a starting point.

Orla Kiely Pattern: Conran Octopus Ltd

I added my detailing to the petals and played around with ways to fill the areas with shapes and different pen strokes.  The flower was a bit lost floating in the middle of the page, so the stem grew down into a skirt of a long flowing gown (whilst also considering proportions).  It still did not feel complete, and the squiggles and stars I feel helps the composition, drawing the eye back round and up to the flower.

© decoro creativity 2011

Should I leave it there, should I add more? It can be hard knowing what to add, but harder to know when to stop.

You tell me, did I stop at the right point?    

What would you like to achieve in 2011?



© decoro creativity 2011


At the start of 2010 I did not think I could draw or paint.

Yet during the year this side of my creativity was starting to be developed.  The birthday fairy was born, some presents were created and  inspiration was found in my back yard.

There were plenty more creative moments in 2010.  I will get around to showing some of them along with further inspirations to be discovered in 2011 and their beautiful developments.  I also plan to learn a lot more about colour, and a few other things that I will let you know about very soon....

What about you? What would you like to achieve in 2011?

inspiration: the back yard

Nature has done all the hard work to come up with organic shapes and wonderful colours to provide more than a lifetime of inspirations.

Just a few steps outside there are several trees in our back yard that during autumn look like they are half dead, then they come alive with an abundance of flowers to provide punches of winter colour.

Drawing the flower from many angles can lead to new shapes.   Many illustrations were created; the whole flower, or concentrating on different parts, or using different drawing techniques, can set up many paths to travel.

© decoro creativity 2010

One illustration took the back of the flower that was the outer bud - the star shaped part on the back of the flower that can be seen in the illustration above.  Taking it further by playing around with repetition, placement, and combining illustrations, travels deeper into the difference.

Now to the part of choosing which colour, mixing the paint and painting it - I find it fun and relaxing, but also at times frustrating.  Reminds me of a Monet quote "Colour is my day-long obsession, my joy and my torment."

© decoro creativity 2010

You may have noticed the blog background design is this one, but in a different colourway.  

Do you like them?  Would love to hear your thoughts - go on leave a comment...