Welcome Back!

 

Well hello there!

First things first, (I'm the realest) Welcome back to Room With a Bloom! Although I did miss writing during my trip away, I'm so glad I decided to step back and have a break. I've been able to clear my head and create some new goals and expectations for the blog. I'm very excited to be back and creating new and improved content!

 

So how was my trip? Absolutely fantastic!
 

For those of you who don't know, I attended the 'Grampians Brushes' Painting workshop last week in Halls Gap. The workshop had a variety of different courses listed based on different media and subject. My class was titled 'Interpreting the landscape' and it taught acrylic landscape painting. For four days, I got to study and paint with Australian artist Richard Rogers. 

The class was so much fun and I've learnt so much from Richard. 

A point he made that really stuck with me was that he paints without getting attached to his work. Right after I took the picture above, he began painting over it. I really couldn't understand why because I thought it looked amazing! I guess he believes that there are always other scenes to paint, and that there's no need to hold on to the pieces.

He taught me that the colours you paint with don't matter. You could paint an orange sea and the painting will still work out as long as you've correctly placed the tones in the painting. It's something I'm definitely going to remember!

If you're interested, I believe Richard has already agreed to mentor again at next years Grampians brushes workshop. You can keep updated via the website here.

Here are two paintings about a scene in Switzerland I did while away! ideally, I would do a third painting using the tones of the top painting and incorporating the clouds from the second. I'm so happy with my progress!

 

While taking the workshop, we stayed at the Halls Gap Log Cabins which was a wonderful experience in itself! Just look at that incredible view!

The wood heater was surely put to use every night. Isn't there just something so pleasant about snuggling up on the couch watching a fire? It seemed almost hypnotic!
 

The land surrounding the cabins were home to about a hundred wild Kangaroos. I just loved being so close to nature and they seemed happy enough to interact with us as well! 

 

I can now say that I've woken up in the morning to see a kangaroo and her joey eating grass straight outside the front door- such an unbelievable experience!

If you're ever in the area, I would definitely recommend Bard and Rosie at the log cabins for accommodation!

During the week that was, I also got my very first DSLR Camera!

 

 

I chose the Canon EOS 600D based off the many fantastic reviews I've read. So far I've loved using it! All of todays pictures have been taken using it (except this one of course!)

Here are a couple of extra snaps I've taken:

 

 

One of the new additions to our garden! 

 

My baby boy, Maxi!

I'm so excited to see what else the new camera is capable of.

So that's what I've been up to. I look forward to uploading some new craft posts very soon! If you're new here, I upload every Monday and Thursday!

See you next time!

Love Megan xo