I don’t tend to do landscapes so much but I thought I really should try and push myself a little more in that direction, still with wildlife at the heart of what I do. In 2009 I was in Zimbabwe and Zambia where I saw the falls and these lovely birds. I’ve tried to show the lushness of Victoria Falls, a magnificent icon of Africa, with a hint of a rainbow, juxtaposed against the harshness of the tough life of the inhabitants, represented by the weavers’ natural habitat, this thornbush. It’s scratchboard coloured with Mastisse inks, 11″ x 14″ and I’ve used my fibreglass brush for the birds and a scalpel for the landscape done in my trusty squiggly style.

Victoria Falls is the most amazing place with it’s booming noise of the falls, spray, rainbows and a surprising lack of people wandering all over it, a far cry from that other amazing place, Niagara, where you literally have to fight to get a good view. That’s the thing with Africa, if you do some work you can see the most amazing places and still get away from people (if you wish to) as evidenced by Africa’s version of the Grand Canyon, Fish River Canyon in Namibia. It even looks like the Grand Canyon but I would have seen a maximum of ten other people all day (other than the group with me).

Having said that, I hope to visit the US next year to coincide with the first exhibition held by the International Society of Scratchboard Artists (more info on that later) and I can’t wait to see more of America’s natural wonderland. I’ve been over three times before and absolutely love the place.

Update to the new International Society of Scratchboard Artists. Our board which includes me as Vice President and six others from the USA and Canada is well underway with incorporation and organizing a show for next year which will be held in Austin, Texas which will include some of the finest scratchboard art in the world.

The International Society of Scratchboard Artists came about initially because we had noticed on many occasions artists commenting that the exhibitions they were entering work into had no category for our medium. When people asked organizers which category they should enter their scratchboards into, they would be told such things as ‘Works on Paper’ or ‘Drawing’. Sometimes we would be put in a ‘Multimedia’ category and some organizers have dared to tell us scratchboard might be better suited at craft shows without ever seeing our work or what scratchboard as a medium is capable of in the hands of good artists. Many members of the general public and artist communities alike have little knowledge of scratchboard.

We know it is a fine art medium and our desire to elevate it to that level in other people’s consciousnesses is one of the driving forces behind the formation of ISSA.

Other mediums have their own societies representing them but we never did, until now. We spent a lot of time bemoaning the fact that scratchboard as a fine art medium didn’t get the recognition it deserved. This will change with ISSA which has the goals of lifting the profile of scratchboard internationally, providing exhibitions for members to enter their art into, organizing workshops to get the message and teaching across to the art and general communities and providing an organization where scratchboard artists can feel like they aren’t isolated but can actually feel a sense of belonging to what is already a very large community worldwide.

Even without a society we already had members winning “best in show” and “people’s choice” awards and making great sales in some of the most prestigious art exhibitions in the world so with a society the future of scratchboard looks very bright indeed.

The founding board members of ISSA are Lorna Hannett from Canada, Sue Rhodes, Diana Lee, Cathy Sheeter, Sandra Willard and Ken MacFarlane from the US and Patrick Hedges from Australia.

So, if you are a scratchboard artist, or would like to try this medium, watch this space over the next few months.

In the latest edition of Australian Fine Art and Decorative Painting magazine, I have a six page step by step demonstration of my Himba Maiden in scratchboard. If you are in Australia, grab an edition, it’s not expensive and a well printed magazine, it’s volume 18, number 11. If you are too far away, here’s a scan of the first page with the finished piece.

I never watched The Brady Bunch but it seems such an institution as far as tv series go so I thought I’d pay homage to it with some wacky characters from my travels. These are all emus who seem very strange birds indeed. They follow you around and look as if they are going to peck your eyes out, and I do believe they’ve done some damage to some people, but never to me. They are a bit rediculous with the looks they give you. I had the opportunity to rub the neck of one that wouldn’t leave me alone and was surprised to find how oily it felt.

Ok, so the first picture is called “The Birdy Bunch” and after that I’m posting an odd one out, “The Screamer”. The reality is it was just yawning, but it sure looks like it has something to yell at me.

“The Birdy Bunch” is a montage of nine individual scratchboards

And now for “The Screamer”