Hanging outside my front door is this picture of the mud flats with a meandering stream in the foreground, the main channel and Hillsborough across the other side and lastly the heavy sky. Acrylics on Board. Because I am looking at the Manukau in detail again I thought I would post this and remind myself of it. So often one walks past things without looking.

These nine pictures are the start of a small trial using mud from the Manukau Harbour, to see what happens when combined with other materials such as charcoal, ink, pastels and pencils. What you are not aware of is the marine smell, quite strong but not unpleasant, and when the mud was micro-waved until it boiled the smell went throughout the house. (I just said the tide must be out!) I will try various fixatives before attempting to add other materials. So far these are just the heated and cooled mud, natural colour. When I first did it there was some dark grey but I think that was oxygen deprived and it disappeared when stirred.

Taken from post number 80 Eairdmore on monday April 20th. Thought I should try pencils again, they seem to be the flavour of the month. This journal page is 250 x 180, the sketch a little smaller.