I went walkabout (in Charity shops) and got inspiration from Aboriginal art ...

I recently picked up an original Aboriginal painting on canvas for a few pounds in a Charity shop.
The artist is Minnie Ngwarray Morton one of the artists of Ampilatwatja in the Northern Territory of Australia.  Interesting to read that artists from this area  mainly depict medicinal plants and herbs arranged in attractive patterns. This piece  has a  terracotta coloured background, and  limited palette of blues, yellows and greens.  I've never been to Australia, but have "explored" by means of stamps, and loved creating an  Australian flag collage some years ago using stamps showing the wonderful and  varied landscapes of this vast country.  When I think of a famous Australian landmark, Ayers rock, or Uluru,  springs immediately to  mind. It's the largest monolith in the world, and appears on a stamp issued in 1993, shown below with a few others I'm hoping to incorporate in a stamp collage version of Ayers Rock I'm now working on.
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 I'm  gathering together mainly Australian stamps in appropriate colour tones, as well as also searching and researching  Australian plants on stamps  to include in the picture's foreground, along with a few trees and maybe some wildlife. I also found a series of stamps showing Aboriginal rock paintings art, issued in 1984, some of which may also find there way onto the rock. 

I must keep at it and not be tempted to go walkabout again for a while!                                           

Familiar faces and artwork on Mexican Banknotes

I was excited to collect my Mexican currency and to find familiar faces on the 500 Peso notes! I'm always interested to know who's on my money but often the faces and places portrayed on foreign notes in particular are unfamiliar, as with the other values of this currency which will require further research.

Artists Frida Kahlo and her husband Diego Rivera are shown here together with  their famous artworks.

 Diego Rivera's painting  of a nude with Cala Lilies is a subject which he painted  many times. 

The painting shown below is The Love Embrace of the Universe, the Earth (Mexico), Myself, Diego and Senor Xolotl, painted in 1949 by Frida Kahlo. and appears on the reverse of the note .  The picture contains elements from ancient Mexican mythology, including day and night, the sun and moon and the earth goddess cihuacoatl.  One of Frida's favourite pets was a dog which also represents Senor  Xolotl, a Itzcuintli dog,  a being who guards the underworld.  She was very maternal towards her husband Diego  and said she wanted to hold him in her arms like a new-born baby, as in this painting. 

Monet and Architecture - Inspirational exhibition at the National Gallery in London until end July

The current exhibition was a wonderful reminder  of past experiences of seeing Monet's paintings and the locations which feature in his work, as well as discovering work I had never  seen before. Most of all, I enjoyed  comparing five versions of Rouen cathedral.   From  the upstairs room in a clothes shop opposite the cathedral, Monet painted more than 30 canvases over a period of two years, 1892-3,.setting  up his easel, screened off from the daily business of the shop. Although photography was, surprisingly, permitted at the NG, I did not take any photos while there, but include some of the images taken from a catalogue of a previous exhibition.   On a family holiday in 2010 we visited the cathedral in Rouen and also an exhibition of impressionist paintings at the Musee des Beaux Art.

Stamp issued in 1957 

Other memories  re-emerged on seeing Monet's paintings of the Normandy
coast in the NG.  Shown below right,  is  a fisherman's cottage on the clifftop near Varengeville, whose church we also visited in 2006.   In the churchyard is a wonderful mosaic dove on the grave of Georges Braque, whose friend Raoul Ubac  designed some of the stained glass windows in the church,  The area has associations with many artists.

Rouen Cathedral and one of the many paintings by Monet 

Monet's atmospheric paintings of Venice and London in  the mist and fog  also feature in the exhibition., together with  exotic gardens of  Italy and the South of France, but all in relation to architectural elements.  Most enjoyable!