Time Demands

There seems to be more demand on my time than ever before. Or is it that I am getting slower and don't realise it? Is it really February already? I took some time off anyway. I went to Naracoorte for the weekend for their annual Taste Festival. And taste I did. I over indulged in food and wine and thoroughly enjoyed letting my hair down. It was good to catch up with my best buddy Vanita. Good food, good wine and good friends ... great combination. Bob stayed home. He felt he couldn't take time off work.

Now its back to business as usual with me running around like a headless chook. The Moran Portrait Prize has come around quickly. I can't believe its been a whole year since I entered it. I really wanted to enter it again this year. I have started a portrait and I will see if I can get it done in time. I only have about 10 days to do it and as I'm not very skilled in portraiture I am not sure how I will go. I'll give it a go anyway. Now how I am going to raise the entry fee and transport costs I don't know. I won't think about that yet. I will just turn up to the easel and see what happens.

SALA (South Australian Living Artist) Festival registrations opened yesterday. I am going to register and have 'open studio' this year. It has been a goal of mine since 2009 and finally this year I am going to do it! I figure if I register I will just have to be ready, no excuses. I have asked a couple of art buddies to join me so it should be fun.

I have a couple of new paintings that are nearly finished and hopefully I will remember to take some pics of them today so I can share them with you.

A full day of juggling home duties, studio time and grandma obligations today. Will I manage to do it all??? Probably not. Will I care??? Nope!

Home Yet Lost

We had a lovely relaxing weekend. The highlight was going out for breakfast on Sunday to one of the wineries. I had a winemakers breakfast which consisted of a thick piece of toast, bacon, pork and fennel sausage, mushroom, tomato and a poached egg. This was washed down with a hot cappuccino. We then proceeded to a cheese tasting and bought a nice mature cheese and also a buffalo cheese, yum. We looked through the shops and galleries in Penola and then went for a wine tasting before heading back to Naracoorte. Breakfast was so filling we had no lunch and only really nibbled at dinner time. I didn't really take any photos except for a few drive by shootings from the car. Needless to say they are a bit blurry.

typical rural scene

it rained

some cattle

the weather cleared in between showers

this is coming home at night with the lights of a passing truck

The blues have been setting in. Is it because I need sun? Am I hibernating for the winter? Maybe its because I haven't got a direction at the moment. The shed clean up has been held up yet again so all my plans are on hold, groan. I'm a little lost.

Holiday Weekend

With the Queen's birthday holiday (not her actual birthday ???) before us, Bob and I are taking the opportunity to go away for the weekend. We are heading off to Naracoorte to visit Vanita. Back on Monday some time.

Had Some Fun But Its Good To Be Home

on the road again

watch out for kangaroos at dawn and dusk

Doreen, the lady who invited me to hold the workshop

we made a real mess

everyone is very busy

The River Murray near Murray Bridge

about 45 minutes from home

I had a really lovely time over the weekend. The ladies from Mt Gambier where an absolute pleasure to work with. They are textile artists so working with paper was something new to them but they all did a magnificent job. Doreen was kind enough to put me up for the night on Saturday night so I didn't have to drive back to my friend, Vanita's place in Naracoorte which is about an hour away from Mt Gambier. I don't like driving on country roads at dusk or dawn as that's when the kangaroos are out. They are prone to jump in front of the car. Not only does this kill or injury a beautiful animal, but it makes a real mess of your car and you risk injuring yourself to boot.

Although I had a great time I was itching to get back home and start on the dangling legs series. Its a series of four with each pair of feet doing something different like the toes pointing in or the ankles crossed etc. One of them will be with brightly coloured striped stockings, another with white little ankle socks etc etc. At the moment I'm calling them the 'Little Miss Series' with Little Miss Quirky, Little Miss Coy, Little Miss Prim and Little Miss Proper. These are just working titles and I may change it if I think of something better. They are of course larger than life size with each canvas being 91.4x60.9cm (36"x24"). For the background I am going for an old wall effect and it looks like the Little Misses are sitting on the wall. I've drawn them all and as soon as I draw the stripes on the stockings I'm ready to start on the backgrounds. I'm really pushing myself with these as I'm trying to get all four done in a week. Let's hope life doesn't get in the way as is usually the case. Today is eight weeks till delivery to the gallery so I'd better stop rambling and get back to it.

Do You Like Colouring-in?

I still love to colour in and have my own colouring-in book. Its got pictures of fairies in it and I like to sit in bed and colour it. I refuse to completely grow up. I thought it would be fun to do a painting of coloured pencils, larger than life of course to elevate their importance. To give you an idea of their size, the dark blue one is the length of my arm from shoulder to wrist. I had real fun with this painting as its got so many different colours in it.

Why Stay Within the Lines?
mixed media on canvas

60.9x50.8cm (24"x20")

I've set myself a goal of 30 paintings for the exhibition. That means there's 9 to go and 9 weeks to do them in. I will be working on a series of Zoe's dangling legs next. Again larger than life. There will be four in the series, each one with the legs in a different pose and with different socks or stockings on. That will leave another 5 and at this stage no ideas. I am thinking of another domestic painting, maybe with some washing on the line. I have visited washing on the line in an earlier work and have always wanted to do another. Maybe with a nice blue background representing a glorious blue sky. I also must ask April if she minds if I paint some cupcakes. She created some lovely collages of cupcakes and I would love to give them a try if she doesn't mind. Check them out on http://www.aprilsart.blogspot.com/ in one of the older posts.

I'm going away for the weekend. I'm leaving on Friday and back home on Monday. I'm giving a workshop in Mt Gambier which is about 5 hours drive from home. Its about an hour from Naracoorte so I'm going to stay with my friend Vanita on Friday and Sunday night (if she'll have me). I've bought all the materials so all that's left to do is pack and hope I don't forget anything.

Can't Wait for the Weekend

I'm finally over this cold and feeling more like my old self. Back to gym tomorrow, yay! Feeling a little frumpy without my usual exercise. I notice how grumpy I get without it. I think those close to me notice too hehehe.

I'm off to Naracoorte on Thursday morning. Will deliver the commission artwork to Naracoorte Primary School and say hello to the kids I met while I was artist in residence. Then going to pull down my exhibition and pack up all my artwork before going out to dinner Thursday night with Vanita and some of her friends and then Friday I'm heading off to Horsham with some new friends for the felting weekend. I haven't been in that neck of the woods since the 1970's. Horsham is the gateway to the Grampians which is one of the most beautiful places in Australia with waterfalls and fabulous bushland. http://www.thegrampians.com.au/ Well it was in the 70's hehehe.

Had a few low times in the last couple of weeks so this trip should really lift my spirits and once home will get back to cleaning out the shed so I can try out some dyeing and eco prints and felting. Oo exciting times ahead.

Photos of My Week in Naracoorte

THE EXHIBITION OPENING

Interview for the local newspaper




THE COLLAGE WORKSHOP

some beautiful papers were stained

and altered

made some new friends

Hi Grant

lots of sticking, sticking and more sticking

WORK FROM STUDENTS OF NARACOORTE PRIMARY SCHOOL

I was really made to feel special in Naracoorte. The Naracoorte community is made up of such a wonderful, warm and friendly group of people, who accepted me into their midst, it brought a tear to my eye at my exhibition opening.

My week as Artist in Residence at Naracoorte Primary School was an absolute delight. I had so much fun with all the kids, some of whom came to my exhibition opening, that I felt quite heavy hearted to leave them. Hi to Graeme, Annie and Adele. I wish to sent a very big thank you to Dylan Bartels who was such a support to me that I really don't know how I would've managed without him. He gave up his recess and lunch times to help me clean the multitude of brushes, paint trays and water pots and helped me set up for the next class. He worked tirelessly putting out chairs and helping me without even being asked. He's such a special kid and I hope I get to see him again when next I'm in town.

I also enjoyed the collage workshop I gave and made some new friends. I love sharing information I've gathered in my artistic exploits and in sharing I also get so much back. The group who attended the workshop have inspired me with a whole lot of new ideas which are formulating in my head. My art will have to take a back seat for a little while as I've outgrown my studio space. I'm about to give the shed a good clean out and plan to be ruthless and throw out as much as Bob will let me. We used it as a pottery studio and now its storage and a general dumping ground. Well that's all about to change so I can set up a nice studio space where I can leave work in progress set up and not have to pack up every night. Oo I'm so excited, plan to start the clean up next week.

Anyway that's me all caught up after my exciting week away. Will be going away again around the 28th Aug. My exhibition needs to come down and then I will be joining a couple of new friends in a felting workshop weekend which is being held in Horsham. Have wanted to get serious about felting for some time now but never got around to it. What's that saying of Buddha, "When the student is ready, the teacher will appear". That's how I feel about this felting workshop. The exhibition, residency and workshop I was working towards was over and I was ready to explore new grounds and a new media when I heard about this felting workshop. Spooky isn't it? hehehe.

One more thing, a big happy birthday to my Bob who is 57 today. He's still my knight in shining armour and my best friend :)