The other 'artists in residence' at Nannup!

All parents think their kids are amazing, right?!  But sometimes my daughters amaze even me! These are a couple of the drawings they did while hanging out in the gallery with me.  If they can do this at 8 and 11, I can only imagine how brilliant they'll be when they're grown up!

There was a Belly-dancing extravaganza happening in town, so Biggest Munchkin (who is 11, turning 12 in August) drew this beautiful dancer.  I just love the movement she's captured, and the expression on the dancer's face...you can just see the music moving through her!

And a forest fairy by Littlest Munchkin, who is 8 (9 in July).  Sightly influenced by a couple of Mummy's paintings, but all her own work, and just took my breath away!

I've decided not to do the exhibition in August, though I'd dearly love to.  Just not enough time to do a whole new lot of work, I've just started a new part-time job, and we have some big plans for the next few months.  So maybe next year, fingers crossed!

I think my body decided after the exhibition, "Right, all that palaver is over, time to go on strike!"  So in the last week, I've had a migraine, got a cold sore, and a lovely dose of the flu as well.  So it's Phlegm Central here at the moment.  Sigh, I need a holiday I think!

Post-Exhibition madness!

So I'm back home finally, after a week away looking after my little exhibition, staying with my in-laws and being treated to my mother-in-law's marvelous cooking (I swear if I stayed too long I'd put on about 10kgs!), enjoying the peace and friendliness of the lovely town of Nannup in our beautiful South-West, and some rather odd (and slightly disturbing) Autumn weather.  Odd in that, although we did get some much needed rain (rather a lot actually, I was slightly worried I might open up one morning and find the floor under a foot of water), it stayed stubbornly, UNautumnly warm.  Almost tropical on some days.

But all-in all, I had a wonderful time, lots of lovely people came through and told me how beautiful my work was (always a bit dangerous, you don't want to find your head has swelled so much you can't get it out of the doorway!), and BOUGHT some!  In fact, a lady walked in five minutes after I opened up on the first day (which also happened to be my birthday), wandered around for a few minutes, then came up to the front table and said, "You see that big one down the back?  Consider it sold!"  I think I stammered stupidly for a bit and looked blank, before I managed to answer.  So "Shipwreck Coast - Tethys" now has a new home.  And shortly afterwards a couple came in and bought two landscapes.  I think I wore a stupid grin for the whole rest of the day!  The final sold tally was 7 paintings (3 large, 4 small), 2 larger wood hangers, and a lot of cards and prints.  So costs covered, a small profit made, a very pleasant week spent and a whole lot learnt.  Although, sadly, I still haven't learnt how to tell beforehand what might sell and what won't. It seems to be a complete fluke each time, and utterly unpredictable!

View from the outside, with my extremely last minute prayer flags, and a couple of signs/posters that in retrospect are too small (but these are the things we learn!)

 View from the doorway.  You can just see the red dot under 'Shipwreck Coast' down the back!

Me with very much needed coffee in hand, and a big grin that hung about all day.

This is the lady who bought 'Tethys'...I'm probably stammering "sorry, WHAT?...are you serious?!"  And my two munchkins in matching 'galaxy pants', which they love and will wear till they just about stand up by themselves!

A blurry munchkin in front of the cards and prints.

My girls spent quite a lot of time in the gallery with me, they were good as gold and did some gorgeous drawings themselves.  So I put them up on the wall too, and they got at least as many comments as I did!

Talesingrs in the display cabinet.

Small paintings, including a couple of blank spaces where two little autumn leaves were sold and went home with their new owner straightaway.

'Rain Coming' in the corner, one of the two landscapes that sold.

The back wall after I decided to shuffle things around and put something that hadn't sold in the 'magic spot'!  The landscape on the RH wall, was hanging where 'I am the Temple' is hanging, and it sold as well.

'Titania' also sold, she was the out and out favourite of all the Midsummer Trio, I sold quite a few prints and cards of her as well. Always interesting to see which ones will prove the most popular, and seemingly impossible to predict! I might do another (although different) Titania, because I think the other two actually need her, they don't work on their own so well.

Cordelia in the corner, for when I got bored sketching or stitching.  I got some very nice comments about my music as well!

So now...all I have to do is clean my house (my family room looks like something exploded in it, the bathroom is looking feral, and I have boxes and crates and bubblewrapped paintings that all need to go somewhere!), then I have to start working on the next exhibition...because they've asked me to come back in August!  Oh dear, here I go again.............!

Exhibition madness!

It's a whole month since I posted last, and the last week or so I've barely even checked my blogroll.  But I haven't been sitting on my laurels.  I've been BUSY!  Getting ready for this:

And so I've been busy painting, painting, painting...new things, and finishing off old things...like this one!

Blackwoodwife

Here's a quick preview of some of the other bits and bobs I've done.

I know some of these pics aren't the best...but I wanted to let you all see what I've been working on.  There's more, but not photographed yet.

This is my first ever solo exhibition, so exciting and scary...and so much still to do!  Wish me luck!

January...

...is the month when I really need to just accept that I'm not going to get anything much done, and get over it!  With the madness of Christmas over, I always have this silly idea that I'll be able to get cracking on some creative stuff.  But with January comes the searing heat that just seems to suck all my energy, and makes it impossible to spend much time outside, and school holidays don't end until the beginning of February.  So much of my time is spent trying to keep munchkins amused indoors, while simultaneously trying to limit the time spent in front of the TV.  And get the housework done!

So that's my excuse anyway...for the 3 week long lack of posting.

So we've been out and about, finding some cool refuge in the movie theatres and galleries.

We went to see 'Tin Tin', and enjoyed it immensely (I think it was Beloved who really wanted to see it though, being a longtime fan of the comics).

We went to the Art Gallery of Western Australia to see the 'Princely Treasures' exhibition, of marvelous pieces from the V&A in London.  I bought the girls a 3/4 size guitar for Christmas and have been teaching them some VERY basic basics, so they were rather fascinated with this piece.

Joachim Tielke Guitar, Hamburg 1693.

We read 'The Invention of Hugo Cabret' a few months ago, so were very excited about seeing the movie 'Hugo'.  It was extraordinary (though a little long for smallest), filled with wonderful original footage of some of the oldest films.  A remarkable film, it was actually worth seeing it in 3D (usually just bothers the heck out of me), and I'd like to see it again.  Though biggest decided that actually, the book was better.

The next day, we went down to Spare Parts Puppet Theatre again, to see Shaun Tan's 'Arrival'.  Something I didn't realise, is that Spare Parts developed this production in collaboration with Shaun, while he was still creating the book, and the production actually opened before the book was published!  A beautifully made piece of theatre, without a single word of dialogue, and without needing one.  If you haven't seen the book, it's a masterpiece, so go out and find it.  

I don't usually make new year's resolutions, I know myself too well and it never works.  But I've made a sort of resolution...to do more sketching.  It's something I just don't do enough of, I've completely got out of the habit over the years.  So I'm trying to do a sketch of something every couple of days, and to try NOT to care what it is, or how it turns out.  It's the doing that matters.  We took the girls to Kings Park on Sunday afternoon (when it was actually overcast and blessedly cool) and as they played at 'Dinosaur Park', I sat and sketched a tree.  I decided to do it in pen rather than pencil, to deter myself from getting the urge to 'rub out' any bits I don't like.

Today the girls and I went into Perth on the train to see the 'Extraordinary Stories from the British Museum' exhibition at the WA Museum.  Only a tiny fraction of what is actually in the British Museum in London (I spent a day there about 20 years ago and would have been quite happy to camp there for a week) but I was very excited to actually see this in the flesh (so to speak) after seeing pictures of it for years.

Biggest munchkin was very taken with the Queen from the Lewis chess set, as she started learning to play chess in 'clubs' time at school last term, and got a little chess set for Christmas (I probably shouldn't admit that she can beat me!)

After we finished looking at that, we went down to sit in the lovely new, light and airy and COOL main foyer, and all did some sketching of the replica dinosaur the towers over the seats there.  With my sort-of-resolution in mind, I thought the museum would be a great place to do a bit of sketching, and the girls were keen to join in, so we took pencils and sketch books with us.  I think we should make it a regular thing, as there's so much to draw, and being able to walk around a stuffed bison or deer, or look at a dinosaur skull from different angles, draw skeletons or fossils or birds in flight, would be marvelous practice.

My dinosaur foot...again with a pen so I can't rub out 'mistakes'.

Biggest munchkin's dinosaur sketch.  She was a bit confused and thought that everything in the museum had come from the British Museum!

The Lewis Chess queen.  Now if any of you with sharp eyes and photographic memories are wondering why she's holding her left hand up to her face in the drawing, when the actual chess piece is resting her face on her right hand, it's because Biggest munchkin was actually drawing it from the poster hung up on the window and facing outwards.  So a reverse image.

Littlest did a couple of great sketches of the dinosaur heads, and the foot as well, but she's off to stay with her grandies tonight, and took her sketch book with her to show them, so I couldn't scan them in.

Phew!  This weekend, we have Beloved's best mate, and my in-laws coming to stay.  

I think I shall spend the first day of school (Wednesday next week) on the couch with my feet up and an iced tea balanced on my belly!

Beauty Remembers the Beast...getting there...and disappointment...

I wonder if I'm the only one who, no matter which version of Beauty and the Beast I read (or see), always feels a sense of disappointment, of anti-climax, when the Beast turns into the handsome prince.  Beauty falls in love with an extraordinary person, she makes a huge leap of faith, and then he turns into a man.  Just another prince, like all the other princes in all the other faery tales.  Did she feel let-down too?  Did she wonder if her sacrifice deserved better?  She loved a beast who turned out to be gentle and loving, yet wild too.  Not the sort of husband who would care about table etiquette, or small talk at parties to keep guests amused.  Not the sort of husband who would care if she went barefoot, or let her hair hang down.  And what does she get?  A prince, for whom all those sorts of things would be of paramount importance.  Not a man to run wild in the woods with...a man who would require a wife who knew how to behave on state occasions, to entertain endless boring sycophants...to behave APPROPRIATELY.

I'd choose the beast, wouldn't you?

My Beauty did.  She's coming along, I've spent HOURS (or rather OWW-ers) hand-lettering the poem  onto the canvas.  Almost done, but OH, my aching fingers and shoulders.  So here are more progress pictures, as requested.

Some winter trees added to the horizon.

The whole canvas.  91cm x 91cm.

Beginning the free-form hand-lettering.  Guess all those hours in Typography and Hand Lettering classes during my Graphic Design course were useful after all!

Close-up.  2nd last verse, phew!

Almost done!

______________________________________________________________________

SIGH!  Just after I posted the pics above, I sat down outside in the sun for a well-deserved cuppa...and got a phone call.  Apparently my entry form, for the Art Award/Competition that I entered "Beauty Remembers" in, did not arrive in time.  Sad to say, it seems that it takes Australia Post 5 days to deliver a letter that I could (and obviously SHOULD) have dropped off myself in 10 minutes.  And it takes the organisers almost two weeks to let me know (on the day before it was to be taken in) that I could have saved myself the trouble of rushing to get it finished.  So I'm feeling rather down and disappointed.  These competitions are a good way to get your artwork out in the public eye.  Ah well, I've finished the pencil and it's now sealed, so I may put it aside for a bit, as I have another painting to do.  Then I can pick it up again and take my time over it.  But here's a pic or two of where it's at now, ready for the 'colour wash' step.

Work In Progress: Beauty Remembers

This is 2 days worth of work, I've just about finished with the pencil rendering (some trees to be added to the horizon), then it will be sealed, then I'll get into the acrylic washes.  I'm working with it leaning up against the dining table while I sit on the floor in front, probably not the best way to go about it, but I couldn't get it on the easel at the right height to sit at.  The canvas is 91cm square, and I intend to have a fair bit of white space.  I haven't worked out how I'm going to incorporate the text of the poem yet though, what style writing and whether I should do it in pencil, or pen and ink, though I think it should be either grey or sepia toned.  Beauty's hair seems to be taking on a slightly tree-like look which I quite like, though it wasn't intentional.  I struggled with the folds of the sheet though, I REALLY can't do draping cloth!  It has to be finished by the end of the week, so no time to stop and procrastinate about which way I should go, which is probably a blessing!

Late Note: for everyone popping in thanks to Terri Windling's very kind recommendation at The Drawing Board, thanks for dropping by, and it you click on the 'Beauty Remembers' label just under the post title, you'll get all the posts relating to the creation of this drawing/painting as it progresses.

Late Harvest...

Autumn colours mixed with the colours of our southern winter...intense greens, of grass and leaf and tree washed clean and bright with rain.  Some more little wood hangers for my art stall.  Because I am a novice at this, I did not realise that my 'allocated stand' was actually 'allocated floor space' and nothing more, and now must scramble to knock together some kind of display stands to put my larger paintings on.  Beloved says he can make something...ah well, I suppose it's all a learning experience.

And another tea bag leaf

I have something waiting in the wings to show you.  A slightly different direction...or rather, several directions at once.  I have the first pieces completed, but their stories are still floating about my head like a cloud of butterflies, beautiful, but the details are elusive and hard to pin down.  So we must be patient and let them land and become still so as to observe them closely without harming or alarming them.  Stay tuned!