Success...in an unexpected manner!

Yesterday turned out to be something I wasn't quite expecting...fun!  I've never done an art show/expo/stall type thingy before, and thought I'd possibly be nervous...shy...uncomfortable...bored...but actually I was none of the above, once I'd managed to calm myself down and actually get the wing nuts done up holding my sign onto my table (very fiddly, and already responsible for one broken nail on my guitar plucking hand)!

What you can't see is my ugg boots...it was VERY cold yesterday (mind you, that's Perth cold, which of course isn't REAL cold!)  But it's OK, they are very swish ugg boots...purple with braid around the top, he he!

What was also unexpected was that I didn't sell any small items other than 1 print and a few cards, though lots of people showed a lot of interest in the wooden hangers.  But what I DID sell was 'Storm Spirit Moving', the large painting in the lower left of the photo.  I thought that the smaller and cheaper items would be the bigger sellers (seemed a logical assumption!) and didn't think it very likely that any of the big ones would be sold.  Not that I'm complaining!  I actually made a profit after taking out the $350 or so costs.  But I think it was a bit of a lucky fluke, the right people happened to come along, and if they hadn't I would be very out of pocket.  Has anyone else found this to be true, that market type situations often defy all your expectations and you end up with a most unlikely outcome?

But 'Storm Spirit' has found a new home, and it was rather wonderful too.  A lovely couple and their daughter came along, and admired all my work and we chatted for a bit.  Then they moved on to look at all the other stalls and I didn't think any more of it.  But a while later they came back and wanted to have another look at 'Storm Spirit', and then they said the magic words 'Yes, we'll take it, thank you!'  It turned out that their daughter turned 21 last year, and they'd promised her a painting for her 21st birthday, and she has been looking and looking for the right one.  I think 'Storm Spirit' whispered to her, and I wonder if perhaps she whispered back?  Perhaps the 'true' owners of a painting are the ones who know the painting's story and the painting senses it and whispers "you are the one who can tell me my tale, and only you."  What do you think?

Other unexpected things happened too.  I've long despaired that my work is so eclectic (or rather, all-over-the-place with no rhyme or reason!) that there doesn't seem to be any unifying theme or identifiable style.  And yet, I found myself telling people over and over yesterday that the one thing that appears in all my work is STORY.  It was only when I'd said it about 5 times that it dawned on me what I was saying and I realised, that's it, that's what holds my work together, whether it's a large acrylic, or a pencil sketch, or a stitched piece or a piece of wood and pyrography.  It has a story.

I also found myself being told very sternly that I am a writer!  I was chatting away to a lady who told me I should really do book illustrations, and I laughed and said it's a one-day dream and that I'm just a frustrated writer.  Then she listened as I chatted on (waving my hands around a lot as I do when I'm excited and enthusiastic), telling her the story behind the 'girl in the boat' paintings and 'Shipwreck Coast', and she listened as I talked about the Talesingr and all the little stories I'd written for her, and she flicked through my book of 'prints available' and asked me if I'd written the info and little 'blurbs' for each one.  And she said 'so you wrote this?'  Then she pointed to the flyers and sign about the Talesingr, "and you wrote that?'  Then she looked me right in the eye and very seriously said, "so you're ALREADY a writer, aren't you!"  Perhaps I am.

I even plucked up the courage to take Cordelia along, making sure my neighbouring stall holders were happy for me to play guitar.  And I plucked away (as well as I could with no decent fingernails!), and even sang a bit, very quietly.  And the lady in the stall next door told me it was lovely, and when I stopped and put Cordelia back in her stand for a bit, the lady opposite popped up and came over to tell me not to stop, that it was beautiful!

Perhaps the most surprising thing I learned is that I'm actually quite good at the 'chatting to the customer' thing.  Normally, I'm pretty shy and the idea of starting up a conversation with a complete stranger makes me nervous.  I'm just no good at all at small talk and general chit-chat, utterly hopeless at parties.  But if people stop and ask me about my work, I can chat away and tell them all about it and enjoy doing so.  I had some really interesting conversations with people, getting their impressions and ideas about my work too, which is always refreshing and interesting, and lots of people took my cards and pamphlets, so perhaps they might even pop in here.  So if any of you are people I met yesterday, thank you so much, I had a lovely day and enjoyed talking to all of you!

So while I DIDN'T learn what is a 'sure fire' seller at an Art market, I did learn lots of other things that may ultimately be more useful!

If music be the food of love...........

I've been thinking a lot about music lately, how powerful it is, how it makes you feel, how it can elicit such a deep and almost instinctual response.  How it can take you by surprise and totally undo you and leave you in a sobbing mess.  My mum tells me that when my brother and I were little, she thought I would be the musician and he the artist.  It turned out the other way round...but not entirely, my multi-talented brother can still draw beautifully.  And I wonder sometimes whether music is actually closer to my heart than painting or drawing.

But...that's all a thought (and quite possibly a much longer post) for another day.  I've been sewing the last couple of days, making aprons for moi and for someone special's up-coming birthday (I don't think she reads my blog, but you never know).  Also today, the munchkins begged to be shown how to sew with the machine, so I gritted my teeth, tried to breathe calmly and deeply (they probably can't really sew their finger by accident...I don't think), and showed them some basics.  Pictures of aprons may follow in a couple days, but biggest munchkin wanted to put a CD on while I was sewing and chose a favourite I haven't listened to for a while, Loreena McKennitt's "An Ancient Muse".  Listening to 'The English Ladye and The Knight' made me want to put down the sewing and pick up the guitar.  So I did, and had a fiddle around trying to work out the chords, and which fret to capo, to be in tune.  Took about half an hour of playing it over and over, but I finally found a combination that seemed to match well enough.  Had a whack at recording it a little while ago.  I'm just too impatient, I don't want to wait till I've practiced it properly I want to do it NOW, so the chords are very dodgy, and I was reading the words off the screen as I sang...and my nose is rather stuffed up.  Not the best conditions, but what the heck.  Here it is, and the gorgeous original is posted below!

A song for the moon......

The full moon is upon us, so I thought I'd post a song I wrote for her.  You WILL let me know if this starts to get too annoying, won't you?!  I wrote this song about 3 years ago.  I was listening to a lot of Fado at the time (probably the best way of explaining is that it's the Portuguese version of the Blues...if Billy Holiday had been Portuguese, she would have sung Fado!)  I gave up trying to work out the words from CDs and decided to try and write something in English with the same feel to it (doesn't quite work, but oh well).  Also I wanted a song that sounded like it was supposed to be sung without any accompaniment.  And 'La Luna' was the result, a song about the sad, lonely lady moon.

So of course, one of the things I've been itching to do since I started learning guitar is work out an accompaniment for it.  Entirely illogical, isn't it?!  So had a fiddle around last night and worked out some chords, and discovered by accident a lovely 'flamencoey' sounding one, and put it together...roughly!

So I recorded both versions this morning...attempting (unsuccessfully) to avoid planes going over.  Let me know which you like better!





And click here, and here, for some fantastic REAL Fado!

Through the window...

OK...this is very very VERY rough.  But you did ask for it so you've only got yourselves to blame.  Cordelia and I out in the (very UNsoundproof) studio, in front of the computer with its very basic microphone, bumbling our way through Garage Band recording software (which came free with the computer).  There's a stuff-up in the middle (dammit, that's what happens when you get cocky and throw a surprise 3rd chord into a 2 chord song!), and the wind picks up and you can hear branches scratching the tin roof, but I think I managed to avoid any planes going over at least!

So...."Through the Window"...the first song I've ever written with a guitar.  Words are here if you want to read.
(now lets see if this works...........fingers crossed as she clicks on 'publish post')

Rambling on....

And more music...well, it's on my mind a lot lately.  There has been a distinct lack of VISUAL creativity happening around here, but lots of AURAL stuff going on.  So this week I have worked out how to play this song.  Well my version of it anyway.  I don't quite see the point in duplicating exactly someone's way of playing even if they are the writer/composer.  A good starting point, but then I think what makes a song live and carry on are the new things that other singers/players bring to it.  And not forgetting the difference in guitar playing ability between some of us!!!  So I found some guitar TABS for 'Rambling Man', and changed my tuning to DADF#AD...and then just had fun fiddling around and finding pretty chords that I thought sounded right.



As for other things, it has been disaster central in Australia lately.  Thankfully there has been minimal death or injury, but the loss and devastation has been huge.  Record floods and Cyclones in Queensland, severe flooding in Victoria, even an unusually far south Cyclone near miss over this side of the country which brought with it a short burst of torrential rain and some minor flooding (just a taste of what could come if La Nina brings us a wet Autumn), high winds, roofs blown off and a 'catastrophic fire warning' inland that very thankfully never eventuated.  And just this last couple of days, terrible bush fires have destroyed dozens of homes in the Perth hills, half an hour drive from here.  I hope that we have seen the end of it.

I feel I should apologize too, for the lack of blogging action in the attic of late.  It's incredible how much time 3 days of a 'real' job seem to swallow up, and I get home with an empty head and nothing of any meaning to say.  But now the girls are back at school, I hope to organise myself (now there's an impossible task!) a little better and find some time for the things my fingers are itching to create!

Following a dream...and Cordelia arrives!

I thought it was time I introduced Cordelia.

She arrived a couple of weeks ago; how exciting when the courier truck pulled up and a large cardboard box with my name on it was brought out of the back.  I felt as excited as a 6 year old (and my 6 year old and my 9 year old were pretty excited too!)

She is a Cordoba (so you see Cordelia is entirely appropriate) C5 CE Thinbody.  Slim body, semi acoustic nylon string, with an automatic tuner, and she came in a very good guitar bag too, which I wasn't expecting.

She's lovely to play, and was a bargain too, so I'm a very happy little beginner-muso.

This guitar-playing caper is in danger of becoming an addiction I think.  I'm loving it so much, I'm playing constantly (though not always...or rather, not mostly, the things my guitar teacher has set!), and I'm hearing guitar music in my head all the time that my fingers desperately want to be able to play.  Right now, after seeing Tracey last week (see previous post) I've got serious Blues riffs going round and round in my head.  Cordelia is a little too well-bred for some real down-and-dirty blues...so I borrowed my mum's steel string and worked out how to change the tuning to DADGAD (guitar players will know what that means) and lo and behold...it sounds like the blues!  Now I just need one of those slidey things!

I've been saying "I wish I could play the guitar" for over 25 years.  And now I am...and I think I'm going to be good at it!  So the moral of this story is...it's never too late to follow a dream, you're not too old, start NOW!

A little Blues...

We headed off down south again last Friday to see my in-laws.  Dropped in to Bridgetown on the way, home of the Bridgetown Blues Festival, to see the talented Tracey Barnett play (her Myspace page is HERE, for more music!).  Lovely evening on the grass at the Cidery there, kids ran amok in the gardens and got covered in mud in the nearby creek, eldest got stung by a bee (NOT fun)...and youngest had a little chat with Tracey after the gig was over, and apparently told her "when my mummy grows up, she's going to be able to play the guitar as good as you!"


Tracey Barnett - Judgement Day

Tracey Barnett | Myspace Music Videos

Music that moves me....again

I started to learn this years ago, when I sang with a small Gaelic choir (and no, I cannot speak this beautiful language of my ancestors).  Back then, I had intended to sing it 'a capella', but I dug the words out again the other day, listened to it again...and decided to give a guitar arrangement a go.  I'm rather pleased with how it turned out (7 months into learning how to play, so it's very simple), now I just need to practice it a lot, and remember all the words.  Perhaps one day I'll be able to record it and post it on my blog (when it's had a LOT of practice!), but in the meantime, here's the gorgeous version of it by the wonderful Capercaillie.