Gypsies vagabonds and wild mad women

I have work in a group show that opens on Thursday 5.30 at Tactile Arts - Gypsies vagabonds and wild mad women!!

One of the pieces I'm showing is a handmade concertina book of dancing girls. I think I blogged about this a couple of months ago, and it did take weeks and weeks to come together. I'm so pleased I got it finished in time! Here are a few photos.

The girls are painted in acrylics with collaged paper dresses a bit like paper dolls, the front cover is a lino cut. On the reverse are silhouettes of the girls cut from scrapbooking papers.

April has been a bit of a disaster health wise. At the start of the month I strained my back pulling out weeds in the garden, and had to spend a couple of days in bed. Every time I start to get better I tweak it again, so over a week later I'm back in bed again. I think I have to admit defeat and really rest properly....

new lino print cards

Last time I showed you some gouaches I'd done, and here is a lino print that developed from one of those gouaches. It's a two plate print, which I haven't done before, tho I've done lots of reduction prints.

Here they are on printing day looking a bit patchy. When I'm doing a 'serious' print to go under glass, I use proper printing ink and a beautiful holbein roller - not too hard not too soft! But when I'm making prints for cards or collage I use acrylic paint and a foam roller, and treat it more like a stamp. The results are not as clean and dense - but it doesn't matter because I work back into them with coloured pencils and paint, or cut them up and collage them. I think the fact that they're not 'perfect' makes it easier to be playful with them.

Here's a finished card, I'll have some of these at the Saltwater Craft Fair at the waterfront on  23rd Nov!! and hope to add one to my etsy shop this week...

I hope your November is going well, it's the hot and steamy build up here, also luscious mango season, and looking forward to the pineapples ripening in our front yard.

Reasons to celebrate

Frogs are loud this evening, we had heavy rain last night and they are celebrating!

Here are a couple of photos from my garden, a vine grows up just one palm tree. It only flowers for a couple of days a year but when it does it's spectacular!

Friday morning got taken up with framing artwork and delivering it for exhibitions. ( I hate when the whole morning is gobbled up by admin and nothing creative gets done, but sometimes it's necessary.) This lino print is for the tactile arts members show - themed 'TEXT' - which opens this Friday 8th Nov at 5.30.

Also opening this Thursday is a historical display - DVAA revisited - at Darwin Civic Centre. This is just the first of events to celebrate 30 years of Darwin Visual Arts Association. I'll have more about this next week!!

November is shaping up to be very busy, so I'll keep this short and sweet and get back to my long to-do-list! Have a great week!!

A recipe for happiness, amongst other things!

Following on from my last post here's a lino print of the same vine that I saw at the Botanical Gardens.

Here's the photo of the vine that set off these pieces.

And a magnificent desert rose that I'm sure will turn up in an art work soon!!

Here's a photo of the verandah table on Friday morning - a few sewing projects. The fish are to make into small hangings - 'charms for good fishing' - for the next craft fair which is coming up fast in mid-July.

I put the magazine in the photo to remind me to write about it!! Dumbo Feather is an Australian magazine, I don't know how widely it's distributed outside Aust/NZ. The format is simple, 5 interviews with people who are doing "something" with their lives!

I first read it about 3 years ago when a workmate had a copy, and first bought it (not long after) when an artist was one of the people interviewed. Of course I'm most interested in the interviews with artists/writers, etc, but it's fascinating to read about people in all fields who are following their passion and through that making a difference in the world. It is in equal parts inspiring and depressing - inspiring to read good news stories instead of what makes the headlines on a daily basis; depressing because I don't have the get up and go to even tidy my house never mind change the world!!

In the latest issue I've learned a little about the tiny developing country of Bhutan (which is between China and India). The radical thinking of this country is to be more concerned about Gross National Happiness than Gross Domestic Product!! I'm fascinated by their guidelines for happiness (which doesn't include access to high speed internet, which I'm sure would be on my kids list of requirements for happiness!!)
            'You have to have a house to live in, no more than 3 people in a room, 3 meals a day and time off. You should work 8 hours, have 8 hours rest and 8 hours for socialising reading or working your way towards good health...You should have enough income to look after yourself. You should meditate once a day, for a short time: it doesn't matter how long...Once a month you should help your neighbour or your community. You should be with nature as often as possible...If you meet all these criteria then you're rated as being sufficiently happy."

I'd also like to send you off to look at a couple of blogs.
I first came across annamariapotamiti on flickr, her watercolours are lovely, it seems she's doing a daily painting challenge, many are of the same room in different lights with different family members wandering through, you can also see them on her blog annamariaart. (by the way I hate the new flickr, where I can't seem to choose how to view photos and get a bit of space around them...)

When I first considered starting a blog one of the things I read was that you need to blog frequently (daily if possible) to keep your readers interested. Well I haven't followed that rule and nor does Julie Whitmore, who writes one of my favourite blogs Julie Whitmore Pottery. She only writes once or twice a month, but her posts are always worth a look, a wonderful peep into her world, what she's working on and what's inspiring her.

I hope you've had a good weekend, we've got a public holiday tomorrow, hooray!!