Cup of tea prints

Hi, it's great to be back online with my new computer, which is about a hundred times faster than the old dinosaur!! (My kids think they're in heaven).

Last week I spent a lovely morning chiseling a couple of new lino-cuts for cards. I'd forgotten how much I enjoy linocutting, it's quite meditative and relaxing. I've printed up a bunch on different coloured papers, and now I"m, slowly in spare moments, handcolouring with pencil.  Some just have a highlight of colour, some I get a bit more carried away with!! I'll show you some finished cards soon.

If you're in Darwin - next Saturday is the Italian Festival, it's being held on the lawns outside Parliament House. I don't know if I've been asleep or if this is the first one?! I haven't been to it before, but will be singing at this one. A group from the Darwin Chorale are joining a group of Italian ladies to sing some Italian songs - O Sole Mio and Quando quando, are ones you might know. We'll be onstage around 6.30, there'll be lots of other entertainment through the afternoon and evening and I'm sure there'll be wonderful food!!

Happy Mother's Day, and have a great week.

Something about inspiration

I wanted to write something about getting inspiration. I've been thinking about it because I've been asked to take part in a group show with a theme that I'm not too sure about. I needed to work out if I could get 'inspired' about it.

I had a look at some quotes online about inspiration, and they seem to give contradictory advice! Some like Matisse are about being disciplined, showing up to do the work and inspiration will come...
'Don't wait for inspiration. It comes while one is working.' Henri Matisse
While other quotes suggest if you're not inspired you're not going to produce anything good...
'Painting without inspiration is like trying to drive a car with flat tyres.' Ron Elstad

I do like this quote -
'The longing to produce great inspirations didn't produce anything but more longing.' Sophie Kerr
Which seems to suggest that you should just start somewhere with some small idea, that the more you look for inspiration the more elusive it is!

It's not that there's been nothing inspiring in the last couple of weeks - last Saturday there was some wonderful African music and dance (and much more) at a multicultural celebration at a nearby park. In the audience was an African woman in a hair wrap that was like a regal head dress, next to her was a white woman wearing a headband with pink roses round it - such an amazing contrast.

On Friday while I watered the garden there was a rustling noise in the low palms, when I moved closer a pheasant coucal took off out of the palms and over the fence, making its amazing 'glug glug glug' call.

Yesterday I took the kids down to the beach for an hour and in the park there was a boy pulling a kite the shape of a bird behind him, while seagulls took off from the beach.

Any of these might turn into a drawing or painting or linoprint... but none of them suit the theme of the exhibition, and maybe that's what I'm really struggling with!!!

So here are my two new linoprints for cards that I mentionned last time. I'm getting ready for a craft fair at the end of July.
And here are a couple more inspiring quotes.  Wishing you a great week and happy holidays if you have them, the kids have just broken up for 4 weeks of glorious dry season holiday here!

'Beginning with audacity is a very great part of the art of painting.' Winston Churchill
'I am always doing things I can't do, that's how I get to do them.' Picasso
  'I do not want art for a few, any more than education for a few, or freedom for a few.' William Morris