exhibiting

I'm not quite sure where this week has gone. I've been very busy getting my studio ready for the Ruby Coast Arts Open Studios which are on this weekend. It'll be the first time "the public" have been in my studio, as its recently been renovated. This time last week we were eagerly anticipating the return of the hubby from his two week stint in Fiji. After picking him up from the airport on Saturday morning we went into town for lunch and a wander about.

It was a lovely day for looking up.

But we weren't there to look at the sky, but my paintings in the Spring Exhibition at the Suter Art Gallery.  This year I entered three paintings and they were hung together in the first gallery.

Pink Horizon, Kowhai and Capsules all in a row. (How I hate coming up with titles!)

I was also keen to go to an exhibition of paintings by Margaret Petchell  at The Bridge Street Collective. But it were closed (it was a long weekend so I might let them off). My favourite paintings of hers are the large budgie heads, and one was hanging in the window as a poster.

The exhibition ends tomorrow, so I'll just have to be satisfied with looking at her prints at Endemic World.

Driving home the sea was quite wild, but there were still lots of people at Tahunanui Beach.

Last night we went to the launch of the Ruby Coast Arts Festival in Mapua. There was a silent auction of postcard (A5 sized) artworks donated by various artists.  I was chuffed that my two paintings, imaginatively titled "Land" and "Sea" had a bit of lively bidding, and ended up being brought by a couple who have a local gallery.

I'll report on the how the Open Studios went next week, and share some photos of my studio while it's looking nice and tidy. Plus I'll finally get around to holding the 100 Days giveaway as that exhibition came down on Tuesday.  Have a lovely weekend.

100 on the wall

Day 100 of the 100 Days Project was on Saturday 14th September. It was with a bit of anticlimax that I finished my 100th Sharpie drawing. I was wanting to do something really amazing, but in the end inspiration was lacking so I drew seaweed, something I'd drawn before, so it didn't even feel very original!

With two other local ladies who did the project as well, we arranged to hold an exhibition at a local shop and gallery, The Old Post Office Store in Upper Moutere. This involved a bit of media release and interview with the local paper. Amazingly I'm managing to smile for the photographer as I was four days post-op and didn't feel like posing!

I drew on A5 card which came in pad form, and it was quite a task ripping them apart. 100 drawings did make a lovely big satisfying stack.

Here's my blurb (written in haste the night before, as usual - my least favourite task):

Sally: 100 days with a Sharpie

At the beginning of the project I started with the following brief:

“Every day for 100 days I'm going to draw with my Sharpie pen. I'll be drawing on a piece of A5 card so I can use collage, paint, whatever takes my fancy - as long as I use my black fine point Sharpie pen.”

And that’s what I did for 100 days. I soon found I didn’t need to use other materials, that a Sharpie pen was enough.

Procrastination is the evil twin of productivity. While doing the project I had no time for procrastination (well not if I wanted to sleep), so it didn’t get a chance to lurk each day. So the flipside was that productivity reigned.

What I found hardest was finding inspiration. I’d like to say it got easier over the 100 days, but I’m not sure that it did! Completing the project has given me a resource of images to use in my art practice, something I can turn to when inspiration is needed.

I also learnt to trust my instinct and not to be too self-critical. So here are my 100 drawings, which took 100 days and 7 Sharpie pens.

Enjoy.

 

We hung the exhibition on 25th September, and it will be up until 28th October.  Well 'hang' is hardly the right word, it was more of like "masking tape them up". I shuffled my drawings and taped them up in random order. The wall made it interesting, with light switches, battens and other features I couldn't get anal about the spacing, I just had to keep on sticking them up, and down.

That evening we held an exhibition opening, and I was delighted that two of my drawings sold then. I had never planned to hold an exhibition or sell them when I started the project, so it all felt a little weird. But I'm getting over it, plus the sales should cover the wine and food expenses!

My favourite from the 100 days is day 89. It's the only plein air and "self portrait" drawing I did. I drew it while waiting for the kids at a sports day in Motueka. I found the seedhead from the pohutakawa tree and was going to draw it, but saw the shadow of my hand holding it on the paper and drew that instead.

If you have a favourite let me know as I will be giving those that don't sell away at the end of the month to my faithful followers. Yes you will have to be faithful, and a follower (with Google Friend Connect or Bloglovin' or  Facebook), and because comments give me such a buzz, my regular commenters will get first dibs (well only if they want one!)

Here's the link to my Facebook page which has all 100 drawings in an album.

luxury

I've just had what I consider to be two and a half days of luxury - I went on a painting workshop! Thankfully the hubby wasn't away for work, so was able to pick up the kids afters school on Monday. At first I was quite apprehensive, as being the introvert I am, I was unsure of what to expect and who I'd meet. I did know one other artist, which helped. But what really helped me was painting. And having the time and space to focus on painting.

The setting was amazing, in a 1905 building (which is pretty old by NZ standards) built over the sea overlooking the Boulder Bank. I think I'll just let the photos do the talking.......

The workshop was taken by Richard Adams, an abstract painter from Auckland. I picked up some techniques for working on paper with texture, and colour. I haven't taken any photos of the end-product, as they're really only experimentations. Not only was it a great location and venue, the organisers were also great cooks! Ah luxury!

100

Life is busy, with lots of things going on. I'm off to a market on 7th July, so the kitchen table has not been seen for a few weeks! I'd read about The Hottie Project on Lisa's blog, which is all about making hot water bottle covers to keep children in Christchurch snuggly and warm this winter. Having spent about seven winters myself in Christchurch, I know it can get a bit cold, and add into the mix houses that have still not been fixed since the earthquakes, I know its a bit of a miserable time for some people. So hopefully my hottie cover will cheer someone up this winter.

I wanted to make a unisex cover, so chose a lovely soft gray jumper that I'd felted.  I'd never made a hottie cover before, but it really is quite easy with Lisa's template, or using a hottie as a guide.

We use wheat bags to warm our beds, which are heated in the microwave with a glass of water (a very important detail). No electric blankets around here! I love my wheat bags - yes I need three strategically placed about my person, and in the morning, if I haven't kicked them out, they are still warm. Here are some I made last year from a flanalette pillowcase.

When I'd finished the hottie cover there was enough left overs to make a pencil case. I've been making them like this for a year now, but felt like a change, so the rest I've made have different faces. It's more work, so I might have to put the price up slightly, it's so hard to calculate how long each one takes, I'm sure I have a very low hourly rate! 

I had to find time to finish off a small painting (A4 size) which is a donation to the Suter Art Gallery's redevelopment fundraiser. I did the background at art group, but it took me a few days to work out where to from there.  In the end I masked off the shapes and used white oilstick on the background. I've titled it "Glimpses", and have now got some other ideas for larger paintings.

There are quite a few other things going on in "life" which I'll not bore you with. Before I knew how busy this month was going to be I signed up for the 100 Days Project, where I'm doing a quick Sharpie drawing every day.  Seven days done, 93 to go! Some days I've found it easy, and others are harder, it's definitely a challenge!  Here is Day 1's drawing. If you want to check out the others take a peek here.

While on the theme of 100 - this is my 100th blog post. I've actually been putting off writing it, as thought I should make more of a song and dance about such a milestone and hold a giveaway (like proper bloggers do!). But I haven't quite got myself that organised - yet! I would like to thank my faithful followers and especially those of you who write comments. Comments are great - I appreciate them so much, if I was a better blogger I'd reply individually to you all, but I'm not, so sorry about that.

I'll leave you with a sunrise, we've been having some crackers lately, and heading towards the shortest day of the year I don't even have to get up early to appreciate them. Excuse the power lines but I was in my pjs and slippers and wasn't venturing off the deck to get the perfect shot!

surprises

I've surprised myself by getting back into painting after a two month hiatus, and have done three paintings this week! The two little ones are actually a diptych, but I'll count them as two!  It feels great to be back painting again.  I've started making my backgrounds bolder and brighter and I'm exploring the eucalyptus leaf motif.

It's our 14th wedding anniversary today. I've only seen hubby very briefly at 5.30 when he got up to catch the early flight to Auckland. I'm not holding my breath for a surprise. He's going to take me and the kids to the local pub for dinner when he gets back tonight. I'm definitely not expecting any ivory which is the traditional gift for 14th anniversaries!

The hubby isn't one to surprise me, I think I'm too difficult to surprise actually. The best surprise he ever gave me was when he proposed.  It was 15 years ago in November. I had come home late from work and was expecting to walk into the house to the smells of a cooked dinner. I was about to chew him out for not getting dinner ready when I noticed the cat sitting in the middle of our bed with a collar on. She never wore a collar, and hanging off the collar was a blue tag, and engraved on the tag was "Sally will you marry me?" As they say the rest is history! That night we went out for dinner to Little India in Merivale, funny how he's now travelling to India for work.

Our cat (she's a different model from the proposing cat!) did leave me an unpleasant surprise this morning, a dead rat on the door step with part of it's intestinal tract in the middle of the floor. She always seems to do this sort of thing when hubby is away so I have to deal with the body and the blood! Yucky yuck!

I have left a surprise for the hubby, although the kids and I aren't too sure if he'll notice it for a few days. I doily bombed the tree in the middle of our front lawn! The doily was hanging around in the craft room and I've been meaning to do something like this for a while.

When hubby came back from Australia last week he asked what magazine I'd like from the airport, not wanting to surprise me! I quickly replied Inside Out. It's a great magazine and I'd really enjoyed the last issue I'd brought when we came back from Brisbane at the beginning of October. Imagine my disappointment when he pulled out the same issue! Yep, seems it's a bi-monthly magazine.

So that means I've got a spare copy to giveaway to someone who hasn't got the Nov/Dec issue. Just leave me a comment if you'd like it.

Linking up with Ta-dah! for the first time.

Footnote: He did surprise me, with a lovely bunch of flowers he brought on the way home from the airport!! 

wet snippets

The last two days of the school holidays were wet and foggy. But it didn't rain all of the time, I was able to wander in the garden in the fog, and take time to look at some of the smaller things.

 

It won't be long till the cherry trees are flowering.

"Fall" acrylic on canvas, 405 mm x 510 mm

The kids went back to school this morning, and I finished a painting for a local art awards. I was humming and haaing about whether to enter anything, as entries close tomorrow. I had painted the first layer a few weeks ago and wasn't happy with it, so this morning I painted leaves all over it, then after a cup of tea I finished it off with the white overpainting. I should have taken photos during the various stages. I think I'm happy with it, it might need a wee bit of touching up in places? Or maybe I should just leave it. Not too sure about the name though!!

linking up with {tinniegirl}

sewing love

My sewing machine and I have kissed and made up. No more tension troubles, it's all just plain sailing sewing from now on ....... thanks to my best friend coming over and reading the instruction manual VERY carefully. Yes I was using the wrong bobbins, only a couple of millimetres wrong, but that's enough to make everyone jumpy and jittery and not happy. So to celebrate this wonderful new phase in our relationship, I had to sew. It took me a few moments to work out what I wanted to do, then I remembered I wanted to make zippered pouches/purses. I googled a tutorial and followed it very carefully although it all sounded terribly convoluted. Which it was, I then had to uppick what I'd done and redo it without the convoluted, clever-dick steps. And to my amazement I made something! So I quickly made two more, and then the next day I had to raid the op shops of Motueka to find more zips and I made two more.

All of the fabric is out of my large bag of assorted table linen, which I've been buying because I can't bear to leave things at the op shop. The fun bit is matching up some other interesting fabric, another napkin, sheet or pillowcase for the lining.

So I'll be making some more for the craft market in November, and have popped some into my very neglected and unloved Felt shop.

I also finished off another "End of the Line" brooch - it was a commission from the June market. I know it took me almost a month to make one tiny wee brooch!

It's the last week of term, so I think that has helped me get cracking. Because I also so did some painting! It's still a work in progress, but I can share a wee 8x8 canvas I did last week for an art gallery fundraiser. I actually found it quite hard to work on such a small scale. It's called "Atomic Flower'.