The naked truth!

A great session at life drawing and a great model.
Nice to take time out from feverishly making 'stuff' for the Emporium Shop and just indulge in  something that has no need to sell.  It was a bit of a surprise to me then  to find that I had actually sold one of my sketches at the group end of year show! The drawing was one of Angela which I previously published on the blog.
I guess this has emboldened me to publish some more from last week's session;

I choose to take an academic approach because I feel that I don't have to make an Arty statement or produce a finished work, I simply want  to get my 'eye' in. Amazing that this discipline has helped my drawing overall, even the Urban Sketching

51 not out, a little down maybe!

Yep, it is our 51st wedding anniversary today so bear with me while I trip down memory lane.
The  scene; university of Sydney Wheat Research Station, Narrabri  NSW.
Enter, Don, AKA the Prof, a recently graduated fellow now researching root growth in wheat plants (a topic which caused some hilarity among the farm staff), and Carole, recently graduated high school student  filling in time as a research assistant while expecting to go on to greater things.
The plot thickens!
Thrown into close proximity during a long cold winter in the potting shed the two young seekers find warmth in each other's company, the rest is history.
Fifty one years, a Phd, an Art degree, two children and numerous moves and here we are, still providing warmth for each other.
That day 51 years ago (the world was black and white then).

                                                                                                                                                                    Who could resist those eyes?

     

I miss my freckles and the gap in my teeth!

    

Thank you for your forbearance!

My life in fuzzy pictures.

Moving into town has certainly given me a new lease on life and a greater involvement in doings outside of my four safe walls.
 During the last couple of weeks I have been up and down the main drag (Hunter St) on the lovely free bus which directly connects me to the local fabric and craft store...pig heaven. The only catch is that I have to cross the rail line using 30 looong steps up and over to catch aforementioned bus. I count it as a compressed form of exercise which surely substitutes for that recommended 30 minutes a day! Regular trips are necessary to top up the supplies for things I make for the craft shop.
My involvement in the Emporium craft shop/gallery is moving right along, I have been busy this last week or so making origami birds and little stuffed bird ornaments and the echidnas are still selling like, well hot echidnas!

Our attempt to Christmas-ify the old space, behind the wall is the ghost of a very ritzy department store.

 Young Madeline arranging my birds on our Aussie Christmas tree!

A sad spot in the week was a gathering at a local pub with other "True Believers" to farewell a grand old man of the Labor Party, Gough Whitlam, who died last week at the great age of 98. He can truly be said to have been a man who changed the face of Australia and implemented many social justice reforms for all especially the indigenous people. Vale Gough.

I made three terrariums (or is that terrarii?) and dressed them for Halloween.

A cruise ship came and went......

I met an Etegami Club friend from Brisbane for the first time. Leeanne was in Newcastle to show off her skills at a Ukelele Festival! We are a diverse lot in the Etegami Fun Club!

And a spot of Urban Sketching to record yet another building which is in the process of demolition, I guess they will keep the facade to give the planned apartments a bit of character.
If they keep repurposing and wrecking these old buildings where will all the funky coffee shops live? (worried look).

Thursday life.

More of the same.....
Life drawing yesterday was  very enjoyable. Our model, a tall African girl was expert at holding poses which made it easy to concentrate on her fine musculature. I do think that going to a life drawing session every week is helping me to see better. Unfortunately it is not helping me with my photography skills.

I am desperate to learn how to photograph my drawings, this is my latest clumsy attempt to  adjust the colour, really the paper is white not blue and the pencil is sanguine!

Looking at a Teddy Bear through a glass darkly.

Rocked up to life drawing class this morning to find that the organizer has quit and we were left to our own devices.
Not all bad, an excuse to stare at my fellow artists and scrutinize each one as they sat for us in 15 minute 'bites'. I was luckily spared the scrutiny.
One downside is that we will no longer be provided with the splendiferous morning tea/lunches that we had come to expect.
Apparently this group have been meeting for many years and until recently had organized themselves, so it is back to the old days and 'bring a plate' (that quaint Aussie expression which has confused many immigrants who didn't realize that there is meant to be something ON the plate!
So, a morning of 15 minute sketches, apologies for the lousy photography!
                                                                   Half sheet

Quarter sheets

 

I have come to the conclusion that I am quite good at drawing teddy bears but terrible at drawing trainers (running shoes)!
For the technically minded I used a big fat 2B graphite stick, a rather blunt instrument but allowing freedom to wobble about.

I have not been idle...

Lately my life has been hijacked by the need to keep up stocks in the craft shop where I sell my stuff. I'm not complaining mind you but I have been working my little fingers to the bone.
I love doing this because it keeps my aging hands nimble, also, I actually feel the need to produce stuff (that's the residue of my Protestant work ethic ) and by sitting in the shop every Saturday I get a lot of feedback and contact with the people who come in.
The shop is one of a group situated in a now defunct  department store in the the dead heart of the city. An enterprising soul thought that it was such a waste to see all of those empty shops and actually did something about it , thus RENEW Newcastle was born and crafty folk and artists can use some of these empty spaces for a peppercorn rent. The new shops and coffee shops (life is nothing sans coffee) have brought new energy to the city precinct but of course it will only last until it has achieved its aim and the wreckers ball moves in to make way for apartments in the revitalized area! Catch 22, (thank you Joseph Heller).
Just a taste of my wares!
Flanders poppy pins (try saying that three times quickly). I though these might be nice given that it is the 100th anniversary of the beginning of The Great War, remember that one?, it was meant to end all wars, sigh.
Next April 25 also marks the 100th anniversary of the battle of Anzac Cove, a defeat that has come to symbolize bravery and sacrifice and is deeply embedded  in the Australian and New Zealand psyches.

Next are a few little birds I have been working on for Christmas ornaments.

Next, a little gathering of Echidnas, freely extrapolated from a Little Cotton Rabbits pattern for hedgehogs ( longer snouts, more spiny yarn.

It is so nice with the warmer weather to be able to sit on my lovely balcony and work, I am blessed!

The unforgiveably lazy artist.

Art has taken a backseat to survival for the last two weeks.
I remember visiting the Beppu Hot Springs in Kyushu a few years back and it was appropriately name "Boiling Hell", I think the weather makes Singapore nearly eligible for that title. I did manage, between fainting and moaning, to dash off a couple of etegami in response to a call by Debbie Davidson to incorporate packaging materials in a card. There have been some clever and witty submissions but the only interesting stuff I found was the wrapping paper around some art supplies I brought at the Straits Art Co. I did buy a bamboo pen and that made me think of all of those wonderful drawings Van Gogh did with either a bamboo or a reed pen. So by way of an homage...

And reflecting my somewhat jaundiced view of the world at present, a card inspired by a window display of large silver and gold dandelion heads, this priceless quote from Mr Darcy ( I wonder if "A pair of fine eyes" would make my resolve crumble so easily?)

Happy snaps.

Is there anything more annoying than having to look at the 2,000 holiday snaps on someones smartphone?
So in the interest of brevity if not wit, here are a couple of happy snaps from our long planned trip to Singapore.

Chinatown all decked out for the Mid Autumn Moon Festival, all of the flowers are lit at night.

Number two son lives and works in Singapore and we see him so seldom what with his busy lifestyle, the expense of the required Business Class seats on the plane and my precarious  and unpredictable health. It follows then that the Trip has been planned, put off and fantasized about for two years (since the last one in fact) I fear this may however be my swansong, the heat really plays silly buggers with my lungs and it feels like the ante room to Hell. It is a lovely place to visit but unless one dashes from air conditioned car to air conditioned mall, one is a pitiful soggy mess.

A charming chap I met in the corridor outside said son's office.

Another charming chap I met about 51 years ago (otherwise known as the Prof or my Minion).
He did a sterling job of fetching and carrying and making sure that I made it home in one piece, he's a keeper!

Do not adjust your sets...

Normal service will be resumed as soon as the technicians come back from lunch! Yep, back in the slammer again but on the mend. Had a brilliant week, was doing well on the Out and About program then whammy! A common old cold, bummer!

A fishy tale.

Fun and games at the residence yesterday. A visit to the Fish Markets to buy a fish and then home to 'tackle' the Japanese art of Gyotaku or direct printing from fish!
Two granddaughters, one son and one poor deceased model (the fish) and we had a whale of a time. Surprisingly for a first try we produced some not too shabby prints. A couple of little minnows were not quite as successful as models and had to be told to flake off...okay, enough with the puns, now the pictures!