Post cards

I have recently joined a group who are sending post cards to one another -BY SNAIL MAIL!!!! I thought this might be a bit of fun - playing with small images and doing a bit of cutting and pasting. I have heaps of half started experimental bits of paper lying around and I like the fact that they will 'go to a good cause'.

Here are some of my experiments of the past week or so - using ink, water colour, gouache, teabags, joss paper, and the shiny bits are nail polish. They are all twice post card size - I will fold them in half and sew the edges together, maybe enclosing a little 'surprise' inside.

...inside 1

front & back

...inside 2

front & back

...inside 3

front & back

...inside 4

front & back

...inside 5

front & back

...inside 6

inside 7

front & back

I will write a few words on the insides.

I really like the idea of the PO staff smiling when they handle the cards. Let's hope some of the processes are still done by hand and not all fully automated. Maybe that's a good reason for me to put addresses, stamps etc in unconventional places - confuse the robots!!

HIP HIP HOORAY

YEAH -----my updates are now working.

I was invited to dinner last Wednesday night to AN ALPHABET DINING EVENT - Creative Dining in Maleny, where the guest of honour was 'G' for Gary. Gary is a techno wizz, and I asked him about my blog not updating in follower's side panels. He said something about RSS feed. I googled RSS and simply cut and pasted the RSS address into my blog feed setting, [after I meticulously copied down the 160 letter address that was already there - just in case]. I have no idea where the dodgy address originally came from but hey - the new one seems to be working now. Fingers crossed :)

[this is a favourite painting, 'Canopy', to hopefully appear and celebrate my updated status in your blog feed]

NOOSA GALLERY

I posted some months ago about a gallery in Noosa which I had joined. Unfortunately that one didn't work out, but I now have work in another one. I hope this one will work for me -

'Jewellery and Art gallery @ Carrington's'.

It is in Noosa Junction.

The people running the gallery are lovely and they have lots of past experience running a fabulous contemporary jewellery gallery - the painting side of the venture is new, and they seem to love my work, so here's hoping. Time for me to get into the paints again after a 6 months break.

These pics were taken at the recent opening of a group exhibition titled 'The Language of Art'.

...my paintings,

...explaining 'wabi sabi',

...my jewellery and scarves [and cheeky TALL daughter].

These are some of my favourite paintings which are hanging on the walls.

'Forest - Camoflage'

'Forest - Outcrop'

'Forest - Aerial View'

'Forest - Mist Rising'

'Landmarks 2'

'Landmarks 5'

'Landmarks 7'

'Landmarks 10'

FABRIC BOOK of Life Drawings - revisited

I posted on my life drawing book made from fabric on March 11th, 2010. My lovely new blogger friend, Leslie Avon Miller of Textures, Shapes and Colours, featured my book and my life drawing collage exchange works in her blog on Monday, June 28th. Thanks to Leslie, my 'Followers' have doubled over the past couple of weeks. Don't you just love this blogging network?

Anyway, many of the comments at the bottom of her post about me referred to wanting to turn the pages of my book, so I have done the next best thing. I have made a 'Picasa' slide show of me turning the pages - not quite the same thing, but hopefully near enough. Go to FABRIC BOOK to see the slide show.

Strangler Figs

I am lucky enough to live close to a beautiful patch of remnant rain forest [Mary Cairncross Park] which was donated to the community early last century. It is a 'must see' when I have friends from other parts of the country/world come to visit. My friends Helen and Dave McIntyre from Stanley, NE Vic., were here on the weekend and we enjoyed this spectacular walk. Dave is a keen native tree man and was happy to find a few white and red native beech trees still standing. Helen is the wildlife spotter and found us a pademelon, bush turkey, scrubwrens, giant earth worm and trapdoor spider holes, and I took lovely photos of my favourite undulating lines and textures whilst trying to sound knowledgable about the local area.

The strangler figs wrap around the host trees, killing them eventually; and once they decay, a hollow wonderland is left behind. The buttress roots extend far from the base of the tree, flowing across the ground like a stiffened ball gown.

Another finished project

It has mostly been a week of paperwork and boring stuff, so nothing much creatively has happened, 'tho I did manage to finish another 'book' - the fabric one with all the samples I did in the Dorothy Caldwell workshop in Ballarat last April.

...with the unresolved cover,

...I added another bit of black fabric to the red and a couple of long straps,

...then rolled the book and rolled the cover around, tying the straps in a bow.

It's a strange way to present a book, but it's only for me, so hey - I'm free to say 'who cares?!?!'

Wabi sabi telephone book

I was in Tasmania last September and found a fabulous windblown and weathered telephone book in a very exposed telephone booth. It was next to the Bruny Is. pub and had suffered the ravages of the Southerly busters coming up from the Antarctic. If I'd had a new phone book as a replacement and if I'd had room in my suitcase, it would have come home with me.

The next best thing was to 'make my own', so for the past 10 months I've had an old phone book out on the deck exposed to the Qld elements - not the same level of wind blown interest, but more humidity and a good home for little bugs.

These pics were taken on several occasions over that period of time.

This one was taken today.

...and here is a bit of 'photoshopping'.

I'm not sure where it will lead, but I LOVE these wavy lines.