Blanket boys

A couple more dolls made from recycled blankets. Parihaka is down the road so I used the white feathers of peace for one doll. The other has a Tiki face.  Probably these dolls are meaningless unless you are from New Zealand?!  I love turning stuff into other stuff....(but I'll let you into a secret....sometimes I do wonder at the point of it all.....)



Rabbit

We are plagued with rabbits!  So cute....well I think so.  They drive Clyde insane!  The dog (Jess) has started catching them and bringing them home to devour on the front lawn.  I still have the image from yesterday in my head of the dog at the back door with a rabbits bottom and legs hanging out her mouth...one leg on each side and the fluffy tail in the middle.  With one or two chomps it was gone!  Jess has also started catching birds.  Her and the cat seem to be going through some weird role reversal thing. Walking down Surrey Hill Road yesterday Clyde and I saw eight rabbits in a small stretch of road.....running around bold as brass....even stopping to check us out!  Also saw the quail family.  They are slightly suicidal and run across the road each morning in front of the car as I go to work.

The rabbit above makes a change from making dogs anyway. 

Mutant soft toys

More mutant soft toys.  The only one I like in this picture is the chicken at the front.  Chickadee worked...not too much bling and added on bits.  I am trying to follow the 'less is best idea' at the moment......the back two are 'over the top'.  I wonder if clay faces could work?

'Sneaky' Drypoint print

I found this little drypoint print when I was unpacking another box the other day.  The press is up and going again now after the move.  I am excited!

Another Dog !

This little chappy is on the rack waiting for the first firing of the new kiln.  It is a big kiln so it could be there a while!  I am particularly enjoying making critters with their mouths open at the moment so that I can see their tongues.  My husband asked me the other day did I think I would ever make something other than animals?  So I tried a bowl.  I didn't like it.  When this little man is fired and glazed I will pop his picture on here.

Blowing out the candles

This painting was based around my daughter Emelia's 5th birthday. She wore her hair in tiny wee plaits for a long time.  Her cake was actually a teletubby cake but I liked the idea of the chocolate one with 'smarties' (M and M's) on it better as a visual statement. This painting was made into a greeting card that was sold as a hospice fundraiser about 12 years ago. My Dad who was a local sign writer had just died. The hospice was amazing in the care they gave him.  They afforded him a dignity and sense of peace that I don't think he had in life. He was waiting until retirement to get into his art... but died shortly after retirement of cancer.  Emelia (Millie) is 17 now. This painting represented a major change in style for me....  I was trying to work out how far can you 'prune' down detail and still have a painting that tells a story and reflects some of the character of the subject. It was part of a solo exhibition I had at Kina.  Painting generally has moved on a lot since I painted this.  I now view it as a bit clumsy but I like the moment it captured in my family.

I Love Caravans!

These pictures are posted for fun! Found them recently when I was looking for ideas to help me 'do up' the little sprite elk 400 that I have got. At the hospice shop yesterday I got 20 brand spanking new Australian souvenir tea towels from the 1970's...going to make those little beauties into curtains for the 'van'!  Maybe I can park up at Womad this year and sleep in it with the kids!

Surrey Hill Road and 'Twist' studio

Last March for my Husband's birthday I 

got him a helicopter flight over the new farmlet we had just purchased. 

He took this photo from the helicopter of the house, orchard and the potential studio space.  The house is up the top and looks like a cross.  The studio is the long skinny building that is at the front of the photo.  It is scary having a studio space that will be as big as the house!  I hope I can produce work in there worthy of all the effort he is going to, to make it a cool space for me!..There are new demolition windows in the end near the house.  Some of the trees at the end by the house are gone (nothing too radical) and there is a door there now.  The walls are lined and I have new lighting....I am so excited!

The windows over look the citrus orchard and the chook run.

"Artist- in- Residence"

This painting was one I did a few years ago.  I was 'artist- in -residence'  at Woodleigh school for a term.  This is not the full painting just detail from a section.  All up in size, it was about a metre by a metre and a bit. It is in gouache and ink. Currently it hangs in the Principals office.  The school was developing its 'outdoor classroom' area in the bush adjacent to the school. Classes would often go over there to read.  I painted this painting during the 'artist -in -residence' time, based on the outdoor classroom. Pupils at the school posed as models.  I worked in the library and as classes visited the library during their regular library time they could watch me work.  I found it disconcerting being watched and as I like solitude when I paint, it was interesting to try to work with a large group watching and discussing the painting with the 'up frontness' that children have!

No dogs!

This sign could well be for me, as I am over our new dog at the moment!  I love her dearly BUT...  She is a one man destruction machine! She chews everything including my large plastic pink flamingoes that were in the garden.  I found her munching them on the front lawn the other morning.  Her poo has had pink plastic bits in it for the last few days....gross.  Just as well we live on a farmlet, because I must have looked a sight chasing the dog around the outside of the house in my scruffy pajamas, yelling "bad girl!" and waving the remains of a large pink plastic flamingo in the air!

However, I was asked to do a series of signs for Woodleigh Primary School.  I love doing signs.  My Dad was a signwriter before computers took over a lot of that work.  I used to love watching him work and admired his steady hand and skill with lettering.

This is the first in a series I am doing for the school. 

The art room

My kiln arrived today and I was clearing out 'stuff' and found this picture from last term when I was still art teaching.  Giving up art teaching was one of the hardest things I have done.  I miss it but know that it was the right thing to do. I am SO loving focussing on my own work again.