Millie and the Maori maiden

Just finished this for an exhibition locally.  It is of my daughter  (irish/scottish heritage) with a doll that sits on our kitchen window sill.  The doll is tiny.  It is one like tourists buy.  You can get the boy warrior one too.  So totally not 'PC'.  But I love the look on the dolls face...like she watches everything going on in the house....behind them is our home town.  The town itself a meeting of Maori and Pakeha as far back as the early whalers in the 1830's.  Five hundred metres from our kitchen window is where some of the first English settlers landed when they arrived in our town.  I like the irony of it all.  I liked playing with the scale of the figures.  Unfortunately my family said they just didn't get it.  Never mind I like it.

The girl in the hat

A drypoint from a series done earlier this year.  Still on the theme of nostalgia that I have been stuck on for a while now.  Really enjoyed playing with the idea of the line of the etching marks against the red sewn line.  Do you remember when Mum's knitted matching hats and jersey's for their kids?  I do.  My mum did.  Real wool ones that scratched and prickled at my neck.  recently I started collected knitted soft toys.  Yesterday I got a knitted 'Big ears' (you know...from Noddy) at the hospice shop.  So exciting.
try 'googling' graffiti knitters and see what you get!  So very cool.

We are all going on a summer holiday!

Here are some more of the caravans from the 'Caravan a day' project last summer.  Just imagine how they would go in that retro caravan caravan I plan to make over!  I tried to make the backgrounds sickly sweet colours like sherbert lollies....sickly sweet is sometimes how we view the past-through rose tinted sunglasses! It was a challenge to make the backgrounds so plain.  I tend to feel most comfortable with clutter and wild juxtapositions of pattern and shape.

Summer holidays coming my way!

Every year we go camping at Raglan.  Last Summer I started doing 'a caravan a day' series.  I have always wanted to buy an old caravan and "retro-fit" it.  One of these days I will....  So.... in the early morning I would pick out my caravan from the camp ground.  Then during the day I would find reasons to walk past it... lots and lots of times.... to look at detail and take it in my head back to the tent where I would continue with the painting.  I wasn't allowed to go to bed till I had finished the painting.  'Oxfords' were my favourite.... and I wanted to do a 'sprite' but couldn't find one.  Oh! The games we play with ourselves!.... But I was so proud of the little colony of caravans that built up in the tent.  I wonder how many people on holiday I made paranoid with my staring intently at them and their caravans.  I am getting so excited by the coming camping trip!

Rat

I am really enjoying ceramics.
We have had Rats in the ceiling!  Couldn't catch them, so decided to poison them.  One took the bait, but died between the ceiling and the top floor of the house - in a place we could not reach!  The decomposing rat smell has been a feature of our place for the last month or so.  This is a tribute to our Rat.
I don't like killing creatures.

At one point this rat was part of a 'shrine' to the memory of the rat... surrounded in daffodils and other bits and pieces on our hearth-as we encouraged the rat on its way... where do rat spirits go?

Sinister man

Having a day catching up on posting new work!  Partly desperation...due to school holidays being over!  This painting was done a while ago.  I like his slightly sinister undertones...are the red circles happy like balloons at a party OR are they like dribbling gunshot wounds?

Country kids

Just finished this painting for the Taranaki Art Review.  It is a about a time when kids roamed in the country, poked dead things with sticks, believed in the Easter Bunny and that inanimate objects could have life.... like the branch that you sit astride and it could be a horse  or a stick that becomes King Arthur's sword!  The rabbit is a small statue that lives on my stereo.  In fact there is a pair of them.... sitting watchful over the kitchen.  I just had to include the rabbit in the painting!

Twisted little creatures

Recently I have started "rescuing" soft toys that are languishing in second hand shops. I give them new faces and add quirky bits to give them character. The only problem is that the house is now filling up with these 'friends'....AND I do not like soft toys......BUT I do like these little friends. These are two recent ones. The cat is 'Growltiger'. Can't think of a name for the 'pretty chick thing'.  Hey!  Maybe that is it's name!  Sorry they are sideways.  Couldn't for the life of me work out how to rotate the image .

Quirky little certificates

For work I have been designing new certificates to give out at the team assemblies to students.  I really enjoyed working with watercolours and ink again.  I tried to add odd little touches, like giving the materials student very sharp scissors not held the correct way.  I did mine first-the visual arts one.  I am not so happy with mine and intend to try it again soon.

Bloody good dog!

One of my first works in clay.  Clay is such a treat to work with!  I love how even after a piece is fired and glazed... if you pick it up it will fit your hand like a part of you...it still fits into the grooves where you held it as you made it... An extension of you. Your hand will fit naturally into the places where it was held  as you made it. So it is like two parts of a puzzle coming together to make a whole- the creater and the created.

'Bloody good dog' has a school attendance medal attached to his collar.  It's the sort they used to give out to students who attended school without fail.  The dog wearing this attendance medal brings up for me issues of faithfulness and loyalty...

blind faith to a system or an owner. 

That has positive and negative undertones.

July 5 2011- I look back at this work now and can see how far on my new clay work has come.  Still dogs and creatures. This work was a major shift in focus in the media I used.  I was a painter...and may be again.....but working with a living thing..like clay and reworking its shape (like a shapeshifter) is so cool.

Delayed start -due to swine Flu @ our place!

Hmm. Wanted to add to this blog frequently once I started it.  But my daughter and I have been sick with swine flu !  Interesting trip.  Just finished this commission  for Jeanette for her sister- Tina's birthday.  Tina is keen on bowling.  It is an older painting style and I was interested in the fact I could still do this style (that she requested) after a number of years. Maybe I should stick to painting like this?  This is the style people frequently ask for.  I have lost touch with what people like.  That is why I have started the blog.  Hopefully I will get feedback on the direction to take that connects with people.

A start!

I have started this Blog as a place to post new work between exhibitions.  A place to get feedback on new work and directions.  Watch this space, as I find my feet!