"they're back"

yesterday I spent the day in the studio and kept hearing strange noises, went outside to investigate, it was the dog chewing on a stick and looked up and there they were, another swarm of bees all over the lemon tree and comfy bush, not sure if you can see them in the photo, I kept checking on them as they were gathering in a bunch on a lower limb of the tree, then all of a sudden they were gone so back to work I went.

came home from my sons graduation today and there they were, in residence under the chair.

luckily the "swarm removalists" were in the area and over they came and went to work.


they'll be back shortly when the sun's gone down, hopefully this lot will stay in the box, we must have such a good little eco system in our yard, we have all sorts of critters move in and don't want to leave.

He did it

We thought this day would never come, Callan has graduated from the Wollongong High School of the Performing Arts, he even got mentioned in the year advisers speech, referring to his hair of many colours and dreads over the years to him sitting there today with short fair hair.
The boys were all presented with sparkly hats and the girls with sparkly tiaras when they were handed their certificates and mum had a lump in her throat and a tear in her eye.


the three terrors, Callan, Sam and Alex

and with his mum......

one down and one to go

Sculpture class

my sculpture piece is slowly coming along, 2 of the sides are starting to take shape, it's a very slow process working with a mallet and chisel, my arm and wrists weren't too happy after class on Thursday - and you don't want to know how many times I hit my thumb........... but boy, it's a fun class

Life Drawing class

In Life Drawing we have been working with pen and ink over the past few weeks, it's not as easy as using pencil as once the line is there you can't rub it out, so we always do a few 5 min drawings to get us warmed up.



then do a longer pose after tea break.


we have also been including washes for the background and layers of wash to build up the tonal areas on the body, sorry this ones a bit out of focus.

General Drawing class

In our General Drawing class we have been working with ink but using a stick instead of a nib, I feel I get the bodies to be fairly OK but then that I ruin the drawing by falling down with the head but I know it's just a matter of time and practice.

artist?

you know your an artist when............



you buy the fruit because it'll look great in a still life, aren't these pears gorgeous,

now back to drawing

irons

I need to vent..........

why oh why is when time is against you THE IRON DIES (it was only 10 years old) - I know breath - slow down.....
I'm madly piecing a top with a looming deadline, the strips were pieced on Wednesday and the iron was working then, stitched the first long curved seam, laid it on the ironing board using 15 fingers to hold it in place put the iron on it and NOTHING........ at least there weren't any sparks, just nothing,
mad dash to the local shops which is a Coles and Woolies being joined into a huge shopping centre, I know we can't stop progress and we need a big shopping complex but I don't enjoy having to deal with it being built around me shopping, so many trips around the car park which is full of workmen's vehicles, eventually found a spot nowhere near the entrance, down to Coles, they had one on the shelf but it has an auto cut off which I don't like so charge off up to the other end of the centre to Woolies the whole time say to myself - breath calm down breath, get into Woolies, everything still in kaos with remodelling, eventually found the electrical section and NO IRONS GRRRRRR so back to Coles for the auto cut off one.

so now that I've calmed down by typing this I'll go out to the shed and give it a go - and watch out if it beeps when it cuts off CAUSE IT'LL ONLY DO IT ONCE

A Bee Saga

We've had an interesting little exercise going on at our house, for the past 6 months or so we've had a swam of bees living under the eave on the side of the house, we have been keeping an eye on them but leaving them to their own devices hoping they'd move on with time.

A week ago they swarmed, which was an impressive site but as we discovered on the weekend they didn't go far, they nestled nicely in under the Jasmine on the side fence.

Isn't this am amazing site.

Because they were now in a place that could be disturbed by the dog or when the garden is watered we thought we'd better get in an expert, he came Sunday morning with a box and suited up and manually moved big hand fulls of bees into the box hoping the rest would follow over the day, he returned at dusk but the bees weren't playing the game and hadn't gone into the box, so on went the suit and out came the smoker to subdue them and try and get them in.
He returned the next night and we thought we'd succeeded as there were only a few stragglers around but when he moved the box they were all down behind it, so away he went to return last night.


Funny thing happened yesterday afternoon (I missed it as I was at school) they decided that their new home was too close to the old one so they took off on mass again, mother in-law said as they were swarming the wind picked up and they disappeared up over the garage and a few back yards and have now become somebody else's problem, so the poor bee keeper went on his way with an empty box.

birthday boy

my baby, Mackenzie is 15 today........
I don't know how that happened - I'm sure it was only last year that he started school - I must have blinked and missed it.

Happy Birthday Mackenzie


Doesn't he look good in his Kung Fu uniform

this week at school

I've been a bit slack with updating my drawing class progress lately, just haven't had time to photograph them, will do a compilation of them all soon, but in the mean time here is one from this week, we were working with stick and ink, this was the best out of the 4 I did in the afternoon.



this is an assortment from everyone in the class



In sculpture class we attacked out plaster block with the mallet and chisel, a slow process, the arms and wrists weren't too happy by the end of the class, but fun.



here is my first screen print design finished, had originally intended to do this design in fabric but I think it looks pretty good on paper, may still do it in fabric somewhere down the track.

surprise present

Look what I just got in the mail, a late birthday present from my sister and mum, aren't I the lucky one, sat down with a cuppa for a quick look and promptly lost an hour, can't wait to have a good look at it.
Sorry about the bright spot in the middle.



One of the things I've been playing around with as you know are the silk fibres, this is a "silk hankie" (not one you blow your nose on) that has been dipped in textile medium and draped over a glass jar to dry, somewhere down the track I intend to embellish it.

A Big Day

BOY, some days can have a roller coaster of emotions, I'll explain, let's go back a few weeks when I got an invitation to a my dear friend Alice's 50th birthday party and as always that part of my brain that goes into action before the logical part does and I think - she needs a quilt for a significant birthday.
I had blocks from a project that didn't go ahead a few years ago that were already in rows so I spoke with my friend Lorraine Webster who specialises in my last minute quilting projects and decided it could be done, so off the top and backing were sent to Lorraine who worked her quilting magic on it in next to no time and I rendezvoused with her Friday afternoon to collect it over a coffee, so Friday night was spent trimming and machining on the binding and after dinner I proceeded to start the hand sewing, half way around I went to bed knowing I had the morning to finish it off.
Up early and proceeded to spend the next few hours finishing off the binding and doing the label.
Off I went (late from the finishing) for an afternoon of enjoyment at her party and also to catch up with a few friends over an afternoon of bare foot bowls and frivolity, came home ready for and evening of excitement, first off we watched a very intense episode of DR WHO (any fans out there?) then to settle down and watch my Swans play for a place in the finals but even thought we came back to within 4 points in the middle of the game we were done well and truly by the end............
so you can see why I had a big roller coasted day of emotions, went to bed not happy.

so here is a photo of the quilt I gave to Alice, hopefully she will send me a photo of her and the quilt that I can post at a later date.



so - today is a new day and I WILL cope without my footy team in the grand final - but on the bright side THERE'S CRICKET STARTING ON THE TELLY THIS WEEK YEAAHHHH

today in Sculpture

Today in Sculpture we poured our block of plaster ready for carving, I got as much over my boots and trouser legs as I did in the mould.

Here's a snap of Nic getting down to business with the chisel




here's my block and my piece that I'll replicate in the carving

another sculpture piece

Here is another sculpture update,
again we were working on a piece that can be carved out of a single block.
We weren't allowed to use our hands/fingers and had to carve this out of a block of clay - don't ask me what it is - as I haven't a clue...........

I just rotated the wheel and took a succession of photos from different angles

any ideas of what it looks like?

school update

I've fallen behind in keeping you up to date with my school work, I finally got a photo of my latest reduction lino print, we had to draw an image that incorporated elements of 3 paintings, The Scream, The Wave and Starry Night, so here is my version.




We will be shortly in Sculpture carving from a block of plaster so we have had a few weeks of creating pieces that can be the basis for us to replicate by carving, again I've based mine on 2 acrobats doing a head to head balance.



this was just the left over bits, interesting to see how this goes through the firing process as they were just sitting on each other and not attached properly.