The birds have landed

What a whirlwind of a weekend we had for our "Five take flight exhibition". It came and went so quickly but we all had a fabulous time, lots of artwork sold and we met some wonderful people, some we knew, some who just happened by. It was a kaleidoscope of colour with such a variety of art work.

Our wonderful actress Beverley Dunn, opened the exhibition for us on the Friday night, not sure where Jacky was, she missed this photo.

Here we all are together in front of Patsy's painting.

Julia, Patsy, Dot, Jacky and me

Before everyone arrived

Looking down the room.

Another view

Patsy and I made coats to wear for the opening night from some old garments.

They were a big hit and now we have people enrolling to take classes to learn how to make them.

This was mine, purple and blue of course.

Finally guess who sold her painting? 

I decided to hang my little art critic's painting just to give her a surprise when she came to the exhibition,

and she sold it, she was over the moon.

Thank you for all of your wonderful comments over the last few posts for my art in the build up to the exhibition. I've been so busy I haven't had time to reply to you all, your comments are very much appreciated. I'd also like to thank all of the people who took time to visit our exhibition, especially the ones who travelled so far, some being fellow bloggers, it was wonderful to meet you all.

Not long to go now

As we Aussies say 'I've been flat out like a lizard drinking' getting ready for our exhibition which opens tomorrow night. I've been working on lots of paintings and today is the day for the 'hanging'. Below are some I've been working on.

This is one I started, I turned it upside down

and it ended up like this.

This one went from this

to this

and ended up as this

and this one knew what it was going to be all along. This is my usual style and is far less traumatic, I know where I'm going with these.

I'll also have lots of jewellery in the exhibition too.

Can't see the forest for the Lollipop trees

Still working like crazy creating and completing projects for the exhibition. I've been making brooches from embellished felt and guess what shape they turned out. I can't seem to get away from my lollipop trees, they've been with me for a few years now and they seem as if they will continue for awhile yet. They are popping up everywhere in my exhibition work.

I still have lots of hand stitching to add to them now. I hope to be adding some to my Etsy soon too.

Jacky and Patsy came to paint the other day, we are painting cylinders to place in the foyer of the exhibition space. Jacky's is fabulous, my photo doesn't do it justice, too much light.

It's not hard to guess who painted this one - the photos above show both sides.

I'm also making fabric collages from my hand dyed, sun printed fabrics then machine stitching around the main subject and machine stitching the writing. I've hand stitched all of the layers, these are then going to have a mount and be framed. I hope to do a series of these including the poppy seed heads and pomegranates.

Thanks again to everyone in the previous post for your lovely comments and words of encouragement, better get back to creating my forest.

Paintings and published

I'm very excited to have had one of my pieces of plaster work published in Judy Wise and Stephanie Lee's new book Plaster Studio. They are also running a fabulous online workshop using some of the techniques in the book, hop on over to either of their blogs to check it out.

This is my piece, a plaster book cover showing my abstract pomegranates.

This is the fabulous book, it is so full of techniques and projects.

I've also been busy painting for our upcoming exhibition. This is a painting I started in Flora Bowley's workshop. I finally finished it, it just needs a top coat of varnish and hangers on the back.

This is an earlier shot of the painting.

This is the finished painting named 'sheep at the waterhole'.

This is another canvas I completed this week too.

Another canvas in progress.

and finally I wish I could draw like this. My darling little mermaid princess, spent her fifth birthday painting with Ro Ro. Don't you just love her cat. I'm contemplating using it to make a stuffed toy for her.

Art Heals

It's amazing how a day back in the studio can have such a healing process, I really would be lost without my art. We're slowly coming to terms about the loss of Dad, he's with Mum now which is a consolation.

I'd like to thank everyone for all of your kind words and comments, there just aren't enough hours in the day to get around to thanking you all personally, but I really do appreciate your kind thoughts.

I've been working on art for our upcoming exhibition 'Five Take Flight' at the end of June. If you're able to come we'd love to see you.

Following are just some of the pieces that I will have in the exhibition.

This is a small 5" x 5" box canvas that I've painted then applied stitching with my hand dyed threads.

This is another 5" x 5" boxed canvas with stitching.

I always like to continue the design around the sides of the canvas.

I'm also creating a series of collage and stitched owls on painted 5" x 5" canvases. This owl still has to be stitched to the canvas. It's only glued at this stage.

This is a felted and stitched piece that I created using my embellishing machine. This will be stitched onto a painted canvas backing. I still have lots more decorative stitching to add to the piece.

Sad, Sad day

It's amazing the difference a week makes. This time last week my sister took Dad to get a new pair of glasses. Wednesday he had a seizure and broke his wrist as he fell. He was rushed to hospital and put on all sorts of emergency equipment, his condition slowly deteriorated with him developing pneumonia. He passed away last night at 8.30pm. We were all by his side and hope now that he's peacefully resting beside Mum. He'd lived a good life and didn't suffer too long at the end, reaching the age of 89, I suppose that's all we can ask for, we'll still miss him dearly though.

Happy Days

I love the fact now that I can get up every morning and head down stairs to my studio and not have to face the constant stream of traffic to drive to work, as I have for the past twenty years, it's bliss. Every day brings a new excitement, working on commissions, getting ready for our exhibition and creating new ideas and projects for teaching. I love it. I also have regular visits from my little art critic who joins me in the studio, she's now decided she wants to be an artist like Ro Ro when she grows up.

These are two pages from the commissioned journal. I used my embellishing machine and some hand stitching.

This piece was all hand stitched using my dyed fabrics, it will be stitched on to a painted canvas.

I taught a necklace workshop at home last Saturday, see previous post, I had six lovely students who all went home with completed necklaces. I forgot to take photos but Sabine sent me a photo of hers, it's magnificent. Sabine makes wonderful polymer clay beads and she added clay discs to the chains.

We had breakfast in one of our favourite cafes over the Easter break. I can never resist sketching while we have our coffee. This is a small section of a magnificent iron grill that sits in one of the many feature cut outs in the walls.

This is the grill, I see a stamp coming on.

This is another view inside the cafe, they also sell flowers.

After breakfast we walked along one of our favourite beaches, the bathing boxes always add some sunshine to an overcast day.

Back to the studio for more experiments, thanks for dropping by, it's much appreciated.