uni here i come...

Finally decided to step up and finish what i started all those years ago when i did my advanced certificate of Fine Arts. I enrolled in Uni, to do my Bachelor of Arts (Art). This will test me!... excited but.. start November 30th. Got my first text book today, Art through the ages... mmmm... about 10 inches thick! better start reading now!....seriously though... this should be hard but fun...because I LOVE ART ...you hearing me?

Paddock Sculptures

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1. Birds in Paradise...Kara Otoole

2. Fencepost Sentries... By Cherie Strong

3-5. Marbles... By Cherie Strong

6. Matches... By Cherie Strong

7. Weather Station.... Rob and Linda Weston

8. Gereldine Giraffe .... Sheree Wells

9. Pig and Cow... Mark Prosser

10. Pollux and Castor... Max Gordon

11. The Wave... Kara Otoole

12. Trinity.. Kara Otoole

Big plans for next years paddock sculpture competition, run by Boonah Arts Collective at the annual SPAR arts festival.... this has to be my all time favourite event... find a paddock and plonk sculpture in... fill the countryside up with art and grab a map and drive around to be amazed at everyones creativity... this event is slowly getting a following too, this year a bus tour! I have entered the last few years, and really enjoyed it, this year I coordinatored the event so i wasnt able to enter... loved doing it ... but keen to let someone else take the reins next year so i can be a sculpter again next year! Kara Otoole went wild this year and single handedly made most of the sculptures... amazing... so we have agreed to collaberate next year and totally amaze the region and make as many as possible... we will work with the local schools, doing workshops so that there is a high youth participation next year. The ones we are attempting will be as big as possible sourcing materials from local businesses and trying to utilise some of the "waste" that local businesses might otherwise throw away....above are some of the examples of past sculptures, all made with recycled materials, and by locals.... man - we have an amazing town!... Watch this space....

art auction

"Presense" By Lisa Kirk

art auction was great... plenty of bidders... my artwork raised $725!... hope the kindy can use it!..was a great night!..and didnt come home empty handed!..see above...

studio stalling...

Steve Browne -a "the streets"" photograph

...AWESOME...

finding it hard to get back into the studio.... bit of a anti climax after arts festival... that takes all the creativity you can muster and after the high... you feel flat. Not that i dont have heaps to do... logo design for hydrotherepy pool, commission i have long over due, and then there is the hope of an exibition at Nyst Galleries at the Gold Coast that i should start to work towards... arghhh!!. worst thing is that im busting to get back to work... get that spark again but seem to end up stalling, doing circles in the studio, spend more time cleaning brushes and tidying up then any actuall work!... the ideas are comming intermittedly, need to focus, get the mojo back. Have a really good idea about a joint exhibition with steve... an old art school buddy... he does awesome illustrations and street photography... and i wanted to comment on the urban reality, often the ones we wish to avoid looking at. saw blog http://www.ilovestkilda.com/ and really had a huge emotional reaction, so much so that i havent stopped thinking about what those images meant to me.... but now im fired up, cant get motoring!... will work on it over the weekend! promise!

Matchstick Obsession

Over the last year or so, I have had a matchstick obsession.... firstly inspired by Brett Whitely and his sculpture of matchsticks, I then grew to love the varied forms of burnt matchsticks. Having done a series of these now i think i have truely "burnt" myself out with these icons. Plus I think they are possibly cursed... when i had my sculptures out the front of my house... we had a house fire... when i did the five canvas series "Generation Gap"... half of Victoria burnt in bush fires (Black Friday)... so i think tempting fate would be unwise!.... gotta love them but!... then move on...

Artwork "Where there is smoke.."

"Where there is smoke..."
Acrylic on canvas


This painting started because people would always say to me 'why dont you do landscapes?'

Not only do i find that soooo frustrating.. but i actually know that some people can do the most fantastic landscapes and thats just not my thing... i'll leave it to those who do it so well!

But in response to that i thought i might have a jibe at them and this is it "my kind of landscape"... in the quirky sense of course. plus i have this thing about matchsticks at the moment and it gave me another oppotunity to use that image to my advantage!

Funny thing though is at first i thought .. well everyone knows what a match looks like and what happens when they are burnt. But for this project i thought i might actually do the right thing and play with matches to see. Boy was i surprised at what those little buggars do to their shape once burnt! I loved it! boxes of redheads everywhere and i think the husband thought i was turning pyro!!
all in the name of art research honey...

Art Auction piece

The annual kindy art auction is on tomorrow night. Was approached to donate an artwork so decided to let them have "Red Black Boys"... an acrylic painting I did originally for the Kalbar art awards. Black Boys... or more politically correct...grass tress, are prominent in our region. hope they are able to auction for good price... will let you know what it brings!

She paints to music...performance piece

Performance piece...She paints to music... was an idea that Cameron Mitchell and I came up with as an entertaining piece to do on stage at the Boonah SPAR Art Awards. I was the event coordinator so I wanted the people who attended on the night to catch a glimpse of the "artist" at work. Cameron Mitchell is a local musician who is an awesome pianist so we got together, on the night he played the grand piano with an original composition, and I painted to the music. The end product...the painting then was auctioned off. Not having enough time to practice for the night in the lead up.. i totally winged this one... and ended up just listening to the music and painted most of it with my hands... it worked though...aprox 8 min... painting titled "She paints to music".

street arts

This September the Boonah SPAR Arts Festival was held. Part of the festival was a week of Street arts that myself and Kara Otoole organised. We spent the week in the street doing pavement art... and also had some street performers come in. I think we certainly opened the eyes of locals, being a rural town the sight of chalk artists on the street is not a normal sight! But bar one or two old men telling us we were teaching kids to graffiti... the townsfolk enjoyed the sight of pictures on the normally drab pavements. I'm hoping next year we can evolve this event into a wonderful expose of the talent in our area.