Preparing for a new exhibition

I have an exhibition coming up at the Albany Garden Centre in Auckland in December/January in their Cafe area. I need 5 quite large paintings, much larger than I normally do. The owners prefer reds and wood tones, and if at all possible an Italian theme. Hmm, okay…

So I tracked down some photos of the Tuscany region, printed them out as “brain food” and got Tony to help me sift through my canvas stocks till we found some the right size. This afternoon I got into my art room and really went for it. I am really pleased with the result – it’s red, it’s Tuscan and it’s done! (okay, except for the edges, the signature, the sealant…)

My big art weekend

Yahoo 🙂 It’s Labour Weekend. I am always reminded of a Garfield comic strip about this:
“Labour day, schmabour day
What a dumb day
To hire some poor jerk and then send him away
To celebrate work by playing all day”.

Apologies to Garfield and Co if that’s not quite right. Anyway …

I love Labour Weekend. I get to whip through the laundry etc and then spend 2 1/2 days in my art room making stuff – mess, flags (new one above – based on a flag Burma had when Japan was in control in the 1940s), postcards, maybe even a painting or some patchwork. How cool is that? Have a great weekend everyone.

Flags, and Myanmar

As part of my art studies I am making flags based around my ideas on the civil war in Myanmar. These are approx 30x40cm. They have a fabric base, paper and fabric collage, Sharpie pen writing & rubber stamping, and quilting on top.

I have been researching Burma’s flag over the centuries, the symbols of the resistance including the peacock, images that are seen are representing the ‘tourist’ side of Myanmar – and adding them all to the mix.

Hospital watch, and creating

Mum’s doing okay in hospital but will be there for a bit yet. They need to figure out why her heart rate is stuck down in the very low 40s. No wonder she feels awful. Mum has reminded them she is ‘not for resus‘ – good on her for knowing what she wants.

In the meantime, I have kept playing with wool and stuff -this time a fluffy, airy scarf.

Hospital

Well, Mum has not been to hospital since late February. We managed to get right through winter with no dramas. Amazing. We had been going to hospital very very regularly from late 06 through till Feb.

But the dry spell has been broken. Yep, she went off in the ambulance this afternoon (with my husband driving). Seems like most of the problems may stem from being dehydrated, but that also means her meds need adjusting – which is always a bit of a nightmare.

Reaffirmed with the doctor that Mum is not for resuscitation – always a hard thing to do, but she is so very clear in her wishes. So, fingers crossed…

And doing some quilting

Never done this before, but figured how hard can it be?.

*the colours in the photo are brighter and redder than irl*

The backing is lime green, and the front panels are based on bright pink felt. The quilting lines are done in blue/green variegated thread. The bottom layer of the front has strips of ribbon and fabric fused onto the felt.

The centre pink felt panel has a layer of bondable Angelina fibres, and on top of that some Tyvek that I painted and ironed to crinkle and shrink.

The only bit I am stuck on is how to do the binding but I borrowed a couple of library books today. All good fun 🙂

Pulling the wool over my eyes ;-)

I bought some wool and mixed media kits a couple of years ago. For all kinds of reasons have never done anything with them. And now I have!

I made a waterfall wall hanging using wool, metallic thread, beads, muslin, soluble paper and other bits ‘n bobs. Like I said, this was a kit, so the idea is not my own, just the execution.

Now that I have tried the process of using soluble paper, I will certainly keep playing with it. I think it offers a lot of possibilities.

This is probably going to be someone’s Christmas present, but I am fairly sure they do not read my blog. Fingers crossed…

The All Blacks LOST

I am not a huge rugby fan, but I do try to watch the All Blacks big games.
We lost the World Rugby Cup quarter final against France this morning. France were better than us today, simple as that.

It’s a big thing for New Zealand, our tourism board has put huge $ into promoting us in France over the last 2 weeks of the Cup – hope the investment still pays off. This is a great place to visit…

Bush fires

The fire season has only just started in Australia, our nearest neighbour, and the bush fires have begun. Awful, scary stuff. I feel so sorry for the farmers, the animals, the fire fighters who must get so exhausted, their families who are left alone so much of the time, worrying about their loved one out there working hard in the heat and danger.

Thank goodness we don’t normally have those sorts of fires here in NZ, and certainly not where we live. I think they would terrify me.

Watching the news the other night about the bush fires got my imagination all stirred up, and this is what popped out.