Happy New Year

 We're spending our new year's eve at a little place south of Proserpine, called Midge Point, with some family this year.  Its a magical place where we can go fishing, swimming and searching amongst the rock pools for starfish at twilight.....

 This year has been eventful and looking back I think the highlight (besides my kids getting great report cards) was the "Mamas in the Hood" art exhibition during October.

I had many sales which made me feel very validated as an artist and I thank each and every one of you who felt drawn to my work and purchased something that will be hung on a wall in your home.  Thats huge to me!

I am still hanging my pieces in the Dayboro Art Gallery and now have my work for show and sale at "Alfina's Cake and Coffee", Eatons Hill, Brisbane.
Happy Happy New Year everyone, wishing you a healthy and successful 2012.

Its starting to feel a lot like Christmas!

Well the year has zoomed past and its that time of year again.....

I've had a little fun making some christmas cards and decorating our homemade christmas tree....

Wishing all my friends and those friends in blogland a safe and happy christmas and new year  :)

Still Here (just having some quiet time....)

Been a little quiet on the blogging front, the last couple of months have been busy times with the Mama's in the Hood Exhibition and now I'm looking forward to a few quiet weeks on the lead up to xmas......

still managed to squeeze in a little pit fire with my friend Deb.....

and take a few quiet days by the ocean watching the ships go by and ponder "where to next?"....

and do a few little pieces that I just felt like doing.....

Amongst all of this quiet time, I have also been enjoying many of my blogland friend's blogs including Candice Herne's, Sophie Munn's and Nicola Moss'.

Erosion/Corrosion Bundles

I was asked recently where I sought motivation to create and get up and get on with it each day and for me its as easy as putting on a load of washing.....actually most household chores send me scampering for my art studio!

Up Close and Personal, Mama's in the Hood Exhibition at the Pine Rivers Art Gallery to Saturday, 5 November 2011

A few images of my works including my own poetry, currently in the Mamas in the Hood Exhibition.............

I will be running a workshop at the Pine Rivers Gallery next Tuesday, 25 October from 11am till about 12.30pm on how to create the effects you see on these pieces. Come along and hang out with me for a while, it'll be fun!

Mamas in the Hood Exhibition - Opening Night and Progress

Opening night at the Pine Rivers Art Gallery was great, lots of friends, colleagues and family came along to share this festive occasion.
Racheal Lee a good friend and artist, kindly took many photos of the night and Uta Heidelauf added some to the BAD Blog - thanks guys! CLICK HERE for photos of Opening Night.
Anita West's talk was inspirational, Anita has built a sustainable art career over 25 years whilst raising a family and understands the extra commitment and dedication needed. Anita shared her experiences to pursue creative endeavours amongst the backdrop of caring for children.
You can also read more about the layered meanings behind the "Mamas in the Hood" exhibition by visiting Candice Hearne's Blog or clicking here - Essay by Helen Sturgess.
Last Saturday, we did our artist talks and screened the film documentary "Who Does She Think She Is" at the Gallery to a group of interested people and discussed the issues addressed in the documentary which features five fierce women who refuse to choose between mothering or working.
There is still more to come, next Tuesday, 25 October I will be running a workshop on how to create Erosion/Corrosion Bundles and Candice and Sandra Landlot will also be running workshops too - CLICK HERE for the program of workshops at the Pine Rivers Art Gallery.

Mamas in the Hood Art Exhibition at Pine Rivers Art Gallery - 5 October to 5 November 2011

Its getting very exciting now, our exhibition of works exploring motherhood, art, politics, contemporary life and society is opening next Friday night, 7 October 2011 at the Pine Rivers Art Gallery. Refreshments served from 6pm - all welcome!

The Opening Night guest speaker is Anita West who has built a sustainable art career over 25 years whilst raising a family and understands the extra commitment and dedication needed. Anita will share her experiences to pursue creative endeavours amongst the backdrop of caring for children.

Artworks by Candice Hearne, Sandra Landlot, Chrys Zantis and myself will feature in this exhibition.
There will also be workshops and activities to attend including a filming of Who Does She Think She Is?, on Saturday, 15 October 2011 at 11am. This amazing documentary features five fierce women who refuse to choose between mothering or working.

Look forward to seeing you there!!!

Spring Garden Party Fundraiser 2011

Last Sunday, 11 September, a group of friends and I held our annual Garden Party in my back yard. This is the third year running we've held such an event and again we set about making it as much fun as possible while raising money for 3 charities. On the day we had entertainment, shopping, lucky door prizes and tarot card reading.

On the shopping side of things we had Robyn from "Fashions on the Go", Pauline with her gorgeous cuddly cushions, "Alfina's Cake and Coffee" with delicious baked treats and giftware, Madonna with handmade soaps, Leah with her magical children's clothing and Candy and Rhody with Rhody's delightful handmade wrapping paper and cards. Three lovely ladies attending the party agreed to be models and participate in the fashion parade to display the wide range of beautifully fashionable clothes and accessories. There was something for everyone as there were more clothes and accessories available to look at and try on than most of your leading fashion shops. To compliment the clothing, there was an exciting range of jewellery and handbags available.

There was also Tarot Card readings by Tara and Natasha from Spiritual Awakenings, two caring and gifted ladies who were kept busy with many ladies wanting a reading.

The hosts, Pauline, Sue, Alfina and myself, baked sweets and slices and made savoury items for the "high tea" included in the ticket price. There was delicious brownies, caramel slice, cheesecake, zucchini slice, savoury quiches, scrumptious sandwiches and more. Click HERE for the Brownie Recipe or HERE for the Zucchine Slice Recipe.

There were many lucky door prizes drawn throughout the day which were donated by the stallholders that attended, as well as the organisers of this event. Again thank you to everyone who contributed. My wonderful father also helped out again, cleaning my house and garden the day before and also by making two cork boards for the lucky door prizes. Thanks again Dad!
We placed coffee tables all over the backyard for our guests to enjoy a lovely spring afternoon. Sue made lovely floral table arrangements and decorated the posts with flowers and ribbons and the place looked magic.
My front yard once again turned into a carpark and thanks to John and Barchi (sorry if spelling is incorrect) for taking on the "parking attendents" role and fitting all the cars in. The kids played a big role in greeting people and organising the raffle tickets, especially Dylan and Kylan who found it a very busy experience.

Thank you to everyone who purchased a ticket and came and participated on the day, it wouldn't have been a success without all of you. Approximately $1,500 was raised this year and we asked everyone to vote on which 3 charities we would direct this to. The top 3 this year are Ovarian Cancer, Hope House and the Clown Doctors who will each receive a third of the money raised.

A big thank you to my wonderful friend Candice Herne who took these Spring filled photos! It was a fantastic day, everyone's positive feedback and encouragement was most welcome!

Full Steam Ahead

Gosh its busy times around here at the moment. I spent today helping a friend out in her coffee shop "Alfina's Cake and Coffee", my favourite coffee shop in Brissie. I totally recommend dropping in here for your coffee fix (and a decadent cupcake), you won't be disappointed. I had a lot of fun today stepping out of my comfort zone and doing something I don't normally do and I totally recommend trying this sometime, its so refreshing.

This is a picture of one of Alfina's famous cupcake cakes, aren't they just gorgeous?

We finally sold our big boy, Khaleef, and he's headed down to his new home near Melbourne in Victoria. We'll miss him but his new owner is great and he's going to live at a minature horse farm and will be well fed and looked after.

I completed the painting above, "Earthly Vessels"and submitted it in an art competition run by the Arts Alliance of Pine Rivers this weekend. The exhibition is being held this weekend at the Albany Creek State Primary School from Friday, 26 August (opening night) thru to Sunday, 28 August.

I also completed the painting above for a raffle prize at our annual Spring Garden Fundraising Party thats coming up. Click HERE and HERE to view postings about previous events. If you'd like to come to this event please leave a comment or facebook me or send me an email, tickets are selling fast and we're capping it at 100 people, so please don't delay.

And finally, I have been progressing my pieces for our upcoming exhibition "Mamas in the Hood" at the Pine Rivers Art Gallery in October. Its getting very exciting and I'll post more information on this soon.

What's Been Happening in the Studio

Been working away quietly and thought I'd share a few little snaps of parts of some of the works to give you a little idea of what I've been working on. This is all going to be included in the "Mothers in the Hood", a joint art exhibition at the Pine Rivers Art Gallery in October 2011.

Exhibition - Logan Gallery - Chrys Zantis opens 10 August 2011

Join Chrys Zantis at her latest art installation: motherboard’s olympus

Subtle soft pink knitted yarns and beaded sharp kitchen objects are some of the incoherent elements of this installation. Pass through luscious soft embellished curtains to find the Queen Motherboard herself as she gives audience to her court. In this installation the classical world’s gods meets the matriarchal rise of the 21st century.

LOGAN ART GALLERY 10 AUG – 17 SEP

Cnr Wemberley Rd & Jacarander Ave, Logan Central

OPENING NIGHT 12 AUG, 6 – 8pm (featuring a performance by Cecelia Chong Wah of Spider 8)

Whimsical Weekend Works

Squeaky and Coco keeping me company on a rainy cold weekend in the studio. The works above are some light hearted pieces I was working on while I was progressing works for an upcoming exhibition in October with Candace Herne, Sandra Landlot and Chrys Zantis.

Winter Wanders, Mt Mee

Took the kids up to visit one of my bestfriends on her farm and we decided to take a wander as it was such a beautiful clear winters day. Sometimes thats all it takes to shake off the winter blues.........

Wonderfully invigorating and a great day with some of my most special people!