Saturday, 31 December 2011

happy new year thoughts

New Year reflections on this last day of another year of our lives.

It was a good one for me....perhaps the best ever! I met my soulmate in 2009 and married him on 11/11/2011. There are so many ways we can shape our lives by choice. We can choose where to live, what house to buy, what kind of work to do but the one thing we have little control over is is the character and personality of the people we associate with in our daily life. We do have a lot of choice how closely we want to associate with some people (not family!) and to a great extent we can avoid those we dislike in the general community and maintain professional distance with those we don't warm to in the workplace.

So I count my blessings today that on April 9th 2009 I met the most wonderful man in the world who has changed my life for the better in every way. His love and committment to me and our life together fill me with humility and gratitude! I think the most fulfilling life any human being can have is to have at least one person in their life who loves them unconditionally and supports and believes in them every hour and every day.

Thankyou Rodney! 

The ideals of peace, love and goodwill to all people may become a bit tarnished and distant as we go about our everyday lives but I want to express my appreciation of how the daily presence of my beloved husband reminds me how precious all the moments of our lives are.

Happy 2012 to everybody!

PEACE LOVE GOODWILL!!!

Friday, 30 December 2011

(nearly) swept away!

aaarrrghh!!!....how embarassing! This morning I had to do some "real" work (as in what pays the mortgage and puts food on the table) and set off in the car. I live in a very small rural village and our settlement is cut in half by the Pages River and 2 of the 3 streets which join it together require driving across fords. One is raised and concreted and the other is a rather more perilous proposition, being just water flowing over loose rocks. During  heavy or prolonged rain the fords are closed off as the rising water makes them too dangerous to cross and we have to fall back to using the one street which connects the town. We haven't had any rain for days and I crossed the safer concreted ford and noted that the water was low so a half hour later I decided to take the shortest route to where I needed to go and cross the rocky ford.....

UHHH-OOHHH!!! cringefully bad decision as the car tyres began to spin in the loose rock and I found myself stuck in the middle of the ford. I did what all women do when in a dicey predicament with a car and rung my husband who came down in a few minutes and had a bit of a chuckle at the sight of a frightened and redfaced me in the middle of the river. Fortunately the water was very shallow and I was able to walk out without being in the least bit of danger. We called the road service but didn't end up needing them as a helpful local council worker who had been roadside mowing saw what had happened and called his fellow worker who had a 4x4drive and a tow chain. I was out and on blessed dry ground again within 10 minutes. My only injury being a serious case of embarassment.....

Thursday, 29 December 2011

bead adornments made by me

Yesterday I overpainted the face with oil paint and this is what was done after a couple of hours. If the paint is set up enough tomorrow and I'm able to handle the canvas I'd like to continue with more stitching directly into the surface.

I didn't have time to do any experimental work with my tentative idea of a new work on the theme of "plumage".

 Today I'm doing a little beadwork to finish up some adornment pieces I want to put into the gallery along with items that were put on display yesterday. Here are pictures of two necklaces that are in the gallery and for sale. The one with the blue dichroic glass pendant is $350 and the one with the spotty lampwork bead is $180.  Both are tubular cellini spiral, a technique of freeform peyote stitch which is one of my favourites.

They are beautiful and unique pieces that I regard as wearable art. The blue/turquoise one took about 30+ hours to make and the green one about 18 hours. The handmade lampwork bead it features cost $40. Obviously these pieces are made as a labour of love!...as I can rarely sell them for prices that represent any sort of adequate compensation  for the cost of materials or hours of labour that go into them.

Wednesday, 28 December 2011

Aussie Icon 1, another work from 2011


Pictures of another work from 2011. Measures about 38 x 75cm on stretcher. For sale at $1,100.
close detail from Aussie Icon 1
Aussie Icon 1



















This morning Rodney and I spent a couple of hours down at my Gallery on the New England Highway cleaning up and arranging work on the walls. I also added a number of beaded adornments I've made in the last 6 months to the display cabinet. Sometime soon I'll add pictures of adornments.

This afternoon I'll resume work on Abigail. I want to overpaint the face in oils and because of  this I won't be able to handle the canvas to work directly into the surface with machine embroidering until the paint has set up in about 2-3 days time. Maybe there'll be enough time after the painting to start preparing for a new work...? I'm a very slow painter! It is so absolutely important to have the face right. Everything else in the composition can be perfect but it won't work unless the face is properly modelled and can evoke the sense of mood that I'm trying to capture.
 
The idea is still very tentative at the moment but I've been inspired by gorgeous native parrots seen in our garden lately and want to explore some ideas on the theme of "plumage".

Tuesday, 27 December 2011

Cleo in repose, 2011

Hi everybody. I hope you all had a lovely Xmas day. Rodney and I  had a very quiet one at home, just ourselves and our only visitor was our elderly neighbour who shared lunch with us.

We look forward to New Year with the hope may it be just as riotious!

I plan to show on the blog from time to time some of my other art done during 2011. This one is "Cleo in Repose"  The finished work on stretcher was approx 95 x 52cm. The face is painted in oil and is surrounded by a combination of machine embroidery, patchwork and cutaway applique. The gorgeous collar was cut  from a piece I made around 2005. The "hair" was created from felting wool incorporating leaf shaped fragments of painted textures.

This work was recently sold to a private collector who has bought a number of my works since 2008.

Here are some links for readers to see pictures of the garden Rodney and I have created at home and where we got married on 11/11/11. The weather was perfect and the day turned out just as we hoped it would.  

Link to see pictures of the garden:

WEDDING PHOTOS AT:
www.onlinepictureproof.com/sallyalden

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