at Picasso exhibition today, Sydney

Me outside of Picasso exhibition at Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, this afternoon.

Some comments on a couple of the spontaneous aspects to this photo!...it was the one Rodney accidentally took when lifting the camera into position and is the best one of the subsequently posed snaps. I  like the strong diagonal lines created by the road, the zebra crossing, the pillars of the building and the triangulation of the roofline of the building. One aspect of spontaneity I found a little disconcerting was looking a bit like I was sniffing the lady in the backgrounds armpit...but at least she was wearing black and white.

I liked the exhibition. It was a good overview of Picassos long career, spanning some 70 years. There were some phases of his aesthetic and practice which seem to be less known and publicised that were a bit of revelation to me.

one of my cloth art dolls

Today I thought I might show a picture of one of my cloth art dolls. This one was made about 7 years ago and is called "Binta", which is an African word meaning "woman". The body and headdress are cloth and fibre, the face was sculpted from polymer clay and painted. The freestanding figure was about 60cm high.The doll was sold to one of my students during one of my trips to the USA.

I was very passionate about cloth doll making from the mid 90s until about 2 years ago when I returned to making 2 dimensional images.

After an extremely cool December - apparently the coolest on record for 50 years with an average daily high temp of only 22.6C - we are finally getting a taste of the more customary weather for this time of year. Today was 33C. I am 52 years old so have now spent exactly half my life in Australia, as I emigrated  here when I was 26 years old from my native New Zealand, and it is the only year I have had still had 2 blankets on the bed right through to New Year day!!

a bit more art today

 

I worked on Abigail again today and here are some pictures of where the work is up to. The felting fibre which will become the hair is just plonked on the surface at the moment. I might have been able to finish the whole thing but I have awful hayfever these last few days and felt too tired to do much more than 4 hours in the studio. Early to bed this evening and hope I feel a bit more energetic tomorrow....especially as I have to work tomorrow....

Gold Hair, another work from 2011

This is "Gold Hair" a mixed media work from 2011. About 35cm x 1m on the stretcher.
Acrylic paint, fabric, fiber, yarn. The blouse is fabric stiffened with Paverpol and painted with gesso, acrylic paint with gold metallic paint highlighting.

The first day of 2012 has been delightfully warm and sunny all day. Rodney and I were invited out for a complimentary New Year breakfast this morning at the local "Telegraph Cafe", where we also had our wedding reception 6 weeks ago. In a lovely ambient atmosphere of relaxation and laughter we shared scrambled eggs and bacon and fruit salad and fresh coffee with about 40 other guests. Rodney has put some photos on his blog which can be seen at  www.swansborough.info

I have spent the rest of the afternoon down in my studio working on Abigail which is coming along pleasingly...

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!!!

(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.....

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.

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".

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:

http://www.upstairs-art.com.au/our-garden.htm

WEDDING PHOTOS AT:

www.onlinepictureproof.com/sallyalden

Go to view your photos
Go to Weddings
Go to Rodney and Pearl

Password is : art

Progress on Abigail

first under painting for Abigail face

Progress on the face as at 24th December. Tomorrow being Xmas day I probably won't do any more work.

Have been in the kitchen most of the day preparing food for tomorrow. I made Lime Malibu jellies and a berry cheesecake. In the morning the chicken will be roasted and we will have it for lunch with ham off the bone and prawns.