Saturday 30 May 2009

Wednesday 27 May 2009

Exhibition preparation; Framing pictures

Thursday morning, last day for framing and painting, tomorrow will be all day setting up the exhibition in the Waihi Memorial hall and we open to the public Saturday morning.
Looks chaotic don't it? No worries mate, all will be sorted today, am just putting up this blog post while I wait for the sun to warm up the studio on this fresh Winter morning.
Yesterday I framed the art borrowed from Waihi College for exhibition and today I frame the art borrowed from Waihi Central primary school. I do love children's art.
Might even get time to frame some of my own art too!
Exciting time...


Monday 25 May 2009

Art and Music Exhibition: preparation


But honey it's cold outside.. so some paintings I am working on for the exhibition are moved out of the studio and into the lounge by the fire.
Line drawings coloured in.
Sophisticated art? No. Fun to play with? Yes.
It's all about fun this exhibition...



Tuesday 19 May 2009

The Weekly Portrait: John Key, Prime Minister of New Zealand, painted by Barbi

I visited my friend Barbi today and came away with this photo of her latest painting.
A portrait of John Key, an ex merchant banker with $50,000,000 personal profit garnered from whatever the hell it is merchant bankers do
He's now the leader of the right wing National Party and Prime Minister of New Zealand and one of Barbi's heroes.
Barbi grew up in a farming family, traditional National Party supporters.
I did not and am not but she is a good friend and one of my favourite artists and in this painting you can see why

Saturday 16 May 2009

Advertizing an Art Exhibition, and visiting history on the way..

With Janice I travelled up one side of the Coromandel Peninsular and across and down the other, delivering fliers advertizing the Art and Music exhibition we are organizing.
In Thames, Coromandel, Whitianga, Coroglen, Tairua and Whangamata we gave fliers to Cafes, Bars, Art Galleries, Bookshops and Tourist Information centres.

On the way we stopped to look at the Thames Cemetery, one of my favourite places.


The old Thames Cemetery, high on a hill North of Thames overlooking the Thames estuary and the Coromandel coast road.
Every gravestone tells a story; veterans of the Maori wars, the dangers of the ocean, the dangers of the early gold mines, the high infant mortality of the early European settlers and the toll of the Spanish flu epidemic which swept New Zealand in 1919 brought here by ships returning from the Great War. The grave of the first caretaker of the cemetery is there, he died in the 1880's of old age... given that New Zealand is such a young country this place is as old as it gets for New Zealand European settlement history.
My Great grandfather came out here in 1862 to escape the famine in Ireland and European New Zealand was 22 years old when he arrived. About as old as my Great grandfather was then.



Saturday 9 May 2009

Art and Music Exhibition: the banner...

I am working full-time on this exhibition now. The banner is painted and starting tomorrow I will be creating new paintings and framing drawings for myself and others and organizing this, that and the other.
3 weeks to the exhibition date...

Friday 8 May 2009