Wednesday, October 6, 2010

SHOREHAM RETREAT OCTOBER 2010


OCTOBER 2010 WE HEADED DOWN TO SHOREHAM TO CRAFT, PLAY AND WATCH THE GRAND FINAL REPLAY AT THE WINERY NEXT DOOR.....


Well here i am painting my little heart out at the craft retreat held in Shoreham Victoria October 2010.

20 ladies headed off to enjoy the tranquil beauty of the countryside   ( however MOST did not venture out of the mess hall) as they were head down scrapbooking.

With chef in tow, we enjoyed ENORMOUS amounts of food- eggs and bacon or pancakes for brekkie, morning teas of scones jam and cream or homemade sponge cake, lunch of homemade soup or rolls with salad, afternoon teas of more cakes and fruit, dinner of roast beef and pork, and then supper- we had very little time to actually craft between meals.

So after all the pampering at the day spa on saturday, we enjoyed a little crafting and then we headed to the winery next door to enjoy a glass or two of red or white, and the big screen TV for all the footy made fans to watch the grand final replay after the previous week's draw.











Sunday, July 18, 2010

THE ARTISTS RUN RIOT IN WARATAH BAY


JULY 2010
WARATAH BAY WEEKEND AWAY

July 2010- A group of 6 painters ventured out on friday afternoon for the scheduled 3hour drive to Waratah Bay to spend the weekend painting.
Most of us arrived around 5pm to settle in. Ingrid was the last to arrive, as she missed the turn off and ended up at phillip island, which is miles away out of the way.

Once Ingrid arrived, we piled into two cars and headed for the pub at Fosters (about 40 minutes away) for dinner and drinks. After a wonderful meal, we headed back to our log cabin with bottles in hand, and settled in for the night, to get to know each other.


Prior to breakfast on saturday morning, Clive, Sue, Ingrid, Penny, Mike and I headed out for a walk along the beach to check out our prime painting spots.

After checking out the beach, we decided to have a really quick breakfast, and then we piled into the cars. Our destination would be Tidal River at Wilson's Prom, around the bay to the national parklands that we could see during our morning walk (as shown in the distance in this photo).






Our first stop at wilson's prom was the Tidal River, a beautiful inlet where the ocean and the riverbed meets.



Sue, Ingrid, Penny and I all set up our easels, whilst clive (our teacher) and Mike (penny's hubby who does not paint) went for a bush walk.   










After lunch at the cafe, we decided to follow the river around the corner, through the bushland to Elephant Rock for our second painting spot.





















After a wonderful day of sunshine and stunning views, we returned back to our log hut back at Waratah Bay, to settle in for the night. As it was very cold, we decided to stay in and enjoyed home made soup and toasted bread for dinner, rather than head down to the pub again.

Supper followed with chocolate cake and even more chocolate, washed down with lots of white wine that we had purchased the night before, and we stayed up till late at night discussing our own creations and the wonderful views we had seen.



Sunday morning we took up our postions on the beach, which was a short walk from our log cabin.



Overall, a wonderful weekend was had by all in attendance.

Tuesday, March 16, 2010

A YEAR IN REVIEW WITH THE ART GROUP

WOW- CAN'T BELIEVE ITS BEEN A YEAR ALREADY!

In march 2009 i first picked up a paint brush and started painting for the first time, and now 12 months later i can't believe how much i have grown.

What a lot of fun and adventure has been had along the way!

After joining my local community art class (in Mentone Victoria), we visited each week on a Tuesday night, to hang out with friends and get creative.
Looking back over the last year, I am quiet surprise what i actually
                                                      got up to in the year:



1. We hit the beach down at Beaumaris for a paint-out and then headed back for drinks at a paint buddies' house to finish the night off properly. Drinking wine while watching the sunset at a beachfront property in Black Rock, was simply Beautiful.

2. We have travelled to Port Melbourne to Wharf 35 for a christmas celebratory paint out and we enjoyed a wonderful lunch at the local restaurant.
The highlight for the day was when Sue and I gave out chrissy presents to our teacher.  A pair of men's PJ's- something Clive (our teacher) kept forgetting to bring with him to our weekends away. Our teacher who is in his mid to late 50's and definately NOT a male model, thought it was hysterical, as did his wife when he brought them home. Clive even modelled the PJ's on the first night of class in Jan 2010 and had to explain to all the new members of class why he was wearing PJ's in class. So funny!


3. We headed for a weekend away to Thornton Victoria- staying at Erb Trembath's personal studio and we were lucky enough to actually meet Ern. (This was the first time Sue and I travelled with the group and at this weekend retreat we encountered Clive without his proper night attire for the first time- thank god for daggy old undies is all i am saying. lol)


During our stay at Thornton, we painted beside the riverbanks, along the road edge and we frequented the carpark in the rain at Eildon Dam and then enjoyed dinners out at the local tavern and wine sampling (and lots of it) and in the evenings we were scerenaded by our teacher, who is also in a band. It was a wonderful weekend!

4. A few members of our group headed to Airies Inlet for another weekend paint out, and on another occasion the group hit the marina at Williamstown (views from both, shown here).


(Unfortunately, i missed those due to family commitments- and another of the ladies in our group encountered Clive, this time without the daggy undies too- hence the christmas present need. The girls managed to take photos of the views to show me what i missed- thanks guys!).

5. A large group of us, were crazy enough to wake on a Saturday morning in Feb 2010 at 4am, and we headed to tullamarine airport and caught flights to Canberra to view the Masterpieces of Paris Exhibition and the wonderful artworks at the Portrait Gallery for the weekend.
We enjoyed dinner out at the Italian Club and had a fantastic time.
This time, Clives wife joined us for the weekend, so we told him we didn't care if he brought his christmas present, unless he planned to wander the hotel corridors at night. lol

We walked for hours at the National Gallery, shopped till we dropped and then headed back to our hotel for a drink before dinner. Sunday we spent the day at the Portrait Gallery, flew back to Melbourne and then stopped for coffee at Sue's before heading home.



6. During the year, our group were blessed to have a live model at the studio on TWO separate occassions. The first time, I got to feel like a "real artist" , after finally overcoming MY shyness of having a nude woman in the room.
It was quiet an experience, she modelled several 5minute poses for us to complete charcoal drawings and then 2 sets of 20 mins for us to actually paint.
After i started to draw each pose, the artist in me took over and by the end of the night, it was fantastic. the only negative thing was i think i upset the model by painting in her tan lines in my painting. Oh well, i was trying to be precise. The second occasion, our model was there for portrait work where we contentrated on her face and shoulders and hat. Another great learning experience.



7. And every Tuesday night (during term) a group of us meet to paint our little hearts out, in the comfort of the Mentone/Mordialloc Art Group Community Hall. We ALL attempt still-life paintings of vases, flowers, or we paint seascapes and landscapes  that Clive brings in for us to copy and in 2010 we will start bringing in our own little projects to start work on.

8. And to close the year off, Hubby and I headed down to Merimbula NSW where i went on daily walks to either the Beach or Lake to try out watercolor painting and photograph all the sites, so i could paint when i returned home again.
So as my first year as an artist comes to an end, i look forward to what 2010 will bring and how much i will develope over the next year.

Monday, February 22, 2010

THE ARTISTS RUN RIOT INTERSTATE IN OUR CAPITAL CITY, CANBERRA

What happens when a group of mad artists decide to hitch a plane to canberra to visit the Masterpieces of Paris Exhibition and the
Portrait Gallery of Australia?

We have a FAB weekend- FUN, ADVENTURE and BEDLAM!
20th Feb, 2010-
It all started at 4am on saturday morning. That damn alarm clock went off, and we dragged ourselves from bed, ate a quick breakfast and headed to the airport to catch our 6.50am flight.
Once we arrived, we headed to our hotel to pick up our pre-paid tickets and
then high-tailed it to the gallery, only to be greeted with this site......QUEUES!


I have never seen so many people waiting to get into an exhibition.
The queue wound down the pathway and around the corner.
The strange thing is, this exhibition was SO popular- this queue is actually of people with pre-paid tickets!





After about 30 minutes of waiting outside, we finally got up to the gallery doors.
Then as we walked in the front doors, this is the view we found.......











MORE QUEUES INSIDE!

Around 30 minutes , we finally walked into the actual exhibition. WOW. WOW. WOW!

Then i got to see my favourite artworks from Van Gogh, Toulouse Lautrec and Monet.

(Of the 140 masterpieces we viewed, Redhead (bathing) by Henri Toulouse Lautrec, Starry night by Vincent van Gogh and monet's Lily Pond were my absolute favourites).

BEAUTIFUL!











Our group even sneaked into the children's interactive room, where the kids could create their own masterpieces whilst surrounded by the master's artworks.

As we didn't get a chance on this trip to bring our own paints and easels along, it was very tempting to stay in the kids room and paint with them. but we continued on. With a portrait class due the following tuesday, we knew we had heaps to look at and learn from.

After spending 7 hours viewing the Master's of Paris exhibition, as well as the Ned Kelly and the Australian Exhibition, we headed back to the hotel.






While SOME of our group caught nanna naps, Sue Dianne and I chatted whilst enjoying our first bottle of complimentary white wine. (We were lucky, as one of our travel companions was a non-drinker, so he kindly donated his bottle to a worthy cause too. lol)
Dinner at the Italian Club around the corner was very entertaining that night. (I REALLY wished i had taken my camera on the night, to capture the 80+ italian stallion strutting around dancing, shirt undone to the waist, the high belted trousers and of course the many gold chains and pony tail of grey hair. A legend in his own lunchtime, me thinks.)

Sunday morning, we all met up for breakfast and then walked to the Portrait gallery.










We viewed the exhibition called Idle hours.
This is one of my favourite paintings from this exhibition, and it was painted by Hilda Rix Nicholas.










At the end of the weekend, the group caught a flight at 3pm, and experienced a very turbulant flight home. Lucky for us, we had a very good lady pilot at the front of the plane, and we came to a beautiful smooth landing in Melbourne.

Safe on ground, we finished the weekend off at Sue's place having a cup of tea.

Then it was home to the family to talk the rest of the night, about my very exciting weekend away.