Salamanca Market Sept 30,2017

Salamanca Market started off with a bang, several bangs actually and literally. While setting up, before getting the gazebo bolted down, a massive gust of wind came out of nowhere and tried to pick up the gazebo for a re-location exercise. Lucky a few passer-byers grabbed the escapee and circumvented its travels. A card stand and both print shelves blew off the table. Fortunately, there weren’t prints on the shelves yet but they suffered significant damage. With some repair work and extra elastic around it, it was more or less holding together until another gust of wind came later in the morning, sending a card stand and one shelf of prints crashing to the ground. The shelf sustained damage beyond my ability to repair, but meanwhile, with all this chaos going on around me, I was serving customers flat out. I thought it would be quiet in the afternoon because it was the AFL Grand Final day (I actually thought I would get some sketching done!) but it was busy the entire market day.  (Just in case you haven’t heard, the Richmond Tigers broke a 37 year drought by a 48 point victory over the Adelaide Crows.)

I had to phone for help because the wind was just ridiculous. There was a stall further down the market that a gust of wind got caught underneath and tried to take it with it but because it was bolted down, the internal poles got twisted, bent and snapped. That was the end of their market day and gazebo.

Hobart is hosting a girls’ 16 years and under national water polo competition this weekend. I met girls from all over Australia: Perth, Queensland, Adelaide and more. One, from Canberra, bought a whale print titled ‘Sea Life’.

This photo of Sea life has been taken with my phone.  I haven’t received the file from the photographer as of yet, so it’s not on my website, but hopefully it will be up this week.  

The 2017 Australian Masters Hockey Championship, with teams from 35 to 70+ age groups, is finishing up this weekend. I met somebody whose team is playing in the finals against Tasmania today. He’s been playing with torn knee cartilage. A Melbourne couple, the first time away from their three children, ages 7, 5 and 3 looked for a print with threes and settled on the ‘The Three Amigos’.

The Three Amigos

A young teenager spotted ‘Surfing Clifton Beach, Tasmania’ and asked his Mum if he could please have it. His mother bought it for him and he gave her a thank you kiss on the cheek. He’s a keen surfer and surfs in the Melbourne area. An adult daughter and mother told me that they bought ‘Café Paris’ four years ago and didn’t frame it until their return from Paris. Now they’re planning to go to Uluru, so they bought ‘Outback Glamping’ and said it won’t be framed until after their trip to the Northern Territory.

Outback glamping

Several prints are travelling to New Zealand and ‘Serenity’ is off to Washington, USA. He’s Australian and has been living in Washington for about 15 years. He’s a gallery curator. He said that every curator he has networked with in the USA knows of MONA. He had a job interview this week with MONA. Fingers and toes crossed he is the successful candidate.

Serenity

To say that I was surprised and stoked to see one of my whale paintings in the Saturday’s Mercury’s September 30 – October 1, 2017 tasweekend magazine is an understatement. The Sea Shepherd is celebrating their 40th anniversary and is having a week-long Artist Showcase/Historical Display at the Waterside Pavilion, Hobart from Oct 3rd – 8th. I am displaying six large original paintings, prints and will be working on a whale painting at the Pavilion on Wednesday, October 4th from 3:30 – 5:30 pm.

With all of yesterday’s wind activity, I had a hard time tracking prints. I think the whale prints were probably the best sellers. Now I’m off to do some urban sketching. It’s still rather windy out there. I hope I don’t get blown off my stool!

Wishing you many happy, creative moments, from the Pjpaintings stall #30 at Salamanca Market

Thanks for reading!

Somebody at the market wearing a cool hat

Pjpaintings prints are available at http://www.pjpaintings.com

The Unknown

The Inktober Challenge is fast approaching.  I stumbled across the challenge last year and took up the half marathon challenge – producing an ink drawing every other day.

Inktober is a 31 day drawing challenge.  The scary part is having to do one drawing a day.  With work and small business commitments this definitely challenges my simplifying skills.  Last year, time-poorness and trying to meet the half marathon challenge, essentially pushed me to develop a new genre of art.

I started the Inktober Challenge 2016 with some quick ink drawings of platypus using a mixture of Quink and Indian ink, a reed and water.

Then I tried some different animals: a wombat, koala, echidna, wallaby and a spotted quoll.

Then I started adding a little colour to the ink drawings.

This year, I’d like to try to do the full Inktober challenge.  I’ve got a few things in my favour.  Firstly, Inktober starts on Sunday, October 1^st, which just so happens to be the Hobart Urban Sketching meet-up day, so I should be able to start with a bang and October 2^nd is the start of two weeks of school holidays, which should give me some extra time to be able to achieve this goal.

My personal goals with this challenge are:

1. Produce a drawing every day
2. Draw some of the topics on the Official Prompt List (I didn’t draw anything from the prompt list last year)
3. Develop/improve my urban sketching skills – use this challenge to help motivate me to get outside and draw more buildings
4. Not only draw every day, but post the drawings everyday

You never know what can come out of these things.  I had never anticipated that it would lead to another line of art that I sell at my Salamanca Market stall.  My initial ink drawings evolved into watercolour paintings with evidence of the Inktober Challenge embedded in them, ink outlines drawn with a reed and some paintings with integrated ink work.

Ink work integrated into painting.  The words defend, conserve, protect are written in the shape of bubbles.

I wonder what is going to come out of the challenge this year?  An unknown at this point in time …

Who else is doing the Inktober Challenge?

Here’s the Official Prompt List

1. Swift                 Divided                            3. Poison                              4. Underwater
2. Long                 Sword                              7. Shy                                    8. Crooked
3. Screech         10. Gigantic                         11. Run                                 12. Shattered
4. Teeming            14. Fierce                     15. Mysterious                          16. Fat
5. Graceful             18. Filthy                    19. Cloud                                    20. Deep
6. Furious               22. Trial                     23. Juicy                                     24. Blind
7. Ship                     26. Squeak                 27. Climb                                 28. Fall
8. United                  30. Found                 31. Mask

Happy inking and thanks for reading.

PjPaintings at Salamanca Market Sept. 23, 2017

I’ve been quite good with staying off my injured ankle, but Friday evening, when I gazed out the window, it looked so magical outside that I couldn’t resist walking along the foreshore.  The water was glass-like and Mt Wellington looked spectacular.

The view from a newly installed bench near Bellerive Beach, Tasmania: Derwent River and Mount Wellington,  

How different the weather can be a few hours later!  Saturday morning commenced with thunder and rain, and the rain continued, off and on, but mostly on, for the majority of the day.  At one point, the rain only hit one side of this Eucalyptus tree.  Doesn’t it intensify the colour of the bark!  Their trunks are so cool.

 The rain brightens the puzzle-like bark of this Eucalyptus tree.

This is what happens when a car is left parked overnight.  The Salamanca Market ground staff put each wheel of the car on a mini-trolley type of things and then tows the car away.

I met several hockey (grass hockey) players today, including a gentleman from Western Australia, who had played Tasmania earlier in the day.  Unfortunately, Tasmania didn’t fare too well.  Hobart is hosting the week-long event of the 2017 Australian Masters Hockey Championship.  There are quite a few x-Olympians playing too.  There are teams for 35s, 40s, 45s, 50s, 55s, 60s, 65s and 70 plus year olds.

Three whale prints, titled “Whale Sighting!”, “Serenity” and “DefendConserveProtect” made their debut today and were a big hit. They are available at www.pjpaintings.com If you are able to look closely at the “DefendConserveProtect” painting, you will see shapes made from these words integrated into the picture.

 

A lady purchased a small “White Faced Scops Owls” print to hang in her workplace at the University of Sydney.  A “Beauty Queens IV” print will be adorning a ‘powder room’ in Melbourne.  An ambassador from the Australian Embassy of Costa Rica deliberated over the “Salamanca Saturdays” print.  He returned to the stall several hours, when I was packing up for the day, and purchased it.  A massive owl fan from Taree, NSW, who told me that they were desperate for rain, purchased “White Faced Scops Owls II”. A year 9 student, on a school excursion from the mainland, texted her Mum, who paid through my website, bought an A-4 sized “White Faced Scops Owls”.

White Faced Scops Owls

Salamanca Saturdays (print available at http://www.pjpaintings.com)

A lady, who had bought a platypus ink original painting of mine earlier, with two platypus, bought a smaller painting with one platypus to display together.  She has framed the two platypus painting in a floating frame and said that it looks awesome.

Packing up was done in the rain and then in the evening, it was a repeat of Friday evening.  I couldn’t resist and went for another beautiful, gentle walk along the foreshore. It was not long after I returned home when a spectacular and prolonged thunder and lightning show started.

Yesterday evening’s glass-like water at Bellerive Beach with the newly developed playground and Blundstone Oval in the background.

Today’s best seller was a tie: Family Outing and Salamanca Saturdays

Family Outing

A thought to ponder:  “The object of art is not to reproduce reality, but to create a reality of the same intensity.” Alberto Giacometti 

Wishing you many happy, creative moments, from the Pjpaintings stall #30 at Salamanca Market

Thanks for reading!

PjPaintings at Salamanca Market September 16, 2017

I literally collapsed onto the couch after the market. There was wind, rain and frequent gusts of wind that whipped merchandise off tables from multiple stalls. At one point, while prints were being blown off my table, the grate displaying framed prints and originals was flapping around precariously, I tried to take down my large, framed original painting of ‘Thunder’, which at this point, was horizontal instead of following normal vertical hanging behaviour! I couldn’t quite reach the hook but thankfully somebody tall helped me get my painting down while market goers were gathering prints off the ground. I managed to get through the day pretty much unscathed, even though with the wind, I had no chance of resting my hurt ankle. But, all-in-all, the day ended well and my leg felt surprisingly good considering the workout it had.

Framed ‘Thunder’ saved from a smashing ending

There was an Australian Defence Force (ADF) Expo at the nearby docks and consequently a lot of people in their defence force uniforms walking through the market. The heels of their shoes must be a very dense, solid material because they make quite the noise. I wonder what the orthopaedic sector thinks about these types of shoes?

A sizeable school band from Brisbane perused the markets, along with a large group of visiting young people – the Pimlico Voices. Part of the group sang a couple of songs near the pjpaintings stall. They were superb!

Some of the Pimlico Voices belting out a song.

A couple from Brighton, Melbourne, purchased six prints, which they are going to hang in the entrance of their house. She is a watercolourist too. She paints local seascapes. It’s nice that she is able to display and sell them at a café. Over the years, I’ve had people say that I should exhibit my art but that is often easier said than done. It is difficult to find a public space to exhibit, so consequently I go out of my way to support cafes that assist local artists.

A framer from Melbourne introduced himself and told me that he frames about a hundred of my prints each year. He said that each time he sees one, he thinks, “I know where you’ve been.”

Two little original, framed paintings of platypus were purchased by a sister visiting her twin brother. They were lovely and she asked if we could have our photo taken together.

Platypus orginal

I also met a lovely, young lady visiting from Spain. While she was in Melbourne, she met and drew with the Melbourne Urban Sketching group. When they heard that she was visiting Tasmania and Salamanca Market, they recommended that she visit my stall. We also had our photo taken together.

A little bit of Spain visits Tasmania

Art is showcased in many ways

Today’s best seller was: Who, Who, Who are You? II

Who, Who, Who are You? II

A thought to ponder: “If art is the bridge between what you see in your mind and what the world sees, then skill is how you build that bridge.” ― Twyla Tharp

Wishing you many happy, creative moments, from the Pjpaintings stall #30 at Salamanca Market.

Thanks for reading!

Maudie – a movie review from an artist’s perspective

Maudie, the true story of Canadian folk artist Maud Lewis, featuring Sally Hawkins and Ethan Hawke, both Academy Award Nominees, is a movie that moved me profoundly.  It was difficult viewing Maud’s mistreatment, her husband referring to her worth being less than his dogs and chickens, and the like, but the strength of art being in one’s soul, blood and very being, its relentless and irrepressible fight for expression was awe-inspiring.

Not that I equate myself to Maud, but I can totally relate.  My youngest child was unwell his first few years of life and to try to somewhat satisfy this internal literally clawing feeling of art trying to get out of my body, I used to sign out the maximum amount of library books of artists’ works that I was allowed.  I would flip through them while I was comforting and rocking him, trying to quench some of my art appetite through my eyes, and when I worked six days a week and lacked painting time, while lying in bed, I would imagine a blank sheet of paper, draw the picture, paint the wash and proceed to create the painting step by step.  I would scold and tell myself to go to sleep because doing this imaginary painting was going to take hours and the sleep deprivation was making it difficult to function.

I have met several people who have done Fine Arts Degrees that have said that they haven’t painted or drawn since.  I so wish I could have done an art degree but maybe I would have had the same end result.  I can’t fathom this because the art in me feels like an unstoppable force, as I think it felt for Maud.  She couldn’t help herself and drew at every opportunity, including drawing with her finger in the condensation on the glass of windows.  When she took on a housekeeping job, she had ZERO chance in stopping herself painting when she found a tin of paint.  She opened it and dipped her finger into the paint and began painting the internal wall of the house using her finger.

Maud responded to an ad for a housekeeper job and then transformed the interior of the house with her art.

A Maud Lewis painting

One of my favourites titled “Road block”. It’s nice to see her sense of humour

I also related to Maud’s distress when somebody wanted to buy a painting that was unfinished.  I had a similar experience and I distinctly remember the feelings of strongly not wanting this to happen.  I had to firmly and repeatedly say no.  It was a small practice painting of elephants and I hadn’t even painted the eyes yet, but it looked completed to her and she said she liked it as it was, and she wanted to take it.

I found Maudie a wonderful movie and I wonder how many other artists would be struck by some of the universal, undeniable artistic shared characteristics and feelings depicted?

Maud Lewis, I salute you, your art and enduring inspiration.

Maud Lewis 1903 – 1970

An inspiring life

PjPaintings at Salamanca Market September 9, 2017

The temperature wasn’t too bad today.  I wore two layers rather than the three layers of everything Tasmanian winter weather often demands.  The majority of today’s market goers were wearing jackets, coats and beanies but obviously not everybody feels the cold as there was a woman wearing a sleeveless summer’s dress with a great big red flower in her hair.

The stall on one side of me, the Little Lissa Loo stall, has a manikin to display one of the many awesome dresses made by the stall holder.  There was a little boy that was about two years old and he was mesmerized by it.  He squatted down to look at it at eye level, lifted the rim of the hat, held its hand, gently moved it around, patted its arm and feet. It was very cute to watch.

Little Lissa Loo’s manikin

A young lady, doing her Honours Degree at the University of Tasmania’s Music Conservatory, and her sister visiting from Melbourne, stopped at the pjpaintings stall.  The tango dancing emus caught her eye as she plays the double base for a Tango group.   She also plays in the Canberra Orchestra and sometimes the Melbourne Orchestra.  Her sister sings.  They looked like they were having a lovely time together and took a “Two to Tango” print for their Tasmanian souvenir.

Two to Tango – a limited edition print of one of my paintings available at http://www.pjpaintings.com  Because I paint with watercolours, I firstly masked out the emus and painted the background.  I then tore and pasted a bunch of treble clefs on the dress and then finished the painting.

A “Helping Hands” postcard, from the Cheer ‘em Up series, is going to Germany, to a sister whose name means ‘bird’.   “The Supremes” is going to cheer somebody who’s in the hospital recovering from a cracked spine.  She cracked it while sweeping! and hence, the diagnosis of osteoporosis.  Apparently she is a beautiful singer and sings in the shower at the hospital.

Helping Hands

The Supremes – these dresses also have received the treble clef treatment 

I met a couple who had bought an A-1 sized print (a very BIG print) of “Poppy Fields” in Melbourne.  I find it very special, and a real sense of joy, to meet people who are living with my art.  They really enjoy the vibrancy the red brings to their lounge room.  They are taking home a small “Who says emus can’t fly?!” print of emus riding a motorcycle and one is wearing a bright red dress.

Poppy Fields – now only available in A-4, A-2 or A-1 size.  The A-3 limited edition size has sold out.  This painting I did for an art exhibition titled “Fearless Fabric”.  It was a requirement to integrate fabric into the painting.  I pasted fabric just below the house and in other parts of the painting.  The fabric has diagonal lines on it, which makes it a little easier to spot, but it’s still challenging to see!

A lady from Newcastle, NSW stopped by and purchased “Who, Who, Who are You? II for a friend, for no special reason other than for being a friend, which is special enough of a reason.

Who, Who, Who are You? II

A mother and daughter from Melbourne stopped by and are taking back with them some prints of owls and so is somebody else from Perth, W.A.  A man from Scotland, who used to own a mini, bought “Family Outing”.

Family Outing

Today’s best seller was: Who, Who, Who are You? II

A thought to ponder:  “Self-consciousness is the enemy of all art, be it acting, writing, painting, or living itself, which is the greatest art of all.” ― Ray Bradbury

Thanks for reading and wishing you many happy, creative moments, from the Pjpaintings stall #30 at Salamanca Market!  🙂

PjPaintings at Salamanca Market September 2, 2017

This Saturday’s weather and temperature was a vast improvement over last week’s. I didn’t have to wear three layers of everything, and with the predicted high of 19 degrees Celsius, I wore a skirt and my stripy stockings. People refer to me as Pippi Longstocking when I wear them, which I like very much, Pippi or Matilda. Both are great stories where girls rise above less than ideal family situations and triumph against the odds – inspirational stuff. I saw Matilda, the musical, in Melbourne, a few months ago. It was awesome. The music and songs were written by Tim Minchin, but I digress.

I met lots and lots of people from Melbourne today. It was a very slow start today. The first people to purchase a print, “Tu-whit & Tu-whoo”, were a couple from the Gold Coast, wearing puffer jackets and beanies. It didn’t feel as balmy to them as it did to us Tasmanians! A bride-to-be bought “Double Date IV”. The wedding is taking place on Bruny Island.  

Tu-whit & Tu-whoo limited edition print

Three prints of Tasmanian scenes are heading to United States. He’s lived near Wollongong, NSW for 1.5 years and is returning to the US in a few days. Another American, is taking back with her to Washington, D.C. a “Beauty Queens IV” and “Richmond Bridge” print. She’s originally from California. 

Richmond Bridge, Tasmania, the oldest bridge in Australia, built by convicts.

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A couple, from Adelaide, who said that the vibrant colours attracted them to the stall, are returning home with a “White Faced Scops Owls” and “Under my Red Umbrella” print. 

Under my Red Umbrella

A father, from the north of the state, visiting his daughter who is doing her honours at the University of Tasmania, bought a Ducati motorcycle print, titled “Joy Ride!” His daughter is writing her thesis on the benefit of growing seaweed (and a shell that I can’t remember its name) near salmon farms to help oxygenate the water. It’s nice to see an increasing representation of females studying, and obviously doing very well, in the science fields.

Joy Ride!

Today’s best seller was: White Faced Scops Owls

White Faced Scops Owls

A thought to ponder: “Blessed are the weird people: poets, misfits, writers, mystics, painters, troubadours, for they teach us to see the world through different eyes.” ― Jacob Nordby

Wishing you many happy, creative moments, from the Pjpaintings stall #30 at Salamanca Market

Thank you for reading

All limited edition prints are available for purchase at http://www.pjpaintings.com