An Announcement

Artefacts Inc. have moved into our new location and are now open for business, seven days a week, at site 015 in the Salamanca Arts Centre at 77 Salamanca Place, in the picturesque city of Hobart, Tasmania.

Oops! There was a mix up with the letters!!

That’s better!

Artefacts Gallery is a co-operative of seven members and artists. I was lucky enough to be accepted into the co-operative in 2019. I have some framed originals, prints and greeting cards at the gallery. We all have a different genre of art. We have a leather crafts-person who makes unique masks among many other leather items, glass blowers, a ceramicist who makes wonderful items with one of her speciality items being funky tall vases, a jewellery maker whose intricate work is mind boggling and more.

Front window at Artefacts displaying a leather mask, ceramics, glass sea urchins and one of my wombat prints.

Each of us do a day of gallery duty every week.  It would be lovely if you could drop in for a look around, visit and chat. Thanks for stopping by at theunfurlingartist blog, and hopefully when you’re in the area, at Artefacts Inc too.

Until then, take care and keep safe, Pj Paintings

Dogs and a Mini

I was contacted by a sibling, who wants to give her sister a unique present. She asked me to paint her sister with her two beloved dogs taking a ride with a bunch of my emus.

I find painting people super challenging and something I definitely should practice more. But human nature makes it so difficult. It fights against it and likes to avoid doing things you’re not good at. I get it.  There’s not much satisfaction with churning out disappointing drawing after another, but I am going to have to set some kind of minimum goal so that I can start moving forward with drawing people.

Finished Painting

Why it IS a big deal!

In other parts of the world, snow probably isn’t a big deal but here in Australia it is and it makes front page news. There are many who have never seen snow. We have Queenslanders (pre-COVID) visit Tasmania for that very reason, to see snow for the first time in their lives.

I’ve been told that there used to be snow on kunanyi/Mt Wellington for months at a time during the winter.

kunanyi, Tasmania, August 7, 2020

Nowadays, snow is only there for a few days before it all melts away and disappears, just like the Tasmanian emus, which were hunted to extinction about 150 years ago. But, I have recently discovered that my emus are not the only honorary Tasmanian snow-loving emus around! Chook Chook, an adopted mainland emu, a Tasmanian resident, living in Kaoota, is also a snow-loving, honorary Tasmanian emu.

Snow-emu

This print is titled “Snowbirds” and is also a greeting card. Both are available online, at http://www.pjpaintings.com

Chook Chook is 19 years old! Their life expectancy is 20 years and he is still going strong. Chook Chook was advertised in the Tasmanian Mercury when he was a chick for $10. The wet or snow doesn’t worry Chook Chook at all. When the garden hose comes out, he comes running to be sprayed. Emus are actually good swimmers and seek out water to cool themselves in the hot outback of Australia.

Tasmanian resident – Chook Chook

Thanks for stopping by. Stay safe.

P.S. Prints and original paintings are available at http://www.pjpaintings.com

view of kunanyi taken in Sandy Bay, Hobart, August 7, 2020

 

The Disappearing Emu

Australia’s early settlers hunted emus for food and as a result the emus that were abundant in Tasmania and Australia’s east coast disappeared.  Today, only one population remains in existence, aside from the thriving Australian inland emus, the coastal emu. The New South Wales (NSW) Government, in 2002, listed the coastal emus as an endangered population as its numbers were, and continues to be, in steep decline.

The coastal emu. Photography by Stephen Otton

The coastal emu is genetically distinct from the inland emu and an important seed disperser. It travels large distances and plays an important role in the regeneration of native species. Other species do a similar service but not to the same capacity. If the coastal emu is lost from the ecosystem it will reduce diversity and populations of species that depend on the plants, not to mention the loss of another emu species.

The range of the endangered coastal emu population. (Image credit: Coastal Emu Alliance). An estimated 50 Coastal Emus remain in crucial habitat areas of the Clarence and Richmond valleys.

A concerted effort is necessary to save an endangered species with numbers as low as the coastal emu. It is encouraged that sightings of coastal emus and/or nests are reported to The Coastal Emu Register. Identifying nesting sites can help target feral animal control at the local level. Tracking the seasonal movements of the emus, will help build an understanding of the survival rates of adults and chicks, and whether a captive breeding may be required to re-build the number of Coastal Emus found in the wild.

If you are out and about coastal emu spotting, for accuracy sake, please be aware that there are also adventuresome PJ Paintings emus running around.

Family Outing

Bonnie and Me!

Surfing Clifton Beach, Tasmania

Take care and thank you for visiting the unfurling artist. 🙂

PJ Paintings prints are available at http://www.pjpaintings.com

With a Little Help from my Friends

Sometimes I paint something that no matter how hard I rack my brain, I can’t think of a title. I know you can go with the title “Untitled” but I’d rather not.

A good friend of mine, from the northern end of Tasmania, asked me if I could paint an ice skating emu so that she could get a print of the painting to give to her daughter, who LOVES ice skating. She regularly travels to Hobart for that very purpose – to ice skate.

This image is available now for purchase: shop now

Thinking of a title turned out to be more difficult than drawing and painting the picture. Has anyone else had this problem?? Some of the titles I came up with were:

• Spin- ster
• Going for a Spin
• Ice Queen
• Ice Princess

Unhappy with all of the above, I decided it was time to elicit some help from my Facebook friends. Ideas were proposed and I narrowed it down to “Emu Icecapades”. I think this is an awesome title for the painting.

Thank you friends for helping me name this painting!

Prints are available at www.pjpaintings.com