Salamanca Market July 20, 2019

Once again the weather exceeded my expectations. I was thinking the temperature would be around 2 degrees Celsius this morning but instead it was a balmy 6 degrees when I drove out of the driveway at 6:45 am.

It was really busy at the market today.  I was told that about 60 delegates from Victoria were attending a Sutton Tools’ conference in Hobart but that would hardly account for the numbers perusing the market. There were a lot of school aged children from the mainland too. I thought their school holidays ended a week earlier than Tasmania’s.

A lady, living on a farm in central Queensland, bought four A-5 sized prints: “The Three Amigos”, “Double Date IV”, “Hayride” and “Glamour Girls”.  An x-Hobartian, now living in Brisbane, bought herself a “Salamanca Saturdays” tote bag and another lady, who used to live in Hobart, now living in South Australia, also bought the same bag.

A mother, from Brisbane, met her daughter in Melbourne and they flew together to Tassie for a holiday to celebrate her 21^st birthday, bought an “Afternoon Siesta” wombat print. Another mother and daughter pair, visiting from Devonport, Tasmania, bought three prints from the Cheer ‘em Up series to hang up in their Bed & Breakfast accommodation. Another mother and daughter, from Missouri, USA, living close to the Mississippi River, bought two cards: “What the Devil?!” and “Bunk beds”.

What the Devil!?

Two girlfriends, visiting from Queensland, bought “The Supremes” for their girlfriend. When they saw the print, they burst out laughing and instantly decided it was the perfect gift for their missing friend because the three do karaoke together.

The Supremes

A couple bought “Story time” and “Family Outing” as a gift for their new granddaughter.

The most popular prints today were the wombats.

A thought to ponder: “Clouds come floating into my life, no longer to carry rain or usher storm, but to add color to my sunset sky.”  Rabindranath Tagore

Wishing you a week full of emu antics and joy,                                                                      from the Pjpaintings stall #30 at Salamanca Market.

P.S. Prints and tote bags are available at http://www.pjpaintings.com

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Hair Extensions

Last year, I painted Humpback whales to celebrate Sea Shepherd’s 40th anniversary and help raise funds for this non-profit conservation organisation whose mission is to protect and conserve the world’s oceans’ ecosystems and species. (All of these whale paintings are on my website: http://www.pjpaintings.com).

Weightless

Sea Life

Suspended

Sea Shepherd has asked me to support their fund raiser again. This time I focused on other sea creatures, all of whom are suffering in plastic and pollution riddled oceans.

Hair Extensions: Yellow-tailed Black Cockatoos have a short crest on the top of their heads compared to the other cockatoos’ crowns that they flaunt and display ostentatiously. Feeling slightly inferior, this cockatoo set about to find a hairdresser that does feather extensions but alas there are none to be found in Tasmania. An octopus seems like a good compromise, and fortunately for this cockatoo, it found a very obliging one to crown its head with long, flowing, attractive tentacles.

This painting will be for sale in support of this worthy cause at Red Parka, 22 Criterion Street, Hobart, Tasmania, commencing Sept 5th.  It is now at Full Gamut, professional photographers, and then prints of it will be available on the Pj Paintings website.

Now, I’m working on my third and final painting of this series titled “The Bun”.

Thanks for visiting.

Octopus

So, Yellow-tailed Black Cockatoos have a short crest on the top of their heads compared to the other cockatoos’ crowns that they flaunt and display ostentatiously.  Feeling slightly inferior, this cockatoo set about to find a hairdresser that does feather extensions but alas there are none to be found in Tasmania. An octopus seems like a good compromise, and fortunately for this cockatoo, it found a very obliging one to crown its head with long, flowing, attractive tentacles.

 “Hair Extensions” painting in progress

This painting is for Sea Shepherd’s fundraiser, hosted by Red Parka, 22 Criterion Street, Hobart, Tasmania. The exhibition will be running for 2 weeks, commencing Sept 5th, with proceeds of original painting sales going to Sea Shepherd. Print sales’ proceeds will go to Sea Shepherd, Red Parka and artists.

Sea Shepherd Australia is a non-profit conservation organisation whose mission is to protect and conserve the world’s oceans’ ecosystems and species. This painting will be for sale in support of this worthy cause.  It’s been a marathon effort.

I don’t have to go into work tomorrow so I should be able to finish it tomorrow, all being well.  Fingers (tentacles) crossed!

Thanks for stopping by and I hope the rest of your week goes swimmingly. 🙂

Salamanca Market July 13, 2019

The weather wasn’t as kind to us today as previous weeks, but it was warmer than I thought it would be.  Despite it raining off and on all day, it didn’t stop people from visiting.  I think the school holidays and the Festival of Voices helped.

I had two couples buying prints at the same time when one said to the other that they looked familiar.  It turned out they were both from Newcastle, NSW.  One couple bought a “Double Date III” print and the other “Richmond Bridge, Tasmania” to go with the “Glamour Girls” print that they bought 2.5 years ago that hangs in their bathroom.

Double Date III

Richmond Bridge, Tasmania

A lady visiting from Arizona, USA, bought a small original painting of a kangaroo that I painted.

This is not the painting that was bought today, but it is very similar. The colours, faces and grass are slightly different and I added three dragon flies.

Another original painting, a Black yellow-tailed cockatoo, was spotted by a young boy, who pointed it out to his father, who in turn bought it along with a “Be Whooo You Are” print.  They are birdwatchers and are planning to do some in Tasmania as they tour around in their camper van.

This isn’t the painting that was bought today but it is similar.  The one that was purchased today had a slightly different look on its face and pose, and I painted gum leaves in the background.

The recycling pair came by again this week. When my next-door stallholder gave her a hug, the crown decorated with forks, spiked her eye. Recycling costumes are dangerous! J She ended up buying a “Salamanca Saturdays” tote bag for her mother’s birthday, who lives in New Zealand.

A “Salamanca Saturdays”, “Glamour Girls II” and a “Family Outing” print are travelling to Cairns. A “Christmas Siesta” is going to be making itself at home in Perth and an “Afternoon Siesta” will be settling itself in Brisbane. The couple from Brisbane made three visits to the stall and said that they couldn’t get the image out of their head, so they had to buy it.

Christmas Siesta

A repeat customer, who had previously bought “Who, Who, Who are You? II” for herself and friend, and “Who, Who, Who Merry Christmas” bought a “Be Whooo You Are” and “Double Date III” print.

Who, Who, Who Merry Christmas!

Thankfully, the rain stopped about two hours before packing-up time so most things were almost dry.

The most popular prints today were the wombats and whales.

A thought to ponder: “Painting is just another way of keeping a diary.” Pablo Picasso  (Maybe Pablo was an urban sketcher!! J)

Wishing you a week full of emu antics and joy,

from the Pjpaintings stall #30 at Salamanca Market.

P.S. Prints and tote bags are available at http://www.pjpaintings.com

Salamanca Market June 29, 2019

Hobart provided a warm winter’s day for the many students on school excursions and holidays.  There were groups of students from Hong Kong, Perth and more. A student from Hong Kong bought a ‘What the Devil?!’ tote bag and earlier in the day a lady from Singapore bought a ‘Spotty Rest Stop’, both bags featuring Tasmanian Devils. The Singaporean also purchased a ‘Salamanca Saturdays’ tote bag and a ‘Scarlet Robins’ print.

Salamanca Saturdays tote bag

A grandmother from Scotland, and her granddaughter from Queensland, is taking back prints with them. ‘Double Date III’ is going to Queensland and ‘Bonnie & Me’ is going to Scotland. She owns a Bonneville Triumph motorbike.

A young lady from Estonia, who’s spent six months in Queensland until she discovered Tasmania, is now living here. She’s bought herself a car to live in. She bushwalks on the weekdays and works in the hospitality industry on the weekends. She says it’s working well.  She’s planning on staying until November before she returns back to Estonia with her small A-5 sized wombat print.

Hanging Out

I met little two year-old Phoebe, who kept telling me her name was “Bob” (her mother said that she really likes Bob the Builder, hence her insisting her name is Bob). “Bob’s” parents purchased ‘Afternoon Siesta’. Another ‘Afternoon Siesta’ was bought for a 10 year old grandson, who likes to draw and bake cakes.

Afternoon Siesta

The wombats and tote bags were the most popular today.

A thought to ponder: “The aim of art is to represent not the outward appearance of things, but their inward significance.” Aristotle

Wishing you a week full of emu antics and joy,

from the Pjpaintings stall #30 at Salamanca Market.

P.S. Prints and tote bags are available at http://www.pjpaintings.com

Purging Fears

Hobart, in Tasmania, must be fast becoming the bravest city in the world, as more and more of our fears and worries are getting burned into oblivion, with another Ogoh-Ogoh being burnt to a crisp on the last day of the Dark Mofo Festival.   During the week, Hobartians were invited to write their fears and worries down and deposit them into Ogoh-Ogoh.

Ogoh-Ogoh procession

The annual Balinese festival has been adopted by Tasmania, with a bit of adaption. The Balinese festival aims to restore alignment between the seen world of humans and animals and the unseen world of the spirits.  Large and often ugly Ogoh-Ogoh figures are jostled and turned in circles to confuse them and then burnt, sending the spirits off with the smoke. Then the whole island of Bali observes a day of silence.

Ogoh-Ogoh’s nest and tree

Hobart’s Ogoh-Ogoh this year is the swift parrot.

Hobart’s fear container being moved into position

Nestling in – poor thing doesn’t know what is about to happen

The base of the tree is lit and the loudest procession of fire crackers and fireworks go off

the burning

… and then everything burns and we exit fearless and brave, with our ears ringing and dodging large bits of falling burning embers.

Wool Bombed!

A frosty morning at Franklin Square in Hobart this morning.

Frosty morning

Lucky the trees are warm and cosy.

Wool bombed!

I like the added colour.

Wool bombed Franklin Square trees

beautiful mornings in Hobart, Tasmania

Some beautiful scenes of light hitting historic Hobart buildings. I just wished I was able to sketch instead of heading into work!!!

Wishing everybody a great week with time to hug a tree. 🙂

Heroes at Salamanca Market June 22, 2019

Unbelievable, but we had another quite mild Saturday today. Nice for the Dark Mofo 2000+ people who did the nude swim this morning, and for the couple that got married before dropping their towels. Apparently, the vicar donned a towel too. I would imagine there would have been quite a few phone calls to find a vicar willing to agree to the dress code. Several visitors that stopped by the Pj Paintings stall told me that they had done the swim this morning. The mild weather continued into the evening, which was good for the thousands, including me, doing the Dark Park walk.

Early in the day, I met some of my heroes, anti-extradition protesters from Hong Kong. I asked the students if they sang Hallelujah? They said yes because the police cannot shoot people at religious gatherings.

 

I met a Canadian young lady, who grew up outside of Toronto. She’s doing Animal Studies at the University of Adelaide. She bought some bird greeting cards for her mother, who is an artist too. She mainly paints birds, Canadian birds.

 

I met two ladies visiting from Victoria. One has a daughter that is going to visit the UK. She bought an A-5 ‘Scarlet Robins’ print for her to take as a gift for her mother (the daughter’s grandmother).

Scarlet Robins

A couple from Sydney bought ‘Hiding Ants’, my small original echidna painting. It hasn’t been on display very long before it was claimed. Another couple visited the stall and the husband was quite keen to make some purchases but his wife wasn’t sharing the same level of enthusiasm. As they were leaving he said to me he’d work on convincing her and that they’d be back. I praised his impressive convincing abilities as indeed they did return and they bought four tote bags and three prints! This is a highly skilled man!

Hiding Ants

 

An “Under My Red Umbrella’ was purchased for a sister to go with her ‘Who, Who, Who are You?’ print she bought her last year. A ‘Poppy Fields’ print was purchased by a University of Tasmania Environmental Science student going back to Wales next week. She did the nude swim in the morning.

Poppy Fields

 

A lady, who works at the Lake St Claire Pump House, was spending her fourth day in Hobart but was itching to go back to her wilderness home. She bought a ‘Salamanca Saturdays’ tote bag for a friend that each time she has visited Tasmania has not been able to get to Salamanca Market.

Salamanca Saturdays tote bag

 

Californian brother, sister and mother, with their Great Aunt from Japan, visited the stall. They were enraptured with the art and bought a ‘Bunk beds’ and ‘Scarlet Robins’ print, with the “can I take a photo of you, with family and prints?” request. The mother and son were going back to the US and the daughter was accompanying the Great Aunt to Japan to spend some time with her grandmother in Japan.

Bunk beds

 

The wombats, whales and unfurling prints were the most popular today.

 

A thought to ponder: “Others have seen what is and asked why. I have seen what could be and asked why not”, Pablo Picasso.

 

Wishing you a week full of emu antics and joy,

from the Pjpaintings stall #30 at Salamanca Market.

P.S. Prints and tote bags are available at http://www.pjpaintings.com

PjPaintings at Salamanca Market June 15, 2019

Hobart is red and festivating. After Salamanca Market, I went to see Anna Calvi, a Dark Mofo concert. What a show! She was stunning. The energy from this virtuoso guitarist, at times playing the electric guitar on the floor and dragging her feet along the neck, was unbelievable and left you feeling awe struck.  Her voice range, power and songs were so good.

Anna Calvi 

Thankfully, we had another Saturday of quite mild weather. Next week we have the shortest daylight day and the temperatures’ long-term forecasts are looking grimmer. In the meantime, I had the sun streaming into my site for a few hours and I debuted ‘Square’ to take credit card payments. It worked well, quickly and easily.

I had an adult daughter and mother from Launceston, Tasmania stop at Pj Paintings and the daughter had a difficult time deciding whether to buy an A-4 sized print of ‘Suspended’ and an original echidna painting.  She really liked how the ants were hiding from the echidna.  In the end, she bought an A-3 size print of ‘Suspended’.  Later on in the day, I had a lady in her mid-to-late 20s stop in.  She said that she knows it’s a bit of an OCD request, but did I have a print of ‘Suspended’ that is centred. I provided a short explanation on composition and the rules of thirds, that if the focal point is centred, the painting just doesn’t really work. It must have placated her uneasiness about having the whale in the top third of the picture because she decided to purchase ‘Suspended’.

Suspended

A Sydney-sider, whose house looks out on Ku-ring-gai National Park, is taking a ‘White Faced Scops Owls’ and ‘Hanging Out’ print back home with her. Another Sydney-sider bought every Christmas card I had: ‘Christmas Siesta’, ‘Rudolph the Red Nosed Emu’, ‘Snowbirds’, ‘Tassie Christmas’, ‘Hoo, Hoo, Hoo Merry Christmas’ and ‘Santa’s Helpers’. I have painted other Christmas scenes.  There are more Christmas cards on the http://www.pjpaintings.com website, under the Cards tab.

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

A lady bought ‘Devilish Siesta’ for a wedding present for a Canadian that is getting married in Winnipeg, Manitoba. She was neighbours with him, when he was about 2 years old, for 12 months when both families were living about 60 km outside of Winnipeg.  Twenty three years later, he visited and stayed with them in Tasmania and they also visited and stayed with him in the city of Winnipeg. So, spoiler-alert, one of his wedding gifts is a Huon pine bread board and a Tassie Devil print.

Devilish Siesta

Today’s most popular prints were the whales and wombats.

A thought to ponder from the artist, Christina Rossetti: Can anything be sadder than work left unfinished? Yes, work never begun.

Wishing you a week full of emu antics and joy,

from the Pjpaintings stall #30 at Salamanca Market.

P.S. Prints and tote bags are available at http://www.pjpaintings.com

Story telling

Many of my paintings tell a story.  This one, which I finished this week, has ants, hiding, standing upright and pressing themselves against a rock, not daring to breathe, lest the slightest movement attracts unwanted attention from a hungry echidna. I think they’ll be safe thanks to their exemplary hiding skills. 🙂

Hiding Ants

Now here’s a true story about echidnas that you may or may not know. I didn’t know about this until a few weeks ago, when I entered an art gallery and saw a photo of an echidna in a display cabinet and asked why that was.

The gallery curator showed me Jeanette James’, a Tasmanian Aboriginal, who makes traditional jewellery, preserving centuries of Palawa cultural traditions, echidna quill necklaces.  Each quill is silver capped and strung with New Zealand flax.

She sources this protected species’ quills from road kill.  Jeanette is licensed to collect deceased echidnas.  Because their skin is so tough and virtually impossible to get the quills out without damaging them, the echidnas are buried between eight to twelve months to allow the body to decompose.  After being buried, the quills are easier to remove, clean and then make into jewellery.  I had no idea!

They are beautiful but I have a feeling it could be a little risky (painful) to wear.

I hope there are beautiful stories unfolding all around you and congratulations to all the recipients of the Queen’s Birthday 2019 Honours List.