Gallery Opening

Apologies that I’ve been a bit slack with writing blog posts recently. I’ve been rather busy starting the new adventure of opening a gallery in Hobart’s Salamanca Arts Centre in southern Tasmania.

There was a lot of work fitting out a generous-sized and sunlit room, organising insurance, a point of sales system and the like.

painting the creation of the back feature wall

The gallery is featuring a variety of art mediums with a focus on glass. There are many Tasmanian and artists from mainland Australia represented in the gallery.

Tasmanian John Osborne’s lino work in the back and Laurie Young’s glass work in the front left glass tower

A variety of glass, wood and leather work is at Wooby Lane Gallery

Tasmanian pastel artist and painter Kate Smith https://katesmithartist.com.au/ & Peter Barraclough, http://www.peterbarraclough.com/ Potter, Rynne Tanton https://www.collectorsweekly.com/stories/52300-rynne-tanton–crick-hollow-pottery and glass sculptor, Laurie Young https://www.australianartglass.com/laurie-young/

We had a soft opening on the wintery evening of June 10, 2021, to officially open the doors of the new Wooby Lane Gallery, on the corner of Salamanca Place and Wooby’s Lane.

dressed up for opening night

my work and Tasmanian leather, Christine Williams, artist’s masks on far left http://www.findglocal.com/AU/Pelverata/880496042082841/Satinwood

The gallery space gives me opportunity to display my framed original paintings and large sized prints.

If, and when you are, in Hobart, I hope you are able to drop in!

Take care and wishing everybody a lovely weekend.

Cheers, Patricia (PJ)

www.pjpaintings.com

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What a Treat!

Ingenuity is amazing. A friend, at the beginning of the COVID-19 isolation restrictions, was sitting in his house, looking at the picture ledge in his Federation House and decided it needed a train. In six weeks, he built a train track that takes a train from the front entrance, down the hall, into the lounge room, then dining room, into the kitchen, through two kitchen cupboards and back out down to the other side of the hallway. Apologies in advance for the poor quality photos.

The train track starting at the entrance of the house

Train crossing the hall and making its way to the lounge room

Train travelling in the lounge room

Train about to leave the dining room and enter the kitchen.

The Train travels through two kitchen cupboards and the back out to the hallway to do it all over again.

It was a real treat to enjoy a delicious home cooked meal with friends and a train!

The most exciting thing happening at my place is the succulent that my son bought me for a Mother’s Day present years ago, is flowering.

love my succulents!

Hope the upcoming week chugs along well for you.

Cheers from Pj Paintings

Finds & Gifts

A friend, who works in the Deja Vu Books shop across from Artefacts Inc Gallery in the Salamanca Arts Centre, while trimming a Banksia serrata, found an empty nest in it and thought I might like it as a drawing source.  Bird’s nests are stunning.  This bird used some Banksia leaves, feathers and seeded stems to build their home.

Another friend, while walking on the beach, found this intact little fellow and thought I might also like it for a drawing resource.  And they were correct!

Now I feel dizzy, my head is swimming with creative painting ideas!  How about you?  Have these images started sparking your creative juices?

Wishing you a great week. Cheers for now.

Fear Burning

Hobart’s winter festival of Dark Mofo, created and funded by self-made multi-millionaire, David Walsh, and the Hobart City Council, came to a close, ushering in the Festival of Voices. David Walsh is the founder of the Museum of Old and New Art (MONA) and single-handily put Tasmania on the map and increased the state’s tourism.

Each year, a massive sculpture for Dark Mofo is created, to make a large fear-jar, so-to-speak, for people to write and deposit their fears into. This year’s sculpture was a huge spider.  People’s fears were collected and stored in the spider’s egg sacks.

A large fear-jar

With much-a-do, music, dance and costumes, a procession walks the sculpture, and the fears of Hobart, down the city streets for it to be annihilated by fire.

I found it to be quite powerful imagery, and the act of articulating your fears then witnessing the burning of it, gone, ka-poot, liberating.  The ball of fire was enormous when the spider caught fire.  Here’s a couple of photos of the spider’s web and egg pouches burning.

 

I like Salvador Dali’s gem of wisdom, “have no fear of perfection, you’ll never reach it.”

Soledad O’Brien is quoted saying that “I’ve learned that fear limits you and your vision. It serves as blinders to what may be just a few steps down the road for you. The journey is valuable, but believing in your talents, your abilities, and your self-worth can empower you to walk down an even brighter path. Transforming fear into freedom – how great is that?”

On that note, here’s to fear-burning, whatever the fear/s may be.

I want one!

Look at what I spotted in the Ridges Hotel in Sydney, Australia. I love this! How cool would this be to having hanging in your kitchen area in your house?!  While waiting for the kettle to boil, you can add a word and have a game bubbling along with your children for a week at a time.

It’s a functional work of art, and a literacy & numeracy skill developer.  It would be great to have this at TAFE for adult literacy students and those learning English too.  It’s a fantastic ready-to-use fun, tactile learning and conversation tool.

It’s an awesome feeling when you discover such an exciting find!  🙂

Thanks for sharing my excitement.

 

 

One Word

Two years ago, it happened quite by accident, like things falling on your head when you open an overfilled cupboard door, imagery and ideas bombarded me when I read the instructions on a tea package.  The word “unfurl” jumped off the page, accosted me and since that fateful day, it has become my companion.

Instructions on package of tea

I’ve never encountered another word that is shaping me, and hence, impacting my life as much as this word. It is often in the forefront of my mind, urging me to grow stronger and explore places in art that I haven’t tried yet.  “Unfurl” is a beautiful word and I picture a fern unfurling, brave enough to leave the comfort zone of being safely curled up and protected, opening itself to exploring the outside world and ideas.

This is part of my journey with the word “unfurl”.

Exploring the unfurling concept

developing the unfurling idea

Initial drawings

First pencil drawing.  I turned some of the splattered paint into bubbles

I did this painting on coloured paper, with more splattering.  I painted the steam fairies with watercolour paint mixed with watercolour pigmented ink.

This painting is painted on a watery ink wash.  The cups and steam fairies are painted with ink, an Artline pen is used for the word “unfurl” and the furled ferns are drawn in pencil.

….and I’ve done many more “unfurl” paintings which I will write about in the next few posts.  This is the beginning of my journey.

Has a word influenced your life or art?  Thank you in advance for your comments, stories and feedback.

Happy Easter and thanks for visiting.

Framed

I framed two of my three favourite animal drawings.  I did both drawings really quickly.  The pencil drawing, I did while sitting in bed.  The pen drawing I did during the Inktober Challenge 2017, and while I was doing the drawing, I was deciding to quit the challenge.  Producing a drawing a day was taking its toll on me. I haphazardly finished the drawing, not caring anymore because I was quitting and then to my amazement, when I looked at it from a distance, I immediately loved it. (It also inspired me to finish the Inktober Challenge).

People have asked me if I find selling my paintings difficult on an emotional level, aren’t I attached to the paintings?  There is one painting in particular that I regret selling, my first emu painting but in general no, I have no problems selling my paintings.

My first emu painting. I named the painting ‘Family Portrait’

But these two little guys, I am very attached to (and I don’t have any particular fondness for rabbits). I definitely wouldn’t want to sell them.  Maybe it is the surprise element of the finished product working out when I wasn’t expecting it to or maybe it’s just their cute little faces. Who couldn’t love this little face!!

Has anyone else ever regretted selling a piece of art work?  I would love to hear your story.

Cheers

 

 

Embrace Individuality

Last week, I did a two-day drawing workshop.  In the evenings, I checked out the neighbourhood.  It’s one of my favourite things to do, looking at houses and gardens.  Some people aren’t afraid to express their individuality, actually they celebrate it.

Some yards had very cool things in it, like this three storey treehouse, with three decks.  It is difficult to see the three storeys in my photo, but it has three decks, with each one looking like they are meeting current building regulations.

… and this very cool way to store your firewood.

We had nine participants doing the drawing workshop.  Each person is an amazing artist.  An impressive range of diverse art skills was represented, pastels, penwork Mandalas, woodwork, some imaginative whimsical art and some unbelievable realism.  Often, people that paint life-like portraits wish they could think of imaginative things to paint and lament their ‘lack of creativity’, which isn’t accurate, it’s there, it is just being presented in a less obvious way, and people who have no shortage of quirky ideas, wish they could paint realism, people who paint loose, wish they painted more detailed, people who paint detailed, wish they could paint looser and so on.  From my observation, people undervalue their individual style. There will always be people who may not like a particular style, but there will also be heaps who admire and wish they had somebody else’s style or talent.  My theory is to celebrate individual style and to not allow negative self-talk interfere with the joy of producing art.

We started the workshop by drawing upside pictures to help engage the right side of our brains.

We went outside to find a splotch to turn into an imaginative character.  To my eyes, the blob on the right of the centre looked like a pig with a broken snout.

I’m unsure about this style but it definitely has given me some ideas that I want to explore.

Here’s an unfinished blob from the footpath that I’m transforming into an imaginary creature.

Thanks for visiting and for being ‘you’.

The quest for sharpness

I number, title and sign prints of my original paintings each week to sell at our local market.  The prints are printed on 330 gsm water colour paper which is a rather coarse paper and consequently I have to sharpen my pencil every second print.

I have been on the hunt for a pencil sharpener that sharpens a pencil to a sharp point.  I have bought so many disappointing pencil sharpeners.

When I was teaching an English class, one of the students had a pencil with a super sharp point (I notice these things :-)).  I asked her about her very pointy pencil and she showed me the sharpener that she had purchased at Woolworths for around $5.

I am very happy with my Woolworths pencil sharpener.  I have finally found a sharpener that does what it is supposed to do and does it well.  Sometimes price doesn’t  reflect the quality of a product.  Has anyone else struggled to find a decent pencil sharpener?

Wishing everybody a memorable festive season full on fun, laughs and happiness.

Hobart Street Art

Hobart, the capital city of Tasmania, has generally been devoid of street art but very recently this has been changing.  Some of it is decorative, some I think are trying to subtly convey powerful messages and one mural is definitely explicitly trying to present a visual picture of a controversial proposal. I’d like to think that the purpose of the mural is to help the community better understand what is being proposed and hopefully gather more opposition to thwart this application.

A scene painted on the back of a petrol station near Howrah Beach on the Eastern Shore of Hobart

This mural in Mather’s Lane, in the centre of the city, has a real Mexican feel to it

This mural is on Criterion Street, also in the centre of Hobart

This mural is on the next building in Criterion Street, Hobart.  I think it has a powerful message about mobile phones.  I think the world probably is a lonelier place for the lonely.  You used to be able to strike up a conversation with somebody waiting at a bus stop or in a cafe, but not now because everybody’s eyes are locked onto their phones.

There are plans to build Hobart’s first sky scraper which thankfully is being met with some resistance to protect the low rise historic precinct and not devalue Hobart’s heritage-era architecture.

A visual of the height of the proposed skyscraper compared to the current “tall” buildings in Hobart

This scaled drawing is painted on a wall of the new University of Tasmania (UTAS) students’ residence located on Elizabeth Street, Hobart.

Enjoy the rest of your day and the street art in your town/city.  Cheers from PJ Paintings