A mass teddy bear hunt is under way around the world to help distract the millions of children locked down because of the coronavirus pandemic. Stuffed toys are being placed in windows to give children a fun and safe activity while walking around neighbourhoods with their parents/carers.
Here’s my contribution to the movement…
My bear, elephant, mouse and moose collection
The grey, green and cream teddy bears are ones that I made before I knew I liked to paint. The three other bears are from Canada. The mouse I fell in love with in my travels on the mainland of Australia. The moose is from Sweden. My son worked three years in Ethiopia and gave me the handmade knitted elephant from Ethiopia. I also added a painting I did of my handmade Christmas teddy bear.
Another act prompted by the Coronavirus Pandemic is that for the month of April, I’ve removed all shipping costs for website orders made in Australia. I have different sized quality prints, some original paintings, tote bags, zipper pouches and greeting cards available at http://www.pjpaintings.com.
I hope my paintings and the window scene brings a smile to many faces.
It was another mild winter’s day at Salamanca Market. It was busier than last weekend with things ramping up for Dark Mofo and other activities taking place this weekend, for example, the Australia School’s Sailing Competition. The manager and organiser, from Adelaide, was very excited to lay her eyes on “Family Outing”. She bought it to give to her friend for her birthday. She said that the only one in her group of friends at university that had a car, was her girlfriend, who had a red mini. They used to all pile into her car to go to parties. This friend is turning 60 this year and has ordered a red mini (a real one) as a birthday present for herself and is having a big number “60” painted on it.
A return visitor, who bought a “Richmond Bridge” and “Suspended” print a few years ago, (she gave Suspended to her grandson, who loved it she told me), purchased more prints. This time, she bought: “Bunk beds”, “Surfing Clifton Beach, Tasmania” and “Hayride”.
Bunk Beds
A couple, celebrating their 22nd anniversary, visiting from Adelaide, purchased a “Salamanca Saturdays” tote bag and small pouch. They moved to Adelaide four years ago from California, USA. Their daughter married an Australia so they followed her to Australia.
A Salamanca Market Tote bag, made in Australia, 100% polyester and washable
A young lady, here from Perth, doing some work with Dark Mofo, bought “Bunk beds”. She said that she’s going to hang it where her stairs are so it makes her smile each day when she goes down the stairs in the morning.
Taking a Dip
A lovely lady from Sydney, going to Melbourne via a stop-over in Tasmania, visited the stall twice. She wished that her sister, who also lives in Sydney, had joined her for a sisterly holiday. She’s taking back with her “Bunk beds”, for her sister, “Taking a Dip” for herself, “Duck Crossing”, “Beachside Chatter”, “Who, Who, Who are You II” and “Hanging Out”.
Another conservationist working on the Orange-bellied parrot breeding program at the captive breeding facility at Five Mile Beach, Hobart, stopped by and chatted. She’d like me to paint the Wedge-tailed eagle, Frogmouth and the Orange-bellied parrot. They are on my bucket list… J
Today’s most popular prints were the wombats: “Afternoon Siesta” and “Bunk beds”.
A thought to ponder from the artist, Bob Ross: “We don’t make mistakes, just happy little accidents.”
Wishing you a week full of emu antics and joy,
from the Pjpaintings stall #30 at Salamanca Market.
I’ve read and generally follow the advice that when painting an animal, paint their eye first. If you don’t get the eye right, give up and start again because no matter matter how good the rest of the painting is, the totality of the painting is going to leave you feeling disappointed.
I like painting the eye first for this reason but also because with the eye painted, I feel an immediate emotional connection developing with what I’m painting. With that connection there is also the difficult to explain or describe feelings that I want to finish the painting to ‘give it life’ and welcome it to the world, even though it’s a life on a two-dimensional piece of paper. But to me it is more than just the life on a piece of paper, paintings go on to inspire, cheer, awe, provoke thoughts or consciences, ignite imaginations, memories and dreams, and more.
I gave this one the eye and will be bringing it to full life but not until after I return from my urban sketching holiday, which I hope you will be able to share with me via my blog posts.
At 2:00 am, the wind was howling, driving rain was pounding the roof of the house with accompanying loud claps of thunder and lightning that lit up my bedroom. Not what you want to hear on a Friday night, despite Hobart, Tasmania, really needing rain. But that is another aspect of Hobart that I really like, most of our rainfall falls during the night. That’s good for many reasons, including reducing water being lost to evaporation, as Hobart is the second driest capital city in Australia, so we need all the water we get!
I drove up the driveway in darkness, with mild and dry weather, arrived at the market at 6:40 am and got stuck into setting up. My first customer was a lovely couple from New Zealand. They purchased a “Salamanca Fresh” small tote bag. Later in the day, they returned and added a “Duck Crossing” tote bag to their purchases.
Then a regular dropped by to buy another card for her father who lives in New Zealand. She had sent him a “Duck Crossing” greeting card, which was a big hit. When she had phoned him, he answered by saying ‘quack-quack’. This time she chose “Helping Hands” to send to him.
Helping Hands
A lady, originally from the UK, now living in Toronto, Canada, is taking a “Bunk Beds” print home for her daughter. A gentleman from the Isle of Man, who works in a trauma unit, told me about this mad car race that takes place on the island each year, where people drive the dangerous circuit at crazy speeds in about 17 minutes. There is a history of unfortunate fates with this race but it continues to run. He’s heading home to this race and not looking forward to it. I hope it all ends well, with everybody safely crossing or not crossing the finish line. He’s taking back with him “Salamanca Fresh”.
Salamanca Fresh
Then I met a big fan of mine, Mel and her husband, from Sandy Bay, Tasmania. They bought earlier in the year “Surfing Clifton Beach, Tasmania”, and this is where they regularly surf. It’s hanging in their house and giving them and their visitors much joy, so they have decided to add “Family Outing” and “Beachside Chatter” as accompaniments.
A lady bought two prints featuring emus riding motorbikes, one for her daughter-in-law and one for herself. She said that she has just returned from visiting Vietnam. I asked her if it was humid and hot? She said it wasn’t, that it was just perfect and proudly told me that she rode a motorbike for several days in Vietnam. Good on her because she was of a rather mature age.
A family from Texas, USA, that have been living abroad for six years because the father of the family is in the military, who are currently living in Japan, loved and raved about “Afternoon Siesta”. She said she almost bought the original that is hanging in the Artefacts Inc. Gallery at the Salamanca Arts Centre, a centre to support Tasmanian artists. She said that in Japan that the ‘in’ thing right now is learning how to create tranquil art, and she said it’s like I’ve taken lessons from Japan with the white space left in the picture, the pose of the wombat and the gum leaves being gently caressed by a breeze.
Afternoon Siesta
At the end of the day, I met a Belgian young lady. On average, I only meet one Belgian per year. She spoke Flemish.
Earlier in the day, two French speaking, Swiss young ladies visited the stall and we had a short conversation in French. They are taking home with them a “Hanging out” print. While they were in the stall, a dear, used to be my neighbour when she was living in Tasmania, friend appeared and purchased prints from the “unfurling” series.
Hanging Out
Before my former neighbour had arrived, I drew the initial drawing of another ‘unfurling’ idea. I can picture so many ideas in my mind. I have a friend who says she can never see pictures in her head. This astounds me because my brain has so many ideas and pictures banking up against each other. I’m going to have to soon find another brain to rent because this one is filling up fast and is going to overflow.
Thirty-two greeting cards went today, possibly more because it is easy to miss a few when trying to track them on paper. Guess what I’ll be doing tonight?! I hope more arrive before next week’s market otherwise the card selection will be a little thin.
The most popular prints today are: Afternoon Siesta, Bunk beds and Hanging Out
A thought to ponder: “I think being different, going against the grain of society is the greatest thing in the world.” Elijah Wood
Take care and I hope that your upcoming week is great,
from the Pjpaintings stall #30 at Salamanca Market.
Salamanca Market was cancelled as Saturday involved delivering an original painting and prints to Art as Mania Gallery in Deloraine, Tasmania in preparation for the upcoming annual Square Dancing Convention. To avoid the ridiculous amount of roadworks on the Midlands Highway, the backroad through Bothwell was used. Bothwell has a very cool café. Despite only intending to spend money on a coffee and a date scone, I left with a table cloth, a throw rug and a pair of fingerless gloves!
Here are some photos of the door art of the Bothwell Café.
Bothwell Café.
I tried to do some urban sketching in Deloraine. I attempted to draw the Deloraine Hotel but it was way too complicated for the short amount of time I had, so I gave up on it and crossed the street and then tried to draw the quaint library.
I was much happier with my 7 minutes of drawing the Deloraine Library.
I had to put the drawing aside to meet friends for coffee, drop off my art at the gallery and then visit the very nifty town of Latrobe.
A Deloraine Native HenDeloraine sculptures on the banks of the Meander River
This house is near to where I stayed in Deloraine overnight. I thought it was abandoned, but no, there was smoke coming out of the chimney.
Lunch was had at a cool art café called The Crowded coffee Lounge in Latrobe. It is spacious, adorned with stunning pastel framed artworks, has cool furniture with one table having a puzzle in progress and another with a stack of board games. Many art classes are delivered from this venue.
Photos taken of the back of the café. I really liked Latrobe and I want to return to further explore it.
For now, it is the road back to Hobart, Tasmania and back to work. 😦
Thanks for visiting. May your travels be gentle and kind for you.
The Unfurling Artist: journalising creative journeying 