Grieved as we are to miss Ausglass and Stephen Skillitzi’s performance at the opening party, we console ourselves with this marvellous snap he sent through this week…
Our sentiments exactly!! Thanks Stephen, we love it.
See you in a month, darlings. We’ll have a g&t for you (…often.) And we’ll drop in a post if/when we find an internet connection…
We can’t begin to tell you what a huge month or so we’ve had, but we’ll give you a swift fly-by of the abridged version…
It’s been culture-o-rama from camp drafts at Delegate with Mick…
…and it wasn’t all horseplay – we swung by a fabulous opening at the Bundian Way Gallery and caught up with Uncle Ossie…
And check out the rissole…
What a cracker!
And then Shazza turned sexty and threw a classic garden partay…
…complete with string quintet. She’s all class we reckon…
And it’s been a mega month for studio visits, from Matt Curtis…
…which of course was full of serious gorgeousness…
…including Harry’s latest work…
And we also caught up with Haeli and eX, all work related but no photo op (too much serious chat!!)
And then there was Annie and Gordon…
And finally Kimberley Dodd…
…in the lead up to last night’s opening at the BVRG…
Barb (McConchie) braved the inclement weather to open what was a surprisingly well attended opening given the Easter clash..
.
Kimberley Dodd, Still Life with Chips and Sauce
Though seemingly strange bedfellows, there’s some serious bounce between Chris Denton’s metaphilosophical aesthetic and Kimberley’s languid country domesticity. Makes for a really yummy show – up until the 11th May, so plenty of time to do a drive by.
Chris Denton, three from the void
This treasure from Brenda via Kerry…
It’s a dog’s life: Mitchies Jetty, Merimbula.
A little treat from Nige…
A glass jellyfish, Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University, MA, US
Among the 21million specimens that will rarely, if ever, be displayed at the Museum of Comparative Zoology are the 430 glass models of beautiful marine creatures made between 1886 and 1936 by the father-and-son glass artists Leopold and Rudolf Blaschka. When the curator and I walked through the room in which they live, hundreds of tiny tentacles and spines shivered in time with our steps. If they were in a public area of the museum, the human traffic would be too much and they might break apart.
The Blaschkas made thousands of glass creatures. George Goodale, the first director of Harvard’s Botanical Museum, hired them on an exclusive contract to make more than 4,000 models of plants, 3,200 of which are on display (being more robust than the marine creatures) and are the most popular exhibits in the museum. When 25 were taken to New York City for an exhibition, they were driven in a hearse, as this was the smoothest ride the curators could find for them.
Adorable. Takes us back to Glass History in first year – the Blaschkas understandably loomed large.
They always come to mind whenever we see glass peeps trotting out jellyfish (invariably beyond inferior.) Dear oh dear, why do it? It’s only luminaries like Timmy Horn who can pull it off (latex or not) and he made his own respectful pilgrimage to the Blaschka Collection and both references and pays them serious homage.
Think twice, that’s our advice.
We’re in the middle of country agricultural show season down here in the Far South East and we’re building to the biggie; the Bega Show – which this year is starring as the backdrop to the upcoming BVRG exhibition The Country Show.
Excitement is gathering apace – more of that soon.
But meanwhile Megsie took these shots of a couple of her fave bits at the recent Candelo Show (well, more particularly for Sammy Jo and Iain.)
[She's such a tragic for pipes and militalia. n(Ed)]
for Iain
for Sammy Jo
Back at the BVRG, preparations are well in hand for the upcoming excitements…
Grand Supreme (Arts and Crafts) Champion of the Bega Show Rita Roberts making dainty with the laceworks.
Rita’s one of the BVRG’s longstanding volunteer gallery sitters. (What a privilege, that added bonus of watching a live demo at work.)
She’s also one of a selected handful of local artists joining the 21 strong Canberra mob in what promises to be a most entertaining celebration of the long standing country ag tradition.
Hang on to your hats – it opens next week.
Saturday was the annual highlight of our Wapengo Summer (well, 1 of 2); Artie’s birthday party. Except this year he decided to hit the habit on the head, so the faithful swung into Not the Artie Party mode. It’s now become Camp Artus, a lovely low-key affair down on Artie’s point.
Perfeck – no more of that humungous pre/post domestic production palaver for the poor bugger, just a sweet bbq/picnic by the lake. And no more duelling DJ’s!!
brotherly love – no more battle of the DJs
Noice.
As usual it coincided with Narek and Ivy Hill openings, so the Gang and La Groppa did a very swift recce of both – way too early as it happened, but you get a better squizz at the art without the crowd, eh (…and Carolyn did graciously forgive us!!)
And it was serendipity, as it happened, cos we ran into Ange and Bourkie…
hunting and collecting
Anyhoo, ceramics provided a nice visual segue between the two galleries and we always like to see Craig Cameron’s work get its deserved public airing. We did a Glenn Murcutt (as in touched the ground lightly) and scampered back to the campsite.
Very pleasant summer viewing, swing by on your way to the beach.
Relatively few photographs were executed in the making of this post (and none of La Groppa at all, as is her wont.) Glimpses here.
We’re pleased to report that Ginger’s affinity with critters hasn’t abated one iota as she’s grown into adulthood…
She’s taming the wild Kingies and still finding oddities…
…and catching fish by hand at Bithry.
It’s a patience thing, we figure(!)
For Kazmir…
Nothing but nothing’s going to be allowed in Megsie’s workshop unless it pertains to her practice…except maybe a shed bed for guest overflow in summer!
[Oo-er, actually, Megsie herself is going to sneak out there for a few zzzzz-eds once all the house-guests leave. We might join her....n(Ed)]
We’re trying to tidy the last of 2012 up before we launch into the new year. Melbs was wunnerful, as usual (on account of being furiously short and sweet) but pretty full on. And mainly, of course, it was the full Sicilian-o-rama, given that it was Nonna’s 102 birthday.
She’d had the formal 100th at the Ramacca Club, and then the 101st at Flinders, and so this year they decided to mix it up a bit and go village (as in have it in the garage like the good old days.) So how many Sicilians can you squeeze into a garage? 60 – we kid you not!!
It was a hoot. Even the pasta arrived in time-honoured village style…
bringing in the pasta
And the odometer’s been turned over – Nonna’s back to only having to blow out two candles…
It was lovely. And incredible to see Carmella in such good nick; she’s quite amazing.
Anyhoo, when we weren’t being Nonna-centric we did a dash around the old haunts, as you do…
Lunch at Young & Jackson’s now has the added attraction of police performance art; watching the coppers nab people for jay walking as they stream out of Flinders Street Station. Unbelievable. Three of them netting unsuspecting peeps at every light change, at around $75 a pop. They made an absolute killing in the time that we were there.
It was very entertaining in a fascinatingly horrible sort of way.
Dear oh dear.
The only art that we caught was incidental and convenient, like the Blender Lane Studios (across the road from Granny’s)…
James Bonnici at Blender Lane studios
James Bonnici’s space at Blender
…and American artist Patrick Dougherty’s Stickwork at Fed Square (cos it was on our way to see Ian Mowbray’s new work at the Ian Potter)…
And that (the latter) was our dedicated cultural highlight for the trip; catching up with Ian and swinging through Containment: 2012 Cicely and Colin Rigg Contemporary Design Award (stunning show, on until late July 2013.) Ian’s continuing the Souvenirs of my family series begun for Tour de Force: in case of Emergency break glass. He’s made another ten for Containment (and has his sights set on 60 all up!!) Too good.
Oh yes, and we took lots of snaps of macaroons for Dira (cos she’s into them at the moment, big time)…
And then it was all over in the blink of an eye. Sammy Jo flew back out on the Friday arvo, boo hoo, and we moseyed home for a restful change-over week at the BVRG (yes, we are being ironic…)
Happy days here.
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