The Paint starts to flow Finally

Well after a couple of weeks of just looking at my preliminary sketches, I finally put brush to palette and canvas. Have been feeling very tired of late, with no energy to feel inspiration.The heat and humidity of the sub-tropical build up, which was early again, has sapped my little available energy.
So yesterday I got going. Learning to use acrylics will take me a while on a canvas of this size, makes me want to use oils, just to have a longer working time,before the paint dries. At least for the broad areas like the sky, it's hard to get the colour down and achieve the right graduation from dark to light or vice versa. Lucky we have some wonderful clouds to paint in it's fore-sky, in this region. I am often taking photos of the amazing formations I see as we drive around the caldera.

Will have to do a canvas of sky, with the wispy clouds I wanted in this one, painted them out as they need more room to properly fit in a sky, along with the lower altitude heavier clouds .




But slowly I'm getting there. Can't start the rest til I get the sky almost right. Feeling happy with the clouds. Might have to just feature the Thunder-head clouds that we've been seeing lately.

Second Sunday of the Month

Hi there,
sorry if you tried to visit my shop today, it is temporarily 'on vacation' from cyber world, while I give all the hats an outing to The Channon market, in Northern NSW.
They don't get out very often these days, and they do enjoy meeting new people! 'Tho, sometimes they like someone so much, they decide it's time to leave home, and journey 'off' into the big wide world.
This is where they will spend the day, watching all the people having fun at The Rainbow Chai Tent, while I serve Chai and wash,wash, wash lots of mugs.



We will all be back here on-line on Monday morning, sometime later in the day, as we recover from the 'mini-festival' that the Chai tent creates. We don't get packed up til 10 or 11 0'clock at night. It's a big job.

Please have a look at my work on Flickr till we get back www.flickr.com/photos/artnomadix

Back to Painting

Well I have started work on an old Work In Progress. In late '95 I sat up on the edge of a cliff on a local landmark called Brummies Lookout, and sketched a 180 Degree view, on 4 sheets of thick paper. I took them back up in 2000, when I joined my mother's walking group, and found that in 5 years the tree line on the skyline of the mountain had grown somewhat.
On Tuesday we took a friend up there, in her 4WD and walked up the short but steep and very rocky ridge, and the tip of Mt Warning is nearly not visible behind the even taller trees. It was great returning with a digital camera, to be able to take photo field notes to add to my 'in-field' sketch notes, and use them to correct my on-site 'stretching' that can happen when trying to record directly from the Landscape.
Re-inspired I set to yesterday and worked with the photos , editing them and balancing them, and changing the contrast on some to focus on a specific ridge. I was able to 'see' my mistakes, and make a small sketch with corrections on a scaled down thumbnail, from the 20" x 60" canvas I purchased back in Feb.





I've even made a plastic sleeve with an over-laying graph to help translate the basic layout onto the canvas.
Went to start work today, but it was not to be what with interruptions from my sister and her long-windedness, and an extremely hot day where it's hard to feel like doing anything. But hey thats OK, maybe tomorrow will be more suitable

To see the futre stages of this click Here and Here

My Etsy Shop

Well I've finally listed a dozen items in my on-line shop with Etsy, it's only taken me more than a year since I first heard about Etsy, and joined up ! Living on the road, and trying to teach myself to use a computer for the first time, was not exactly easy, especially trying to get enough on-line time. We were rarely in phone zone's as we travelled around Oz, usaully camping in very remote places, and only passing thru towns and phone zones for very short times, just to pick up a bit of shopping.
But since our bus/mobile home, decided for us, that 12 years was long enough, by having the gearbox pack it in, we have been at my Mum's place, as we spend time fixing the bus up, and finishing some of the features that we didn't get done 4 years ago. We had 9 months off the road, to transform a 17 seater bus, into our new travelling home, and we were itching to get back out there!
We had previously spent 8 years living in a Toyota HiAce Pop Top Campervan, so it was wonderful to have so much space in our new bus. I soon filled her full to the brim with all my Yarn that I could fit in, now that we had more space!
I began to dream about having a fixed abode studio again, although I do love the freedom of the nomad, and my partner Geradus was constantly wanting to be somewhere else, further along the road, he really loves the driving and the constantly changing country, with new places to explore.
We kept asking ourselves that year, "12 years on the road, will we make 15?" So 'Dancer' our bus decided for us, just after we arrived back in this region which was always one of our places that we stay in for longer spells, to unload, offload, repair, set up short term studios, sort, and reload the revised "so what do we really need, what can we do without".

The roads around here are very windy around the caldera, with many a steep hill to access some friends houses, not a place to drive a 5.1 ton bus, it is bad enough in a van sometimes, so it was divine intervention that we lost 3rd gear whislt nearby Mum's and we could limp back there and take stock. Timing has been good too, as the price of fuel has risen dramatically, we are so glad that we were able to do all the traveling that we've done.
But now, a year off the road, and we are really missing the sense of freedom we used to enjoy. Yet we are still very lucky, as where we are living, is one of the most beautiful parts of the country, and every drive out, even just into town to shop, is a scenic adventure, amid stunning views and awesome weather, with stunning cloud formations of huge thunderheads against deep blue skies.

Had a call today from a friend with a local Art and Craft Gallery Shop," Heart of Arts" They have finally located a venue to run various art and craft classes, and she asked if I was still interested in being a tutor. They will get going in February, so that gives me plenty of time to get my class notes and patterns finished.
I went into town on the 12th of September "International Crochet Day" and did a Cafe Crochet Crawl to promote Crocheting, and see if anyone wanted to learn to do Tapestry Crochet, and got several names, and contact details, so sometime soon, somewhere I'll find a suitable venue, and get going with some more Hat and Tapestry Crochet workshops going.

I even had my photo taken by the local paper, which was a great bonus to reach even more people who weren't in town that day.

September Spring Cleaning

1st of September saw the start of a new me, as I began a series of BodyWork sessions with two incredible body workers who look at, and treat, the whole 'You'. The physical and the unseen meta-physical realms.
My connection with these two, began back in June, at The Channon market, where they spied my hats out on display, ( one of their infrequent outings), before I headed off to the Beaniefest. They asked me if I'd be interested in a barter of their services in exchange for hats for them.
We spoke again at the August market, about what styles and colours etc. and they emailed me their head sizes.
I began their hats,

and they rang to suggest Monday 1pm for my first session.
I nearly didn't make it as I was having a very emotional day, and trying to drive the 1 1/2 hour journey around this beautiful caldera to their place on the outer eastern side, with eyes blinded by tears was extemely hard.
I sent them a text message, to cancel, and they repied, "Sounds like you need to come even more", so I took a "deep breath" and managed to see thru my recurrent tears.
QJ said when I arrived, that people often had 'things come up' like me , on the day of their appointment. They'd be more worried if nothing showed up, this would mean you were really locked up.
So although I couldn't get my words out at first, they asked questions and expressed what they were intuitively picking up from me. and I was soon able to verbally fill them in on my background. I ended up telling them a long and convoluted story, which helped them see and understand where my physical troubles originated from, and what they needed to do to 'free' me up from things linked in some strange way to one or more of my past lives.
This tied in with the stories of my life.
They then worked on me in tandem, one doing the deep and often painful or ticklish, the other doing very soothing and nurturing work. It was the most amazing massage/bodywork that I have experienced, (of which there has been a lot).
I felt totally nurtured and gifted from their caring ministrations, and it felt wonderful to be receiving such care.
Afterward we shared a cup of chai, and chatted on for a while, relaxing. I left and blissfully strolled around the nearby Crystal Castle's gardens, in a state of 'newness'.
At home late I felt tired and my body was aching a bit.
Having gone to sleep quite early, I found myself awake at 3:15 am, my time of birth, and one quite related to the issues being worked on that day. I had quite a headache and my hips were aching, I felt terrible all over, but as I lay in bed, rolled this way and that, I experienced what I call an etheric Hands-On. I could sense the Presence of QJ and Branwen, as if their hands were working on me again, and signs and sounds of 'release' kept up for an hour and a half. I went with it and watched the whole process, til I went back to sleep.
In the morning I awoke with the headache eased, which you'd think is the normal way, after sleep, although recently I have often awoken still with the headache I went to sleep with! Also, my body was no longer aching,sore, or afflicted with the qroin pulling hip injury, I was able to walk without pain for the first time in 4 years.
It still possibly needs another session, but in the next one I believe they will be able to tackle another of my long term physical problems.
What a good start to Spring, I feel like I have new spring to my life, maybe I'll be able to dance freely again soon.

Not long til the Beaniefest

Well I've finished my two entries for the Beaniefst competition, and sent them off. Then a load of hats for Beanie Central, the largest sale venue of beanies probably in the world. I even managed to write and send an artist's statement this year, which the past three years I haven't managed, but thanks to computers and printers,and being in a fixed abode, for a change, I am on top of things this year.
Soon I leave to make the long Journey to Alice Springs, travelling this time with my mother Liffy,who has missed the festival for the past two years, despite travelling to Central Australia both winters, yet just missing the festival weekend by a week or two.
I am still madly creating beanies as well as trying to complete a project, making a new table curtain for The Chai Tent's servery table. The old one is approximately 17 years old and becoming threadbare. So began preparing that today ready to paint the dyes on tomorrow, wash, dry, and sew up on Saturday, so I can take it to market on Sunday, giving it to Benny Zable to add in a Hand-painted Earth in the centre over the central Heart. Will I succeed in doing all that in that short time span ?????? Maybe, maybe not, but I'll sure give it a go.
Leaving on the 19th June and possibly away for 4 weeks. Doesn't look like we'll be going out to Uluru for the big gathering now unless brother Michael gets a belated invitation, and then we will and we won't be back til mid August or so.
That is when I'll finally get moving with my Etsy shop, now that I'm a little more computer literate and not so nomadic.

Well it's now Wednesday, I managed to paint, wash out, dry, and sew most off the new table curtain, but as the hour got late on Saturday night, I decided to take it, as was, which was the right decision, as having a test, for length, and height, was very important, as I'd bought fabric that wasn't quite the right length, or width. I had been going to add a thin strip to the top edge before sewing the 'Velcro' on to it. Checking it out on Sunday while we were setting up, showed me that all I needed to do was fold top edge over 1" and then sew velcro on it. It was the perfect height after all. The length needed two pieces of extra fabric added on before sewing the velcro on, which I've done today, tomorrow I'll paint in the Teacups, that now appear as funny shaped clouds, and Benny is going to paint an 'Earth' onto a separate piece of silk, that will get sewn on later down at Newcastle during the Students for Sustainability conference or the Climate Camp following, as he is heading down that way today.

Garden Party Hat

I bought this white gauze hat in the local opp shop thinking I could do something with it. Got home and found an invitation to a friends 60th Birthday, a Garden Party. Christine was thinking we'd be on our way back up from Tassie, on our way to Alice Springs, therefore passing thru St Andrews/Cottlesbridge where she lives. But no, we are in Northern NSW, so I decided to make her a Garden Party Hat instead. It has been such fun, I hope she likes it, she is an avid green thumb with a wonderful garden of flowers. Last year it was showcased in the Open Gardens tour.