Happy Thanksgiving from Napa Valley!

Only a few days remain before I make it back to Las Cruces, but for now I am enjoying the Napa Valley autumn colors (already switched back to American spelling), appropriate for our Thanksgiving holiday on Thursday.  I know I’m very thankful to have been able to be part of WBHD, spend so much time in Oz, and meet so many great artists, like yourselves.  I’ve not had the chance or energy to paint much of late, so just keep collecting these visuals to keep the creative eye and brain active.  Thanks, mates, for such a great experience!

 

This last is for Nolan, a reflection of the railroad station in St. Helena, where she used to live.  Small world isn’t it!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Parting images from Oz

I’m catching up on some of my photos, so sharing a few from the tail end of my trip to Australia.  I spent the last couple of weeks in the rural, coastal area around Berry, NSW, about 2 hours south of Sydney.  This is a particularly lovely region with escarpments from the Southern Highlands intersecting the coast before giving way to farmland and yet more national parks and headlands along the coast.  The mountainous area are filled with pockets of the most southern sub-tropical rainforest in Australia, waterfalls, and fantastic wildlife like the wombat.

 

My high-school buddy Omar and his wife Barb left the Sydney lifestyle behind to attempt a sustainable life on a rather luxurious property only a 15 minute walk from 7 Mile Beach National Park.  They raise trout, veggies, pigs, and chooks to trade produce in a local farmer’s co-op.  I enhanced their home with the gift of a Banksia Lantern ceramic by Jenny Gilbertson.  But they still put me to work digging weeds, feeding the hogs and gutting fish.

 

My daily hikes and swims on the beach at 7-Mile were supplemented by day trips to the falls and nearby Jervis Bay National Park, which boasts some of the whitest beaches in the world.  Miniature penguins breed there and it is a lovely habitat for giant rays that come right up to the shore.  I got my final fix of sunshine before leaving for the North American winter….how about that snow in Las Cruces?

  I was the only person on this beach every day I visited!

  But all good things eventually must end, so I’ve now made it as far as California.

Fables, Fiends, Saints and Sinners

Attached below are images of the works I have in the Fables, Fiends, Saints and Sinners exhibition at Hervey Bay. Perfect show for me!!! cx

Order + Chaos

Well, this is the ordered bit. Prints are framed and I drive them to Hervey Bay Regional Gallery on Thursday afternoon for the Impressed print show, and will drop in and see the WBHD show for the last time. There are some master printmakers in this show and I can’t wait to see it hung. It’ll be up until February and then throughout the year will appear in Gympie, Maryborough and Bundaberg Regional Galleries.

Santa was unearthed in a recent cupboard clean out and even though we’re sort of bypassing Christmas this year I couldn’t help leave him out to guard the prints.

 

 

 

I’d like to explore this embossing with print idea in 2014, along with the wonderful techniques I learned with Ouida. It’s going to be a year of experiments.

 

 

And yes, this is the chaos pic. That moment when the space is completely non functional! Every surface has had ‘stuff’ just plonked on it, to the mutterings of “tidy that when I’m back”. Bags open, bags just left, packaging flung, drawing pads akimbo.

Clean up is underway, when I’m not sitting around admiring my new gumboots which I hope will attract fluffy baby penguins. Do penguins see colour? Note the gathering of prescription, non prescription, herbal, and magic ju-ju remedies for the sea. And I’d like them all to work, as promised, as I have a little sketching kit for on-board too.

Seasonal grazing…

Autumn, late afternoon in Hillsboro.

 

 

Albino bison grazing, hens nesting, and other 3D joys in Canyon Road, Santa Fe.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bird houses, B&B Taos

Take a Bow Mr. S

Monday and the snow is gone!

OK, snow from nowhere, NM, to match Carey’s beautiful shots

First…the studio side of the property. This adobe was built in 1881 and is where Adrienne spent a night while visiting. 

These are unfortunate, but beautiful adobe ruins of a house directly across the road from our house.

This is in front of where we live (no windows to protect art collection) and looking toward the studios.

Our little pond to water the local wildlife and a sculpture to honor our mentors.

Corral and bocce court.

Winkler’s PEDIGREED sculpture. I move it

around like a pull toy.

Our vintage deck chairs awaiting spring. Me, too.

S N O W II

Snow in Southern New Mexico / Northern Chihuahuan Desert. As Nolan alluded to, it is welcome when it does not overstay. Las Cruceans are not equipped for that.

                                                                                             

Image two is on our deck. Annual annuals sacrifice. Adrienne drank wine here when the weather was warmer.

Image three is Eutaw enjoying the sudden porch jungle.

Next image is what Eutaw sees looking out from his container-jungle lair.

Last Two images are views from our street.

S N O W

in nowhere, New Mexico! Lovely but I’m ready for the sun to take it away. More s n o w  due mañana. Then m a y b e  sun. fingers crossed. How is it in Las Cruces, Carey?

Projections of the Past

I’m so happy with how things went last night..

No rain….300 attended. two projections were shown simultaneously…I received very positive feedback. I can’t ask for more than that can I? I’m very happy today! cx