3 small diptychs.

Each is 8×16 inches on two panels each. Acrylic and sometimes crayon.

I ASK MYSELF FOR PEACE

INSIDE OF ME. IN SPITE OF ME.

NO REGRETS. NO REPLAYS.

Somebody asked me the other day…..

…..what I had been up to. And I couldn’t remember for a while because I am busy planning my future escapades. But it’s coming back to me now….not in any particular order!!

Enter two local art awards…no prizes.
Enter a National photo award….expecting ‘no prizes’
Enter Woodgate Arts in Spring….Sold one framed drawing.

Three photoshoots….one being of the beautiful Roana from BRAG.

Interview with two French documentary film makers. (More on this soon.)

Conducted a digital workshop for the BRIDGES lovely people. Helped hang and take down their ‘Express Yourself’ exhibition.

Attend opening of ‘Living Change’ touring show that I am part of after winning the Digital Art Award (that I blogged about last year.) Messed up the last line of my poem after my floor talk! Dang!!

Delivered a carload of biscuit tins to BRAG for their wonderful ‘Collectamania’ exhibition. And pick up.

Didn’t mess up my ABC interview with David Dowsett!

Packed and took over 1000 biscuit tins to install as a 5m sq ‘Lifescape’on the floor of Gatakers Artspace in Maryborough.(Couldn’t have done that without Susan and Peter Hutton).

Prepare application for WBHD 2

Received the wonderful news from the State Library of Qld, that my ‘Christine Turner’s Art Blog’ has been selected for inclusion in the PANDORA archive, Australia’s web archive…allowing public access in perpetuity.

Assist in setting up opening of ‘Soul Journey Art Gala’ at my Dirty Linen Artspace. Press releases etc.

Prepare for upcoming Folio Art Market at Dirty Linen in a couple of weeks.

Meet with Creative Regions tomorrow for a significant Place Activation project I have been chosen to take part in.

Finish my large graphite work, one good large acrylic figure study, several digital images and commence a video for a possible projection in December.

And that is only October and November, and is  all I can remember. No wonder people say, ‘Oh, we haven’t seen you in a while.’ cx

Aussie Culture in Las Cruces

A new coffee shop opened in the old Mesquite neighborhood.  Included on the menu is Brekky Blend.  The artwork for this house blend was created by a local friend, Chris Bardey.  I was lucky to be able to snag one of the few prints made.

WBHD collection

Mates, the WBHD artwork in my collection is now all on display in my home, following various contributions to the local economy via the framers.  Trevor’s bowl is the sole exception, but it made it as far as my mom’s home in NY via Murray and Sheryl Davis’s luggage.  It was too fragile to tour North America with them, so awaits my next visit back to mum to collect.  Given the large number of things I brought home from the past year’s travels, and collected locally, I needed to do a lot of shuffling and cramming to get it up on the walls.  I probably sent much of this to you via email, but here goes for the blog.

The living room houses (from left) my now-framed “Sunrise, Honeymoon Bay” watercolor, which I shared with you in Bundy; Sue Hutton’s “After the Plunge Into Cold Water Creek” (above a watercolor nude by a Dutch artist I collected on recent Europe trip); Christine Turner’s “Sonya Immersed” dominates the room and positively glows in the morning light; the model, Sonya Holt of Bundaberg, did the small painting just to the upper right, titled “Heavenly Breasted”.  I’ve hung Carey Crane’s “Waiting for Sir Richard” in the southeast corner, under my own watercolor of local onion fields.  The vintage Aboriginal incised baobab nut on my own painted stand sits on the mantle.

Sonya Holt has two more of her trading card paintings/collages hung in the guest room.  “The Sperm Guys!” (top) and “Space Relay Team” (bottom) bracket Marlies Oakley’s “Art Revolution.”  These were all part of the trading card exhibition “Four Artists 1000 Ideas” organized by Marlies in Bundy during my Residency last year.

From my bed I get to enjoy a wide mix of works surrounding my TV.  Adrienne William’s “Bottle Trees and Bales” is at upper left.  The sister gouache “Fire on the Mt. Perry Road” is to the right of Jenny Gilbertson’s powerful oil of the “Bungle Bungles.”  Jenny’s “Slip” joins the other Fallen Leaves series painting that was given to me years ago (and led to my whole move to Las Cruces and WBHD participation).  These two small works hang above Jenny’s ceramic “Banksia Lantern 3” that I was able to rewire for US voltage.  Above the African mask at upper left is another trading card from Sonya Holt, “Voodoo” with an African mask itself as the focus of the collage.

Sue Hutton’s “The Watcher in the Landscape” dominates my studio wall and brings lovely color into the room.

Jenny’s two gouache paintings of Southwest Indian basket designs hang in my kitchen nook near a basket by the same tribal group. They fit well with the numerous other Native American pots and artworks nearby.

Just inside the bathroom door is a still-life print “A Mixed Bunch” by Fiona Joy Hawkins, famous Aussie new-Age musician and friend.  Fiona has several of my watercolors and gave me this print when I visited her in NSW last year.  I’ll be having lunch and enjoying a concert with Fiona and fellow Australian musician Trysette Loosemore in Albuquerque on Wednesday, as part of their 2014 US tour.  Also in the bath is a print by Nolan Winkler of “Two Palms” that I got during one of our WBHD luncheons at Nolan’s home.

Various other works collected from my time in Bundy are already in my kid’s collections or will surprise them this Xmas.  These include a possum drawing by Carmel Birchley and a cockatoo scratchboard by Debby Talan, as well as three animal themed trading cards by Marlies Oakley.

So I’ll be surrounded by memories of WBHD for years to come.  Thank you all for your contributions!

Art Tour

I had my first visit to a fantastic museum in San Antonio, Texas earlier this month.  The McNay Museum of Art is in the former colonial-style home of the founder of San Antonio’s Art League.  Lovely gardens as well.  They were hosting a special exhibition of Impressionistic art.  As the web site describes:  “Organized by the National Gallery of Art and drawing from the personal collections formed by Ailsa Mellon Bruce and her brother, Paul Mellon, and other donors to the Gallery, Intimate Impressionism is the most extensive exhibition of French impressionist and post-impressionist paintings to come to San Antonio.”  http://collection.mcnayart.org/highlights.page.do   I’d seen many of these works when living in the Washington area, but there were plenty of new things that were pulled out of the vaults for this show.  Great stuff and best curatorial explanation of the Impressionists and their relationships that I’d seen in a museum.  Visit if you get the chance!  I’m looking forward to seeing another Impressionist show that opened recently in El Paso Museum of Art.

My girlfriend demanded a drawing at the kiddie corner associated with the exhibition, so I got my revenge with an amateurish sketch of her (from memory alone).  That will make her think twice next time!

I was able to get several Aussie fixes for my withdrawal symptoms during the same visit to San Antonio.  There was an Aussie bakery/cafe near another museum and plenty of bush critters at the 100-year old zoo.

New(ish) paintings

I’ve been off the Blog for a while but trying to catch up.  Here are some relatively recent watercolors, both coastal scenes. (You may have already seen on my Facebook posts.)

“Main Beach Gutters, Moreton Island” was a large commission for my mates Murray and Sheryl Davis.  Murray and I did the Outback walkabout in a VW kombi van back in the 70’s, and he’s been a major supporter of my Australian work ever since.  The scene is a view from near the lighthouse on Moreton looking south along the main Pacific beach at low tide.  Murray and Sheryl had a wall in the bedroom of the Straddie beach house that was begging to be filled with a painting like this.  I was more than happy to oblige.  Best of all, they arrived for a first visit to my home just in time to collect the finished product. (Not to mention developing a love of the Las Cruces area.)

“Ancient Stump, Grandview Beach” is based on photos I took earlier this year when back visiting family and friends on the East Coast.  It is from a remote, protected beach along the Chesapeake Bay  near my former home in Virginia.  Ancient preserved cedar stumps have eroded from out of prehistoric dunes due to changing ocean levels and surf action, leaving these exotic sculptures along the shore.  Mats of swamp peat, also preserved, can be seen at upper left, forming a miniature cliff where the surf has worn them away.  This painting is a surprise for my girlfriend for Xmas, but I don’t think she checks this blog.   In the studio you may see another watercolor underway at far left.  This will be a scene from the beaches at Elliott Heads, near Bundaberg.

Flower spike dance, Monto

Flower spike dance, Monto  2014  Gouache, titanium white acrylic, pastel on 640gsm Arches paper

I paid a little visit to the new Grass Tree site this week to help finish off this drawing for a local art prize. I don’t actually think it’s prize worthy as this is really just some fun play at the start of a new series, but I really wanted to participate as it’s a great show. This hillside of extraordinary trees is a 1 hour drive from home and I’m a bit taken with it, though I must confess to constantly looking out for snakes as I bumble around in the dry grasses.

The trees were in heavy flower—with their enormous flower spikes poking skyward, covered in tiny blossoms and bees—so I came home and made some blossom marks on  watery gouache to use as collage. Not sure it’s successful yet, but will be fun to explore further.

And recently the Nearest became gainfully employed at a place that digs up titanium dioxide —the essential for Titanium White—so you may be seeing a lot of obvious links to come and a lot of Titanium White in use!