In the meantime in Bundaberg

Only one week to go and I am off, too. Yay! First stop visiting my dad in Germany.

The first thing I check every morning are messages from Adrienne. I can tell she’s having a great time and you are all doing a fantastic job looking after her and making her feel welcome! Put her to work !!!!  If I wasn’t going myself I would be so jealous!!! My suitcase is slowly filling up haha….

What a great exhibition opening on Saturday! The exhibition looked fabulous and we had a great turn out and a few red dots, too. Pity that the sound wasn’t quite working but it was fun watching you all 🙂

Although I didn’t get a red dot on my Wide Bay pieces I managed to sell two artworks at Gatackers in Maryborough. A smallish one and a big one which sold for $1800 (my biggest sale so far,…I am just starting out 🙂

“On the Fifth Day”, Acrylic, Collage, Rhinestones on canvas, 1m x 1.5m

“Coloured Rectangles”, Acrylic on canvas

Phil went to pick the remaining 15 artworks up today of which three go into an Art Comp in Mount Perry this weekend and the rest will be displayed at the Montcrieff Theatre in Bundy for the whole of September. It’s all happening.

Still working on Captain Jack. I seem to have quite a bit of trouble with him. I had to change the face today as his nose was too long, but I am determined to finish him. Not the greatest photo, but he’s slowly emerging from the mist….Trying to make slight changes with cut up postage stamps is not that easy 😉

Feature In Today’s Paper

 

Opening celebration

I wanted to take a small moment to thank everyone for their time, creativity and energy. Saturday was a lovely moment to just enjoy the fab people this project has brought together over the past 4 years.

A big thankyou to Jenny and Catherine for being the catalysts – creating a meaningful exchange from meeting each other back in 2010. Thank you!

And thanks to all of you who have opened your studios and lives to us via the blog! Here are some snaps from the opening.

Left to right: Sue, Sabrina Lauriston, Trevor, Christine, Marlies, Ariella – engrossed in video linking!

Christine, Jan Sullivan (one of the writers involved in the upcoming Blue Sky Talkin event), Sue.

Trevor, Julie Appo (artist), Mark Peacey (Jenny’s husband)

A happy crowd

Marlies and her work

Trevor and his work

Our lovely performer for the opening, Al Davies.

Back at the ranch, er….studio

 SHE’S TAKING TIME acry/graphite/panel 12×12″ and could be the left side of a diptych to the one below (I can’t figure how to put them side be side, sigh.

I’ve been waiting for the sun.

acry/graphite/panel 12×12″

  I KNOW MY LINES. 12×12″ acrylic & graphite on panel. With a nod to Susan Hutton, the artist of one winged women.

Adrienne gets some local border cultcha

It was the start of the weekend’s annual Salsa Festival downtown.  They closed off main street for a fundraising dinner, Adrienne’s shout, and entertained us with a lively salsa band and dance demonstrations.  Adrienne got a lesson from a lovely lady at our table, but I was forbidden from taking any photos of her on the dance floor.  She did well enough that I almost called Donald Trump to have her hauled south of the border.  🙂

Arriana (background, above), from Beck’s Coffee shop, was one of the main coordinators of the event.  The woman does everything downtown!  She’d like to make the area a formal art district in time.

I was able to introduce Adrienne to Bob Diven, one of our better known local artists and promoter of public art (he’s proposing an adobe Stonehenge-like installation for the nearby desert as a current project).  Bob reminds me a lot of Dave Machen of Bundy, talented and tireless for the community arts.

hey, all you Aussie artists in the WB/HD exhibition here in Las Cruces…

Since Adrienne, being here, already knows how I feel about her wonderful pieces….I want to tell you all how well you represent your country in this exhibition. All works are creative, well done and so enjoyable to see. And Catherine did a beautiful job of hanging all our art. Brava, Catherine!

Christine…..wow is all I have to say. And wow to all of you. Susan…love those paintings! Your woman with the wing (china cup) is my husband’s favorite!

Trevor…such unusual work in relation to the last show here….creativity abounds in you. Ariella, ooooooooooooooooo love the raku! Marlies, your skull pieces are strong and captivating. Especially like the ‘quiet’ one.

As for us New Mexicans and all our work hanging at Unsettled…bravo to us, too. I am very proud and happy to be part of this exhibition. Now, let’s all put our energies to people purchasing our works! YES.

This blog is fun for me and hope it continues after the show. Would love to see some pix of the hanging in Bundaberg. I watched some of the Skyping, but only saw my pieces hanging WAY in the background. More, more. Thanks to Trudie and Jenny, of course. And thanks to Dave Sorensen who has been a great help to Adrienne in getting her settled and showing her the sites and hikes. Now, we all need to get back to work, right?

The Adrienne Saga continues

It was great seeing such a good turn out at Unsettled for the opening last night, meeting the newly joined artists and seeing some familiar legacy faces.  Good sales already!  Sorry I couldn’t hear anything on the link-up, but lovely to see my mates in Bundy!  Good fun getting to know Alex and wife Juliana over follow-up dinner with Adrienne at the historic Double Eagle in Mesilla.  For once I didn’t seem to be taking any pictures, alas.

 (In front of Chris’ painting, with Ron Saltzman, who runs a frame/art supply shop in Las Cruces.  Victoria to the left.)

This morning I introduced Adrienne to another coffee shop in town, Beck’s, run by the amazing Arianna Parsons (who also heads the entire downtown development effort!)  

(Adrienne wonders where all her Aussie dollars have evaporated with the exchange rate)

After fortification with some Sumatra roast, it was off to the Saturday Farmer’s Market on Main Street.  Adrienne got to meet several more artists, talked exotic Mexican Grass Tree minutia with the plant guy, grabbed a taco from one of the colorful food trucks that have become a downtown feature (this one with a cheesy Mexican wrestling theme), and said hi to the gang in Mas Art frame and art supply shop.  Then it was time again for business, so off to Unsettled for mid-day meets and greets.

Opening soon at a gallery near you

Everyone’s work looks so great at Unsettled Gallery and Studio, the salsa and corn chips are out, and the artists are heading in from all directions.
And mildly directionless, I almost headed for Albuquerque today during my first drive so there’s still some orientation to grapple with.

On a sunrise desert walk I found a wonderful yucca that will ‘explain’ my paintings back home in BRAG.

And saw a roadrunner actually road running, and a fantastic roadside sculpture of one perched high above Las Cruces. Add to that the amazing plant life, a few coyote prints and galloping jackrabbits with the worlds largest ears, and now rain is falling on the roof as a storm passes over. Rain in the desert – sigh.

haha, a social media find this morning….

Perfect since Dave Sorensen has been such a good host to Adrienne. Soon, though, she’ll be working. smiles

Will see both Dave and Adrienne and everyone tonight at the opening reception. Hopefully our Skype will work better than last year. I know Catherine at Unsettled has upgraded the digital stuff, so fingers crossed. It IS relatively rural New Mexico, though….

Welcome back, Adrienne!

Our traveling WBHD2 representative, Ms. Williams, arrived bleary-eyed but on schedule.  Her trusty chauffeur, yours truly, was most pleased to see her again.   After a pose by the world’s largest equestrian statue at the El Paso Airport (http://www.roadsideamerica.com/news/14011), I took her into the classic Camino Real Hotel lobby to see the world’s largest Tiffany stained glass sculpture.  Are you picking up on the Texas-is-big theme here?

  

The Bundaberg Ginger Beer welcome was nice, but some additional stimulants in the form of habanero chile fish tacos and margarita provided strength for an abbreviated tour of the South Mesilla Valley back roads en route to Las Cruces.  Got her checked in with Catherine at Unsettled Gallery (artwork mostly displayed and looking fantastic), who took her to the residency apartment and a food stock-up.  I then rejoined Adrienne for a proper re-welcome to the high desert in the form of a sunset vista of the Organ Mountains, complete with savories and sundowner beverages.  All to the tune of heavy gunfire by local redneck yabbos at the makeshift shooting gallery in the arroyo canyon below.  Such is New Mexico.

This morning, on the official opening of WBHD2, Adrienne proved game enough for a first hike in the desert, to reset her bio-clock with dawn sunshine.  We explored the badlands area of colored arroyos and bluffs west of Picacho Peak volcano, on the west side of the city.  The wildflowers were in fine form, among jackrabbits running amok, tarantula killer wasps lumbering by, and plenty of coyote trails in the sand.  This was my first foray to a surprisingly substantial and architecturally ornate dam further up the box canyon, which held a sizable billabong flood from recent rains.

As we bush-bashed our way back out to the main road, a roadrunner dashed across our path, in full living-dinosaur glory.  That was a fitting lead-up to the nearby highway rest area, which has a massive roadrunner statue, all made of recycled materials (guitars, crutches, sneakers/runners, etc.)  Look closely at the second view to find little Adrienne, for accurate scale, as opposed to the trick shot after.

A coffee and scone at The Bean coffee shop in Mesilla capped the morning.  Our sights are now set on tomorrow’s going opening reception.  See you then!