Twenty One Again

Celebrated another anniversary of my 21st birthday on Tuesday. I thought I'd spend a quiet day working but a couple of friends rang in the morning and Glenys popped in for a while in the late afternoon bearing antique gold paint amongst other goodies. I'd just said goodbye to her when I had another phone call and then my brother and his wife arrived with a combined birthday/Christmas present- a new printer to replace my hysterical misbehaving one. It was the first time I'd seen Rich or Diane in over five months so it was quite a big thing that he'd made the effort to drive out when he is still feeling so ill. After a late rice meal and internetting during the evening I finished up by making silver wire findings for pendants before going to bed near midnight.


Next morning I was all prepared for art early and waiting out on the roadside when Glenys and Marie S drove up. Marie gave me a beautiful bunch of roses from her garden which I carried down to Otane with me. Although we were the first to arrive it wasn't long before a few others wandered in. While the door was open into the corridor I was shocked to see an old friend standing there. She was equally shocked to see me there as she'd brought her grandson to take part in the Otane School sports day and had just wandered over to look at the building. As I hadn't seen or heard from her for three and a half years there was quite a bit to catch up on.

Mid morning Marie N came in and then disappeared again. A while later I heard the door open and glanced up to see Marie's grand daughter Toni holding a chocolate birthday cake with three candles blazing away (thankfully not relating to my real age otherwise the building would have burnt down). I must have been in shock as it was the first time I didn't disappear under the table when Happy Birthday was sung. Everyone got a slice of the deliciousness but there was enough left over to bring home thankfully. Toni had cooked the cake herself so it looks like she has inherited her grandmother's culinary witchery. I remember the last cake I baked- it sloped down one end and was burnt and raw all at the same time and not where you'd expect either.

Friday (20th Nov)was my first time back at portraiture in a few weeks. Glenys came at 8.30am so she could photograph some of the red poppies flowering in the garden before we headed to Waipawa to drop off a box of my jewellery and soaps etc. plus an awkward stand at the home of someone who works for Creative Hastings and would take everything to the gallery before the sale starts next week. Our model for the portrait session was a Japanese girl which brought its own challenges but she was so beautiful and with such a giggly personality the morning passed extremely quickly. Afterwards she walked about and took photos of some of our drawings including this one which she photographed several times including one closeup. Hopefully this meant she wasn't too insulted.

To Otane And Back And Back

Otane Arts and Crafts Corner Open Weekend (7th-8th Nov)came up before I knew what had happened. I decided not to go on Saturday so I could stay home and work. Mid morning I received a desperate message from Glenys that she was on her own and the tables and model's plinth hadn't been cleared away but fortunately someone from the Wool Group helped her set up and tidy the room. By 10.30am a couple of our group had arrived to work but apparently there weren't many people coming through and the day was very slow. However one really lovely thing happened when my Hong Kong Horror sold to someone who worked at Cranford Hospice in Hastings. Apparently one of her patients had complained that there were no paintings featuring boats so she bought my picture to pin up in his room. After he passes away she is having it framed. An amazing result considering how much I disliked that pastel (I only marked it for $10 because I thought so little of it).

Sunday morning Glenys collected me early (before 9am) so we ended up being the first to arrive for the day. I set up at a table and began a long session of painting soaps (exciting- not). A reporter from "Hawkes Bay Today" was walking about when suddenly he got on his knees and began taking some close up photographs of me working. Fortunately I don't think these will ever see the light of day..

The biggest excitement of the day was when two swallows flew into the hallway. One flew straight back out the front door again but the other managed to concuss itself on a window and confused flew into our room. We opened the large sash windows but the poor bird didn't seem to realise how to get out and ended sitting on an electric light cord. After an hour of gradually turning into an ice block I grabbed a long pole (no double entendre intended) and encouraged the bird to fly around until it managed to fall between the glass panes of a window where our tallest painter present climbed up, dropped an apron onto it and then set it free to general jubilation.

By the time 4pm arrived and despite catching up with a couple of people I hadn't been in contact with for years, Glenys and I were staring tiredly across an empty room waiting until we could decently pack up and leave. Not being punished enough we were back at Otane on Monday afternoon for a committee meeting. Meetings aren't my favourite thing and when you get excited about the smelly gent's toilet being fixed you know that you have hit rock bottom ('scuse the pun). "And God so loved the world he didn't send a committee".

Wednesday I was back at Otane again for our art morning. Gay and I were the first there so she set up the plastic covers over the tables while I set up the tea trolley and boiled the kettle. Only eight people turned up but despite this we had some animated conversations including one concerning the article one of our nude models had written about our Life Painting Workshop which had been published in the Central Hawkes Bay Mail the previous day. General consensus was that we were very glad that it hadn't been published before Glenys and I had gone to the committee meeting.

Life Painting Workshop

The long awaited Life Painting Workshop with Wellington artist Rosemary Stokell took place last weekend. I was a bit worried that I wouldn't be able to cope physically with such a full on couple of days so took it easy on the Friday before, only making sure that I had gathered the list of materials I was meant to take prepared and ready in a box.

Saturday morning Glenys and I headed to Otane early but even so we arrived after most of the others in the group. Our art room had been turned into a temporary gallery with examples of the nude painted in a variety of styles by the masters. We were going to be working with two models who usually come along to pose for us on our Friday mornings except this time they had brought along their camper van and were staying nearby.

Rosemary began with a series of two minute poses in graphite to warm us up. We then moved on to charcoal for the longer poses. While we were working she walked about and offered advice and comments on foreshortening etc. Before we knew it morning tea time had arrived. Then more drawing for ninety minutes (including some hilarious "blind drawing" exercises which turned the models into Picasso wannabees) before a shared lunch and then two and a half more hours concentrating on turning a pose into an abstract work in charcoal. This was my first experience working with a blending stump as I usually muddle through with my fingers making a happy mess. However I was really impressed with how sharply you could blend with it and will definitely use it from now on. Then we began working in colour, drawing a pose with both models before selecting two complementary colours and applying and blending these on the paper. This was a toughie for me as the acrylics were drying so quickly there was a strong line between the shades rather than a soft graduation. For once I longed to work with watercolours.

The next day (Sunday) I woke up tied in knots but sat with wheat packs on the sorest muscles before we returned to Otane. Our day's first task was to trace the abstract charcoal we began on Saturday onto a longish canvas before painting each section with a graduating tone of a single colour. I had a hell of a job getting the acrylics to blend again but Rosemary showed me how to use two brushes and work with water in order to achieve the desired effect. I still have a long way to go with this but it is definitely an avenue I want to explore.

After an hour spent on this exercise we had smoko before having a very fun time trying to draw with ink dipped sticks on paper on the floor. The monstrous effects were extremely fresh and spontaneous with even the more experienced artists having a bit of a struggle. We hung our drawings on the wall and admired each others attempts, having a giggle before grabbing a plate of food and sitting outside in the sun for some time out.

Rosemary had brought along a selection of her paintings which she lined up along the hallway explaining how she painted them and what had inspired her. For me though the most mind blowing things she showed us were her visual diaries. I have kept a couple over the last two years but they were nothing compared to what she showed us. Books filled with amazing ink drawings done on site in European churches interspersed with postcards, exhibition fliers and other sentimental keepsakes. My resolution became to find a smaller diary and keep it in my purse so I can draw when I'm out and about.

That afternoon we began working on projects we wanted to develop. A few of us wanted to learn how to paint flesh colours so Rosemary demonstrated before posing the models so we could paint from life. I had prepared a MDF board with gesso and began painting in the colours, firstly tentatively, but later more painterly with Rosemary's encouragement. Before I knew it the workshop was over and it was time to pack up and go home but before we left we each showed our best work and talked about what we'd each taken away from the weekend.

I came away totally inspired from the workshop, especially from seeing Rosemary's work. It made me realise how much I'd missed out on with having such useless art teachers at school. It has also made me long for yet another workshop with Rosemary pushing me out of my comfort zone and I know I'm not the only one to feel this way. Nude painting rocks!

Sunburn and Carpet Burn

The Otane Arts and Crafts building was getting its floors scrubbed and sealed this week which meant that we couldn't use our art room as usual. Instead we were invited to sketch in the lovely garden of one of our Tikokino members, Marie S. We didn't know if we'd even be able to go as the day before was cold and rainy but yesterday dawned a beautiful sunny day, almost as if it were actually Spring.

Glenys and I arrived early since we only live five minutes away. Marie gave us both a tour of the old house which has been extensively renovated over the years. There were many original features left including lovely woodwork and an interesting old black stove. By the time we made our way back into the kitchen a couple others had arrived so we sat in the sun on the veranda having morning tea. Then Marie and I went around outside before I finally decided to sit out in a paddock to draw an old petrol pump and shed. Well I sort of sketched, mainly I talked to the sheep, took photos and annoyed the others as usual.

Working outside has its own challenges. The brightness of the sun shining on your sketch pad so you can't see properly, the heat, the cold, wind whipping your paper away over the field, having to avoid sheep poo etc. On the other hand it's fun to be in the fresh air and the art created can be fresh and spontaneous.

Arriving home after doing practically no work whatsoever I had a rest, fed the animals and as the afternoon wound down decided to have a bath before I heated up dinner in the microwave. At the risk of providing too much information this cottage has a lot of windows but being in the country you don't have net curtains as there aren't houses invading your privacy. As my bathroom is pretty narrow I usually undress in my bedroom and scoot through the kitchen/dining room into the bathroom in my grundies. I am always extremely careful on coming out that I stick my head out of the bathroom door to check the coast is clear, that no cars are coming down the road, and no one is in the paddock at the front before making a dash for the bedroom.

Well it had to happen some time. I stuck my head out, checked no one was there and rushed out in my undies although I decided to make a quick detour to programme the microwave to cook my stuffed spud. However when I turned round I saw the lawn mower man striding towards my front door. The dog was in the way so I had to go around the dining room table and across the GLASS front door before racing into my room and throwing myself down behind the bed. The dog was going ballistic by this time as the guy was at the door. I'd only met him the day before when he came to give me a quote to mow the lawns and then promised he'd drop it into my place "sometime tomorrow".

I waited for him to leave but the dog kept on barking. I raised my head slightly above the bed but couldn't see him so grabbed my tee shirt and lay down to put it on. I then reached up to grab my stockings and wiggled my way into them before grabbing my skirt and shimming into this all the while getting carpet burns. Mishka was still barking so I knew there was no way to avoid the inevitable so went casually to the front door and tried to look as if I had just been having a lie down. The guy handed me an envelope and made some polite conversation but I am sure as he walked away he was smirking. I guess from now on I will have to think of him not as a stranger but more as an intimate friend.

How To Insult Models and Influence People

I have been in a complete art funk the past week or so since my mojo upped and went on holiday. Anything I've worked on has only been useful for wiping up cat accidents. However I was feeling a bit more optimistic this morning, especially when I learned that our model was from Egypt. Sure enough Sayd (Said, Saed or Sayed etc.) talked, looked, and even walked like an Egyptian. However his sense of humour was very Kiwi. Well I hope he was joking when he looked at my drawings and asked if I worked for Jenny Craig because was he really that fat?

It Turned Out Ok In The End

No matter how prepared and organised I try to be I usually manage to fall at the last fence. Last night I packed my basket for portraiture but on arriving this morning discovered I'd left all my pencils, charcoal etc. at home. Fortunately Glenys lent me a 4B and also a Conte pencil so I could continue. Our model was Megan who modelled for us the first year I began at portraiture (she is the grand daughter of one of our members) but I still got a shock to see how much she'd grown up since then. Her younger brother had also come along and spent his time trying to make her laugh or else drawing her as a monster, sometimes with "appendages". Sex education at schools has a lot to answer for.

Being Arty In A Recession

Have begun working on stock for Christmas markets in the hope that I won't be painting frantically at the last moment. Of course I say this every year and every year I end up in a mad panic as I run out of time. I did hear about last Saturday's fair at St Mary's while at art group yesterday morning. I sold eight out of ten hand painted soaps, three out of six cat brooches and ten out of eighteen cards which made it one of my most successful events. Unfortunately the cash is nearly all gone on meds, rabbit food, the farrier for the donkey and I have put some aside for new paint brushes since so many of my small ones have gone to the great art shop in the sky.

At the moment I am reading a book about some of New Zealand's well known crafts people. It is interesting how so many of them had to reassess their businesses after the stock market crash in 1987 which saw the sales of arts and crafts plummet. I think this current recession has caused us all to think small in order to achieve sales. There is a large gulf between a bread and butter line which pays the bills and the more esoteric experimental exhibition work we do. Sometimes you have to think about what people actually want when the economy is slow. Often they're only looking for something practical they can use rather than something merely decorative to be hung on the wall.

In the gift line people don't think too much about spending $5 or under but begin thinking a bit more at $10 and hesitate at $20. It is hard to compete against the Chinese imports sold at the big chain stores but people do appreciate buying something of better quality, especially if they can find out a little about the person who made it. That's why it's good to meet your buyers so they can see the face behind the art(craft)work. Basically in hard economic times the way to work your way through it is to think outside the square, to market yourself as a brand and to have a Chinese money plant sitting outside your front door and water it nearly every day to encourage cash to come your way.