Sunset Roadkill & Hubcap

Well, you never know just what is around the corner and just the other day, I was invited to participate in a Landfill Arts Project in USA......

Being the serious artist that I am, I just couldn't resist to take a few moments rest from myself and put together a painted hubcap.

Scrambling around the junkyard was inspiring in itself....amazing array of stuff there.....sculptureal! Finding a great Thunderbird hubcap (must be a classic!) I eagerly paid my $5 and headed home to the studio.

I have to say i was fun...and now today, it is finished and I've made a little video of it in progress.....background music courtesy of Four Second Fuse (my son's band!).......semmed to fit....."gotta make it in time!"

Hope you enjoy it!

An Amazing Afternoon! Where there's smoke, there's fire!

This afternoon, my neighbour nearly burnt our block of units down! Yes! Really!

It has brought home to me the importance of insurance....you know, as artists, we're all a bit laid back, but if the fire in No 2 had escaped, if I hadn't responded to my neighbours telling me his flat had smoke pouring out of it, if I hadn't seen him working at the pub lat last night and realised that he was still sound asleep in his bedroom etc etc....then all my artworks could have been gone, finished, done with now.......

A survey of 25 years of work waiting for the next exhibition at the Orange Regional Gallery sometime in the next 12 months......

How would I have replaced them......I wouldn't of course as they are singular items, not reproducable ... my techniques aren't replicable nor my inspired moments......so hmmm.....might rethink that insurance thingey......



My afternoon spent sorting out all that stuff we artists make art out of........isn't it interesting how inspired one becomes when sorting paints, liquids, picklers, applicators etc.......there's some great little colours there that are just begging me to get going with the brush again......

next time....what I'm up to at the moment! It's pretty cool!

nJoy

Getting into the Flow!

My dear friend Jola sent me to Ted.com where I found this great little video for all of us wanting to live a happy life in the 'flow'!

Losses in the Art Market!

In these astounding times, auction houses such as Sotheby's (US) are posting losses against guaranteed sales.....what does that mean?

Basically, if you are a seller, Sotheby's guarantees a selling price at auction for you (this is only for some, not all).....

As an artist, to me it still feels like gambling........I have never been privy to the prices that Damien Hirst gets, nor do I think I would get those prices, but nonetheless, my artworks have risen steadily in value over the years, they don't rise and fall like the stock market or auction houses, and sales are always about the same year after year......owners of my paintings can usually get back their money if they do decide to auction, although most choose to keep their work as far as I can tell.

You know, we don't muck about gambling with our work, but just enjoy creating mostly beautiful works that sell to a market.......

It seems to me time to be honest about values and not let things get out of hand as they have as the 'greed principle' of late has led to a lot of speculation in not only houses and shares, but all sorts of 'goods'.......time for a wake-up call has come.......

This last exhibition of mine sold well, and at the right market price.......still I'll never be a millionaire! but I am happy with my lot as are most of my artist friends!

So keep on painting.....I don't think Sotheby's making a loss (or the stockmarket being shaky) is really going to affect us much out here in regional Oz!

Happy painting!

nJoy

Art Class for Forbes

Hi everyone,

Well I've been flat out of late doing this and that so I haven't been back to my blog.....so much has happened and some will necessarily have to miss out.

Last weekend though, we had a lot of laughs and a great day at the Forbes Art Society's rooms learning all about perspective (what blokes know, bt we gals missed out on!) and an overview of some watercolour techniques to finish off each days' work with fun!

We splashed about and the results were pretty good! From the photos, the class seemed to be pretty intrigued with their watercolours....specialty for the day was creating 'hard edges' where you want them to be!


Next workshop will be with Robyn Ross in Orange.....Nov 8 & 9.......Don't forget!

ciao

nJoy