Wednesday, October 6, 2010

MAANZ Opening Looms

D-Day - tomorrow is the opening of the MAANZ Exhibition and I have to say I am excited. I have been designated Catering Queen and although I have conscripted some secret helpers there is a lot to do. Everyone is putting time into the coordinating and organising and it is all coming together beautifully so I think we will be proud of the opening once we survive it. Smiles.

Wednesday, September 29, 2010

Count down!

Am on the final leg of preparation of my work for the MAANZ Queensland Branch Exhibition. Whew! Am really pleased with how my artwork is developing. Now have company in the studio as I work - found a cockatiel at the dog park so he is living in until I find his family or allow sufficient time to rehome him. Either way it is good - I have a friend who speaks "bird" who will be delighted to have him join her aviary. Smiles.

Monday, September 13, 2010

Sunday, September 12, 2010

Pushing it




While I am still pushing it to get my piece finished for the MAANZ show (the bane of full time work in another field!) I thought I would share other pieces finished in the last few months. Thank goodness we have a good number of public holidays in Australia. It is amazing how much mosaic you can do in a long weekend.
Hope you enjoy these little birds - the Baby Brown Owl is my Lanour Day long weekend effort and the Red Capped Blue Bird came about over Easter this year.

Thursday, September 9, 2010

MAANZ Dog


It amazes me how mosaic still provides a challenge at the most unexpected times. The QLD members of MAANZ got together recently for a mosaic working bee - the challenge being to create a piece 15cm square for contribution to the sign for the forthcoming exhibition at Percolator Gallery. Not only, was the method of working different to my usual style, but I was really out of my comfort zone once I realised that I had prepared my work surface omitting to include a drawing to follow. So, no comfort zone and flying blind....not my usual style....but with the support and shared laughter of friends this is the outcome of my efforts on the day. Brownie points for those of you who can guess what this little dog started out as! Hope you enjoy it!
Don't forget to call in at Percolator on La Trobe Terrace Paddington between 6 and 17 October.

Sunday, May 9, 2010

Green Man unveiled


This is the man of the moment.... finally got around to getting photos of the piece I was working on as a result of attending the plaster wrap workshop with Karen Ami (President of Society of American Mosaic Artists - SAMA) at the symposium in October in Brisbane. He started life as a cap – has now been turned on his end to make a mask like structure.

He is a tribute to Cleo Mussi – I love her work….and this guy is very much in her style. At least I think so, she might not agree. As for my brother, I was so touched. He sent a magazine article up to me that he saw in a magazine with a hand written note saying how much better my mosaic was. The artist in the article was none other than Cleo Mussi. I couldn’t agree with him but was stunned that he took the time to tell me.

Anyway, am now working on my next sculptural piece. She started life as a toy and has now developed into a pink piece of frou frou her name is “Pink Boo”. Stay tuned for images.

Art in the Olives

Spent an amazing day at the Art in the Olives celebration in the Lost World Valley just outside of Beaudesert yesterday. It was a truly wonderful day, with perfect weather, lots of happy Mums and children everywhere. Spent the best part of the day talking about mosaics - the how and whys and just sharing the love of it with lots of interested people. The Queensland MAANZ group got together and compined product to stock a beautiful display of mosaic art. A slow trickle of sales kept us busy during the day, with some funds going to the October Exhibition Fund, and additional contributions coming in for the Breats Cancer Association of QLD fundraiser also. Pretty good effort all things considered.

Was able to unveil my Easter long week end "Red capped blue bird" and the Labour Day long week end "Baby Brown Owl". Lots of positive comments on both pieces which makes my heart happy. Funny thing is that everyone that saw the little bird said "Ooh - look at the cute little chicken". Given I had started out on the piece and specifically put away the chicken colours when I realised that yes, yet again a chicken was in the making, I find this interesting. My conscious decision to not create a chicken seems to have inspired a bird reminiscent of a chicken. Let me know what you think - will post images as soon as I can...am awaiting receipt of images any day now. Until then - smiles and happy mosaic mayhem.