home movies

In four years of blogging I've never been a frequent poster, but I rarely take long breaks. When I'm working in the studio the regular access to my laptop, availability of images for posting and time for reflection have tended to step up the frequency of posts. I have the mind space to compose in my head. Since the family got heavily involved in our junior Australian Football league a few years back, though, March through June have been frantically busy periods. Greg coaches and manages the league's umpires which takes about 10 hours of work a week (for both), Carl both plays and umps and Adam plays. I am the league's registrar plus I have to play the role of keeping everyone here fed and chauffered for games/practices/clinics, etc. Add to that this year's big purge/reorg, a dog to train and take to class, kids in plays and concerts, a needy father in a nursing home across the city, plus extra professional activities (jurying the big local annual exhibition and hanging a small solo show of my own, plus endless hassles getting the work framed/shipped to the mini solo show I'm having in the Rockies) has meant that painting has taken a back seat and blogging is almost non-existent, including visiting my favourite blogs. So far I'm staying on track without imploding, and regular five-minute visits to Facebook have kept me from complete pc withdrawal.

There. Big moan over. Actually, I'm really enjoying the pace of life these days, though I'm also glad that the end of June means I get a break and can start painting again. If I haven't forgotten how, that is.

So, without any insight on any matters creative these days, I give you photos. Home movies as it were.

Here's a glimpse of a section of the small solo show I'm having at Gallery North here in North Delta. Yes, it's in display cases. Yes, a rec centre probably isn't a destination for art enthusiasts. Nemmer mine; it's something for the CV. When Ellen next visits I'll have to get some photos of the show at the Firehall Centre for the Arts that I juried. This painting (not quite finished here) won the big award of the night.

The focus has been on the home front anyway ... as in 'grown up' furniture! After an endless succession of hand- me-downs we bought two new sofas on sale at IKEA (we cheapskates die hard).

We tossed the pathetic excuse we had for a futon (who keeps a futon for 16 years anyway?), moved the cat-thrashed leather sofa into our family room and got an awesome faux Persian rug to replace the old one. Why awesome? It hides EVERYTHING -- especially the armies of black dog hair that roam the house, looking for victims.


But the best part of the spring cleaning (for me) has been the re-organization of my basement studio. Check out the handsome rug ornament with his crushed but beloved empty 4L milk jug.

Finally, knowing that my enthusiastic black shadow with the drool isssues will be leaving soon, I have been looking to adopt a rescue dog. I won't say anything yet as she's still a few weeks away, but check out the wild-looking beast below. By the way, Laure Ferlita over at Painted Thoughts took a shine to this photo of Jesse and created a stunning watercolour portrait of him. Check it out here and look back at the work-in-progress in previous posts. It's fascinating to watch her process.

Now, I have a spreadsheet to update and a child or two to drive to footy practice. Back when I catch my breath!