Those Bees...

art. house. mum.

I have been looking out my kitchen window at the mass of basil going to seed at a rate of knots.  My friends tell me that it doesn't taste as sweet once it's gone to seed, so I've been reticent to make pesto for fear of it being too bitter...

But now I've been watching the bees.  We've had a bit of a slow bee season round here... not sure why... anyone?

Our pumpkins took ages to develop fruit, and I hear that we weren't the only ones.  

So it is with delight that I bring you these portraits of some of our little garden helpers... and trust me, I need all the help I can get in the garden...

Don't you love the way these bees have got their heads totally covered in the pollen... it's dirty work...  but they seem pretty happy doing it.

Thanks little workers.  I am just hoping now that the frosts hold off a little longer and our small crop has the chance to fatten up ready for... you guessed it, pumpkin soup... if we've got to have this cold weather, then we must have wholesome comfort food!

g

Cobblers Pegs!

art. house. mum.

Can you believe how beautiful these cobblers' pegs are?  Such a pain to get out of socks (I should know... I just went traipsing through a paddock of them...).  But don't they just break your heart.  All dead and spikey and just so charmingly delicate...

Like little dark fireworks on sticks. 

Have you had cobblers' pegs in your socks lately?  Any tips for getting them out?

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Who Is this Crazy Sculptor?

art. house. mum.

Have you seen this guy's work before?  I've fallen in love with these pieces.  They are crazy beautiful.  Tiny and unforgetable.  They look a bit like barbed wire sculputres, but if you hold them in your hand you realise how fragile they really are.  And you know where he displays them?  In a paddock!

He makes tonnes of them and just puts them out there.  Come hail or shine.  Whether anyone stops to notice or not.  And you can even take them with you if you want.  Kids can play with them.  And he likes it if you use them to inspire other artworks.

When they break or are broken they fall down and are absorbed into the soil... He uses 100% eco-friendly local recycleable fully sustainable materials.  And you know what else?  Every year he replaces them... unless someone builds a house in the paddock and starts mowing the grass every week. 

 I guess he respects people's wishes to put their own stamp on their little patch of ground.

I feel so lucky to have seen these sculptures.  I'm always keen to see this guy's work in a patch of undeveloped land...  Keep your eyes out too?

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Three Things... Oh FINALLY... Pumpkins!

art. house. mum.

Has anything self-seeded in your garden this year?

Plastic Fantastic...

art. house. mum.

Okay, so I know that plastic is very unfashionable.  And plastic toys just don't look as good in photos as wooden ones.  But seriously, some of our plastic toys are great.

Here's Miffy on one of the plastic cars which they were given by their Nana (she gives them great toys) for their first birthday.  Because we now have a sloping concrete driveway these cars have really clicked up a fair distance of travel over the past three and a half years.  And they've been pushed past what really should be their reasonable limits by kids who are way too big to think they could be fun.  But they just are fun!

And plastic bowls, cups and cutlery.  I can't imagine many stress-free dinners without them... let alone picnics...

Large plastic tubs for water play... priceless for tactile play, play cooking, breaking a bad mood, keeping hoards of kids busy... 

So, in this secret safe place I'm going to admit it.  

I'd find it hard to parent without plastic.

Something to do with Fabric Scraps...

art. house. mum.

I had some fabric left over from making the stretched fabric artwork for tickle the imagination.  It was too lovely to not use (duck over now and have a quick look at Thea and Sami's unique range of hand printed eco-friendly fabrics).  And my house is always in need of more order or places to hide the chaos.  So finally I got to it and made these.

You don't really need pattern for these... it is as simple as it should be... just like making a paper box... and then adding a top of binding to hide the edge (of course you could make them lined and hide your inside seams as well, but the Thea and Sami linen had enough body to look good without the extra effort).

And then there are the linen tea towels which were donated to my stash a good few months ago.  Not as sturdy, but still a nice way to hide a bit of mess.

So go on you, see what bits of lovely fabric you haven't had the heart to throw out...  why not make something that's useful, pretty, cheap, and easy peasy to sew...

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The the Races... Camels, that is

art. house. mum.

Camels are my favourite animals (after my children...)  I have always loved painting them, but it's been a while since I have. 

Most of my old camels were black ink on white canvas with no background.  So I was keen to try this old fella with a bit of a hazy outback backdrop.

The photo which I worked from was taken when a dear friend, a new friend from the States and I drove about twenty hours north west of here through some vast and beautiful landscape to the Boulia Camel Races.  What a blast.

Poor Anne from USA didn't know what she was in for when she agreed to that adventure... and there were times when her eyes gave away that she seriously doubted that she would make it out alive.  But I am glad to say that we delivered her back to civilisation healthy and fine with (I like to think) the start of an appreciation of what it is like in that massive part of Australia where there are no major cities, no beaches, no MacDonalds, and often no neighbors for miles...

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Postcard Education... William Robinson

art. house. mum.

William Robinson is a contemporary Queensland artist who is most famous for his unique landscapes.  His signature format is to have a circular horizon line (rather than the traditional straight line horizon) working up to a spot vanishing point in the middle of the painted surface. 

I bought these postcards at our local regional gallery a few years ago when a touring exhibition of his artworks came through.  I used them when tutoring kids art to talk firstly about the unique idea of a dot point horizon...

And the use of a sense of humour in art...

And just to encourage students to enjoy these paintings which seem to say so much about the artist as well as the subject.

I find these artworks incredibly welcoming.  Do you?

Three Things... A Walk at the Beach

art. house. mum.

Can you feel the sand between your toes?

Felt Board Bedtime Stories...

art. house. mum.

Is there anything more lovely than your kids playing nicely with each other?  Just maybe, it's our kids playing nicely with each other and their Dad playing with them. 

Sometimes it comes out of the blue... like when they are all tired as can be after dinner at the end of a long and full day.  This time they were playing with felt boards and characters.  I hate all the tiny pieces that go with these boards, but the imaginative play which they inspire is priceless.

The first time that we used thes boards maybe a year or so ago I told a few stories with them according to the themes of each kit.  My stories were, to use a technical term, Lame-O (with a capital L). 

But, "Oh Mum, can you tell it again?  Please?" 

Are you kidding, I'm nearly asleep from boredom... And the storyline lost any sense of "story" or "line" after the fairy picked a flower and flew through the rainbow... twice...

But this time, with a few months growth under our belts, I was (oh so thankfully) excused of any narratorial duties and the big kids relished being in charge of their own boards and storylines while Sammy was content to do his best on the carpet with his Dad and whatever pieces they could beg, borrow and steal from the others.

They say that play is one of the most important things that kids do and watching my little ones with their felt boards went another step to cementing this idea for me.  In play they have the chance to practice using ideas, words, phrases and even emotions.  They have the chance to include in thier storylines things which they have observed in life and the media, put it into a new setting, and see if it is still what they thought it was.  In this play, where they are the master storyteller (as opposed to shared play, where the storyline is worked out by a few playmates, or adult-directed play), I'm sure that they have the chance to process ideas which are a little to big to work out without a little abstraction, and they have the chance to think about a situation from a number of viewpoints.

At the end of a busy and social day, when I figured that the very best thing for them would be to shoo them striaght into bed, the kids inately knew that what they really needed was a little bit of debreif playtime.  And while they learn, I learn.  So very much.

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Pocket-sized Garden Inspiration

art. house. mum.

In this pocket sized garden there is character and colour.  I love the way these shells lined up on the oiled timber fence soften the space and seem to say that this is a space for children and young at heart. 

Given the sandy soil, the garden is predominently made up of succlents (barring, of course, the corner designated for veges and herbs).

I love the different size and shape of the leaves side-by-side.  And who cannot love a good agave?  Just look at those perfect scuptural leaves!

These leaves are like lovely bold brush strokes.  Do they inspire you?


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Contemplation...

art. house. mum.

This is an artwork which I started a few years ago.  It came out in the studio move and I had the chance to finish it. 

The background colours were applied with a small screenprinting squeegie and I thought that the big flat strokes contrasted nicely with the fine lines of the man.

Apparently it is hard to tell the stance of the man in the painting, and I imagine that that is even more true of the photograph.  So, in case it isn't making a lot of sense to you, it is a painting of a bush man sitting cross-legged... hence the foreshortening of the body as he leans forward on his knee. 

I hope that you had a lovely weekend and are refreshed to start the week...

Form and Function...

art. house. mum.

My parents have art and collectables in their home... some on the walls and some on tables and benches...

Most of it is personal and it is always nice to hear the stories.  This goregous bowl was thrown by a friend of Dad's when he was a young man.  Apparently she had it in a throw-out bin and Dad asked if he could keep it.  Glad he did.

And thses tennis raquets... well, I think that Mum and Dad were still using these when we were kids.  We used to sneak onto the courts at the local high school and have a hit as a family on a Saturday afternoon.  I think that my mum could still beat me...

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Three Things ...Banksia Tree

art. house. mum.

The humble banksia.  What a crazy and beautiful tree.  Again, these three images are from one tree on the same day.  

Aren't the forms and patterns in nature just wonderful?

Painting the Cubby...

art. house. mum.


So, this story really doesn't warrant too many words...  we came, we saw, we painted.

But I do feel that I need to point out a few things that allowed me (the mum... oh sometimes don't you wish for a role with a little less cleaning responsibilities...) to enjoy this exercise.  Firstly, my Mum was around.  She went and got tubs of water as requested, encouraged Sammy to paint the box (as opposed to himself, his sisters,the dog, the floor...), and most impressively supervised a string of baths.

Secondly, we painted in the shed.  On free second-hand carpet.  It is a little worse for the wear now.  But colour adds character, right?

And lastly, well, look at that face.  Who could get cranky at that face?  Okay, rhetorical question... he's our baby and he runs a high risk of being spoilt...

And even after clean up and baths I was still finishing up the dregs of paint which had been poured out and the big kids had a more subdued second round of ruining their clothes... but at least it was pyjamas (and princess shoes) the second time...

Thanks Mum, I did catch you shaking your head in dismay out of the corner of my eye a few times.  But us kids had so much fun painting this and your extra set of clean hands was what really kept it enjoyable.  

So charge your glasses and be upstanding... to Paint... and Cardboard Boxes... and Grandmas...

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Cardboard Cubby...

art. house. mum.

So, we bought the kids one of those cool cardboard cubbies.  It cost a bit more than we'd intended to spend, but at least they threw in a new dishwasher... (cymbal crash)

I've got to admit that I had hoped that we'd get more play time out of the basic cubby.  But apparently Sammy was the only one still small enough to think that long periods of time spent in a box with your siblings is great fun...

Stage two (after cutting out a door and windows with a Stanley knife) was decorating.  And that, as they say, is a whole other story!

It went downhill from here laundry-wise, but we did have a lot of fun... even me.

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Happy Easter

art. house. mum.

Wishing you and your family a very happy Easter.  My head seems out-of-whack with the season this year, so I'm thinking some quiet time with a Big Book is in order...

And then some reflecting on who I am and where I came from and where I'm going and what makes it worth the effort.  I wonder how you'd answer some of those questions?...  I'm guessing that for most of us Love has a lot to do with finding meaning.  With only my life as my reasearch, I'd conclude that Love is the best motivator and the best prize.  It is a fantastic identity marker and always leads to a good story...

And, well, you know what they say... "Greater Love has no man than this, that he lay down his life for his friends"...

Happy Easter, and may your Easter eggs be hidden in beautiful places!

g

More Lovely Grass...

art. house. mum.

And even at the beach, where there is so much beauty, grass plus light equals magic...

g