Sad.....

I've had Casey since she was about 10 months.......today she died at about 14.5 yrs, alone in the yard and I feel bad....

My Artwork in Print Sunday 16Oct early edition

I don't know if this will work for long but this was the on line version with the Kicka Kiwi article

http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/queensland/kick-a-kiwi-day-as-wallabies-take-on-all-blacks/story-e6freoof-1226167525507

omg omg omg!

So last night I painted with friends at a Virgin australia party and who sat down in fromt of me but Sir Richard Branson!!!! He was followed into the room by the masses who posed for photos with him, got autographs and generally made it hard to paint! But he was very gracious to all and I didn't even have to ask for a photo.

Once all the kids were done there was a bit of a run on adult tigers and I'm happy to say some waited for me to paint them as they liked mine best. I'm probably prouder of that than anything else!!

another Blog

I can't quite decide if I think these dolls are beautiful or not....but the artwork and costuming on them is just amazing....

http://www.enchanteddoll.com/blog/?p=2080

Enchanted Dolls by Marina Bychkove

Daylesford (Melbourne) Body Art Awards roundup

So I know my loyal reader that you've just been waiting to hear how my week away competing in the ABAA and attending the convention went.

Well....

Overall it was just wonderful, all these people in love with face & body painting and sharing all their knowledge and seeing amazing works of art being created

Shame about the actual located (- not ideal) and

Shame I was living on day&night flu tabs the whole time and

Shame more people didn't enter the comps....

Shame I unbelievably forgot my Camera ( & had to buy 1 in retravision, the only place in town that sold cameras)

But altho I was totally exhausted when I got home, I really had a great time.

 

First up was the 2 hour Face Paint - won by Qlder Ayesha. Her design was beautiful and I thought it was best too.

The next morning was the 5 min Face Paint - won by Qld Marion. Quite a simple design but nice.

These 2 lovely girls were in the Semi Pro Comp with me - neither had been in a comp before or barely painted a full body. (Unlike me who has entered & painted a whole 1 before!!!).

Yep you guessed it - Ayesha won and Marion came 2nd..... I did get the encouragement award (but was disapointed due to the lack of numbers in the category...)

above -Ayesha's winning work modelled by the wonderful Kelly.

 

Below my 'award winning' work modelled by the ever so pretty Tori.

 

In the evening after the comp the models got to perform on stage -

this was the Semi Pro and Professional body art pieces

(photo by Tim Tam Photography)

the next night was Special Effects and UV

(Robyn took this pic)

with some amazing UV work (this one by Clarke)

(pic by Bec Anthony)

Some of my looks during the convention...

And my try in the graffitti workshop.....  

Oh and I shared the cutest cottage with 8 other qld painters. It was full of lovely things (lots of white jugs!), nice furniture, had a fireplace and gorgeous terraced gardens. AND we all got on just fine (a few more days and that may have changed tho!).

Next up, back to Eumundi in May! 

the end is nigh

With only 2 days left of the summer school holidays I am breathing a sigh of relief altho I feel sad for the boys that their holiday was so stuck indoors due to all the rain. So many things we didn't get to do - even just park catchups were out of the question.

Today tho #1 is getting back into it with a birthday party at the local pool - which I'm not too thrilled about as his swimming still needs full supervision so I guess I'll have to get in too with *Boy in the shallows. I woul dhave normally passed this over to YD but (again) due to the rain, he's at work on this Saturday morning finishing up a fence at school.

Other jobs for today include haircuts and nail trims. I have all the boys books covered and in their bags so they'll be ready to go.


I've spent the past week working in the shcool uniform shop - my feet are killing me and as soon as I have some time off I'll be shopping in search of some comfy summer shoes. Not an easy task as the shops seem to be filled with super high or flatflat heels. It has been nice tho, I find I actually know a large portion of the school families, if not my name then by sight and its nice to welcome in the new families starting out. Am dreading the year my boys start high school tho - if we stay at this school the boys actually have more items of uniform than the girsl...that's not right is it?!!

11/12/13 January2011

After an inland tsunami devastated the mountain top town of Toowoomba and the horrific footage was shown around the world, the surge of water along with incessant rain headed for Brisbane....

At least we had warning.....

  

But yesterday morning we could only watch as our placid river turned into a broiling torrent....

pontoons, boats and debris were hurled into bridge supports and swept downriver.... 

and our river city slowly went under.... 

Its hard to conprehend how the river could raise up so much to invade places I've spent my life walking on/thru.... I mean its all quite a fair bit above the normal water level...... 

I find myself dragging myself away from the constant tv coverage as it just gets too sad..... but you just want to see what will happen next...

Brisbane is Australia's 3rd lasrgest city and the last major flood was in 1974. It has grown into a large city since then with so many more homes in the flood path....

It is hard to comprehend how this can happen in a modern city - but we are assured it all would have been so much worse had we not had the big Dam up river which is currently holding at something like 190% .... 

Locally out here in the 'burbs a 1/2 hour from the river we are high and drying out but 2 suburbs away they were dealing with the torrential rains resulting flows - barrelling across bridges, destroying roads and moving railroad tracks. It was quikly subsiding yesterday tho as the city river continued it rise.

Today the rain shines and a light wind blows.....more rain is forcast soon tho.....and those whose homes and businesses are under water can only wait til the water subsides til their clean ups can begin. 

Always someone shows humour tho! (in Newfarm)

(images mostly from Face Book page 'Fan photos from Brisbane Area Flood Photos & Info' altho some were taken by Jo 'Star' from the Bne City Council building while she was in at work yesterday.)

welcome 2011

Hope you bought in the doing something you enjoyed...I was sleeping soundly (didn't even hear 12 o'clock go by) which I did enjoy!

Today I tried out my ideas for February's Australian Body Art Awards....

 

I did this in around 4 hours I think - I'll have 6 at the awards - so if I can practice on a 'real body' I'll have a better idea of how much I can actually get done in the timeframe. Of course there's also that arms and legs and face to do too.

My torso isn't ideal to paint on (too shiney) and I have trouble blending colours so do a bit of imagining there...

but its good to have to plan everything out.

SO any ideas for arms...legs...face.....?

Just let me know!

Now my blurb about the piece....

the theme of the ABAA is ILLUSION.

When I started thinking of designs for illusion, I thought about the optical illusions I've always liked, like those pictures that can be viewed as a rabbit & a duck or a young & old woman. Looking for something new, I came across artist Sandro Del Prete and his 'Message of Love Dolpins' which I then used as a base for the back of my underwater design.

We so often have the illusion that our oceans are still pristine and edged with golden beaches, however,

looking further for underwater illusions I was confronted with the tragedy of turtles dying after eating - the illusion of jelly fish - plastic shopping bags which I have depicted on the front.

I'm learning that part of these competitions is all about how you interprete the theme, and how well you can then tell the judges about why you've painted what you have.....

I think this should stand up pretty well - I've gone from Illusions to a greenie save the turtles message!