Gallery Girl strikes again!

Hi everyone...anyone?  Well, I guess that answers the questions of why we write, paint, create...because we CAN!  not for the audience, but simply because we were born to do it.
So here I am again at Gallery One, surrounded by exquisite art work and listening to spanish music.  I have been surfing the web to find gorgeous hand made jewellery, art and other pieces for St Barts', our lifestyle store here at Ferry Road markets.   It certainly is shopping - even if it is just the virtual variety - for lovely hand madey things!  I have been browsing in ETSY.COM ...aaahhh and have just discovered www.artisan.org.au for all kinds of stunning hand made in BRISBANE art pieces, jewellery etc...check it out!

Gallery Girl

Today, once again, I am at the beautiful Gallery One at Bundall, indulging my love of ART and being paid for it! Sometimes I pinch myself that I get to paint, or discuss art, or sell gorgeous paintings all day, and that is my job. I am privileged to have such an awesome job. Don't tell my boss, but I would volunteer for this!! hahaha....no really, keep paying me...please...

Right now I am looking at an exquisite group of landscapes by Katherine Boland, and some dramatic abstracts by Conchita Carambano, and Jonathon Hayde's latest paintings have everything you'd expect from his intricate collection of images, but there is something more in these...layer upon layer of shapes and colours placed in the most interesting but harmonious ways. All of these works could be hung in the latest restaurant or in the most relaxing resort... that adaptability is an amazing quality of abstracts...

If I lived in Paris...

My Photograph - Pont Neuf at Night - taken in Paris in 2006

If I lived in Paris...I would go to Ladurée Champs Elysées tonight for dessert!

I would have peppermint tea and macarrons...

http://www.laduree.fr/



Then I would stroll down to the Grand Palais and across Pont Alexander III and watch the monuments light up one by one across Paris.

What Have YOU Done?

What Have YOU Done?

This is pretty fun. TAG if you are reading this!
(Thanks for the fun ideathe Jensens Blog)

To participate, just copy and paste in your own blog, and bold all of the things you have done.

1. Started your own blog
2. Slept under the stars
3. Played in a band
4. Visited Hawaii
5. Watched a meteor shower
6. Given more than you can afford to charity
7. Been to Disneyland
8. Climbed a mountain
9. Held a praying mantis
10. Sang a solo
11. Bungee jumped
12. Visited Paris
13. Watched a lightning storm at sea
14. Taught yourself an art from scratch
15. Adopted a child (no, but I was adopted!)
16. Had food poisoning
17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty (no, but I walked to the 2nd stage of the Eiffel Tower!!
18. Grown your own vegetables
19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France
20. Slept on an overnight train
21. Had a pillow fight
22. Hitch hiked
23. Taken a sick day when you’re not ill (my child was, so I guess it doesn't count!)
24. Built a snow fort
25. Held a lamb
26. Gone skinny dipping
27. Run a Marathon
28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice
29. Seen a total eclipse
30. Watched a sunrise or sunset
31. Hit a home run
32. Been on a cruise
33. Seen Niagara Falls in person
34. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors
35. Seen an Amish community
36. Taught yourself a new language
37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied
38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person
39. Gone rock climbing
40. Seen Michelangelo’s David
41. Sung karaoke (in Japan and Thailand!)
42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt
43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant
44. Visited Africa (does Egypt count?)
45. Walked on a beach by moonlight
46. Been transported in an ambulance
47. Had your portrait painted
48. Gone deep sea fishing
49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person
50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris
51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling
52. Kissed in the rain
53. Played in the mud
54. Gone to a drive-in theater
55. Been in a movie (been on TV though!)
56. Visited the Great Wall of China
57. Started a business
58. Taken a martial arts class
59. Visited Russia
60. Served at a soup kitchen
61. Sold Girl Scout Cookies
62. Gone whale watching
63. Got flowers for no reason
64. Donated blood, platelets or plasma
65. Gone sky diving
66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp
67. Bounced a cheque
68. Flown in a helicopter
69. Saved a favorite childhood toy
70. been snow skiing
71. Eaten Caviar
72. Pieced a quilt
73. Stood in Times Square
74. Toured the Everglades
75. Been fired from a job
76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London
77. Broken a bone
78. Been on a speeding motorcycle
79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person
80. Published a book (written but not yet published!)
81. Visited the Vatican
82. Bought a brand new car
83. Walked in Jerusalem
84. Had your picture in the newspaper
85. Read the entire Bible (waiting for the movie to come out;)
86. Visited Canberra (parliament house)
87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating
88. Had chickenpox
89. Saved someone’s life (got my child to the hospital in time so someone else could!)
90. Sat on a jury
91. Met someone famous
92. Joined a book club
93. Lost a loved one
94. Had a baby
95. Seen the Alamo in person
96. Been to the Great Barrier Reef
97. Been involved in a law suit
98. Owned a cell phone
99. Been stung by a bee
100. Seen Mount Rushmore in person
101. Learned to play an instrument (then promptly forgot again once I passed the exam!)

so there it is! I changed a couple of things to be more Aussie:)

Today.... if I lived in Paris, France... I would visit the Musee D'Orsay. While I love the Louvre, and the Orangerie is my favourite gallery in Paris, I haven't visited the Musee D'Orsay since 1994. I have no idea why we didn't go there in 2006. My son would have loved it, since it was originally a train station!

If I visited the Musee D'Orsay today, I would make a beeline for the Manet's Olympia (pictured above, picture borrowed from the Musee D'Orsay website - what an amazing site - almost as good as being there....)

Today there is a concert of Brahms, Mendlesohn and Reger to complement an exhibition of Gerome's paintings. It's amazing to think that the tide turned so dramatically against the academic painters as soon as the art establishment and the wider community realised that the Impressionists et al were the future....interesting!

MUSEE D'ORSAY website --- http://www.musee-orsay.fr/en/visits/welcome.html

I read Ross King's THE JUDGEMENT OF PARIS recently and the last chapter talks about the rejection of the academic art in favour of the avant garde. Perhaps now the art community and art critics are so prepared to accept anything as art...sure an upturned urinal is art...sure a shark in a tank is art....sure an unmade bed is art....because they are dead scared of turning their noses up at the next Manet (will there ever be another?) that EVERYTHING is the next big thing. Incidentally I read Tracey Emin's book 'Strangeland' recently and now I understand her work a whole lot better,,, especially the 'My Bed' installation that so impressed the Tate judges http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/turnerprize/history/1999.shtm

does art always have to be so controversial??

http://www.chasingmatisse.com/

Check out this amazing book and the wonderful website that accompanies it. Whenever I am feeling a little lost as an artist, I read James' book. He manages to say so many things that light up parts of my brain, the arty parts, but also the philosophy of why we are driven to paint.

I've been a complete goose!!

I can't quite believe I got so distracted from what I love about art. I travelled so far from the truth I almost couldn't find my way back. I was in the garage studio packing everything up because I need to paint the walls, and I thought, 'what if I never paint again' in a musing sort of way. It should have panicked me, made me feel sick, but it didn't. I was actually quite calm about that idea...

wrong, Christine, very, very wrong.

Where did I go wrong? I love my job - I get paid to paint! The income I earn there should free me up to paint waht I want at home...but I got to thinking that every painting I do at home has to sell, that every painting should preferably be sold before I start painting it. I swapped creativity for liquidity! passion for economy! my love for art was sold to the highest bidder! okay, enough with the drama!! So I have 2 paintings sitting on the easel that are sold, and just have to be finished off, varnished when the rain stops and hardware installed, and then I am free.

To quote my former teacher, Kevin Taylor, If every painting turns out the way you want it, then you are just not trying hard enough!