As you think, so you are. As you dream, so you become. As you create your wishes, so they create you. --Wendy Garrett

An artist worthy of the name should express all the truth of nature, not only the exterior truth, but also, and above all, the inner truth. --Auguste Rodin

Peta's Postcards

These were a shared effort with my daughter Monique

drawing them & myself colouring them in.

Round 2 - Nightmares & Round 3 - Exploring.

Enjoy them Peta -this was a one of,

with Monique quite happily drawing away one night here at the table together watching TV.

Round 2 - "Nightmares"

Round 3 - "Exploring"

Using felt pens is a medium I haven't used for a long time.
Since the colouring in days of Wiggles & Thomas the Tank Engine in my house.
I really enjoyed sending them off to you Peta.
Monique is very excited having them on our blog:)

My contribution to the November Challenge...

I decided that a photo of the 21 year old, whose party and celebrations have put my postcards on the back burner might be in order...It certainly feels like quite an accomplishment to have gotten him to 21 years! Definitely cause for celebration!

That terribly special party hat was a gift from his mates Grandmother - I've never seen anything like it! Not sure if I'm terribly isolated or she has unique shopping opportunities! Whichever, it was a lovely thought, and his adopted Granny thinks he's wonderful - don't we all need someone in our lives who think we're wonderful (whom we're not

related to)?!

I also have a photo of Rochelle's Completed Postcard: "Moving into stillness". I attached a piece of hand dyed scrim with Gel medium, dropped some seed beads into the wet gel and added a little glue gun squiggle which had been rubbed with gilding wax.

I'm liking the idea of a daily post (can we take it in turns?!) I'll be watching with interest what comes next!

A quote I like

"Creativity is not the finding of a thing, but the making something out of it after it is found" - James Russell Lowell (1819 - 1891)

This quote really resonates with me as I love finding 'things', I love old stuff and used stuff, I love ephemeral stuff....I really enjoy putting the 'things' I have found together and creating all sorts of 'things'....this way something that is old or discarded can be reborn into a new 'thing'....

I'm looking forward to reading others favourite quotes....and also seeing everyone's postcards as they are finished off....
take care, Peta

November Challenge for Collaborators !!!!!

A Post a Day - Be it a Quote, Photo's of Postcards or a Story to tell........

Themes......tell me your themes for Round 2 & 3 to update the Blog.

Any interesting websites or blogs you know about- even your wishlist for Christmas :)

Exciting Stuff. Oh.... 8 weeks and 3 days till Christmas.

Australia Post will tell you how many days :) hehehehe

Having Fun with ART

Kym :)

This is a Lagotto........

For Donna and other collaborators who may have read my post from last week about my daughter's breed of dog, this is 'Guiseppi' (Seppi, for short), he is much bigger than this now, he was under 6 months old when this photo was taken. Lagotto's originate from Italy and were bred to sniff out and dig up truffles, which are apparently quite a delicacy and very expensive......Seppi has a wool coat so he is a great dog to have indoors as he doesn't shed any hair, he does however need to be 'shorn' or be groomed very regularily!! Seppi is a dog with a lovely nature, he is fun and can be lazy, he loves his food, (what Italian doesn't!!) Seppi seems to think he is a person, he loves swimming and is very intelligent.

Enough about the dogs in my family....how are you all??? How is your progress with your postcards....hopefully now with the school holidays over we can all get back into the swing of things and get on with our art!

Peta

Snapshots from Toad Hall

My two absolutely adorable grandchildren....Campbell and Scarlett. We had lots of fun, drawing chalk towns, making pirate maps, reading stories, having breakfast on the deck, catching grasshoppers and taking the dogs for lots of walks.....oh for those carefree days of childhood....it's simply delightful reliving them again through my grandchildren's eyes!

At Toad Hall we are up pretty early talking Sirius for a walk, so we often get to see some pretty spectacular sunrises over the Pacific Ocean. Over the past week we have also been looking after my mums Hungarian Pulli, 'Zelle', and my daughter Brooke's Italian Lagotto 'Guiseppi'...it has been a whole lot of fun walking 3 dogs on our 98 acres, 'seppi' loves water so he dives in for an early morning swim, with sirius on his heals, Zelle enjoys running after the two boys, but does not like to get wet!

hi there from donna

wishing everyone has their wishes come true!

i took this photo at the place where i used to play when i was a preschooler... north palm beach, sydney

this is 8 yr old Eli, my nephew and uncle to the little guy below.

which maks Koby my great nephew. isnt he gorgeous?! he is having a stretch. tomorrow i am hoping for a hold! he is 1 week old.

this is 'peter' who has been sitting here in mona vale sydney since the 1930's. today i went and talked to his carer maurie who was full of info about this beloved landmark. i remember my parents threatening my big brother and me with being left with him if we fought in the car! sadly he is now caged to protect him from vandals.

hi all, am writing from sydney! came down to visit family and house and pet sit holly (beagle)and jasper(cat) for my sister in law avril.

am staying near mona vale beach and it has been a lovely visit so far.

saw the dobell drawing prize and the newly discovered chinese buddahs at the AGNSW.

went and visited places to do with my first 5 years as it is closeby to where i am staying. things seem to have changed so much and am feeling a bit melancholy tonight.

thanks for taking the time to read. love donna

Share my weeks of excitement.

Camp parent last week of Term 3.

The week away was wonderful with whales just off Hervey Bay, dolphins & turtles all over the place. I got to feed "Greg the Groper" at Reefworld in Hervey Bay, one huge fish.

When we saw the whales in Hervey Bay, there was about 7 pods & there was 3 babies in those groups. Huge days & packed with lots of adventures for everyone. Went out in a glass bottom boat & had lunch on a island off Hervey Bay.
Went to Bundaberg and cruised down the Burnett River on the Ruby Belle...lots of history there.

Then went to the Bundy Ginger Beer Barrel. The ladies there were really friendly and the taste testing was really good too. (There are lots of different flavours). Lots of interactive resources for the kids to have a history lesson at the same time have fun. Game of Ten Pin bowling, I fell over playing (flat on my back) & got a strike at the same time. No one gave me CPR -just laughed at me.

Friday we were at Lady Musgrave Island,this place was excellent.
Just beautiful... So blue....blue....blue the colour and the weather was awesome.
Kids were great, I really enjoyed the sites & experiencing it all with my daughter Monique:)

Exciting News - Tuesday Ladies Tennis (23rd September. Breakup & Presentation)
I was presented the Norma Simms Memorial trophy @

Tennis for the Players Player for B Grade. What a surprise, I was so excited to be chosen by the players at Tuesday Ladies Tennis. We organised the trophy after Greg's Mum~ Norma, who passed away in 2000 from cancer. Norma loved her tennis & played for years with her children also when they were growing up. A Grade was presented to Barbara Wilson - long time friend of Norma's also, had to hold back the tears when the presenting was going on. Greg's sister Wendy was there also to do the presenting. The trophy has a special place at home on the the bookcase.

"Funtastic Acrylics" in Biloela last weekend with Jenni Kelly.
You may see some familiar faces in the photo's.

The 3 day workshop introduced fellow artists to some very creative ideas with acrylics. Artists were prepared to scrape, spray, fling,throw, roll and glaze PAINT, in other words "PLAY WITH ACRYLICS”, and leave the workshop with a greater understanding of acrylics and a new found confidence .
The work was very impressionistic to abstract - fun & exciting.
I'm creatively burnt-out now.

This is my abstract with sunflowers,(not finished)it was fun to produce this piece. We went on to do a lillypad & poppy scene and other artists worked on their favourite reference. Huge 3 days. Jenni was a great tutor and worked with the participants really well.

Throw in 2 weeks of school holidays and I think I've had a great month. Going off to the movies on Saturday with the family & put my parents on the plane for Perth.... 2 weeks tripping around the coast of WA. Gee what a hard life.
Our last BAVA workshop is on the 11th & 12th Oct, COLOUR with Sharon Muir & then Brigalow Arts Festival for that week. News on the postcards, well I hope to start on them when everyone goes but to school next week.Pull up for 3 or 4 months and chill with them. Take Care & have fun with your Art girls. Kym :)

Hello from Peta

Hello fellow collaborators......is there anyone out there????

Just thought I would post up this 'hello' to you all, I have noticed that there has been no movement on the blog since my last post ....so, how are you all??? for those of you that have school age children are you enjoying the holidays? are you surviving? is anyone away? has anyone been away and have now returned? I have had a few extra visitors, (two dogs, two children and one adult...) so have not got a lot done in my studio....however I will have a couple of days to 'play' at the end of this week....hooray!!!.....currently I'm working on a couple of Artist's Books about the Fitzroy River and it's plant and bird life, also a little about it's history....the book is mostly visual image (gelatine printing, collage and some machine sewing), there is also some text. I haven't started on the round three postcards that I have in my possession...... yet.

What has everyone been up to??? Has anyone had any time to do art work?

Have you noticed that Australia Post has put postage up to 55 cents for an ordinary letter or postcard, we'll all need to make sure we put this amount onto our postcards.........I do hope they are putting out some new stamps.......

I would love to hear from you all.......someone.......anyone there????........

Take Care, stay happy and keep creating!!!

Peta

Just thought I would say hi.....

I recently created this little 'matchbox' book to send to Adele Outteridge and her studio partner, Wim, in celebration of the 10th Birthday of their studio.....I used 3 matchboxes as well as pieces of my own prints, other papers and text....

The three little windows represent "The Studio Westend" (this is used on Adele and Wim's business cards). The two smaller matchboxes have small cutouts of clothing on top of vintage ledger papers.

I chose text from an old book to fit with the theme of 'celebration' and glued these onto each matchstick to create a story.

This was a lot of fun to create. From time to time I use a matchbox from my collection as a card or within a card, I just love their size and the interactivity they can provide to a viewer.

I have received some round three postcards! So am looking forward to getting stuck into creating again! I'd also love to see some more collaborators putting images of their completed cards up on the blog. Till next time I blog.....

Peta

Oops...

I really don't know what happened with that last post - it's all over the shop and not anything like it looked when I wrote it up - sorry about the odd looking nature of it.....I am quite ready to admit that it's probably user error...but I don't know what!!!!

Looking forward to the next installment from my fellow 'posties'!

I'm finally caught up!

"Control...or lack of it?" - Rochelle's card, began with a little picture of a very 'controlled' looking woman...with a definition of self control printed across her front, she has this "I'm smiling, but my teeth are gritted" look about her...made me think how much we simmer when we have to 'control' our tempers etc...when inside we rage...the photo of the burning hay shed seemed to fit perfectly! a bit of 'unravelled' scrim to represent the unravelling I often feel when things are slipping 'out of control'...and a little charm thingie that says 'Help Me!'

Here is Kristen's "Music" which was lots of fun, with a copy of a ticket and picture I took at a concert earlier in the year. The free machine stitched treble clefts are my favourite part!

My apologies for the back posting sideways...This is my third attempt and I've run out of patience!!! It's right way up and saved in the file...can't figure it out!! Hope everyone is having fun with their altering...Look forward to seeing what you've all been up to!

Tracey.

Round Two Postcards

Here is Lindesay's postcard - "Surprise!?" I went looking for a photo of this child (my middle son - now almsot 21) when he made me an unexpected cake on the kitchen floor with the entire contents of my pantry...but I found this photo in my search - figured I couldn't go past it!...The mermaid sticker in the top corner, I figured looked a bit surprising, and on the odd occasion that little boy behaved behaved like an angel, it was a complete shock!!! That was lots of fun (so was the little boy!!)

Kym's "Dragonflies"...The colours and texture of the card she sent were delicious...just needed to insect it up a bit, and we were away....

Finally, Peta's "Nightmares"...I couldn't resist those eyes again (the eyes of a child), some fabric that looks like matress ticking (to have the nightmares on), pages from an old book with a very scary looking cat and bear tearing one another to bits, and some nasty text...the whole thing really unsettles me, so I think it worked!

The address side of Kym's postcard....

And the same for Lindesay's....

Sorry Peta - your address side is still under construction.....

I've had lots of fun with these, now I just need to come up with a round three theme and some cards quick smart!

Looking forward to seeing what everyone else is up to!

Have fun!

Tracey.

And still more.......

The photos below are of Kristin's round two postcard - Theme "Music" I decided to 'extend' this one by making an envelope type postcard and placing another postcard on the inside!


One side of the 'inside' card. A scrap from the cover of an old music sheet.

The other side of the inside card, I used Kristin's line drawing of a guitar, painted it and partially covered it with another record album cover. I wrote some words from a Josh Pyke song over everything.

The back of Kristin's postcard. Note the record and record player arm.

Kristin's theme was "Music" - this is the address side of her postcard, I cut down a record cover and made it into an envelope, embelishing it with scraps from the cover of very old sheet music. The light?? 'Electric Guitar or Electric Music' A brad keeps the envelope closed.

More Pics!

The address side of Rochelle's postcard.

This is the front of Rochelle's card for round two, her theme is "Control ...or lack of.." For this card I created a background by collaging parts of an old book, (which was about a ship during a war) onto one side, then I picked out pieces of text that indicated some form of control or not having control and drew lines around these. I continued the theme of ships in some form of peril with some watercolour waves, stormy clouds and a face which has a shocked look to it. Finally I used a tape transfer of a small picture of the huge propellors of the Titanic, (In the middle bottom of this image are some of the ships engine crew.) I guess I was thinking that the sinking of the Titanic was the ultimate lack of control... of a ship that was meant to have it all!

Lots of Collaborators have been busy

This is the front of Lindesay's postcard round two "Surprise"

Checking out the blog over the past week has been very exciting....it's great to see photos of what artists have been producing. So I thought to keep everything moving I'd put up a couple more pics myself. Above is Lindesay's round two postcard, his theme "surprise", the red double decker bus idea came to me before it occured at the closing ceremony of the olympics, this image is actually from a chocolate wrapper that Shelly sent to me, (by the way the chocolate was yummy!!) And the dogs are from a very old book that I have, it all seemed to work with the theme!

Looking forward to seeing some more images from other artists, so don't be shy, give it a go and upload some of your photos!

Peta

M.I.A. Round 1 Postcards.

Lindesay's Theme for Round 1 was NEWS - Dreaming of a Home.

We bought our home 15 years ago and set goals then that we would do reno's as we grew older with our home. The trees out the front were put in a month before our son was born. He will be 14 in November. Enjoy receiving your theme ~ Lindesay :)

Kristin's Theme for Round 1 was "Inspiration"

I got a bit carried away with this one -papers, pens, & glitter. Maybe over inspired Kristin.

Tracey's Theme for Round 1 ~ "HOME"

One of my favourite places, being at home. Especially now I have a new kitchen. But I also understand Cabin fever sometimes....hehehe

With "Longing" being your next theme.... Is to travel more with my family

& to Have Fun with ART :)

Shooting Star

Hi Everyone, I recieved one of my round 1 cards back last week from Nanette Balchin. When I glued the star on it reminded me of a shooting star - make a wish!

Happy Creating, Olley.

I'm Off to the Post Office tomorrow

I've found some great stamps for all my round two postcards, so I'll take them into the post office and have them hand stamped and send them on their merry ways...I can't resist showing Kym what she can expect in the mail soon, so here is a preview of the address side of Kym's round postcard......Hope you like what I've done Kym! I'm wondering what your round three theme will be????

Peta

This is the address side of Tracey's postcard: "Longing Longing Longing" In the top left hand corner is a photo of one of the views from my home, on the bottom is a tape transfer of the roof of my home.

Hope you like it Tracey - I'll post it off to you next week! Peta

I've had a very productive day!

This is the front side of Tracey's completed postcard, her theme for round two was "Longing Longing Longing". I wasn't sure what I was 'longing' for, but as I was sorting through the many scraps of papers and photos that I have saved, (my motto is "Never Ever Throw Anything Away"), I came across this photocopy of four women, it could be a mother and her three daughters, (I also have three daughters!). Then I found the meaning of 'Homebody" from an old dictionary in another pile, it all seemed to be fitting together....I am longing to spend more time at home, in the garden, in the studio,(and yes even catching up with the ironing and doing some home baking!) The title of the piece "A Womans Work is Never Done" completed it nicely!

I Thought I'd Also Join in the Rush to Post a Blog!

I've been at home with the flu or a very bad cold for most of this week, however I have managed to do a little bit on the round two postcards in my studio, after taking lots of cold and flu tablets! I am working on several at once, Kristin's, Lindesay's, Kym's and Rochelle's, I will photograph them when they are completed....meanwhile I thought you might like to take a peek at the piece of 'found object' jewellery I produced while recently doing a class with Keith Lo Bue. If you look closely into the lense of the bottom photo you'll see a blue eye!!!