Open and Shut

Paint Out, Patonga Beach

2012-02-01T21:45:00.001+11:00

The 'paint-out' this week was in Patonga.

Painting at Patonga

There were seven painters, most of them using oil, painting the beach or the wharf.


Patonga Wharf

The little bit of blue sky didn't last long but the rain held off for the morning. In the afternoon it started raining and it has barely stopped since. Further north there are floods again. Those poor people.

The year just past and the year ahead

2012-01-28T09:23:00.000+11:00

My posts for the past year seem to have gyrated between the sublime and the mundane : from art and music to house renovations and back. I guess that pretty much reflected my reality, lining my nest in between art/music assignments.

Will this year be different? I am hoping it will be the year of finding my posse here on the Central Coast but I will have to overcome my preference for my own company to make it happen. I will be out of my comfort zone. Sometimes I envy those who have never moved and are surrounded by long time friends but I am not sure we choose our own paths. Instead they seem to choose us.

A well designed fridge

2012-01-27T10:03:00.003+11:00

The little bar fridge that I got from Aldi was almost big enough for me but I missed having a freezer so I sold it on eBay and looked for a replacement.
Kelvinator looked pretty good when I looked at fridges online but when I looked at them in the shop I realised that Fisher&Paykel fridges were a better design because, for one thing, the vege bin at the bottom can be pulled out so much more easily. It is on rollers and because the door shelves finish above the height of the bin, the bin can be pulled out even when the fridge door is half open.

Fridge door with frog

New Zealand products have the reputation for quality and this is one example. So now I have a Fisher&Paykel fridge/freezer in my kitchen. At 380L it was the smallest and most energy efficient in the shop.

Australia Day

2012-01-26T16:43:00.002+11:00

Today is Australia Day and as I pour my glass of red the smell of frying sausages wafts over the fence. Good news is that actor Geoffrey Rush has been awarded Australian of the Year. Marita Cheng who promotes engineering as a great career for woman was awarded Young Australian of the Year and Laurie Baymarrwangga, an elder from East Arnhemland, was Senior Australian of the Year. So we have an actor and engineer and an Aboriginal elder as inspiration this year, all from fields that barely rate a mention in Australia on any ordinary day.

Sports people and civil servants got their share of awards as well but online comments seems to indicate that giving awards to these people doesn't have a lot of support.

Up the Patonga Creek

2012-01-26T09:43:00.000+11:00

Patonga Creek runs up the valley behind the small fishing village of Patonga at the mouth of the Hawkesbury River. Last weekend I sketched from a flat bottomed boat, riding with a couple of fishers checking crab traps.

Lower Patonga Creek with its stunning bush and rocks.

Patonga Creek: the water was so smooth that the trees were reflected in the water.

Upper Patonga Creek

In among the mangroves

Upper reaches of Patonga Creek

Reptiles and pumpkins

2012-01-23T17:21:00.004+11:00

Yesterday evening I took out a pumpkin plant that was all leaves and no pumpkins and planted some parsley plants in its place. As I was pushed the plants into place I spied a repitle a few inches from my fingers in the leaf litter.

My garden reptile

I thought it was a blue tongue lizard and didn't worry too much but a friend said it could also have been a death adder which are also fattish and with stripes.

Blue tongue lizard

Death adder

Hmmmm.

Book finished, curtains up

2012-01-21T16:33:00.000+11:00

The Woman in White was gripping but I read it reaaaaally slowly to savour the text. Eventually, however, I finished the book and had to face the curtain job. I put the curtains up today. It took most of the day but it was worth the effort.


Mustard curtains -they glow when the sun shines through.

Parsifal played as I put up the curtain rail props, as I attached the rails, as I put the hooks on the curtains and as I threaded the curtain hooks into the rails. I needed all five Parsifal hours to complete the job.

Bathroom Refresh

2012-01-19T14:17:00.001+11:00

The plumber came today and transformed my bathroom. The old vanity, bathroom taps, shower taps were replaced and I got a dual flush cistern. The new cupboard and basin are slim-line and make the bathroom look and feel much larger. They are also adult height so I will no longer have to bend to use the basin. What a difference.

Old look bathroom

New look bathroom

The old basin was fiddly to clean ...

Old vanity

The new basin (thank you IKEA) has an internal shelf for soap dish and toothbrush mug .Why didn't someone else think of that sooner?

New Basin/Cupboard

Woman in White

2012-01-18T16:43:00.000+11:00

The new curtains are having to wait. A book has consumed my whole attention .... and when I emerge from it I find it hard to believe that I am not still in misty London or Hampshire but instead half a world away on the sunny Central Coast of NSW.

Mustard curtains

2012-01-17T19:40:00.001+11:00

I have had bedroom curtains waiting to be hung since arriving here and finally I am getting around to doing something about them. I bought some white material at IKEA last week and over the weekend I made lining for the curtains and took them up. They are a lovely luxurious mustard colour, Italian material bought from Fabric Fantasy in Sydney when it closed six or seven years ago.

Bedroom curtains

Now I just have to put up some curtain rails.

Pearl Beach Portrait

2012-01-16T19:55:00.001+11:00

I have been feeling a bit dislocated and I decided that now I have discovered a cafe with good light I should go and paint there more often. So I went back to Pearl Beach Cafe yesterday and painted the pleasant and friendly woman sitting opposite.

At Pearl Beach on Monday.

Unfortunately the coffee at the cafe leaves something to be desired ... perhaps I can convince them to try a coffee with 100% Arabica beans?

Pearl Beach

2012-01-08T16:50:00.000+11:00

Today I went over the hill to the Pearl Beach cafe, then sat on a bench under a tree to watch the seaside frolickers and paint. As I took out my sketch book the woman sitting on the other end of the bench commented that she had been wanting to do an art course for ages. A sign, perhaps, that I should get my act together and organise a class.

The Eyesore

2012-01-07T12:57:00.014+11:00

Finally the ugly old BBQ that blocked the garden entrance has been moved and now when you look out the window you can see right up the garden...

... and beyond, to the fairy path where the elves live.

I tried to find a photo of the BBQ to show what an eyesore it had been, but there were none. I must have avoided photographing it. The BBQ part was just a pile of rust that disintegrated when it was taken apart. The brick part was moved a few feet towards the house and now functions as a shady table for potting plants.

Magnificant Gum Hits the Ground

2012-01-05T17:16:00.000+11:00

The sound of a chainsaw has been echoing over my back fence for the last two days. Yesterday a man hung from the huge and magnificent gum in my neighbour's back yard and sawed off branches one by one. They made enormous thuds as they fell. There were a couple of branches left by the end of the day and I hoped that the tree had just been trimmed but today they were back and now all that stands is a trunk.

This was a gum tree, huge and magnificent.

Dancing into 2012

2012-01-01T13:13:00.001+11:00

I saw the New Year in with a particularly good view of the Sydney fireworks which little digital cameras are unable to capture.

Sydney Fireworks, spectacular as always

"Oooo, aaah," said the crowd.

Dancing in the new year

"Bippity bippity bop," said the music
"Broom, broom, grunt, fade," said the long rows of cars as they waited and waited, queuing to leave the roads leading from the harbour.

Boxing Day

2011-12-28T19:20:00.000+11:00

Boxing Day. The day to wake up late, snooze on the sofa, recover from the rigors of the day before, dream about the days to come.

Dancing Violins to Make You Smile

2011-12-23T18:26:00.002+11:00

Seasons Greetings! A bit of whimsy make you smile in this, our turbulent 2011/12.

The English Oak table

2011-12-21T15:56:00.001+11:00

My big old English Oak (no longer available according to the repairman) table was damaged on the way across the Tasman and was so wonky I was afraid it might collapse on whoever leaned on it. Three weeks ago the specialist repairman picked it up and today it returned, solid as a rock.

English Oak table, 25 years old and as good as new.

I had become used to the scratches on the tabletop but it has been revarnished, so I will have to start taking care of it again. I made a set of batik chair covers to protect the chairs (re-upholstered in Dunedin) from the sticky finges of small guests.

Glass and Gandhi

2011-12-17T21:38:00.004+11:00

Today I saw Philip Glass's opera Satyagraha about Gandi's life in South Africa, the latest of the New York Metropolitan Opera productions. (If you are an opera fan and have not yet discovered the Opera in HD series being played at movie houses all over the world two weeks after opening night, you are missing something very special.)

Satyagraha reminded me of Wagner's operas because it plays on two levels at once. The words sung by Gandi and other characters in the opera are all discourses from the Indian philosophical text the Bhagavad Gita and are sung in Sanscrit. (Surtitles translate the essentials). The story is told in action and improvisational puppetry, performed in this instance by the wondrous The Skills Ensemble.

Satyagraha: Photo form the Metropolitan Opera Website

Sanscrit text and puppetry action sounds weird but it works. The weaving of philosophical questions through the action turns out to the intellectually and emotionally very satisfying. The music is both meditative and thrilling. If you have a chance, go and see it.

Review by Opera and Medicine
Review by Jeffrey Johnson

Moon eclipse

2011-12-11T09:44:00.000+11:00

I saw the moon eclipse last night. The moon was reddish as predicted and very eerie. It was unearthly in a strange way and I am glad I woke and saw it. A reminder of how small and insignificant we are. Judging by the news of squabbling at the climate summit in Durban, we are not only insignificant but not clever enough to save what we have from ourselves.

Moon eclipse begins, but my little digital camera did not capture the red tinge and eerie feel of the moon, let alone all the bright stars around it.

NASA has a great little video of what I saw.

Ceramic Violin Wall Plaque

2011-12-08T21:16:00.000+11:00

There is something charming about ceramics that is hard to put your finger on. Is it because we know they are made from clay, or is it the colours? I am not sure. This 'ceramic violin' piece was made in 2010

Fly screens

2011-12-07T21:37:00.005+11:00

In March when I painted the peeling window frames I took off the fly screens and put them in the garage to paint later. I found them again the other day waiting patiently in the corner, so out came the paint pot. I finished the job today and screwed them back into place.

La Nina is bringing Sydney lots of showers and very cool weather, but hopefully summer will eventually turn up and I will need these screens.

Christmas Lights

2011-12-06T21:29:00.002+11:00

If you need a little pre-Christmas cheer you should come to my house at dusk. You can't help but be impressed by the lights on the house across the road. As dusk turns to dark Christmas carols flood the street, lights twinkle and cars drive by slow motion, or stop to watch.

The proud owner tells me that buses will be driving by to have a look as well.

Sydney ...

2011-11-30T20:19:00.002+11:00

I love Sydney and as I sort through my Sydney paintings I find I have a lot of the Sydney Opera House, a building which has an aura about it not unlike that of Uluru. Perhaps others like this building as much as I do, and for them I have a Christmas special this year

Sydney Opera House (2008)

Garage shelves

2011-11-28T15:05:00.005+11:00

At last, 7 months after moving, I am screwing together my Ikea shelf. It is probably the tenth time this shelf has been dismantled then reassembled. One of the wood props is a little bent and it is a fiddle to assemble. The ants had been busy in the corner of the garage. The planks propped there were covered in ant eggs, so I took them outside and lay them on the grass while the ants scurried around rescuing their eggs.

After assembling the shelf I realised I had measured the garage corner incorrectly and the shelf doesn't fit. So I have stopped for a cuppa while I figure out whether to put it somewhere else or if I should bite the bullet, unscrew it and start again.

Later: I unscrewed my shelf then screwed it together again in the smaller configuration but it still didn't fit. But it fits sideways and that is perhaps better as I will be able to check it for ant activity. Ants are very active in Australia. When I first arrived here I put some boxed ceramics in the garage. A couple of weeks later when I unpacked them they were full of ants eggs. Luckily I had stored ceramics and not paintings in the boxes.

Jacarandas at Patonga

2011-11-24T20:29:00.001+11:00

Last Tuesday I joined my local 'paint out' group despite cloudy skies as it was the first Tuesday since I moved here that I have had time to join them. The group painted at Jacaranda Avenue in Patonga (NSW).

Watercolour: Jacaranda tree in Patonga

The ground under the trees was carpeted in purple, so by next week this view will be green/green instead of purple/green. Jacarandas might be pretty, but they don't provide any food for local birds so I wont be planting them in my garden.

Ducks in Woy Woy

2011-11-21T23:18:00.000+11:00

Ducks are some of my favorite creatures. Their body construction makes it almost impossible for them to hurt anyone (try pecking with a duck-bill, or punching with a flipper) but ...

their mothering skills leave a lot to be desired. Ducklings seem to survive more by luck than good management.

This mother duck took her eleven very little ducklings on sightseeing tour through the back streets of Woy Woy.

Wagner homage in the garden

2011-11-18T17:38:00.002+11:00

In among the Agapanthas and palm trees sits my largest ceramic piece: Homage to the Music of Richard Wagner

What people have said about Wagner's music and what Wagner said about himself, are inscribed along its belly.

Would Wagner be surprised that a ceramic piece called Homage to the Music of Richard Wagner sits in an Australian garden? Oh no, I don't think so. He would probably regard it is only fitting.

Garden dancers

2011-11-12T20:21:00.000+11:00

A little bit of fun from the ceramics workshop.
These dancers ....

now dance on the old BBQ in the garden.

Our throw-away society

2011-11-09T20:04:00.003+11:00

The knob on my coffee machine got so tight it now needs a spanner to turn it. The place I bought the machine has closed down so I rang the makers (Sunbeam) to ask where I could take it to get fixed. They gave me the address and told me to take the original receipt.

Coffee machine, spanner and small ceramic music bowl made at NAS last year.

"That's all okay, " said the man behind the counter after he had had a look at the receipt. "You can take it home again."
"But the knob doesn't work."
" Oh you'll get another sent to you within a week or so."

Addendum: the new machine arrived today (14 Nov) - a newer and much flasher model. Ah, but will it make better coffee?

Sunbeam coffee machines : Old Model 1400C on the left and new model 4820 on the right (with functioning knob).

Little fridge, big fridge

2011-11-06T14:54:00.000+11:00

Is a barfridge big enough? My experiement started yesterday when I bought a bar fridge from Aldi. Everything that was in the old 1978 brummer fits in, but I am not sure the little fridge will be big enough when guests are in the house. Still, if I never try I'll never know.


Little bar-fridge with big old 1978 model (which has a painting by Sam Sharpe of Dunedin propped on top).

Engobe Pot

2011-11-05T14:33:00.000+11:00

My experience is that it takes time to evaluate your own works of art. Some paintings I've liked on completion remain my favorites, others get turned to the wall. It can work the other way as well.

I didn't like this little pot, an experiment with engobes, when I took it out of the kiln in Dunedin but now I find it rather cute. It is easier to evaluate others work and my teacher Jim liked this pot from the start. (That touch of green engobe was his stain.)

The Love of the Nightingale

2011-11-02T15:17:00.001+11:00

Richard Mill's (pic below) opera The Love of the Nightingale was well worth going to the opera to see. It re-told a Greek myth, was very violent but also thought provoking. I was surprised how much I enjoyed it. What had I been expecting I wonder?

Richard Mills

2011-10-31T18:57:00.005+11:00

Tomorrow, Tuesday, I am looking forward to seeing Richard Mills conducting his own opera The Love of the Nightingale at the Sydney Opera House. It has got great reviews.

Richard Mills, sketched on 25 October at a 'Ring Cycle 2013' function in Sydney.

Native Australian Plants

2011-10-30T12:48:00.003+11:00

My long term project is to transform my front garden into a more useful space and today at the Woytopia Festival I joined the initiative to bring small birds back into the garden. In return I was given two native plants, a native Geranium and a Lomandra, a long leafed plant that has big spiky flowers the birds love. Then I bought a rosemary plant to add some scent.


From left: ceramics made in Dunedin, then Geranium, Lomandra, and Rosemary

What the tags say:
Pelargonium australe, Wild Geranium soft hairy sprawling perennial, tolerant of coastal conditions and sandy soils. Mauve flower heads appear Nov - May.
Lomandra longifolia, perennial to 1m. Glossy mid green foliage. Tolerant of sandy spoils. Full sun to part shade, well drained soils, benefits from extra water and fertiliser.
Rosemary: doesn't have a tag but my mother recommends that plants with sweet smelling leaves be planted near paths so you can touch the leaves as you pass and take the scent with you.

Fishing

2011-10-25T23:02:00.001+11:00

Hot weather equals fishing-from-wharf weather. Yesterday was over 30C and this couple were sitting right on the end of the wharf to fish. Just as well they fished yesterday because today it is cold, windy and wet.

Fishing from the wharf at Patonga

Rugby World Cup 2011

2011-10-24T13:30:00.004+11:00

Last night I watched the NZ vs France Rugby World Cup final in a small local NSW pub, one of a group of four NZ supporters organised by an English woman whose partner was in New Zealand for the game. Apart from our group and two other New Zealand women, the whole audience cheered France and jeered New Zealand.
The French played a great game but the Aussie cheers weren't for good French play but against New Zealand; they even cheered when nasty injuries to NZ players were shown close up. I suppose their reaction was exacerbated because their own team was beaten by their little New Zealand cousins the weekend before but I was not prepared for the extent of the hostility.

New Zealander Piri Weepu in action (picture from the official RWC website)

Oh well, I suppose this is one of the reasons I have never been a great fan of football. I never heard one vioinist jeer another, regardless of the passion involved.

Perhaps we were just on the wrong side of the Tasman. In New Zealand the mood seems to have been a bit like that in Sydney during the Sydney Olympics. A party atmosphere and lots of visitors from as far away as Ireland and Georgia.

Addendum: a NZ-based Englishman wrote a piece for the Telegraph about who to jeer/cheer for, he drew all sorts of crabs from the woodwork. You gotta laugh.

Life Drawing

2011-10-22T20:35:00.001+11:00

Classes have finished for the year and I am looking forward to some down-time. My last class was life drawing:

One minute sketches drawn while trying not to look at the paper

A bit of the more sustained drawing.

I am not sure whether I can show a life drawing on this site. Probably if I uploaded a violent movie no one would object. We live in an odd society.

Android

2011-10-21T21:43:00.009+11:00

In 2006 just before I left to study in NZ I bought a mobile phone, a Nokia, the simplest I could find at the time. It has just carked it ... the screen blacked out intermittantly.

As a result I am now the proud owner of an Android smartphone. It is very similar to a prototype I tried a couple of years ago ... but much smarter. Its also a good deal heavier than my wee Nokia, even without all the apps loaded.

Ski fields are disappearing

2011-10-19T21:32:00.000+11:00

Back in Australia the newspapers are predicting the melting of Australia's snow fields if climate change progresses as predicted but...

politicians are still playing to climate change deniers.
Someone wrote a song about them:

Train to Sydney

2011-10-14T18:46:00.001+11:00

Back to reality ...

... and back on a on the early morning train to Sydney. If you close your eyes it feels as if you are whipping along just like German trains. When you open your eyes you realise sounds can be deceiving and in fact you are trundling along... probably as fast as the tracks will allow.

Tulips on the wall

2011-10-09T15:47:00.001+11:00

After several trips to the hardware store and lots of reading of the backs of packets of screws I have my first picture rail up and my first paintings hung.

Putting up picture rails taught me that it is a job for a more muscular person than I am who owns a more powerful drill than mine. I plan to have someone else put the other rails up but in the meantime I am pleased to have pictures on at least one wall.

Stud finder blues

2011-10-07T16:50:00.001+11:00

I bought a stud finder yesterday and planned to put up my gallery system today but it is not as simple as one might imagine. In the dining room the stud finder found so many electric wires running along the tops of the walls I decided I had better not to touch it. The bedroom had more regular studs and no electric wires so I decided I could install picture rails there myself.
I went off to the building materials shop to get a drill bit (to drill holes in the metal picture rail) and appropriate screws. I asked a couple of blokes at the shop about building methods in the 1960s and whether the wiring was pulled along the top of the walls.
'Oh an old house could be built any way at all,” I was told.
“So what type of tradesman would hang gallery picture rails?”
"Oh just a handyman!".
I remembered the handyman who had cleaned out the gutters for me and said "Oh but he might not know much more than me!"
Both gentlemen looked appalled at the thought.
"Oh yes he would!" one of them said.
"Oh be careful" cautioned the boss, "are you saying she is stupid?"
We joked about that but I could tell I had hurt their feelings.
I explained that I was worried about the electrical wires and the boss gave me the name and number of a local builder. He looked very put out though, like a doctor whose patients who come in with information or misinformation off the Internet.
Its a new world they have to get used to, patients who think they know more than the doctors and women who think they might know as much as a handyman.
I left the shop without the drill bit or the information about whether to use dry wall or wood screws. (I think the latter.) Tomorrow I will go to the friendly little hardware shop in Umina and get the drill bit and I am sure I can find information about screws on the Internet!

Beer in the garden

2011-10-06T21:02:00.002+11:00

How nice to be home ...

... and (finally) recovered from jetlag.

Maribor musician paintings

2011-10-04T12:06:00.000+11:00

My Maribor Musician paintings, or most of them, are now online at artsmitten.com.

Time shift

2011-10-03T07:57:00.000+11:00

This morning when I woke my watch said 6am - 11 hours sleep. I got up, showered, ate breakfast, answered some email then looked at my watch again. It was 2am. I must have looked at it upside down earlier and when I thought it was 6am it was actually half past midnight. Jetlag does funny things to your system.

Jetlag

2011-10-02T17:19:00.000+11:00

It is 5:18 on the day after a long haul flight. I am struggling to keep my eyes open even though I slept 11 hours last night.

Wide awake on a long haul flight

2011-10-01T17:33:00.001+10:00

Note to self: If you have a late night long haul flight:
#1 don't drink a strong coffee the afternoon before and
#2 don't drink a beer in the airport before take off to help you sleep.

#1 + #2 = "shattered in Singapore"

Orchids in Singapore Airport

Dilsberg and Neckargemuend

2011-09-29T17:04:00.001+10:00

Neckargemuend is an old and picturesque village on the Neckar River. From there you can see Bergfeste Dilsberg on the hill further along the river.

Dilsberg castle has a rampart at the top with a wonderful view ...

... right up the valley to Neckargemuend.

Nature's browns

2011-09-29T04:47:00.001+10:00

Imagine trying to make these yourself!

Rissen Reetdachhaus

2011-09-28T05:49:00.001+10:00

The Tchibo coffee shop in Hamburg-Rissen looks out over one of the prettiest buildings in the village, this thatched roof house.

Today I sat having a coffee and admiring the building across the street; tomorrow I take the train south.

Coffee pots at Gino's

2011-09-27T19:41:00.000+10:00

I have an exhibition of work at Gino's Cafe in Rissen. This is one of the watercolours I have on the wall.

A Cafe in Uetersen

2011-09-27T16:51:00.000+10:00

This cafe in Uetersen is one of the prettiest I have seen and

...when they bring your tea, they include a small wooden timer, so you know how long to let it draw.

Sketches made along the River Elbe

2011-09-26T06:01:00.002+10:00

The Herrenhäuser (mansions) along the Elbe are like a set of large white beads set in green satin.

On the other side of the river the landscape is dominated by huge cranes with windmills in the distance.

In the Hafenstadt (harbour city) the buildings that are not built of red bricks are grey. It sounds boring but the different grey/white/black contours are varied and interesting.

This quick sketch was made while waiting for Ferry #62 at the Hafenstadt and the ones above while sitting on the deck avoiding spray as the ferry ploughed its way through the water.

Hamburg Harbour on the River Elbe

2011-09-24T19:28:00.002+10:00

The heart of the city of Hamburg is its huge working harbour. The old warehouse buildings are restored and the whole precinct is a vibrant and visually interesting place to visit.

Container ships are loaded and unloaded in the high tech container harbour across the water, but the original old warehouses are being rennovated have new life as offices and apartments.

New buildings complement the old and look out over the rows of tug boats lined up ready to guide ships along the harbour.

Yesterday I took a trip along the Elbe with ferry line 62. Ferry line 62 is free if you have a day card for city rail and travels almost exactly the same line as the tourist boats.

The most eastern stop is at the new Elbphilharmonie.

Elbphilharmonie

2011-09-24T19:11:00.001+10:00

Hamburg harbour has undergone a transformation in recent years as the old warehouses are rennovated. The most spectacular building of all is the new Elbphilharmonie which is being built on top of a warehouse that used to store cocoa. From the harbour it looks like as huge ship coming towards you along the river Elbe .

When you get closer you can see the wave shaped roof (middle section is still to be built).

The windows are all indivudually formed and glisten in the sun. It is spectacular and complements the other buildings in the harbour perfectly. The building was started in 2007 and when I saw it in 2009 when it was still just cranes on the horizon. There has been a recent hitch when it was discovered the hooks enabling window cleaners to clean all those windows were left out. A bit like the Sydney Opera House, costs keep on inflating.

Back in misty moisty Hamburg

2011-09-24T03:54:00.002+10:00

What a difference a few degrees of latitude make. Back in Hamburg the weather is cool, trees are reflected in puddles ...

everything is green and verdant and ...

the fields are being prepared for winter.

A Music Critic on Maribor Festival

2011-09-24T03:51:00.001+10:00

Laurence Vittes is a music critic in Los Angeleles. Here his view on the Maribor Festival.

Wine and Hannots in Weisel

2011-09-23T05:32:00.001+10:00

You know you are in a wine growing region when grape vines grow on railway tracks. This picture was taken near Rüdesheim on the Rhine River.

I drank an excellent wine at Hannot's Restaurant in Weisel which has a lovely garden at the back complete with large apple tree drooping with fruit. The wine glasses below were drawn at Hannots.

Fruit hanging from trees

2011-09-22T21:29:00.001+10:00

All trees in the back yards from Salzburg to Frankfurt are dripping with fruit. It has been that sort of autumn.

On the Kauber Platte (the high flat hills a few km behind the Lorelei on Rhine River) apple trees are heavy with fruit and the laneways are red with rosehips hanging from the bushes.

I spent 3 days in Weisel on the Kauber Platte. When I wasn't walking among the fruit trees I was sleeping off my Maribor exhaustion - 10 hours a night every night. When I woke, this was the view out my attic window.

Leaving Maribor

2011-09-22T05:49:00.002+10:00

I closed the painting pad …

took a last look over the Maribor roofs from the hotel window ......

then took the train to Graz (90 minutes). Graz was hot and humid and I ws too tired to explore.

Next morning the nice receptionist opened the kitchen before 5am so I could quickly drink two push-button cappuchinos before catching the 05:45 train to Frankfurt. The train left in the dark.but even when the sun came up we couldn't see anything because ...

it was foggy all the way to Salzburg.

Isabella and M-Art on the Postna Ulica

2011-09-12T07:27:00.001+10:00

During the music festival my paintings of musicians have been displayed at the Isabella Cafe in the Postna Ulica. The owners are committed to fresh, local, organic (where possible) food and the make the best soups and salads in Maribor so it has been a pleasure to eat there.

Now it is time to leave Maribor again but this time I am leaving work in a local Gallery, the M-Art Gallery opposite the Isabella Cafe. If you look out the window of the Isabella Cafe as you drink your coffee you see you see big brown doors of the buiding opposite, across the narrow and car-less (bravo!) street. Next door to those brown doors is the M-Art Gallery. Definitely worth a visit!

Pärt, Adams, Vivaldi

2011-09-12T07:01:00.001+10:00

Bach's Chaconne (played by Tognetti), Arvo Pärt, John Adams, Vivaldi's Gloria in D Major in the Maribor Cathedral. Brillaint choice and what a way to finish a music festival.

Yesterday's Timeline concert put modern music in context and I think it probably helped that part of the audience less familiar with music to appeciate the pieces written by Arvo Pärt and John Adams. Tognetti and the musicians got a standing ovation.

Il Giardino Armonico

2011-09-11T19:54:00.001+10:00

One of the highlights of the festival here in Maribor has been hearing Il Giardino Armonico founded in 1985 for musicians who have specialised in playing on period instruments. Conductor was founding memeber Giovanni Antonini.What a difference it makes hearing baroque music on period instruments played by people who know what they are doing. The program included two fairly lengthy pieces by Haydn but such was the skill of the orchestra that not once did my attention leave the music. I looked them up on the web:

"Il Giardino Armonico are as Italian as the music itself—brightly coloured, individualistic, confident, stylish, arrestingly decorated, bubbling with enthusiasm and... add your own adjectives."

- John Duarte, Gramophone Magazine

I heard later they had come to Maribor on their way between other engagements, partly because Antonini is friends with some of the musicians playing here. The orchestra is based in Milan but what a treat to hear it here. Giovanni Sollima played the first half with the orchestra and was as brilliant as he was at his earlier concert. The Maribor audience are musicially literate and appreciated both him and the orchestra. Their reward was two encores.

Marathon Music

2011-09-11T07:31:00.002+10:00

Tonights concert was a musical timeline with snippets from 40,000 BC to now with accompanying pictures on the screen behind: paintings, the very first photo, movie and cartoon. Gregorian chant, Marlene Dietrich, Pink Floyd, Lady Gaga.

Sketch from a back row: Timeline Concert in Maribor

The musicians had seven hours rehearsal then played the concert that lasted from 7:30 to 10:30. They have gone to the pub to celebrate. Tomorrow is another concert, but that last. It is feeling like a marathon.

An unexpected wedding

2011-09-11T02:08:00.000+10:00

I attended a wedding today, though I don't know whose.

I had sought refuge from the heatwave that has enveloped the region and was sitting quietly drawing the stained glass windows in Maribor Cathedral when I noticed a woman in a white hat sitting with several gentlemen in the front row.

Then in strode a a priest in full regalia and a young man with a music score in his hand ran up the stairs at the back. Soon the organ started playing, the doors opened and in streamed the wedding guests followed by two little girls in pink leading a bride on the arm of her father. As they walked up the isle accompanied by thunderous music I wondered why I was suddenly fighting tears. What is it that makes one emotional at these moments? Thoughts about the shortnes of life? About the young couples chances of enduring happiness?
As they all signed the register the organist thundered out the bridal march.
'Wait,' I thought 'this sounds like Wagner's music.'
And it was. The bridal march comes from the opera Lohengrin and the organist kept playing Lohengrin music as the register was signed and the priest and happy couple and their parents all toasted eachother with glasses of white wine (this is a wine growing region after all). This is when I should have cried, but I didn't, I just sat there thinking how lucky I was to be there to enjoy the music.
Then the music stopped, the guests left and so did the wedding party.

Outside a band played and the couple danced together to applause from the guests.

I left them lining up in the sun to have a group photo taken.

Pistachio Icecream

2011-09-10T21:49:00.000+10:00

I don't normally eat much icecream but it is hot and the green icecream looked so inviting that I said to the waiter (in mime-language) 'I'll have what she is having please'.

I thus discovered that pistachio icecream ais addictive. We are having a heat wave and 31C is predicted tomorrow when it should be 10C cooler.. Some visitors to the Maribor Music Festival are going on a walking tour in the Dolomites on Monday and they say it is 29C there. Those walking boots will feel heavy.

Wine on the River Drava

2011-09-08T04:45:00.001+10:00

The music and painting schedule has been hectic and today I ran out of puff. So I took a break and wandered down to the Vinotek on the River Drava.

Maribor is in the middle of a wine growing area and the Vinotek is a place where you can try local wines (delicious!) I wondered about mosquitos as dusk fell but although the river looks placid it is quite fast flowing. I sat contemplating the sun setting over the bridge that unites the two halves of Maribor. It was very therapeutic and I couldn't resist getting out my paint box.

4'33"

2011-09-07T07:43:00.001+10:00

Tonight I heard John Cage's work 4'33" for the first time since I heard about it in art school in Dunedin. It is odd that all musicians and artists know this work but most of the general public don't (and that included me until I went to art school).

This is from the Wikipedia entry on on John Cage:
Cage is perhaps best known for his 1952 composition 4′33″, the three movements of which are performed without a single note being played. The content of the composition is meant to be perceived as the sounds of the environment that the listeners hear while it is performed,^[8] rather than merely as four minutes and 33 seconds of silence,^[9] and the piece became one of the most controversial compositions of the 20th century .

Well, it is still controversial. A man sitting near me hissed the pianist when he left the stage and some people left soon after. On the other hand, a Slovenian artist told me after the concert that she had come to this particular concert just to hear this work. Her son said there is a cover band who filmed themselves playing 4'33" and put it on YouTube. They played it fast so it only lasted half the time!

Cellos on Steriods

2011-09-06T16:28:00.001+10:00

Italian Giovanni Sollima writes and conducts and plays cello as you have never seen it played before. He lead a group of eight cellists last night in a series including his own unforgetable work. After the inteval they were joined by the Slovenian String orchestra. The audience gave them a standing ovation. As an encore Sollima and Monika Leskovar played one cello together, he crouching behind her. Amazing!

Giovanni Sollima

Monika Leskovar

Marino Formenti

2011-09-06T16:02:00.001+10:00

Marino Formenti is a classical pianist, but at the late night concert last night in a local wine cellar he played a selection of jazz, including pieces by his favorite pianist Thelonius Monk.

2011-09-06T01:25:00.000+10:00

There are lots of bikes in Maribor and cars are banned from the city center.

In Munich (below) there are more bikes than cars in the early morning on their way to work..

Why can't Australia get its act together and promote bicyling?

Wind instruments

2011-09-03T23:07:00.000+10:00

Janacek and Bartok have kept the wind instruments busy at the festival. On the opening night of the festival they blew with such verve that I am sure Janacek must have heard them where ever he may be.

Christian and his Double Bass

2011-09-03T20:53:00.001+10:00

Christian Braica plays double bass. Clearly he loves it. He tells me he is from Romania originally but now plays with the Frankfurt radio orchestra.

Violin Competition Finalists

2011-09-03T07:50:00.001+10:00

This is the winner of the local violin competiton playing in the small but beautiful Kazina Hall during the 5pm concert.

Then at 7:30 in the Town Hall a combined orchestra played Sculthorpe, Ligeti (with Richard Tognetti soloist) and Bartok, conducted by local conductor Marko Letonja. Great stuff and the audiences loved it all.

Musical interiors

2011-09-02T06:42:00.000+10:00

I intended to upload another image of Maribor but I discovered that in the four days I have been here I have only taken one. All my photos are taken in the concert hall.

I have just come back from the first concert of the Maribor Festival. A nostalgic piece called Nostalgia (!) by Takemitsu (written originally for Yehudi Menuhin) lead into Beethoven which lead into a piece by Janacek that blew the socks off the audience and must have been heard several miles away. Then a piece by Lutoslavski, a Polish composer that no one had heard of. It turned out to be a perfect follow on from Janacek.

That is the point about this festival I think. The programming is outstanding, as well as the musicians.

Maribor

2011-09-01T22:34:00.000+10:00

As I walked the block or two into Maribor from the station I felt a rush of Endorphine, the happy-hormone. How nice to be back. Back among the folk who lead unhurried lives, sitting in outdoor cafes having a coffee, beer or glass of water or wandering the streeets eating enormous icecreams.

Perhaps it is holiday time here at the moment and life gets more serious in winter, but from a tourist's viewpoint Maribor feels idyllic, one of the worlds nicest places to live.

Train through Austria

2011-09-01T05:22:00.002+10:00

When you cross over the wide Salzach river at Salzburg you know you are in Austria because your phone beeps and tells you welcome to Austrian telecom.

From Salzburg you wind your way between mountains, following the paths of pale green rivers. Perhaps the colour of the water is due to snow melt? When you get to Bischofhofen, stop a while and then set off back where you came from ...

The track diverts away from the incoming line and leads up and up. You can see across the valley to the incoming line below.

Up and up you go. As you watch the back carriages snake along behind the train on the steep incline you wonder how much electricity it takes to move the train upwards at such a rate.
Before you know it you have passed through a couple of tunnels and you are in Heidi land, surrounded by grazing paddocks and geraniums on balconies.

Wine and water with a flourish

2011-09-01T05:03:00.000+10:00

The elderly Russian receptionist at the Grafik Elephant recommended a restaurant across the road but when I asked if he hadeaten there and he said it was too expensive for him. So I asked aboutcheaper options and he said people seemed to like the Italian placein the next street.

The food at the Italian place nothing special (though the pasta wasnicely al dente) but it was worth the visit just to experience the flourishwith which the waiter put the wine and water on the table.

By the time I had eaten my pasta it was growing dark.

Window shopping

2011-08-31T05:45:00.000+10:00

I had time before my train to Graz to go for a walk in Munich. Window displays in Germany are always professional and interesting to look at. If this display of socks didn't make you want to buy some, what would?

Octoberfest is soon and the shops are full of Dirndls and other traditional south German clothing. In Munich it is not unusual to see women wearing Dirndls but even in Hamburg you can buy them in the shops in the lead up to October.

Travelling south

2011-08-31T02:04:00.001+10:00

The journey between Hamburg and Graz takes over 13 hours so it helps to have pleasant company. I had a delightful child drawing pictures opposite me.

We were somewhere between Wurzburg and Nurnberg when the train slowed then stopped at a village siding. Over the intercom came the voice of the conductor.
"As you can see we have stopped", she said. ”I will let you know what is happening as soon as I know.”
A few minutes later she told us there had been fire and a power failure and all trains had stopped.
“I have asked the driver to unlock the doors so you could get out and have a smoke. I'll whistle when you have to get back on and in the meantime I will keep you informed.”
A lot of people still smoke in Germany and they all climbed out to light up or have a bit of a stretch.

About an hour later we were whistled back onto the train and set off back to Wurzburg where we took an alternate route to Nurnberg then caught another train to Munich. I was too late to catch the last train to Graz but a friendly woman at the Rail Service Point booked me into a hotel nearby.
“Have a good sleep” she said, “and don't forget you get a free breakfast in the morning. Your train to Graz will leave at 10.07 from Platform 13.”
As I was leaving her boss appeared. He gave her a big hug and said "Thank you so much for working far beyond the call of duty” then slipped into the seat she vacated.
“I've worked over ten hours” she told him looking pleased at his praise.
What a worker, I thought, pleasant and unflappable in the face of queues of tired passengers even after 10 hours work. No wonder her boss treasures her.

The Hotel she had chosen was the Grafik Elephant a few steps from the station. It's bright painted facade stood out among brick and concrete neighbours. The room was small but welcoming and the bed comfortable. I slept as soon as my head hit the pillow.

Matjes Herring

2011-08-28T15:42:00.000+10:00

Matjes Herring is one of my favourite foods and the closer to the sea you get in Germany, the fresher the herrings.

This was my meal at a Hamburg inner city fish shop. The (very tender) herrings were accompanied by a baked potato smothered in apple/onion Mayonnaise which tasted much better than it looks. And a beer of course.

Boots 'n' Shoes

2011-08-26T23:43:00.000+10:00

Hamburg shops are full of new winter wares, like these boots...

even though the country is in the grip of a heat wave (30C today in Hamburg.)

I had packed for autumn not high summer, so I was shopping for light summer shoes, not boots. Next week is forecast to be 16C so the boots might start selling.

Hamburg Town Hall

2011-08-24T23:03:00.002+10:00

The Hamburg Rathaus (town hall) sits on one side of the town square, on the other side is a coffee shop where you can sit, watch people go by and paint (the town hall).

Green as green

2011-08-21T23:41:00.000+10:00

You forget how green green can be when you live in Australia. You remember again when you visit Germany.

Hamburg sun

2011-08-21T00:38:00.000+10:00

Seven and a half flying hours from Sydney to Singapore, 12 hours from Singapore to Frankfurt, five hours by train from Frankfurt airport to Hamburg-Rissen. It is a glorious day in Hamburg after lots of rain and the sun is shining through open doors and windows.

I don't know if it is the sun or the 6 hours I spent relaxing in a transit hotel room in Singapore, but I am still feeling okay at 4pm. Probably the latter. If I come straight through without the Singapore stop it is a struggle to stay awake after about 2pm.

Garden in August.

2011-08-15T13:17:00.000+10:00

The Camellias in the garden are so tall that I don't see the flowers until they drop from above.

Victa and I

2011-08-12T13:15:00.001+10:00

Old Victa Twostroke and I just mowed the lawn; a hot job even on a cool day like today. He has repaired exhausted to the garage and I am having a cup of tea.
(The earplugs are sitting on a tray I made in a Dunedin painting class several years ago.)

Capriccio

2011-08-08T20:28:00.000+10:00

Act 1 of Richard Strauss's opera Capriccio which I saw at the Sydney Opera House on 27 July. It was a discussion about the relative merits of poetry, music and opera. Very clever and funny and definitely worth venturing out on a cold winters night.

White Music

2011-08-06T21:04:00.000+10:00

White Music is a piece made from ceramic and wood.

Detail of White Music

The pieces in a collaged work like this often have diverse origins. I fired the ceramic notes at Otago Art School in 2008 and found the wood in a workshop bin at Sydney's National Art School in 2011.

Fred and Ginger

2011-07-31T18:43:00.000+10:00

Window near Cooma

2011-07-31T18:09:00.000+10:00

A farmhouse window: picturesque and speaks volumes.

Digging fence post holes

2011-07-25T21:15:00.001+10:00

View over winter hills near Cooma in NSW. There was a sprinkling of snow on surrounding hills when I was there last weekend and painting outdoors was chilly.

Below is the remarkable Rodney who is still digging fence post holes aged 78. From his front window he looks out over the hills above.

Weekend near Cooma

2011-07-18T20:07:00.001+10:00

There has been good rain this year in NSW and the rolling hills between Cooma and Berridale (south of Canberra in NSW) are covered in long grass. The land is rocky in places and like a flatter version of Central Otago in New Zealand.

The nights are cold and frosty but fisher folk and other early risers are rewarded with a silent sunrise spectacle as dawn breaks over the foggy valleys.

Eucalyptus trees scatter the landscape and some have trunks like woven carpets.

In amongst the trees people build their dream homes, bit by bit.

Dancing violins

2011-06-29T19:53:00.002+10:00

These wonderful creatures couldn't contain themselves and embraced each other in the kiln. Now they are stuck together for life.

From my drawing pad

2011-06-21T16:23:00.002+10:00

A page from my drawing notepad.

Ivor (drawing teacher) immediately said "Ah, Escher" when he saw it. I had not consciously copied Escher's work but his image of hands (below) had been one of the many images that had been flashed across the screen in my portraiture class a couple of weeks ago and it obviously made an impression.

It is odd finding these clear links in ones own work. I have never obeyed teacher's instructions to 'look at other people's work' before starting projects. I prefer to make my own work without reference to others wherever possible. Inevitably one is affected by things one has seen, but it has to be ones own passions that drive ones work. At the moment I am finding violins appearing in everything I do, like the picture above (and the one below) which are drawings of a ceramic violin I made last year.

Balancing act

2011-06-19T20:48:00.001+10:00

Do you feel like this sometimes? A balancing act with uncertain ground beneath you?

I made this 'painting' (construction?) during the Painting and Technology class where we are using hammers, saws and glue guns to make our work. The figure is ceramic, made in Dunedin almost 3 years ago (so long already.)

Next step ... added a bit of a print which had a suitable shape. Odd how these things sit around, then suddenly fit somewhere perfectly.

More constructed paintings here.

Fresh from the kiln

2011-06-16T20:34:00.001+10:00

Kilns are magic. You put stuff in that looks as if it should be thrown in the tip, fire it to 1280C and out come lucsious browns and blues pieces that look good enough to eat.

I am trying to make dancing violins (first lot out tomorrow) but in between I make a wonky pot or two.

Honey coloured clay bowl

2011-06-16T20:00:00.001+10:00

The boxes are gone (or stored in the garage actually) and my cottage looks like a home at last. The contents of the boxes have been spirited away in to cupboards and drawers to be dealt with later. I have so many frames (still in boxes) and ceramic pieces (stored in the garden shed to be sorted when I have time).

Some pieces have survived the 'stow-away-until-later' drive, like this bowl made in NZ during my 2nd year ceramics class. The honey coloured clay used in Dunedin is particularly pretty, much nicer than the gray clay used at the National Art School in Sydney.

Technobaby

2011-06-04T17:28:00.002+10:00

Today's babies are not even out of nappies before they are computing. This 19 month old wakes up, climbs on the chair and logs on, unbeknownst to her mother.

I read that researchers have found that retinal (back of the eye) blood vessels of 10 year olds who spend more than 2 hours at the TV/PC are dangerously narrowed compared to those of kids who play ouside a lot. Maybe schools should return to hand written homework.