The Painted Orchestra

New book! 

The Painted Orchestra is a book of sketches and paintings of The Australian Chamber Orchestra. 

It is full to the brim with illustrations showing how sketches translate into portraits. Read more about it: 

 https://artsmitten.com/artsmitten/books/the-painted-orchestra/

The Painted Orchestra is available at your local bookstore or on Amazon.

Amazon UK – Amazon Germany – Amazon Australia – Amazon USA

Aotearoa New Zealand Watercolour Journey

Last month I posted about my New Zealand Sketchbook.  I made it primarily for my European friends, none of whom had been to my homeland, but when I received my copy I was disappointed with it, because although it was for my friends, there was nothing personal in it. I had included information about each place I had painted, but it seemed bland without the personal touch. 

So I decided to have another try and added personal information about why I was in the place I was painting and with whom. The paintings are the same but this time there is a story accompanying the pictures.  I posted copies to my EU friends and they tell me the personal stories made the book special for them. 

Perhaps even tourists wanting a momento of their travels would prefer the Watercolour Journey version as well, I'm not sure. 

It's available through your local online bookseller or through Amazon.

New Zealand Sketchbook

Woo hoo, new book out! 

If I haven't blogged for a while it's because I've been busy creating this book, watercolours from the North to the South of New Zealand, from north of Auckland to the South of Dunedin via some unlikely painting spots such as Turangi and Castlepoint. 

Some information about the places I painted has been added to give the paintings context. 

The Rangitikei features strongly as I have visited so often.  On my visits to her place my mother would lend me her car and insist I went off painting. It was a very fruitful time. 

Available from Amazon at the moment but eventually from your local online store. 

Review: On the Wings of an Albatross

On the Wings of an Albatross - an A-Z of Australian and New Zealand Birds

Amazon is not sending books to Australia at the moment so I had a copy of my new children's book sent to a friend in London, an ex teacher and avid reader. She just got the book and here is the text she sent me this morning: 

'On the wings of an Albatross has arrived. The paintings, the colour and the playful text all are exquisite. Wow, it's an amazing book, which will be much cherished.  I think you will be really pleased by the quality of the print - the whole thing is great.'

On the Wings of an Albatross

Woo hoo .... Just published! A children's book, suitable for kids from 3-8.

Children's book: suitable for ages 3-8

This book is available as an ebook or as Paperback. 

This is an iso-book, unplanned but fun to do and here is the back story.

In May I joined an online art group that decided to draw an animal a day. I drew birds. At that stage of the pandemic it was very comforting to join others in a regular occupation. We shared our artwork  for comment and although I didn't know any of the participants personally, by the end of May I felt I knew some of them quite well.

As the month progressed I learned quite a bit about the birds I was drawing and I developed a particular affection for some of them ...the New Zealand Robin for example.

New Zealand Robin

One thing led to another and by mid June I was busy developing this children's book. It took a while to learn how the publisher software worked, in particular how to format for print editions.

But now it is done and I have just heard that the Paperback as well as the eBook versions are available online. I have linked them, but perhaps it takes a while to update the links so you can see both versions from the same page.

I tried to order a couple of copies of the print edition but Covid 19 has led Amazon to suspend deliveries to Australia for the time being, so I will have to wait.

In the meantime, if you have a young friend who would like an A to Z of Australian and New Zealand birds, it is available as an ebook ...and as Paperback in the USA, UK and other places with a local Amazon publishing operation. 

Addendum.

I have just looked at the price of the paperback on the various Amazon sites.
The price of you buy in the USA is extraordinary, even without postage. IIt is much less expensive elsewhere.

Amazon.com (USA) :
Paperback Price: USD 24.68 = £19.76 =€21.91
eBook: USD 3.43

Amazon.de (Germany)

Euro 5.33 ebook

Euro 13.84 for paperback (Taschenbuch)

https://www.amazon.de/Wings-Albatross-Z-Australian-Zealand/dp/0987312251

Amazon.co.uk (UK)

£11.75 Paperback 

£ 4.83 ebook

More lambs in springtime

Taihape landscape

I am feeling much better today after a sofa bound week. I made another little lamb painting to celebrate.

They say shingles lasts 3-5 weeks and I have had it 4 weeks, so I am hoping this is the elusive corner I have been waiting to turn.

Lambs in springtime

Here are some lambs in springtime, painted from a picture taken years ago in Taihape.

Ewes and lambs in Taihape

My brother, who has had shingles twice, told me yesterday that he got better very gradually, not suddenly as perhaps I had been expecting. I got a watercolour pad out as diversion therapy during the gradual improvement.

Adam Festival 2019 opens

Adam Festival Facebook post

The organisers of the Adam Chamber Music festival in Nelson can be proud of themselves. They produced a wonderful opening concert.

Apparently it was sold out almost immediately. Their solution to all the extra requests for tickets was to add 80 seats behind the stage. It worked well and those who got the late tickets had a great close up view of the musicians.

Nelson Adam Festival

Nelson is a pretty place and just the right size for a pleasant existence. Big enough the house a school of music (what else is important?) but small enough to make driving and parking a dream, full of interesting shops and artsy people.

I am in Nelson for the 10 day Adam Chamber Music Festival which starts in a bit over an hour, staying a convenient two block stroll from the music hall.

The heat wave that has engulfed New Zealand had not  been so bad here, 26C and muggy but it cools down at  night. Just perfect for music making folk ( and everyone else).

Nelson Center for Musical Arts

Isel Park in Nelson

Nelson is dry and brown, apart from the vineyards with their rows of unnervingly green vines.

The picture below was taken in Isel Park in Stoke, a southern suburb of Nelson divided by  the road which leads south to Murchison and the West Coast. Isel Park ist a hidden gem, an historic house with a beautiful garden, enormous trees and wide, now brown, lawns.

Isel Park. The figure under the tree shows how big it is.

Two southerly storms over recent years decimated the place, blowing over many of these enormous giants not used to being so buffeted. I suppose the drought will weaken the hold of the remaining trees.

Agapanthus flowers are flowering everywhere in Nelson, including Isel Park

A stream through the park idyll.

Musicians in Wellington

Last weekend I was captivated by two very different musicians. 

Simon O'Neill, the New Zealand tenor was one. He is one of those rare tenors who can sing Wagner repertoire. Since I heard him in 2014 his voice has deepened. It is now a rich and resonant treat. He sang the Wesendonck Lieder and his German diction was flawless. Congratulations Simon, it was a wonderful concert.

The NZSO, with whom he sang, played Bruckner's 4th Symphony after the interval. It is a long and demanding work but they played wonderfully well. . Bruckner is not my favorite composer, mainly because it is difficult to tune your digital player to play the alternating very loud and very soft music that characterises his work - if you adjust to hear the quiet parts the rest blasts you out of the room. In a concert hall however it is a different story and I loved the orchestra blasting out their forte parts - the audience vibrated with the music as the strings and horns threw themselves into the music. They must have needed masseurs the next day.

The other musician I saw on Sunday was very different. He was sitting at a painted piano on the Wellington (NZ) waterfront.  He played the way my self-taught father used to, with the left hand strumming time to the right. I found myself humming his tune all evening.


Addendum 23 June: Today I read that shortly before the Wellington concert, Simon recorded a lullaby in German and Te Reo Maori with the NZSO as a gift for the new baby of New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern. (More about the recording here.)

Hobbiton

Yesterday I visited Hobbiton near Matamata, a pretty town in the Waikato region of New Zealand.

Hobbiton probably needs no introduction because, as I discovered, it is still wildly  popular. Tours were setting off every 10 minutes the day we were there and some of the more popular tours with food included  were booked out months in advance.

My travel buddy got the last two tickets to a lunch-included tour a month ago because the tour which included an evening ''banquet' was book out. (Yes, she is doing nothing by halves and I am swept along for the ride, which I confess to finding very interesting, if just to experience the enthusiasm of the fans. ) I was rather afraid the food might be substandard bain-marie fare, but it was very tasty.

A friend who majored in sculpture at art school spent time in Matamata last year painting the hobbit house doors and props and I must say she's done a fine job. They look just as they did in the Hobbit movie.

Trees in New Zealand

Trees in Taihape

There are some magnificent native trees in the North Island of New Zealand, those that survive. Most were cut down last century, leaving scared hills that tend to slip and slide. Coming generations will, I hope, take to replanting native bush .... once the colonial mentality finally fades.

Mt Ruapehu painting

Mt Ruapehu - waterccolour

When I was in New Zealand last year a snowstorm hit the Central Plateau just before I got there. The desert road opened just before I drove north from Taihape and the mountains were as beautiful as I have seen them.

Sun shone on the snow-covered slopes as I drove very slowly along the icy roads and I stopped to paint a watercolour of the view across to Mount Ruapehu.

Red canvas beginning

The painting was a pretty good approximation of what I saw except that the tussock grass was not as bright as it remained in my memory.

Earlier this year I painted Ruapehu again based on the watercolour. This time I used acrylic and a palette knife which seemed appropriate considering the rocky angular structure of my subject. I started with a red canvas as there has been so much red-brown in the desert scene.  

Mt Ruapehu - acrylic on canvas

New Zealand North Island painting

The sketches and paintings I did in New Zealand over the past fortnight are now online

New Zealand North Island

Taranaki: visual joy

On a fine day Mount Egmont dominates Taranaki roads. Today was a beautiful day so as I drove south from New Plymouth I had the constant company of Mt Egmont.  What surprised me was seeing snow covered Mount Ruapehu to the east.

Mount Egmont and Taranaki cows

Near Stratford: Mt Ruapehu in the distance

Taranaki is also known for its gardens and my trip took me past hegdes of flowering camelias and huge flowering magnolias, one of which was in a schoolyard. It was so lovely I stopped to take a photo.

Schoolyard Magnolia with Mt Egmont

In every town there seems to be an art gallery or museum and one that is really worth a visit is the gallery in Stratford. They currently have an exhibition of works from the bnz collection which is exceptional. So many inspiring works of art, including works by Dick Frizzel ( pictured in a previous post), Colin McCahon, Toss Woolaston and Ralph Hotere among others. Finding works such as these in a small gallery where one can view them close up and undisturbed is a real treat. Apparently they normally hang in the staff canteen and staff rooms, at the bnz headquarters.

New Zealand treats art as something to appreciate and look at, not to store in a vault as an investment Sydney style and as a result there is  a vibrant visual arts scene here. Just visit the little gallery in Turangi to be convinced - the work by local artists there is equal to anywhere.

Glenda of Tahakopa by Robin White

Turangi to New Plymouth

The tourist information service in Turangi told me not to travel too early when I took the route from Turangi to Tauramanui as the road had tall trees on both sides and was often icy.

Turangi to Taumeranui: national park

I waited until 10am before setting off, imagining a route through forestry plantations of tall pines. Instead of plantations, the route is through national parks and the trees so much more interesting than pines.

The advice about ice was good advice. Right along the route bright red signs warned against slippery conditions in cold weather.

Further along the route passes through country that looks like a sea of camels ... lots of humpy hills. I couldn't help but think how wonderful it would be if some of the more marginal farm land was allowed to revert to bush. It seemed so forlorn. Later I saw a painting by Dick Frizzel that illustrated my thoughts as I drove to New Plymouth.

On the forest road to the headwaters of the Tarawera River

 by Dick Frizzel 1987.

Voting on a new NZ Flag

Today I got to vote on the new New Zealand flag. I love the fact that my birth country includes me in these decisions even though I don't live there.  I do visit regularly though and that counts. 

My favourite flags of this lot are the Koru design in the middle and the triangles flag which was included only after the public had complained about the selection made by the committee. All the others look like marketing icons to me.

Addendum on 11/12/15: the first results are out and the first flag on the left got the most votes. The Koru got the least but I still like it best. I am glad the flag far right didn't get the Guernsey as I like it the least. The next vote is in March 2016 and we will choose between the preferred flag of this lot and the current NZ flag which is very similar to it but has a union jack instead of fern leaf.

First Dog tells it like it is

Oh the humiliation!

Australia has been captured this last week by the controversy about crowds booing the aboriginal football player Adam Goodes. Goodes one of the best players in the game and was Australian of the Year in 2014, an honour he used to support his people and agitate for a change to the way Australian aboriginal peoples are treated.

Football fans have taken to booing Goodes and it has become so virulent and hateful that it is clear to everyone (no actually, not everyone - there is a sizable proportion of the population who thinks it is just fun) that there is a racist element to it. Our government has been acting as if there is nothing amiss and now Goodes has taken a break from football (for excellent comment see this interview with Stan Grant.)

From the cartoon by First Dog on the Moon

Now First Dog on the Moon has weighed in to the controversy. First Dog understands a thing or two about the Australian psyche and I am sure I am not the only New Zealand Australian who is reading today's cartoon with a wry smile.

There is intense competition between the two nations on sports fields which can become less than friendly.  In 2011 when New Zealand played France in the Rugby World Cup I watched the game at a local pub with an Australian friend. The jeering against NZ, the glee when a New Zealand player was injured and the savage anti-NZ venom spoiled the game for us and we decided not to watch games at a pub again.  (Her actual comment was, 'Now you understand why I don't identify with my own country.')

I thought maybe the pub crowd had been extreme, but in July this year I read about the art of 'niggle' in the Guardian and suddenly understood a lot about Australia that I had not understood before, despite living here since 1987. The 'niggle' is what I hadn't understood.

So for the booing public the thought of being sent to New Zealand to learn would be the ultimate humiliation.

New Zealand has been on a steep learning curve regarding race relations over the past forty years and it's cross Tasman friend has a lot of catching up to do.   I hope First Dog's treatment facility has accommodation for long term guests.

Addendum. 2/8/15 The Sydney Swans crowd today gave Goodes a standing ovation. A thousand T shirts with the number 37 printed on them (his number) were handed out and the crowd was a sea of red and white carrying messages of support. When our leaders don't lead, it is up to us.

Rain and roses

I was in Wellington only five days but hearing Christine Goerke and Simon O'Neill sing up a storm at the Wagner Gala was worth the trip across the Tasman.

Pouring rain greeted me on my return but my pet Valentines Day rose looks very happy despite the wet. It has produced another crop of flowers, the third since I bought it looking dry and sad. It is clearly very pleased with its new pot.  I didn't think roses thrived in Sydney's humid climate but they obviously do when it is cool and wet. I shall be interested to see when my lone rose decides it is time to hibernate and whether it survives our humid warm summer.