Guitar plate

This plate, terracotta clay with a white slip, was made on a self made mold. The guitar pattern was made by scratching a pattern through the slip. The trick is to put enough slip on the plate. If you paint the slip on you need at least three coats. Of all the plates I made in the 'Plate Project', the terracotta plates with white slip interested me most. Perhaps that is because they provide a good canvas for drawing.

Learning about Matisse

Our art theory class is held in an old sandstone building, part of the convict prison. They have installed heaters now so it is not uncomfortable, but it must have beeen once.

Kiln products

A terracotta bowl with black music (Tristan and Isolde!)
This flat plate is made of white stoneware clay. The face is made of slip, which is the sloppy mess you have when you mix clay with water.

Zipper plate

This zipper plate was made by making a mould with a zipper pressed into it. The name on the zipper, Luigi, is intelligible through the glaze.

NAS

The National Art School is housed on an old prison, a very old prison right in the center of Sydney. It is peaceful despite the location as the thick walls are great insulation.
The ceramics workshop is a congenial place to work.

The lawnmower

Art and Music

This is a painting by Rupprecht Geiger called 402/64. Geiger was one of Germany's foremost abstract artists and painted mainly in red. (His obituary in 1996 was titled 'A life for the colour red.')

I am writing an essay about 'meaningful and compelling' relationships between art and music. The painting I have chosen is 402/64. The music is Wagner's Tristan und Isolde and my essay is turning out to be much more interesting than expected .... as essays should be of course.

Bathing: then and now

There are 60 years between these photos. One baby is the grandmother of the other baby ...

The colour version...

Patonga Inlet

Patonga Inlet had an autumnal feel early this morning as the sun rose over a flat calm sea.

Miriam

This was painted in 2006 ... and remains one of my favorite images. I have it on my camera and it always seems to survive my purges of old images.

What's allowed and what's not

Graphite sketch on A1 paper, transposed from the sketch done at the AGNSW ... with added bronze figure. It relates to an essay I am writing comparing the fuss caused by a French painting in 1850 with that caused by an Oz photo in 2008. One fuss was about politics and the other about nudity ... which says something about France and Oz respectively I suppose.

Immovable figures

The model for life drawing didn't turn up this week so off we went to the AGNSW to draw the sculptures. Sculptures can hold the pose soooo long ....

Music in Hamilton

Hamilton (NZ) appears rather flat and featureless to those passing by in a bus. Then this unique music store pops into view. It is right oppostite the Hamilton bus station.

At the Bar and Baa

Arrive at your Auckland Airport (early flight next day) accomodation by late bus and you have few expectations of food outlets in small shopping strips nearby. Then, surprise surprise, you find a hidden gem. The Bar and Baa near Mangere serves the most delicious Greek Fish, has friendly hosts and an A rating.

While I savoured my Greek Fish dish I drew the customers at a nearby table.

Ninety Years Old

The guests thought ninety was a grand age to be; the birthday girl decided 60 was better and turned the 9 upside down.

Data

My extended warrenty (three years) had only 2 weeks to run so I finally took my laptop to the computer doctor to get the faulty sound repaired. It arrived back yesterday after almost four weeks: new hard drive, new mother board, data gone to data heaven.

Beatles

Insomnia ... surfing the web ... finding a bit of nostalgia... great song though... and great haircuts.

Opera Bar

Under the forecourt of the Sydney Opera House, overlooking the Sydney Harbour Bridge, is the Opera Bar, a bar where Sydney's bright young things meet on Friday nights. Passing tourists join them to sit at high bar stools in the balmy evening air. As the numbers grow the noise crescendos. Everyone shouts to make themselves heard and passers by on the upper forecourt lean against the railings above to watch the animated frenzy.

Cockatoo Island Images

The cavernous buildings, the old machinery, the dwarfed students and the light that has a cathedral feel.

Cockatoo Island Drawing Week

Cockatoo Island is a small island in Sydney Harbour, once covered in red gums and frequented by sulphur crested cockatoos. A prison was built there early on, then it was converted to a shipyard then it spent some time in abandonment. Nowadays the public can visit and the National Art School sends all its second and third year students there for a drawing week at the start of the school year.
The old shipyard buildings are enormous ... ... and mainly bare though some of the original equipment remains.
During 'drawing week' there are students everywhere, sitting in corners and along walls, dwarfed by the size of the buildings.