Wotan's Christmas

'Wotan's Christmas' Card
by elizabethgw

A card for lovers of Richard Wagner's music. (Folk like me!) 


 

See other cards at zazzle

Tognetti's Beethoven (and Greenwoods' Water)

 

The Sydney Opera House was full today for the concert Tognetti's Beethoven.  The concert was a winner, delighting the audience. (And for those who wondered what that extraordinarily touching  encore was, it was Janáček ‘Goodnight’ from On an Overgrown Path.)

One of the pieces featured in the concert was Water by multi-talented Radiohead lead guitarist Jonny Greenwood, a piece which got great reviews when it was premiered in London a month or so ago.

Personally I loved the Beethoven, all three pieces played: Coriolan – Overture, Symphony No.1, Triple Concerto.   If I had to choose between them, I would choose the Triple Concerto which I found very moving. The instrumental 'conversation' between violin (Richard Tognetti), piano (Yevgeny Sudbin) and cello (Timo-Veikko Valve) was inspirational and I kept thinking how much fun it must have been to practice.

Below is a great little video of Tognetti talking about the Beethoven and then the Greenwood collaboration.

And here is an ACO blogpost about Greenwood and the ACO

Ceramic pots for spices and herbs

Blue/black spice jars with eggs
Acrylic on Canvas
38 x 76cm

Spice jars seem to have gone out of fashion, perhaps because people use so many different spices now and plastic shakers are easier. Herbs and spices are better kept in the dark though so ceramic pots might make a come-back.

I have had these pots for a very long time and have carried them with me on every move. It was only when I started making ceramics myself that I realised that a lot of the small items I treasure are ceramic ... like these pots.

Blue Duck

Blue Duck
Acrylic on Canvas
30 x 30 cm

The blue porcelain duck looks down at me from the shelf and smiles. Quack!

I make cards from some paintings to sell at my local coffee shop (below). Originally I made cards with paintings of local places as they seemed to fill a gap.

Then I discovered that birthday cards were really what was wanted, so I added them to the collection. Of course they can be bought online as well.

Blue Duck Birthday Card
by elizabethgw

Blue Duck Congratulations
by elizabethgw

A patient duck at the bus stop

Duck waits at Woy Woy bus stop

This duck was waiting patiently at the bus stop in Woy Woy yesterday.  She seemed to know that although the buses may not always be on time but they do come eventually.

The old eggbeater

Eggbeater
Acrylic on canvas
38 x 67 cm

My 'domestic items' painting spree continues, this time my mother's old eggbeater which I remember being used when I was a child.

Mother's passion was gardening, but she was also an excellent cook and her eggbeater got a lot of use, right to the day she died.I don't think she ever owned one of the more modern mixers.

Couple

I painted over an old picture of two life drawing models done at wonderful a Michael Taylor workshop held in Grafton nearly 10 years ago.

The eggbeater is an improvement on the original painting!

Painted Egg-beater card
by elizabethgw

The Hunter: cup and saucer (with books)

Blue and white cup and saucer
30 x 30cm, acrylic on canvas

This cup and saucer was bought from an op shop ages ago. It has been on my 'discard' list for some time but it seems to survive all purges. It is English china made by MYOTT, with a blue and white pattern called The Hunter.

You discover when you attempt to make a ceramic cup how important handles are. This cup has an elongated handle and although you can't get your finger through it, you can balance the cup between your second and third fingers using the bottom of elongated handle.It might sound complicated but our hands do it naturally. Try holding some of your own cups and see what I mean.

Happy Birthday, blue and white china with books by elizabethgw

Twelve ducklings

A month in the northern hemisphere has thrown my seasons instinct out of whack. Yesterday I saw these ducklings and part of my head was saying to itself 'ducklings in autumn?' Of course, here it is spring, as this brood attests.

Ducks are my favorite bird, but they are notoriously bad mothers. This one and her twelve little ducklings were splashing delightedly in a puddle on the side of the road. Lets  hope at least some of them survive the traffic and the cats.

Sketches of the Gypsy Devils

Silvia Šarköziová of the Gypsy Devils

The Gypsy Devils are a fantastic band who played with the Maribor Festival Orchestra at the Maribor Music Festival in Slovenia, September,2014. They played with verve and received an enthusiastic ovation. Sketches from the festival are online at the artsmitten gallery.

Štefan Banyák of the Gypsy Devils

Orange cup 'n' saucer

old cup and saucer,
acrylic on canvas, 25 x 25 cm.

There is a lot of purple in the pattern on this old cup and saucer, but somehow I think of it as orange.

There is a chip on the saucer, but I love it anyway.  It was in my mother's cupboard and I think it once belonged to my grandmother who loved and collected old/antique ceramics; most of the pieces she collected were chipped or mended as she had a robust family of four.

Painting: still life

Cup and saucer, green with dots
Acrylic on canvas, 30 x 25 cm

When you travel in the company of someone who doesn't paint, you tend not to paint very much yourself.   I did very little painting in Europe and arrived home with a need to paint that has resulted in small pictures of favorite things.

Here is my green cup and saucer.

A different green

When you travel from Australia to northern Europe the thing that impresses most is the greenness of your new environment. Green green green, rushing past the train windows, green when you look out your window, green everywhere ... apart from inner city Berlin where green becomes grey.

European green

Australian green

Coffee in Australia

Favorite coffee in favorite coffee cup

Ah coffee! Yum, swoon!

One of the best things about being back in Australia is the coffee. We prefer a bitter brew here, real Italian coffee.  Germany prefers a smoother less bitter roast.

The cup and saucer in the picture are a favourite of mine. They were bought in Wanganui in about 2003 during a last trip there with my already very frail father.

Changi's jagged mirrrors

Changi airport has very swish women's rest-rooms. Even if you are jet-lagged they are worth a photo.

Restroom selfie at Changi

Near the Lorelei

Weisel: with slate walls and a sun-shine tree. (View up Altpforter Stree)t

History marks people, even centuries later.

Our last stop in Europe was in Weisel, a small village 5 km from the Lorelei on the Rhine River. There is a slate pit in the gorge leading to the Rhine and many of the houses in Weisel have slate walls as well as roofs.  It is a neat and tidy place. The few shops hidden away in houses just have a small sign indicating that there is a bank, a hairdressing salon or a shop within. Last time I was here the bank was housed in a cow stall; now it has a more salubrious setting on the town square. All the houses are inhabited, but you would never know if you just walked through.

We were at the end of a history tour of Germany, a history of invasions and battles, often battles fought between invading armies on German soil. The old Germans fought the Romans here and the Swedes swept through as they fought Napolean, finally sending the Napoleonic army packing. My friend in Weisel tells me history that has marked the local community and that it is no wonder people barricade themselves in their homes and are wary of strangers.

If you are in the area Weisel is worth a visit - especially as there is a good restaurant hidden away here.  It is called Hannots and is housed in a quaint old building in Altpforter Street (picture) one of the main streets in the village. Hannots  is as welcoming as anyone could wish. The cook knows his trade and attracts people from surrounding areas. It makes a nice change from tourist restaurants on the Rhine. If you do visit, make sure you go upstairs to view the paintings of the Weisel and the Kauber Platte which hang on the upper floor.

Fill 'er up

Hamburg: electric cars plugged into 'filling stations'.

The way the 'bowsers' and plugs mimic petrol bowsers reminds me of the first cars which looked like horse drawn buggies. One day there will be small mounds in the pavement that a car automatically latches onto when parked. But perhaps by that time cars will just have been replaced by train-like modules that lock onto others once a destination has been chosen.

Art in Hamburg

In the Hamburg Kunsthalle

After an unsuccessful attempt to sketch the fountain in the middle of the Inner Alster lake from a cold and windy seat to the north (my sketch equipment kept blowing away), a visit to the Hamburg Kunstmuseum (art gallery) was a welcome and warm relief. Most of the building is being renovated but a well curated selection of works was on display in the basement of the one building still open. Old and new work nicely juxtaposed.

Alster Lake with fountain

Elbphilhamonie

In 2007 building started on the Elbphilharmonie, a brand new concert hall for the Hamburg Philharmonic orchestra built in the Speicherstadt (warehouse area) on the River Elbe. It is still inching toward completion, with cranes atop and cloth swathing the brickwork of the lower stories.

It looks different from each side.  Viewed from a ferry on the Elbe, the building looks like a giant sailing ship. The brick warehouse buildings are a nice counterpoint to the glass sailing ship. 

Wifi on Sunday morning

The radio beside her is transmitting a church service but it is in German, an as-yet unlearned language for this 15 year old, so she checks her WiFi contacts undisturbed. One of the results of this history tour is that she is now keen to learn her mother's language.

Breathing deeply in Hamburg's green

After five days in the middle of Berlin the lush green of Hamburg sooths the travel weary soul.