King Street Theatre ... knockout opening!

It was a knockout opening. The King Street Theatre opened last night after long rennovations and the assembled guests couldn't believe their eyes. I couldn't believe my eyes either. In the morning I had been there to help hang my paintings but when I left there were still carpenters and lighting people on ladders, a man laying carpets and mess everywhere. By 6pm the place had been miraculously transformed.

Twelve noon on opening day

6pm on opening night

When the guests arrived at 6:30 the show began. A pianist played, a singer sang, Sylvia performed a wonderful one-person piece about selling wine and the guests watched entranced.

Gifted pianist and singer entertain

Sylvia performs

Guests are entranced

About 10pm when most of the guests had gone, Mel sang a thank you song for Markus who sat with his arm around his daughter and tears in his eyes. The pianist read the notes from his ipod!

Markus and daughter

Mel sings

Then Maria and a friend sang Summertime.

Singing Summertime

One of the guests said, "This is So New York!"
I thought "and so Berlin, and so special."

Last minute drama

I dropped in to the theatre today to see how the paintings were hung and found the place crawling with electricians putting in lighting and plugs. There were also painters giving the final coat of paint to the bathrooms, actors rehearsing and the Intendant wringing his hands because the seats need to be installed before this weekend's performances.
The paintings were still in a row on the floor!

One Direction

One Direction T shirt with figures by my friend Ruby. (If you are into One Direction and you like this shirt there is a link under the picture to the sales site.)

I Love Zayn, Niall, Louis, Liam, Harry T shirt by kookykids

King Street Theatre ready to fly

The King Street Theatre has had a major revamp and is almost ready for opening night.

new paint - new lights - new vibe

The new paint finishes are ready, the actors are rehearsing their new play and paintings for the first exhibition are stacked against the wall.

paintings awaiting hanging

If you want a little taste of what will be on the walls - have a look here. I will post a picture when they are hung.

Strelitzia

Strelitzia flowers are so fantastical that they can easily overtake a canvas, which they did on my first attempt to paint them.  I gessoed over the result and tried again and this time they were better behaved.

Strelitzia

An enormous Strelitzia

At my front door there is an enormous Strelitzia plant that should be dug out, or at least divided.

Digging up and/or dividing would take a lot of muscle and would probably be best done in winter. While I wait and contemplate how it could be done I paint.

Ruhig atmen

Love this picture taken at a German opera house. This is what the singers see before the curtain rises.  Translation: Breath calmly, take a deep breath, don't stress!

Curtain (from a Facebook friend's page)

There is a lot more to singing than meets the eye.

Rumbalara Reserve

If you drive up, up, up Dolly Avenue in the Gosford suburb of Springfield, then on into the Rumbalara Reserve the narrow road leads to picnic spots with spectacular views across Gosford and the Brisbane Waters.

Watercolour: view over Gosford from the Yaruga Lookout

View over Gosfotrd from Rumbalara Reserve

Sometimes a painting can say more than a photograph.

Dawn

The days are getting shorter and daylight saving has finished. Sunrise is just after 6 am.

Sun rise last Thursday at Umina Beach

Standing on the table looking out to sea

This is what they are looking at.

The car park was full even at 6am last Thursday as surfers gathered to try their Easter luck. Next year the surf life saving  championships are being held at Umina Beach, a much safer beach than the Gold Coast which has claimed several lives over the last couple of years.

New Lawnmower

Its red and black, with a four stroke engine which runs along by itself if you pull the right handle. Yes, my new lawnmower is much flasher than I expected to buy and came from Aldi of all places, the German grocery store that seems to sell so much other stuff I am not sure if it qualifies as grocery store any more. Dear old  Victa Twostroke did wonderful service but when you wanted him to stop you had to lift the handle so high he was drained of petrol. Today I put Victa on the road with a sign saying 'Sill works" and within an hour he was gone to his new home.  Dear old Victa. Will I become as fond of the Gladiator?

Victa Twostroke

The Gladiator

Lilies

I bought a bunch of lilies on whim the other day, then decided I should paint them before they wilted. So, quite unexpectedly, I now have two lilies paintings.

I threw the wilted lilies out today and marvelled at the magic of paint that has captured them on canvas.

Picasso

The Picasso Exhibition has finished and judging by the number of people there on the day I went, it must have been the most visited exhibition ever held at the Art Gallery of NSW.

Picasso: The Acrobat 1930 (from the AGNSW website)

In addition to exhibition visitors there were many school classes that had come to look at other things. The place was buzzing.

School children lunching opposite the Art Gallery of  NSW.

Opera in the Aboretum

The Aboretum in Pearl Beach is a santuary for over 90 species including threatened species like Koalas, Glossy Black Cockatoo and Barking Owl. It is also, once a year, a sanctuary for opera fans who gather to hear their favorite arias sung in the wild. Last Sunday the fifth Opera in the Aboretum was held...

Opera Fans in the Pearl Beach Arboretum

on a perfect sunny day. People brought picnics and chatted as the sound systems were tested but when the performance began a dead silence fell. The silence was  interrupted only by the Kookaburras who seemed to have a particular relationship to the mezzo soprano vocal range. Twice they joined in to accompany Mezzo Soprano Milijana Nikolic.

 

Performers at the Pearl Beach Opera in the Aboretum

Chris Bearman conducted the Central Coast Conservatorium String Orchestra

Watercolours of the event are on artsmitten.com

Watercolour class #1 with pears

The first watercolour class was last night and it was good fun. We painted pears on the cheapest and the most expensive paper I could find.

Pears: Williams painted on the cheapest paper (left) and Beurré Bosc painted on the most expensive (right)

Fruit is always a good motive and I took bananas, apples, pears, tomatoes, though we only used the pears. This week I will be eating fruit for breakfast lunch and dinner.

Food Risk Management

It was pointed out to me the other day that we are all one transport catastrophe away from starvation and the best risk management strategy is to plant a vege garden. My couple of plants of silver beet wont sustain me so  today I took all the onions and ginger that had spouted before I could cook them and poked into the ground.
Step by step.

Sprouting red onion and ginger on ceramic music plate.

Qantas

Twenty years ago I lived next to a Qantas engineer who complained bitterly about sliding maintenance standards; 10 years ago I sat in an MBA class with a Qantas board member who distinguished herself by being 99% ambition and 1% customer-care; one year ago my Frankfurt-Sydney other-airline flight was overbooked and I was offered 300 Euro to move to a Qantas flight. I remembered the maintenance man and the board member and declined.

Qantas plane over suburban Sydney

Why am I not surprised by Qantas's current malaise?

Coffeeshop counselling

At both tables next to mine in the coffee shop today people were talking about relationships, how to manage blended families/access rights/the new partner. It takes a lot of sorting out, this world of relationships in flux. As the words flowed around me I drew the two little figurines on the shelf.

Boy and Girl: figurines on the coffee shop shelf.

Propping up the bar

The Patonga Pub is a wonderful old building set right on the water at Patonga which is just over the hill from where I live. On Saturdays and Sundays people come by the ferry and by car to enjoy the ambient. There are often live music performances on Saturday evenings and the numbers swell.

These pictures are of the locals at the bar. I just put them and others from Patonga up on artsmitten.com

Archibald Entry

The Archibald Portrait competition held at the Art Gallery of NSW always features prominently in the media and is the cause of much discussion (and often controversy) in both art and non-art circles. I took my entry in on Tuesday. There were lots of trucks, vans and cars delivering paintings while I was there. It is always interesting to catch a glimpse of paintings submitted for the three big prizes given at this time of year: Archibald (Portrait), Sulman (Genre) and Wynne (Landscape.

The Soloist

Mine was a painting of Richard Tognetti, painted from sketches I did at the Maribor Music Festival last year.

Leaf curling spiders

Suddenly my garden is full of spiders webs with curled leaves stuck in them. Inside the curled leaves sit the spiders, waiting for prey. I had often seen the leaves but had thought they had been blown there by the wind. Now I read that the spiders pull them up from the ground and use them to shield themselves from predators. They are 'leaf dwelling spiders' Phonognatha graeffei.