Banjo Paterson Festival preparations 1

We have started to get ready by pruning, weeding, mulching and taking the decorations down from Gallery 2 and the stairwell. Modest beginnings but a good start none the less, more next weekend and through the week :)
Also found a crop of field mushrooms under the bushes, bonus!

Flix In The Stix coming

Hey y'all, the annual Fix in the Stix is coming Saturday 21 February starting at 6 pm. Phil, myself and others go every year and have a fantastic time. You get short films, comedy and music, there's food and drink there but we usually take our own picnic. Just thought to send the opportunity to all youse funsters without actually clogging your mailbox :) We have our tickets already.... and the quality looks even better this year,  http://www.flixinthestix.com.au/orange

watercolour class

Joy Engelman held another successful watercolour class at the Barracks, this time in Gallery 1.
From the happy faces and art produced it was another nurturing event from our talented and generous Joy.
If you get a chance to attend one of these, grab the opportunity as you will receive a surfeit of information and guidance from an artist who has had many years of experience and success.

The start of getting ready for Banjo Paterson Festival this weekend

Just sent out the call to arms for the Banjo Paterson Festival to youse all wonderful CCC members.
If I missed some, please let me know. Margie Moon's email address is just not working and Joy's bounced back too, but I tried another which hopefully will hit the target :)
You would have received the schedule and to do list in the email, as you see in this post.
The To Do List will be pinned to the board near the entrance so you can put your name against the jobs you'd like to do to help us all look good.
Bring your wonderful art for exhibition from Saturday 31 January and last day is 4 February. This gives us enough time to curate, make the labels and hang it all.
Need volunteers for the opening night organising too.....
Lets make this another amazing exhibition you creatives :)

Banjo Paterson Festival, approaches

I can see Joy Engelman, just for a lark,

painting The Man from Snowy River, and The Man from Ironbark.

Of course there’s Jola the linear beast, no doubt her work will be of the geese.

You’ve not heard of the geese that wondered the Doom

to the edge of the Snowy where they were stuffed with prune.

Cosmic Susie will venture into the unknown

and return with Banjo on a side salad with Cohen.

“T’is he”, she says, with lighting smile,

“Go walk the labyrinth, it’s only a quarter mile”.

Then there is Aida a gloomy femme

who paints nude women instead of men.

“Is she here or is she there”, said Banjo on a dare,

“I’d rather she clean out the cupboards with her breasts in the air”.

And what with her hands could Ms Frances do?

Probably depicting young Banjo all covered in poo.

It would be the hat, that everyone knows,

which Frances would build to protect poor Banjo’s toes.

Girls in frocks with bouquet and top

once pounce on young Banjo with their legs almost crossed.

“It’s the hat, the hat that brings us to cry.

For without the hat, young Banjo, would simply die”.

Giovanni

Bit of experimenting in the studio while all is quiet

I love my lines and while Phil was working on the wood that he and John had wrenched from the collection of palletes, I did some experimenting in my studio.....

 on base paper I placed some cotton

 then after some time the cotton accumulated into a rhythm of line

 

I then sprayed some colour, made sure it accumulated along the lines

 

 and after some blotting, I removed the cotton to reveal some beautiful texture and line and direction

 definite potential here

 of course I was too eager and removed the cotton before the paper was dry so I tore it.....

 but that does not matter as I have my proof of concept  :) I am a happy little creator, I am :)

Between Xmas and New Year 2015

Had a wonderful time with family over the holiday season with 3 Christmas feasts and a Boxing day feast that almost finished us off with the excitement of being on a boat watching the start of the Sydney to Hobart race. I have never seen this before and it was just one of the most exciting days!

a little cake my sister Irena whipped up, inside were the content of 2 bottles of alcohol hiding in the fruit :)

Mindi sang us a few carols :)

the boats are a racing

iconic Sydney

el Presidente on the high seas :)

Salmon Flathead Productions video of a series of interviews of CCC is online!

Hey y'all John and Phil have polished up the Salmon Flathead Productions video of and about CCC. Check it out, it's pretty great!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=plDq0fVmms8

low life = vandals

Our beautiful building has been attacked by humanity's low life, the vandal, the cowardly leech of society, sucking on the hard work of the people who give their time to society, the low life that scurry in the dark, the barnackles that mar the surface of our day..... I find it hard to say what I want to say 'nicely'..... they do not deserve to reproduce and I curse them!
John thinks it was their way of protesting at the fence being put up and future blocking of the shortcut. Obviously the safe passage over the bridge is just too daunting for those who'd rather scurry in the undergrowth!
I am angry because it is not us who are putting the fence up but it is us who have to live with the damage, clean up the shards of glass and possibly not be able to be barefoot on our carpet for a looooooooooong time.
The building is over 75 years old and the glass just shattered into sharp shrapnel that glitters with menace even after multiple vacuumings.
The Railway Corp. will send a glazier, but we don't know when, so with the rains still predicted we had to put something over the 15 panes in the 4 windows that bore the brunt of the protest.

the upstairs corridor with the ballast lying along the broken glass

the shards of glass littering the carpet

4 of the 15 panes, broken; in all 3 studios damaged and the corridor window

Philip affixing some contact paper to Kimberley's studio window

John making sure Peter's studio gets no damage from the coming rain

my studio with clear contact on 4 of the 5 broken panes, a creative symmetry of violence

the contact paper and the lines of the broken glass have a certain poetically stark beauty.....

Luckily no art was damaged, the scum did not break into the building and for that we thank the good spirits that live in our building and protected us from potential disaster.

New art from Thea Bourne

Thea Bourne, our master of charcoal and pastel has delivered four artworks that are breathtaking in their control of medium and expression of colour.... love, love, love it!
You'll have to come during the next festival, when we'll have a new exhibition, to view these and many other extraordinary creative expressions this area is so abundant in.

New fence almost at lockup stage

Here's the picks of our new fence and gate almost at lockup stage. The Railways decided to lock up the rail tracks to stop possible human tragedy of people and trains colliding. The walkway is very popular with some who like a shortcut :)