David and his amazing electric yarn

David came back from fencing duty at his property and straight to his studio.
Must have brought some strange energy back with him as his weaving yarn decided to pretend it was an octopus or maybe it was doing the dance of the yarn :)

when he called me it was a spectacular sight

it marginally deflated

but still pretty amazing performance for yarn!

Joy and Alistair's exhibition in Bathurst

Yesterday Joy and Alistair had an exhibition opening with Catherine Hale at Frame Effect in Bathurst. Some of our group went in support and then joined the artists for a dinner and had a BLAST! We're all a bit fragile today but boy it was worth it :)  We ate and drunk and laughed and laughed and laughed :D

Herbert and Jola

Alistair's beautiful work

Joy's exceptional landscape art

Phil in signature red

Susie, our vice president and John

Joy on the right in the gallery space

Jim and Leiarna, the owners with the three artists

Robyn and Edwina

nice bunch :)

two beautiful ladies

some special label wine for the evening

it sure was a happy occasion :D

John and the amazing technicolour paint job

Just when we thought we had it all under control we discovered some low life stole 6 of our perimeter sleepers..... This time John DR filled in the gaps by himself..... we thankfully had a few spares.
We also had some foul smelling paint in one of our store rooms. When I say foul, I mean really extremely excruciatingly disgustingly smelling paint. Gay, John and I should have worn protective clothing and masks as the smell did not leave our clothing or nostrils for hours....
The idea was to coat the wood and make it unattractive to whoever has decided to steal from artists.

John doing a balancing act

saturating the wood with foul goop

we used all the big tins, useful for nothing else

Gay trying to pry open another fossilised tin

believe it or not paint is not supposed to bubble and make eyes water

in the end it all looked quite 'arty', a happy ending after all :)

Wine Week

Tis true, today was the final Wine Week day that we opened.
Why it's called a week when it went for 10 days mystifies me....
I'll just fill you in a bit with some photos on firstly, the preparation. Besides the people below, Peter M, Peter G, Gay and Denis were a great help too, thank you all for getting another exhibition together.

El Presidente fixing our torn sign

all the hanging chains sorted and awaiting........

contact cement and back patch

resulted in an immaculate sign back where it belongs :)

our new publicity officer, Aida with John hanging around the corridors :)

Judy our excellently attired cleaning lady

Susie in the downstairs corridors filling the walls with art and laughter :D

and Gillian removing the dust and detritus off our floors :)

Well as part of Taste Orange Wine Week the current CCC exhibition is vibrant as usual, though personally I have found the display less colourful than the Frost Fest show. But hey, taste is gained via the eyes of the beholder so don’t take this as any indication.

The usual creatives have put their minds to work but we also have the talent of new comer David Lamont with his weaving up on the first floor, Daniel Cooke has a few nice items that make the main gallery very welcoming and a must see is the magpie and geese painting of Madam Hutton. Also in the main gallery you will see the garden stepping stones by Ms. McKenzie a lead-lighter extraordinaire who has put her talent to cement and ceramics. A number of these pieces sold while she was placing them on the artificial grass.

Let me expand on a Hutton piece involving a magpie. The story is, while on a farm doing work they occasionally fed the animals near by, but the magpie sat back unable to get with the action. Once all the working bee had concluded and they laid down their tools the magpie perched itself on an old fence post and began to squawk/sing. This attracted three geese who then stood below the fence post watching and listening to the maggie do its thing. They did this for a full 20 minutes not moving a feather or making a sound. With this story in mind you view the painting with a greater appreciation.

As you read this some paintings have already disappeared to buyers/visitors which is a very positive sign. Mind you the gift shop has lots of small items that are proving popular as well and the executive encourages members to produce those little things that interest the kids and mums with a limited budget. On that note there is a fabulous new idea being developed which will be specifically for the shop; perfect for the kids, and adults at heart.

Trust you will call into the Barracks and have a gander. We’re open 10am until 4pm through to Friday 27th October.

John DaRin

Michael Carroll's 'sketches from an unscripted journey' book launch

One of our creatives, Michael Carroll has published a book late last year 'sketches from an unscripted journey' and has put his brush aside again to draw. Hoping he'll have something finished for the Wine Week exhibition :)
His website has a bit more about him, http://www.michaelcarroll.com.au/  if you care to have a look.
Michael is a brilliant artist able to detail or elegantly communicate with the minimum of strokes.

book cover

"Foal"

"Hands on Farming"

Michael the painter at the Barracks

Sleeper of a working bee

We've had our first external working bee yesterday. Phil and David moved the sleepers into place at the back of the building so when visitors come and park they don't drive off the hill!
Today Pete tried to do some mowing but the equipment had total failure and instead he's in repair mode.

Inside the barracks Susie and David have had made inroads into getting us ready for the Wine Week festival on Thursday by taking down all the art from the walls in readiness for some beautiful contributions coming from the creatives. Yesterday I moved all last exhibition's art into the new store art area so all the walls are ready and did a quick vacuum with a proper clean after we hang all the art. Our Joy who is at the Barracks almost every day, always does a bit of maintenance clean so the place is never grotty :)

The art has started to come in as Dennis with the help of Gay hung his art in Gallery 2. Gallery 1 has Alistair's art waiting to be hung up but there are lots of gorgeous empty walls to be filled so bring it in creatives!

Positioning the sleepers on the edge of the hill, don't want anyone driving off and onto the rail line!

David in motion :)

Picking up another sleeper, great team work!

Can you spot Mindi in the grass? poor little thing :)

So after all the hard work they still had enough energy to be creative :)

El Presidente..... planking :D

ta da!

Some news for all who did not have the time to attend our General Annual Meeting. We had our office bearer's election and the new President is Philip Salmon, Vice President is Susie Hillenbrand, Treasurer is  Anita Craw, Secretary is Ann Harrison and the new Publicity Officer is Aida Pottinger.

A BIG thank you to: Aida Pottinger (ex-president), Phil Salmon (ex-vice president), Pete Gore (ex-treasurer), John Da Rin (ex-secretary) and Joy Engelman (ex-publicity) who did such a fantastic job in those positions last year :)  we salute you and your excellent contribution to the growth of CCC at the Barracks.

We've been so busy getting the Barracks ready for Frost Fest, cleaning inside and out it's been just too much to write anything!
We're now half way through the Frost Fest with all work hung and even having visitors in this single digit temperatures of winter in Orange. Amazing how much people love art :)

One of our very talented members, Aileen Francis has been teaching us how to yarn bomb.... who knew! It's a fantabulous thing to do. She first did two panels for the front of out barracks building and our old lady looks so much better for it!.
During the festival Aileen has shared her knowledge and we've had a mini workshop of Tunisian Crochet using her vast collection of yarn. How lucky are we! Judy, Margot, Susie, Joy and moi all sat in the heated Gallery 2 making pieces for our hand rail to hopefully compliment the panels installed by Aileen.

Guess who yarn bombed the cow sculptures which stand proudly at the entrance to Orange city?

The entrance of our Barracks studios looking very fetching :) in Tunisian finery :)

Aileen adding colour to our handrails to compliment her beautiful yarn panels.

Judy, Susie and Joy with Margot out of shot, bonding over some colourful yarn :)

moi, sewing on my little contribution :)

The cow sculptures in their new finery, funny as :D

General Getogether!

While we had a quiet start to the get together, it got a bit rowdier as time went on!'

We met new members, saw some amazing easel that Aida has purchased, imbibed, nibbles and chatted our way through the evening and into the night.

Our monthly get togethers are for all members to bring their works, discuss ideas, promote their arts businesses and workshops, meet each other and generally be 'arts bores' in a friendly environment with like-minded souls and eccentrics! It's our 'cafe' night so why not come along next month and join in a welcoming evening amongst friends! Second Thursday of every month at 5.30 pm.

Please note in your diaries: Frost Fest - Open Studios & Exhibitions will be on once again from 30 July - 4 August 2013...... open daily...... 10 am - 4 pm. This is always a great way to promote your work through exhibiting, manning the Barracks Galleries, demonstrating your painting style or other creative pursuit...... you would be amazed at the people who come to visit and the fabulous responses we get to the whole show!

Remember to bookmark this site and come back for details of what's on at the Barracks Galleries & Studios - your art space!

Another night of fun and laughter! FOOD Week comes to a close!

Well everybody!

After an exciting week at the Barracks, we have all laughed a lot, painted a bit and met many new faces! We even made a few sales for our artists! So all in all! A GOOD Week - FOOD Week!

But to bring the week to a satisfying conclusion, we are having our usual night of dancing, eating, imbibing and generally having a get together to celebrate the 'life of artists!' and as usual, you are more than welcome to join us!

So come along to the Barracks Galleries this Saturday night, 20 April 2013 at 7.30 for our FOOD Week Celebration Party! See you there!

FOOD WEEK Art Experience about to begin! So come along and join in!

Today is the last day of hanging the show and whew, what a couple of days it has been but the grounds and galleries are spotless and starting to look good!

 Artists have started hanging their works and what a bright and colourful group of painters we have! There's some fabulous work on display! So be inspired! Come and join us over FOOD Week to see inside the artists' studios, talk about art, think about art and have a experience of the heart!

 FOOD Week Art Experience is open daily from 10 am - 4 pm

12 - 21 April 2013