pinch and a punch...

... first day of the month!

This morning I booked tickets for a trip to Sydney leaving tomorrow before everything begins in earnest. I was to go on this holiday at Xmas but you know how it goes when the year's been too fast and too full.... given the chance to change your mind sometimes home can seem like simply the best place to be.

Now I feel so much more ready for a week and a half of walking here and there, catching up with friends whilst staying with family, and viewing some interesting shows. With that studio overhaul I've really gotten back into painting (and using my camera) so the return home will be to an organised living space and studio with  plans well under way for the months to come.

First I wanted to share some shots taken of that special painting job referred to last month here. A Xmas gesture to my mother was this room makeover! I possibly should have taken these in less of a rush... the light is not good and low res images don't help ... but you can get a sense of the finished room I hope.

the corner next to the door with the stained glass circle window

looks like someone is now proud owner of a new painting!

a cosy corner for writing and reading...
light filmy curtains are a must in the sub-tropics!

a place for momentos

I don't seem to have managed to get much colour consistency in my shots to show the particular grey I used. What I will say is that it works beautifully... the new colour is both soothing and pleasing.

Best of all it was greatly appreciated and well worth all the days of effort to see the smiles and pleasure it has brought. Just a few tasks remain to cross off the list... a couple of pictures to hang, whilst the door needs to be painted carefully as layers of paint were revealed after a washing down with sugar soap. The rest was far less complicated.

On another note altogether, last night I gave a slide presentation for a local environmental community group's monthly meeting in a library close by the Botanic Gardens at Mt Coot-tha. It was great to meet people again I'd met before and have interesting conversations with new people.... a delightful crowd indeed.

This was the perfect chance to review aspects of my work from recent and earlier times through the process of putting this together. I like to put ideas into context so there was imagery representing the span of time, right back to fossil seeds all the way through to recent past and present. Ive selected a few images here from what was a diverse coverage of the topic.

2009 - homage to the seed dinner in 2009

postcards sent by lovely bloggers for the Mail Art Show
in homage to the seed 2010

introducing the ideas behind the oval painting below

discussing the KEW MSB residency late last Year in the UK

drawings of a Lebanese seed pod that was quite fascinating

Wolfgang Stuppy contact person for my residency... below
seeds he's photographed in his work as a Seed Morphologist

talking about my projects for 2012... one of which is to
produce a book that expands on the previous one from 2010

my work from the last few weeks... concertina books

There were 168 images on the slideshow, some content heavy, others simply offering visual variations on a theme... stimulus that prompts questions and so on. They were such a wonderful group... very engaged and open. The entire process... first assembling the focus and thread of ideas in the slides yesterday, and later presenting, was a fantastic experience. I learn so much from  recapping and formulating the overview that speaks to the central themes in the work and project, close up and at large.

If you visit my studio blog you can see images at my (newish) flickr site of this latest work on concertina books and here read the latest post on this most recent artwork.

Have a excellent week or two won't you! Back before long,

Sophie x