DinamikTiDi Is Going to the PCAC Xmas Market

Hello Tie Dye Lovers One And All

Tied this one a little different just to see what would happen - turned out interesting I think

As I have promised myself that I will write more frequent blogs simply to keep my brain cells active, and to stop me forgetting how to spell and use correct grammar, etc., this is just a quick little tie dye blog to help ward off encroaching senility.  

As some of you already know, I really, really, really do love tie dye.  I just wish I could wear it to work each day as it makes you happy just looking at it.
 
I work in two health shops, one where customers are always polite and one where they tend to be rather more grumpy, no matter how you try and help them (the difference in customer behaviour between the two stores is rather interesting).    Perhaps if I greeted  customers wearing an outrageously colourful t-shirt, they would be a little more courteous and happy about the world in general - they might even start to feel better (colour therapy!). 

If you're wearing a tie dye t-shirt you are hard to miss! They are the best if you want to stand out in the crowd and be noticed.  They are fun, fun, fun to wear and it is amazing how many people will make positive comments when you are wearing one.

 

ooooo aaaaah, just look at all those pretty colours ....

Anyway one of the reasons I love them is because of the way the colours all just meld, merge and blend together in a similar fashion to a watercolour painting.

Intended this to be 2 colours only but I got a little carried away

I am always pleasantly surprised at some of the unexpected  effects  you sometimes get (they are what my watercolour art teacher calls "happy accidents").  

Generally I have a set idea in mind and I carefully fold and bind each t-shirt, then put the dye where I want it.  Once each one is all wrapped up in its plastic bag I wait very impatiently for the 24 hours needed to set the dye.  The bathroom becomes very colourful as I usually sit them all in the bath tub while they are curing.

Finally, when it's time to rinse them I always think that I have a good idea of how they are going to look.   So often though, as I carefully unwrap them and wash them out I see that they are so much better (not always mind you) and that the random blending of the dyes has formed something far superior to what I had originally planned (oh joy!).

I must confess I am not fond of the type of tie dye where a tie dye picture is put on the shirt, like a guitar or mushroom or something.  It is very clever and all, but I much prefer the more random effects. 

Anyway, the photos above and immediately below are four  new tees that I have not yet offered for sale.  I was very happy with how they turned out and just wanted to show them to you all and tell you that I will have these and lots of other tees for sale this weekend  (Sat 19th and Sun 20th Nov 2011)  at the 

Port Community Arts Centre Xmas Craft Market

Black Diamond Gallery,

66 Commercial Road,

Port Adelaide.

South Australia. 
(right next to the Tourist Information Centre)  

I tried for an oval rather than circular shape with this one - quite pleased with it - must do some more like this.

If you like tie dye come on and check it out and say Hi.  It will be open from 4.00pm - 9.00pm on the saturday and 10.00am to 4.00pm on the sunday.  I will have over 100 T-shirts with  sizes ranging from babies up to about 5XL, and there will be lots of other gifts made by local artists and crafts people.

If you can't make it to the markets but would like to look at some of my t-shirts or better yet if you would  like to buy a t-shirt (dare I hope!) then  check out any of the following (and as soon as I can there will be a few on ETSY and Madeit too:

Artfire Shop

Zibbet Shop 

My Website 

Shown below are a few examples of DinamikTiDi t-shirts which are for sale on my websites and which will also be for sale at the Xmas Market  (sorry they are all over the place I couldn't get the little devils to line up for me).

 

 

 

So,  if you live in Adelaide and want some fun on Saturday, come along to historic Port Adelaide for the Xmas pageant and to say hello to us all at the Black Diamond Gallery. 

Cheers,

Heather.

PS - sorry about all the colours, I couldn't help myself -  it was an article about tie dye so it just had to be colourful didn't it?

 

Newsletter Woes - Editor's Guide On How Not To Desktop Publish

Hi all,

If you read my previous blog, you will know that I should not be sitting here writing this one - I should be doing other things. 

So, after having done some important chores like cleaning out my handbag (and  remembering to have my breakfast), for at least the next few hours I am pretending that everything else doesn't exist and writing a blog.  If I have no clean clothes to wear next week and strange new life forms evolve in the kitchen sink - tough - today I just don't care (I will care tomorrow and probably have a panic attack about it all).  I have spend the whole of this week wrestling with a temperamental HP A3 colour printer which, as some electronic gadgets do, decided from the moment it met me that it did not like me.  Usually I don't have trouble with technology misbehaving as I generally talk kindly to it and treat it well.  However, this temperamental beast has cost me every spare minute of my time over the last week and resulted in a number of nights where I did not get to beddy-byes until well after midnight.  It has also left me with elevated blood pressure,  a headache, a huge pile of neglected chores and a house looking like Wingfield Rubbish Tip on a bad day.

I recently agreed to became editor  of the Port Community Arts Centre Inc. newsletter (yes, I do suspect  I have the word "sucker" emblazened on my forehead) but I was determined to give it my best shot.  I used to be a high speed typist with a 99.5% accuracy (and I mean "used to be"!).  Now I'm probably a 50 wpm typist with an accuracy of about 25%.  All my past word processing skills were developed to use only BASIC document skills, you know,  do a letter here, set out a table there, maybe make a heading in bold type face.  That was not going to be good enough to knock out this little epistle. 


The newsletter is both mailed and emailed so over the past few weeks I have been on a very, very, very, very, steep, sharp, learning curve (more like a hairpin shaped bend  than a curve) and on a number of occasions I reckon I slid backwards going up that steep curve and failed to take some of the sharp bends too.  The previous editor did an excellent job and used MS publisher.  I, of course,   own a Mac which does not have publisher on it.  It does however have a publishing element in Word so suddenly I found myself trying to learn to do a whole lot of things I had never even heard of, like using text boxes etc.  (text box, what the heck a text box?!).   All well and good if you happen to know what a text box was (I didn't).  When I started school we wrote with pencils and had pens with nibs and ink wells.  We didn't know what a biro was, let alone a computer or a text box.

I know some may feel I am ignorant and inept (yes, go on feel free,  have a quiet superior little snigger at my expense), but I think I have come a long way, especially in the last few weeks.  I now know what a text box is and not only that,  I know how to insert it, colour it, shade it, make it transparent, put lines around it, fancy borders around it, make it go front, back or somewhere in between, group lots of them together and link them to each other, make them give birth to another one.  I can also insert pictures and do word art and make curvy headings and insert funny shapes.  I have managed to put them on top of each other, layer upon layer upon layer like a Sara Lee cheesecake.  I also found out that like boats, they have anchors and if you don't do things right the stupid anchor thing stays put and the blasted thing won't go where you want it and I've learnt a lot of about what NOT to do (like insert lots of pictures that are 1 or 2mb in size).    I realize to some that this is all very basic, but to me it didn't come easy because I had to do a crash course in it all so quickly - goodness knows how many brain cells I have caused to die from the sheer overwork I put them through (yes, yes before you say it - yes I do have some brain cells (tired ones)).  

So, after I had created this newsletter I had to print it.   My Mac, being a sensible computer immediately sized up the HP printer for what it was and decided that it didn't want to communicate with it unless it absolutely had to.  After going nuts and searching the internet, downloading manuals, seeking advice and answers, I discovered that I could print 2 A4 pages on to 1 A3 page, HOWEVER, to stop it leaving an extra wide margin all around I needed to print borderless (more seaching, searching, searching).  Eventually I managed to do this but I decided that the fact that it took about 5 minutes to print one page was not going to be good enough to print 300 newsletters consisting of 3 double sided A3 pages (at that rate if I waited around for it to finish they would find my decaying body still slumped over it years later).   As editor I made the executive decision that the readers were just going to have to live with a bit bigger border and slightly smaller print and away I went thinking I would have them printed and in the post in no time flat (silly me).  

I started printing them Monday night and didn't finish the last of them until Friday night.  I have just finished throwing out about 3/4 of a ream of A3 paper which was wasted due to the antics of this printer.  For some reason it took great delight in not picking up and feeding the paper properly (no matter how much I fanned it and I'm going through menopause hot flushes and believe me I can fan with the best of them).   It would pick up more than one page at a time (anywhere between 2 and 20), it would also feed them through slightly crooked, it would dog ear the corners so when you had to feed them back to print on the reverse side they would not feed correctly.    It would pick up 2 or 3 pages and feed them through a little bit out of sync so that part of the first page would print on the second and third pages, making them ruined.  And it was not a fast printer - compared to my little laser Brother printer it was slow, slow, slow. 

In short, it was an evil machine and it waited until you had printed a run on one side and then it would mess up the reverse side ones in any way it could, petulantly spitting them out in some way as to be unusable.  Firstly, it  reduced me to simple swearing, then screaming and eventually tears.  In addition, the printer did not like the ink cartridges they had given me for it.  I spent another 2 hours on the net trying to figure out why the  *@!*+  thing was still telling me it had an empty cartridge in it when I had just put a full one in.  Ron (who has an IT degree with Honours) looked at it, swapped cartridges and after about 5 minutes got bored and pronounced it as fit to be a boat anchor  and left me to it.  I discovered that when that little drip shaped LED is flashing your printer will be totally unco-operative and stubborn and will not print anything (screaming at it in total frustration has no result).   Once upon a time when things didn't work, you could pull them apart and sometimes fix them but these days we have computer chips and there's nothing you can do about fixing them. 

I frantically started swapping to another new full cartridge and eventually we got it to stop flashing (it just stayed on and tried to tell us it was running low on ink, but we refused to be fooled by its evil scheming).  I had got it going with new cartridges (low ink lights still on and low ink error messages flashing on screen) when it decided to pick up about 20 pages all at once and misfeed just as the phone rang.  It was Mick our secretary ringing to tell me that the email version was refusing to email.

Apparently it had something to do with the fact that the file size was 7.5mb.  Apparently you are supposed to change the resolution on photos to 72 pixel thingys (well I didn't know did I?!).  It was then that I wondered if perhaps a nervous breakdown, or at least a good size panic attack would not be in order.  I burst into tears again (stress + menopause + HP printer = hysterics) and proceeded to try to resize the images using photoshop (which I have not yet learnt and that is a whole other story - aaaaghhhh). Eventually after a number of attempts (emails, phone calls, re-emails, profuse apologies and sobbing on my part, etc.)  the file was vastly pruned down in size to about 1.6mb and was able to be emailed.  Tranquility finally reigned supreme on the email front - not so on the hard copy side of things as meanwhile back at the printer, chaos was still reigning supreme.

The previous editor Helen had warned me the printer could be a "little temperamental" and not to do more than 50 pages at a time but she had neglected to tell me I would spend hours re-printing pages that had been skipped and sorting through the misfeeds trying to find some pages I could salvage. I could have just wasted more paper but it was now late at night and I was, of course, now running low on paper.  Eventually, enough of the ink cartridges were empty or wouldn't work that I had to stop printing and wait until the next day to buy some more.    Naturally the colour I needed most was not available at the local store and had to be shipped across from another store.  Eventually I concentrated on getting enough done to post and decided to worry about the spare copies they needed later.

Finally, sometime after midnight on Friday I did them all and was maybe 1 or 2 short (but by this time it was "care factor zero").   I can see now why people do not like to be editors for newsletters.  I am surprised that Helen stuck at it so long with such a printer.  I suppose it is possible that the printer has suddenly developed paper feeding issues or cartridge chip reading problems, or maybe it was the paper that was at fault - I don't know and now I am past the point of caring.

I went to the board meeting on Friday, tired and exhausted with a boot load of newsletters to post on my way to work, thinking that I really don't want to do that exercise again any time soon.  Muttering darkly, I handed Mick a bag of empty ink cartridges and the bill for the ones I had bought.

Anyway, I am very happy to report that due to the costs of ink and paper involved  and possibly that word of my hysteria may have filtered back, at  the Friday's meeting the Chairman and board voted to get them printed in future (yyaaaayyyyyyyy!).  All I have to do is apparently get a BSB stick thing and hand it to them and they will print AND COLLATE it for me.  So cool!

So today, even if I achieve no other chores, the one that I am going to do is to pack up the nasty evil temperamental machine and first thing Monday return it to the Port Community Arts Centre, which is where it can reside from now on until its wicked little computer chips disintegrate and waste away (Mick is going to use it and I just bet the little @*%! of a thing behaves perfectly for him!)

One thing I do have to say for it though, as the owner of a black and white laser printer - playing with all that colour has spoiled things for me... now I want to print in beautiful, beautiful, colours....  

Cheers all
Heather.

Trapped By My Computer and Rescued By Rosemary

Good Morning everyone,

I think my computer is taking over my life.  There are so many things I need to do and they all relate to my computer.  I am half way through scanning all my photo albums into the computer  and I still have lots of Mum and Dad's old photo albums and to do.  I've finished about 136 boxes of my slides, and Ron's slides, Ron' Mum's slides, and my Mum and Dad's slides, but there are still lots more to go.   I have a Mac and IPhoto is now hissing and groaning at me everytime I open it up. 

My computer was getting so full it developed indigestion so I had to get an external 2 terrabyte (terry bites or whatever they are) drive to handle all the photos and stuff on my computer.  It had started behaving like me - moving very slowly and forgetting and losing things.  Then there's emails, facebook and maintaining my website.  There's also my Artfire, Zibbet, ETSY and Madeit websites, Art stuff to do, Twitter and my blog, and I'm putting my poetry on to disc and I want to do an E-book.  Now someone wants me to go and Stumble.  Crumbs, I'm already stumbling enough as it is - I don't know if I want to do any more (I'm not even sure what stumbling is - the only sort I know usually results in something getting bruised or broken!).

My best friend Rosemary rang me yesterday at about 1.45 pm and I suddenly realized that I was still sitting at my computer and hadn't yet had my breakfast.  I had sat down in front of the darned thing at 7.00am to catch up on a few emails and finish some work I had to do  (is it in Korea or somewhere where people have died from malnutrition or something while sitting at their computers?).  Anyway, next thing you know, I'm still sitting there in my not so stylish night attire, unkempt and unwashed with my hair looking like I've been dragged through a hedge backwards.  Rosemary, after her initial "Oh my God, aren't you hungry?"   proceeded to say the words that no art/craft minded person can ignore, "Hi Heatherbelle, I'm going up to Spotlight - want to come? I'll pick you up in half an hour."

"Oooo, yes please, great.  OK" I said "no worries - see you in half an hour".   EEeek - only half an hour!!!!   I think I seriously broke the world speed record in every way possible.  In half an hour I managed to fly in and out of the shower,  apply ointment to various parts of my anatomy (bloody hives!) -  scoff down my breakfast and assorted vitamin pills (to keep me healthy), blood pressure tablets (to keep me alive),  antihistamines (to stop me scratching), antihistamines (to stop me sneezing), tear out to the back yard to give Archie his breakfast (my galah), quickly squirt water on some wilting silverbeet, pot plants and assorted other plants in the back yard (for the chooks), feed and apologize to the cat (who was not impressed that it was 1.45 and she hadn't had her breakfast),  feed the chooks (and all their other freeloading feathered friends that frequent the yard), dash to the front garden to water the purple carrots (purple - how cool is that!) and silver beet (also for the chooks), fill up the bird baths, throw some clothes into the washing machine and go to the loo (where I managed to sit and relax for about 30 seconds before Rosemary was due to arrive).    All without having a coronary (gasp).

So my friend Rosemary and I strolled around Spotlight rummaging through bolts of fabric trying to choose which ones would, when sewn into summer  Kaftans, make us look interesting, sexy, arty and fashionable as opposed to a pair of aging hippies or mutton dressed as lamb (or in my case some sort of weird waddling  elephant wearing a tent).  Rosemary is very clever and knows which end of a sewing machine is which, whereas I have to resort to the instruction book each time I want to thread a new colour on the needle.  We both, gravitated to some gorgeous (and very colourful) stunning fabrics which naturally came with a price tag of $29.95 per metre (gasp!).  As full length Kaftans require over 3 metres of fabric, we reluctantly left them and proceeded to search the $4 per metre stack of rolls (no where near as nice ....sigh....) searching and rummaging and in my case, repeatedly pulling my shoulder bag back up onto my shoulder.

I swear that every single time I leaned forward to look at something it slid down and ended up at my elbow.     When I was younger that never happened, my bag stayed firmly on my shoulder no matter what, but now it  always slides off, even when I am just walking around  - why is that? Do our shoulders sag as we get older?  Is it that the convenient little strap holding hollows on our once boney shoulders  get filled up with fat and there's no where for the strap to sit (another of life's little mysteries.....)?  Anyway, I got very sick of trying to search one-handed because the other hand was forever trying to hold my bag on my shoulder, so after my bag had fallen down about 80 times I got cheezed off and hung the whole thing over my head and across my chest and proceeded to continue my search looking like an utter and  complete dork.

With hands now free and unencumbered I searched on through hundreds of rolls, totally ignorant as to what all the types of fabric were.  In the end I followed my sewing guru friend's advice and searched for cotton.  As usual her advice was good, and when she pointed out to me that all those lovely, light and sheer fabrics were see through (gad - that would be a scary sight) and would need something else underneath them (which would be hot in summer) and that the nice slippery, shiny ones were synthetic (also too hot in summer) and stretchier, therefore trickier to sew unless you you know what you are doing (drat!)  and that the coolest and easiest option  was good ol' cotton, I followed her advice, secure in the knowledge that I would be cool and comfortable and that no one was gonna see anything they shouldn't see (note to me:  when my figure eventually returns to a more and sylphlike state buy something colourful and outrageously see through).


That's the trouble with having champagne tastes and a beer income, but eventually we both found something we could live with and juggling our handbags, shopping bags and various weighty rolls of fabric we sat down on a seat to wait our turn to be served.  At Spotlight you take a number and the queues are so long sometimes that they have actually provided some seating so you don't collapse from sheer exhaustion under the weight of all that material.   Maybe they put them there too, for the bored males to fall asleep on while they wait (you don't see to many men actually shopping at Spotlight).

Anyway, after we had done Spotlight and Cheap as Chips, we headed for another of life necessities, coffee.  After coffee and then forgetting where we had parked the car in the carpark (another little  senior moment) we drove back to my house with our treasures.  Rosemary, rejuvenated by the recent coffee and chocolate scone,  bade me farewell and departed quickly, eager to get home and cut out patterns and make beautiful clothes.  I hauled my load inside and proceeded to get creative and tissy up (how do you spell tissy - tissie, tissi, tissee? oh well, who cares.....) some prizes for a Xmas raffle at Port Community Arts Centre.   Aahhh,  the joy of messing with scissors that won't cut cellophane properly and the discovery that still, after all these years and all those Christmases,  I'm still singularly inept at tying a decent Xmas bow.

I know that by this time next week Rosemary will have a pile of beautifully sewn Kaftans to swan around in,  and my fabric will still be sitting in a pile atop  my new sewing machine,  collecting dust (one should never hurry these things) or that if I'm not careful the four legged feline that owns me will nest on it and claim it as hers.  Actually, I do want to try and sew the Kaftans sometime soon (like before I die) it is just that I haven't yet read the instruction book for the sewing machine.  There are those like Rosemary and my cousin Dianna and my late Mum, who would not need to read the instruction book,  they would just look at the thing and know instinctively how to use it - I am, sadly, not in their league and one day when I have time (when I'm not on the computer.....) I will peruse the thing and create a nice Kaftan with probably slightly crooked seams.  

If I didn't have a headache and felt even slightly creative I could probably do it now, but first I'd have to clear the table, but before that I'd need to try and clear a path to the table, but that would mean I'd have to try and find a place to put the stuff that's on the table and the the stuff blocking the path to the table,  which means I'd have to move it to the spare room, which would mean I'd have to try and move the stuff blocking the door so I could get into the spare room, which would mean......no, not going to happen today -  I'm exhausted just thinking about it - I think I'll just finish this blog and check my emails and facebook....maybe have a coffee.....perhaps a little lie down.....

Cheers
Heather


PS  - I was doing the raffle prizes because Port Community Arts Centre Inc. is having a Xmas Market at the Black Diamond Gallery, 66 Commercial Street, Port Adelaide South Australia on Saturday 20th November at  4.00p- 9.00 pm and on Sunday 20th 10.00am - 4.00pm.  So if you are in the area pop in and see me (and buy a raffle ticket or two).   I will be selling some of my DinamikTiDi tie dye stuff there and there will be lots of other arts and crafts on offer. 

At Last - A Flower!

Hi everyone, 

This is just a real quick blog, but I just had to share.  Spring has arrived in my back yard.  I've had this plant for years, sitting in a pot doing nothing.  At last, after waiting for what has seemed like forever and after warding off goodness knows how many snails, and after the liberal application of copious amounts of Henny and Penny's chookie poo - taa daaaa - I have a flower!

As you can see it is a pink flower.  I have absolutely no idea what it is called but it is  really quite large and some type of bulb.   The flowers are about the size of a bread and butter plate.   If anyone has any idea what it is, please let me know.  

And that is all for today - I'm going out to take more photos - so exciting!

Cheers

Heather.

Come on Australians - Have a Heart and Help The Boat People

Hi all,

This is not my usual art blog.  I'm fed up with our treatment of refugees here in Australia and  I have to let off some steam about this issue, so here goes.  

In Australia we get no more than 5,000 boat people per year (while some much poorer countries take in hundreds of thousands without any sort of song and dance about it) and over 90% are deemed to be valid refugees who are eventually placed into the community after spending way too long in detention centres.     I am sick of the media referring to them as "illegal".  Under international law, they are not illegal immigrants they are refugees and under our long standing legally binding agreement with the united nations we have legal requirements to help them.  

Many of these people have sold everything they have in the world to escape from the horror of war.  They have signed away the rights to their ancestral farmlands or homes and would have nothing to return to.  In many instances, when they get on the boats  they do not even know the destination - they are just told they will be taken to somewhere welcoming and safe.  There is often no way for them to apply to "legally" enter Australia as such places at which to apply do not exist in their country or at the refugee camps.

We get many, many more who are people who fly in and over stay visas etc. and the vast majority of them are not granted refugee status but they are allowed to be free and reside in the community while their appeals are being processed, but real refugees are prevented from reaching Australia or if they do they are locked up somewhere offshore or in Australia.  This trying to keep them offshore and incarcerated practice has cost us absolutely millions and millions of dollars, money which would have been better spent elsewhere.

It makes  far better to sense to process these people on shore and undetained, at way, way less expense than the cost of our past and current policies.  After being held for a short time for health and quarantine checks it would be better to let them live in the community and  to have them eventually enter that  community mentally undamaged, grateful, hopeful and productive.  Surely that is better than to have them, after years of being incarcerated and treated as criminals, being released damaged, bitter  and resentful of their treatment, feeling isolated, unwelcome and therefore fearful of mixing within the community.  

I am appalled that so many people who call themselves "Christians" can condone such inhumane treatment to people who have often suffered so terribly.  What would the average Australian do in such circumstances if we had to flee our country, had family members beaten, raped or killed,  only to flee,  ending up in a refugee camp somewhere (where we could be for up to 20 years or more) and not allowed to work and where where we could be  treated in some cases as badly as we were in the country from which we had fled  - I think we'd try jumping on a boat and risking all too - it would be "New Zealand here we come!"  and imagine how upset we'd be if the New Zealanders tried to stop us getting there or stuck us in gaol for years when we did and separated us from our families.  

Lets he honest, if they were boatloads of nice white christians I bet they wouldn't be treated this way.  I always used to argue with people that  Australians were not racist anymore - but after the antics of  ultra right wing Christians like  Mr Tony Abbot, leader of the opposition and the reluctance of our Prime Minister Julia Gillard to stand up and do the right and humane thing,  and as a result of the horrid and fraudulent racist emails I continually receive and the biased beat ups by the local media,  I have changed my mind.  I am sorry and shamed to have to say it,  but I now believe Australians are racist and very much so (which is interesting considering our ancestors were all immigrants and not all of them were white either).

I am in my 50's and I have listened to all this crap all my life - when I was a kid no-one wanted the British ("whinging poms") or the greeks (because they "smelt funny" and ate "strange food"), then it was the germans (because they were all "like Hitler"), the italians (who gave us pizza for goodness sake!).  After that was the vietnamese (or any other race with "slanty" eyes) and even before that it was Jews and various other european refugees.   I won't even mention our attitude to our own indigineous aboriginal people.  Now its people from Afganhistan, Iran, Sri Llanka, Africa, and even the people  who tried to flee from the racial genocide in Indonesian controlled new guinea (and they way we historically let the people of that country down is yet another whole shameful story in itself).  Hell, some of us even resent New Zealanders coming here!

I think our country is much better for having a mixture of interesting  people and cultures.  We are all homo sapiens after all and people should be treated humanely no matter their background, religion or colour. 

Whilst I am not a Christian and do not adhere to any particular religion, I do believe you get back what you dish out - if you do good things, you get good in return - if you do not do good things and the same applies.   Even if you just turn a blind eye - sometime in the future someone will turn a blind eye to you when you are in need.  We have so much wealth here in Australia (even though we all whinge and think we are hard done by).  We really do not know the meaning of hardship and poverty when compared to the rest of the world, yet we are becoming so mean and selfish.  Where is our generosity, our humanity?  To good "Christan" people like Tony Abbot (thank God he changed his mind about becoming a priest) I  would put the question "what would Jesus do"?  If what the bible tells us is correct - Jesus generally went out of his way to help the sick, injured, poor and troubled people that he encountered -  Mr Abbot should remember that it was the selfish and the moneylenders that he had an issue or two with.

And look at the fuss we are making over a well off  Australian 14 year old being held in detention in Indonesia for taking drugs, yet we have been locking up refugee kids and young crew members from fishing/smuggling  boats for years.  There are apparently about 50 or so approx 14 year old kids being held by us because they had been hired as crew by people smugglers.  These kids would have been very poor and looking for any sort of paid work or their parents would have arranged it for them - they probably didn't even know what their cargo was to be when they were hired, but even if they did they would have needed the money.   We've been putting refugee kids in "detention centres"  (just another word for a gaol) for years.  We have kept loved ones apart and split families for years. 

I am sick to death of receiving hate emails aimed at refugees and any one who is not a nice white christian.  I cannot plead for their cause as eloquently as someone like the human rights barrister Julian Burnside QC ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julian_Burnside ) but I can forward this  message from the "GET UP" organisation. 

Call me idealistic but I grew up watching "Star Trek" and I have always hoped that one day humanity would grow up and reach an age when we would all share and live happily together and look after this world and every living thing on it.  With all the greed and selfishness I am seeing around me these days and peoples unwillingness to help each other,  it is becoming harder and harder to remain optimistic, but I haven't quite given up yet (although listening to Tony Abbott talk makes it very hard!).  So come on Australia, don't be fearful and selfish - enrich us all by having  a heart and holding out a helping hand to these people instead of offering them a detention cell.

I'll get off my soap box now - if you don't agree with  this that is your right -  if you  have already signed the petition  then yaayy good on ya, and if you haven't seen it and agree with  it then please sign it and also forward it to someone else who you feel may care about the plight of these people. If you live overseas and want to sign it and let the Australian Government know what you think of their disgraceful record, then please do so.






http://www.getup.org.au/detention-disgrace


Heather.


PS  For those who have been sent the some of the nasty emails one of which claims asylum seekers get more money than pensioners click here for some facts as to what they really receive as researched by from David Kosh of Chanel 7 Sunrise  (and I draw your attention to the fact they can't qualify to receive the welfare payment if they are in detention).  You will find similar information on the Govt websites and the refugee council ones. 

http://kochie.com.au/the-real-benefits-for-asylum-seekers-in-australia

"Favourite Things" Art Exhibition

I went to a charming art exhibition today at the Black Diamond Gallery called "Favourite Things" presented by Dianne Vagg & Friends.  It is an exhibition put together by four friends (3 painters and 1 photographer).  They have grouped together to help raise money for a good cause, that being the Diabetes Counselling Service.  

Despite some serious health issues, they have put together an exhibition of very reasonably priced art and there is a lovely selection of paintings.  Two of the artists have painted a wide range of animals and I saw everything from domestic dogs and koalas to african lions, tigers and elephants.  I'm sure I saw a Panda as well.  The majority of the african animals were painted by Colleen Gates, who is well known for her passion for painting elephants.  Dianne Vagg has done some appealing paintings of dogs and also some great still life and botanical pieces. Phil Bolding has presented a wide range of paintings with subject matter ranging from ships and maritime scenes, to landscapes and rural scenes.  Dianne’s husband entered some great photographs. I quickly bought (before someone beat me to it) a charming little painting of Monarch butterflies to give to my friend Rosemary (she raises Monarch butterflies). 

If you like looking at art and are trying to find something to give to someone special for Xmas, (especially someone who likes animals) I suggest you try and check it out before it closes on 30 October.      There's lots to choose from and if you do purchase something you will be helping a good cause.

The Black Diamond Gallery is at 66 Commercial Road, Port Adelaide, South Australia. 

 Diabetes Counselling Service: http://www.healthcounsellingonline.org/

Dianne Vagg and some of her cute doggy paintings

There was lots to see- still life, botanical pieces, landscapes & rural scenes,  animals & sea scapes.

Art lovers viewing the paintings inside the Black Diamong Gallery

Exhibition Opening 22 Oct.

 

 

 

The Black Diamond Gallery, which is available for hire,  hosts many events throughout the year.  If you wish to be kept up to date with events check out the events section of the facebook site by searching for Port Community Arts Centre or follow this link http://www.facebook.com/pages/Port-Community-Arts-Centre/104390476293802?sk=wall

If you are interested in hiring the gallery go to the Port Community Arts Centre Inc website at

http://www.portartscentre.com.au/index.htm

Cheers for now - must go and do some chores. 

Heather.

Watercolour Workshop with Alan Louis Ramachandran

Rosemary read to start class

On 9th October,  thanks to the generosity of my best friend Rosemary, I had the good fortune to attend a workshop with well known Adelaide watercolour artist Alan Louis Ramachandran.  Alan is a skilled artist who paints with a very loose style.  As I paint with a rather detailed style and take forever to finish a painting  I knew I was in for some challenges.  I packed my trusty Brauer Nervatona Calm tablets into my handbag, tucked my watercolour paints, brushes and assorted other paraphanalia under my arm, bade Ron farewell and headed out the door. 

Ursula realizing she forgot her paints

I'd like to say we both rocked up bright eyed and bushy tailed eager, alert and ready to learn.  Alas my friend Rosemary was in awful pain and I was still absolutely worn out and aching from manning the Port Festival Booth the day before, nevertheless,  we grabbed some coffee on the way, popped a few pain killers and rocked up ready to be enlightened.   

Our fellow students were a mixed group consisting of some experienced watercolour artists and some absolute beginners.  My friend Ursula,  who does some watercolour classes with me was also there along with a few other members of Port Community Arts Centre.  We weren't the only ones not starting the day off well as Ursula had left her paints behind ( personally, I blame the planetary influences for those sorts of mornings).  Everyone was a bit nervous but eventually we all settled down, made some coffee and got organised.

Alan is very entertaining and fun in his teaching style, but he is also very full on - there is no time to sit and stare into space.  His style is to do lots of preliminary preparation but when it actually comes the time to paint,  everything happens quick and fast.  In this blog I intend to give an outline of everything we did.  I tend to be someone who  decides to paint something and I just do it without preparation of any sort.  It was interesting to me to see how much time Alan spends planning before he actually starts to paint. 

Alan Louis Ramachandran and the photo we were to paint.

For the purposes of the demonstration I should point out that the colours used were not the important thing, and that we concentrating more on the tonal values of the lights and darks and on brush stroke techniques.  Alan was using about 3 colours he had left on his palette but suggested that we could use Ultramarine and Burnt Sienna and a yellow of some sort.   

Alan said he usually divided his  preparation into about 5 steps and this is what I can remember about them.

Alan's Step 1 drawing

Step 1.  The first step was to study the photo and define the main shapes within the image.  In order to do this he asked us to draw a small 10cm x 6cm rectangle and then inside that to sketch the outline of the main shapes.   Doing this  helps to simplify the subject.  He recommended dividing the rectangle into thirds.  We were advised to look at the photo and take note of any connecting lines and to draw them in exactly as we saw them.

Step 2.   Alan recommended that  using a view scope was a good aid to design and composition. The next step was to look critically at the composition of the drawing we had done and do a second small drawing, adjusting the composition of the picture to make it more aesthetically pleasing and to help concentrate attention to the focal point of the piece.  Of course you have to decide what is your focal point and try and make lines that lead the eye towards it.  He recommended keeping the elements you like and removing or leaving out the ones that you don't.  He said that in a gallery most paintings are first viewed from about 10 metres away and that from that distance it is the composition of the picture (the location of the main shapes and also the colour)  that are the important things that will catch a viewer's eye and make them want to come nearer for a closer look.  Diagonal lines help to give movement.  He said that in order to get good composition it is OK to leave out a tree if it is in the wrong spot , make hill slopes more diagonal, etc. 

Step 3.  Deciding on tonal values.  Once the composition was correct the picture was again re-drawn and we were asked to look closely at the photo and decide what areas were light and dark.  He suggested that we shade in the different tones with our pencils and use a scale from 1 to 5, with 1 being the lightest tone and 5 the darkest tone.  

Alan's preparation sketches - note the 5 steps bit of details.

 

Step 4.  Next Alan suggested concentrating on the details of the picture.  He recommended that we draw in finer detail certain sections of the photo.  He said to practice drawing  various components, especially the difficult ones,  to ensure that when we eventually paint them that we paint them accurately.  Most of a watercolour painting is drawn with a brush.  He advised us to get the feel of the strokes we would be using to paint the picture.  Apparently, the more you  study and draw and get the feel of the picture, the better the painting will be and the more of your "emotion" that you will be able to put into it.

Step 5.  Colour - warm, cold, high and low key.  In this step one would normally look at the colours in the photo and then to decide on the colours to use.  For this workshop we did not dwell too much on this aspect due to time constraints, but we were advised to do another quick drawing and insert written indications  as to what were warm (W) and cold (C) areas.  High key colours are those that would be like a bright sunny day, low key would be a dark stormy day.  I made a mental note (again) to look into hot and cold colours etc (I keep forgetting to do this but I know one day I will figure it out!).

Once all these steps had been completed it was time to draw the picture ready to paint.  Alan recommended that all of the small sketches you do should always be kept alongside you when you paint, so that they can be readily referred to. 

Masking tape covering the areas to be left white.

With amazing speed he proceeded to quickly draw the large pencil sketch (that would have taken me ages to draw) and then, instead of using masking fluid, he showed us how to simply use some masking tape to create patches of light on a brick wall.  He just tore off small uneven strips and stuck them on to the paper. 

Alan does not normally stretch his paper or stick it to a board with tape, as he did for the demo.  Normally, because he paints loose and wet, he said that he just wets the back of the paper and sits it on his easel (where it apparently obediently stays while he paints).  

Alan's brushes and palette

Although he has a good selection of brushes, he only used about 3 or 4 for this painting.  One was a largish round mop brush, one a medium size round brush with a good point, he also had a lovely rigger brush (got to get one of those!) and a small daggy old house painting brush.  

I was amazed at how roughly he treated his brushes during the painting process and was surprised that they didn't fall apart or shed bits of hair everywhere like mine would have (of course most of mine are all mont-marte cheapies which could have something to do with it ).

The first washes go on

Once it was time to paint Alan referred to his tonal sketches and proceeded to put down some very light washes for the areas that had a tonal value of 1 and 2.  It seems this is known as under painting.  

In areas like the sky where he wanted a bit of white cloud, he wet the paper more first before applying the coloured wash.  

Now some red tones

 

He started out with the blue sky, then some green and lastly the reddish tones. 

 

Apparently it doesn't matter how much paint runs and drips, you just catch bits of it and blend it all in or swish it around a bit.  He made that look easy but I suspect it takes a bit of skill to know just how and where to spread your colours!

Once the lighter washes were completed Alan then started putting in the next level of tonal value, gradually darkening and blending colours in different areas of the picture.  

Next came some foliage colours deftly added using some quick broad strokes with the mop brush (apparently it's all in the wrist action!)

It's all in the wrist action!

 

Then a few more darker tones were slapped and sloshed onto  the buildings and ground at breakneck speed while we all just watched on awed and entertained.

Captive audience look on in awe

You gotta love that poor abused brush....!

Next Alan started to fill in the darker areas.  He had a way of grinding and mashing the mop brush down into the paint until the hairs split into clumps and flared out into multiple points, which he then dragged over the paper, creating multiple lines. Some touches of yellow highlights were also added in the centre.

 

 

Next he proceeded to draw the branches of the tree and the leaves.  He had a way of twisting the brush as he drew the curving lines of the branches, which resulted in a variation in the line's thickness.  It was very effective.  

Ooh and I forgot to mention - LOAD YOU BRUSH! What he means by that is don't be a cheapskate like me and use a tiny bit of paint - mix up a generous amount and fill up the brush so that you can paint good strong lines and not run out of paint half way along the line.  

The leaves were done by squishing that poor brush into the paint again to get multiple points with which to paint (I couldn't get any of my brushes to do the same thing no matter how I tried!).

The rigger brush and that wrist in action again = instant tree branches in no time flat!

Brush strokes used to create some leaves by splitting the hair of the brush

White spaces where masking tape had been

Next it was time to remove the blue masking tape, which had created the areas of light on the wall and on the pile of bricks.  Note how thick and dark the paint has been applied in some areas particularly in the foreground. 

 

 

Adding in dark details with your loaded brush

After the leaves and branches were complete and lots more of the shadows had been drawn in, some of the finer details were quickly painted in using single deft  strokes with the pointed brush.  

When it was time to paint the areas which were 5 in tonal value Alan stressed the need to make sure you used plenty of paint.  He said that it was  very important not to have the mix too watery or it would not be dark enough when it dried out. 

 

He then showed us how to put on some thick paint and take some of it off again with a metal scraper, in order  to create an interesting pattern (which in this instance was on the wall, but which I thought would be great if you were painting leaves on the ground).   You can use your fingernail or a credit card to do this too.

The nifty little metal scraper that Alan uses

Marks left by scraper - note how thick the paint was first

A few more finishing touches to a few leaves and shadows, a very faint glaze over some of the white areas on the wall, taa daaah -  it was finished (all in record time).

Just a couple more leaves here and there

Faint glazing has been applied to the white patches on wall

The Finished Painting

 Then it was our turn.....

I have realized I will probably never be a loose painter (oh the stress of it all) as the time in which we had to work was way to short for a control freak like me.   All that trying to keep putting the paint on and blending it on the paper before it runs off or before the paper dries out or whatever.  It wasn't until I actually stopped stressing and thought "oh to heck with it" and started just slapping paint on that I actually made any progress (I still say I didn't have good enough brushes hem hem - that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it).  There are some advantages to that style of painting though - you can accidentally drip paint onto the paper and it is really not going to be noticed, unless its a little dark blob in the middle of the blue sky (then you apparently turn it into a bird!)

Look at us all lined up pensively waiting to be assessed

 Alan called time to stop before any of us were ready of course (which was just as well because we were all starting to get to fiddley with it).  

We all lined up obediently (from about 10 metres) while Alan went through and constructively assessed our efforts, pointing out those areas that were good and those that needed a little attention. 

Overall, I think he was pleased with our efforts, particulary those done by some of the beginners.  Unfortunately (for my stress levels) he chose mine to be the first to critique (eek - panic attack).  I needn't have worried - he thought I had done OK. (wheeww, relief!).

Anyway,  shown below  is what the class produced.  It is interesting and amazing how  different they all are - no two are the same even though we all had the same excellent instruction, we all created our own individual paintings with our own "emotional" input. My effort is the one shown with Alan in the photo directly below. 

Alan reviewing my painting (which  definitely looks better from a distance - close up not so good!) and looking like he's praying I get better!

All in all, it was a great workshop which I thoroughly enjoyed (got to start saving so I can do his classes).  I've probably forgotten a million tips I should have included, but I hope you have found some of what I remembered interesting. Thanks again Rosemary and thanks too to Alan for a really great workshop.    

What a talented and artistic bunch we all turned out to be eh! Everyone with their paintings.   Alan's painting is on the wall.  He is holding mine. 

If anyone would like to view Alan's art  go to:


http://alanlouisartist.wordpress.com/

If you live in Adelaide and would like to attend his classes and learns lots of great watercolour stuff,   his email is:

thedesignerstouch@yahoo.com.sg





Cheers all.
Heather.