Sunday 5 August 2012

finally...

finally...reporting back on the wonderful trip to Alice Springs for the Beanie Festival, and other happenings around here since then.

I dont know where the time went.

Way back in June a colleague and I were lucky enough to travel up to the Beanie Festival, which was such a great trip - I had never been to Alice Springs. My hope before the trip was that I would be impressed by the difference in the landscape - I really wanted the desert colours to blow me away, and I certainly wasn't disapppointed.

There was big sky, red earth, fascinating flora, a funky cafe, loads of crafty stuff, a freezing breeze every day, the most eye popping indigenous art everywhere and...beanies...

So as not to repeat myself (being a work trip I have already written two reports and made a power point presentation) I direct you to this blog for The Great Gallery Garden (in September at the Arts Centre) where I have gone into a bit more detail and provided links.

I will share some of my favourite pics here though - 






















Just a few favourites!

We had such fun. Rhonda was a great travelling companion and we met lots of lovely people. We attended several workshops over the duration of the Beanie Festival, visited the Olive Pink Botanic Gardens, Standley Chasm, Tangentyere Artists co-op and paid a studio visit to one of our upcoming exhibitors, Sarah Brown (more about her later). 

I bought some art (still at the framers!) and rather a few felted, crocheted flower brooches by Alice Springs local Donovan Hannis (examples above). 

I missed the boys, but I think I could've stayed another week. And I have been wishing I was back there. Since Alice, I've also been to Sydney (Bienale and a reunion in Balmain) and over to the coast for school hols. Next up, Rhys and I travel up to Sculpture in the Gaol at Trial Bay historic gaol, South West Rocks. More about that later too, because I'm a judge! How cool - some of my favourite things together - sculpture, heritage buildings, coast!

We have been hurtling head-long into the new school term, things have been crazy busy working towards the Great Gallery Garden, and there is a very sweet surprise in store for me at work next year. Announcement in the pipelines...just around the corner...not far off...but I'm smiling already!

Today we mosey-d around and had late breakky before catching the abstraction show Word of Mouth: Encounters with Abstract Art at CMAG , Bryn started on his own abstract piece as soon as we got home! Inspired!!! We also took in our favourite Nolan works (Ned Kelly series from 1946) as well as a cool little collection of typewriters from all vintages, courtesy of collector Robert Messenger. The boys had a ball clunking away on manual machines, and it made me smile and think of mum - as a typing teacher she tried for many, many years to teach my brother and I to type - it was always the last thing we wanted to spend our time doing in the holidays!

Ni night
xNarelle