Soul Food Interview

SOUL FOOD

the

Chefs interview with me

This is so exciting !!!! I am one of the sous chefs in this upcoming AMAZING new on-line workshop collective, so ........click the pic to read the interview and:

♥

Starting today until 6am Saturday (my time =  GMT+12), September 14, I am having a GIVEAWAY for one free spot in the Soul Food class!

Just leave a comment on this blog post and tell me what is YOUR Soul Food ? The winner will be chosen by the online random number generator, and I’ll announce who’ll be joining us at the Soul Food table in the weekend. I know you want to be part of this ! (don’t forget to include a contact email so I can get in touch with you if you win!) Good Luck !!! xx

on my workbench / easel

commission work - earlier stages

at the moment

Just a few little follow ups on my works in progress.

 

Abstract in oil still in progress

After a second week full of holiday art classes for the kids, I also managed to work a little on my projects and today I even went for a nice walk with my family. My little man (my son) and I walked up to the summit, my big man walked around the Mount with my daughter. Great way to spend the last day of their holidays.

winter in the Bay of Plenty :)

 

Reflection

"Reflection" 

is my latest 20 minute painting on a 10 inch square stretched canvas.

I am at an impasse a little, need time to reflect, need time to think, rethink, decide, prioritize. This is 20 minutes where I tried to immerse myself into just painting, no voices around me, no distractions, no pushing and pulling, just the canvas, the paints and my brushes. The 20 minutes were over too fast, the buzzer scared me a little, made me jump when I had to stop, so this is it, this is what it will stay, I won't tinker anymore.  But I need to find a balance between the art I do to make a buck, to pay the bills, to keep my family going versus the art I want to make from deep within. I crave artistic growth and experiments, I don't seem to have much time for those right at this moment. The 20 minute challenges offer a way to play and let loose and grow a little for me, so they are precious at the moment. I also need to find time to get my physical self in better shape. Making art hardly gives your body a work-out, but time constraints prevent me from choosing time for those exercizes.

I might not blog as much as I used to before, but I am always still around. My Facebook Page will be the place where I will always post, so if you want to stay updated, come and like my page there.

I alsostarted putting my available art on Wordpress (HERE), just because they have a lay-out I really like and I cannot seem to find here at blogger.

So that's all for now folks :)

Thank you always for following and reading my stories

the Dark side of the Mount

Rob Murdoch in association with

Nick Eggleston, Nic Clegg, Ashley Grant, 

Simone Anderson, Graeme Thompson, Ken Wright, 

Clive Armstrong, Steve Allan, Joyce Van der Lely.

Hippocampus Ma-ita-i

I am so proud, I have 4 Steampunk-y paintings in this exciting exhibition at Lightwave Gallery at the Mount here in Tauranga. The exhibit runs at least until 24 February, so if you are in the area, visit ! It's not just an exhibit, it's an experience ! Many stories in anticipation had appeared in the various local papers even before the opening. More details and journals are on the Lightwave site whenever you click on one of the photos here, you will be taken there ;) and I am sure they will have more pictures of the opening and some good stageshots of the exhibit rooms soon as well, so check it out ! For now I will share my works here and a few snapshots I managed to take between talks and meeting other people and sneaking around the many visitors that were there. It was a steamy event on a balmy summer's evening....;)

Miss An D. More - independent explorer

Cpt. Kwbot

Specimen # 14

Cpt. Murdoch's private room with his art collection

Ladies to the Lighwave Gallery

New home for these ladies

I have brought these lovely ladies to their new residence yesterday. They got nailed to the walls and will be on display in a new gallery here in Tauranga. Grand opening is this Friday ! Very cool, hopefully I get to share some pictures from that event afterwards. Oh and let's keep our fingers crossed for some of them to be adopted too ;)

Irie Hart

 My second table leg doll, started off a little different, had a little mishap on the way and then this little deer just "wandered over" from the bush behind my studio :) Don't you just love his colourful dreads ? 

I call him Irie Hart - Irie, the Jamaican Patois word for excellent, feeling great  and Hart, because with his proud antlers, he looks like a young male to me, oh and did I tell you he sings ?

 

Kakariki

Kakariki means "green" in te reo Māori and since I live here and this little doll is mainly green, nature like and earthy, I thought about naming her Jade or something like that, but Kakariki sounds so much more like her with her long curly lock on her left shoulder and her (allthough they are vague) curly fern-tip like details here and there. So here she is, I like her to bits ♥ she is in my shop if you love her too

Gone soft for dolls ♥

 

 This is kind of a long post with lots of pictures (I like pictures) and links about kind of smallish creatures...... ;)

I want to share this other soft spot of mine, my other desire, a possible challenge ? something I really want to give a serious go a little more at some stage. I started the odd project over the years and some of those are still waiting patiently (as if they have a choice ? - see pics of them below-) to be finished .... if I ever will, because by the time I make some time for them I have other ideas about them already. Now, with having the school holiday kids program in my Art studio for the last 2 weeks, I had been looking for something "simple" to do myself and I made up some super simple calico shapes and stuffed them and started painting little faces. The first two born the other day, I gave wings and they became little angels

 

(a little like my Matryoshka dolls I did a few years ago)

  

the last one is a free little spirit and I really dig her!

 

But seriously, I have been admiring very special dolls for quite a while now. I would love to make some of these really really GR8 and amazingly beautiful dolls. I am in love with the out-of-this-world-oh-so-super-gorgeousilistic dolls by Nefer Kane  

and the tender, fine faces by Paulette Goodreau

   

 but also the grungier folky-arty cloth dolls by some dollmakers like Gritty Jane, and the Steampunky ones by Paula Nerhus and there are so many more. 

Tim Burton - dollmaker extraordinaire

  Of course I understand that it takes time and practise and YEARS of improvement, just like painting and sketching and everything else for that matter.  So .... one day .... I guess when my days have 48 hours and my weeks have 21 days and I will be immortal hehe......but before all that, I WILL make some more "simple" dolls for sure

♥

cloth doll wip 1

same doll wip 2

face start

face done ?

not happy with the nose, but ah well

want to finish her regardless

see where she ended up, stuck in a pot with legs up and all ?

this one is even an earlier one, kinda creepy actually....

♥

wondering...

I have a question for you, I am wondering, pondering, questioning....myself, the universe, I don't know, I don't often blabber a lot here on my blog, I am a rather personal person (I am an INFP and a 4), but this question burns....

 Does THIS happen to you too sometimes ? ...You start a painting, you have this idea, a framework more than anything else....you start, it grows, then you get stuck - for whatever unclear reason- then you continue and you decide to add or omit something that you had planned for the painting at an earlier stage, and why ? not for any reason in particular, just because, because it feels the right thing to do and then the reason reveals itself and the painting starts to tell you all kinds of hidden secrets, stories that you had not made up for it, but it tells them to you nevertheless and they are not all pleasant either, or you suddenly see them and it creaps you out.....does that happen to you too ? ...sometimes ? Now, do I need to finish this painting ? or throw a sheet over it and leave it to keep its thoughts to itself and start something new....I wonder

Got the Key !

Got the key to the shop today ! So this is the cute little place where I will be having my ArT-studio/workshop/gallery and where I will be doing lessons as well ! So now it's cleaning, painting, decorating time.... exciting !

Come "Like" me on Facebook and follow the progress of "Young at ArT -downunder-" And of course it's the last week of my Fresco on-line Workshop, you can still sign up of course, classroom stays open a little longer and when you sign up now, you'll get immediate access to all information and lesson video materials. Have a GREAT creative rest of the week !

♥

The Secret Life of a Funky Bird

This is the latest spread in my Coptic Journal. A fresco style page on the right (that proud little Peacock Chicky) and the other side and the little insert booklet is matched in colours and paints. I wrote a bunch of inspirational quotes and did a funny little bird collage/painting in the centre insert. Just wanted to show that even with the traditional fresco style you can do some unconventional colours and designs, and hey, I just had a lot of FUN ! and that is what it is all about right ? PLAY pLaY Play ;)

Pacific Blues

I found a painting I did a while ago for a screenprint on fabric

when they were doing the nuclear testing on Moruroa in the Pacific Ocean

 I named it 'Pacific Blues'

Buzzing Bee Buzz bzzzzzz

  I am busy working on many art projects at the moment ! I am on time (even a little early, lucky time-difference this time around) ....I have just uploaded the second week video material for the Fresco Workshop and I am almost done with the text material as well. Also almost finished a painting for a competition (Eeeeeeek !!) Going to deliver it tomorrow......fingers and toes crossed..... Thought I had to give it a shot, 2012 being THE year and all :) But keeping it real, if they are all "Fine Arts" buffs.....well you never know unless you try.... Oh ! My parents are coming over to visit by the end of the week YAY !!!!! They weren't going to, because of health reasons (both of them) but they got the all clear and have a little window of opportunity to travel now! Haven't seen them since they left 4 days before the February quake last year, and we have moved in the mean time, it's going to be wonderful ! So all this happening at the moment, SWEET !!!!!! Another Fresco pic here for your viewing pleasure, there's still time to sign up for the reduced price you know, until 31 January, Come join us ! and have a great week !

  

I have been staying up very late lately, even later than normally and I already was a night owl.... also made another little one, another little night owl, Oohoo ! Find him on my Etsy if you like him (his older brother went flying)