Hanging this afternoon

Mary and I are going to Bon Amici, a local coffee house this afternoon to hang my first "one-man" show. I never realised there would be so much "non-painting" work in being an artist.




There was, however, a lot of looking at what I had to hang. tidying up older works, trying to do some quick works to round things out, etc. One of my main sources of art income (such as it is) is doing caricatures, and Shannom, my friend who owns the cafe, expected me to hang some examples of this type of art. The nearest thing in that line I will show is a pencil sketch transfered by hand to acrylic on stretched canvas and titled "Theo".

Wish me luck!

The drawing I can't let you see

My latest adventure has found me mentioned on the front page of our local newspaper after my involvement in a murder case

Don't panic! The Toowoomba Chronicle suddenly found themselves in need of someone to do a quick sketch of someone in court (where no cameras are allowed). So they Googled and found me.

I had only 30 minutes to shower, get dressed in my suit and tie and drive to the courthouse. I did not get a really good view of the accused. There were two door latches in the glass doors between her head and mine. I had only about five minutes, as she had to make only a brief appearance. )The poor man she is accused of attacking had died overnight and they were upgrading the charges against her.)

Anyway, the reporters said I had done a good likeness and the newspaper Editor said he might get me to do a portrait of his wife. (presumably under different circumstances.)

However, to satisfy all my fans here is one I left to dry this morning.

It is based on a photo I took of one of my fellow sketchers at life class, It was done in acrylics on stretched canvas. Like most of my art that I photograph, it looks like I have a bit more work to do on it. Maybe I should put a brush in her right hand and hide her left with a palette and put an easel in the background or maybe I should get on with my next one!
Cheers Des

Serendipity

Serendipity was originally a fictional place where everything turned out for the best. Real life is not like that. We all have failures and even real tragedies from time to time.

Things can seem to happen serendipitiously, however, if you keep grabbing any opportunities that come along. like Ning social networks , for example.

Without actually realising it, I was already a member of a couple of Ning SN's when I clicked on the hot spot for "Create your own social network"a few weeks ago. Honestly, I was mainly motivated by curiosity and an urge to explore possibilities. I also had a hunch that maybe, just maybe, a social network focused on the Arts in and around my home town might help local people find local, up-to-date Arts-related information on the Net. So I created Arts Toowoomba.

As a result, the past few weeks since then have been rather busy as well as exciting . Getting focused on other people, however, rather than myself, has somehow turned to my benefit. My starting my own social network has surprised and impressed some of my older friends and even relatives, particularly my very savvy darling daughter.

I have also made some new friends (about 25 so far) including ones that tell me Arts Toowoomba is exactly what they have been seeking for a long time.

Last but not least, one of the local television people is planning to feature Arts Toowoomba and one of its members in her Arts segment later this month. Maybe the Green's slogan "Think globally, act locally " actually works.

And all this is happening while I have been working madly on my first "one-man" show. Who knows what will happen next!