The Archibald Prize 2013

On Saturday morning my sister, mum, Nora and I made an impromptu trip to the art gallery to see The Archibald, Wynne and Sulman Prizes.

My favourite portrait was Natasha Bieniek's Application, a self-portrait miniature. There is something about teensy tiny things I find so precious!

I must say, I'm more drawn to landscapes, so I loved pretty much EVERYTHING in the Wynne Prize. And while wandering through the Sulman, I found myself wishing Oscar* was there, as I'm sure he would have been asking a billion questions and 'whys?'

The absolute highlight however, was the new Young Archie competition, so much fun seeing the imaginative artworks of children capturing their loved ones. Particularly adored 6 year old Teddy Kidd's my mother and baby Chloe because she would sit still and 11 year Paris Jolly's my grandpa and Claudia. Totally delightful.

*Oscar enjoyed seeing pre-booked tickets to Peter Pan on the big screen with his Papa instead.

All photos taken by Tess whose irregularly updated tumblr is here.

Apologies for my comfy pregnancy uniform of leggings, birks, oversized shirt and bulge disguising scarf! This is what I look like pretty much everyday.

Stills

1 'Buck, buck, buck goes the chook'. Dress up time at The Magic Yellow Bus.

2 Bringing in the washing can take a bit of patience when your workmate is two and a half and decides that the washing basket is really a doggy bed (he is the dog of course).

3 Uninterrupted (well almost) cup of mother's day tea.

I hope everyone has had a lovely mother's day. Mine involved a gift made of popsicle sticks and googly eyes, freshly squeezed juice, plenty of hugs and an afternoon trip to gold class with my mum and sisters.

Linking up with Em at The Beetleshack.

Nature in the Home

Simple arrangements brightening my kitchen space. My little japanese kookaburra with a crest of nasturtiums beside a bowl of home-grown super spicy chillis.

Linking to Lou's Nature in the Home series.

Stills

1 Walking to buy some groceries, stopping to make wishes
2 Morning dew
3 Gifts from my mum, who is currently decluttering her house
4 Vegemite toast
5 Lotus blossom present for a friend whose little girl has just turned one

This week the lovely Em is busy with her gorgeous newborn.

In my great-great grandma's scrapbook

Newspapers used to print the most lovely descriptions of weddings in lieu of pictures.

'Her veil was worn over her face with a coronet of orange blossoms.'

'... wore a hat of champagne crinoline straw trimmed with roses and maiden-hair ... Both carried bouquets of pink cactus dahlias and wore pearl sapphire gold brooches ...'

Sigh.

These days, there are no such poetic descriptions being written in any local papers, but we do have beautiful photography blogs. My sister's AMAZING professional wedding photos are now up here.

Yes, that is me,  the bridesmaid with the dark hair in the sea foam green dress. Lovely little Nora also features in a mini-bridal gown. And you can see Oscar, his shirt untucked, sitting on his Papa's shoulders showering the newly married couple with rose petals.

Painting with Oscar

Oscar is 2 and a half. Generally he has a very short attention span – occasionally he will play happily, for a long period of time, alone with his trains, cars or lego. However if I give him a set task, it doesn't always last too long, painting included. Here are some simple tricks that I've found help with painting/drawing and other creative pursuits.

I don't focus on the product. It's about the process.  I've learnt never to expect Oscar to make a 'frameworthy' or even fridgeworthy artwork. If he only wants to paint with water and watch it dry then I let him. Ditto if he feels like sticking every single sticker on top of each other or ripping the paper up. Sometimes he simply likes to watch the water in the jar change colour as he washes the brush. Which of course leads to discussions of how yellow and blue make green.

In the picture at the top he simply painted the entire page brown and announced "It's the garden mum". Yes, our garden does contain a lot of dirt!

We work side by side. This is how we paint most of the time. We discuss what we are painting and colours. I generally keep it abstract and messy so as not to cause discouragement by comparison. He concentrates for longer when he has a buddy to discuss what he is doing.

Read a book first. Then keep it open for inspiration. Oscar loves doing this. Current fave book to paint is The Little Red Hen.

Expect mess. Embrace it. Yes, occasionally an art session has ended in impromptu body painting. I try to be prepared to chuck as all in the bath afterwards!

Mix it up. We have a couple of different types of paint in our cupboard – pictured above is a watercolour palette from Ikea, but we also have goopier, messier paints ideal for finger painting or stamping. Sometimes we just use crayons or textas or pencils. Then of course there are play dough sessions, a love of scissors and tearing, gluing bits and pieces ...

I also like to vary the scale at which we paint, sometimes we have a poster sized sheet of paper to cover together, sometimes we have our own little postcards, sometimes I'll cut out different shapes to colour.

Most of all I want to make sure it is enjoyable, never, ever forced.
Do you have any tips for getting creative with a slightly hyperactive 2 year old?




Here are some links I'm keeping up my sleeve for future crafting. All found via pinterest.

A spinning top pencil
Painting with balloons ... as long as I can stop Oscar from popping them first!
A tapestry table
Sticker resist with watercolours
Tape art
A tissue paper window

I also love these canvases that Sam and Bella created. I think it is fabulous that Andrea used abstract art for inspiration (Kline and Miro).

Previous Oscar art can be seen here and way back here.

Creativity

I haven't been painting or embroidering much for some time now.

This pregnancy has sapped my energy reserves, leaving little time for such pleasures. However, now that I'm somewhere around the halfway mark I can feel a little inspiration starting up again. It's taken longer than I expected this time, I daresay because I'm already chasing after Oscar and Nora.

Here are some recent creations and an awesome piece of inspiration. Hopefully I'll be doing a little more in the future, because I truly do enjoy making silly little things.

1 A quick teapot sketch – I was painting alongside Oscar.
2 A Japanese magazine/book (which as all the writing is in Japanese, it took a bit of googling to identify – I think it can be attributed to Naoko Shimoda). How wonderfully inspirational is that felt creation?
3 Some chunky chain stitch embroidery I'm working on occasionally (a prints charming panel).