It’s day 75 of lock-down here in Sydney, but there is an end in sight, and we’ve been enjoying some really beautiful weather. I’ve met a lovely lady at one of the dog parks I go to with Izzi, and lost count of the number of days we’ve looked up at the cloudless blue sky, felt the sun on our backs and said how lucky we are to be where we are, with lock-down allowing us these opportunities. Sadly it’s not such a positive picture for many people, but we both consider ourselves very fortunate.
On top of that, I’ve had some exciting news. My painting (‘Mist over Bobbin Head’, pictured above) has won this year’s Member for Bradfield Art Prize. This prize has a few parts, one of which will be the reproduction of my painting on Paul Fletcher’s 2021 Christmas card. As well as being the Member for Bradfield, Paul is the Federal Minister for Communications, Urban Infrastructure, Cities and the Arts. After all the postponed and cancelled shows in recent months, this was unexpected and uplifting news.
As for all those postponements and cancellations, my show, ‘Chattels’, hasn’t been able to proceed this month but, like ‘Postcards from Paris’ at Marie-France, I hope we’ll be rescheduling once lock-down is over and life returns to some revised version of normal.
I’ve also postponed the weekend for my Open Studio – it was too much of an uncertainty to proceed with it on that weekend early in October, so it’s now planned for late November, with all fingers crossed.
In the meantime, there are a few online shows I have work in, if you’d like to take a look …
‘Small Packages’ – an exhibition held by Sherbrooke Art Gallery in Victoria (until 24 September)
‘Feathers and Dreams’ – hosted by Diversarty Studio and Gallery in Sydney to raise funds for ‘Dreams2Live4’, supporting adults with metastatic cancer across Australia (until 30 September)
Hornsby Art Society’s Members’ Exhibition (12–26 September)
Other shows coming soon (all going well) …
Combined Art Societies of Sydney’s ‘Art in the Mountains’, Thursday 30th September to Tuesday 12th October, Gallery One88, 188 Katoomba Street, Katoomba
Ku-ring-gai Art Society’s Annual Awards Exhibition – now to be combined with the society’s annual Spring exhibition, Monday 11th October to Sunday 24th October, St Ives Shopping Village
I’ve been working on a new series – a series of cityscapes I’m calling ‘Postcards from Lockdown’. They’re very different to anything I’ve done before in that they’re not realistic at all. Instead, they’re whimsical. Light-hearted and fun. So far there are eight of them – one for each of Australia’s capital cities – but I plan to continue around the world, with not only cityscapes but landscapes as well. Coming to my Gallery page soon!
Until next month.