Collaborative painting for fundraiser

At our new year exhibition there was a painting being created to raise funds for the Zippy Fund which the (Waihi) Beach Vets have in place for clients of limited means to pay for necessary veterinary care.

An artist created the background and all the details were added by visitors to the exhibition with the intention of auctioning the painting with proceeds to go to the Zippy fund. The occasional artist added to the painting when they were on duty at the exhibition. Actually people had a lot of fun thinking up what to add - what about the lifeguard with the shotgun!? A lot of people said "but I'm no artist"! But many were encouraged and persuaded to contribute.

So here it is. I believe the painting was purchased and donated to be hung at the Vets'.

10th Annual International Collage Exhibition & Exchange is online

It's always a thrill to see this exhibition go online. 159 artists from Japan to USA, from Denmark to New Zealand, from Australia to France & Romania, make 13 collages - one is exhibited online and at the TART Gallery in New Plymouth, New Zealand. It then travels overseas to be exhibited at and become part of the collection of the Amarillo Museum of Art in Texas. There is also an online exhibition of one collage from each artist that is for sale - do take a look!

I leave it to the organiser and curator of the exchange and exhibition, Dale Copeland (see my links) to choose which of my collages she would like to exhibit and put up for sale - so it's always a surprise for me to see which of the 13 she has chosen. She chose High Dance of Innocence for the exhibition that will travel to Texas, and An Appropriate Contract for sale.

At some stage I'll receive a large envelope containing 11 collages from other artists. Dale is incredibly organised and in the past we've received a list that cross matches our collages to the receiver. I'll be waiting for that list because the very last collage I made wasn't photographed. I was working at night and meant to photograph it in the morning, clean forgot about it, and now I can't even remember the title! So hopefully the eventual owner of that collage will be kind enough to send me a photo of it.

I haven't painted for a while. The first part of the year my thoughts were only on making the collages. Now I've started life drawing and again it's taking me a while to settle back into paint. Lots of ideas in my mind though.

I'm also booked into a printmaking workshop at the end of the month (Design is one of my majors and printmaking will be part of that work). This is not convenional printmaking though. The course is described as "Experimental Printmaking with an organic approach". The title and the list of materials is very interesting. The tutor is Bev Truloff. Click on her name to see some of her work.

First day of 2008

And another year begins. Our art sale / exhibition opened yesterday morning and we had a steady stream of people through - the population of Waihi Beach increases almost ten fold in the summer holiday. This is a photo of the venue, taken from the gate as people enter the yard. It's a marquee and we have a lot of work in there, and around the entrance. I was lucky enough to get the area at the entrance of the marquee. Was rostered on for the morning yesterday, and the paintings that we selling were mainly landscapes of the local seaview. Unfortunately I don't paint those! It's an interesting point of discussion. Some artists I've met have found that repeating something that is popular and sells isn't satisfying, their heart isn't in it. But if you want to earn a living at your art you need to sell. It's something I'm going to have a good think about this year.

New Years Eve started out at the Waitete Orchard Restaurant where Brian Shone was playing the guitar and singing - excellent singer and guitarist. Then went to friends where music was being played. (The boys are playing on the 13th January at the Waihi Summer Festival so I guess it could be regarded as practice...) At midnight we went to visit some friends to wish them a Happy New Year then went back to the music.

Waihi is very busy at this time of year. With a regular population of around 4000, the traffic and people in town increase incredibly for a couple of weeks over the holiday period. There's quite a lot to do and see at this time.

All the best to everyone for 2008.