Camping

We have returned from our beloved Totaranui and so not disappointed.  As always a stunning holiday with all the ingredients we love....sunny days, boat stuff, swimming, friends and stunning scenery and nature.  Just so lovely.  I took a ton of photos that I think I will save for another day.  But I will share some photos I took that I hope are going to inspire me one day to create beautiful things.  Nature and its shapes, colours and textures.

Art in a garden

We went to this a few years ago and have been meaning to get back every year since.  Didn't make it until this year and the light for photos was great.

Library love

Comments like this is why I get out of bed in the morning, even when it is cold or grim outside.  People appreciating what we do, so lyrically, is what librarians live for....

"Dear Art Gallery and Library, I wish to acknowledge and thank you for a recent epiphany about Christchurch. Time was first spent looking at every panel of your "Conversations on a City " . I had a sense of both remembering and despair as I afterwards walked towards the Peterborough Street. The desolation was a reminder of why I've never been able to engage with any city plans, or sketches of the future. Everything seems not right without any hope of a new city. Gothic, NeoGothic, cricket ground,... all do nothing for me. I'm missing something. A 440 kV shock hit me when I saw the mural above the Peterborough Library. This is exactly what I've been missing since Feb '11. Colour, shapes that move from simple mathematical form at the centre through to Pacific forms growing at the margins. I could imagine the ends being joined. This was my first glimpse as to what a new Christchurch could become. Curves, colour and symbols standing out from straight lines of the past. Thanks for making such a strong statement despite not having a gallery or a large library. Art and books once again are vital for me to understand and engage with the complex changes that will be a new Christchurch. "

The art work by Richard Killean is what this customer was refering to...a treasure which we feel privileged to provide a space for

Art

Jeepers, you can tell that I have had the day off today with nothing much but thinking to do.  It really is amazing what a little bit of head space can do for your thinking and looking.  I work too hard, far too hard and give far too much of myself to my work.  Yes I do. 

I think I have talked about art before and how desperately I miss the gallery and art since the earthquake.  Almost every time I go to a gallery of any type I just start welling up and feel very peaceful.  YEsterday we popped into the L'Estrange Gallery in Sumner and I just fell into my world.  I just loved it.  The works were gorgeous.  I especially loved this one and exclaimed as much and the painter himself popped out of nowhere and said thanks...cool.  I is very much better up close.The detail in the 'widows' is special.

....as well as Tony Cribb, very funny 'tin man' inventor..funny and good looking.  Lots of his stuff there and I will own one, one day, need to save up as we are still hurting from another recent art purchase

While we are talking about art here is an image of the gorgeous woodcut on embossed paper by Michael Tuffery we bought in January while on holiday in Wanaka.  Put on layby we didn't pick this puppy up until April.  We have it hung low and large above our dining table so we can gaze at it all the time. 

 It is large so looks much better in our house than it does here. 

Chilaxing with my conies

While we were out and about on our bikes today we came across a very enjoyable art exhibit under a tree in the gardens by the museum.  Christchurch people will enjoy these photos.

Ducks chasing bread

Splat

3 second rule

Gnome cone

Cone fish

Mt Cone

Cone o graph

shoe

Nativity

Adornment

Chilaxin with my conies

Flight of the butterflies

Manicone

My lovely boys taking a break at Bean Scene

Ron Mueck

 Way back in October we spent a lovely afternoon with our Waiararapa family at the Christchurch Art Gallery.  To our delight we got to see the Ron Mueck exhibition.  An amazingly crafted and moving collection of tiny and outsized sculptures.The 2 metre tall pregnant woman was breathtaking and I am sure I was not alone in feeling quite overwhelmed by the emotion of it.  The children were fascinated and Nic a bit freaked out but very intrigued.

Enjoying lunch at the Arts Centre

The sun also shines

Jeepers it has been hard to find anything to post about these days. Winter hibernation is well underway. Jonty and I were commiserating today about the dire state of our collective well being brought on by sun deprivation in the weekends. Dull, cold, grey and windless - utterly dire. Reading over my last posts you would get the feeling that we were just living at the airport and feeling sorry for ourselves. This is partially right, however, there have been some highlights punctuating the weeks and weekends and it is time to let the sun shine in and forget about the crap weather. Having a terrible couple of weeks at work hasn't helped either. Wish I had won the 36 mill. I have drawn the curtains and have the fire cranked up so I can ignore the world outside. Sharing some highlights of the past few weeks.

1. Movie - The Grocers Son

Jonty and I went to see this film on my birthday. I love the movies and could go a couple of times a week so always jump at the opportunity to steal a few hours in someone else's reality. Set in Provence it is a pretty and evocative film about a son returning home to help his mother run the family grocery store and mobile grocery van after the his dad has had a heart attack. He is the 'disappointment' of the family so this is a bit of an ask and there is a tonne of under explained family history stuff going on through out the film. He brings with him his neighbour who he is secretly in love with as she needs a quiet space to study in preparation for entrance into a Spanish university. His brother, the 'good one', is living a 'successful' life but for the fact that his marriage has been over for years and his parents don't know. There is a raft of eccentric country characters and some good yuks but overall I thought the film was a bit vapid. Sometimes you can leave too much out of the film and it ends up being a bit dull. I think there is a balance to be had between block buster films that leave nothing to the imagination and this film which is entirely left to the viewer to interpret. Still, lovely scenery and the lead bloke and chic are pretty cute.

2. Upholstery

I have a new project to rush through until the end of the year sees the demise of adult education in New Zealand. The all knowing Anne Tolley (minister of ed) has decided adults, gifted children and those with severe learning difficulties are not worthy of education funding anymore and has just chopped it either all off or down by 80%. Yikes. Private schools, however, are feeling pretty buoyed with a giant handout of many millions. I guess those poor kids need all the help they can get. The bitterness of my anger for this old fashioned attitude sticks in my craw, as it does with the many 1,000s who consider life long and life wide education to be a fundamental for ongoing non-work related learning and skill development. However, there isn't much to be done so I am going to make the most of this last opportunity. Feel really sad that my sanity space and community connection opportunities are just disappearing before my eyes with barely a mention.

Moving on and back to my new project. It is my Granny's old chair that I inherited when she died 20+ years ago. It has been lumped around all 12 of my flats and is pretty shabby. Yesterday I went to Fabric House and indulged in some fabric therapy. I chose a fabric that is reversible but haven't decided which way to go yet. We are painting our bedroom a lovely light blue so this fabric should be perfect for the chair in that room. I know it will become a clothes horse within minutes of being proudly placed in the corner. Never mind.

3. Art - We love our gallery and had spent a few very happy hours visiting 'Rita' a few weeks ago. I think I might have swooned and felt breathless a few times. Bloody fantastic. I took a few pics of the gallery itself which are fun.

4. Friends

Last night we had a pot luck dinner with some friends, the theme being 'food from you childhood'. I think we all called our mums for family favourite recipes and turned up with everything from pizza to mushy peas, fruit sponge and savoury pinwheels. The only 'non childhood' ingredients were the wine and beer. It was a real hoot and I am still a bit full. Late night though. Has been a slow day today.

aah, that feels better. Blog therapy.

Brick Bay Sculpture Garden

Another lazy day in Warkworth. We hung around home until the weather cleared in the morning and as the sun came out the blokes and the kids headed off to the river to go for spin in the boat. Karen and I had a little girl time on our hands and headed off to the Brick Bay Sculpture Garden which is part of a local winery and olivery.


There has been a lot of publicity and articles written about the place andbeing a holiday weekend it became busier as the morning progressed. We did the 1 hour long trail around the garden and then indulged in a tasty platter with a glass of Pinot Gris in the Glass House.
The trail wound through the garden which had clumps of native forest complete with loud and stunning native birds...loud and gorgeous, lakes and farm land. Quite different from a similar experience in North Canterbury I posted about a few years ago.
The art work was large in scale and featured the works of many well known New Zealand artists. The prices were astronomical and we didn't buy anything, not having 30K sitting in our wallets.
It was like old times hanging out together and chatting about nothing in particular and taking lots of photos, playing with our cameras and not being too earnest about the whole thing.