Lost Aussie on the loose

A Walk Through Town

Doodles on a Day Off

It's been a low key day today.  Up late as #2 son and his friend were at a party last night and we did not get to bed until I had fetched them at 1am from the Ministry of Sound.  Consequently the day started quite late and all we managed was a trip to the London Graphics Centre, a cruise around  Covent Garden and a little exploring before returning back to the apartment so that David could get caught up on his studying for exams next week.

While he was hitting his books, I relaxed with my feet up and fiddled some with drawing and painting in Photoshop!

It was nice to take the 'day off' ..sort of, if that makes sense!

More London Snaps

A few more Eye Spy moments captured during our walks around London Town.  I am glad I brought flat shoes and a "Brolly" as I am managing to walk my "you know what off" ...even in the rain!

From Here and There

Just in case you thought I had disappeared....no, not quite.....I've been in the UK since Friday or rather Saturday, since that's the day it was when I woke up on the other side of the Pond!

#2 Son had a big event at school which demanded parent participation and heralded the mid-term break so it seemed only sensible to fly across to be here for Speech Day and Master's Call as well as being able to spend time together for his half-term.

The day at Wellington College was fabulous.  Lots of cricket, polo, Pimms and champagne as well as the opportunity to tour the school, view their art exhibitions, fine art and textile galleries as well as their design center.....awesome stuff when you consider this is from children between the ages of 14 - 18!!!

Yesterday we made our way across to the City and got ourselves cosy and settled into the apartment we have rented for the week.  Lots easier than a hotel, very very lovely, well appointed, great location and I love the flexibility it offers.  It also happens to be just around the corner from the Hospital that I worked in the first time I came to live in London...so bits and pieces are quite familiar which is nice!

Today we enjoyed the sunshine and sights of the Southbank of London, took a ride on "THE EYE", strolled the Queens Walk and toured through the Tate Modern.  David's been studying the Surrealists in Art at school, so it was quite cool for him to see some of the master's work, up close and personal.

Not quite sure what is on the agenda for tomorrow, but I am sure the pictures will tell the story....

From Photo to Print

More messing around with the new etching press.  I am definitely in love with this machine and my mind is burbling away with all the possibilities I can envisage.....big question is always - what to try  next?

Yesterday I played with a couple of my photos in Photoshop in order to achieve a woodcut effect, created my printing plate and then had at it.

My next step will be to figure out the way to make multiple plates for inking in different colours to achieve some more depth and interest.
Print on Rives BFK Cream in Cadmium Light Red, 8.5x11"

A 30 Block Walk

We hopped into town today to make a quick visit to Lee's Art Store and amble around some to see what the City had to offer.  Not the best of days as it was a bit cloudy and grim (oh where oh where is the Spring Sunshine?), nonetheless there were things to be seen, pics to be snapped and beer to be drank at the Dead Poet's pub on the upper Westside, so all was not lost.

My tooth is not better and a visit to an oral surgeon over the weekend bodes ill for my comfort in the coming week as they are planning some dastardly kind of surgery, one way or another - which is not attractive as I am supposed to hop on a plane to London on Friday and I don't really want to be traveling with a face that looks like it's done 10 rounds with Mike Tyson...
Timing is everything....or so they say!

On a positive note (yep, there is usually one of those!) I've had two pieces of art accepted into two new juried shows.
One is for the Escondido Arts and Science Exhibition Jun 11 - Jul 03  with this piece - a 17"x17" digital creation printed on fine art paper.

The next piece was juried into the Alternative Digital Printing 2009 Exhibition which was a pretty big thrill as they had over 180 submissions! Yowza!  The blog photo does not really do it justice as it's a textured piece of birch panel overlayed with a printed and painted acrylic skin.

 
Kindofsortof makes up for the nasty tootheache for sure!

And lastly I'll leave you with a few pics of the day's walk.....always something to see through the eye of the camera!

cheers for now

Pressing Evidence

I finally got in the 'mood' to create some designs for printing plates and spent the day working with my new etching press.

Of course along the way CS4 decided to have a nervy and I lost a bunch of files I was working with so there was a long intermission while I troubleshot the Adobe "monster", downloaded drivers, tweaked GU settings and lots of other endless blah blah, rebooted the machine a gazzillion times and EVENTUALLY got back to what I was trying to do.

I ended up adapting some designs from a book of old Japanese patterns that my friend Catherine very kindly lent me and although I only made two new plates today it was enough, as I am still experimenting with working with printing inks and just how to get the best images off the press.

Just as well that I was nicely distracted today as I've the hellion of all toothaches and it turns out my dentist(s) are away on a conference and I have to make do with telephoned chemical  treatment until they return on Monday........ugh!...or should I say OUCH!

Anyway....here's the "Evidence" of the day's effort!

From Bad Photos to Better ARt

The other week when I was visiting MOMA there were plenty of camera snapping moments to be had. Unfortunately the Security Dudes had other ideas and yapped at your heels if you took photos in some rooms, got crochety if you had your flash on in others and in the end I just contented myself with capturing what I could, without being too bothered about fiddling with manual settings on the camera.  Thanks to the tweaks you can effect in Photoshop, there was still the possibility of creating some better art from some rather bad pictures!

And, on another note:

THINGS I LEARNED TODAY -

• Google Reader is a Godsend
• You can uncheck the horrible windows tabbing thing in CS4 in the Preferences Menu
• Sprinkler Guys are not reliable
• You CAN get your pool cleaned for less than $60 a week
• Husbands with html skills are worth keeping
• Kelly Kilmer is right, you should keep your art pens flat in a drawer!

Pretty Well Covered

For one reason and another I've ended up spending the last few days indoors, around the house and feeling thoroughly tired of my computer, I decided to head down to the basement and pull out some of my sewing supplies.

One thing lead to another and before I knew it I was not only stitching but painting and beading...and well you know how THAT kind of story goes!

Fun though and a nice change from waxing lyrical with my Wacom tablet!

Pet Postcard

Every time I talk to the boys, one of which is currently in the UK and the other in Australia - nothing like a far flung family!! - they always ask after their critters and I am expected to pass on pats, love and cuddles on their behalf.
This time James wanted Pix....and so my sweet, here they are..........in all their glory.

As I was cropping and pasting the pics into typepad tonight I felt kind of sombre...a dear friend lost her faithful 4 paw friend today and it occurred to me that a few of our critters are well older than when we first adopted them.  Precious is now getting on for 12 yrs old.  Dazy will not be far behind with about 11yrs on him.  Annie will be 10 soon, Max 6+ and Rozy about 5.....time flies when you have such good company I guess and although there are times when I curse the fact that there is nowhere to put my legs in bed and no room to move on the couch at night, they are all unique and wonderful little creatures with quirky personalities, interesting stories about where they came from and at the end of the day, very faithful and loving companions.