A town like Alice

After conducting some “secret men’s business”, Alice is next stop. The McDonald ranges are beckoning, and with cool nights and a full moon even a few night photos are hoped for. Might even catch a fish in the Todd!

Image © PeteM2010

In pursuit of fish

San Remo is a popular fishing village about 1.5 hours drive south-east of Melbourne. Should be just the spot for finding a selection of suitable specimens for the fish drawing project, even has a fisherman’s co-op. I set out this morning optimistically on my journey, paper, pencils and camera on the ready!

The co-op was full of customers and there was plenty of fish for sale – but “fried or grilled” fillets were the only option. The only whole fish in sight were some miserable specimens currently being fed to a patrol of pelicans gathered on the nearby beach!

 Image ©: PeteM2010

A local sports fisherman offered me a gummy shark, but if my memory serves me right, sharks do not have much in the way of a skeleton, just cartilage.

Will not give up on this project just yet! With David (our teacher) most probably stuck somewhere in Europe due to a wayward volcano, I will take the opportunity to do some river fishing instead of class next week. The Todd may yield some interesting species!

Caught this on my way home, near Kooweerup:

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Image © PeteM2010

Art Hotel

Photo © PeteM2010

The Henry Jones IXL hotel was built out of the derelict IXL jam factory on Hobart wharf. As much as possible of the old structure has been retained and is easily identified in every room of the hotel. The restoration is outstanding.


When the heating is cranked up in winter, drops of sugar syrup will still ooze from some of the old beams. Not quite what you expect in a four and a half star hotel, but it is part of the charm!

The hotel has a fabulous art collection, and as Christine (the hotel’s art curator) pointed out to me, students and graduates from the local art school produce many of the works. All the art is for sale.

Christine told me that the latest trend in art is to combine traditional and digital methods in producing the images. As if we didn’t know David’s teaching is “cutting edge”!

Dandenong Winter Arts Projection - 2

My submission is now available for all to see. Just click on the link - and a new web page will load. The slideshow can be stopped/started at any time by hovering the mouse over/off the images.

Slideshow: PeteM2010's Dandnenong Winter Arts Projection

Taswegian specimen.

Salamanca market (Hobart) was in full swing by the time I arrived. There were hundreds of stalls selling all kinds of foods, crafts, ornaments and nick knacks of all types, colours and shapes. However, fish, which were intended as today’s photo subject, were in extremely short supply. Not even a farmed salmon in sight! The fish project looked doomed.

The harbour did not prove much better, with the exception of this ugly brute:

     Photo ©PeteM2010
Can’t be a great specimen, as not even the seagulls showed much interest! I decided not to bring it home in the hand luggage. In fact, I decided not to bring it home at all.

Wi-fi

Traveling broadens the mind, and I am currently in need of just that. Nothing like jumping on the Internet and just finding a destination randomly – has a pleasant element of surprise! Guess what – looks like I ended up in sunny Hobart!

Don’t mind sitting in airport lounges as it gives me a feeling of anticipation – and as most have wifi Internet connection, it is also an opportunity to catch up on some of my favourite sites. Magnum Photos is one of those, and I particularly rate some of their  “in motion” short photo essays. Enjoy this one: http://inmotion.magnumphotos.com/essay/air

Photo © PeteM2010  No prizes for guessing where this  photo was taken!

Winter Arts Projection 2010

It has been difficult to come up with innovative ideas for the “projection slides”. A lot of hours have been spent messing about in Photoshop, often to find that the end result probably will not work when projected on a building. Frequently back to the ‘drawing board”!

From the general vibe – it seems a few of us have found ourselves in a bit of a creative hole of late with this project.

However, with a good supply of dark chocolate Easter eggs and (plenty of) suitable liquid refreshments, the requisite number of slides has been produced and submitted. Think it’s now time for a change of environment – let’s see, where to next? 


Image © PeteM2010  

Potter Gallery (NGV)

Revisited the Gallery on Thursday (1 April), which was the first day of the Top Arts VCE 2009 exhibition. The selection panel considered over 1700 applications and about 70-80 works were on display showing a diversity of art-forms including drawing, printmaking, photography, painting, textiles, and screen based works. Very impressive, inspirational, and well worth a visit.

Also had a look at the “Stick it! Collage in Australian Art” exhibition. Again, here was a huge range of approaches to the art form. Some very clever and engaging and others, well……! I asked the staff if some of the works were there today only as an April fools joke, but the incredulous looks on their faces told me that that was probably not the case! (I am still not convinced, and will have a look again in a few weeks time.)

Whilst in the area I could not resist revisiting Hosier Lane and “Hey, this time, there was art action!”

Photo © PeteM2010