Showing posts with label workshops. Show all posts
Showing posts with label workshops. Show all posts

Friday, June 10, 2011

wild and woolly winter weather....

Its been very wintery here at the creek (and in surrounding places!) this week. Yesterday and today snow/sleet/ice intermittently closed the Snowy Mountains Hwy between Bega and Cooma. It's cold and wet and woolly weather everywhere around here.


(from a high point near the Bega water tower,
I spy wet weather..... Brown Mountain off in the distance is covered in cloud....)


In Bega today (grrrr... my 'oh-damn-we've-run-out-of-food-and-shoelaces' trip to the BIG shops that happens once every 10-14 days)..... Bega - population 4000 is certainly no city but it is more than 10 times bigger than my little town of Cobargo .... and has 1000 times the population of Sams Creek! I collected my latest order from Candelo Books - Book + Art by Dorothy Simpson Krause, and a newer title - Book Art  (published this year by Gestalten - this book features art made with/from books - delish!)

oh and yesterday another booky treasure arrived in the mail from Bruges - Yves self-published delight - 'Thoughtful Gestures - the calligraphic art of Yves Leterme'

mmmmmm new books for a wet long weekend... perfect!

and perfect for a little celebration - after a very cold, wet day yesterday spent in a grant writing workshop (which was EXCELLENT I must say - small wave to Ben from Regional Arts who guided us all through the minefield of arty grants). I came home to a welcoming email from East Gippsland Art Gallery - my booky entry has been short-listed for their biennial National Book Award.... yay!

(ps I can't show you pics of the work selected... yet... as the short-listed piece is my 'paper wrestling' book for bookartobject - and the BAO peeps haven't got their book from me yet! I'm waiting for 'something' to arrive so that I can post them out to you all... sorry for your wait...)

oh and talking of BAO peeps - I heard on the fb grapevine that at least one other BAO creature has had a piece shortlisted for the award as well - double yay!

ahhh the fire needs another piece of wood - and the chilled kidlins will soon be home from school - the new books will have to wait for a while longer....



...

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

layer it! workshop report

WOW!

What a weekend!

I've just spent 2 of the most fantastic days any teacher/tutor can spend - nestled amongst enthusiastic, engaging, talented, generous students - this time in the spacious (ok - cavernous..) space of Primrose Park - headquarters of the ASC...


Primrose Park Paperworks


I felt very honoured - and not a little daunted - to be leading such a marvelous group - I've admired the work of many of those lining up to hear my 'words of wisdom'... it made me wonder what on earth I could add to their already extensive knowledge-bank...

'Layer It!' did have an ambitious program - I was hoping to get through 4 distinct areas or 'layers' during the 2 days: layers in lettering, layers in paint, layers in collage and (my particular pet) layers of meaning...



Look at them all - waiting for me to stop taking piccies and get on with the show!



No matter how long a workshop is - it never feels quite long enough... here are some of the workshop participants works in progress at the start of day 2 - backgrounds have been created and a first layer of lettering has been applied - waiting for the magic of glaze applications....




by the end of day 2 the works are only just beginning really - oh how I wish we had another day (or two)... I can only imagine how some works may turn out... here's Bob's piece after it's initial layers of lettering and glaze... I do hope he works on this at home and sends me a finished pic - this is such a promising start...




and I only had just enough time to start to talk about layers of meaning... maybe I'll just have to talk about that on another visit... ('Layer it some more'?)

Thanks to everyone who came - hope you keep on 'layering it!'

Saturday, November 8, 2008

Layer It!

Next weekend I’m off to Primrose Park, headquarters and home-base for the Australian Society of Calligraphers (ASC), in Sydney.

I’m taking participants (victims?) through my 2 workshop - ‘Layer It!’ – I’m thrilled that the 2 day workshop has been booked out (!) months in advance.

I’ve been a Guild Member for the ASC since 1995 – but this is the first time I’m off to teach a workshop in Sydney.

I don’t go away to teach workshops very often – I do have 2 rather young kiddies after all (Sass is 6, EJ is 3) and I’m never all that keen to leave either them or my beloved Sams Creek...
Last year I presented the same workshop for the Coffs Calligraphers as an extension of my stint as their guest artist (for the exhibition ‘Botanical Rhythms’)


'Weight of Words'
Rhonda Ayliffe
from 'Botanical Rhythms' exhibition - Coffs Harbour - 2007



I had such a wonderful time that when I was approached by the ASC to teach, I was keen to repeat the good times… and just like then, I’ll try to keep my homesickness to a minimum…


I’ll hopefully have some nice pics and stories about my time away - and I'll share them when I return (I bet all sorts of things will be going on here in my absence.... I wonder if anyone will be game to record the mischief?)