Family Reunion here I came

I'll be getting on a plane shortly on the way to Europe - first few days in Amsterdam with my darling daughter. This will be the last time I'll visit Amsterdam as she is leaving Holland sometime this year. I always wanted to see the Keukenhof tulip festival, and this year the opportunity presented itself, as I'm attending my niece's wedding in Portugal, so a side visit to Amsterdam was in order.

After Amsterdam, we fly to Lisbon for my niece's wedding in Cascais. Sadly my son and daughter in law, one brother in law and one nephew will be unable to attend, otherwise the rest of the family is travelling from far and wide again.

After Portugal, my daughter and partner fly with us to Budapest and his parents will join us there too.

For those that take part in the Monday Murals meme, the posts for the next 3 weeks have been scheduled to be posted at the usual time, and hopefully I'll be able to visit you all and comment.  

See you soon.

(photo from the net)

And have a wonderful Easter.

Monday Mural - Nobody stops Portugal

A  mural I found when we went to lunch in Alges, a suburb near Lisbon, during our visit in August/September 2017.

The wording says "Nobody stops Portugal" and it's and advert for Sagres beer.

If you like murals or have a mural you'd like to post, this meme is for you; just follow the Linky steps below.  Once you start looking you find murals everywhere.  

Be sure to link back to this blog and visit your fellow posters.  Looking forward to your mural finds posted this week.  Thanks.

2018 Sculpture by the sea - II

Following from yesterday's post, this is the next lot of sculptures at this year's Sculpture by the Sea in Cottesloe beach.

A couple of metal structures - the bottom left was created by Australian artist Harrie Fisher - "Transition", a mythical horse travelling between worlds, and won her the major prize of $50,000, the Rio Tinto Sculpture Award. 

The piece has been donated to the City of Busselton (south west of WA) for permanent public placement.

The other piece is called "Structured Cascade" by Jarrod Taylor.

"Layered Potential" by Elyssa Sykes-Smith, made with perspex, polycarbonate and stainless steel cable, shapes stretching from tree to tree in pastel colours looked beautiful with the sun streaming through it.

On the groyne stood this massive 5,5mt high brushed aluminium sculpture "The Elder" by Ron Gomboc (WA), represents an elder figure and someone younger and on the right is "Seed" by Sally Stoneman (WA) who was awarded the $10,000 Western Australian Sculptor Scholarship, for travel, study and advancement of the artist's career.

A very striking piece was a 13mt long red glider, made of aluminium, steel and polyester, called "Final approach" made by local artist Geoff Overheu.  If you have space in your garden it's for sale at $45,000!!

"Spirit" by April Pine, (English born, now living in Australia) with a life-size man with a dog on a lead, surrounded by a bevy of playful dogs, all made of powder-coated aluminium. 

"Feral" by WA artist Mikaela Castledine, portrays 15 cats in very cat like positions.

Tang Wei Hsu from Taiwan won the $5000 Andrea Stretton Memorial Invitation to exhibit at Sculpture by the Sea in Bondi later this year for his work titled "Jade Petals".

This lovely filigree work called "Inspired by Rosie" by Tania Spencer.

'The Place Where a Heart Could Stay" by Sang Sug Kim.

And last, but not least... 

At the northern end of the beach, "The Desert Island" a wonderful large semi-circle of mirrors with a timber back, by the Danish group Gjode & Partnere Arkitekter.

And that's me in the yellow flowery dress in front of the mirrors.

Hope you enjoyed all the big sculptures on the beach. It was a gorgeous sunny and warm day and after about 3 hours of walking around looking at all the sculptures, I came home tired but with a bronzed skin.

2018 Sculpture by the sea - I

If you follow Grace's on Perth Daily Photo you might have seen a few of the posts she had about this year's Sculpture by the Sea at Perth's Cottesloe Beach.
The event in it's 14th year was expected to attract  220,000 visitors to the beach during the two weeks from the 2nd to the 19th March and had the participation of 76 artists - 28 
West Australians, 15 from interstate and 33 International artists including 12 from Japan. 

I managed to pop by to visit the sculptures on Thursday 15th after work to avoid the crowds on the closing weekend and I've made a few collages of the ones I found most impressive.



Made by Singapore based Australian artist B.Jane Cowie, "Swirling Around" is a dome shaped stainless steel structure covered with 999 glass fish that reflected the sunlight beautifully.
She was the winner of the People's Choice Award with the prize of $5000. 

WA artists Rima Zabaneh (from Jordan, lives in Perth) and Australian Berenice Rarig received the Sculpture by the Sea Exhibiting Artist's Award for their innovative zip tie tree sculpture "Ziptide". They used 50 thousand zip ties and the sculpture stands 3mt high and the width of the arms about 3 to 4mt wide.



One of my favourites, "Waiting in the wings" won the Perth artist Denise Pepper $2000 for the Kid's Choice Award.

Other wonderful and quirky sculptures abounded on the large stretch of sand and on the pier.

"Damien Hirst looking for sharks" by Danger Dave (Portugal) and Christian Ranger (Victoria, Australia) was one of the most popular, a snorkeler looking through his mask half filled with water, made of PVC and nylon.  I'm surprised it didn't win an award.

To the left you can see an artist that was painting it on his small canvas.

"Sunny Moon" by Zadok Ben-David, and Israeli artist based in London.

"Furball" by Lucy Barker was made with discarded electrical cable.

It has been chosen to be part of a permanent exhibition at  Sculpture Encounters at Granite Island, one of South Australia’s national parks, about 80km south of Adelaide.

                                                 
                                                         "Capsule" by Australian (WA) artist Tony Davis

  

                                       "In Rainbows" by Australian artist Duncan Stemler.

British artist by Ivan Black with "Disc Vane" 

Taiwanese artist Naideh Shangmoh with "Welding iron sculptures"

You can also watch this fantastic short video about this year's exhibition:

A new experience - Outdoor movies

On Saturday 17th, I was invited to go to an outdoor movie session on the grounds of the University of Western Australia (UWA) in the suburb of Nedlands.
The Somerville, Perth's oldest outdoor cinema is located in a beautiful garden under the pine trees. There are rows and rows of deckchairs seating about 1000 people or you can sit or lie on bean bags on the fake grass under the huge screen and surrounding area.
This movie house plays a major role in the Perth International Arts Festival and shows other cult classics or arthouse movies.

For the cooler nights bring a blanket and bring a cushion to make the deckchair more comfortable. You are welcome to bring a picnic, but there is also have food and drinks for sale.

Movie season is from November to April, doors open at 6pm and you must be seated by 7,30 p.m. when the session starts. Each film screens for a week.

On the way to the Somerville

The entrance to the movie grounds, with people carrying their cooler boxes and blankets

The tall pine trees and ferns and fairy lights surrounding the area

Enjoying their picnics on the sidelines before the movie starts

   

The Icelandic "dramedy" (with English subtitles) we went to see was called "Under the Tree", and starts with Atli whose wife Agnes catches him watching a sex act between himself and a former girlfriend and throws him out the house.
He moves in with his parents Inga and Baldvin, who are in the middle of  a feud with their younger neighbours Konrad and Eybjorg regarding a tree in their garden that the neighbours complain is casting a large shadow in their garden.
Inga's bitterness (or mental illness) due to a recent tragedy (their oldest son is believed to have committed suicide) has no intention of doing their neighbours any favours and is always commenting on the appearance of Konrad's athletic younger second wife.
The tree feud continues, tires are slashed, garden gnomes broken and flower damaged, a cat goes missing and a dog soon follows.
Mild mannered Baldvin gets the son Atli to sleep in a tent on the lawn to keep watch which leads to an unexpected climax when even the two level headed older men lose it.  
Lots of laughs and surprises throughout ...

Seating for about 1000 people on the deckchairs and 200 on the grass area

Have you been to an outdoor cinema? Do you remember Drive-Ins?

I remember growing up in South Africa where the cheapest option for the whole family to go to the movies was to go to the Drive-in. We would drive in and test the speakers first to make sure it had a good sound. Then we would eat some snacks or sometimes go to the "tuck-shop" and buy a hamburger, chips or popcorn and enjoy the movie.

What great memories.

Monday Mural - Faces

Two murals of faces painted by the same artist in the suburb of Le Panier in Marseille, France, taken when I visited the city in September 2017.
The daughter of an artist, Manyoly dreamed of becoming a psychologist but became an artist instead. She's mainly self taught, and usually paints on canvas using brushes and rich water colours.
When she doesn't have permission to paint directly on the walls, she paints on paper which she then pastes on the walls.

If you like murals or have a mural you'd like to post, this meme is for you; just follow the Linky steps below.  Once you start looking you find murals everywhere.  
Be sure to link back to this blog and visit your fellow posters.  Looking forward to your mural finds posted this week.  Thanks.

Finally finished - Painted furniture

In July last year I posted about painting my dining room chairs.

Since then I returned to painting, starting with the table legs and then the area under the table top. When done I was quite happy with the result.

The next pieces to be painted were the coffee and side tables, and then the sideboard and the glass display unit.

side table

Coffee table

At first I left the doors of the sideboard and the glass display unit unpainted, as I had seen some pieces of furniture done this way in Pinterest and had liked them. 
After a couple of months I just wasn't feeling the love...so eventually a few weeks later I decided it was time to paint the doors and I'm much happier with the result.

I have a lot of junk stashed into the sideboard and glass display unit, until I start to get rid of my collections I need them...

Sideboard - now, in-between and before

Display unit - Now, in-between and before

One day while helping me drop stuff to donate at the Salvos, my husband fell in love with this small wooden table. We brought it home and a while later I decided that painting half the legs of the table would make it fit in better with the two armchairs that belong to the dining room and with the rest of the room in general and he was ok with it.

And so the lounge and dining room are now finished. 

I also covered the little stool with the same fabric as the dining room chairs

My next project is my bedroom furniture, but have to first find the right tone to paint it - looking for something in the turquoise range.
What do you think, doesn't the furniture look a lot lighter? I just wish my sofas weren't all brown, but they will have to last for a while.

The paint used was - Rust-Oleum "Chalked" in Linen White.