A bhangra dance class

from w
It's Seniors Month and there are lots of activities to encourage men and women over 60 to join in activities, stretch minds and bodies. This morning it was a Bollywood bhangra dance class organised by Diversitat so I went along wearing some bling clothes. I was the youngest there of the oldies as a whole group from the Multicultural Aged Social Group came with their walking frames and a group from Vision Impaired arrived. Anyway the carers and a few of us had a go with a little bit of grace and energy as we lunged and bounced and tried the peacock head movement as our teacher taught us about ten different steps. It was fun and some of the oldies from their chairs had a good time too. I took a few photos but my two photos of our dance teacher didn't turn out so I 'borrowed' one from the Asha Bollywood Dance website and they provided the program.

On the way home there was music in the mall, a South American band playing a golden oldie from the 70s El Condor Pasa made well-known internationally by Simon and Garfunkel - which was a nice touch.

Visiting a newborn

from w
Last night we had the pleasure of visiting friends in the Werribee region to take a woven mat, bundle of kava, and small gifts for a four day old baby boy. In this inter-generational home, usually very neat and quiet, suddenly there are the sounds of a budding Pavarotti demanding attention and piles of baby needs around. When he yelled the seven women in the house leapt to attention to rock, pat, sing to, change or feed the little fellow. What a blessing this little boy will give to the family. Congratulations Kitione and Lutu for your first child and welcome to the bonny lad of over four kilos. The custom last night is called 'vakabogiva' which means four nights after a significant event in the life of a Fijian family. We had prayers and a delicious dinner and the men drank kava and some of us women became nostalgic about other times, a long time ago, when we had the very best moment of our lives when we said hello to a newborn child.

Finding a title for a picture

from w
Instead of just calling a sketch or painting or manipulated drawing 'Elkhorn on tree', how different would the reaction of a viewer be if the picture was entitled 'Garden of Eden' or 'Garden of the Knowledge of Good and Evil' and presented in the context of a service of worship? Confronting, stimulating or off-putting? Or taking the mickey? Perhaps we should do this more often - use art to create questions.

Elkhorn on tree adding colour

from w
I sharpened up a whole bunch of pencils and added colour to the sketch I made the other day in the Geelong Botanical Gardens, just using coloured pencils then took it a few steps further using Photo-edit. I'd made a mistake in the original drawing, forgeting to put that round shape onto the tree from which the fern grows. Using opposite colours certainly makes it a bit scary looking.

Geelong wins Grand Final

from w
Geelong Football Team, the Cats, have won the Grand Final, beating St Kilda. It was anybody's game because of the rainy weather and slippery grass, and the score was equal 10 minutes before the final siren. Congratulations to the Cats for 2009.

Wombat Gully

from w
After a morning of office work on a computer and playing music for a funeral, it was time for a pleasant lunch and a walk through Wombat Gully Plant Nursery. Though it was raining slightly and they gave us umbrellas it wasn't suitable for much sketching, only in a fern area. On a sunny day we can go back for more coffee, spinach and cheese rolls with tomato chutney, scones with cream and jam, etc. and buy some of the wonderful plants. Lately our household has got seriously into gardening, buying lots of packets of seeds, and trays of seedlings from Wombat Gully. I'd love to be let loose with $500 here - better than buying clothes and shoes!
Wombat Gully in Geelong have a website which is here.
It's located on the edge of town at 201 Townsend Rd Moolap.

(later) - Adding a bit of colour to the sketches - just pencils and a couple of feltpens. I noticed that the ferns at the nursery were much healthier than the ferns at the Geelong Botanical Gardens. Perhaps it's the protected environment and not just depending upon rain.

Life of a sculptor

from w
Found this when looking for something else. Click to see enlarged.

Dust storms and climate change

from w
Sydney and Brisbane and all along the east coast of Australia (but not Melbourne and Geelong) experienced a really bad dust-storm this week that choked the skies. Planes could not take off or land from the airports. People suffered respiratory and eye problems, a relative told me.Is this a sign of things to come? This week one city had a dust-storm, thunder and lightning and hail - in one day!

We've had dust storms before, but mainly in the rural areas as drought year after year raises the topsoil. I remember as a young child being terrified when walking home from school being choked by dust. Swan Hill, a small country town on the Murray River often had dust storms those days as the clearing of the land just changed the environment. One photo here shows a dust storm rolling in near Broken Hill in outback NSW.

When will they ever learn, when will they ever learn?

Gary Ablett son of Gary Ablett

from w
Winner of this year's best and fairest footie player in the AFL - the Brownlow Medal - is Gary Ablett whose father was a star player a couple of decades ago. Gary Ablett Junior is an outstanding player who was voted the best, even though he was out for thee weeks with injuries.
But the TV and print media have pages and pages of the other side of the count-down event - the frontless, backless, drop-kick gorgeous or not, wedding cake decoration dresses on the women. Why do women have to dress in such fashions? And of course why do the young men have to dress in formal look-alike suits?

The cats are purring in Geelong

from w
With Geelong winning their match superbly in the semi-final, it's now our hope that they won't choke in the Grand Final next weekend. The whole town is buzzing and optimistic with the demolition of Collingwood on Saturday, though of course there are a few people out of 250,000 who might not be interested in football or even care if the Geelong Cats win or lose. Their song is a tune from 'Carmen' but the footie guys do not sing it in an operatic style! The AFL - now national, was once a Victoria only Australian Rules Football. I don't go to matches but occasionally watch highlights on the TV but when our boys were young they all played Aussie Rules footie and that's the way to go. Join in sports, rather than watch it.

A collage of trees

from w
Putting the original pencil sketches and dabbled pictures together here's a kind of collage or quilt of trees from the Geelong Botanical Gardens

Trees in Geelong Botanical

from w
Though I'm too impatient to draw detailed botanical illustration, I do like to draw a variety of trees because they are so different, particularly the lumpy ginkho three which is linked with Buddha and ancient China. One here is of a sandpaper fig which has a very smooth bark and the other is a tree that looks almost dying with branches that appear to be like strings of sausages. It's an amazing world. click on any picture to see enlarged. I used pencil when I roamed around the garden, and then oil pastels when I came home. The weather is better, a bit sunny so I'm not hugging the heat and hibernating so much. This morning Peceli and I will go again to Donation in Kind to sort books.

More fallen leaves

(If you wish, click on picture to see enlarged details.)from w
I was back to Donation in Kind for book sorting this morning while Peceli took a trailer to the tip. Mountains of beautiful books have been given to the Rotary Donation in Kind Geelong depot for sending on to the South Pacific Islands and South East Asia. What is wrong in the school libraries these days because there are thousands of lovely new books barely read. Are the children no l longer reading teenage novels because the internet and television are less demanding? Anyway after a lunch at a new Hungry Jacks and Peceli gone again to golf, I've been messing about with more pictures of fallen leaves that I gathered up yesterday.

Fallen petals and leaves

from w
While in the Botanical Gardens yesterday I noticed thousands of fallen petals from the flowering bushes so picked up a few bits and pieces. The following pictures were made just by scanning a random selection of found objects - part design, part chance, which is my way of making a composition. Dying leaves, dying flowers. Not a line drawn though.

feathers

from w
It's a lovely spring day today, even sunshine, so I wandered around the Geelong Botanical Gardens and did some sketches of tree trunks etc. so I'll do something with them later today. Meanwhile, though I sometimes am a bit scared by birds if they come too close, I like the shapes and colours of their feathers! Here is a result from a photo of feathers. It's a large file so it is surprising if bloggers will accept it. At one stage they requested files of only up to about 100k.

Variations of Laucala Island picture

from w.
From a black pencil to coloured pencil drawing I made variations using Photo-edit - using chalk/charcoal, edge, felt pen.





from w