Teneriffe Festival, Saturday 3rd July!!

Sister Act!

Come and say Hello to my sis Anne and I at the Teneriffe Street Festival, 8am until 8pm Vernon Terrace, Teneriffe. We are art stall / site number 6, corner of Ethel St, it's sure to be a fun community day!

Art does more than just hang around on walls...

"You can start the day in a rush...or by looking at your favourite art book.." This quote comes out of one of my fave books called "Sensual Home" by Ilse Crawford, that I picked up in London over ten years ago.. her sentiments reign supreme even today.. Ilse's book is all about creative energy, creating balance harmony and space in the home and the spirit...and choosing special art pieces that you love, intuitively not rationally, I love it! What our beach bungalow currently lacks in furniture it makes up for in artworks, including Banx originals and also some from my own personal collection by my favourite female artists like Anne McLeay, collage artist Anne Foster and a Samoan artist friend Ruta. Another friend in Canada is hand making an exquisite quilt for us. Not to mention Peter Hardie's award winning photography of flippers too (how lucky he is my brother!). Our bungalow will be an artisan's haven. Even the dining table we are currently scrubbing back in the studio for the bungalow was once an artist's and a potter's table. I love every one of its scratches and marks, it tells a story. Artists create things that excite our senses, they dig deep into our psyche's and unlock something personal within us, and how wonderful to bring this to everyday life! The rest of the furniture can take a back seat - I want to sit on my temporary fold up chair in our new space and just keep staring at the sensational art that surrounds us! (This painting is called Medley by Banx).

Dive Right In!

We got the keys! We have a stunning beautiful little beach bungalow at Moffat Beach on the stunning Sunshine Coast about one hour north of Brisbane - proud new house owners of a little place in a magical part of the world, where the sea glistens and they make the best soy cappucino's I think I have ever tasted!... and it's all ours. It is just too exciting for words! It's furniture-less, but who cares, the main thing is it will have a few beautiful select Banx original artworks (along with a card table and fold up chairs, after all, we had to get our priorities right!) We have been looking for such a long time, but wow! this has been worth the wait.. stay tuned for some pics as our beach project progresses from dream to reality..PS This pic is a Banx original that I just love, first painting to be hung in the new little pad called 'Dive Right In'... what a great lesson in Life.. just Dive Right In!! We did! I can thoroughly recommend it!

Purple Pepper Antiques

On Saturday morning my sister and I visited my very good friend Karen's new antiques business Purple Pepper Antiques inside the Woolloongabba Antique Centre on Wellington Road, the Gabba. What a wonderful place this is - a treasure trove of history, glam, vintage wares, you name it. Karen has just started her wonderful business with drive, determination and most of all passion for all things with a 'story'. To quote Karen:
"Time travel is a reality at Purple Pepper Antiques and Art, a Victorian gold bangle, a silver soup ladle, an etched glass bowl from 1910, an art deco print of a Parisian girl, a Crown Devon bowl and a Royal Doulton plate are willing to tell their story and transport you to another time. Who used to own them? Where have they been? What changes have they seen? How did they survive one or even two world wars?"
Armed with imagination and curiousity, I thoroughly recommend a visit to Purple Pepper Antiques, Shop 52 at the Woolloongabba Antique Centre, which is not your usual dusty, musty, smelly old bric-a-brac centre - far far far from it - it is owned and run by two really funky young sisters and their fresh youthful energy and exuberance permeates the aisles.. plus the retro cafe serves great coffee and friandes!!

Molly

Very full on week with hangings (!) and Banx's art exhibition in the City. One of the newspapers featured his very large Banjo Paterson 10 dollar bill. What blew me away with Banx's research was finding out about Mary Reiby (aka Molly) who features on the front of our 20 dollar note. What an amazing inspirational woman she was and I am ashamed to say I had never heard of her let alone realised why she is on the face of our twenty dollar bill! She was sent to the colonies as a convict for having stolen a horse and it was the best thing that ever happened to her! She married well, but when her husband pre-deceased her, she went on to raise seven children and continue his shipping and property interests in Australia, becoming one of our Nation's wealthiest and most successful business women who devoted much of her time in later life to major charities. GO GIRL!

Kids & Creativity!

Who was that famous person who once said "Never work with kids or animals" ha! Well we did both two days running this week - we dog-sat my niece's GORGEOUS and mischievous black labrador ROCKY and then yesterday, had a Kids Art Day in the backyard - we have never had so much fun in two days! wow kids and animals are so spontaneous and naturally creative! Sir Ken Robinson is one of my fave mentors on kids and creativity (check out his website)and yesterday I have never seen 3 such focussed creative kids In The Zone, aged 7, 9 and 13 - famous artists in the making and masterpieces produced yesterday, but most of all we had fun in the sunshine!

Off the Wall Banx Art Exhibition

We are gearing up for artist Banx's forthcoming contemporary Art Exhibition "Off the Wall" in the Foyer of Central Plaza One, 345 Queen Street, Brisbane city, 22-31 July...all systems go at the mo!

A Good Cause

Last night Banx and a lot of other Qld artists participated in the Cerebral Palsy yearly art auction. It is an extremely worthwhile cause for such a debilitating disease. The target this year was $45,000 – which is the money needed to support one child with cerebral palsy for one year. Artists are invited to donate and exhibit an artwork. The fund raisers at Cerebral Palsy work tirelessly all year making sure the evening is a success; the auctioneer donates his time and expertise; everyone pulls together behind the scenes.

The theme was ‘Colours of Queensland’ and there were stunning works all available for sale. Deputy Lord Mayor David Hinchliffe’s; Elisabeth Lawrence’s; and Cooper Wilson’s originals were just a few of my favourites. Previous year’s creative themes have included ‘The Doors’ (artists painted on old doors)… “Window of Opportunity” (old windows installed and painted on – see pic above); and “River City”, the fond nickname for Brissie The money raised helps go towards much needed equipment for sufferers. It is always difficult choosing which charities to support, there are so many deserving ones desperately needing funds or efforts.

When Banx and I visited Sri Lanka in 2003, where he was born and raised, I particularly wanted to visit Nuwara Eliya SOS Children’s Village. We went there and I met “Durga”, just a little bub standing up in her cot at the time. She and her two sisters had been left abandoned in a community hall by the parents who couldn’t afford to feed or look after them anymore, and now they live in the wonderful SOS Children’s Village, attend school and are growing up with a beautiful house mother. Each year I receive a photograph, it’s lovely watching her grow up.

Art is Good for Your Health!

Yesterday we hung art at a very long-standing client’s premises… a hospital! They have been renting contemporary abstract art from us for a few years now and every three months, we change it over for them, for a whole fresh new look. It’s always fun for those in the medical suites choosing the new art as everyone has a different viewpoint, a real conversation starter and distraction from their everyday working lives, but it made me realise just how good looking at great art is for your health. There are lots of studies on the internet backing this up. Apparently looking at art lowers your blood pressure and stress levels, and one particular study in the UK found that participants’ saliva cortisol levels (the best indicator of stress) reduced by 32% after they spent their lunch hour viewing art. Cortisol is a very important hormone in our bodies but excess amounts can be very detrimental. And let’s face it, everyone these days seems to suffer from some form of stress in their working lives. We actually live in our gallery, surrounded by many, many pieces of amazing gorgeous constantly changing artworks, all originals, painted by around thirty extremely talented creative individuals, so we really have no excuse for high stress levels in our household!!

Jump for Joy

It’s the start of the working week after a long weekend, yippee! Australia is known as being the Land of Long Weekends – but we should embrace the working week ahead too. This joyful original painting by my artist sis Anne McLeay reminds me of one of my fave ads on TV at the mo is the ‘Un-worry’ series, cooking on the Barbie 5 nights a week instead of two… and all those other suggestions someone once sent around in an email eons ago, like using your best chinaware and crystal glasses every day not just on special occasions.. wearing your best silk lingerie and French perfume under your business attire to that meeting.. maybe that way we’ll embrace Monday’s and Tuesday’s like Saturday’s and Sunday’s, anyway here’s that email, an oldie but a goodie worth repeating:

"Never save something for a special occasion. Every day in your life is a special occasion.

Now I read more and clean less.

I sit on the porch without worrying about anything.

I spend more time with my family, and less at work.

I understood that life should be a source of experience to be lived up to, not survived through. I no longer keep anything. I use crystal glasses every day... I'll wear new clothes to go to the supermarket, if I feel like it…

I don't save my special perfume for special occasions; I use it whenever I want to. The words "Someday..." and "One Day..." are fading away from my dictionary. If it's worth seeing, listening or doing, I want to see, listen or do it now.

Now, I try not to delay, postpone or keep anything that could bring laughter and joy into our lives… And, on each morning, I say to myself that this could be a special day…

Each day, each hour, each minute, is special.