Cool n Clever

Maggie, Joan and I will be exhibiting at Fat Tuesday in Kloof again, this May 2012.

We had a great meeting yesterday in Joan's fantastic COOL classroom where she teaches at Durban Girl's College. 

Besides being an outstanding artist, Joan is a brilliant teacher ... and that's not me being biased ... the results this year again are indicitive ... of her thirteen matrics who achieved a whopping NINE DISTINCTIONS, three 'Bs' ... a 'C' ... and four were in the top 1% of the national IEB.  Well done to you all.

An interesting connection is that Joan did her prac under Maggie's guidance as a student teacher.

Now, all these years later, we've all connected where we crit, conspire and create together.

Great times !!! 

The 2012 Sketchbook project ... with friends

Joan Martin, Ana de Vlieg and I, decided to join up together as we work on our sketchbooks for The 2012 Sketchbook project. 

It's very interesting to see how three artists who enjoy and appreciate each other's work can work so differently. 

Joan's working meticulously through her sketchbook where a story of her life is unfolding. Ana's just started but intends to sketch about her travels ... using beautiful colour and light no doubt ... while mine remains this otherworldly layering of images and textures and found-spaces which right now I've absolutely no idea how I'll pull together.

Joan and Ana's are neatly layed out and prepared ... and I'm fumbling along. Oh boy !! I do hope to finish it by the end of November before I go on December leave, when I intend to work up a storm in my studio with other things that need more time!! Can't wait.

Before we left for Ana's studio, Joan was waiting for me while I dried my mop of hair ... so, Sienna got a brush ... she adore's Joan!

Ana has an absolutely beautiful studio. I've posted a photo from earlier on in the week ... she's busy signing a painting ... a very special painting that guess who now has in her kitchen ... that's right ... me!! :-) My home is a wonderful space filled with warm sentiments, enhanced with incredible artworks from special artist friends.

My friend Fiona Veitch Smith ... The Crafty Writer

Fiona Veitch Smith - Author and scriptwriterEvery now and then, we get to brag a bit and why not ... life's too short. Fiona and I were at school together not that long ago ;-) ... yeah right ... and as feisty and determined as she was then, she is now.

Increasingly I admire those who are prepared to stand up for what they believe in, to say it like it is ... and so for me Journalists generally rank high on my love-list. Some are awful for sure ... but Fiona's awesome.

With technology being as amazing as it is, Fiona and I re-connected via SA Connect (in the days before Facebook). Fiona had moved to the UK and I'd moved to Durban ... both origionally from Springs ... yes, yes, that far-far-away place on the East Rand.

Anyhow, Fiona wrote two articles on me/art and an armed robbery we'd just experienced ... and I have to say that reading the articles in print was both pretty much weird and wonderful.

We also recollected stories of past, including how we both got totally ill on prefect's camp ... aaarrrgg ... who'd have thought I'd be saying "the good ol' days" ... :-)

Fiona too had just been acnowledged with a fabulous award (I forget which now) for a book she'd just published called Donovan's Rainbow.

She's since written and published many more books, written a whole whack of articles, stories, screenplays and stuff for the stage ... really, she's quite something.  She hosts a teaching site for writers called The Crafty Writer

So this wonderful woman, wife, mother, freelance journalist, editior, author, playwright, screenwriter and writing teacher is also my friend. Lucky me.

You can read more about Fiona and her books on her new site here

P.S.  Fiona asked me for a painting which I've not yet finished so guess where I'm off to after finishing this here blog ... :-)

Mags n Joan ... mix n match

I'm lucky in having a diverse group of friends, all of whom are fabulous. Some are seriously left brained analytical knowledge workers and others are .... rather raucous right brainers ... and then there's a whole mix of delightful in-betweeners.  

Yesterday I had a visit from artist friends Maggie Strachan, whom I call 'Mags' (but whom we refer to as 'The Magster ... I'll tell you why later) and Joan Martin, whom I call 'Joannee' ... apparantly I'm priviledged to get away with calling her this :-)

They arrived for our monthly meet in preparation for our next exhibition a Fat Tuesday.  I was tickled-pink if you'll excuse the pun, to notice that they arrived 'matching' ... so, we had to do a quick foto-shoot before we could share-n-tell about our work ... :-) 

Joan's Outfits ... :-) Two weeks ago our friend's, Fred and Joan joined us for a braai and to watch the rugby (well, the boys watched and we spoke about an exhibition that we're working on together ... ahhh so keen to tell you all about it but in Joan's words "I can't tell you about it now or I'd have to kill you" ... :-)

But getting back to Joan's outfits ... they're always intriuging and beautiful ... I had to take this foto coz as she was walking towards me, I noticed how she matched her drink and my cushions ... !

Fab Artist Friends

How sad when you just make a new great, fab Artist friend and then they're off "back home to Philadelphia" :-(

Ann and I met at Churchills for lunch and a couple of cuppas ... we'll each have one of each other's artworks to keep which will be sooo nice ... !