Monday, December 31, 2012

Family Tree

At this time of the year our thoughts are often drawn to those who are no longer with us. 
We remember Christmases and holidays and events of the past with fondness and humour.

John has been going through the old slides from the 60s and 70s and converting them into jpeg files. Often forgotten people, places and events are being re discovered.


Debbie and Gavin Jones  John and Georgie
Norma Jones & Pat Muston
Evelyn Jones nee Walters - John's grandmother

I have gone back to sorting through all the information we have about our ancestors from various branches of the family. I began this when I first retired 4 years ago with the plan to make an interactive collection of stories and photographs .  In the mean time the Ipad has come into vogue and as a viewing tool is so easy to use that I am converting the images into PDF files so that they can be viewed as E books. These can easily be printed if necessary as well.

People are coming back to life on our screens and their stories are much more interesting than anything that is on our television screens at the moment. 

So much research by so many people!!!!!!!!!!

I particularly love this connection.....  I guess I wouldn't be here if Henry I didn't have  his illegitimate children ;-)))





This is a sample of the finished product...






Christmas 2012

It was a quieter Christmas this year with Tamsin and John in Ireland. We had lunch with Penny and Ryan Archer, Julie, Graham , Pat, Carly and Brad as well as the children Billy, Alex and Claire. There was a lot of excitement and running around and blowing bubbles and throwing water balloons. 
It was a full Christmas lunch beginning with oysters and prawns and followed by the roast turkey  and ham with loads of vegetables and of course plumb pudding.  It brought back memories of Norma and Pat vying  over the best family pudding recipe. Mum's always created a stir with the pouring of the brandy and lighting the flame as well as the traditional threepences and sixpences that were found inside. I still have those coins.

The evening was a little quieter as everyone powered through the day. We had Christine, Robin, Melissa, Kimberly, Klay, Carly and Brad along with Kiesha, Amber, KayLee and Claire  sheltering out of the stiff breeze on the back lawn at our place. Brad expertly shucked the last of the oysters and we reluctantly ate the rest of the prawns. The pavlova that mum used to make seems redundant these days all people seemed to want was fresh fruit . The kids got on really well and managed to stay up quite late.  
There was some sad news  when Christine received a call to say her little dog had got out of the yard and been hit by a car... not a good way to end the day.





 While we were enjoying the sun Polly and Tamsin were experiencing their first Winter Christmas with John's family in Ireland. Following a bit of a scare when Polly experienced a high fever and convulsions on their first day in Dubai Polly has bounced back to her usual cheeky self.



Monday, December 24, 2012

Tammy and Charlie's Wedding


A pattern has evolved around photographing weddings already... they seem to happen in extreme weather conditions ......  another 42C day !!

This time there were young people involved and they were not happy about standing around in the heat trying to look glamorous so I had to keep everyone on the move and make the most of opportunities that presented themselves. 

The pics are a gift to the bride from the bridesmaid Nadia so there had been no discussion prior to the wedding and it really was a case of flying by the seat of my pants regarding taking shots as they presented. 


The ceremony and celebrations took place in a country hall which was quite busy visually so again I had to make the most of the surroundings.  A challenging but interesting experience.


         







Sunday, December 9, 2012

Photo Shoot

My latest photo shoot was with the lovely Trevor and Rosemary. 
Capturing the moment for these two was at times challenging and at times great fun. A roller coaster of emotions for everyone and a great privilege for me. It certainly gave the new camera a work out  and I must say it performed wonderfully well. I also loved playing with Trevor's great toys..






Sunday, November 25, 2012

Port Augusta Now

The new Port Augusta Visitor Guide is out and full of my images ( oh and some from other people )... they look so great! Pauline Hedger has done a wonderful job of putting together a publication that showcases the many and varied aspects of the area.

Some of the images you will find on my Flickr and Facebook pages  but quite a few are those that have been popped away in a file just in case they are needed.

We live in an amazing place.

This publication coincides with the Port Augusta Now FaceBook and web pages as the council works towards shedding the perceptions that people have of an industrial and barren place.

As part of this focus I have been seconded to provide photographs that depict people and lifestyles. This will provide an additional genre for my photography topics and takes me back to an early love..... photographing people.












Saturday, November 10, 2012

Descended from Thieves

Coral Carter asked me to launch her new book of poetry in Port Augusta. The first launch was in Melbourne and the third in Perth. Coral spent her early years in Port Augusta and I first met her when we both worked at the Remote and Isolated Children's Exercise.

It was a bit daunting writing a speech for an audience of mostly writers ......



Decended from Theives

Here it is.... after much patient waiting by many of us..  Coral Carter's first BOOK of her written works !!    Yay!!


Coral has had work published on line and in journals. But this is the first of her books.
A little gem ....  And I have the honour of launching it here in Port Augusta..... Thank you For asking me  Coral.

I First met Coral As a work mate back in the days when we worked for RICE -The Remote and Isolated Children's Exercise. They were surreal days, larger than life, Full of interesting experiences .....
Coral contributing to many of them...... There are enough ex  RICE ies here this evening to recreate the old RICE BUSH BAND.... remember the days when we travelled to Kingoonya by train singing all the way.

Back in those days Coral made a statement with her  80s fashion flair....and the hair doos ...  ;-)) Red and purple with shaved zig zags.
It was evident even then that Coral had a view of the world that was intense, probing, and often confronting but laced with humour ...

Coral now lives in  Kalgoorlie but the Port Augusta connection  is … she is the daughter of Pat and Tom Carter  and spent quite a few years in this town before she headed off into the world.
Pat has kept us informed about most of Coral's adventures over the years..
AND...
According  to Pat ... Coral has always been a writer. It runs in the family...... Along with thieves and suffragettes.

For years she has kept notes ......  descriptions, conversations, expressions, the things we think are mundane are potentially subject matter for her work.  
As you read Decended from Thieves you will chuckle to yourself, or well up with tears or cringe with anticipation as you hear familiar turns of phrase from the parallel lives we all lead.

Coral engages in groups and forums surrounding herself with others of like interest and surfs the world of poetry. She practices her craft constantly, fine tuning it, building her repertoire and her skills.

And here we are today with this little gem. Decended from Thieves.

Here you will meet Coral and her friends and family; acquaintances; people observed from a distance and intimately.....
You will probably recognise yourself somewhere among the pages.

People ...... in   Places that seem familiar....   snippets of life... and death....  crafted expertly ...... leaving indelible images  ....  each verse begging to be read ..... just once more.

Thanks for bringing your work to your old home town Coral…….lets launch it and get on with the conversations….





Pastels

It has been a couple of years since I began working with pastels  and I am beginning to get a sense of the images people like.

There are 3 main trends:  Port Augusta landscapes. Flinders Ranges landscapes and Australian flora.

Recently I was invited to display some pastels at the Australian Arid Lands Botanic Garden  in the new dining area... they look fantastic in this space.

Curdnatta continues to be the main selling point and I work there every Tuesday and on other Gallery duty days.

The Calendars that are available at Red Bubble are also popular and this is a great way to show collections of work.

FACEBOOK has also generated some sales as friends can keep up to date with my latest work. The most recent sale was to Karen Lamberts in Switzerland.




Tuesday, October 23, 2012

ARID SCULPTURE EVENT

This year both Curdnatta Art Group and FIBRESPACE got on board with this event  and a lot of fun was had deciding what to do and how to create a sculpture of sorts with combined effort. 

We did consider the possibility of windy or wet weather in Spring but we hadn't counted on the weather being quite so extreme. Nevertheless the pieces remained remarkably in tact and delighted many of the visitors to the Australian Arid Lands Botanic Garden during September and October.

Curdnatta's piece "On the Edge of Extinction" depicted birds in various stages from glory  to mummified state to looking quite decomposed. 

FIBRESPACE explored the idea of artists on the edge of sanity or the desert hatching new creative ideas with their "Hatchlings". 

You can see more at http://www.facebook.com/FIBRESPACEINC 





September Visit to Melbourne and Hobart

I can't believe the last two months have passed so quickly!
It is going to take a while to reflect on all the things that have happened.

Not long after our trip to Arkaroola I headed over to Melbourne to spend some time with Polly while Tamsin was in  in Mandurah (WA)  making a short film with the amazing Back to Back Theatre.  For a while I thought that John would be away too and I would be alone with the lovely Polly but John's Australian adventure via Adelaide, Perth, Darwin, Brisbane, Sydney and Canberra shooting stories for the Canberra Diaspora project had been postponed till the following week .... Phew...

I did Baby sit for a couple of days but the rest of the time was spent exploring the neighbourhood, going to the zoo and when Tamsin came back a shopping trip to the city with an amazing lunch at the Sushi Bar... pity you fell asleep then Polly.

As Polly had just turned one she was in demand as a guest at Hugo's Birthday Party along with Maggie  an experience I haven't had for quite a while.






After Melbourne I headed down to Hobart to spend some time with my sister Steph and although it was cold and a bit damp we managed to have a few good days of photography. Mostly it was good food, coffee and cake and sleep ins and lazy afternoons which were quite enjoyable. Steph especially enjoyed the quiet pace as it was school holidays . We did go out for lunch with a few friends for her birthday

We also managed to visit MONA again where there was an amazing display of bark cloth from the Pacific Islands. I managed to take some reasonable photos and have had one printed on canvas for the dining room ... my own little piece of the Pacific.