This time last year I was working flat chat to get organised for the Research and Residency trip to the UK ... there were long lists of tasks to be getting through everyday... and definitely not much time for painting due to talks, events, serious fund-raising efforts and planning for the UK.
This year I am taking off again in September for a residency much closer to home... there are definitely costs involved and fundraising efforts in place but most importantly there is a lot of painting happening whenever possible to be ready for the upcoming OPEN STUDIO EVENT the weekend after next...see below for dates... AUG 31, SEPT 1 & 2.
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| Rainforest Patterning : Seed-capsules ... cross-sections 90 cm sq, acrylic and ink on linen on canvas. |
A recent work is this Rainforest seed-capsule cross-section painting which was a theme from 2010 which I wanted to explore further. A June trip to Cairns to check out details for the September Residency and familiarise myself with the Wet Tropics region meant I was able to collect pods to bring back and draw plus meet a number of interesting people at the Botanic Gardens and Tanks Art Centre where I'll be based as well as the Australian Tropical Herbarium.
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| Cairns journal |
 read the post about this work here. |
On another tangent... I became connected to an important story in Regional Queensland through a friend working with
I signed on as a sponsor for this organisation for their Leadership Awards to be announced on September 6th. A logo was created by my friend Bev Ryan with an image provided that I use as my Facebook Page Logo ...so I was delighted to view it on the website article about the awards.
a new Logo for my Studio
Awards will be made in three categories:
- Business: for women showing leadership in running or managing a commercial rural, regional or remote business. This includes agricultural businesses.
- Community: for women showing leadership in running or managing a community service or group in rural, regional or remote Queensland. Includes not-for-profit.
- Professional: for women showing leadership providing services in the employ of an organisation or government body in rural, regional or remote Queensland.
Working on the Homage to the Seed project over the past (almost) three years has illuminated so many factors affecting our Global Seed Heritage ... whether one looks at Habitat Biodiversity or Agrobiodiversity. Women increasingly are becoming leaders in this demanding era.
Rural and remote communities face huge challenges everywhere... in Queensland drought, fires, floods and cyclones have all hit savagely in the past 5 years. Besides these natural disasters Mining is increasingly seeing Farmers have to stand up for their livelihoods. And that's for starters. Long aware of the role of women in rural communities from my own family background I am thrilled to be a sponsor and contributing artworks to the winners of these awards.
The awards will be announced at this Conference...
Meanwhile I will be in Paddington at this OPEN STUDIO EVENT planned for the beginning of spring.
Read more details on this at the previous post.
Now for a sneak preview of whats coming up in Cairns.... I'll post on this again closer to the time and it will be on my website too. Opening night is October 12th!
This is the poster for the exhibition.
I'm at home today fighting of some dreaded winter thing that has not set me back badly... fingers crossed I'll be right as rain in no time... certainly plenty going on around here.
Best to you all,
Sophie
ps do come along if you live in this part of the world! Or share with friends if they are local!
