A May enCounter

I am really honoured that my work is going to be shown in the window at Craft Victoria in May. There's ALOT of work to be done, but I thought that I would start gathering a few things that are ready, or almost ready, to see how they look. I had more than I thought but I need to do alot more. The really small pieces I made a long time ago, but I like how they look with the larger objects, and I might continue with those if I get time. I plan to show lots of mirrors as well. At this point I have no idea whatsoever how I will assemble everything in the window.

The current enCounter window by Sean Rafferty is magnificent. NO ONE can follow that up, surely?!

Gulp.

A man for this season

Early autumn is a particularly beautiful time here in Melbourne, apart from having given me a bout of the flu. I am working from home today, so that I can pretend to lie on the couch occasionally to rest. As you can see, that idea hasn't quite worked and I have almost finished a little autumn man. Beside him to the left you can see his inspiration: a photo of a strangely proportioned -- but incredibly appealing -- early 19th century German doll. He has inspired many, many of my little people but I think that this is the first time I have actually shown him on my blog.

Boy on Fish

This is a picture that I painted at the end of last year. I have not been able to show it online until now -- I will explain why next week. In the meantime, an A4 print of this picture is going to be part of an auction that Illustrators Australia is holding to raise funds for Japan. I will link to the auction when it's up and ready: there is sure to be some fantastic stuff on offer.

I am very pleased to announce that a selection of my cards will shortly be available at the wonderful Berkelouw Books, at their Paddington and Leichhardt branches in Sydney.

An excuse to become a recipe blog?!

Karen Martini had some particularly marvellous recipes in her regular Sunday Life spread in The Age (and presumably The Sydney Morning Herald) yesterday. As I looked for the third time at the one shown here -- double checking to see if I needed to buy anything in order to make it -- I noticed some familiar looking stitches sitting underneath the plate.

It was my scarf: the stylist had used it as a table runner! I was on public transport at the time, but I wanted to giggle out loud, or show it to the passenger in the next seat. Instead I waited until I got to my friend's house to show it off.

The best part is that we actually ended up making the recipe for dinner -- including the pita bread. It was beyond wonderful, and worth every second of trouble. Try it! You can use a different meat (we did) or if you are vegetarian, cook more eggplant and toss it in the spices instead.

Above: the first scarf I ever made -- which I wasn't sure about at the time because I thought that someone might think that I was wearing a teatowel around my neck. OK, now I know that I was...

I just realised that I have not included the pita bread recipe here...if anyone is interested I can always reproduce it here later.

A veiny clock

I finally assembled a very educational veins and arteries clock that I finished a while ago. The gold hands are quite fancy.

Illustration for article about dyslexia

Sketch and final illustration for an article published in Sydney's Child (and Melbourne's Child, etc.) this month. Looking at it now, I think I prefer the expression on the sketched boy's face to the final version. In the final version he looks like he's given up!

The perplexed lad was based on a photograph found in my beloved copy of The Family of Children, a treasure trove of inspirational images.

I have made some very spring-like scarves for the Craft Victoria shop. Luckily autumn is pausing for a few days of sunshine here in Melbourne, so that they seem less inappropriate!

Painting mirrors in the studio

Yesterday I started working on some new mirrors. However the golden braids above no longer exist. The paint looked too lumpy so I just washed it off -- which is luckily quite easy and fun to do -- a good thing about painting on glass.
Above: ta da! An argyle hat, in aqua, an increasingly beloved colour.

Above: an illustration from Animal Orchestra, a Golden Book illustrated by Tibor Gergely.