The last week or so.

Above:  A self portrait exercise that my father made while training as a stonemason in the 1950s.  A bit like an ancient Roman Elvis....

Above: My illustration for Gardening Australia magazine, May 2015.  While protecting his delicate seedlings from the freezing cold of Mount Macedon, Michael ponders what it would be like to be a gardener in the tropics.

Above: After it grew dark I realised that a mushroom had been staring at me the whole time while I was working.

Above: Hallway home improvement.  It felt rather grown up to get my 1930s slavic costume lithographs properly framed.  There are eight of these beauties in total.  I like to stare at little their details while brushing my teeth.  (There are similar ones for sale here.  They depict French costumes rather than Slavic ones, but they may well be by the same artist.) 

Above: Fridge looking somewhat less grown up?!!

Above: These tiny portraits are now in my Etsy shop.  They are 10 x 10 cm (that's 4 x 4 inches - I think!).

 Above and below: work in progress.

Hotels & magazines

No I am not presently in a hotel reading a magazine, much as it sounds like a very fine idea.  Instead, I am very proud to be able to show you an event that my work is presently part of, above.  'Etsy at The Cullen' is an entire penthouse hotel suite temporarily decked out in artwork and products from Australian Etsy sellers.  A fantastic idea, beautifully realised.  Above: my Flame and Bed Strange Fellows, by the bed.  Of course.  For details on the concept and other items, please click here.  

Above: Fete magazine, Issue No. 10: a feature on Lucy Feagins' Open House 2014, including an entire wall of my painted bats and other items, on the right.

Above: Inside Out magazine, April 2015.  My Girl Wearing Beret portrait print appeared courtesy of the wonderful people at Modern Times.

......I'm really happy to be able to show you not one -- but two! -- magazines in which my work has been featured this month.  Fete and Inside Out, above.  There is something about magazines -- to me it still seems like an incredible honour to have been included in one, even though their power has been diminished in the face of online media.  Maybe it's a sign that I'm old, and it's an old dream that comes true every time my work is in print.  Or maybe it's the fact that I can put these magazines away and look at them in twenty years' time and still feel proud.
(Quite a different feeling to looking at an old blog article.  The internet and email as artefacts: something I have been pondering lately, and I'm sure I'm not the only one.)

Around the place this week

 Above: Hello!  Showing you more of what I am not meant to be showing you just yet.....

A lion guards the alarm.  Behind him there are two postcards: one from Tasmania, the other an artwork by German artist Angela Dalinger.  The large artwork is an acrylic illustration on wood that I did for Frankie magazine last year.

Above: Now that my big project is almost over, I have had time to clean up the studio and start thinking about one of the next ones....!

Above: My two favourite summery things (Obus hat, Indian bag from my aunt) didn't get to see that light of day this year.  No wonder I take vitamin D tablets......

Above: I like this accidental juxtaposition.

Above: yet MORE of what I am most certainly NOT meant to be showing you!  I have had so much fun working on this project, and am very happy with how most of my work turned out.....so I can't help myself, really.....