Back in the day - one small step...

Fifty years - it really doesn’t seem that long ago. 

On the 20th July 1969 I was in my second year of Art School in South Africa. I was scheduled for a painting lecture but announced to my lecturer that I was going to the Students Union so I could listen to the historic moon landing in the radio. 

Why listen on the radio I hear you say? Remember this was 1969 in South Africa. The Nationlist government with their rigid, Calvinistic approach deemed television to be a threat to its control of the broadcasting media and a threat to the Afrikaans language. BJ Vorster termed TV "The Devil’s Box". Television was not introduced nation wide until the beginning of 1976. We were so isolated from the rest of the world.

So while the rest of the world watched the grainy footage of Neil Armstrong stepping on to the surface of the moon and hear him utter the now iconic words:   “One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind” I listened to this historic event on the radio. 

(My lecturer came to check up on me to see that I was where I said I would be!). 

Later, we would see footage of the moon landing at the cinema where it would be shown along with other news. Now if something newsworthy happens I can watch it on my phone. Times have indeed changed.

In contrast, Australia played an important role in the broadcast of moon landing to the world. on Saturday night I watched a movie, The Dish, which told the story of the satellite dish in a sheep paddock in Parkes, New South Wales which broadcast the images to the world.

De-cluttering is good for the soul.

Each year our complex undergoes a check for termites. It’s a time when I need to wrestle with my storage area under the stairs. Useful as it is to have a place to store “stuff” unfortunately it often, no usually, becomes an area where things are shoved unceremoniously and pile haphazardly on top of other things. It gets to the stage where it becomes a "No Entry Possible" zone. In order for the area to be checked, it needs to be empty so that’s what I have been doing. 

I made a resolution this time to reduce the amount stored here. I planned to de-clutter anything that hasn’t been used since the last inspection. That’s easier said than done, because it’s tempting to fall into the trap of thinking an item might be useful in the future.

Upstairs I have a spare bedroom where I store canvasses. This too, has become crowded and many of the paintings are ones that haven’t worked. A few I have recycled and painted new paintings over the failed first attempt. This is often not good practice since the subsequent layers can be prone to cracking if the “fat over lean” principle is not adhered to. 

Oils can be painted over acrylic but the additional layers need a higher oil content than the underpainting. Acrylic can never be painted on top of oils since the new layers will simply peel off. 

There were a few stretcher frames that were not square or of poor quality. Some of the paintings were those that came in my container. A few paintings I will keep as a record of past themes but there were quite a few that just didn’t make the cut. These got the cut literally when I got busy with the Stanley knife and slashed the canvas to ribbons! 

SO SATISFYING! 

Now I need to have a Studio sale and find homes for some still in storage. 

Lethbridge 20,000 - exhibiting Still Life with Lilies

Still Life with Lilies - oil on canvas 600 mm x 600 mm 

While I was pet sitting for my daughter, I bought these beautiful lilies and had fun photographing them in various locations around her home. I was fascinated by the reflection of the decorative wallpaper in the ornate mirror. I enjoyed painting the details in the wallpaper and the frame - time consuming but the result was worth it.

I am so delighted that this painting has been selected as a finalist in the Lethbridge 20,000 Art Award. It will be exhibited at the Latrobe Terrace Gallery along with other paintings in Group A. Another group of selected paintings will be shown at the Bulimba Gallery. In addition, there are a number of paintings in the online exhibition. My first entry to this show was in 2013 and am so pleased to say that I have had a painting selected every year. 

The exhibition opens this Saturday evening at 6.00 pm when the winners will be announced. 

Address: 136 Latrobe Terrace,
                Paddington QLD 4064
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Address: 7/11 Wambool Street, 
                Bulimba QLD 4171
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This award is in its tenth year and is a way for Brett Lethbridge to give back to the art community. Early in his career he had received much needed support in his career as an artist.