Flourish Art Festival

A few months ago I got an email from an old friend; Dona Spencer from the Southport Uniting Church. She was a fellow art teacher and has recently moved into ministry. She combined her passions and took on the mammoth task of organising an art fair. So, with the prospect of catching up, make money and the opportunity to network, I signed up. It was also an opportunity for me to experiment. I had paintings, watercolours from the Moo-Chi diaries, (Moo-Chi.blogspot.com) prints, cards and most importantly, the opportunity to interact with people. I must say that I had a wonderful time turning my watercolours in to cards, and spent a fair bit of time (and paper) getting the best printer settings. So, last week I spent in isolation with my printer and cellophane, wrapping it all up and giving it some lovely tags.

The big day arrived and the alarm-clock jangled a tune at 4.30. Fifteen minutes later I actually managed to say something intelligible, along the lines of 'Need...caffeine..'. David very kindly ground the beans, boiled water and made a great cup of coffee. At 5.15 we hit the road. At the Broadwater Parklands helpful volunteers guided us to my spot. I enjoy the process of hanging up my work and making it look good. The thing is, when you work from home like I do, most of your work is safely stacked away, so seeing the fruits of your work on display is very pleasing.

During the day there was entertainment in a variety of music and dance. There was also ample opportunity to meet other artists. I connected with  a wonderful artist from Zimbabwe called Jonathan. Check out his happy and colourful work at Madzinga.com.au!

People could also participate in workshops and I taught a small but receptive group of people, portraiture. I probably overloaded them a bit, however, they now know the basic techniques and principles. All it takes now from them is...practice, practice and more practice. Whatever you want to achieve in life, nobody can take the p-word

away from you...So, all-in-all, it was a wonderful day! The atmosphere was great and so was the music. The response to my work was very positive. It was great to see Dona again. My thanks goes to her and her wonderful team of volunteers. We arrived home exhausted, happy and with a well-deserved bag of Thai take-away!