Favourite Things - Sculptures By The Sea

Hi there friends!  :0)
Last Monday I got to do one of my very favourite things - visit the Sculptures By The Sea exhibition at Bondi Beach (where it begins, and continues along a pleasant coastline walk to Bronte Beach).

This, for me, is one of the highlights of living in Sydney! It's an annual event and seems to be increasing in popularity every year - which I have to admit takes the shine off a little, as it now gets really crowded.
Precisely why we went after school on Monday instead of at the weekend.

We went with friends from school, and a swim in the ocean, then fish and chips at the beach followed our sweltering sculpture-viewing-walk (it was 44 degrees!) - so the kids had a blast!!

Here are my highlights of a fun afternoon:

{this one by Ken Unsworth won the Kid's Choice Award}

My personal favourite - by Byeong Doo Moon, and winner of the
Allens Arthur Robinson People's Choice Award

Hope you're having a great week!

Hugs,

Sally xox

Artist Love - Alexander Calder

... (& 'About Me' ... working with kids!)


Something you may or may not know about me - is that I help out at my son's primary school, alongside the teacher, doing Arts and Crafts with the 'Kindy' (Kindergarten) class. These are the kids in my son's class, they range from age 4-6, there are 24 of them,  so it's quite hectic, sometimes noisy and ALWAYS lots of fun!!


At the end of this school term, the school will be having an Art Show! Not surprisingly I have been 'roped in' to help out!! Of course I am delighted to be involved.   :0)


One of the things we will be doing is making Alexander Calder inspired wire sculptures!
Here is some of the inspiration I have acquired for this project - the teacher, *Ms Superstar, and I have not yet worked out a project, with suitable processes, materials etc.  But I wanted to share these images with you, because whether or not you are familiar with Calder yourself, his work is just awesome!!
{* not her real name - but it SHOULD be!!}

{ images }

{image}

I have to be honest, as part of my Textile Design degree, we rarely touched on ANY art history, and although I was familiar with the name Alexander Calder, I was not terribly familiar with his work. It's fabulous don't you think?





Here's a brief bio:  ALEXANDER CALDER.

{Calder - image via Britannica}

Calder, was one of America’s most famous sculptors; he lived from 1898 - 1976.


He studied Mechanical Engineering but was to become a very versatile artist, creating lithographs, toys, paintings, tapestry and even designing carpets. 


He was responsible for the invention of the mobile. 


Calder's most well known work features perfectly balanced mobiles, which were comprised of brightly coloured shapes,  hanging delicately by wire, spreading out from a central wire. Hovering in the air, twisting and turning around - as if by magic!




He began with Toys in the 1920's, moving on to working with wire sculptures and mobiles.
In the 1950s, Calder began to focus on huge, monumental sculptures, many of which would become his most famous works. He created some such pieces for JFK airport in 1957 and UNESCO in Paris in 1958.

Bobine (1970), National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, Australia (image from Wiki )

Lithographs above from RoGallery
 1. Bird's Nest 1971
2.Derrier le Miroir (Abstract II) 1968
3.Derrier le Miroir (Abstract IV) 1968

Take care,
love Sally x0x

2010 a Retrospective - Etsy, Family, friends... and Sculptures By The Sea!...

I was thinking about last year and all the things I did (and didn't do).
The year began with my Etsy shop only being a few months old, I built it up a bit, and learned a lot along the way. Still heaps more to learn of course (like better time management for one, and better book-keeping for another!!). I did however reach (and surpass) my target of 1000 sales by my first ETSY-VERSARY in July.

In August we went on our annual UK trip, to see our family & old friends.

One of the highlights of that was celebrating my grandmother's 90th birthday, (that's her on the right, isn't she lovely?!).

...another was having some special time on a sunny afternoon in Nottingham, with my girlfriends from Uni (whom I studied Textiles with).

My best friend Cindy and I got to hang out a couple more times too and we even made a button bouquet each, whilst sipping herbal tea and eating chocolate! Fabbo!

Then towards the end of the year , I got to do one of my favourite 'Sydney things'...
 I visited Sculptures by the Sea, the annual exhibition that is precisely what it says "sculptures by (and sometimes even IN) the sea"!!

The exhibition is well established, it's now in it's 14th year and it gets terribly busy at the weekend, so the boys and I went late one afternoon. It was a beautiful day, so we were lucky! We finished off with pizza and ice cream by the beach - we had ourselves a marvellous time indeed!! :)

If you missed it - enjoy some of the sculptures here, via my own snapshots!

Do you have a favourite? Mine is the the tube of paint.

The setting is incredible too isn't it?
The scenery, the coulours, the textures, the flowers, even the smell of the sea air, it's just all wonderful,
I love it all.

 Love,
Sally xox