Project 30 Houses

For the month of April, I took part in an art challenge with Cassie Jene and Curly Jo on Instagram. As part of Project 30 Houses, I drew a 5 cm square house each day. The drawings will be compiled into a colouring book, the profits of which will raise funds on behalf of Habitat for Humanity Australia to help build and repair homes for deserving communities. See my first and second and third weeks of entries and all the doodles on #Project30Houses.

Project 30 Houses

Over the last three weeks, I have been taking part in Project 30 Houses, coordinated by Cassie Jene and Curly Jo on Instagram. I draw a 5 cm square house each day to a prompt and at the end of April, these drawings will be compiled into a colouring book, the profits of which will raise funds on behalf of Habitat for Humanity Australia to help build and repair homes for deserving communities. See my first and second weeks of entries and all the doodles on #Project30Houses.

Project 30 Houses

Project 30 Houses is a project by Cassie Jene and Curly Jo over on Instagram, the aim of which is to raise funds on behalf of Habitat for Humanity Australia to help build and repair homes for deserving communities. One draws a little house that fits within a 5 cm square box every day and the houses at the end April will be compiled into a colouring book the profits of which are donated. See my first week of entries here and all the doodles on #Project30Houses.

StArt Up: Top Arts 2015

Each year I make an annual Easter-ish trip with my husband and mother to see the best artwork from Victorians who have just completed year 12. This is a great chance to see some inspirational pieces for free, plus we've combined the visit with an annual meal at Chocolate Buddah and where there's food involved, I'm there! It's been really interesting to go to this exhibit each year and see the trends coming and going through the artworks. This year there was far more digital art than in previous years and far less in the way of photography and classical paintings and drawings.

StArt Up: TopArts 2015 is again being held at the National Gallery of Victoria in the Ian Potter Centre in Federation Square. There are 42 exhibiting artists this year and if you follow me on Instagram, you already know which pieces were my favourites. Let's step through some of the highlights...

Untitled by Sophia Kons

This untitled piece is chalk pen on bark. I loved how intricate and natural the drawing was and also was very impressed with the effect of the white on wood.

Carnage by Olivia Gardiner

This spectacular dress is entitled Carnage and is actually made up of feathers, shells, fur, bones and skulls, all scavenged from beaches and road kill. There were quite a few people there freaking out about the morbidity of the piece, but it really is quite a spectacular work of art and very intricate. This one earned my mother's vote for favourite.

Recursion by Andrew Hannah

Recursion, exploring a fractal, was my husband's favourite piece. He is an engineer and sees the beauty in mathematics. The colours and the final effect are quite lovely.

Tyler Oakley by Ashleigh Newman

Miss 4 was very impressed by Tyler Oakley and the other drawings by Ashleigh Newman. This artist accompanied her pencil drawings with a video of her doing the artworks and it was fascinating to watch her method unfold. Ashleigh's method of drawing is quite different to my own, as I always start with the eyes and she stars with the hair.

Unified symmetry by Callum Croker

And the piece that got my vote for the best was Unified symmetry, a series of intricate laser cut cardboard pieces. Just stunning.

Master 1 expressed no real opinion about his favourite piece of student work, although he was very fond of the bats in the foyer and also of the car exhibit in NGV. StArt Up is on until June 28, so if you're hanging around Melbourne, do go and check it out.

(I failed to blog about our 2014 outing last year - I blame the new baby - but you can catch up on my experience of the 2013 exhibit here and read what my mother thought of our 2015, 2014 and 2013 outings.)

Project 30 Houses

I have been taking part in Project 30 Houses with Cassie Jene and Curly Jo over on Instagram. The brief is simple - get your creative juices flowing by drawing a little house that fits within a 5 cm square box every day. See all the doodles on #Project30Houses.

Top Arts 2013

Every year for the last (I don't know how many years!) 10 years or so my mum, Darren and I have gone to the Top Arts exhibition at the National Gallery of Victoria. Miss 2 has come along for the last three years. Top Arts (previously Top CATs) is the exhibition of the best creations by students in Arts or Studio Arts who have just completed the Victorian Certificate of Education, so very talented year 12 students.

Top Arts 2013 was held in the Ian Potter Centre at Federation Square. In the foyer was an area where children could draw, so we spent a bit of time there to start with and at the end.

The gallery was a different gallery to previous years and felt smaller. There were 43 art works and I'm going to share my favourites with you.

Girl with a pearl earring is part of a series of four photos referencing other works of art, this one referencing Vermeer's painting. The other pieces were also modern photos referencing Da Vinci's The Mona Lisa, van Eyck's The Arnolfini marriage and Wood's American Gothic, but Girl with a pearl earring was my favourite.

Girl with a pearl earring by Tess Saunders.

Can I keep it? by Glen Clancey.

Quest was very cute - a series of nine (from memory) sketches of a girl's journey to find inspiration. I didn't take a photo of the whole series.

Quest by Kyoko Bowden.

Darren's favourite was Alfred Evans' series of prints and associated sketches and notes.

Threat, Depth and Depletion by Alfred Evans.

Thalassophobia: Phobias is interesting because it is lingerie made of seaweed and mussels and human hair. Vaguely gross.

Thalassophobia: Phobias by Valona Flamuri.

Dysphoric by Marco Fink.

Waiting (l'Attente) was a movie about a sad old man and I watched it several times because Miss 2 thought that it was fantastic.

Waiting (l'Attente) by Rex Kane-Hart.

Amulet by Oliver Reade.

Urban huntress is a dress made of red ties. I didn't realise this there, but am impressed with the idea in retrospect.

Urban huntress by Remy Wong.

One of the disappointments was that there is usually a voting area to vote for your favourite art work. But this year there wasn't anywhere to vote. I would have voted for Devolution. This was a series of lino cuts, gradually getting more complicated. Love it!

Devloution by Julia Bergin.

Julia's lino cut.

The exhibition is on until 7 July and it's free, so do go along if you're in Melbourne.