this 'n that #?

Hi, it's been a manic time lately (where have you heard that before?) as I had to paint for 3 exhibitions opening within a few days of each other.

The first one, which opened last night, is a very popular annual event at the Cuyler Street Gallery. It is called the same size, same price, unsigned exhibition, and is exactly that. People love it and literally queue at the door for the opening, because you can buy work by a student, or a very well established artist, but as all works are unsigned, there is an element of taking a gamble about it. As the prices are set reasonably low, in relation to what a well known artist would charge (but probably higher than an average student would charge) this adds to the fun. If you really know your art, you can pick up a bargain from a well known artist, but if you make a mistake, you could be paying a premium for student work.

Then tomorrow a beautiful exhibition opens. It is being held in a private home, a recently built stunning house that really lends itself to being used as a gallery. The owner invited 5 painters and a ceramicist to exhibit, and I was delighted to be one of them, as I love the work of the others, and our work goes so well together. In addition, she has taken a musician under her wing, because he does not have enough money to continue his studies at University, but is really talented. So on Friday and Saturday evenings, she will combine the art exhibition with a music recital, which will be a benefit concert for this young man. We will have dinner and listen to him performing Classical Guitar works, with some of his fellow students.

Then next week an exhibition entitled "Beacons" opens at the Khune Boekkooi Gallery. It is a nice topic and I am having fun interpreting it in different ways.


Yesterday would have been my mom's 80th birthday. I am not usually one to mark this sort of anniversary or dwell on past losses, but yesterday I thought of her a lot. She died of lung cancer in October 2000, not too surprising since she smoked up to 2 packs of 30 a day since she was about 15 years old! She was a model in her youth, and was always very young looking for her age, and very elegant. She was amazing, when she was told she had inoperable lung and liver cancer, she said that was fine, she'd had a good life and didn't fancy getting really old. She went through all her things, and made sure that each person who was special to her (family and friends) got at least one of her personal items, such as pieces of her jewellery etc. She wrapped each one, and wrote little personal notes to accompany them. As time passed, she even decided how her funeral should be, and wrote a note for me to read to all her loved ones. To the very end, she handled the whole thing with her usual dignity and grace. She would have hated being 80! Happy birthday mom!

And tomorrow my 90 year old father arrives for a 5 week visit. I'm afraid he has not aged as graciously as mom did, and is extremely demanding and difficult, so I may be a bit scarce for a while! On the other hand, I might find the need to escape into blogland frequently.... we'll have to see how it turns out!