They have arrivedJ.

 

I have been to the printers and picked up the postcards, small business card size fridge magnets and the small gift cards I had made from the original pastel artwork of the two young brothers, playing in the sand.  The first to receive some will be the boy’s mum J  and a good friend. J. Anyone who survives my dyslectic talk, becomes my good friend, lol, last night I told her someone was armless, when I meant harmless, and  I told her I would test her, when I meant I would trust her. Lol, J somehow my friendships survive my dyslectic errors and my waffles.

Mum of two beautiful brothers, J, your parcel will be off in the mail soon. Thank you for providing the great image for me to paint.

 

Artists; Have you ever considered applying for an artist in schools program?

One of my most enjoyable years was spent as an artist in School, guding 400 primary school age children through the production of a mural of Jells Park, in Victoria.  The project was jointly funded and I was paid a teachers rate plus the cost of my art materials.
I found it a wonderful experience.

Artists in Schools provides opportunities for professional artists to work with young people in Victorian primary and secondary schools.

Schools engage an artist for up to 20 days to work with students and teachers on a creative project, which may be in any art form.

Eligibility Applications are accepted from Victorian schools, including primary, secondary, government and non-government schools, including schools for students with special needs.

If a school received Artists in Schools funding for 2010, 2009 or 2008, it is ineligible to apply for funding for 2011.

The Artist Artists may work in any art form or combination of art forms, including literature, visual arts, performing arts and new media.

The artist must be a practising professional artist who relates well to young people and communicates, discusses and demonstrates their art with ease.

Performances or workshops that are identical, or very similar to those that the artist provides regularly in schools on a commercial basis will not be supported.

The School An Artists in Schools project needs significant support from the school.

The school needs to:

• Provide financial and in-kind support for the project within their own resources and/or through other external funding. The program will not support the entire cost of a project. Priority is given to funding artist/s fees. The school usually covers the other project costs.
• Provide adequate staff support, including a project coordinator and possibly a reference or support group.
• Identify the target group of students to be involved. An artist cannot be expected to work in a meaningful and in depth manner with large numbers of students.
• Allocate an appropriate working area for the artist.

Closing Dates September 2010 for projects commencing in 2011.

It takes approximately 11 weeks from the closing date until funding results are available. It is recommended that schools plan to commence projects in Terms 2, 3 or 4.

Funds Available Grants of $6,500 are available for schools to engage an artist for up to 20 days.

Two artists may work together on an Artists in Schools project but the total grant will remain at $6,500.

In the 2009-2010 financial year 85 applications were received and 30 (35%) were funded. The total funds awarded was $195,000 with each recipient receiving $6,500.

The program is a Department of Education and Early Childhood Development (DEECD) and Arts Victoria partnership with support from the Community Support Fund.

Artists in Schools Information Sessions Artists in Schools Information Sessions are conducted each year. To get an insight into the program and application process, you can access a recording of the session that was held online prior to the 2009 funding round. This session was hosted in Elluminate, you can follow this link to view the recording.

http://www.arts.vic.gov.au/content/Public/Funding_Programs/Education_Partnerships/Artists_in_Schools.aspx

216mm x 279mm Landscape Prints,
from the Art of,
Acclaimed Artist,
Kathy Shell
Available now from http//www.campfire-yarns.com website. 
Also available 'direct from artist', at the caravan awning studio.

216mm x 279mm Prints,
from the Art of,
Acclaimed Artist,
Kathy Shell
Available from http://www.campfire-yarns.com
Also available direct from artist from our caravan awning studio, while on tour. We will be touring south Gippsland, late February to early March, the Grampians in western Victoria during March.

I part sorted out the store today, putting aside thins we will need on the tour. Reg rigged up a light inside the body of the 'trooy', our car so I can use the interior as a mobile studio.

This afternoon I brought  my http://www.campfire-yarns.com  blog and website up to over 30 blog posts, and tonight I have been adding the prints for sale pages to it.  I have completed the horse prints page, so far and will work on the other pages through next week.
These horse prints can be purchased direct from the artist when we are on tour.

Copyright is written on the prints on the web site and is in effect at  all times but it will not be written on the prints that are purchased.

Postage is FREE within Australia and the prints may be sent flat or rolled on  mailing tube.

International clients must order at least three prints to receive free shipping.

This post is illustrated with the Horse Prints.  I will add more prints to the campfire yarns, blog and web site over the next week.
 

Big day today, our onsite caravan we no longer use up at Goughs Bay, has sold with a bank cheque as settlement.  I will book out ‘troopy’ car in for three new tyres and wheel balance tomorrow using the unused spare tyre to give it four new tyres and keep the best of the four removed tyres, as a spare.

We spent some time with our local daughter and family; I even went for a short fat burner jog with my youngest granddaughter. Lol, not such a slimming option, given I had not done the shopping at that stage, so I hit the stores tired out and not feeling like coming home and cooking. I bought a cooked chicken, a Pavlova some cream and passionfruit to put on it then came home to eat it, while watching the biggest loser and a master class talk on the advantages of eating a Mediterranean style dietJ.  Yes, I would agree with that being the healthy way to eat, it is how I usually eat. That Pavlova, was the first desert I have eaten since Christmas day and at least I used half yogurt and less cream to cut the sweetness I am not used to. 

 

Anyhow, sorry for the waffle, but everything is looking good for us to have our tour into Gippsland mid to late February and then possibly we will be heading off to the Grampians in Western Victoria, in March, then North to North East Victoria, after Easter then up into NSW and into QLD by June staying through July.  I will make more enquiries into locations this weekend and begin to put together a trip plan to let people know, where I will be and when.

 

The next two weeks will be whirl of appointments, leading up to a tour Reg and I plan to do, into one of our favourite parts of the Victoria, the Gippsland region. It is such a beautiful part of the country and we have not toured there for three years, when we had our AVan, ALiner and Toyota, Hiace and we were looking to upgrade to a larger RV.

Gippsland is a painter’s paradise of rolling hills and fern gullies with magnificent coastal scenery and then the magnificent mountains to the north. Dreamy sigh, J. I have wonderful memories of past painting tips and family outings in GippslandJ. In addition, lol, some not so wonderful memories, trying to find a chemist in East Gippsland that stocked an adult acne treatment. It sure pays to pack a good medicine and personal care kit, before heading off on tour; I am packing these supplies into the van this week.

I am about to head out soon, for a good stock of low irritant insect spray, it always pays to be prepared in advance, a midnight attack of sand flies is not the time to wake up you left the mosquito net and insect spray at home.

The most important things I will be packing are the creative tools, the art suppliesJ.

I hope to have lots of photos and some new art works to share with you.

Reg and I will be stopping overnight at Sandbank Reserve, 6 kilometres North West of Traralgon or 4 kilometres southeast of Tyers road, beside the Latrobe River on the evening of Friday the 19th February and possibly staying there for a day or so, if anyone would like to arrange to meet us there. I am available for bookings to give on location art tuition, for beginners, please pre book before we leave home so I know what art medium I will be teaching and can make prior plans. 
Yes, I do teach advanced artists though I call these a master class and need to pre prepare and charge at a different rate than for my beginner students, as is the normal situation for professional standard tuition.


You can also pre book a showing of my art/craft/prints, for a purchase.
 

I tend to spend insufficient time in bed because I love creative work, nature, my fitness workouts, life and awake hour activities in general, so there never seems quite enough hours in the day to fit it all in, so I have a tendency to crib on my sleep time.   I get so used to managing on brief sleep hours, when I do have an important event in the morning and I go to bed early in preparation for it, I find it hard to settle, and I have always used natural sleep aids to help relax myself. One of my favourites is to use a combination of bergamot and lavender oil, just a drop on a tissue or on the edge of my pillowcase.

I think workaholism and sleep deprivation, is a trait of many artistic people.
I think we love 'doing things', so much we resist stopping and allowing our bodies to rest. I know it s an important part of my learning to respect and care for my body, that I must overcome the sleep deprivation,  I inflict on myself, largely by personal choice. That is the problem, I see more advantage to cutting short my sleep hours than I find advantages. I need to read more about the benefits of sleep, I think and make an educated decision that I need to care for myself better.

‘I know I am not alone in depriving myself of sleep in preference to being creative, and I am wondering, what other people do to train themselves into better habits.  I would love to hear your comments.’

I know they say it takes 21 days to form a new habit or to break an old one, so theoretically if I commit to 21 days of being in bed by MN, after that is will become easier to maintain a healthy sleep routine.

 

Q: Did you hear about the dyslectic agnostic with insomnia?

A: He used to lay awake at night wondering if there really was a dog.


I have finally made my optometrist appointment. J. My patient friends may notice an improvement in my facebook status updates, which I write without Reg or a friend, as the proofreader.

I will not be doing so many typos, and will feel safer heading off on our long tour north with the long distance extenze of my vision.

Dyslectics of the world UNTIE!

Dyslectic, Symptoms in adults
some of the symptoms in an adult could include:

·         Reading and spelling problems.

·         Avoids tasks that involve writing, or else gets someone else to do the writing for them.  (Reg is my proof reader, J, I don’t know how I could blog, without a proof reader to pick up some of my ‘bloopers’.)

·         Better than average memory.

·         Often, a greater than average spatial ability - the person may be talented in art, design, mathematics or engineering. It is true, that more artists have dyslexia, that is usual amongst the normal population, so if there is a trade off in talent, J, it isn’t all bad news to have dyslexia..

My advice to the dyslectic,

Do not allow it to stop you doing what you want to do.

If you suffer from dyslectic, foot in mouth disease L when writingJ, here are some tips to help you survive and not offend readers.

Illustrate your work, liberally with non-letter, ;-) signals, that you do recogniseJ, easily, to convey the meaning. That way, if you call a friend a fiend, J by mistake but have the smiley after it, chances are they will see the smile as friendship.

Do the best you can, proof read several times, take a break after writing something then come back and proof read it again so you read what you wrote and not what you thought you wrote.

Do not allow the spelling police to upset you, there are things that you can do that they cannot. It is their ignorance if they are intolerant of another’s disability, not your ignorance for having it.

Occasionally remind people that you are dyslectic, and acknowledge you do a few typed faux pas, you will find most people happy to accept they way you write.

Trade skills with a friend.  If you have an important letter to send, offer to do something for a friend in return for having them proof read what you wrote, before you post it.

Above all, remember that many creative people are dyslectic so do not allow this to hamper your use of words as one of your creative mediums, writing is so much fun J