 "Love what you do and you'll never have to work a day in your life." I love that quote. That is a fantastic way to live your life. In many ways I do live my life that way. I am not conventional; I do not try to do what is, expected, of me. I am comfortable in a mess as long as I can find the things I need and things are clean and hygienic. After all nature has litter around the place and I love the landscape with its fallen leaves and fern fronds with insect chew marks, the landscape and my home does not need to be perfectly manicured for me to be happy. Too much tidyness would cut into my creative time, my 'work', that I love too much to call work. My idea of beautiful hands would be hands reaching out to aid someone or up to their wrists in wet clay or other creative medium. My vision of beauty is different to the conventional. I see beauty in eroded mountains and scars on trees and wonder that people view these things as flaws in people when they give such character. I am certain artists see life differently. You do not need to be a trained artist to feel this deep satisfaction from creativity, there are web programs like slideshow that can help you turn your regular photo collecting into art forms to share. The writer in me has overtaken the painter, and just like when I was a painter I am now turning away work I don’t have the time to do and choosing, only the best assignments or the best businesses to do work for and enjoying planning the novel I hope to write in November. Creative people, never retire, we just reinvent ourselves. Yes, I am a carer, but I retained my creativity, by adapting my talents to those compatible with my new lifestyle. Where I once was, the painter who wrote, I am now the writer who paints. By adapting to my changing needs, demands and environment, I have retained the love for my work. My work is my play, my passion. My sister was a writer, by profession, she also painted, (the reverse of my early career choice), so we mentored each other. She then adapted to becoming a painter, then as her life needs changed, she returned to our early life upbringing, that of working with fabrics. We were born into 'the rag trade', my mother being a fashion designer. My sister now makes beautiful art quilts for galleries in San Francisco, loves her work and is highly respected for it. My family, past and present, have all gravitated towards doing what they love and turning it into a profession. This is a great way to live if you can do it. "What do you love enough to make your life's work and then never work a day in your life?"  Another Glass Ceiling Fractured. 06/24/2010
 Julia Gillard wins leadership challenge and will become Australia's first female Prime Minister. Today Australia gained its first woman Prime Minister in Ms Julia Gillard and I had fun enjoying one of the passions that 50 years ago, I was denied the opportunity to study, because I was a female but have since overcome the male profession stereotype and mastered. I am referring to my love of another art form, that of landscape gardening. After the announcement of Ms Gillards appointment, I went to review the Flying Fish Point Beachfront B & B and being a nature lover, I was most impressed with the beautiful landscaping of the garden and the clever use of space. I saw some great ideas that would be easy to duplicate using above ground pools. Amazing how lovely this small pool looks with a deck around it set amongst palm trees in front of a view.   There was a long narrow pond in the garden and stepping stones down the centre of it, a lovely outdoor pavilion. I will always adore beautiful garden design. I felt good today that it makes no difference what sex you are, in regards to being our Prime Minister, or who landscapes a garden.     Bush Campfires, I Love them. 06/18/2010
 Oil Painting of a camp fire beside the Robe River, WA. One of the things I love about bush camping is the outdoor fireplaces we sit around and often cook our dinner on. After dinner we enjoy the atmosphere, surrounding the fire, to talk and sit gazing at the stars, especially enjoying the first hour or so of darkness when the flying objects , in the sky, the satellites and if we are lucky the shooting stars, are most visible. A fire, in a painting of dusk, adds a special effect and many times I have worked for an hour every evening for up to a couple of weeks, capturing the special effect of fire in an art work. Often I have sat gazing into the fire, trying to capture, the image of those dancing flames, the light and the colour, in my brain, trying to work out how to paint, a near impossible, to paint moving subject. There is something quite amazing, beautiful and almost magical about a controlled, useful social fire. J.  Dinner in front of the camp fire that is burning in an old washing machine, inner tub. A Landscape Crying Out to be Painted. 06/08/2010
 I went into the mountains to the west of Port Douglas on Sunday, it is an artist’s paradise of mountain backdrops, tropical foliage eucalyptus trees and interesting cottages, I loved it there and could visualise living there, self-sustained, happily spending my days painting, planting and harvesting, tending free-range chooks like my friend Gem, does. J. A lifestyle I love. Hard work, do not kid yourself, you would not need the best diet pills to stay slim, lol J, I could imagine how hard the work would be. My realist husband has always seen the work before the romance of it and realistically talked me out of a life as a small farm owner operator. lol, he is so right, I would be so busy tending the plants and the chooks I would not get the paintings done. Well I can dream and admire the lifestyle so close to nature, can't I? lol J.     That is one of my favorite quotes by, Eleanor Roosevelt. How do people who patronize others, make you feel? A man and woman demanded, rather than asked, to see my art work, over several days. When I put on a private showing, just for them, they said they would return when they were ready, (like I am to put it out on demand any time they ask), and she acted patronizing to me telling me, ‘how to sell my art work’. I had already told her I had owned and run an award-winning, gallery. I am obviously not an amateur so I did not like the assumption that my exhibition time was theirs to command, or that I needed to be told, how to sell art when I am, as I had informed them, now retired, to a hobby business level, due to my carer duties. Then the husband met up with my husband on the beach this morning, where my man was happily fishing and so proud of his efforts, having caught 10 small whiting with a small rod and light line and 1 large whiting on his first try with the new heavier line I bought him yesterday. This man, through his choice of patronizing words, made my husband feel, as if he was not an angler’s bootlace. He also ordered, my husband to throw back the one fish he caught, saying ‘it was undersized’, yet it was the same size, all the other anglers there were catching and keeping. I believe he was just picking on my man, because I was not there to protect him. I can only think that both members of that couple, gain some sort of superior feeling by speaking to others as if they were somehow inferior, using a patronizing way of expressing themselves. He knew my man was like a child in looking to others to guide him so he took advantage, bullied, and strived to make him feel inferior. I had politely ignored the patronizing of my art, that’s what I get, for putting major art work outside a caravan, I once had an art teacher tell me that if you placed a Sir Hans Hysen landscape in an amateur art show, most people would have no idea what they were looking at.  I express my feelings here in my blog. If the couple I’m referring to, read my blog and recognise themselves through the eyes of those they have been trying to act superior to, then that will give me a tad of satisfaction. Mostly I hope to help other artist, recognize that when people strive to put you down in any way, it is a reflection on them and their life situation, nothing whatever to do with you and your art. Keep your head up and do not let them spoil your beautiful creative day. I will not I be showing these people my art again, they can turn up with a thick wallet and beg to see it (they said they will return) and I will not have anything available, to show them. I have the sin of pride, lol. Most artists have this, it is what creates works of quality, I could question why pride, is considered a sin? Artists rarely work just for ‘the money’, we are motivated by ideals, though if we earn our income doing what we love, as I have been able to do, then that is wonderful. I have refused, to sell to people before, (not often, they have to have acted very objectionably to me, for me to do this), but on previous occasions I have told people, ‘Sorry, I have nothing available for sale today’, and I have never regretted the few times I have done this. I have fond memories of every piece of art I have created, but also extremely fond memories of the client who appreciated my work enough to have fallen in love with it and bought it. Seeing their appreciation of my work has been how I have been able to part with something as personal as my paintings have all been to me. Tonight I go fishing with my man and protect him from nasty two-legged groper, sharks, lol J, because his welfare and happiness is my major creative activity these days, work I do with love and pride.   I sat and watched the sunrise this morning, initially like the red glowing tip of an electronic cigarette on the horizon. It was not a spectacular sunrise and I think that suited my reflective mood. It was just the beauty of the new day emerging from night and as the small red glow, rose, a bright golden glow flooded across the recently ploughed earth that was waiting for its next crop of oats to be planted. Quiet beauty! It ‘spoke to me’, telling me, that today, life will not be one of enthusiastic climbing of mountains but one of peaceful pleasures. I can hear the family stirring, morning has begun. Good morning J. Reg has got up, J He is ‘in his routine’, J the morning TV has been put on, he is in his armchair, Indigo the poodle has settled on to the sofa. Good morning from Reg, Indigo and me. J  On Line Study. 03/15/2010
 I find on line study to be a great way to learn. I love learning from experts in the fields I am interested in and have no time for and little patience for hobby classes. I have never totally stopped educating myself and last year I studied on line, for my certificate in Bone Health, as an addition to my current health science degrees I originally graduated with in 1967. I have continued to keep my health science degree up to date, until recently when I have begun to extend my interest outward, towards, Creative Arts Therapy, Eco Therapy, Fitness and Aging Well. This year I have begun a new field of on line study and I love it. I am, being challenged in a way I find will encourage me to do the work I need to do, to learn the information that will help me achieve my future goals and be able to use the information to help others. Education is rewarding in so many ways. While I am educating myself on line, I can do all my study in my own time; this fits in easily with my current carer duties. I am totally convinced, having experience it for myself, that online degree courses are a great way to achieve the credentials I am seeking. I know there are online universities that offer a wide range of degree options that are well worth investigating further by anyone interested in obtaining a degree qualification. I mention Western Governors University, because it is a non-profit online university, and certainly, for me, cost is a considerable consideration, (though not as important as quality of tuition), when weighing up where I chose to do my studies. Anyhow, ‘take a look’ if you are interested in obtaining a degree on line. The two artists, who visited me today, asked me, ‘what advice I would give a starting out artist’. I said, ‘get a qualification, preferably in an essential service. My reasoning is that if you have a profession to fall back on should times be tough, you will be able to respect your art, enough to not fall into the financial crisis trap of painting trashy bread and butter paintings. Art needs to be, kept free, of financial pressure to be ‘art’. Work done under financial pressure to produce income becomes craft, skilled craft at best, manufactured product, at its, worst. Artist integrity is easiest to maintain when the basic essentials of life, are secure, due to having professional qualifications. Even if you become financially successful artist, and never use the qualifications you earn, professionally, an education, is never, wasted.  What Phone Will I Buy? 03/06/2010
 I have never adapted to using my mobile phone for internet use. In fact, I have never even learned to send text messages on my mobiles phone. My main excuse for not doing that is that the keyboard on my several years old, mobile phone is too small to allow for easy texting. I intend to upgrade to an Iphone or a full keyboard phone, I am not sure what I want. I am currently looking around, trying to decide what phone to get. Many of my friends are buying an unlocked phone so they have full choice of internet provider and I am unsure if I want to do this or to get a phone for a discount price along with a two-year plan with a phone and internet provider. When any of my friends chat, about their new phones, I am ‘all ears’. I am letting everyone know ‘I will be in the market for a new phone soon’, as I want to learn all the advantages of the different types, so I make the best decision for my own use, one that will give me additional use, especially ease of texting, but will not greatly increase my monthly expenditure. I hope to learn more from my own friends, before I make this decision.  Wii Fit Plus, Jogging fit, Artist. 01/26/2010
My husband Reg is getting fitter every day. He is working out using the Wii, mostly at the balance games and some on the spot jogging. He has his Wii age down from 75, (which came as a shock as his actual age is 69,) to 59 or -10, his actual age. We were both so pleased with that result and how much more freely he is moving. I was thinking if he could now jog on the spot for 20 minutes it was time I bought him his first pair of good running shoes, since he was a teenager and ran marathons. My man tends to buy $20. Chain store special shoes and having once had a spinal injury, and having a curvature of the spine and arthritis, I believe the difference it will make to his health and movement to be fitted professionally for a good pair of well cushioned and supporting shoes, will be worth far more than the cost factor. These are what I bought him.  Trance™9 From the pr blurb on the Brooks Running Shoes, web site:- Quote:- 'You’ve come to expect big things from this shoe. The Trance™ 8 introduced BioMoGo to the world, and the Trance™ 9 unveiled our improved Progressive Diagonal Rollbar (PDRB®), delivering unsurpassed cushioning and effortless but supportive heel-to-toe transitions. Jam-packed with premium plushness (say that ten times fast), the Trance™ 9 remains worthy of your highest expectations. Width DSupport Category This category represents the shoes best suited for the majority of the running population.' Now for unique gifts for her in this day of retail therapy, I have been watching one of my favourite dress stores, a little country town boutique, I drive past regularly and noticing the20% off Sale, on the window, ever since Christmas, but I have held out and waited until today, the 50% off sign was finally up. I pulled over and out of four dresses I tried on three looked fabulous on me. Oh it is so nice to be out of the big girls clothing department and able to shop in boutiquesJ. It is three years since I was a size 22 to 24 and I LOVE the healthier fitter, me, even more than I love the being able to walk into any regular sizes dress boutique and find clothes that fit me. I selected the most practical dress for me, the one I will get the most use from, a day dress, sun frock. This dress is ideal for the coastal tour we will be enjoying this year. This is what I love, buying, well-made, non mass-produced quality, when it is at chain store price. But.Drum rolls........... The very BEST gift, I got was this morning when I did the fitness test in the Wii fit plus and it said my Wii age was down from my start of 62 years which was minus one year, from my actual 63 years of age, to ..........drum roll again J. 35 years Wii fit age. J I am pleased with myself. I feel it tooJ, I’ve never felt fitter or healthier in my life. In this last three years of gradually increasing fitness activity, I am certain I have added over thirty years to my life. What better gift could you give yourself?  Funny Open Hour, Signs! 01/24/2010
 In my touring Caravan. Cardboard display rack of hand crafted, bookmarks created from the images of my art works. Sign on my touring caravan door. "Open Hours: Open most days about 9 or 10. Occasionally as early as 7, and sometimes as late as 12 or 1. We close about 5:30 or 6. Occasionally about 4 or 5, and sometimes as late as midnight, or later. On somedays we're not here at all, but lately we've been here a lot, unless we're not here." ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Sign on my Summer Studio Retreat Door. ‘Closed’, I will meet friends in face book, the park or the shopping mall for a coffee. I am very busy continuing to work toward our 2010 tour of Eastern Australia. I have organized cardboard displays, which I love, for the small handmade art cards and bookmarks we will have for sale direct from the artist, available only from our caravan, while on tour, on request. We will not be showing any of these items to people from our summer studio retreat as this is my creative time, not our interacting with people time. I know other creative vocation artists; will understand the need for a creative retreat, a time for an artist and writer to isolate themselves away with their work. My sister who is a writer and artist living in California lives in a log cabin in wilderness adjacent to a National Park, up the North Coast, past San Francisco. She mixes with people only at exhibitions and the theatre, this is how artist writers need to live, and even with this isolation, she tells me she is two years behind in her work. Somehow, I too, need to create this barrier of isolation during my time here in Victoria. I need this time to create, while I have access to larger studio space where I can spread out my work. I do not want to offend or reject offers of friendship, but my summer home and studio, is private. The only address, I give out is that of one of my daughters, I cannot broadcast the address of a place that I advertise as being vacant for six months a year, while we tour. I have no address on my business card. Our address is listed officially as ‘Highways of Australia, and in summer that’s opposite an oat field, near a lake, in the Goulburn Valley on private property, doesn’t even have a street that is listed on the map of the town and we are not ‘in’, for visitors, we are ‘in creative retreat’. It is not quite the ideal for the artist writer, log cabin, retreat, in the wilderness, my sister has, but it is ours and we love it and the privacy we seek for it. I hope my friends will understand my need for creative retreat time and place.  Art Bookmarks, in cardboard display unit, in our touring caravan. | Kathy Shell on Facebook What is RSS
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