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Reg and I had a good drive home to northern Victoria from the Grampians.  We had an interesting stop over at Bendigo Pottery and I took photos to share in my blogs of the historical pottery.

We arrived home to find my autumn roses in flower and my potatoes ready to harvest.  I have had a quick check and aside from some climbing roses needing a good tie back, all looks good after the storm that went through this area about a month ago while we were away.

I freshened up  and popped my feet up and I am now enjoying that I have full bars of internet connection  on my computer so I will be able to do my internet work a lot faster, J and enjoy it more. Do those promised competition prize giveaways for my Kathy Shell fans.

A quick look through the five weeks of accumulated mail which included an overdue gas bill, (oops), the dog registration due, three parcels to be collected, and a free life insurance quote, nothing too eventful there.

I am sitting here relaxing for a short time, and thinking about what exercise I will do now I do not have those wonderful Grampians mountain ranges outside my caravan door. I am also deciding where to start on the many things I want to do while at home base, before resuming our tour.

I want to catch up with my daughter and her family who live in this area soon J and I plan to pack more art supplies than I took with me on tour, the first time..

I had packed and took away on this trip, the pastels, acrylics, watercolours and guess what happened? I felt like painting in oils. Lol, Is that the artist’s perogative? 

OK, where do I make a start?

I have illustrated this post with some of my favourite photos from the Grampians.

 
 
 
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This week, Reg and I will be revisiting some of the sites in the Grampians, that feature aboriginal rock art, that we have visited in the past and look forward to including these sites in our walks during this, our last week in the Grampians for a while.

These sites are-

Bunjil's Shelter

One of the most important aboriginal rock art sites in the region this site depicts Bunjil, the traditional creator of the land, and his two dingoes. Bunjil was known as a good spirit who created things as they are today and gave the tribes their law and culture.
11 kilometres from Stawell and sign posted off the Stawell-Pomonal Road

 

Gulgurn Manja Shelter

Gulgurn Manja means 'hands of young people'. The Gulgurn Manja Shelter displays small handprints in red ochre. Signage outlines some of the stories and legends of the Jardwadjali people and the mountains they call Gariwerd.
Mt Zero Road, Northern Grampians

 

Ngamadjidj Shelter

Take this self-guided walk to an Aboriginal art site that depicts the dancing spirit with white painted figures. The walk from the car park to Ngamadjidj Shelter is short and suitable for people with limited mobility.
Plantation Road and Grampians Road, Northern Grampians

 

Billimina Shelter

Start this walk at the Buandik camping ground and follow Billiamina Creek upstream to the Buandik Falls. From there a short walk leads you to the shelter. This massive rock overhang was once a meeting place for the Jardwadjali people, and is covered with over 2,500 motifs that consist of red ochre bar strokes.
Billywing Road off Henty Highway, Western Grampians

 

Manja Shelter

This fascinating large rock shelter is on the western side of the Grampians. Manja symbolises the link between the Jardwadjali and their land. It is believed, that the hand stencils were a way of recording a visit to this incredible rock overhang. This rock site also has more hand stencils than any other site in Victoria.
Off Harrap Track via Glenelg River Road and Henty Highway, Western Grampians

 
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The Rocks themselves are nature’s art

Everywhere we look in the Grampians, we are awestruck by the beauty of the shapes and textures of the rocks.  My imagination sees shapes within the rock forms, in fact there are rocks called  the ‘Indian’, and Elephant’s Hide’ and many rocks look like they have pimples, lol J, these might look like they need  the best natural acne treatment available but they make  secure grips for your feet when rock scrambling.
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The massive rock know as the Elephants Hide, viewed from Boroka Lookout, Grampians, Victoria.
 
 
Today was our last day in residence in our summer studio in Northern Victoria.
Today I completed the packing and set up of the back of our troop carrier, making it a working artist's studio.
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The photo shows the l shape table set up. the larger table is a light weight one, tied securely to the cargo barrier. Underneath it are lightweight, stacking, plastic draws filled with paints. On the table anchored in place is another draw filled with office supplies. My pastel pencils and my brush stand. To the right of the chair is the extra chest three-way fridge. I also have pastels, papers and canvas stored in there. 

Three lighting, 240 or 12 volt plus long life battery powered lighting means i will  be able to work in my own private studion anytime, while on tour. This will be 'my area ` my space. :-). 

The items for sale will now go in the front part of the caravan where I used to tr to paint and I always had trouble, as it was hard to paint in a shared space. Artists will understand what I mean lol :-).

The lower pictures show the set up of this space.
 
 
My incidental exercise this weekend will be to have fun, setting up the interior space behind the cargo barrier, in the back of our ‘troopy’, car, and convert this into a touring artist’s studio.

I have begun to set up by attaching a lightweight aluminium table to the back of the cargo barrier, then attaching electrical supplies, a florescent 240-volt light and an LED light fitting that runs from a long life battery that charges from the 12-volt plug in our car as we drive.  This gives me a well-lit working table space.  

I have illustrated this post below, with some of the fridge magnets I have made, from the images of on location, painted, landscapes.  These can be purchased from me ‘direct from artist’, over the next couple of weeks, if you are in the South Gippsland region, we will be touring around, the Tarra Valley  through to Lakes Entrance region, watch my status updates for our Art/Print/Crafts, viewing locations or order these from my Women,Words,Works, blog and website.

 
 
 
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Interior of annex of the on site caravan at Goughs Bay, we sold today. Nice to not own three caravans anymore, that was a bit of a drain. Pleased with our current set up :-).
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.

 
 
 
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Rolling hills as we drive towards Gippsland, always bring me joy. This copyright image from one of my art works, is available to purchase 'direct from the artist' when we are on tour, It s also available, to purchase, direct from the fridge magnet art, web site, see side bar, of this blog.
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 have packed all the art print cards, fridge magnets and postcards in the caravan, ready to pop out on the tables under the caravan awning in the mornings, while we are touring around Victoria and east coast Australia, during 2010. Australia.

Reg will be sitting outside and we will have a simple, hand crafted, Welcome sign, up and be as unobtrusive, as we can be, while letting people know they are welcome to enter out caravan awning studio to view my work. This is how I hope to pay for the fuel, tyres and vehicle services on this landscape painting and travel writing tour.

Reg enjoys selling small items, though I am thinking, as we will be on power, in caravan parks most of the time, that a small receipt printer like the smaller version of these, epson receipt printer, might be an asset to us. We used one like that, for years, whenever we did exhibitions and in our gallery, it does make it easy when you have a few sales in rapid succession, saves you trying to keep up with things writing everything down.  Lol, I do not expect to be rushed, at breakfast hour in the slow pace of a holiday caravan park, but I can hopeJ.

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I have illustrated this post with some of the functional art items we will be selling from the caravan awning studio, while we are on tour. These are caps, T Shirts and key rings. I do not sell these on line as I only have a few.  You can view and order, my popular fridge magnet art at http://www.fridgemagnetart.com or purchase them 'Direct from the Artist', n tour.

 
 
 
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We moved into a large onsite van with seven attached rooms, and began renovating it, last summer.  This is not our main home, our main home is our Eco-tourer caravan and out troop carrier, Toyota, land cruiser work mate, car, I refer to as ‘troopy’.

I needed this summer home to have room to store my lifetime supply of art materials, left over from the art supply shop we had connected to our Buninyong Gallery.

Each year we return in the springtime and I am able to top up my travelling supplies from the store and enjoy the freedom of spreading myself for a while.

I am packing my 2010 art supplies into the car, now, and we went looking at fridges and freezers that we could use in the car as additional food storage, but would not take up too much of my art supply space.  We found a chest fridge that runs on 12 volt, from the car or 240 volt, it’s big enough for the fresh vegetables but it will not take up too much of the studio space I need, inside the car and the flat top will be handy, It can double as a seat. Always handy to have things serve two roles, when you pack for a long tour.

I always compare prices on line these days and look for the best shopping deals as it pays to compare shopping prices.

I will never have to shop again for watercolour papers. I have more left over from the art supply shop, we closed, than I could use in three lifetimes at the rate I am going now. I am beginning to use the textured acid free watercolor papers for my pastel sketches and I will pack some acrylic paints this year and try these out on the papers too.

I tend to vary what medium I take away with me on tour, each year. Some years it is oils, others watercolors, and this year, based on my enormous stack of artist, quality watercolor paper, I think I will do ‘works on paper'.

I have bought some of those office paper, storage systems at Big W; they hold A4 size paper and will be great for storing 9” x 12” paintings while they dry. They were $20. each. I bought 5 of them. I hope to have the opportunity to paint prolifically this trip and I don’t want, the not knowing where to store part wet art works, to slow down my enthusiasm.
Now, when I do travel with oil paint that stays wet for weeks, I will have an adequate storage system for my on site paintings, as we travel.

Artists are always wondering how to transport wet paintings and the narrow draws, made for scrap booking and office papers in lightweight plastic storage containers are ideal for this job,.

This is a sponsored post. All opinions are mine. 
 
 
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A wonderful meeting with Western Australian friends, during our West Coast tour.
I need to begin making up a map showing where all my friends live so I will know when I am in their area, as I would love to meet more of my internet friends, and my blog readers while I am travelling in their area during 2010.

It is a busy time right now, organizing the tour. Once I am nearing late Summer I know I need to get moving on completing all the maintenance jobs, the car is booked for service next Friday, We just had the air conditioner service, and the caravan service comes next.

Then it’s the personal check ups, off to the dentist and the Casey solar clinic for our annual skin checks and then the dentist though I am getting to the stage where I could do with the implant dentist Plano. I tend to forget about it but someone commented the other day about the gap where I have a tooth missing. I never did anything about it, when I lost that tooth, not wanting to spend money on things that were not terribly relevant to me

Well I just reduced the price on our on location holiday van for sale, Site 43, at Goughs Bay Caravan Park, if it sells, I might treat myself to a better smile for when I get to meet all my internet friends on our tour of east coast Australia, coming up fast. J.   

 
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Meeting Internet friends, with the view of South Perth, WA, in the distance.
 
 
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The gray-nomad, and doggies blog, 2010 review of dog-friendly caravan parks, tour.

Reg, Indigo our poodle and will be touring Australia, in 2010,reviewing dog-and J people friendly, caravan parks and I am going to do some on location paint outs.

Our first tour will be of Victoria, beginning in summer and continuing into early autumn 2010.

Currently our focus will be on the northeast scenic location around Goughs Bay and Mansfield, where our family own an onsite caravan and we can holiday with the family at Goughs Bay Caravan Park. Check out our on site caravan for sale page if you would like a great family holiday van at a bargain price as our travels do not allow us to use this van enough to warrant keeping it.

The second phase of our review tour will take us to another favourite location of ours, beautiful Grampians region, in Victoria’s west. We will stay at Grampians Gardens Tourist Park.

 
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  Then we will tour into NSW reviewing dog-friendly caravan parks and we will revisit two of our favourite areas, the Kiama Coast, staying at Seven Mile Beach Holiday Park  and South Ballina staying at Ballina Beach Holiday Park

Then we tour into QLD, and will be staying at Captain Cook Holiday Village  adjacent to a national park, magnificent beaches, in the beautiful town of 1770, near Agnes Waters.

Then touring further north towards Cairns, we will stay at the Flying Fish Point Tourist Park. See photos.

I am purchasing a new camera so I can better capture wildlife and bird photos and I plan to paint, on location and I will be keen to hear local interesting stories that I can share with my readers.  Every year, Reg and I feel that ‘this is our best tour ever’ and J 2010 certainly is planning out as one of our best.  Once we reach the top end, of QLD, who knows which direction we will take at this stage, Email me, Kathy, if you have a dog friendly venue you would like me to review during this tour or if you would like to view art or book an art tutorial.
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