If you find the good oil let us know

That's the cryptic inscription on the under-renovation Govett Brewster art gallery in New Plymouth.  I spent Wednesday night in New Plymouth, where Mr. Millicent Crow was playing at the Taranaki Arts Festival.  I stayed in a hotel for the first time in my life, played the ukulele under a bridge and got to see my artwork projected on the big screen at the Mayfair.  New Plymouth has especially beautiful street art so I wandered around in the rain taking some photos while the band sound checked.

 Walking around at night we stumbled upon Tiffany Singh's beautiful installation What is the Colour of the Breeze, a carpark taken over with a rainbow of windchimes that she had got kids to decorate.  At night they were chiming gently but the next day when I went to take photos of the rainbow colours in the light they were rattling in a frenzy.  Beautiful.  Tiffany Singh also did this installation in Aotea Square back in the summer.

 So long New Plymouth, it was a lovely adventure!

Yellow leaves and a spot of mudlarking

 

Yesterday Mr. Millicent Crow and I were standing in the rain at Pt Chev beach cackling like a couple of hyenas.  We'd walked to the beach to gather seaweed for me to draw and as I was pouncing on new exciting bits to add to my collection I realised my hands were already full of rosehips I'd picked up on the way (also for drawing).  Too many treasures!  Pretty much alone on the beach, getting soaked through, it suddenly seemed to be a pretty eccentric way to spend a Sunday afternoon!  My slightly obsessive treasure collecting has led me to come home with pockets full of yellow leaves lately and I've finally painted them into a yellow leaf sampler to go with this one and this one.  Maybe a seaweed painting will be next on the agenda?

For review

 

Mr. Millicent Crow and I have just finished the artwork for the review copies of his new album...I drew the pictures (except for the map) and he did the layouts.   It's exciting seeing it all put together and to be able to make a few changes to it before the final copy comes out. 

This project has been good practice for drawing gramophones, hopefully I'll be better at it by the time the final version comes out!

Hand-lettered

I do love a hand-lettered sign and here are some I've found around and about lately:

Luckily for my overflowing house the op shop in Matakana with this beautiful sign wasn't open!

One of these things is kind of like the other

 I finished my crazy mustard/chartreuse swiss cheese scarf in the weekend and realised that it looks a bit like this piece of driftwood that lives on my dressing table:

Or at least some kind of seaweed.  My next plan is to make a bright green one to use up a couple of giant balls of wool I have had kicking round for years.  And to go somewhere where it's chilly enough to wear it all day, it is warming up here!

And here is it in action; my neighbour took this photo of me when she came home and sprung me taking a selfie with the camera balanced on top of the carport.  Thanks Katie!

Notions

 I love old packaging for sewing notions and haberdashery...the fonts, the colours, the slogans! 

 This dome packaging's from my nana's sewing box, which I've used before for painting inspiration.  I've just had some proofs made up prints of this painting, which was part of my My Magpie Eye zine:

It's exciting seeing it in multiples...it's like having an enormous button collection!

Swiss cheese and yellow leaves

 Most winters I seem to get around to doing some knitting just as it's starting to get warm again, and this week I've been making a swiss cheese scarf.  It's a bit wonky, but it's going to be turned into a cowl, so hopefully some of the wonkiness will be hidden in folds.  Very importantly, it's helping me stay awake through TV shows and movies; I have a bad habit of getting too relaxed and falling asleep halfway through, no matter how suspenseful the show!  And it matches these yellow leaves I've been hoarding - they're going to become a painting like this one and this one. 

Hopefully I'll get the scarf and the leaf painting finished before Spring gets here!