op shops

when art and op shop collide

I know I said I hadn’t been to the op shop for ages.  And I hadn’t.  But being the  person that I sometimes am, just writing that down made me determined to prove the statement wrong.  And so I have in fact been to the op shop 3 times in the past week.

But I HAD to go …

1.  I needed new pants (trousers and jeans and the like – it seems winter may well be approaching now after all).

2.  I need images for collage.  And for copyright reasons I need to use magazines and publications that are over 25 years old.

I already had a whole lot of old knitting pattern books (quite possibly the funniest pictures of people posing ever taken).  To this I have now added a book of great landscapes of the world, some National Geographics, some cookbooks and then I found a copy of an old House and Garden Kitchen, Bathroom and Laundry special release.

I could happily spend many days of my life looking through these mags at op shops and thinking about how I could use them … but I am going to hold back now until I get to Anglesea op shop.  They have loads of old holiday house magazines and they are usually only 20 cents a pop. There’s bound to be some rippers …

In the interim, here are some of my collage ideas …

How insane is this photo of the chick with the steaming thingy?  I can just imagine her  steaming this waterfall.  Or, perhaps if I reversed her she could be blasting the clouds into this peaceful rural scene …

And then there are the photos below … it would be fun to swap the bone carving for a person.  Here are 2 options.  The girl in the hard hat already looks like the hat is squished down on her and might look nicely squeezed, fitted between the finger and thumb … but I do like the attitude of the girl in blue and I like the idea of her balancing a little precariously … And I like the lines in this one.

And what about this?  Kids playing in the city could look good.

I think collage and I might be friends – it certainly appeals to my sense of humour (although careful cutting has never been my strong suit – I blame my left handedness – so we’ll have to see).

acrylic … look we’re painting op shop stuff after all

So I think I found one of the painting loves of my life in our very first acrylic painting exercise in CREATE … still life.

I love a domestic painting.  And especially one that is focussed on a collection.  And then one focussed on a collection that comes from the op shop is of course my idea of heaven.

We had a crack at acrylic painting (and at the same time practised mixing paint using just red, yellow, blue and white) by looking at the works of Georgio Morandi.

He painted the same collection of jugs and vases over and over and over.  See the same jug in all the paintings below?


 The colours really are just my cup of tea.

Anyways … I did 3 acrylic paintings along these lines.  Not quite the same of course, but ‘inspired by’. 

I think my main challenge was to try and make things 3D … which as you can see Morandi did in a much flatter way … but that’s okay, perhaps the first step is to go extreme before you can pare back?

And actually, writing this post makes me want to go and give it another go!  Another 20 years of this and I’ll have it down pat … I think I could do it! Still life + me = friends.

It’s been too long … been way too long

I haven’t been here for ages, and I have been feeling sad about it.  But seriously, I have overcommitted to life-things and am having trouble fitting all my loves in.

A brief update, and a disclaimer for future posts.

  • I have been working at Alphington Community Centre and filling in as Coordinator (which I ❤️).
  • I am also doing a visual arts course called CREATE at NCAT on Thursday and Friday (which I ❤️).
  • I have been regularly crafting with the Craft Club chicks for the FPS fair (held last Saturday).  We made ace stuff this year.
  • I have been collecting mountains of fridge boxes to make a 📦 maze at said fair.  It too was ace!
  • I’ve hardly been to the op shop … (I keep going to the art supply shop instead!)

But last night I was at Elise’s showing her all the things I have been painting in the CREATE course that I am doing.  And she said I should write about them here.  

And I thought about it.  And in the end this blog is about me, and it’s dumb not to write, right, just because I am not consumed in second hand consumption … right?

So, I hope you enjoy the 6 month interlude that is about to befall you as I share my arty journey (with just a touch of second hand stuff thrown in).

So here we go.