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Art time!

Luke — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 03:07:18 +0000

Here are some random drawings and pictures that have shown up lately.

Mouse Avenger #12, by RJ

Mouse Avenger is an original series that RJ has been creating. Each has a detailed, full-colour front cover with a series of black and white drawings inside. Most episodes involve battling some kind of dragons and/or scorpions. Mouse Avenger is pretty ruthless with his sword and shield.

The inside of Dad’s birthday card, from LR:

Why yes... Yes it does...

Dad and the kids were doing some drawings on the weekend and they were particularly proud of what they came up with…

Horse and Tree, by LR

Haunted Mansion, by RJ

Haunted Mansion (colour), by RJ and Daddy

Haunted Mansion is a book in the school library that RJ hasn’t read, but seems to know an awful lot about. Those are ghosts chasing the people and I do believe those are severed heads hanging off the legs of the evil crab monster.

LR’s Seventh Birthday Party

Luke — Sun, 05 Jun 2011 03:07:03 +0000

LR awoke to a huge pile of presents. Yeah!!!!

Her main present was a sewing kit, complete with pins, needles, fabric, thread, yarn, knitting needles, scissors and marking chalk, and most importantly, a big box with lots of little compartments to keep it all organised.

LR opens one of her presents from RJ, a glowing speaker for her ipod. He spent a lot of time with Mom carefully choosing something he knew she would like.

LR also received a phone call from the USA. Grandma Wendy and Grandpa Jeff called to wish her Happy Birthday!

Grammy stopped by to deliver her present (from Poppa too). An art kit with charcoal, pencils, brushes, and a sketch pad -- perfect for taking with you, anywhere.

Dad promised he would decorate her cake exactly as she wanted it. LR joined in to help make it perfect. Requirements: the planet Saturn, bacterial colonies, a strand of DNA and some writing.

Mom sets down the cake as LR dangerously wields the notorious Birthday Cake Knife.

While LR’s actual birthday fell during the school week, LR’s party had to wait until the weekend. She spent days planning the event and how everything would work. The main focus of the party was to have everyone act in a play that she had put together. She put significant amounts of thought in to who should play each role, and to anticipate problems that might occur. During the party, groups of people would act out a scene at the house, while the others played games across the road at the park. Taking turns acting and playing, none of the girls had the chance to see the entire production until it was edited and put together for a grand screening at the end of the party. Everyone loved it!

LR's birthday party was a carefully planned event. Everyone was required to wear a costume. LR chose to dress as a princess.

LR and the girls played different games at the park.

Food time! A horde of hungry girls swarms the table.

While one group of girls played games across the road, the rest performed for the video camera in a suspensful tale of deceit and treachery (directed by Dad). The footage was edited while the kids ate cake and other goodies. Once done, they all sat down to watch themselves in their own movie. The entire concept was LR's plan from the beginning and everyone loved it!

A terrible racket

Luke — Thu, 14 Apr 2011 03:07:12 +0000

(while eating breakfast)

RJ: I drew a great picture at school yesterday.

Dad: What was it?

RJ: A picture of a baby tennis racket still inside its egg… It was on fire and its eyes and mouth were sewn shut.

Dad: Cool. I didn’t know tennis rackets grew from eggs.

RJ: Yep! … You know, grown up tennis rackets live around rivers. They bury their eggs in big nests and stay around until they hatch. They stand guard to keep them safe from predators.

Dad: What kind of predators eat tennis rackets?

RJ: Wild strawberries!

Sculptures by the Sea, Cottesloe 2011

Luke — Fri, 25 Mar 2011 03:07:09 +0000

For most of the month of March, a massively diverse array of sculptures are set up on one of the beaches near our house. We go almost every year!

The kids had several trips down there, one with school and a couple with the family. It’s fun seeing some of the the bizarre creations that have been put up.

LR and RJ explore the two sides of a giant steel structure... vaguely reminiscent of a steam engine.

LR stands in front of a river of paper boats, waving gently in the breeze.

There's a weird stream of glass globes trapped in a net over here.

Don't climb! Don't touch! ... but they found a way inside anyway!

RJ peers through the tunnel of plasic pegs.

LR and RJ take a turn looking through the tunnel from the other direction.

RJ dares one of the giant happy statues to grab him.

LR tempts fate by standing under the high voltage wires.

RJ found a great hiding spot inside one of the sculptures.

Time to come out, RJ! He didn't care a bit that he was totally covered in sand.

The seagulls were an unintentionally pervasive feature of almost all of the sculptures.

Each year, there is a massive sculpture placed at the end of the groyne. This year, to the kids' perpetual amusement, it was anatomically correct.

Devils and black sheep getting you down?

Luke — Tue, 28 Sep 2010 03:07:11 +0000

(while doing an art project)

RJ: Do you like mine? It’s a, “Vein Ship!”

Dad: So what can it do?

RJ: It’s full of blood and it can shoot veins and blood out of its guns. It’s great for attacking pirates.

Dad: The pirates hate blood?

RJ: Yeah! When the veins from the vein ship get on the pirates, their ship changes, and then it turns into a vein ship too. It’s really bad.

Dad: What else can it do?

RJ: It has a Cottelator 2-1000.

Dad: Whoah. That sounds dangerous.

RJ: It is. When you shoot pirates with it, it makes them cough.

The Exciting Art World

Luke — Thu, 23 Sep 2010 03:07:26 +0000

Every night for the past six weeks, RJ has been telling us about his upcoming art gallery. We could tell it was a big deal, but we had no idea of the actual scale of the thing.

Rather than being five or six paintings that the kids had done, the gallery consisted of about 20 pieces for each child. Each piece focused on a different artistic style, technique or influence by a famous significant artist. Every inch of wall space was covered and several extra partitions were required to accommodate everything. Even the neighbouring classroom was annexed to become the food / wine / snack room!

RJ was excited to have all the important people there… Mum, Dad, LR, Grammy and even Heather and her mum came down. Poppa couldn’t make it because he was overseas.

Thanks so much to RJ’s teachers for all the effort and energy they put into this. It really was quite overwhelming and far beyond anything we expected – a fantastic job all around!

Welcome to RJ's Art Gallery!

RJ shows Mum his magnificent conifer diagram.

RJ was most proud of his umbrella.

Grammy and Mum think this artwork is AMAZING!

LR found another one of RJ's artworks... She thought it was a sea cucumber, but RJ insists it's a caterpllar.

"I'll stand still for 2 seconds, and that's all. I can see some other people going for the sushi."

The best thing about having your own art gallery is that you can eat as much of the sushi as you'd like and no one will complain.

"All Hail King RJ!!!!!" Thanks RJ! What a great show!!!

Iris Awards Finalist!

Luke — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 03:07:24 +0000

I’m feeling pretty nervous today! Tonight is the opening night of the PCP Iris Award Exhibition… and I’m in it!

Two weeks ago I received a phone call letting me know that I was a finalist for the Iris Award for Contemporary Portraiture. It’s run by the Perth Centre for Photography, a local organisation promoting photography and emerging talent. It’s a huge deal for me, because it’s judged by both professional photographers and artists with a strong grounding in contemporary photography and art history.

It doesn’t help that I’ve seen some of the other finalists (and rejected entries) and they were just awesome.

All I can say is, “I’m not worthy!” and, “They Like Me, They Really Like Me!!!”.

Barn Unfinished Breakfast : My entry for the Perth Centre for Photography Iris Award for Contemporary Portraiture... What a mouthful!

The secret of my success? Having really cute kids and taking way more photos than any human being should reasonably be allowed to.

Seriously, if there was a tax on megapixels the IRS and ATO would be hunting me down.

Are you ready for the robot apocalypse?

Luke — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 03:07:09 +0000

I’d been meaning to get a picture of this for a while, but hadn’t gotten to it yet. This is a sign that LR put up on her door about six months ago, letting everyone know that they’re welcome to come in.

A robot welcomes everyone who comes to LR's bedroom door. Proud father? Oh yes, indeed.

That’s a robot that’s she’s drawn (from scratch) on there… It’s because of things like this that I can look past the all the other fluffy pink stuff around the place.

Fairies? Magic ponies? Ridiculous nonsense! Humanoid robot servitors? Now that’s much more respectable.

Early October pictures

Luke — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 03:07:11 +0000

Here’s a smattering of pictures from the first half of the month: RJ’s sudden fascination with Superman, a visit to K and J’s place, trips to Gingin, lots of tree climbing, legos, marbles and painting, oh my!

Compared to his obsession with dinosaurs and prehistoric creatures, RJ’s interest in Superman is fairly mild. You’re more likely to catch him pretending to be biologist Nigel Marven.

Don't fear, Superman is on the way.

RJ and I made some Superman badges. I told him, "We don't need no steenkin badges!" but he just wouldn't listen.

K and J’s have an amazing treehouse. It’s multi-level, and is outfitted with a flying-fox, a giant tyre swing, a climbing wall and harnesses and attachment points for everything.

LR and K ride the tyre swing to pretty amazing heights.

LR tackles the climbing wall at K's place.

RJ and J discuss some of the problems they've been having at home.

LR’s tree has grown into one of the best climbing trees imaginable – kid capacity, 15. We’ll find out for sure at this year’s Halloween party.

RJ and LR found an egg shell under LR's tree. Does that mean there's a nest up there somewhere? They've searched all the lower branches and haven't spotted it yet, so maybe not.

RJ climbs up without assistance these days. The monkey genes... they run deep.

Some other recent moments…

Sometimes he just has to yell it out. Negotiating with a hungry three year old who needs a nap is not always possible.

LR tries out Dad's camera while RJ attempts to escape.

LR and RJ worked on this massive castle project. We still haven't managed to use every piece of lego yet.

RJ and Mum adjust their complicated marble run and sling marbles all around the room.

LR adding some details to her big canvas, "The Planet System". It depicts an asteroid crashing into a prehistoric volcanic landscape leading to the collapse of the dinosaur populations on Earth.

Seeing Red

Luke — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 03:40:18 +0000

In the art gallery, in front of a giant (5×3 metres – 17×10 ft) Aboriginal painting.

LR: I see the problem. My paintings have all been too small.

A few minutes later…

LR: Mum, I think that I can’t paint very well because I have the wrong brushes and paints. You’ve only given me kid stuff. Let’s go to the shop and get real artists’ paints and brushes and a big canvas.

At the art shop, faced with a wall of colours (each $7).

Mum: Uh-oh. How are we going to figure out which ones you need?
Art Shop Lady: That’s okay. Get a colour wheel. Just buy the primary colours and white and black and you can make any colour.
Mum: Great!
LR: What’s a primary colour?
Art Shop Lady: It’s a colour that you can’t make from any other colours. Red, yellow and blue are the primary colours.
LR: How do you make red?
Art Shop Lady: You use chemicals.
LR: How did they make the first red?
Art Shop Lady: Umm…I don’t know. (calls over another lady)
Art Shop Lady 2: Well, you can use iron oxides or berries to make different shades of red. Or cochineal from beetles.
LR: Oh. But how did that red get made?
Mum: (stepping in at the looks on the ladies’ faces) That’s a good question. Let’s look that up. Or we’ll ask Grammie. She knows everything about art. (That’s called passing the buck)

As LR and Mum are leaving the shop, the first lady comes over, puts her hand on Mum’s shoulder and says “You poor thing.”