Youtube

I was a bit sad I couldn't do my first choice of New Thing today.  I guess it will have to wait until maybe next weekend, fingers crossed.  But I'm really feeling under the weather.  After church I had lunch then a little sleep...for a few hours...  Then I tried to find a video of the Olympics Opening Ceremony.  No joy.  There were some short clips, some a bit longer but of dodgy quality, but nothing of the bits I wanted to see.  I had managed to watch from the teams walking on when it was broadcast on Saturday morning, but I really wanted to see the earlier bits.  Oh well.  Normally, this is when I would stop browsing Youtube and move on.

Recently I was looking for a particular segment from Good News Week on Youtube - when there were 2 foreigners on the show they would have a Citizenship Test part.  So funny.  But I haven't managed to find it.  Today I had another look for it, as that was all my energy levels could manage.  I watched a few shorter segments, tried to find a particular Lenny Henry bit (from years ago) that had me nearly asphyxiating, then I put on a full episode.  Note:  it's not a good idea to consume food and/or drink while watching this show.  It can get messy and potentially dangerous.  Good thing, then, that I grew up with 3 brothers making me laugh during mealtimes.

The Olympics coverage is on again now, but when it's something I find less interesting to watch, another episode of Good News Week is on. 

Yesterday's photo:

I had coffee yesterday morning at Casa de Bubbles, where there is a new fancy coffee tin.  When the coffee is scooped against the side, 'Vittoria' is visible in the coffee.

Today's photo:

Last weekend, my niece and nephew (and their parents) came over.  My niece, who's 3, drew me this picture, and we put it on the keyboard.  Some of my students this week looked at it asked if I had drawn it.

Lenten Drawings

 I aimed this year to do something artistic each week.  Mostly on a Sunday, I did a drawing - this in itself is different for me, as normally my artistic side leans towards painting.  Drawing, I feel, takes more skill.  When I began this process, I had a number of occasions of "ugh, this is too hard, it looks terrible, I'm giving up" before forcing myself to keep practicing.  Drawing is just like anything, the more you do it the easier it is.  Here are my drawings from Lent (yes, I missed a week).


Week 1 - I had just been to the Matisse: Drawing Life  exhibition and was aiming for brevity.

Week 2 - still aiming for brevity, it didn't turn out as simple as I had hoped.  I'd also lost my eraser.  

Hands are difficult.  Really difficult.  This was the best of week 3, but there were several other attempts.

Week 4 - I did this one at school, from a photo I'd taken a few days beforehand.  I'd done many attempts but just couldn't get the lines right - yet at school it just worked and took only one quick attempt.

This is possibly my favourite.  I drew this on Good Friday.  I then began a painting of it but that isn't finished just yet...  This took many, many practices to get the angles and fingers right. 

State Library of Queensland Cafe

I have long had a love affair with Matisse's paintings, but today I finally went to the Matisse: Drawing Life exhibition at GOMA.  It was wonderful to discover another side of his work, even if I was alongside 3 school groups as well as the general public.  His brevity really appeals to me, as well as his use of pattern.  A lot of the drawings reminded me of the illustrations from a book I read years ago, the name of which I forget - but set in the 1920s.

My favourite was of a violinist (surprise, surprise), possibly the largest work on display.  If I had the means...  What really surprised me was the lack of prints in the merchandise section.  Which is great for my bank balance, but a little disappointing.  I would have loved a print of the violinist, but I had to content myself with a fridge magnet of another work, Patitcha souriante (Pititcha smiling), and a drawing pad.

By the time I had finished, it was well and truly coffee time.  Last week I had noticed the State Library has become a very cool place, so I stopped for a coffee in their cafe.  Quite a cool day, and a couple of hours in air conditioning meant I was already turning purple, so I chose to sit outside instead of in the cosy (but chilly) indoors.  I don't know if it was the time of day, the day of the week, or just because, but outside resembled a childcare centre.  Lots of vocal, energetic little people.  I was really impressed with a bloke sitting in front of me, wired into his laptop and seemingly unaware of the amount of noise surrounding him.  The price of a muffin (not that I had one, mind you) caused me to anticipate high prices, but a mug here was cheaper than a cup at many establishments.  The coffee was good, and the froth even better - one of those where you just want to sculpt something in the foam.  I resisted, though.