to move or not to move

My paintings in the series "The Child Within' have the look

and feel of a family snap-shot.

when I was designing 'Double Trouble' and 'Here Comes Trouble', 

I did consider having the kids running towards the pelicans,

                                           or trying to 'shoo' them away.

Double Trouble
Jo-Ann Hunt©
H112x112cm
H44x44ins
sold

but in the end I decided to stay with that

frozen moment in time when you realize

you may be out of your depth....

it's decision time....they're a lot bigger

and less predictable than you think....

and I went with the snapshot format.






sketch in red biro....
on scrap paper....
when an idea strikes I just grab whatever is at hand!


\


in looking back over all my figurative paintings, I've noticed something.

I think I like a certain 'calmness' in my work....

my figures seem to have an air of deliberation or thoughtfulness .....

I don't paint action-figures....what's the opposite?

.....I paint 'stillness'.

it's the headspace of the subject that interests me.

any psycho-analysts out there?




                                             :)     Jo   x











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kermudgitty



Saturday's Squad
detail
Jo-Ann Hunt©



Feeling a bit kermudgitty today!

grrrrr!



Saturday's Squad
Jo-Ann Hunt©
'The Child Within - Summer' Series
H122x122cm
H48x48ins
Acrylic on Canvas
2011
sold



(kermudgitty....a 'made-up' word.....

a tad like curmudgeon, a tad like gritty, snitty......sounds like a real word  though, doesn't it! .....I like it!!)

                                                                Jo   x

.

double trouble....

pelicans at San Remo, Victoria

Pelicans are synonymous with Australian beaches......
from Port Fairy to Barwon Heads,
Sorrento to San Remo,
and on up the coast to Sydney and beyond,
 the pot-bellied bird is a hit with the locals and tourists.

at Phillip Island, the employees of the local San Remo Fishermans Co-Op have been  feeding the pelicans daily for many years.....

......every day at noon the pelicans gather for their free feed.

can you see what the people are looking at?

but it is not only the birds that are attracted to a home-delivered meal!

....a  family of large stingrays also started turning up for their free lunch.

he has spotted them....see their ripple-wash

they would circle and hover in the shallows, actually herding the pelicans away from the action!

but the local Rangers became concerned for the tourists in the shallows, trying to get too close to these amazing creatures, and they're also concerned for the safety of the stingrays themselves.

So feeding the rays by the Co-Op was banned   :(

....but they still turn up, always on time at noon, forever hopeful of a free feed of fresh fish-gizzards and skeletons.

shadows in the shallows

stingray fin and pelicans

and still trying to herd those pesky pelicans away from their patch!

as these huge rays cruise the shallows, they're probably asking, 'where's mine? OK, the birds have been fed ... my turn....where's mine?'

'Double Trouble'
detail
Jo-Ann Hunt©

'Double Trouble'
detail
Jo-Ann Hunt©

'Double Trouble'
Jo-Ann Hunt©
'The Child Within Summer' Series
H 112x112cm
H44x44ins
Acrylic on Canvas
2011
sold

I did not find out about the stingrays until the pelican-feeding session was over....so it was only when I arrived home and checked my shots that I saw the ripples and shadows!

but this year I'll go back, hoping to  get up close and personal like this fellow...or maybe not!   : )


feeding the stingrays, 2010, San Remo, Vic
photo from 'theislandaccomodation.com.au
the rays can be 6 to 7 feet across, and over 300kg!






  and you can see video of the San Remo stingrays  being fed here


.....don't you just love the idea of fish being so smart that they can tell the time and have learnt to work the system!
                                                         



                                                                  Jo  x



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the traveller.....

it seems like yesterday.

Lots of excitement at my house .......

last night my son returned from many months study overseas......
Baylor University in Texas, USA ( six months) and Jonkoping University
in Sweden (six months).


He has jam-packed a lot into his five years at University.....


in between his studies and exams for his double degree,

he's run a marathon in Texas and outrun the bulls in Spain,

skied in the French Alps and swum in the Gulf of Thailand,

dined with a Princess in Scotland and eaten pho, prawns, snakes heart in ricewine, and fried grasshoppers in Vietnam,

ridden gondolas, canoes, Fast-Trains, bamboo rafts, elephants, and a
dog-sled in the Arctic Circle,

driven a jeep across the Nullabor and a Dodge across California,

hiked the glens of Scotland and the mountains of Poland,

climbed a frozen waterfall in Sweden, and bungied from a bridge in Thailand.

He's marvelled at man's engineering of the Eiffel Tower, the dykes of Holland, the Canals of Venice and been awestruck by the Northern Lights  above the arctic snow,

and now he's home!

so to all his friends around the globe who have fed him, shared a drink with him, snored, driven, run, swum, hiked, leapt and laughed with him.....

thankyou from the bottom of my heart.



image from woodleywonderworks




and to all the warm, embracing strangers who have sold him a ticket, served him a meal, taught him at University, or generally just helped him on his way through your part of the world..... another big thankyou.


because all of you out there have helped him return a happy,
lively, healthy, curious, worldly man.

Just as I hoped and prayed.    :)

Life is good!

                                                                                                       

                                                                                              Jo  x












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here comes trouble!



Here Comes Trouble
detail
Jo-Ann Hunt©




It's that moment of realization.

that moment of  'ok....so what do I do now? am I really in control?

do I really know what I'm doing here?

....um.....is this really my gig?

that sharp intake of breath.

Here Comes Trouble
detail
Jo-ann Hunt©

and Mr Pelican is saying.....

you think you scare me!

Ha!!

..........not likely!

Here Comes Trouble
Jo-Ann Hunt©
'The Child Within - Summer' Series
H122x60cm
H48x24ins
Acrylic on Canvas
2011
xxxx

                                                  Jo   x









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boy.....a definition.

Tuesday's Training
detail
Jo-Ann Hunt

boy   n: 1, a male child or youth  2. a young man, esp. regarded as immature  (The Concise Oxford Dictionary)

Tueday's Training
detail
Jo-Ann Hunt

boy  n:    a noise with dirt on it    ('Not Your Average Dictionary')

Tuesday's Training
Jo-Ann Hunt©
'The Child Within - Summer' Series
H122x41cm
H48x16ins
Acrylic on Canvas
2011
xxxx

                                and that's my favourite!

                                                                   Jo   x







ps: the Lorne Pier-to-Pub was swum yesterday......
congrats go to all contestants ( including those from Lorne SLSC) and to our Victorian Premier Ted Baillieu ( 58) and our National Leader of the Opposition Tony Abbott (54)

photo:Meredith O'Shea The Age

....well done guys....in budgies or rubber you set a great example to the nippers out there!

.....for a great view of the course click here. 

(a little history: each year over 5000 swimmers dive into the ocean to race the 1.2km course in the worlds largest organised swim
 ....it started as an informal challenge amongst Lorne Surf Life Saving Club members 31 years ago and is organised and run by their volunteers
....and since 1998 the Swim has been entered into the Guiness Book of Records as the worlds largest open-water swim.
..... and then there's the Lorne 'Sharkbait Club'....which recognizes those who have swum 10 or more times over the life of the race...and outswum their namesake!)








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the guy in the glass....

 

The Guy In The Glass

by Dale Wimbrow, (c) 1934

When you get what you want in your struggle for pelf,

And the world makes you King for a day,

Then go to the mirror and look at yourself,

And see what that guy has to say.

For it isn't your Father, or Mother, or Wife,

Who judgement upon you must pass.

The feller whose verdict counts most in your life

Is the guy staring back from the glass.

He's the feller to please, never mind all the rest,

For he's with you clear up to the end,

And you've passed your most dangerous, difficult test

If the guy in the glass is your friend.

You may be like Jack Horner and "chisel" a plum,

And think you're a wonderful guy,

But the man in the glass says you're only a bum

If you can't look him straight in the eye.

You can fool the whole world down the pathway of years,

And get pats on the back as you pass,

But your final reward will be heartaches and tears

If you've cheated the guy in the glass.

      Author: Dale Wimbrow 1895-1954

           In Memory of A.C......a man of principle, conviction, passion and action. 

born ninety years ago today...

 born 07 Jan 1922  died 26 Sep 2010

pelf [pɛlf] n

 money or wealth, esp if dishonestly acquired; lucre

[from Old French pelfre booty; related to Latin pilāre to despoil]

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003

 Old French pelfre, "booty, stolen goods." It is related to pilfer.

Quotations. . . a master manipulator who will twist and dodge around the clock to keep the privileges of power and pelf. --Nick Cohen, "Without prejudice," The Observer, February 20, 2000

 

.

.

bad luck.....

Surf's Up
detail
Jo-Ann Hunt

I love watching kids, I love being with kids.
I love their energy, their optimism.

I love the awkward years, the gangly years.....the years between five and twelve.....when they outgrow everything.....even it seems their own bodies.

when they're all elbows and knees.....and clutsy!

I love clutsy, clumsy kids!

and those kids that are so full on into everything, they can't wait for their brains to catch up with their bodies.

and those kids that just go about their business, lost in their own thoughts, planning, fiddling, creating, messing.

Surf's Up
Jo-Ann Hunt©
'The Child Within - Summer' Series
H112x102cm
H44x40ins
Acrylic on Canvas
2010
sold

         

  'We've had bad luck with our kids....

                                                           they're all grown up.'          

                                                                                                   

                                                                                        Christopher Morley

               me too Christopher!  ditto!


                                                                                        Jo  x


                                                                                                












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