SPRINGTIME

June Hymn

Here's a hymn to welcome in the day

Heralding a summer's early sway
And all the bulbs all coming in
To begin
The thrushes bleating battle with the wrens
Disrupts my reverie again

Pegging clothing on the line
Training jasmine how to vine
Up the arbor to your door
And more
You're standing on the landing with the war
You shouldered all the night before

And once upon it
The yellow bonnets
Garland all the lawn
And you were waking
And day was breaking
A panoply of song
And summer comes to Springville Hill

A barony of ivy in the trees
Expanding out its empire by degrees
And all the branches burst to bloom
In the boom
Heaven sent this cardinal maroon
To decorate our living room

And once upon it
The yellow bonnets
Garland all the lawn
And you were waking
And day was breaking
A panoply of song
And summer comes to Springville Hill

And years from now
When this old light isn't ambling anymore
Will I bring myself to write
"I give my best to Springville Hill"

And once upon it
The yellow bonnets
Garland all the lawn
And you were waking
And day was breaking
A panoply of song
And summer comes to Springville Hill

The Decemberists from their album The King is Dead. Of course the months are all wrong for us in the antipodes... but the day calls for a song. The album cover is from their previous album, Castaways and Cutouts... I just liked it.

EGO TRIP

‘Tis the season for Art Prizes… a time to queue, a time to lug, a time for random success and more frequently random rejection. We hate it but we do it – for ‘profile’. On the upside it’s usually pretty social as you share a laugh at loading docks and beg favours from friends with utes…

Whilst I could round out this little blog with tales of woe and rejection… that would be counter productive to my ego trip so here are a few of the more happy outcomes.

On Friday I attended the Northbridge Art Prize at Gallery 307 (where I have been teaching a few classes) and to my delight found out that I had won the first prize for the works on canvas and board (which was pretty much painting). The work was called Saturn Rule… as he does me. Sydney artist, Wendy Sharpe was the judge. I have no photo to show as I didn’t get around to that. Yay!

Rewinding a bit, in May I had a small painting accepted into the NSW Parliament Plein Air Painting Prize. The prize was judged by Glenn Barkley, Curator of The Museum of Contemporary Art and exhibited at NSW Parliament House in Macquarie St www.pleinair.com.au. My gorgeous friend, Eugenie accompanied me to the opening. We giggled our way through dinner and many speeches. Noel McKenna took out the big prize with his work entitled ‘My Backyard’.

It was a good night and I was thrilled to catch up with two of my favourite teachers from the National Art School and meet some other artists whom I had known only by their work. Some fellow artists from the mountains and beyond were represented including my friend Rowen Matthews who is currently exhibiting his exquisite landscapes in Melbourne, New Paintings: Intimate Portraits of the Cudgegong River www.catherineasquithgallery.com

There was even a bit of press about that:

http://www.bluemountainsgazette.com.au/news/local/news/general/lawson-artist-in-painting-prize-finals/2167091.aspx

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/arts/video-takes-the-prize-for-creativity/story-e6frg8n6-1226063666312

Meanwhile, back up the mountain, The Blackheath Art Society held their Open Winter Exhibition and were fortunate to have Tony Bond OAM, Head Curator, Western Art at the Art Gallery of NSW to judge the works. In addition to the lovely honour of the People’s Choice Award, Mr Bond awarded my small painting a Highly Commended. The title of the painting is East and West Mean Nothing to Us Here and was taken from a line in Homer’s Odyssey (an ongoing theme in my new work). The painting depicts the Anzac Bridge off ramp as you enter into the inner west at dusk. http://www.blackheathart.com/prizewinners/prizewinners.htm

Mr Bond commented, ‘Susie Dureau's work is typical of what I referred to at the start about simple rendering of a special moment. Here in East + West Mean Nothing to Us Here the silhouetted trees against the turbulent night form the stage on which unidentified lights move in the foreground. It is particularly pertinent given the weather we all braved to get to the show.’

I believe it was the week that wild storms ripped through the Blue Mountains causing widespread damage and power outages… an event of which I was blissfully unaware as it was also the week I moved to the beaches.

The pics at the top of this entry are the work East and West Mean Nothing to Us Here lifted from the BAS website (again I had not the foresight to photograph the work myself) and ME with the table decoration from the dinner at parliament house. I had to be convinced by the caterer to take it and it was only after she assured me that the vase was 'cheap' that I felt obliged to make it mine!

Said and done.