Thank you..

..dear readers, for leaping to your keyboards and restoring my faith in blogging.

I've been out and about over the past 24 hours - firstly to the Bluff Oyster Festival.  As well as being NZ's southernmost town and on e that was settled by Europeans very early on in NZ's history, Bluff is most famous for its oysters.

 This was the lineup on stage for the sea-themed fashion show. Some very imaginative costumes.

 On the docks afterwards....

 ...a nice little fishing boat.

 I liked the reflection of the rope in the water...

 ...and of this boat too.

 This morning, I went out to Oreti Beach to take some moody in-the-rain photos but as soon as I decided to do that, the weather improved.

 There had been quite a bit of rain during the night, and even a touch of snow on the hills.

I always like seascapes with a bird in them.  Click on photos to enlarge them.

What to do?

Dear Blog Readers,

I have a problem.

The only comments I am getting on my blog are standard responses coming from unrelated websites.

According to the blog, I have 47 people following my blog, and have had 122 visits this week.  So where are you all?

Perhaps I am not doing anything of interest to you any longer?  If that is the case, perhaps there is no point in continuing with this blog.  Your feedback would be appreciated.

Meanwhile, here's some photos taken at Riverton last week.

Things I learned this week

I'd like to think I learn something every week.  I hope so.  Over the weekend, I've been at a painting class run by Riverton artist, Dawn Barry.  Turns out she's a friend of my old school friend, Astrid (who lives in Auckland but has a wee place at Riverton and comes here in the holidays), and so was one of the women I was sitting next to.  Small world.    Here's some photos from the class:

 There were 11 of us - 1 man and 10 women.  The others were all more experienced that I am, even Rose (left)  who is only 16.  Some had held exhibitions.  I was slightly daunted by this, especially as I've only painted a handful of pieces so far.

 First, we painted something we knew, in a technique that left a black outline.  This worked better on some subjects that others.  Not so well on my portrait, but it was either that or a still life as that's all I've done.

 The second technique was a segmented style, with each segment blending from light to dark, or dark to light.  I quite enjoyed this, but would use less white next time.

 Thirdly, we painted something in flat colours, then added visual texture with oil pastels.  I also painted with my fingers.  Not a great landscape but it's my first.

Lastly, we did a seascape using plaster, sand and so on, applied with a palette knife for texture.  When it dried, we added layer after layer of thin washes.  Mine wasn't very good so I'm just showing some that others did.  Dawn's sample is top left.  All in all, we had a great time.

 I do know you're not supposed to allow lens flare in photos - however, sometimes, I like it.  This was a really interesting afternoon sky recently.

 And while I know how to weave fabric, I had to relearn it as it's ages since I've done it.  This is 2 completely different versions of my Blended Fabric - above, being woven on the ironing board, and a close-up below.  I've stitched it, but want to add some stamping to pull the colours together.  It's a cover for my new creative journal.