Pictures at an exhibition

Dear Readers,

I mentioned earlier that one of hubby's cottage industries in retirement is making shadow frames for the many paintings that I have done since coming to Australia.  He had to kick it up a notch when our elder daughter needed 16 frames for her paintings to be presented at an exhibition in Barcelona in May.  

Elder daughter and hubby looked at making the frames in Sweden last summer, but gave up, mainly because suitable profiles of timber were not readily available.  That was surprising, considering that Sweden has a lot of pine, and a lot of timber houses. Then again, Sir Rod Stewart, on his recent visit to Sydney, made a visit to a branch of the main hardware chain here just to buy profiles of timber that are not available in the UK.

Anyhow, hubby got the frames done in time, with protective wrapping that son-in-law said could get him a job with Amazon.  Posting them to Sweden cost about the same as the raw materials, but, hey, that's what parents are for.

Economies of scale?

Individually gift wrapped ...

... and ready to be boxed. Five frames are inside.

The exhibition, which featured four artists, seemed to be a success, in that many people turned up for the vernissage.

Psst, you are looking the wrong way!

Our favourite artist

After the three weeks of the exhibition, just a few works had been sold, though.  Elder daughter also had to fly back to Barcelona from Gothenburg to collect hers that had not been sold.  

It is a tough gig, being an artist, or indeed a gallery owner. Perhaps the statement by one of elder daughter's artist friends in London that there are just 50 or so painters in the UK who can live off their art alone is not so far from the truth.

We are very proud of her, anyway.

Vivid Sydney

Dear Readers,

By far the majority of attractions in Australia are natural ones, with beaches, rock formations, forests, waterfalls, lookouts, animals, and expansive isolation at the top of the list.  The few castles are mostly quirky, parts of amusement parks, or glorified mansions and oh-so young; no centuries-old, battle-scarred fortifications here.  The old joke "What is the difference between a pot of yoghurt and Australia? Yoghurt has a living culture." notwithstanding, there are a few cultural events that are worth a detour, at least if you are already in that state or city.  

One example is Vivid Sydney, a visual-audio show held around the CBD of Sydney each southern-hemisphere winter.  The Sydney Opera House, the Museum of Contemporary Art, the old Customs House and the Sydney Harbour Bridge are the main canvases, but far from the only ones.  The show has gotten better and better, year on year, since it started 14 years ago.  There is now so much to see that you need several evenings to visit all the sites. Hubby and younger daughter went to it twice this year and still did not see everything.  You need to be prepared to walk though since many of the displays are around the harbour walk from Circular Quay to Darling Harbour and some transport modes are suspended due to the crowds.

Sails pitch or a sign?

One feature in 2023 was a drone show - the largest in the Southern Hemisphere, for what it is worth - in the harbour off Circular Quay.  Hubby and younger daughter were able to see it, but with great difficulty due to the crowds.  Ten minutes before the start they could move no further and put up with the light pollution where they were.  Their photographs from there were not great, but the experience was.  Then it was a long walk back with the crowd to the first available public transport.

It was much better in person.

Fortunately there are many dining opportunities ranging from street stalls to regular restaurants around Circular Quay, in The Rocks area, and around Darling Harbour, for when the crowds or the walking distances get to you.

Lofty aspirations

Dear Readers,

I have recently become fascinated by tiny homes, in part because our son is looking at taking his first step into the property market by buying a rural block on which one can only have temporary accommodation, like a caravan or a mobile home.  I must have clicked on something on Facebook, because I now frequently get images of the latest models without even searching.  

The Sydney Tiny Home Expo was held at the Hawkesbury Showgrounds in Clarendon a few weeks ago, and hubby used that as an excuse for another excursion to a new part of Sydney, at least new for us.  It was a rare rainy day, but I still went alone for the ride, although not to traipse around the exhibition.  If the homes are really mobile, they can come to me!  Hubby, however, went into every exhibit, and not just to get out of the rain.  

After a while, though, he thought that each one was pretty much like the last one, especially since the requirement that they should normally not exceed certain dimensions to be transported as trailers seriously constrained the layout, until he saw a few that included lofts or consisted of two trailers joined together with an offset.

That's more like it, size-wise.

It is interesting to see how (most) essential facilities are squeezed into the tiny footprint of a tiny home, although I do not think that we could quickly adapt.  Where would we put our eight IKEA Billy book-cases for instance?

Some essentials are outside.

Several sales representatives said that the majority of the current customers are buying them to serve as granny flats or for Airbnb rentals in residential areas, rather than as accommodation on isolated country blocks as shown in very flattering ways in most of the brochures.  

That part of the Hawkesbury area was completely new to us.  There is a lot of new housing, even a third Sydney IKEA, then suddenly horsey countryside.  The Expo was at the Showgrounds, after all.  Next to the Showgrounds is the Richmond RAAF Base, which has been in the news lately due to the use of forever chemicals in fire-fighting foams.  Suffice it to say that we drank only alcohol when we ate at the Clarendon Pub at lunchtime.

That lofts are popular in tiny homes reminded me of the loft bedrooms that my first hubby built in our rental apartments in New York and Gothenburg.  Despite the ladder used for access, they did win us valuable living space, and when you are young, you can cope.  When present hubby and I were building our house in France, a friend told us "You need to build three houses to get it right."  I guess that that applies to lofts as well, since first hubby learned to include additional space around the bed for a small table and serving shelf in the third attempt in Gothenburg, to avoid having to climb down and up too many times.

Loft #1, New York, 1970. Only for the young and agile!

 

Loft #2, New York, 1971. Better not sleep walk!

Writing this has worn me out.  I think I'll take a nap, thankfully not in a loft.