RDA Queensland Volunteer Encouragement Award

I am always really proud of all of Alan's achievements and I remember posting on this Blog last year that he had been awarded the Gympie RDA 2007 Volunteer Encouragement Award. Now he has been awarded the Queensland RDA 2007 Volunteer Encouragement Award and I have included here the citation that appeared in the Queensland RDA Newsletter. I took this photo of Alan chatting to Darren, one our Drivers. I think it shows that one of Alan's main strengths is communication skills and his ability to get on so well with everyone :)

From the Queensland RDA Newsletter:

`Alan came to Gympie RDA in March 2004 to assist with the Wednesday riding program.

Since then Alan has worked as a Leader, Side walker, CommitteeMember, Level 0 Carriage Driving Whip and has assisted with the care and maintenance of equipment, grounds and horses as well as assisting with transport of horses for the state championships and fundraising events. The experience Alan brought from his Light Horse troop has been greatly appreciated by all members of Gympie RDA. Alan has demonstrated his willingness to become involved in all functions of Gympie RDA and whenever there are jobs to be done, Gympie know that Alan will be present. Alan has provided assistance to other groups in Queensland’s South East by taking Gympie RDA carriage to open days, Disability Week displays and other community events to show the benefits of a carriage driving program. Alan’s enthusiasm for the carriage driving program helped it become a reality. He has leased his driving/riding horse, Bobby, to Gympie RDA and has also located the whereabouts of a second carriage so that the program
can expand. Riders and drivers appreciate Alan’s quiet confidence and gentle understanding and the smiling faces indicate Alan is well liked by both volunteers
and riders.'

Inspired by Joan Miro

This week's `Frameworthy Challenge' is another venture into Abstract Surrealism and I am really loving it. `A sandbox for the sub conscious mind, a re creation of the childlike'. Joan Miro was a Spanish Artist, born in Barcelona in 1893. I love his work and his free thinking independence. This is my take on the challenge :)

Flying Turtles

" The mind which plunges into surrealism, relives with burning excitement the best part of childhood" - Andre Breton

Inspired by Jerry Uelsmann

I can't believe another Frameworthy challenge has come around. This week its Jerry Ueslsmann an American photographer who works with B&W images to create some surreal art. I have never attempted this before so I had a wonderful time doing this. These photos are all my own except the globe which came from Google. I have no idea where the result came from but I love it :)

Now I'm off to to do some mowing on the ride on mower - called `mowing meditation' LOL This is better than `weeding meditation' which I did yesterday.

Inspired by Stella

This week's `Frameworthy Challenge' Art Inspiration is Frank Stella, an American Abstract Artist. I really had a lot of fun doing this, once again using ArtRage.

Alan's New Toy

Well Alan is one of my Blog Readers and he's a bit miffed lately that he hasn't featured :) So here he is with his latest toy, a Massey Ferguson Tractor and slasher. Its fairly old, not quite as old as me though, and it goes really well. Alan will be using it to slash our paddock which is a bit big for the ride on mower

Inspired by Klee

This week our `Frameworthy Challenge' was to create a piece of Art inspired by Klee. This time I decided to paint something from scratch using ArtRage, a great little programme which can be downloaded for about $25.00 AUD.



Paul Klee was born in 1887 in Switzerland and he was best known for his primitive and surrealist Art. He was incredibly prolific, creating over 8,900 works before he died in 1940 at a relatively young age. Here is the painting I used as an inspiration and here is my creation. I really enjoyed this challenge. So did we all and one of the artists did 3 she was so excited after seeing Klee's work. I love it too!

Cate was asking about printing Digital Art. There are lots of options. What you see on the Blog is a `thumbnail' - I created this file as an A4 Document 8.5 x 11 inches. I also create files at 8x8 and 8x10. All these can be printed at home. However the resolution is so high (300 dpi) that I could also get this printed in poster size. Other options are to print them in a photobook with binding, and this is good to have as a coffee table book. I have also been admiring Kate Iredale's Calendar. Of course a lot of my Art just sits on my Computer and a lot is deleted after I decide its not worth keeping. For me the joy of making Art is in the creative process. I think the beauty of Digital Art is that it can be kept on the computer or a DVD or just displayed on the Computer Screen. Less stuff around the place and no mess :)

A Word for the coming year.

Each year it seems more and more of us are choosing a word to focus on for the coming year and this week I have been really interested to read the story behind these words. I have taken up a challenge to create a piece of Art around my word and here it is!

Finding Nemo

Introducing Nemo, the newest member of our Family. Some weeks ago I read a restaurant review where the Restaurant had individual little fishbowls on each table - each one with a Betta Splendens aka Siamese Fighting Fish in it. (Male Bettas fight so you can only have one). Anyway I wanted one, the idea of watching a cute little fish while we were sitting at the table sounded great and when I saw a little Betta Bowl in Big W last week I bought it. Then on Friday we went to the Petshop to buy a Betta, some food, some water purifier...... the list goes on. We set Nemo up and then I Googled Bettas and found out........my bowl was too small and bordering on cruel!!! Merde!! what to do? Obviously the Restaurant paid someone to swap their Bettas every other day and I never thought of that. :( Then Alan came up with the bright idea of using a couple of large bowls we had in the top of the cupboard. Genius. Success. Nemo loves his new home. We just change him into fresh water every couple of days, wash his old bowl and we are ready to go again. He seems to like the tank water although we still purify it. I found one of those old fashioned fly protectors to cover his bowl so he doesn't jump out and commit suicide by mistake and he likes the coloured beads. We can't believe how much pleasure watching Nemo gives us - one little fish - very relaxing :) Oh he looks a bit unhappy in the bottom photo but thats his normal look LOL

Inspired by Seurat

Our Frameworthy challenge this week at Scrapbookgraphics was to produce an impressionist image inspired by Seurat. I decided to join the challenge as today it has been windy, raining and generally dreary, so a good day for me to get into Corel Painter Essentials. This came bundled with the Wacom Tablet I bought last year and I am just starting to learn this great little programme. Anyhow I grabbed a couple of photos and using the Impressionist Seurat Brush I turned them into paintings. I really think Seurat would have liked Corel Painter. I enjoyed creating light and shade and blending colours.