"The Road'...trip

No, it wasn't anything like that!!  Really!!  (For 

those who have, like I, just seen the grim movie "The Road" at the Open Air Cinema on Sydney Harbour, or elsewhere!)

My trip to Bellingen was wonderful, the course was great, & I was happy to have completed almost 15 paintings during the week, with inspiration for more.   Camp Creative, as the arts week is called, is an annual event sponsored by some very talented people in their own rights--patrons include classical pianist David Helfgott (whose life was the inspiration for  the movie "Shine" about 20 years ago) & best-selling author Bryce Courtenay.  I was privileged this week to see & hear both of them on 2 occasions during the week and was blown away by both of them.

The photos above are, in order, a post-card sized painting I did last year of  The Promised Land, a lovely area with a beautiful creek (Never-Never Creek, I believe it's called) running through it, near Bellingen, then a couple of Australian scenes I painted at the class, followed by a lovely green frog that is resident in my cousins'  power box on Mitchell Island, and a view of the Bellinger River towards Bellingen.  New South Wales is very  green and lush this year, at least the coastal areas, and it's a joy to drive through.  Even with my rose-tinted sunglasses, which tone down the green and enhance the reds, it's stunningly beautiful right now.

Many of the paintings we did this week were of European cities--Paris, Venice, Rome and a town in Scotland--which was an interesting and classy way to teach us and good preparation for my next trip to Europe.  Maybe I'll be showing my paintings in Paris some day.  I certainly plan to spend some time in Italy when my Sydney friend Di rents a villa in Tuscany there for 6 months sometime in the near future!

But, back to Australia--let's stay in the present moment for a while, shall we?  Well, a bit more of the past first--as on the way back here I stopped in at Umina Beach to see my cousin's husband there playing with his band, Stonefish, at the Patonga pub on Saturday night.  Were they ever amazing--so professional & great music!  They had all the crowd dancing until almost closing time with their 3 encores and the blend of covers from the 60s to 90s--rock, blues and funk.  I'm hoping to see them again before I leave--I think they have a gig at the Ocean Beach pub in Umina late February so will try to work that into my schedule.  I have really enjoyed all the talented musicians I've seen in the family over the last 12 months and am wondering how to start up with an instrument again myself.  They all have such fun playing together--Canada, US, Melbourne and the Central Coast.  Hmmm, food for further development.

Now I'm back in Sydney and intending to get back into some routine for a few weeks at least--including swimming, painting, writing and blogging--depending on what the weather brings each day.  So, since today is an absolutely gorgeous Sydney day & it's after 3 pm, I think I might head off to the beach to renew my acquaintance.  See you soon!