Open Studio for South Australian Living Artists (SALA Festival)

During the modelling of the Mary MacKillop bust.

 SALA
The sculpture studio  will be open for all to visit and have a look around my studio, on Friday till Sunday, 11.30am to 4.30pm.
There will be wine and nibbles also available, so come and have a glass of wine with me and ask all those questions about bronze casting and modelling large clay pieces.
I particularly will be happy to have sculpture students attend.

I am soon to begin work on modelling a male soldier and female nurse for the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander War Memorial. This work is expected to take up to 5 months of modelling, before moulds are made for the lost wax casting at the foundry.

This new memorial has been many years in the project stage, but at last it is about to begin and will be placed at the Torrens Parade Ground, Adelaide,in the latter half of next year.

Banner  featuring my painting from Townsville.

I have been lucky to have been given the banner from outside the Perc Tucker Regional Gallery of Queensland, on which my painting of "Caitlin" was featured.
I am going to hang it from our balcony next week during the Open Studio Days.
The painting itself is going to travel to Mt Isa as part of a travelling exhibition to be shown in September.
I have also been trail running and walking around our local Adelaide hills and did my first night run with Tracy McColl famed for her endurance running of "The North Face, a 48 hour hour event in the Blue Mountains which she finished in 24hrs with team members, and also clocked up 131.6 km during the recent 24hr run event in Adelaide,SA.
Needless to say  we took it easy as I had not run at night in the bush before. It was a great run with eyes in the bush gleaming as the torch rested upon the Kangaroos feeding near the track.

Tracy during the ultra Yurrabilla 56k event in 2010

It was a great experience, thanks Tracy.

Mary MacKillop Feast Day 8.8.2012

Bronze and "CCB" busts of Mary MacKillop

This is a photo of the two types of busts I have produced.
The one on the left is a foundry cast bronze of Saint Mary of the Cross MacKillop.
The one on the right is a "cold cast bronze" in epoxy resin produced from the same mould.
The bronze bust is 1/10 of a Limited Edition Bronze.
This bronze is destined for a Catholic Parish Church in Curtin, ACT. It will be a memorial to the life of Carmel O'Meara.

The  (CCB) epoxy resin bronze is the second bronze being bought by a catholic primary school. The first one was sent to Mt Isa, Queensland and this one is going to Sunshine, Victoria.
This is also being produced as a Numbered Limited Edition aimed towards schools who cannot afford a true bronze.
Please contact me if your school would like more information about either bronzes.
My email address is jurol@bigpond.net.au.

We went to the Mary MacKillop Feast Day mass at St Francis Zavier Cathedral where a beautiful mass was celebrated and afterwards everyone from the congregation were given a carnation to place on the statue of Mary.
It was a lovely tribute to our first saint in Australia.

John and I with Mary MacKillop statue in Adelaide,SA

We were also invited to the Archbishop's House for the presentation of the miniature  bronze of the large statue to be presented to the Lord Mayor of Adelaide, Steven Yarwood, as Mary MacKillop worked in Adelaide as a St Josephite sister and was a fitting tribute to name her as a very special citizen of Adelaide.

Lord Mayor Steven Yarwood and myself with the Miniature bronze after the presentation

It was lovely to be thanked by both the Lord Mayor and Archbishop Wilson  as the sculptor of the large and miniature statues of Mary.