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.

Catching up

Erin

I have not been blogging for a while but there has been plenty going on.
The painting of Erin got through to the second round of judging which will be the finalists for the Doug Moran Portrait Prize . It would be wonderful to be a finalist in such a big Art Prize but I will be content to have got this far.
This painting was done about February / March this year. Erin said she would pose for me and I asked her if she would pose in a silly hat that she was fond of wearing , so this is the result.

So this is my gymnast in a serious mood and she thinks I have a good likeness of her.

My other granddaughter, Caitlin was painted before this one. Caitlin is in the middle of her last year at high school and has been hard at work with her art projects as part of her final year's work and I am very proud of her work ethics as she has been working all this time and getting all her assignments in on time.

Erin, my granddaughter at Nationals CompetitionErin

Team SA Level 7 Erin 2nd back

Erin after finding out she has made the finals late Monday night.

Erin Stephanie and Maja made the finals after round 1 competition.
 Erin scored 46.525in the first meet and then backed her score on Wednesday evening with 48.025 to complete the championships with a total score of 94.550 and came 24th Nationally and top scorer in South Australian team.
Her best apparatus was Vault  and scored 12.4 both evenings and placed 13th nationally.
Her favorite apparatus is Uneven Bars where she scored 12.025 and 11.3 .

Erin at National Gymnastics Competition Level7

I booked a flight to Sydney to see Erin compete at the Nationals tomorrow .
Her parents and 2 cousins will be there and so will I.

Erin, 1st overall, level 7 Gymnastics SA

Erin at Gym Competition.SA

SA State Team Level 7 in Sydney

Erin and Carla holding teammate.

Showing off and excited in Sydney for the Nationals.

We picked up Erin from school in the city and took her for her last massage,yesterday,before she and her teammates fly to Sydney for the National Womens' Gymnastic Titles next week.

Over the last two months South Australia have had four Competitions and they have been trials for a place in the state team to compete at the Nationals.
Out of the four competitions, at level 7, Erin placed 3rd overall, and placed 1st overall in the last three. so she hopefully will do well for South Australia.
 Three girls made the state team from her club "Tea Tree Gully" and she was especially pleased when her best friend Carla also made the team.
They will be watching the Olympic tryouts for this year's Australian team tonight so I'm sure they will be inspired.
Their competition will be Monday evening and the finals will be Wednesday night, so "good luck"and enjoy the experience.

Tea Tree Gully Level 7 Team with  StateTeam Trophy

Kangaroos and Casts

Work began yesterday on the second cold cast bronze bust for the Mary MacKillop Primary School at Sunshine, Victoria and the wax is also ready at the foundry for a  memorial in a parish church at Canberra, ACT.

I should soon be working on a new project of a sculpture of aboriginal soldiers to be cast in bronze for Adelaide, SA. I hope this will start in June this year and will give me work for 4-5 months.

Meanwhile I am enjoying painting and also getting out on a few trails.

I did the Pioneer Women's Trail a few weeks ago which begins at Hahndorf in the Adelaide Hills and climbs up steeply over Mt Lofty and down to Beaumont in the suburbs and is a 26 km trail that in the early days of colonization,  the Pioneer women walked their wares to sell in Adelaide.
I teamed up with a couple of other walkers and took 5 hours 25 minutes to complete.

My friend Cathy and I will be out tomorrow to walk another steep hill, Chapman's Track. We usually get out walking bush tracks  once a week and I go out another morning per week.
Last week we were out and came across two groups of kangaroos in the bush and the week before I sighted a Koala in a gum tree. It's a great feeling when you come across native animals on our walks.