A cow sighting

I met this gorgeous black Angus cow on a farmstay holiday inland from Kiama. Her name is Sandy - a legacy from a cow that lived on the farm at an earlier time* - she was obviously not named for her colour! When we met her she was calmly munching on grass in a bright glade surrounded by trees and stood very still and let us brush her coat. Her bull calf huddled close by her. This pastel piece I did of her was shown in the Hornsby Art Prize exhibition over the weekend.

Sweet Sandy - Pastel on paper

*In fact there is a childrens story book about the original Sandy who heroically found her way home after sold to a farmer in a far away town.

I went along to the opening for the Hornsby Art Prize with L (P was singing in church that night) and we had ourselves a few adventures. After wandering around looking for my work and trying to take it all in, with L dashing in between the tables of nibblies and myself, I managed to lose L for a short while (I was distracted by the paintings don't you know) then found him a short while later racing around with one of the volunteer ladies looking for me. He told me he nearly cried - poor love!

We voted for our favourite artwork - L liked one of autumn leaves - he has a good eye for colour and pattern. I couldn't decide between a red tinged painting of bare trees and one of the works earmarked for an award - a small work titled 'Backyard Barbecue' which was impressionist in style, with lots of textured paint, high key colours, but somehow just captured the mood and light and the poses of the people really well. 

My friend M also had a jewel-like coloured print (not sure if I am describing it properly) titled 'Fallen' on show which put me in mind of a medieval illumination or stained glass window and was very clever with an apple fallen out of a tree, next to an outcast from the garden of Eden who was in black and white, while the apple and the garden were all in colour.

Then I nearly fell up some steps (how silly that sounds - you would think in the normal course of things one would fall down stairs, not up!). L inadvertently dislodged a painting from the wall - luckily only on canvas - not in a glassed frame. We tried out some fruit punch - L was not a fan - too many 'bits' - though he had a monopoly on the corn chips.

We hoped to hear the speeches and the awards before we left but we only had an hour before we had to pick P up so we didn't get to find out who the winners were - although we had a clue from the generic award labels that were next to some works. I was just happy to have my work hung in the show and be a part of the buzz.

Oh - we did get our bags of goodies - according to L the most exciting item inside was the two-ended purple marker! I was glad to see a copy of the Art Almanac - which lists upcoming prizes for artists. I'll have to go through and mark some for next year methinks!