Workshop with Mashiul Chowdhury

March was a bit manic.

I had an exhibition open and a workshop planned with visiting painter, Mashiul Chowdhury.who says I bite off more than I can chew?!!

The exhibition went smoothly thanks to the professionalism of all those who participated.

Two years ago, you may remember, I had invited Martin Campos to come and deliver a workshop. On the last evening of Martins stay, as we drank wine and watched the sunset,   he asked me who the next person I wished to invite to come deliver a workshop would be. I was a little caught a little unawares by his question , because I had not thought I would do it again! But  Organising workshops is the way I can contribute to my local creative community .The first person who came to mind was Mashiul. He and Martin draw the figure together at the PAFA alumni Saturday life drawing and are friends. Martin agreed with my choice and I gave it no more thought until 6 months ago we got in contact with each others...and THAT is how it came to be that I invited Mashiul to visit and deliver a workshop:Abstracting the Urban landscape.

Not only was Mashiul a brilliant artist, he is also able to teach what he means, explain what he does and why and deliver demonstrations that were incredibly accomplished over and over again. He came prepared with photographs, images, his sketchbooks, a projector and even some paint for us! He made dinner for my family twice and we now know how to make a really good chicken curry!!!

The workshop itself was fantastic but it was the post -workshop time that I appreciated most with Mashiul. Gaining insight into another persons philosophy of life and getting a brief interaction with someone who belongs to a different culture is fascinating.Mashiul has boundless energy. He works full-time as a Doctor and then paints every night from about 9 pm till 1 in the morning. He also uses his car as a studio and paints before he has to work from the car. His images of this abstracted urban landscape are the reason I invited him ( Plus Martin"s recommendation). But riddle me this......when the hell dos the man sleep?! He did (in one of our chats) let me know that he is a huge fan of power naps.

Its quite an experience hosting a workshop. I have written down the list of things that have to be done:

• identify the person from whom I wish to learn
• contact and invite them
• establish an idea of what the workshop will be about
• agree on a date and number on workshop attendees, their fee
• panic wildly as you run the sums.
• work out a rate for attendees that covers all your costs 
• work out thinks like catering and hire age of space, equipment required etc
• panic again.
• Make a pamphlet and start distributing it to all and sundry who might be interested
• book models if required.
• book space , if required
• create a few documents for the workshop. ie materials required, background info and links to youtube etc 
• continue to advertise
• work out menu if self catering or organise caterers( don't forget to ask early about food restrictions)
• continue to contact workshop artist to update on workshop progress.
• continue to keep interested partied updated 
• collect workshop deposits
• collect final payments
• organise airport collection and accommodation and transport for Artist
• make sure crockery, cutlery, mugs, beverages are all organised
• be host at the workshop and make sure everything runs smoothly
• protect the tutor and recognise if and when he needs assistance
• ensure the tutor rests adequately each day
• try to enjoy and engage yourself
• Pay the tutor fees and flights and anything else that is owed immediately.
• follow up with everyone a week after the workshop 

I will continue to do this because I love learning new things, meeting new artist (both have been much admired by myself) and opening the learning opportunity up to other artists in New Zealand and introduce "new blood" into the pool of influence.

I take a risk when I invite someone to come and teach . What if their work is good but they can't teach? What if their work is sublime and they are a total arsehole? What if they smell odd and have personal hygiene issues and I am exposing my family to a wierdo? What if..........?  

I host the visiting artist in my home and look after them well, I hope. It is for this reason that I rely on personal references and recommendations before I ask anyone to come and teach. Sometimes I feel very stalker-ish as I go about my research of individuals, but I have to get it right.

Mashiul and Martin both set the bar quite high, so I am very interested to see who follows them! They both endeared themselves to my boys by making a feast for them!! 

Now, there are no pictures on this post because..........I have a new laptop and I have not organised my photos . So , although there ARE lots of photos in existence, I don't have any on this contraption. Opening my shared photo file is like opening Pandoras box. So I am just avoiding that issue at the moment until I'm ready for the fight.

I shall post some next time, sans writing, to balance this post out.

It may be in May. April is looking a bit antsy too.

Four: A walk through of the exhibition

With thanks to Laree Payne, Director of Weasel Gallery and Holly Marie Russell for photographs.

I wish I was a better person.

I wish I was a better person, but I am not. Im too busy, too disorganised and too easily distracted to keep it together to make this blog regular and timeous. But lets be honest here, if you heard from me regularly, you'd find me a wee bit tiresome, so maybe this is a better arrangement.

Ive had this post it not stuck to my computer screen .

Its been on so long its about to fall off, but let me run through them.

Blog. Well, this is it.

Exhibition:
Yes! An exhibition. It's titled FOUR.

Key points are
When: 14 March -6 April
Where: Weasel Gallery, 260 Victoria street, Hamilton
opening event : 14 March 5-7 pm
Sneak peek : 13 March 11-4 pm

Ok, why FOUR? Sounds a bit Enid Blyton ( and  there's a bit of that in there too) but there are four of us exhibiting. Four different mediums and four different approaches to work. We met up once a month to talk about the works we were producing, critique some pieces and generally nut out the details of what we wanted to show and what we needed to keep quiet about. Four went on walks around lakes , walks along rivers and we all agreed that walking and talking is better than just talking.

This is us.

This is our work

Please come!

Whanganui and road trip needs it's own boo and I will get round to that. I can read my own handwriting for the last one. Feel free to email me ( jennie@jenniedegroot.com) if you can transcribe that scrawl and I will write a new post-it note for it!!

The secret to happiness

The secret to happiness is....to lower your standards.

There.

I've said it.
Now its not a secret anymore.

Let me elucidate on that point. I'm not saying you should just give up and stop washing your hair, I mean LOWER YOUR STANDARDS FOR WHAT MAKES YOU HAPPY.

You know what makes me happy? Time alone. Time with my family. Time with my friends. Time to walk the dogs. Time to take time to cook a meal. Time to paint what I want and when I want. Enough money i don't have to worry about paying bills and making the mortgage repayments. Good Health. Good mental health. Opportunities and a bit of adventure. Someone to introduce me to good books and good music. Nice food.These are my indexes and I know they makes me happy.

At no stage in this list did you read about me wanting to win the Lotto, lose 10 kg, become famous , have lots of stuff and be envied.*

Win Lotto? I did! I married an awesome guy whose funny, kind, smart, sexy and thinks I'm too good for him
Lose 10 kg? I did! About 14 and 17 years ago when I had two , healthy babies.
Famous? Hell Yes! Strangers say hello to me often and compliment my work .(this includes Instagram and Facebook!)
Have lots of stuff? I donate regularly enough  to the charity shops to know I have enough stuff and I never want for art supplies. I have two of everything.I own 15 pairs of identical pumps in a variety of colours.

Are you getting my point? Where is YOUR standard for happiness. I am not suggesting this is an immovable goal and by setting the bar so low you offer yourself no incentive. Precisely the opposite. Set the bar at a reasonable level that you know you might be able to achieve and then, once you have achieved it, celebrate that success and see if you are still happy. If you are, set the bar a bit higher and see if that still makes you happy BUT you still have to achieve your initial standard.
When you are happy, everything else in life is easier.

Here's my take on it

• Time alone? I get up earlier than anyone else. I walk the dogs. I switch the phone off. I stay at home. I say no to invitations. 
• Time with my family? I get up earlier to spend time with my husband before the kids get up and before school. We eat dinner together every night. We plan holidays together. I watch them play sports.
• Time with my friends? I make arrangements, standing or impromptu. 
• Time to walk the dogs? I see it as thinking time and time to myself. Two birds with one stone!
• Time to take time to cook a meal? Not every night, Josephine! I plan one languid meal a week, usually for a sunday.
• Time to paint what I want, when i want? Studio hours are 8-3 , daily. That is a lot of time to paint.I take the weekends off. Sometime my weekend is in the middle of the week.
• Enough money? yes, but not stupid money. If we want something, we have to save for it. We drive secondhand cars and always have. We save and budget for holidays.
• Good Health? Everything in moderation, including moderation.  I yoga 2 x a week and a HIIT workout at home 3x a week. I cook from scratch and drink moderately. 
• Good Mental health? I surround myself with good influences, I don't drink when I am down, I exercise and I am mindful of my thoughts.I employ someone to clean my house once a week
• Opportunities and a bit of adventure? I manufacture these. I don't wait for them to arrive. I ask for what I want. If I want to learn, I chase the learning.
• Introductions to good books and good music? Yes, I have people for those! (thanks Michelle and Stef)
• Nice Food? Well, I am in charge of the shopping list and So I make it so. I buy the good chocolate and have less of it. Quality always wins over quantity.

Those seem like pretty average standard but I achieve each and every one of them and it makes me happy.   Recently, my lack of organisation has left me feeling anxious and disorganised me is not a pretty me. So I have begun organising all my computer files into folders, deleting old stuff and leaving only relevant documents and images on file. I went through my email and deleted and organised it so that emails from 2015 were no longer lingering in my inbox and had a folder!!! I have extended this to my house and am in the process of getting rid of stuff I don't need or want. 

I am spending the few days between Christmas and New Year organising and planning my year, setting goals and evaluating my standard and seeing which need tweaking( not many, I will tell you. Maybe the dog walking one needs to be more often) and questioning relevancy and possible additions. It might look something like : establish a weekly administrative filing /deleting/sorting practise. I shall look at choosing a time later in the day  and later in the week, so monday starts fresh. 

So, whatever 2019 holds for you, try lowering your standards ,join me in the practise and seek out happiness for yourself.

This, for example, is one of the opportunities I have created to learn with a fantastic painter from Philadelphia. I have wanted to learn from him for a few years and he has wanted to teach and travel. So he is coming to New Zealand to visit and teach and I am getting to learn from him.

Happiness!

 

*I would be lying if I said I never thought about those things but that is the "dark days, 2 am , lost and scared"kinda thinking that I banish as soon as I recognise what it is. Unhelpful and anxiety based.

Round and round we go

It is the tradition of two of the galleries I work with to host Christmas exhibitions that feature most of their stable of artists , all painting on the same size and shaped board.

Here are my submissions

Gallery De Novo

www.gallerydenovo.co.nz

Take a trip1,2 and 3

And at Muse Gallery in Havelock North

www.museart.nz

See what I mean? You can imagine a wall of these ,  like baubles on a tree.

I do love a round . The round shape forms part of the composition in a much more overt or conscious way, quite unlike the rigid rectangle or square. The rounds suggest that anything might be plausible. 

Skew Horizon? Totally legit.

Perspective all wonky? Totally legit.

Proportions weird? Totally legit.

See why I am partial to a shape that encouraged oddness? Total legitness.

Workshops and November and podcast and painting the walls

Studio time has been a little fractured , recently.  This is not a bad thing but not ideal either.
Here is a list of things that have kept me from working over the last few months( in no particular order but clearly the more annoying will be written first)

• injured ligament on painting hand
• getting the whole house double glazed
• painting the living area walls, architraves and doors
• child writing exams
• child learning to drive and needing practise and avoidance of study time
• spring...garden plant grew monstrously and quickly. I gave that fight up pretty quickly
• moved studio around

The shining lights from the above experiences are 

• that the boy can now drive by himself and is a good, solid driver. 
• the walls look fresh and the house looks updated
• the house is both warmer and cooler on the right days
• the bees are excited I no longer mow the lawn
• my administration no longer distract me from my painting

The hand, unfortunately, is still bloody sore and will need more rest to recover.....right now, acupuncture is my friend. 

I also decided to teach a workshop or two and really enjoyed the experience. I wanted to teach a course that I would have wanted to take when beginning to paint! The premise is an introduction to contemporary oil painting materials ...... describe what oil paints are, what mediums are and how they influence style , tools such as brushes, palette knives and spatulas , substrates , varnishing and basic studio safety and setup.

The next workshop will be around colour...and there is going to be MUCH colour mixing!

I really enjoyed the process of caring what I know and I met some very cool people, including some creatives I had only met online! Meeting them in person was very special and they jumped in , boot and all, with such enthusiasm that the day flew by before we knew it. 

Mark got very into the pthalo blue...and it loved him back!!!

I am so pleased I advised wearing old clothes!!! Linda was liberal green all over!

Di Tocker and I at the David Lloyd 10 year anniversary show...with our works!

Glazing 

part of a larger painting

The very lovely Sarah Nathan and Mark Hamilton

The dangerous placement of cups near paint!!!!

My painting at the David Lloyd Gallery

I also exhibited in two group shows. go SMALL at The Framing house and The 10th anniversary exhibition at the David Lloyd Gallery.

My painting the Framing House 

I am now off the paint more walls, because it seems the painting is never finished in this house! I listen to podcasts as I paint. John Dalton-Gently does it is a goodie( for painters) , Breaking Art with Jason Naylor is great to listen to local creatives making their way in the NZ art scene and Jesse Mulligan on Radio NZ....because his is such an interesting variety interviewers, subjects and music !!!!

If you are keen to participate in any of my workshops, please let me know by emailing me jennie@jenniedegroot.com. Workshops are $195 per person and include a lunch, tea and coffee .

Class sizes are small and are in my studio in Ngahinapouri, 5 minutes drive south of Hamilton.

..and now we are five.....oh!

I turned 50 last week.

There was a time, at 39, when I did not think I would see 40, so I am pretty chuffed to have made it to 50!

I am not a big one for parties, big celebrations or surprises .(Dear God. My worst ever would be a surprise party.I want to hide just thinking about the notion)

Di and Annemarie know my I am surprise adverse, but  laid claim to the day and told me that they would organise a "mystery day out" and I was to" wear street clothes and shoes you can walk in". Seeing as I have no idea what streetwear is and all my shoes are flat, I decided to dress as normal and wing it. Good call.

Heres how the day went:

8:30 am Collection from home. Give presents of beautiful studio tea mug and soup mugs(handmade in Whanganui by Ivan Vostinar) and luscious hand cream( for painters hands!)

9:00 Breakfast at Suburban Kitchen in Cambridge and onto a trip up to Sanitarium hill. Established ages ago as a TB convalescent hospital on top of the hills behind Cambridge with stunning views over the Waikato . Daffodils, tui's, snowdrops and cyclists all converging at the top at a surprising new find.Cool. Down the hill and we dropped in on a joiner friend of Annemarie who built a house that looks like it belongs in a fairytale book. Made with love, peppered with stained glass windows and bespoke joinery and an amazing view...from the outdoor bathtub!

10:00 Then off to meet Adrian Worsley in Te Aroha for a private tour of his gallery and studio. Holy Crap. What a place! Go and visit(phone and see if its open but make a plan and go) We had a great time wandering around his curated collection of scrap metals and then into his workshop to see his studio. The man has vision.
Then he took us to view his house that he had rendered in local stone and blew our minds once again with his attention to detail. I don't think he ever sleeps!

12:00  Wallace Gallery Morrinsville was the next stop to see the exhibition of husband and wife artists, Tim and Tracy Croucher. It was a good exhibition and lovely to see so many examples of their work, side by side. I could have happily walked off with a few.

13.30 Back to the Tron for a salad Lunch and then to catch a movie at the Lido. Wings of Desire has been remastered and was showing at the film festival. I last saw it in 1988!! I profess it puzzled me when I first saw it ,  but viewing it all these years later, I realise I did not have the life experience at that time to understand all the angst that was portrayed in this Wim Wenders movie. Beautifully shot (the usual Wime Wenders full immersion to a vision), it was an eye opener for me as it portrayed Berlin, 2 years before the wall came down. That seems like another life ago. Last century stuff ...and yet, I was witness.
17.00 Off to Freit gallery for the opening of Spa Garden, another exhibition by Tracy Croucher! Different subject matter but the artist's hand is very clearly Tracy's.

Home at 18.30 for Thai takeaway, courtesy of Charles!

That's a helluva birthday!!!!!A great day, no wild surprises , just lovely surprises and of a calibre that left me grateful that I could still BE surprised !! Thanks so much, Di and Annemarie!

Me, age 4 or 5 and 50.