Hey, let’s have a planning meeting! What? Too much like work?

Fear not, this will be painless for you.

Last year I worked backwards from December with plans for an Open Studio in November and SALA in August – also an Open Studio. This year will be different.

SALA Festival (South Australian Living Artists’ Festival) is on for young and old every year. It is not always possible for me to participate, depending upon what else is going on, but this year I will take part again. This time I will show in two venues, both outside the studio.

A bonus for me is that there will be less tidying up of my own workspace. I actually wonder whether it is possible to over-achieve the tidying for an Open Studio. My difficulty is that it is such a small space that I need to prepare floor space and seating and make it safe for you to visit. But that’s for another time.

Back to planning for SALA. The first venue is the Rising Sun Hotel, Maylands where the RSASA is sponsoring a Women Portraitists’ Show. I have done many portraits in my years of painting but don’t feature it often as they are usually for commissions and gifts. For this invitational show, it is expected that we will exhibit an older piece of work (a favourite, not for sale) and one other of any content. My plan is to exhibit (for sale) a portrait of David Dallwitz, jazz composer and pianist as well as artist and teacher. David taught me to paint and these two portraits are in his style.

I will exhibit either one of these two but hoping for the first, the larger of the two paintings. As well as the portrait, my other choice is a painting of figures, to maintain the theme.

November is dedicated to another exhibition, this time for Mrs Harris’s Shop. Not at her shop in Torrensville this time but at her secondary venue. Cafe l’Incontro is in the very hip Gays Arcade in Adelaide city centre, just near T’Arts Collective.

The work shown there is still in progress. I am developing a series of outdoor landscapes. They will be either cafe scenes or Postcards from….

It is nice to have a plan that will evolve rather than be stamped out now! More fun that way. I hope you like surprises too!