Sunday, September 30, 2012

A different wedding - different images

Yesterday afternoon Fiona and I attended the wedding of Fiona's brother Al and his partner Lorraine. It was a joyous event and gathering of families and friends. There must have been thousands of photos taken by a host of photographers including me - one of the benefits of digital technology.

Again I am sharing a few of the non-people shots I took at the ceremony and reception.

©2012 Barry Smith - Hope and love
©2012 Barry Smith - Stone cross
©2012 Barry Smith - Bouquet
©2012 Barry Smith - A scatter of petals 
©2012 Barry Smith - Fragment of the cupcake wedding cake 
©2012 Barry Smith - Reflected light
©2012 Barry Smith - Soft canopy light
©2012 Barry Smith - Garden light
©2012 Barry Smith  - Light on the "lolly table"
©2012 Barry Smith - Moonlight through the clouds
©2012 Barry Smith - Candle light 
Small reminders of the celebration of love and joy. All photos taken with the iPhone and none altered.




Friday, September 28, 2012

Wedding images

It seems to be the season for weddings. A few weeks ago we hosted a wedding at our place - mainly in our lounge-dining room and on our back deck. This week we are to attend Fiona's brother's wedding up here on the range.

Of course these events provide opportunity for people photos; but with the trusty iPhone one can capture a few other images.

We spent most of our day today travelling to and from Brisbane; and participating in a pre-wedding Tea Ceremony and lunch. Given the wedding season I thought I might share a few photos relating to the wedding on our deck.

©2012 Barry Smith - Wedding bunting at sunset
©2012 Barry Smith - Blue reflections on champagne glases
©2012 Barry Smith - Refracted light on the stone bench
©2012 Barry Smith - Reflection through glass on stainless steel
©2012 Barry Smith - A scatter of 'pearls and stars'
©2012 Barry Smith - Stars and a faint rainbow
As you can see not a person to be seen - but a few fragments that caught my eye. And not an image altered!!!!

Wednesday, September 26, 2012

Of clouds, artists and storms

This post will be a real potpourri as in it I want to share: some photos of the early morning clouds in the valley; photos regarding a fellow and emerging artists; and storms in the valley.

First the valley full of clouds. Fiona and I never tire of the happenings in the valley below and a few mornings ago the valley was just awash with clouds - in fact at one stage it was not possible to see the mountains below through the clouds.

© Barry Smith - Clouds fill the valley - stitched photos
I also wanted to share a few photos of postcards that Luthien sent me when she sent the peace piece called In Honour of.... The cards are beautiful and very Luthien - full of stories and a tad of darkness to add to the mystery.
©2012 Barry Smith - Luthien's postcards
©2012 Barry Smith - Luthien's postcards
©2012 Barry Smith - Luthien's postcards
The following photos are of 'works' by emerging artists Daphne and Pearl - two young daughters of fellow artist Shannon Garson. They visited early last Saturday and spent a good hour or more with me making various things including a leaf form cuff bracelet  a leaf form hair clasp (hair held with a twig) each (of course). They rewarded me with the drawings below; and the cup cakes which they helped their mum to make and ice. How good is that?

©2012 Barry Smith - Daphne's gifts
©2012 Barry Smith - Pearl's gifts
And we keep having a lot of brooding storm clouds that tend to come in the afternoon. I love the streaks of rain falling on the far hills. The naked photos of the storms are beautiful.

©2012 Barry Smith - Brooding storms across the valley
©2012 Barry Smith - Brooding storms across the valley
But I do get tempted to play - so a couple altered photos follow - just to further highlight the dramatic nature of nature. And I love how the iPhone's telephoto lens results in an almost pixel painting.

©2012 Barry Smith - Brooding storms across the valley - accentuated
©2012 Barry Smith - Brooding storms across the valley - accentuated
So you can see why the title of the post had to be called - of clouds, artists and storms ( and maybe a little iPhoneography on Wednesday).

Sunday, September 23, 2012

Preparations. people and new pieces

Friday seems so long ago; but fortunately the peace flags and peace weather-grams are still flying to remind me that it is only Sunday. It has been a big weekend.

Whilst only about 100 people came through our studio-gallery it was quite exhausting as folk were very interested and wanted to know quite a bit about what we did; and of course Fiona and I did share and did demonstrate stuff. And we did manage to sell a few bits and pieces - so all is good.

I managed to make a new tube ring before the weekend - see below.

©2012 Barry Smith - Tube ring - brass, copper wire and stirling silver  tube
©2012 Barry Smith - Tube ring - brass, copper wire and stirling silver  tube
Made a few more found earrings - couple of pairs sold.

©2012 Barry Smith - Found earrings
Made some more leaves - sold a few.

©2012 Barry Smith - Stash of medium sized brass and copper leaf forms
And today between folk visiting, and as part of the demonstrations, I managed to make a "simple-classic cuff bracelet thingy".

©2012 Barry Smith - Cuff-bracelet - brass, silver-plate and copper rivets
©2012 Barry Smith - Cuff-bracelet - brass, silver-plate and copper rivets
So it has been another rewarding art confirming weekend; and also made us very glad to that we live where we live and do what we do.

Friday, September 21, 2012

Of stone, fabric and peace

Today is International Day of Peace 2012.  This year amongst other peace related activities Fiona and I have joined Mary-Jane's Flags For Peace 2012 Project as a way of marking this day.

©2012 Barry Smith - Peace - a Peace in the Trees monolith
This morning we 'launched' our flags in our front yard. My flags are a little more traditional - pennant flags made by deconstructing the fabric of a rainbow umbrella.

©2012 Barry Smith - Peace flags fly proudly at 601 mvr (formerly an umbrella)
Fiona's flags took the form of peace weather grams - heaps of them which have been added to by people visiting our studio.

©2012 Barry Smith A tree of peace weather-grams on a cloudy peace morning
©2012 Barry Smith - Live peace weather-gram
Yesterday a working team of us from art4place installed the sculptures that make up Peace in the Trees at Maleny Retreat - fitting that we managed to get the installation in place the day before International Day of Peace.
©2012 Fiona Dempster - Installing Peace in the Trees
©2012 Fiona Dempster - Installing Peace in the Trees
©2012 Fiona Dempster -A peaceful leaf fragment
©2012 Fiona Dempster - A line of 3 of the 12 peace & nature sculptures in the trees
©2012 Fiona Dempster - A peace portal
©2012 Fiona Dempster - Radiating peace
©2012 Fiona Dempster - Love and peace
©2012 Fiona Dempster - Solace
We rounded off the day by gonging our peace bell.

©2012 Barry Smith - Peace bell rings peace across the valley and mountains
We hope that these little gestures might add to the ripples of peace as a way of travelling through this life and world.




Wednesday, September 19, 2012

Mountains, madmen and mornings

Spring is one of those beautiful but tumultuous times - full of new growth and promise but also flicking back into spots of winter. And it has been unusually dry on the mountain. We have had a couple of brief showers of rain over that last few days. The storm clouds over the mountains and valley below looked menacing yesterday afternoon but no rain.

©2012 Barry Smith - Storm clouds
On my walk on Monday when Fiona was off to circuit training I was surprised to see that 4 large pine trees in Treehaven Way had been cut down. Chris, one of the early morning walkers, said it was the result of an ongoing disagreement between three neighbours about drainage and water flowing through properties. Solution - not to dig a drain around the trees; but rather report it to Council and have them chop them all down. The madness of some men.

©2012 Barry Smith - The trees were similar to these
And now the stumps are marked with friendly pink indicating that they will be ground to nothing.

©2012 Barry Smith - The solution devised by 3 men
©2012 Barry Smith - A tree of many years - gone in a moment with a chainsaw
Thanks goodness nature and the morning offered other treasures such as the dew on the leaves and the delicate Dandelion flower seeds. But first a different take on those storm clouds.

©2012 Barry Smith - The eye in the storm?
©2012 Barry Smith - Dandelion fragility
©2012 Barry Smith - Dandelion fragility - altered
©2012 Barry Smith - Crisp clear dew
©2012 Barry Smith - Crisp clear dew - from green to purple
Nature does its best to rectify the madness of men. Because they photos were taken with the iPhone I could alter a few.