September Happenings in the Art studio...When Mia went M.I.A.

A huge welcome to every one that has signed up to my newsletter this last 6 weeks! Thank you so much for your support of my art journey. It's terrific to know there is such a lot of cheering from the sidelines. September has seen me well and truly M.I.A. Not Missing In Action, but very much missing inaction; as in doing nothing and not even thinking of doing anything. This seems to be my default setting when coming out of a busy exhibition period...its totally exhausting putting together an exhibition of work, with all the logistics of painting, framing, marketing etc etc in the lead up and then talking to hundreds of people in a condensed period of time, or in just one day as we had for The Perth Art Upmarket. My daughter was also very ill with acute glandular fever in the 3 days leading into the Art Upmarket. Thank goodness I was organised, as she spent a few days in hospital. She was then off school for three weeks. She's now in the count down to her final exams before finishing high school, so any semblance of normal routine has been totally M.I.A. too. Wowsers. Where did that 14 years go?? I think M.I.A has been the only course of action to cope with all this going on! Though my blog and newsletter have been neglected, my paintbrushes have slowly made it back to work. I've started a new series...still quirky, still whimsical, but paying tribute to our West Australian/Australian flora and fauna. We've been having an incredible wildflower season In Western Australia; fantastic winter rains have seen the best season in many years. Our wildflowers are incredibly unique and diverse and totally breathtaking during spring. Each day as I take my morning walk with my furriest studio muse, aka golden girl.gracie, I've been filling my phone with happy snaps of the plants we come across. We are very lucky to have some gorgeous walking trails close to our home that make walks feel like they are out bush, and not in the middle of the suburbs! A trip to Kings Park and Botanical Gardens on my mama's birthday, also saw my brushes twitching to capture all that beauty on my canvas. These paintings will be available as prints soon. Other happenings this month have seen the exhibition of Pup Art for Guide Dogs WA. Wow, that was a fun project! I'm happy to say that Pirate Pete sold for $1700 (100% donation to Guide Dogs WA) and Pirate Pete came in as runner-up for the People's Choice Award...narrowly missing out to a pup made by Visbility WA...An arts group for the Blind and Visually impaired. Well done them! We raised nearly $18,000 for Guide Dogs WA. Such an awesome result and thank you, thank you if you made a donation along the way. Every cent helps. September has also seen the opening of the Kalgoorlie-Boulder Art Prize. The theme for the 100yr anniversary of gold being found in the Goldfields was, can you guess? GOLD! I painted a tribute to our endangered marsupial, the Bilby and to Frederick McCubbin, one of our Australian Impressionists from the late 1800s. The art prize is open until 8th October, Goldfields Arts Centre. This painting is still available. The 70 Violins for 70 Years Auction is mid October. A number of high-profile artists and celebrities were given a violin to work their magic upon...another challenge to the old imagination, which such an unusual canvas. Wow, the ones I've seen so far are incredible...the sculptors especially really do think outside the box on these projects! Look up #70violins on Instagram and Facebook to tune in. Ha! My violin had beautiful touches of Gold and iridescent paint. If you are a Perth peep, the auction is on the 19th October. Details here. That's it for the exhibition diary this year. Im already painting toward 2019 now! How is this even possible? As we slide into Christmas, my prints are proving to be great gifts and I've already seen people getting in early with their Christmas shopping. There are quite a few lucky peeps receiving originals and prints under the tree this year! Remember to get in early, as I print on demand...stretching, framing and postage available world wide. I will be uploading a number of smaller originals to my shop in the coming days...watch this space! I have many originals for sale but not listed in my store, so email me with any queries. My new series will be photographed soon and uploaded in time for Christmas shopping. If you haven't done so already, sign up for my monthly newsletter, to read my art blog all in one convenient email. Follow me on Instagram to see the daily fun! Just scan this... Mia x