I’ve had a nice run recently. I submitted my nine piece Meerkat Montage to the annual exhibition of the Society of Animal Artists (being held right now in New Jersey) knowing that they only take a small proportion of the entries. I was delighted when I got accepted and even more delighted when they informed me that the art was further selected for their smaller travelling exhibition which is a massive honour for me. As such, even if it doesn’t sell over there, I won’t see it again for well over a year as it goes from one side of the States to the other. As such I couldn’t resist so I booked a ticket and will be flying over there with my wife Gaynor for the artists opening. We will be staying with our friend and most amazing artist Cathy Sheeter (check her work out – http://www.aphelionart.com/) and then we’ll have a holiday in New York City and be tourists.

I also won a highly commended award for my bonobo “Pan”  up at the Mcgregor Art Extravaganza in Queensland. I’m glad this has finally won an award because it’s one of my favourite pieces and being large, it took me forever to finish.

And then to top it off I’ve just won the scratchboard section in the Nossal Art Show in Victoria with “Temptation”, Meerkat and Grasshopper.

I’ve finished my solo exhibition for SALA (South Australian Living Artists) which is always fun and I’ve also been conducting workshops. When I go to schools I like to pass a small scratchboard around and get everyone to contribute to it. Hence the following two scratchboards have input from over 50 kids, about two minutes each. Their styles are so totally different and of course not everyone follows the fur direction or works out the light. We are talking about some kids being less than ten and when I was that age, I didn’t know which end of the pencil to hold so it’s understandable that the results are a bit “all over the place”. I then use the boards to show how forgiving a medium scratchboard is. I spend no more than 30 extra minutes on it with a bit of diluted ink and a fibreglass brush and the difference is massive. That’s what you get when you use the best boards in the world (made by Ampersand). The finished boards, (on the right) are darker because they’ve been varnished.

Who doesn’t love a meerkat!!