What I'll be When I Grow Up!

  When I grow up I don't want to be a model, it would be tedious work! But it was fun for one afternoon to dress up in a huge wedding dress and ride my horse playing my violin! Today I've been modeling for my sister, Bianca. She is an amazing photographer and has some very beautiful work on her blog, go have a look at Luce Bianca Photography. I'll be able to share some of the photos she took of me soon. 

* * *

    On Tuesday I decided what I want to be when I grow up. I shall be a freelance travel artist! Doesn't that sound so exciting and adventuresome. I've tried looking all over the Internet for such a person but can't really find anyone who dose it. There are freelance artists, or artists who travel, but they never seem to all combine into one. My idea is to be just like a freelance travel writer only making pictures instead of words. But maybe there's no real demand for such a job because of photography. But photography is so common now, and just about every place in the world has already been photographed it might be something new to have drawings and paintings of places instead!

  But whatever the case, the idea inspires me and I will one day find a way of traveling and painting as a career, a way of life I should say, because obviously there's no money in it! I'm finding that chasing my dreams is really becoming addictive! Before I began, or had even thought of, The Art of a Hut project I would never have dreamed that so many dreams could really come true. I've now taken one step, the first step, towards following a dream, all of a sudden I feel it becoming a reality, and my dreams have become one step bigger. It looks like the rest of my life will be lived chasing dreams that just get bigger and wilder and more exciting and beautiful the more I run after them! I hope I feel the same after my first hut drawing trip, but even if I discover that tramping and traveling isn't for me, I'll still be dreaming bigger dreams than I ever did before. It's the dream - the journey - that is so exciting, not the destination, I don't know why, but it's true. So here's to traveling, for that is my biggest dream at this moment in time. 

How The Art of a Hut will become a reality.

 

Sketch of Cone Hut from photo by Shaun Barnett

   Now that you know what I'm doing you might be asking how I'm going to do it. Yes, I'm asking that too. Being a penyless artist I have no means at all to be able to carry out this ambitious drawing project. But nevertheless, I'm determined and we will be going away in November however we do it!

  We have been doing some budgeting and the main expenses are art supplies; essential gear such as proper sleeping bags so we don't freeze, a camera so that we can share the adventure with you through photos and videos; and food and fuel for Caleb's little dinky Toyota starlit which is going to be carrying us around the North Island. We have calculated the total cost of the project to be around $7,500 New Zealand Dollars.

  To raise such a sum our main idea is to find a few big sponsors for our project and to find them we are working on advertising The Art of a Hut project via newspapers and perhaps the radio and of course through blogger and facebook etc. (so please comment, like, share etc. it dose help!). We have also been emailing a few potential sponsors, haven't heard much back yet, but will keep you updated on that. We have been assured that DOC will help us with hut tickets at least, but we haven't heard from them yet. Waiting, waiting, waiting.... It's great fun!!

   If you would like to help us out in any way you can we would be so grateful as anything will help us achieve our goal and make this project happen. To make it fun, I'm going to have a draw which everyone who donates will automatically enter. The prize will be a gift certificate for a commissioned graphite or charcoal drawing of any size. The winner will be announced in October. 

                                                                                     

New Blog Design, and other news

    I spent most of today creating this! How do you like the new design, do you think it's better than the old one? I do, of course! I have also redesigned my website: equinefineart.net 

  Caleb and I have been working for the last month on ways to raise funding for 'The Art of a Hut' project. I am just a pennyless artist, actually I have more pennys than dollars at the moment! So that means we are going to have to raise money from somewhere to make this project possible. We have various ideas which we are working to put into action, involving newspaper articles, and radio broadcasts.

   The main thing at the moment is to make a video promoting our project to put on Boosted - a website based on public funding where people donate to help make projects possible. I'll post more about it later, but that's the general idea. The only problem with this is that I don't have a camera anymore! So what I've got to figure out next, how to make a video with no camera. I'll manage it somehow, necessity is the mother of invention after all...

 I am selling my oil painting 'Hot and Cold' on TradeMe at the moment. It's one of my favorite paintings which I took a looser approach too making it slightly stylistic/abstract instead of my usual realism. Hopefully something will come of that.