An artist Interview with Kelli

My dear friend Kelli Nina Perkins, author of Stitch Alchemy, interviewed me on her blog this week. Take a look.

The Road to Palmerston North

The Rose City Quilt Guild of Palmerston North was responsible for booking and bringing me to New Zealand to give a lecture and workshop for their Quilt show. So I was very excited to start our drive south to meet the people who made all this happen.

One of the first stops Erilyn and I made on our 5 hour drive south was at Haka Falls. The water is the most gorgeous aqua blue deepening to teal as the river widens into a deep pool.



We had a variety of skies and weather as we drove south, from blue skies with fluffy clouds, to overcast and gray skies, then rain and rainbows, to low lying clouds obscuring the tops of volcanoes and then again to beautiful blue skies.

Obviously the pot of gold is right under that tree.

We drove through long expanses of countryside occasionally driving through small towns, where throwing a gum boot can be a big enough event to warrant a large corrugated metal sculpture as you drive into town.

We also stopped at The Wool Company where I bought a couple warm possum/merino hats and gloves.

It was a gorgeous drive.

Back to the easel??...

There are so, so many things to do when you buy a house. I feel like my brain is swimming with possibilities. I have not had the time to even think about painting over the last five weeks, and now suddenly it is back to it and wow, I feel kind of brain dead! It has caught me off guard, to be honest, and I feel like I want to do nothing......like I need a vacation after all that has transpired since March from looking for and buying the house, all the roadblocks with the purchase, packing, moving and unpacking. What I thought would be a jumping back to the easel Monday has been more like a looking at the easel, walking around it, pondering unfinished paintings and a kind of "lostness" over it all.

This past Friday was First Friday in Fredericksburg so Craig and I headed out to go to openings and visit local galleries. A lot of people were out and about and I did get to see a few local artist friends, but I was surprised that it did not motivate and inspire me to paint as these events normally do. So, I guess I will go with it for now.

To my horror Sunday, I saw the nesting robin sitting on bare wood under my deck. I found the nest on the ground with three little blue eggs laying around it. It was either the high winds or a predator, like a crow or squirrel. One was broken, so I put the other two back in and secured the nest back in place with picture wire and waited. She returned in about fifteen minutes and sat on them. Robins are really particular, so I was skeptical that the pair would stay tending the nest. Yesterday, while looking from above the deck through the boards and saw only one egg in the nest, so one was taken. I haven't seen the robins since, so it has been abandoned. Today, I am going to climb up and get the other egg out. I plan on putting a nesting shelf under there for next year.

I leave you with Patte Ormsby's work. I saw one of Patte's pieces ot the FCCA opening this past Friday and was riveted.

Waimangu

Another excursion I took was about a 20 minute drive over rolling green hills dotted with cows, sheep and deer from Rotorua.  Wai-mangu is a lushly forested gorge and is the worlds youngest geothermal environment, the only one created during written history.  If you click on the photo below you can read about how this area was created in the 1800's by huge volcanic eruption.

This is a silver fern frond, the silver fern is a national symbol for New Zealand and you see these beautiful trees everywhere.

The Echo Crater was filled with deep blue green water. The water has clouds of steam constantly moving  and making patterns across the surface.

This fast moving stream flowing from the crater lake and winding through the area looked very hot, I didn't dare touch it. I felt the rocks along the edge and they were very warm.

 

These sinter terraces were formed by hot geothermal fluids cooling as they flow over the ground.

The air is so clean and as a result the trees are covered with lichen. I have such a fondness for lichen after my years living in Austin, TX.

It was so interesting seeing the variety in shapes and colors.

Back in the Saddle

Every box is unpacked, the studio is up and in order and several hours have been spent working on a neglected yard. After a five week break from the easel, I will be back to it on Monday. I wake up every morning amazed that this is my house. It was a long and bumpy road for sure, but here we are finally. We back up to a forest and creek that dumps into the Rappahannock River. There was a ground hog in the yard this morning, robins have built a nest under my deck and I discovered a beautiful eastern box turtle living in the wild rose bush. My kind of place.
Thanks for hanging in there with me....I look forward to catching up with everyone......



The studio:

Rotorua

 I am actually back home now, from my fantastic trip to New Zealand. I loved every minute, it was soooo good for my soul! I was so well cared for by my hosts, I had warm and friendly students in every class. The air was so clean and fresh, the water so soft, I could move to NZ just for taking showers! and the colors of the landscape were so beautiful, I completely understand why New Zealand quilters use such colorful palettes in their quilts, glorious color is every where you look.

Things were so busy towards the end of my trip I didn't have time to write any blog posts so I will continue to share photos from my trip over the next week or two while I adjust to real life again and attend to the many tasks that have piled up while I was away. 

Across from my hotel in Rotorua were the Government Gardens with a gate of Maori design.

The Rotorua Museum in the gardens.

I love these bright red phone booths, this one is on the lawn of the gardens.

Beautiful spiral.

This is a Pukeko, a large iridescent blue-black bird with a red beak that you see every where in New Zealand usually pecking in the grass.

There were several of these Maori sculptures around an area with steam rising out of the ground. They had lovely paua (abalone) shell eyes.

The bush below is a Manuka (tea tree), these are prevalent as well and the honey that the bees make from it has amazing healing benefits. There are many lotions and skin products made with this special honey for sale in NZ. On our way south, my host from Palmerston North, Erilyn and I stopped in a shop in Taupo dedicated to Manuka honey products. There were loads of skin products, candies, special creamed honeys to eat, alcoholic and non-alcohol honey based drinks and they even had a tasting bar to try the liqueurs, mead and flavored honeys.

While in Rotorua Erilyn and I also went to the Polynesian spa just a few blocks from the hotel. This is the large lap pool filled with warm mineral water pumped from the geothermal waters below ground. The water is supposed to be very healing for a number of ailments.

There were a series of other small pools about 2 feet deep that each had a different temperature water, so you work your way around to progressively warmer pools over looking the lake. The warm sulphery mineral water was so incredibly relaxing.

This view from the pools reminded me so much of Sonoma county, California, specifically Salmon creek where I lived when I was a teenager.

On to Rotorua and Wai-O-Tapu

When I finished up in Auckland I took a bus to Rotorua, an area known for its geothermal pools. This area is quite a tourist destination, and for good reason it is fascinating, but now that it is fall and being off season it's pretty quiet. My hotel, The Princes Gate originally built in the 1890's, is in the heart of town a block away from the information center where I was able to arrange for buses out to several amazing locations.

On tuesday it rained all day, it was in the low to mid 60's and wasn't cold. Knowing my time was limited I headed out to Wai-O-Tapu (Sacred Waters) to see the geothermal pools anyways. What a feast for the eyes. With so much volcanic activity the ground is literally belching steam and boiling mud.

This mud is supposed to be incredible for the skin and you see it sold in many shops. The mud is so hot it is boiling out of the ground in bubbles and sometimes big splashes.

The next stop was to see the Lady Knox geyser blow with the help of a little soap powder sprinkled down the hole.

At Wai-O-Tapu the earth and water are colored from mineral deposits and is has so many different colors.

This large crater had warm steam rising off it and had a pretty strong sulpher-y smell. Between the steam fogging up my glasses and the drizzling rain covering them with water droplets, I had to take off my glasses several times because I couldn't see.

The color was amazing, such vivid turqouise blue and orange ocher, it made my heart go pitter pat.

 

This pool of water is really florescent green, actually day-glo, it is hard to believe it is naturally this color, but it is!