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The tram lurched and took off with a jolt as the four of us clung on for dear life to whatever we could manage to grab onto in the shoulder to shoulder crush of the late afternoon peak hour commute.

It was a rainy cold winter afternoon in downtown Melbourne and business as usual for most of the other commuters. But not for we out-of-towners who had scrambled aboard the tram at the very last minute after chasing it [arms waving] down Swanston Street!

You have to understand the mirth with which some of our southern cousins might view we Queenslanders… to fully appreciate how gallingly colourful we may sometimes seem. They don’t call it the Sunshine State for nothing… and Queenslanders can be annoyingly cheerful at the best of times. Maybe it’s all that sunshine… or maybe it’s just that we stayed out in it way too long. Either way… Melbourne can be cold and dismal even in summertime… but if you hang around here on the street in the middle of winter you might seriously turn to stone… or bronze… or something… ? Well look it does happen [chuckles]

Finally on board… we then attempted to do business with the newly installed ticket machine at the door to the carriage.

After swiping and re-swiping the barcodes on our All Day passes with absolutely no luck at all…I looked around the sea of black coats and bored faces for someone in the know… a conductor maybe?

Nope. Not a chance. The lights were on here but [clearly] no-one was home.

Long dark sullen faces stared empty eyed into nothingness. Hmmm… this was a tough crowd!

Just then the tram lurched forward again and took off down the street like a crazy freight train from hell. Giggles erupted as we struggled to get a foothold and catch hold of one of those silly swinging handles that always seem to be so infuriatingly just out of reach!

You know the ones.

“It doesn’t work… they haven’t hooked ‘em up yet” came a deadpan voice from the deep.

Contact!

At last some good old fashioned person to person human interaction [grin]

The couple seated in front of us had been watching blankly as we struggled with the ticket machine. [You know? We Queenslanders are generally pretty good at swiping barcodes... we do it all the time at the supermarket and occasionally it does actually work!]

Nevertheless it was comforting to know that at least public transport was on a par between the States and that the operational ticket machine [the one that actually worked] was in fact located half way down the fully packed carriage and nigh on impossible to get to. Some things are universally the same wherever you go.

“Gosh.. thanks for that” [I think]… we replied attaching a grateful smile.

The tram lurched forward again as we quick-stepped back and forth [just knew those ballroom dancing lessons would come in handy for something someday] I began to wonder why we hadn’t just taken a taxi… but I guess… where on earth would be the fun in that?

By now the three ringed circus that was “us” had attracted more than it’s fair share of attention on the tram and a lively banter between a whole bunch of newfound friends was now underway on the evening commute.

Suddenly the lights were on and [absolutely] everyone was home!  [Which just goes to show that people really do enjoy a good circus]

Before long the conversation turned to a number of things including [which planet did we say we were from again?] and [what on earth were we doing here?] in Melbourne.

Which brings me to Mollie’s Exhibition Opening.

Mollie is a schoolfriend and a hugely successful Ceramic Artist. She works in the finest porcelain and her work is totally awesome. A group of us meet once a month for coffee… and the opportunity to come to Melbourne for Mollie’s Exhibition Opening seemed like a good idea back in the warmth of tropical November. It was high summer… and the thought of wintertime anywhere was pretty appealing!  So we booked our flights.

Pan Gallery Melbourne

“Which stop?” came the next question… before a rush of offers from a whole bunch of people to pull the string for us at the appropriate stop. It seemed in that moment that the whole tram had a vested interest in getting these four women to their final destination on time and on task [or maybe by now they just wanted to get us off their tram!]

But the offer to pull the string couldn’t have come at a better time… for although we had managed to get on the thing… none of us had any idea how [or where] to get off it!

Suffice it to say we made it off the tram with comparatively less fuss than when we got on. We did however step down into four lanes of peak hour traffic in the middle of Lygon Street. But that’s another story altogether.

The exhibition was a huge success by the way… with red spots all around. Mollie was pleased. And so were we.

Melbourne is a wonderful city!  It is exciting and fun… and more reminiscent of a city in Europe than Australia. I had to remind myself more than a couple of times that I wasn’t sipping coffee in a bistro beside the Seine. Which could perhaps have just been wishful thinking… but… nonetheless [grin]

In the few days we were there we managed to put a rather large dent in an extraordinarily long list of totally interesting things to do… including a visit to the the National Gallery of Victoria… and the Melbourne Museum to see the awe inspiring Titanic Exhibition It was so well done.

It turns out I survived the sinking… [though I did come home with a cold] The Boarding Pass assigned to me was for a mother and her two small children who travelled in Steerage so I was greatly relieved when I managed to find their names on the final list of survivors in the Memorial Gallery. The exercise of assigning names to each visitor to the exhibit really puts a personal slant on the experience… not to mention a vested interest in the outcome.  So glad I survived!  Somehow kinda knew that I would tho [grin]

Another highlight was a visit with the infamous “Chloe” who now resides in the upstairs Lounge at the Young & Jackson Pub on the corner opposite the clock at Flinders Street Station. We happened by there late one afternoon… just as the sun passed over the yardarm. Perfect timing!

Chloe

Chloe was thought to be too scandalous for public exhibition in the National Gallery when she first arrived in this country in the late 1800s [despite having won the Gold Medal of Honour at the Paris Salon for the artist who brought her to life Jules Joseph Lefebvre] and so after being tossed from pillar to post for a number of years… she was finally relocated to the Pub across the street from the National Gallery in the early 1900s. Personally I think she’s just perfect and can’t imagine how anyone could think ill of her…

Tragically… the real Chloe died soon after this painting was made. It was said that she died for love… and the tragedy could be compared in theatrics and tone to the demise of Modi’s Girl – Modigliani’s wife and muse Jeanne Hebuterne – which is also [of course] another story.

The true beauty of Chloe is that she didn’t really die at all that day. She has lived on in the hearts and minds of everyone who has come to the Young and Jackson to see her there. And I am happy to report that Chloe can still be found [to this day] overseeing the daily doings in the splendorous warmth of the upstairs Lounge.  She seems to be happy enough about that… [grin]

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Feeling UPULAR

April 30, 2010 · 7 comments

I was feeling a bit down in the dumps the other day and then I met Pogo and it was all UPULAR from there!

Take a look here and you’ll see what I mean…

Pogo is an emerging electronic music artist in Perth, Western Australia. He is known for his work recording small sounds from a single film or scene and sequencing them to form a new piece of music.

I defy anyone to stay down for long after seeing and hearing this. Enjoy! Love to all… x

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La Belle Femme

February 14, 2010 · 12 comments

La Belle Femme 1Artwork & Images © 2010 Jean Burman

I fell in love with Sweet Addiction the first time I heard it.

It was a couple of days before Christmas… and La Belle Femme was in the early stages of conception. I had received a commission for a large nude painting in landscape format. So not being someone who does things by halves… I decided instead to paint three! [I know... I know]

As I was sketching out ideas… and deciding on how I would approach the series… this piece of music dropped into my email inbox via Facebook. I had it playing in the background on my laptop… and listened to it over and over again. I never tired of it. Before long I was completely beguiled by the sound. It was indeed a “Sweet Addiction” [grin]

La Belle Femme 3

The making of the Music…

Sweet Addiction was created by Daniel Marolla… a young man who is definitely going places! He created and recorded this piece of music one afternoon in mid December using [keyboard drums and base guitar] an Mbox and Garageband… then shot his video for You Tube from the built-in camera on his laptop and edited it in Final Cut Studio. If all that sounds like double dutch… well… don’t worry. Just listen to the music… it will speak for itself!

The making of the Art…

The first in this series was initially a commission. The paintings were relatively large for watercolour at 76cm x 38cm – [that's 30" x 15"] with the figures approx. 1/2 life size. It was so much fun working wet into wet in the initial stages… just allowing the paint to flow and directing it where I wanted it to go.

It’s fast… it’s fluid… it’s free and wow… you just gotta love working in watercolour!

Willow charcoal of course… adds another dimension. It’s a style I have been working on for a couple of years now especially in figure and life work.

La Belle Femme 2Artwork & Images © 2010 Jean Burman

The pics were taken on my humble little Panasonic Lumix and assembled as a slideshow in iPhoto. I purposely kept the photos edgy and a bit blurred by movement with [perhaps] some “debatable” degree of success!

And of course… iPhoto is no precise science but that’s about the extent of my techie expertise at this time. I am however willing to learn.  Note to self: Get Final Cut Pro… there has GOT to be a better way!  [Grin]

By the time the three paintings were done… the music had weaved it’s incredible magic into them all.

Consequently… what you hear and see here is the end product of an [unintended] creative collaboration between paint and music. It was entirely unintentional of course.

Daniel could not have known that his music would so happily “belong” to these paintings that afternoon in December when he brought this music to life!  He was afterall on his own creative tangent … and the paintings did not [as yet] exist!  But somehow… still… the paintings and the music seemed strangely made for each other!

Enjoy the clip!  Let me know what you think… leave a comment here!

For availability of original artworks

and to see more… contact

Jean Burman Galleries [click here]

La Belle Femme – Artwork & Images © 2010 Jean Burman

Sweet Addiction – Music © 2010 Daniel Marolla

All Rights Reserved

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My Grandmother would have described it as a “dirty day”…. and I can’t think of a better way to describe the miserable rain we endured this morning as artists from “all over” trudged dutifully into the Tanks Art Precinct for the third day of ArtEscape.

Southern artists must have been wondering where the heck they had escaped to… as the expectation of a warm and balmy “Winter School in the Tropics” dissolved into a quagmire of mud… and dripping downpipes.  At least the rain was warm... and the wet feet and frizzy hair didn’t seem to dampen the creative spirit!

Mercifully the sun peeped through around lunchtime… and the humidity dropped just enough to allow some of the wet media to dry.  It’s been frustrating… waiting waiting waiting for pictures to dry so that we can continue working on them.

I got a wet “derriere” sitting here this afternoon waiting for my ride home!

Classes started in earnest with our small group applying our burgeoning abstraction skills to painting a life model.  I love life drawing… so this was nothing new… except that this time round we were expected to look beyond the figure to abstract shapes and opportunities to exploit newfound concepts and techniques.  It was hard.  There is always the tendency to revert to what we already know.

 

 

You can see the inescapable watercolour influence here…even in acrylics.

Here I enjoyed the spontaneous approach to mark making

… and  that something of the “spirit” of the sitter was captured in both these 3 minute poses.

This was rather fun too… using a print making approach. I loved the white… but no surprises there… as a dyed-in-the-wool watercolourist! LOL

Madness clearly setting in… as “newspaper” is prepared with acrylic gel varnish by a fellow artist!

The crowd gathers for a discussion of “those who’ve passed this way before us”

Followed by a fuller discussion of more complex processes

The well stocked on-site shop for all supplies Art related.  There is virtually nothing these guys can’t or won’t supply! LOL It’s a great place to meander between bouts of inspiration.


 

Ingrid Douglas – official photographer extraordinaire and talented award winning artist

whom I also managed to capture the day before…

capturing me! LOL

Thanks Ingrid… clearly your photographic skills far surpass mine… no surprises there… I hope you will forgive me?  :-)

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