A Little Lino Cut

This lino cut print is of the old railway yard in Glen Innes, NSW, as it was in 2007. The railway had ceased to operate many years before but still had an old train on the overgrown tracks. The train is no longer there. I sketched it in plein air and mad a lino cut from the sketch.

A short while ago I had a message from a gentleman in East Otago, New Zealand. He had bought a lino cut in a community market in Goulbourn, NSW ten years earlier and wanted to find the artist. Somehow he tracked me down to tell me how it suited his old 1907 cottage and how much he loves the print. Needless to say he absolutely made my day.

#linoprint#GlenInnes#GlenInnesrailway

Hunter Valley Highland Games

Yesterday I visited Saltire Estate Winery for the belated occasion of the Scottish Highland Games in the Hunter Valley for 2025.I will go anywhere to hear the sound of the bagpipes! It’s the first time I’ve seen the caber being tossed (or dropped) and I was surprised to see a couple of women having a go. How about this photo that I took? and also this one of the lassies doing their dancing.

There were lots of booths selling things and I bought a tablet (homemade Scottish fudge) and a couple of cute tins of shortbread with pictures of wee doggies playing the pipes on them.

The day was scheduled for August but was postponed because of flooding so in late November it was a properly hot Australian Games.

#Saltire#Highlandgames#Huntervalley#saltireestate#cabertoss#scottishcancing#bagpipes

Yengo

Mount Yengo is just 2 hours from Sydney. It is sacred to the Aboriginal people of the area, Darkinjun, Awabakul, Wonnaruah, Kamilaroi. According to legend Baiami, the father, created the world and when he finished he jumped off the mount into the sky, flattening the top of the mountain as he went.

I enjoy volunteering at The Little Yengo Gallery in Wollombi. It offers local Aboriginal artists a chance to display and sell their artworks. As I sit here I can look across the road to St. Michael The Archangel Chapel, built in 1840, and also The Forge, an antique shop where you can find almost anything. Motor bikes roar past and line the street in front of the Tavern that I can see at the end of the road. I can also hear the sound of Aboriginal clapsticks and didgeroo from the TV showing Wollombi’s 2018 Corroboree.

#MtYengo #Yengoartgallery #Wollombi #artsandcrafts #volunteer

TODAY IS SAXOPHONE DAY

Adolph Sax was born on this day in 1814. Thanks to him, in 2013 I was able to find an old school saxophone that had been left under my stepson’s bed when he left home. Just the thing! I wanted an instrument that would allow me to join a band and play with other musicians (after years of learning piano).After many squeaks and squawks I managed a few tunes and optimistically joined a wind orchestra. I discovered that keeping in time with other musicians was another art entirely.