Saying Goodbye to Etsy

the artist's nails painted with bright green nail polish

November 3, 2025 | Anna Cull

After more than a decade of selling my paintings and cards on Etsy, I have now closed the virtual doors. The world is changing and I am changing too. Of course I will continue to paint and I will probably continue to sell art locally. I can be contacted via my Contact page for any purchase enquiries.

For those who may be wondering, the songwriting is also continuing. Our backyard studio is slowly being reorganised into a useable space and I remain, as ever, optimistic about it all.

“It may be that when we no longer know what to do,
we have come to our real work
and when we no longer know which way to go,
we have begun our real journey.

The mind that is not baffled is not employed.
The impeded stream is the one that sings.”

Wendell Berry

And because I needed some sort of image to post along with this announcement, I thought I’d include a photo of the only real painting I’ve been doing lately… The colour is Make Rainbows : )

Dear Reader,

a small sign of an electronic pigeon pecking at the ground with cars going past

June 24, 2025 | Anna Cull

And that was nearly all she wrote ~ a mere two words after five months of silence on WordPress and my computer just up and froze. It was a little tempting to leave things there for another five months but no, I’m still here trying to figure out what I want to say. Which is kind of the point of this post ~ to inform you that I am still here but that I have what I like to call blog fatigue.

This is not to say that I have been suffering from blog fatigue. Quite the opposite. Taking a break from thinking in headlines, editing images and tracking down interesting quotes has been bliss. Life on the other side of blogging has been a healthy mix of exhibiting at art shows, playing music and writing songs, catching up with friends and eating more than my fair share of homemade pizza.

I had been posting here fairly regularly since March 2012 and so it really was time to rediscover what life is like away from the social media treadmill. I also haven’t been on Insta since they changed from the square format to the not square format (which I do not like).

As far as returning to some sort of blogging schedule, I am undecided.

Pause.

Can you believe that I wrote that out loud and… nothing happened? WordPress didn’t cancel me. The lights are still on and the birds are still singing. Yes, blog fatigue is a real thing and I have it. Happily. I will no doubt make appearances online here and there from time to time. Also happily. But for now, I think I’ll just see what it’s like in the real world for a while longer.

Home. And happiness.

January 30, 2025 | Anna Cull

The first month of 2025 has been a strange mix of happy holiday memories of our Christmas in Melbourne (more on that in my next post), of summer colds that we caught just as soon as we arrived home in Christchurch (such a cliché), and of plans for art exhibitions and gigs that make us feel like we are finally (finally!) getting started with this new year.

The first of these events is this weekend at Arvida Park Lane in Christchurch and will feature the work of over fifty artists. Not only will you find paintings and drawings on show in a variety of styles from traditional landscapes, abstract art and contemporary portraiture, but there will also be jewellery, pottery and a variety of sculptural artworks available. The show is a cash and carry event which means that you can take the art you buy home with you straight away.

Arts Canterbury at Arvida Park Lane
1st and 2nd February, 10am-4pm
35 Whiteleigh Avenue, Addington, Christchurch

Then I’ll be singing with my husband as covers duo Pavlova Paradise at Little River Farmers Market on Sunday, February 16th and in Lincoln the following Sunday at the Selwyn District Council’s ‘Month of Sundays’ event.

As much as I really enjoyed our holiday (and I really did), it is very good to be home.

“Trees have long thoughts, long-breathing and restful, just as they have longer lives than ours. They are wiser than we are, as long as we do not listen to them. But when we have learned how to listen to trees, then the brevity and the quickness and the childlike hastiness of our thoughts achieve an incomparable joy. Whoever has learned how to listen to trees no longer wants to be a tree. He wants to be nothing except what he is. That is home. That is happiness.”

Hermann Hesse

It’s beginning to look a lot like…

December 17, 2024December 13, 2024 | Anna Cull

Sidney Slapstick (knitted 2002, photograph re-edited 2014)

Christmas ~ and as we are planning a very special reunion in December with family and friends we haven’t seen for ten years, it seemed appropriate to repost an image from ten years ago. So here is Sidney Slapstick (I knitted him in 2002 and he first appeared on my blog in 2014).

Have a wonderful Christmas holiday and a peaceful, healthy and creative New Year.

As good as a holiday?

October 9, 2024 | Anna Cull

It’s been a little quiet in the Art Cave lately. No new paintings, no new songs, not even a haiku. I’ve been spring cleaning (an extremely rare event in this house) and while the dusting and tidying has been strangely satisfying (and quite a nice change of pace given the flurry of painting activity in the first half of the year), it really doesn’t make for very interesting blog posts. But now it’s show time again.

I will be one of more than 70 local contemporary artists exhibiting at this year’s Artarama in Christchurch. Gala Opening Night is this Friday (tickets $25pp) and then it will be open to the public over the weekend (there is a small entrance fee on show days, with proceeds being donated to BrainTree Wellness Centre). Please visit the Artarama Facebook page for more details.

I will eventually return to the easel ~ I have a whole year’s worth of paintings planned which is quite exciting ~ but now that I’ve almost finished the house, I’m pretty sure I can hear the garden calling my name.

ARTARAMA
Gala Opening Night: Friday 11th October, 6pm – 8:30pm
Show Days: Saturday 12th October, 10am – 4pm and Sunday 13th October, 10am – 2pm
Cobham Intermediate School Hall, 294 Ilam Road, Christchurch (NZ)

A little surreal

June 12, 2024 | Anna Cull

More than six months in the planning and it’s finally here… and yes, it’s a little surreal.

Friends and family joined us for the opening last night, braving the near-freezing winter evening to see our art and hear our speeches (we did reward them with wine and nibbles). Everything I’ve painted this year is in the exhibition (plus a few paintings from last year) alongside work from the very talented Georgette Thompson and Della Goodinson.

Thank you Eszter Biczok and the Liffey for organising such a fab opening night. And thank you everyone who came along to support us.

Here are a few photos taken before our guests arrived…