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.
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.”
Instead of my annual review of the year that’s been, I thought I would post a sneaky peek at what is on the horizon. The plan is as scary as it is exciting…
Some of you may be aware that I have spent most of the last 12 months working on music and writing songs (which goes quite a long way to explaining why there is no art retrospective this year). I will (I promise) be getting back to the painting but, for now, I’m perfectly happy exploring the rabbit hole that I’ve jumped down.
I am planning a sister site to The Art Cave* where I will keep track, so to speak, of the music side of things. There will also be music videos ~ which I have just started to learn how to create and edit ~ and I will be sharing the behind-the-scenes arty side of all of that here, using stills from the videos and also, eventually, album cover art too. It really is a special kind of happy place to be putting some of my songs together with some of the art I’ve created over the years.
*[Update: instead of having separate websites for art and music, I have decided to simplify things and keep them both on this website ~ so say “goodbye” to ‘The Art Cave’ and “hello” to ‘Anna Cull ~ Art & Music’.]
A promo image for ‘Anna and The Husband’ ~ don’t look for us just yet (we are, ourselves, still a WIP)
One of the video edits looked so surprisingly good that we plan to use a still frame as a promo image (above). It’s a combination of not-especially-good-quality video footage taken on a phone which I edited in Blender (and not in Affinity Photo or Adobe Photoshop as one might expect) with my 2012 ‘Sun Shadow’ artwork in the background. But more about that later… I’m getting a little ahead of myself.
Hands up anyone who has heard of Blender? I discovered it while looking for software to create a simple art animation that could be projected onto a wall. While Blender certainly can do things like that, it’s really a bit like using artist-quality oils to paint the side of a house ~ you can but why would you? Blender is a free, open-source 3D computer graphics software suite used in creating animated films, visual effects, art, computer games etc. It is not an easy application to learn. It is not intuitive. My previous experience with graphic design software did not help much at all (my oldest digital art files are dated 1/1/1970 but I suspect that should actually be 1999). Even though Blender suffers from ‘design by committee’ making it, at times, unnecessarily complicated, it is still absolutely fantastic and I am slowly, slowly finding my way around it.
Fortunately there are a lot of resources available for anyone wanting to teach themselves Blender. In fact there are so many, it’s hard to know where to begin. My research took me to a lot of different YouTube channels as I searched for something appropriate for an absolute beginner. The first tutorial I tried was Blender Guru’s famous donut tutorial but I found it frustrating because although it was teaching me some of what the software was about, it wasn’t teaching me what I was most wanting to know right now. So I tried a different approach and searched for cool-looking video tutorials that were not necessarily just for beginners…
Abstract Loop #1 is my first Blender animation ~ my thanks to Nik Kottmann for his tutorial (link below)
You can view all three of these animations on my newly created Moving Pictures page. Check out the Blender Daily tutorial for more info about this particular animated loop.
Organic SciFi Loop #1 is my second Blender animation ~ my thanks to Nathan Duck for his tutorial (link below)
My second animation tutorial was even more fun than the first. Visit the original Ducky 3D tutorial to find out about the process of making this organic sci-fi loop.
There are also a surprising number of free, quality videos available online for commercial use ~ but I feel like that is a whole ‘nother chapter which I will save for another day. Stay tuned and I will be posting updates on my music journey as well as any paintings which may happen during the meanwhile.
Thanks for reading.
P.S. I did return to and eventually complete the 16-part donut tutorial and I learnt a lot. Thank you Andrew Price a.k.a. Blender Guru.
I’m not sure how much I’ll be posting on WordPress over the next few weeks…
James (husband, best friend, bandmate etc.) and I have a regular gig now, playing covers at a local bar & eatery, and so I’m taking a bit of time out to update our website, social media, set lists and such. It’s very exciting and definitely comes under “careful what you wish for”. We haven’t ‘gigged’ seriously for three years ~ apart from open mics and house parties ~ and now suddenly we will be playing every weekend. Eeep! We played our first gig at Lu Lu’s a couple of weeks ago and had an absolute blast!
It just goes to show that you’re never too old to have a dream come true! : )
P.S. Yes, art will still be happening… once I get my head around the music side of things. In fact I had a bit of fun stencilling our name on to a road case…
P.P.S. If you want to read more about our band, I wrote about it here a few years ago and we have a blog here which I’ve just finishing updating with new videos.
Festival of Flowers event banner, Christchurch, 2014
As I mentioned in last week’s post, we’ve finally decided on a name for our duo. We’re now performing as Pavlova Paradise (more of a ‘dessert island’ than a ‘desert island’). I’m chief graphic designer, art director and publicist… I also sing and play egg ― oh and I’m now learning to play a Novation Bass Station II (a very cool synth). James is the rest of the band: vocals, guitars, drums, backing tracks, sound engineer and roadie. We both write songs and we LOVE harmonies. Most of our songs are covers but we do throw in an original from time to time.
Creating our logo was not the easiest project I’ve ever worked on (I place the blame entirely on the clients) but I got there in the end. The circle design is a stylised compass that also looks a bit like a pavlova (at least we think it does), and who doesn’t love pavlova!
Jamming at The Irishman, Christchurch – ink sketch, 2014
This is a sketch of my husband (a.k.a. my darling Diva) playing at one of our local open mic nights. The guitar is a borrowed vintage Commodore. Looking at this, I’m tempted to acquire one of those old standard lamps to add a little mood lighting to our gigs… which, by the way, are starting to happen in earnest this year. We’ve finally decided on a name for our duo, we’ve created a website/blog (on WordPress, naturally)… and good things are starting to happen ― but that’s a post for another day : )
For those of you who can’t wait until next week for the official post about me, my man and our music (ooh, that’s a good title)… here is a link to our new site, Pavlova Paradise.
My husband had a significant birthday this week. As some of you know, we perform regularly at a local open mic night. What is not widely known, however, is how much of a diva my darling can be when we’re learning songs. He is very talented. I’m in awe of his ability to hear a song, pick up a guitar and play it. Beautifully. Nonetheless, he is at times a DIVA — Demanding, Irrational, Volatile and Antagonistic.
So I painted this tee shirt for his birthday.
Perhaps I should add that he not only approved the design prior to painting, he also couldn’t wait to wear it to open mic night! Happy birthday, my darling Diva : )
Anna Cull ~ Art & Music 