Sydney Theatre Co. and Archibald Prize

Hey everyone,

Well first of all I'm going to see Cyrano de Bergerac at the Sydney Theatre Co. in November and I'm excited because I haven't seen a live production in a while! The last time I went to the Sydney Theatre Co. was when I went to see Storm Boy (can't remember when, a year or two ago I suppose) which was excellent by the way. My grandma read me the book when I was little and the production was wonderfully done! So yeah hopefully I will like Cyrano de Bergerac. Richard Roxburgh is playing the part of Cyrano so I'm excited for that too. Hugo Weaving is doing Macbeth at the moment at the Sydney Theatre Co. and if it were anything but Macbeth I may have gone to see it. Unfortunately I have been put off Macbeth after doing it in English this year but to be honest I really didn't like the story of Macbeth regardless of having to write an essay on it. I found it kind of boring to be honest. Maybe seeing a live production would have made me enjoy it more but anyway... Macbeth is the first and only Shakespeare play I've read so I'm interested to read a few more Shakespeare in English in the next two years to see if there is one I like better. Yeah I've kind of had a bad start to Shakespeare but I'm going to remain optimistic.

Second of all, if you haven't gone to see the Archibald then go see it now! To be honest I actually liked the artworks in the Sulman Prize exhibition better but the Archibald, Sulman, and Wynne, as well as the Young Archie are all on display next to each other at the Art Gallery of NSW. So if you are popping by Sydney check it out! It's on until the 28th September 2014. If you can't make it there, see the finalist artworks on the website. If you do live close by do try and see them in person though, it's much better. I had so many favourites their were so many great ones! Oh and if you look in the Young Archie section there is a drawing by a 15(?) year old girl of her grandmother done in ballpoint pen and it is just AMAZING. If you don't know what the Archibald prize is, here is a short explanation from the Art Gallery of NSW website:
"The Archibald Prize is awarded annually to the best portrait, 'preferentially of some man or woman distinguished in art, letters, science or politics, painted by any artist resident in Australasia’.
This open competition is judged by the trustees of the Art Gallery of NSW. Finalists are displayed in an exhibition at the Gallery... Although it is a non-acquisitive prize, several of the entries are now part of the Gallery’s collection.
The Archibald Prize was first awarded in 1921. In establishing the prize, JF Archibald’s aim was to foster portraiture as well as support artists and perpetuate the memory of great Australians. Over the years some of Australia’s most prominent artists have entered and the subjects have been equally celebrated in their fields."

Also, I found two really great things recently. First of all, Codecademy. It teaches you how to use HTML and CSS and explains it quite simply through step by step, interactive lessons. The other website is Duolingo. It's a language site that teaches you languages like English, Spanish, French, Italian, German etc (and more coming soon) and is tailored specifically for whatever language you speak already. It teaches you in a way that gets right down to saying simple sentences rather than teaching you like you're a kindergarten.  It's really great, you can redo lessons and practice until you get it right. It is interactive meaning you get a hands-on learning experience by converting English into Italian (just an example), Italian into English, speaking Italian into a microphone etc. Plus it's free! So if you want to learn a language I suggest this site for you. And this is a personal recommendation because I too want to learn a language and learn HTML and CSS so I know that both of those things can be tricky but these sites are some, if not the, best I've seen. And if not that, then they are definitely the best value (they're both free!!).

And that's it.

Be happy, be grateful, be generous, be bold, be spontaneous, and have a wonderful day!

Jody

Finally finished Merida

Well, you may remember the Brave poster I drew back in April 2012, well I lost it at one point, then I found it, then I put off finishing it off. But today I finally decided to finish it because I didn't want to look back on it and regret not finishing it so maybe I'll get back into drawing again... If I can find anything I want to draw...

The scanner made it really really bright so some of the colours look a bit fluoro but oh well.

If you have any suggestions for me to draw please let me know either here, on my tumblr or on my twitter. Remember I drew this 2 years ago so my drawing skill may be slightly improved since then. Then again maybe not much. Even though I didn't execute the drawing very well I'm still proud of it since I don't often draw and I only started drawing in colour a few years ago.

I'm so sorry I didn't post any photos of the Easter Show and I haven't posted for ages but the longer I I didn't post the more nervous I got about posting as I'm sure if you are a blogger you can understand. Plus I didn't really have anything interesting to write about but hopefully when I've gotten myself sorted there will be more blog posts. And if it's any consolation, the Easter Show this year turned out to be not as fun as I was hoping for it to be. We ended up not going on many rides. It's really hard when your going with a large a group of people because everybody wants to do different things and sometimes you have to do things other people want instead of what you want. Anyway, hopefully the next time I go it will be more fun. Well anyway, on Sunday I went to a painting workshop at the Art Gallery of NSW held by painter Peter O'Doherty. He was very nice and even though painting isn't my strong point I still got through the day and had fun. Well I'm not a very good painter but here is one of the things I painted

Although I wasn't very good at it and I was in a room full of older women who were practically proffessionals in comparison, I have been inspired to do some more painting of my own and so this afternoon I bought some canvases and brushes and this weekend I'm going to get some more acrylic paints.

Well on the agenda for this month is a four week workshop at the Museum of Contemporary Art at Circular Quay. It is on Thursdays starting this week and I'm slightly nervous but king of excited at the same time. I don't know what we will be doing but apparently "Teens will experiment with unconventional approaches to expressing their creativity whilst applying contemporary techniques and concepts using a range of unusual materials" so I am slightly curious and nervous about that.

Then I've got Work Experience which everyone in Year 10 must do. Don't get me wrong I want to do it but I've been having trouble finding a place. I don't think I'll be able to find a place that is in the same kind of career path I'm thinking of for the future so I might just have to work at a local business which I don't mind it's just a shame is all.

Also, I'm excited for Maleficent which has come out now and I plan to watch it with my cousin. I don't want to get too worked up about it though otherwise I may get disappointed coming out of the movie. I will probably enjoy it more watching it with my cousin though :) What movies are you excited for? Do you have someone you enjoy watching movies and spending time with?

Fashion drawing by Hayden Williams

Anyway that's all from me, hope you've all been having an okay term. My half yearly exams ended last week so thank goodness for that. I hope if you are a student that you did okay in your exams or good luck if they are coming up! Other than that, be happy, be merry, be whatever you think you should be, remember, smile and the world smiles with you so lift your chin up and enjoy the day. Don't wish you had done things different, just do them now.


Lots of love,
Jody xoxo