Latest / Reframe / 04 - Kathy Karas: A lifetime of ART, EXPERIENCE & FUN

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04 - Kathy Karas: A lifetime of ART, EXPERIENCE & FUN · Reframe

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_03: Have you ever wondered what truly fuels a creative mind?
• 0:04
  SPEAKER_03: What ignites their passions and drives their creativity?
• 0:07
  SPEAKER_03: G'day, I'm Dean McGuire, an Australian fine art photographer.
• 0:10
  SPEAKER_03: From the moment I stepped into the world of photography, I have been captivated by the community and the stories behind the lens.
• 0:16
  SPEAKER_03: Join me as we delve into humble beginnings, explore artistic visions, and discover how we as a collective reframe our minds through the power of creativity.
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_03: Before we dive into this episode, I'd like to give a quick shout out to the incredible team at Nisi Filters Australia.
• 0:30
  SPEAKER_03: Nisi offers world-class products like high-quality filters with minimal colour casts, an impressive range of cinematic lenses, and various other accessories to fuel your creative endeavours.
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_03: Missy Australia actively supports the greater photography community through workshops, educational events, and live streaming webinars on YouTube and other social media channels.
• 0:52
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• 0:58
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• 1:06
  SPEAKER_03: Visit missyfilters.com.au today.
• 1:09
  SPEAKER_03: Thank you and welcome to Reframe.
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_04: On this episode, we speak to a fabulous Ilawarra artist who touches on 50 plus years of experience in industry.
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_04: This begins with their first sale ranging through their exhibitions during their art career and then on to international workshops.
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_03: Welcome to the show, everybody.
• 1:42
  SPEAKER_03: Hope you're having a great day.
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_03: Today we're talking to Kathy Karas.
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_03: Yay, Kathy.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_03: Welcome to the show today.
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_04: We're really pleased you could come and like super excited to hear your stories today.
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_04: So how's your day been?
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, pretty good, thanks.
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_00: I've been cleaning up the studio, which always it's just an ongoing job.
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_04: You can never clean up an art studio.
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_04: It's an ongoing work of art itself.
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_00: As I say to my husband, if it's a clean studio, there's nothing happening.
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_03: It's not cleaning up, it's just making more space for other works.
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_03: Well, that's true.
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, exactly.
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_00: I I've got to clean it so I can get in there and do something else.
• 2:19
  SPEAKER_03: That's right.
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_00: But yeah, that's been my day.
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_00: And then just coming to see you guys, which is such a lovely privilege, and I thank you very much.
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_03: The honor the honor is actually ours to have you here talking with us today.
• 2:30
  unknown: Thank you.
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_04: I remember seeing your work in um uh Terror Gallery in Kayama, and that that's where it it put put your name in my head where I was like, we have to get Kathy Garris on the show.
• 2:43
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, thank you.
• 2:43
  SPEAKER_00: That's that's just so lovely.
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, yeah.
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_04: I guess um, so let's let's go back to what uh got you into art.
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_04: And I know it's been I think you have a long art career.
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's like I have had a very long art career.
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_00: Um so I guess, you know, from a child I was, you know, always painting and drawing and uh all of that.
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_00: And then when I got into high school, I thought, great, surely, you know, I can get into an art class.
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_00: That it's just my dream to do that.
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_00: And um it was my well, it wasn't uh luck, I was unlucky, that those years that I was there, they didn't have an art class or an art um section in the school.
• 3:33
  SPEAKER_00: So I was a bit disappointed.
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and so I had to talk uh to the teachers, and they said, well, maybe we can get someone to come in on a Saturday.
• 3:43
  SPEAKER_00: So um they arranged to uh an artist to come in on a Saturday for all those, you know, kids who were missing out on art.
• 3:52
  SPEAKER_00: And it happened to be uh Joan Meets, who was a very well-known artist in the area at the time, and she was a surrealist artist and quite well known.
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_00: Uh there's actually been, she's passed away now, but um there's been an exhibition in the Wollagong Gallery of her works, and they're just you know really up there.
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_00: Uh so I gained a bit of experience that way, and then that only lasted like for a term.
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_00: And then, you know, nothing.
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_00: So there was nothing for me then.
• 4:25
  SPEAKER_00: So then um my mum found uh um an ad in the paper for a Saturday class at TAFE.
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_00: So uh I went along to that for a while, and that only lasted a little while as well before it stopped.
• 4:40
  SPEAKER_00: The funding probably ended, as these things do.
• 4:45
  SPEAKER_00: And uh so then um I was just on my own again, just you know, sort of doing my own sort of artworks, and um there wasn't much um encouragement in the school to go further with that, if I'd have had a bit of encouragement of where, you know, maybe to go to art school or something like that.
• 5:08
  SPEAKER_00: But I never did.
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_00: So I'd um my parents had a decorating business and they said, Oh, well, why don't you come and do the you know the colour consulting and all that sort of thing.
• 5:21
  SPEAKER_00: Well, it wasn't really art, but I learned a lot about colour.
• 5:25
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, uh, which was great.
• 5:27
  SPEAKER_00: It was a good grounding.
• 5:29
  SPEAKER_02: Yep.
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_00: Uh then um yeah, so time went on.
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_00: Uh dad closed the business, uh, I got married, um young, 20.
• 5:41
  SPEAKER_00: So um, and then a few years later started to have children.
• 5:45
  SPEAKER_00: So I didn't do much art through those years until the children were at school.
• 5:51
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_03: So You would have been busy, that's for sure.
• 5:54
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's very hard to paint when you've got and and I know a lot of artists who do still paint when they've got babies and children are you know all credit to them to be able to do that.
• 6:07
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so then we moved to Jambaroo and I was feeling quite lost, so I just enrolled in a little community art class and found the passion again to do it.
• 6:22
  SPEAKER_00: So um so I started painting again.
• 6:26
  SPEAKER_00: That was uh in the 90s, and um the the craze was for more craft type art.
• 6:34
  SPEAKER_00: So I started that and um was invited then along the way to uh sell my work uh at fairs that were the big kind of fairs like in uh Sydney Town Hall.
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_00: Oh wow, um Hobart Town Hall, uh on the Gold Coast and other places, Melbourne.
• 6:58
  SPEAKER_00: So I got to travel a bit more.
• 7:00
  SPEAKER_04: Where did that impact come from?
• 7:01
  SPEAKER_04: And it has also come to that existence.
• 7:03
  SPEAKER_00: Uh I started um selling at a little shop down in Bury.
• 7:07
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 7:08
  SPEAKER_00: Um and called Bellissima, and it was just a little homewares shop.
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_00: And um I'd go in there every now and then, I'd see a bit of art on the walls, and I'd think, oh, they must be real artists if they've got their art on the wall.
• 7:24
  SPEAKER_00: I went in there probably every week for about six months and till I plucked up the courage to ask if I could put some art in.
• 7:34
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_00: And as I was, they said, Yeah, sure, yeah, they were lovely.
• 7:38
  SPEAKER_00: And they said, Oh, sure, um, come in, uh, bring a few pieces in so we can have a look.
• 7:44
  SPEAKER_00: So when I bought them in, there was another lady in the shop and she said, Oh, what's this?
• 7:49
  SPEAKER_00: And they said, Oh, this is our new artist.
• 7:52
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, bring some work in.
• 7:55
  SPEAKER_00: And she said, Oh, well, I'll buy them all now.
• 7:59
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, thanks.
• 8:02
  SPEAKER_00: Like straight off the bat, that's on the hill.
• 8:05
  SPEAKER_00: I couldn't believe it.
• 8:06
  SPEAKER_00: I was just blown away.
• 8:08
  SPEAKER_03: You've got more at home if you knew.
• 8:10
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I'm I'm thinking, no, I've got to get home now and do some more.
• 8:13
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 8:13
  SPEAKER_00: And that person who bought uh that work actually worked for a magazine.
• 8:21
  SPEAKER_00: She lived in Bury, but she worked for a magazine that um organized these fairs around the country.
• 8:28
  SPEAKER_00: So that's how that started.
• 8:31
  SPEAKER_04: That's how I'm believable.
• 8:33
  SPEAKER_04: That is so cool.
• 8:34
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I mean, this is just circumstances.
• 8:37
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 8:37
  SPEAKER_04: How how long ago was that?
• 8:39
  SPEAKER_00: This is about 95, 1995.
• 8:42
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 8:43
  SPEAKER_04: Wow.
• 8:43
  SPEAKER_04: Well, do you reckon that was the beginning of your art career?
• 8:47
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it was.
• 8:48
  SPEAKER_00: So here I am, you know, thinking, you know, I'm not a real artist because I haven't got the piece of paper that, you know, says an art degree, all this sort of thing.
• 9:01
  SPEAKER_00: And yeah, how dare I sort of, you know, venture into that?
• 9:05
  SPEAKER_03: But that's a big thing back.
• 9:06
  SPEAKER_03: Like, I I I know, like, we're quite young as well, but I mean, no hearing from a lot of um people from that generation that were um painters or artists or photographers, that was the thing.
• 9:17
  SPEAKER_03: You had to go through the processes.
• 9:19
  SPEAKER_03: When you're a photographer, you had to go through and become you had to be an assistant or you had to go to art school.
• 9:25
  SPEAKER_03: Same with painters.
• 9:26
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 9:26
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah.
• 9:27
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I mean, looking back, I wish I'd had that opportunity.
• 9:31
  SPEAKER_00: I would have loved to have had that opportunity.
• 9:33
  SPEAKER_00: But it just didn't, you know, present itself.
• 9:36
  SPEAKER_00: And I didn't even really think about it.
• 9:38
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know why I didn't think about going to art school.
• 9:42
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 9:42
  SPEAKER_00: But it just, I don't know, I just left school, um, married young, and which I don't regret that either.
• 9:48
  SPEAKER_00: That was a lovely time and all that.
• 9:51
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but as a career, it wasn't sort of put forward that that's something I could do.
• 9:57
  SPEAKER_00: But I always had the love to do it.
• 10:00
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, always the passion and the love to to create.
• 10:04
  SPEAKER_00: So um, yeah, so anyway, that that went on for quite some time.
• 10:09
  SPEAKER_00: And then I think about 13 years or something, I was doing that.
• 10:13
  SPEAKER_00: Wow.
• 10:13
  SPEAKER_00: You know, going to all these fairs.
• 10:15
  SPEAKER_00: And um then after that, that's kind of petered out.
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_00: They stopped doing those.
• 10:22
  SPEAKER_00: And um, that was when eBay became big.
• 10:26
  SPEAKER_04: Okay.
• 10:27
  SPEAKER_00: So I opened an eBay store.
• 10:30
  SPEAKER_04: Oh, remember the eBay days where everything was on there.
• 10:33
  SPEAKER_04: It was like the first Etsy.
• 10:34
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, quite before that.
• 10:38
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 10:38
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 10:39
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 10:39
  SPEAKER_00: So before having before online stores were a thing, I was doing it already.
• 10:47
  SPEAKER_00: So, and I was turning over something like$1,000,$2,000 a week.
• 10:53
  SPEAKER_00: Fantastic.
• 10:54
  SPEAKER_04: Especially back then.
• 10:54
  SPEAKER_04: That was that was a lot of money back then.
• 10:56
  SPEAKER_00: It was a lot of money.
• 10:58
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 10:58
  SPEAKER_04: That was like a tight, that was a tight-tier wage back then.
• 11:01
  SPEAKER_04: You spent that money there, you were like it, right?
• 11:03
  SPEAKER_00: 2005.
• 11:05
  SPEAKER_00: So um, yeah, so I did that.
• 11:08
  SPEAKER_00: Uh I was going quite well with that and sending work all over the world.
• 11:12
  SPEAKER_02: Wow.
• 11:12
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, the dream.
• 11:14
  SPEAKER_02: So yeah.
• 11:15
  SPEAKER_00: So for me it was, it was just, you know, amazing and blown away again that I could do that.
• 11:21
  SPEAKER_00: So uh then I I sort of got a bit um with that type of work.
• 11:26
  SPEAKER_00: It was more craft style of work, and I had a yearning to do other work.
• 11:32
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 11:33
  SPEAKER_00: So um I did it, I went to a workshop with um Suzanne Warwick, a Kyama artist at the time.
• 11:41
  SPEAKER_00: She lived in Kayama, she's moved away now, and she is an oil painter.
• 11:47
  SPEAKER_00: And um so I did my first oil class with her, and I was just hooked straight away.
• 11:54
  SPEAKER_00: I thought, yeah, I'm back.
• 11:56
  SPEAKER_03: No, this is the best.
• 11:58
  SPEAKER_03: You know that moment, don't you?
• 11:59
  SPEAKER_03: Caffy's asking when it's again.
• 12:01
  SPEAKER_00: Cathy's back.
• 12:02
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah, so then she said, Oh, you know, you're really quite good at this.
• 12:09
  SPEAKER_00: She said, Um, I've got a little uh a group of artists, we're all women, and um, we go away painting plain air.
• 12:17
  SPEAKER_00: And I thought, oh, what's that?
• 12:19
  SPEAKER_00: You know?
• 12:20
  SPEAKER_00: And uh she said, Oh, well, we just go out, you know, we go all around New South Wales, we pick a weekend every now and then, and we go outside painting.
• 12:29
  SPEAKER_00: And I thought, yeah, that appeals to me.
• 12:31
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah, I'll climb in.
• 12:33
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, let me do that.
• 12:34
  SPEAKER_00: So um I joined this group of about uh, I think started off about five or six artists, and it grew over time.
• 12:42
  SPEAKER_00: So we went away painting uh Safala, Hillend, um uh the Blue Mountains, um, down the coast, Jervis Bay, uh, Norahead Lighthouse we stayed at, and all of these lovely places.
• 12:59
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, just just enjoying that time with like-minded people and you know, talking about art and what's going on in the art world and you know, getting out there.
• 13:11
  SPEAKER_00: And a lot of the others were so experienced that I learned so much from them, you know, about you know, paintings so and and everything.
• 13:19
  SPEAKER_00: So that was great.
• 13:21
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah, it went on from there.
• 13:23
  SPEAKER_00: And then teaching has never sort of crossed my mind of things to do, but um increasingly people were starting to ask.
• 13:34
  SPEAKER_00: Um you know, I had a bit of work in some galleries and uh they were doing quite well.
• 13:40
  SPEAKER_00: And um people started to say, Oh, what else do you do?
• 13:44
  SPEAKER_00: And they'd come around and they'd say, Oh, you know, can you teach me?
• 13:49
  SPEAKER_00: And I said, I'm not a teacher, you know.
• 13:52
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, that's funny.
• 13:53
  SPEAKER_00: No, no, no, no.
• 13:55
  SPEAKER_00: So that was on for quite a few years.
• 13:56
  SPEAKER_00: And then 2013, a group of friends got together and said, Will you please teach us to paint?
• 14:10
  SPEAKER_04: We want your skills, Captain, hand them over.
• 14:13
  SPEAKER_00: And oh, I said, Oh, okay.
• 14:17
  SPEAKER_00: You've twisted my arm.
• 14:18
  SPEAKER_00: All right, okay then.
• 14:20
  SPEAKER_00: Um so first little class was at um a community place at uh hall at uh Albion Park.
• 14:29
  SPEAKER_00: And um I think I started off with about six people turned up, which I was amazed at, honor, yeah.
• 14:36
  SPEAKER_00: So um, and I was so, so nervous that I was painting at these and I couldn't look at them.
• 14:45
  SPEAKER_00: So I'd be painting at these or or drawing, start off with drawing.
• 14:50
  SPEAKER_00: And I'd be I've never had a problem with painting and drawing and talking at the same time.
• 14:55
  SPEAKER_00: I know not everyone can do that, but that's I like doing that.
• 14:58
  SPEAKER_00: I say now I'm gonna do this and now I'm gonna do that.
• 15:02
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm doing it at the same time.
• 15:05
  SPEAKER_00: And um so I'm facing the easel, and they're all behind me, and I'm in a cold sweat as I'm doing this.
• 15:15
  SPEAKER_00: I'm seeking the colour.
• 15:16
  SPEAKER_01: I can relate to it.
• 15:18
  SPEAKER_00: You could hear a pin drop, and I thought, oh, they're hating it.
• 15:21
  SPEAKER_00: They absolutely hate it.
• 15:23
  SPEAKER_00: Anyway, halfway through I I had the courage to turn around, and all I could see were all of these six pairs of eyes, bright and shiny, like hanging on every word.
• 15:36
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 15:37
  SPEAKER_00: And I thought, wow, you know, what have I been doing?
• 15:42
  SPEAKER_00: This is just fantastic.
• 15:44
  SPEAKER_00: And um I just felt like um what I was doing was really worth something.
• 15:51
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 15:51
  SPEAKER_00: You know, it was really not not in money terms, but you know, what I could give.
• 15:57
  SPEAKER_00: I thought, well, if I can sort of give that, that's and it and help someone else, that's great.
• 16:03
  SPEAKER_00: So that little class ended up being about um three classes a week.
• 16:11
  SPEAKER_00: At one stage I was doing three classes in a day.
• 16:15
  SPEAKER_00: So morning, afternoon, and night, and I just then I was exhausted, so I couldn't do that.
• 16:21
  SPEAKER_04: So I it would be exhausting trying to teach that many classes in one go.
• 16:26
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
• 16:26
  SPEAKER_00: So I spread it out and I had three or four classes through the week.
• 16:30
  SPEAKER_00: I was invited to teach at the Chamber Arts Society, uh, different venues up and down the coast, and um up at Robertson at the Shack, I did a workshop up there and then that went on to um painting in the vineyards days, where we'd take bus groups to the viney the local vineyards down near Berry and uh had painting days, which were so much fun.
• 16:58
  SPEAKER_00: Um then everyone says, Oh, what's next?
• 17:01
  SPEAKER_00: So, okay, uh friend bought uh um place in Kangaroo Valley that was set up as a retreat.
• 17:07
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 17:08
  SPEAKER_00: So I did retreats there, probably every couple of months.
• 17:11
  SPEAKER_04: Wow, this is insane.
• 17:12
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, but you just like whatever it's insane.
• 17:17
  SPEAKER_04: I tell you, there's this like this I'm thinking of like it's like an onion, right?
• 17:21
  SPEAKER_04: And it's like what I knew about you before now, and I still don't even know everything.
• 17:26
  SPEAKER_04: I'm just like, it's the never ending onion layers of it's like amazing.
• 17:31
  SPEAKER_00: And it's not until I sort of really start to write down in a bio what I've done that I think, oh gosh, did I do all that?
• 17:40
  SPEAKER_00: You know, but it's been such a fun time.
• 17:43
  SPEAKER_00: It's you know, it's been fantastic.
• 17:45
  SPEAKER_00: So um then um, what did I do then?
• 17:50
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, then everyone's saying, Oh, yeah, and oh gosh, wouldn't it be lovely to go overseas and paint?
• 17:56
  SPEAKER_00: You know, and I'm thinking, yeah, I'd love to go overseas and paint.
• 18:00
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I don't know if I'll ever get to do it.
• 18:02
  SPEAKER_00: And and then they'd they'd start to get all enthusiastic about it and say, well, why not?
• 18:08
  SPEAKER_00: So eventually I did the first overseas tour to Italy, Tuscany, no uh, Venice.
• 18:20
  SPEAKER_03: The peer pressure for you.
• 18:21
  SPEAKER_03: There's no peer pressure going there, mate.
• 18:23
  SPEAKER_03: It's beautiful over the overall.
• 18:25
  SPEAKER_00: I'll I'll never forget walking out of the train station at Venice.
• 18:29
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 18:29
  SPEAKER_00: It was just like being in a movie.
• 18:31
  SPEAKER_00: Did you get lost?
• 18:33
  SPEAKER_00: I did.
• 18:34
  SPEAKER_00: I don't usually get lost anywhere.
• 18:37
  SPEAKER_00: I've got a compass in my head.
• 18:40
  SPEAKER_00: I don't usually get lost, but um Venice, yes.
• 18:45
  SPEAKER_03: I'm just exactly the same.
• 18:47
  SPEAKER_03: That's why I asked.
• 18:48
  SPEAKER_03: Happy loss.
• 18:49
  SPEAKER_00: It was happy lost.
• 18:52
  SPEAKER_03: Just go for a wonder, you're like, how did I end up here?
• 18:54
  SPEAKER_00: Where am I?
• 18:56
  SPEAKER_00: This actually looks the same as the last place that was.
• 18:58
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it probably was because I was going around in circles.
• 19:01
  SPEAKER_00: But uh, what a great time.
• 19:03
  SPEAKER_00: So we painted in the streets there and on the canals.
• 19:06
  SPEAKER_00: Oh my god.
• 19:07
  SPEAKER_00: Um trip up to Canal to Burano.
• 19:11
  SPEAKER_00: I did a um, you know, the that's the place with all the coloured buildings on the canals there.
• 19:17
  SPEAKER_00: And uh I did a um demonstration there.
• 19:22
  SPEAKER_00: I thought, gee, okay, where is everybody?
• 19:25
  SPEAKER_00: And I turned around and there was the whole group of Japanese people watching, like about 20 of them.
• 19:31
  SPEAKER_00: So and I thought, oh wow.
• 19:33
  SPEAKER_00: And I I get really engrossed in what I'm doing, yeah.
• 19:36
  SPEAKER_00: Painting.
• 19:36
  SPEAKER_00: So it's kind of where you like set up with the easel in the sort of way where I just painted right then and there.
• 19:41
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, right then and there.
• 19:42
  SPEAKER_04: So not like off a picture, you're kind of painting the scene as you saw it right there.
• 19:45
  SPEAKER_04: That's really cool.
• 19:46
  SPEAKER_04: That's okay.
• 19:47
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, yeah, so painted those lovely coloured buildings.
• 19:50
  SPEAKER_04: Is that a normal process of yours as well?
• 19:52
  SPEAKER_04: Where you'd paint everything from being there?
• 19:55
  SPEAKER_00: Not always.
• 19:56
  SPEAKER_00: I do a lot of studio work as well, um, from my own photos.
• 20:00
  SPEAKER_00: Um but uh yeah, it's it's a lovely thing, and you guys would know that being out in nature.
• 20:10
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, na nature is the true artist really for me.
• 20:14
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah.
• 20:15
  SPEAKER_00: Um I'm spiritual but not really religious, but you know, to be out in the rainforest, you know, near near a waterfall or whatever, um, that's church to me.
• 20:29
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, yeah.
• 20:30
  SPEAKER_04: Oh, I'm on your boat.
• 20:31
  SPEAKER_04: I'm on your boat.
• 20:33
  SPEAKER_04: It's about Yeah.
• 20:35
  SPEAKER_00: So I mean I love being out in nature, whether it's, you know, I paint a bit down at Jervis Bay, uh, friend's got a place down there where you go and do a bit of painting.
• 20:45
  SPEAKER_00: So I love to be out in it.
• 20:47
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 20:48
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's um it really feeds the soul.
• 20:51
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 20:52
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, I agree.
• 20:52
  SPEAKER_04: I always feel better after a trip into nature.
• 20:55
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, yeah, it's that's amazing.
• 20:57
  SPEAKER_00: And uh it's so different painting from a photograph because if you're there in in nature painting, you've got all the sights, the sounds, the smells, everything, all those senses are heightened, really.
• 21:11
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 21:12
  SPEAKER_00: And uh when you come back to the studio and you paint from your photograph, uh it's like you s you're back there again.
• 21:18
  SPEAKER_00: You you feel all those things as well.
• 21:20
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 21:21
  SPEAKER_03: So you take the photo yourself or Yes.
• 21:23
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 21:24
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I do.
• 21:25
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 21:25
  SPEAKER_03: Do you ever print those photos?
• 21:28
  SPEAKER_00: No, I haven't.
• 21:29
  SPEAKER_00: No.
• 21:31
  SPEAKER_03: No, it would just be interesting to see what like because you're taking a photograph to to go and paint a certain style, it'd just be interesting to see like what how you'd actually how you take that photo if there's a specific way, or it's just that's always interesting to me that people do do that that would I know a few people that paint um take a photograph and then like same as you.
• 21:52
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 21:52
  SPEAKER_03: And um I've asked the same question to them, and they've like, I've never thought about that.
• 21:55
  SPEAKER_03: No.
• 21:56
  SPEAKER_03: I thought I've just gone sorry, that's just a photography and it just got printed that.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_00: That's a that's a good idea though.
• 22:01
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe that's an idea for an exhibition.
• 22:04
  SPEAKER_00: Have the the photograph and the painting next to it.
• 22:13
  SPEAKER_00: But I like a bit of photography, and I'm just uh, you know, amateur, you know, just amateur photographer.
• 22:18
  SPEAKER_00: But I like it.
• 22:20
  SPEAKER_04: So I think it's really cool the way artists look at scenes compared to photographers.
• 22:24
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 22:25
  SPEAKER_04: Because you'd look at it like you're looking at the scene, you're like, I'm gonna take this photo.
• 22:28
  SPEAKER_04: But you've probably do you already have a preconceived idea of how you're gonna paint the picture from that photo, or like you change the foreshortening and things like that.
• 22:36
  SPEAKER_00: Um it's gotta grab me, you know, it's gotta be like the right light or something about it that I think, ah yeah, I've got to paint that.
• 22:45
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 22:45
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 22:46
  SPEAKER_04: The light always makes it dynamic, right?
• 22:49
  SPEAKER_04: And then that's that's what draws you in because without the light, it's it everything looks flat.
• 22:53
  SPEAKER_00: That's right.
• 22:54
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 22:55
  SPEAKER_00: Although on dull days, you know, you can get some nice effects as well.
• 22:59
  SPEAKER_03: You sure can.
• 23:00
  SPEAKER_03: That's Dean's favourite.
• 23:02
  SPEAKER_03: That's Dean's favourite time out of it.
• 23:04
  SPEAKER_03: Every day.
• 23:05
  SPEAKER_03: I'm I'm happy.
• 23:06
  SPEAKER_03: I'm looking outside now, going, it's overcast on my oh, see my camera.
• 23:09
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 23:11
  SPEAKER_03: When everyone else inside it, this is English weather dean.
• 23:14
  SPEAKER_03: Like, give me that English.
• 23:18
  SPEAKER_03: Um, I'm actually intrigued about the you're taking this, the photo and then painting from there.
• 23:23
  SPEAKER_03: Do you take the photograph in the right light?
• 23:27
  SPEAKER_03: Like I know when like we were just saying then, we we like we've got a particular type of light we like.
• 23:32
  SPEAKER_03: So if you've got a bit of like a sunrise, do you go out and you you'll have a photo of that so you can recreate that in a painting, or is it just you happen to walk past and go, that's fantastic.
• 23:42
  SPEAKER_03: I really like the way that that light's hitting here.
• 23:44
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 23:44
  SPEAKER_03: I'm gonna take a photo of it and then paint that.
• 23:46
  SPEAKER_00: It's really both because like I had f had a friend who um lived at Black Heath and she said, come up and stay, she said, because um we've got to go down to the lookout, you know, the valley there, Gross Valley.
• 24:04
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 24:05
  SPEAKER_00: At Black Heath.
• 24:06
  SPEAKER_00: And um, we've gotta be there at sunrise because that's amazing.
• 24:12
  SPEAKER_00: So okay, so rugged up as freezing.
• 24:15
  SPEAKER_00: Yep.
• 24:16
  SPEAKER_00: And um just as the sun came up and hit all the trees, they all turned into a burst of orange.
• 24:26
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
• 24:27
  SPEAKER_03: And gold.
• 24:27
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, it's the light.
• 24:28
  SPEAKER_03: I mean that, you know.
• 24:30
  SPEAKER_03: Special, isn't it?
• 24:31
  SPEAKER_03: That's special.
• 24:32
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 24:33
  SPEAKER_00: So that kind of set me on a course of painting some trees orange and you know, sort of, and that sort of features a little bit in some of my works as well.
• 24:43
  SPEAKER_00: That is, yeah.
• 24:45
  SPEAKER_04: I'm really glad you explained that because I've seen your orange trees.
• 24:47
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 24:48
  SPEAKER_04: And I'm like, I wonder why she paints some orange.
• 24:50
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 24:51
  SPEAKER_04: I didn't even I don't know why I didn't cross it because like the trees turn orange when the sun hits.
• 24:56
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 24:56
  SPEAKER_04: It's really cool that that's how you come across that.
• 24:58
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 24:59
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 25:00
  SPEAKER_00: So when I paint, it's not um representational really.
• 25:04
  SPEAKER_00: It's it's more about feeling how I'm feeling about it.
• 25:08
  SPEAKER_00: And yeah, different colours will come in, like there'll be purple trees or you know, in the shadows, there'll be purple or something like that.
• 25:16
  SPEAKER_00: So um, yeah, that's um it's just um whatever happens, you know, and it just seems to turn out.
• 25:24
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 25:25
  SPEAKER_03: So what paints are you using when you create um your landscape versus um say something that you just like if you do an abstract or something, is there a different process you have, or are you using the same paint for both, or is it just it's what comes to you on the day?
• 25:42
  SPEAKER_00: Um, yeah, so painting in I painting watercolour and acrylics and oils, um, they've all got their own properties.
• 25:49
  SPEAKER_00: So they've got a different look.
• 25:52
  SPEAKER_00: Um so in oils, you've got more I don't know, it's like more glowing and um yeah, luscious.
• 26:01
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, you can have lots of texture and um really load up the paint and I love that too.
• 26:08
  SPEAKER_00: I love turning into lots of paint.
• 26:10
  SPEAKER_00: Um so that's a different look.
• 26:14
  SPEAKER_00: Um the acrylics are a little bit flat, but they're they're not bad.
• 26:18
  SPEAKER_00: Um I use I use a lot of water with acrylics because I like that drippy effect.
• 26:25
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 26:25
  SPEAKER_00: Um and that that's another technique of working with the acrylics and seeing how that'll mix with lots of water on the canvas.
• 26:36
  SPEAKER_00: And then um with water colour, yeah, I do do some more representational work with that.
• 26:44
  SPEAKER_00: Um yeah, a bit of both really, but it's it's a different look because you've got the transparency in the paint.
• 26:53
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, you're working with the paper, uh the white of the paper to bring that transparency through.
• 27:01
  SPEAKER_00: And uh yeah, that's a whole different look again.
• 27:04
  SPEAKER_00: And I like them all, you know, because I like I kind of like the science behind it all.
• 27:10
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 27:10
  SPEAKER_04: Do you do you combine the mediums together in one painting, or do we use start on watercolor does it all white?
• 27:16
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, um in watercolour you can combine gouache with watercolour, which is a nice effect as well.
• 27:24
  SPEAKER_00: Uh you can use lots of different things like salt and um you know, water splashes and all this sort of thing to make all different effects.
• 27:34
  SPEAKER_00: Um with uh acrylics, there's different mediums you can use to give different effects.
• 27:43
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 27:44
  SPEAKER_03: How do you how do you use salt in the paint?
• 27:46
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, that was how do you use salt.
• 27:50
  SPEAKER_03: It's funny, actually, I did see a video yesterday about salt, so I'm like, what are they doing there?
• 27:55
  SPEAKER_03: So I'm like, but how do you use salt in your paint?
• 27:58
  SPEAKER_00: Um, well, mainly with watercolor.
• 28:00
  SPEAKER_00: So um while it's still wet, you grind a bit of uh rock salt into the paint, and it what happens is the the molecules in the paint separate and make all different patterns.
• 28:16
  SPEAKER_00: Oh yeah, it's a bit like ice, you know.
• 28:18
  SPEAKER_00: Um bit like ice crystals and um yeah, so it kind of separates the paint and then you leave it on there to dry totally.
• 28:30
  SPEAKER_00: It takes a long time because salt makes things wet, doesn't it?
• 28:34
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 28:34
  SPEAKER_00: So it takes a long time to dry.
• 28:36
  SPEAKER_00: And once it does, you just brush the salt off.
• 28:39
  SPEAKER_00: And you you're left with little tiny crystals, which is a nice effect as well.
• 28:44
  SPEAKER_03: That's unreal.
• 28:45
  SPEAKER_03: That's really cool.
• 28:46
  SPEAKER_04: That's really cool.
• 28:47
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's great for trees.
• 28:48
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 28:49
  SPEAKER_04: Is that is that is that how you paint your sort of foliage on the trees?
• 28:53
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes.
• 28:54
  SPEAKER_04: Because I've I know when I've looked at your trees, is it you use a s a certain brush for that as well, I've noticed.
• 28:59
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I use a fan brush.
• 29:01
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 29:02
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 29:02
  SPEAKER_03: I just saw that video of that um trip with the painting the trees with that brush.
• 29:08
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 29:08
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that's a lot of fun.
• 29:10
  SPEAKER_03: When you use that salt, does uh does it reflect light in any way?
• 29:14
  SPEAKER_03: Like if you if you remember, does it does it shine?
• 29:16
  SPEAKER_03: Is there a bit of a shimmer to it?
• 29:17
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, it does.
• 29:18
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 29:18
  SPEAKER_00: So when you brush all the big chunks of salt off when it's totally dry, you're still left with a little bit of um fine salt left on there.
• 29:28
  SPEAKER_00: It doesn't all totally come off.
• 29:29
  SPEAKER_00: That's unreal.
• 29:30
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 29:30
  SPEAKER_03: That's unreal.
• 29:32
  SPEAKER_00: But you know, there's there's lots of um beautiful paints in in the watercolour.
• 29:37
  SPEAKER_00: Some have got uh natural minerals in them, which give all different lovely effects as well.
• 29:43
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 29:44
  SPEAKER_00: Granulating and yeah.
• 29:47
  SPEAKER_00: Which is great for tree trunks and things like that and the roots of trees and all that sort of thing.
• 29:53
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 29:53
  SPEAKER_04: Oh, that's so cool.
• 29:54
  SPEAKER_04: How many what's your range of brushes like?
• 29:57
  SPEAKER_04: How many different brushes?
• 29:58
  SPEAKER_04: Hundreds.
• 29:59
  SPEAKER_01: Hundreds of brushes.
• 30:00
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, well, depending on what you're doing.
• 30:02
  SPEAKER_00: I've got brushes for, you know, acrylics brushes for oils and totally different brushes again for watercolors.
• 30:10
  SPEAKER_04: How's it go switching between all those mediums?
• 30:13
  SPEAKER_04: Like you have to like pick up where you're at with which way you layer paints on and things like that.
• 30:18
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it just seems quite natural now.
• 30:21
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 30:21
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 30:22
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 30:23
  SPEAKER_00: I probably had um many years of having a brush in my hand.
• 30:29
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I know which is what.
• 30:32
  SPEAKER_00: And you don't always use a brush either.
• 30:34
  SPEAKER_00: Like sometimes with oils you use palette knives and all different things.
• 30:38
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 30:39
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 30:40
  SPEAKER_04: So do you ever have like a set workflow, like or a way that you work the painting into when it's finished?
• 30:45
  SPEAKER_04: Like or is there more of a just a f how does it feel on the day and you just get into it?
• 30:51
  SPEAKER_00: It's a bit of a process um with oils, you know, working from dark to light.
• 30:57
  SPEAKER_00: Um a little bit more freer with uh acrylics.
• 31:02
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I'm using a spray bottle a lot of the time.
• 31:06
  SPEAKER_04: Is it to add the water and things like that?
• 31:07
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 31:08
  SPEAKER_00: And see what happens with the paint.
• 31:10
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 31:10
  SPEAKER_00: Um and then um yeah, with watercolours, it's um light to dark, so it's the opposite to oils.
• 31:20
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 31:22
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, because you've got to build it up with the watercolor, I guess.
• 31:24
  SPEAKER_04: You can't take it, you can't definitely can't take it off.
• 31:27
  SPEAKER_00: No, it's a little bit more.
• 31:28
  SPEAKER_00: Whereas with the oil, you can't put the dark light.
• 31:32
  SPEAKER_00: What happens with watercolour?
• 31:33
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 31:33
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 31:34
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 31:34
  SPEAKER_00: So anyway, um, what did I do after that?
• 31:37
  SPEAKER_00: I've I've been I've taken other tours overseas, France, Belgium, at least in Amsterdam, then Greece, and I'm off to Greece this September with a group, taking a group painting.
• 31:50
  SPEAKER_03: Unreal.
• 31:51
  SPEAKER_03: That'd be so cool.
• 31:52
  SPEAKER_03: So are you leading that group or is it just a group of friends?
• 31:55
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, I'm leading the group.
• 31:57
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 31:57
  SPEAKER_00: I've got a travel manager who comes along.
• 32:00
  SPEAKER_03: Uh, this is the best.
• 32:02
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, I think we need to get some tips from Kathy.
• 32:08
  SPEAKER_00: It is.
• 32:08
  SPEAKER_00: I've got to say it's a privilege really to to be able to do this work.
• 32:13
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 32:14
  SPEAKER_03: Just even to be able to get some get a paint piece of uh canvas and a paint just to paint or take a photograph is a privilege in itself.
• 32:21
  SPEAKER_03: To do what you're doing.
• 32:22
  SPEAKER_03: It's just amazing.
• 32:23
  SPEAKER_04: I think it's what you said, a travel manager.
• 32:27
  SPEAKER_04: That really interests me because I'm like, where does that come from?
• 32:30
  SPEAKER_04: That's the first time I've heard of that.
• 32:32
  SPEAKER_03: Why do you go?
• 32:33
  SPEAKER_03: I need one of these.
• 32:34
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, yeah.
• 32:36
  SPEAKER_00: Well you do, because there's a lot that goes into doing that, that sort of thing, because you know, it's all accommodation and flights, and you know, you you've got to be pretty well organized.
• 32:46
  SPEAKER_00: And, you know, I turn up with some sketchbooks and say, okay, let's sketch.
• 32:50
  SPEAKER_04: I think that's kind of why it sort of stalled me from trying to cook up workshops myself because I know how much how many different moving parts there are to actually make it successful.
• 33:00
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I think I realised I couldn't do it all, even though, you know, you you've got to, you know, let people um and I like to promote local business as well.
• 33:09
  SPEAKER_00: So the person who does my travel managing is a local Kayama person.
• 33:15
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 33:16
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 33:16
  SPEAKER_03: That's what that's what they do.
• 33:17
  SPEAKER_03: So yeah, may as well.
• 33:19
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, sneak the contact off you.
• 33:23
  SPEAKER_04: We can use the same person.
• 33:25
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 33:25
  SPEAKER_03: So when it comes to your painting, like um and you have a blank canvas in front of you, where do you start?
• 33:32
  SPEAKER_00: Um, well, with the drawing, of course, you know.
• 33:35
  SPEAKER_00: I usually use charcoal.
• 33:38
  SPEAKER_00: Um sometimes I do an underpainting of one colour and then work on top of that.
• 33:43
  SPEAKER_00: Because, you know, I know a lot of people have a fear of a blank canvas, but um I get all excited about a blank canvas.
• 33:51
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 33:52
  SPEAKER_00: It's like a new new day, a new possibility.
• 33:54
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you know.
• 33:55
  SPEAKER_03: It's a great way of looking at it, isn't it?
• 33:57
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
• 33:59
  SPEAKER_00: I guess there's always, you know, certain people are the half full people and half empty people.
• 34:06
  SPEAKER_00: So glass half full, glass half empty.
• 34:09
  SPEAKER_00: I'm always the the positive glasses full.
• 34:14
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 34:15
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 34:15
  SPEAKER_03: Just add some water.
• 34:16
  SPEAKER_00: You empty it a bit, you just fill it up again.
• 34:18
  SPEAKER_03: Exactly.
• 34:19
  SPEAKER_03: There's always some more water to put the top up.
• 34:21
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 34:21
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 34:22
  SPEAKER_03: Keep it all the way to the brim.
• 34:24
  SPEAKER_03: Are you like with your canvases?
• 34:26
  SPEAKER_03: Do you use a white or do you use a natural canvas?
• 34:29
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, I use the white, uh, gessoed canvas.
• 34:32
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 34:32
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 34:33
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 34:34
  SPEAKER_00: So no, I don't work on the the natural.
• 34:37
  SPEAKER_00: I've seen lots of people do that sort of work.
• 34:39
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 34:40
  SPEAKER_03: No, I just I remember there was an artist I was talking to at um 55 Parts about it, and she was using a she starts with a natural um the artist's.
• 34:48
  SPEAKER_03: Yes, so lovely.
• 34:49
  SPEAKER_03: Jacqueline, yeah, she's she'll be on our show in uh a couple of weeks as well.
• 34:53
  SPEAKER_03: So yeah, and um, but no, so her work's amazing.
• 34:56
  SPEAKER_03: And yeah, that's why I asked a question because I'm like, I've never heard of a natural canvas until she had it.
• 35:01
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 35:02
  SPEAKER_03: Now it's like, oh, I wonder if there is actually more people use that.
• 35:05
  SPEAKER_00: So that's why Yeah, I I know a few artists who use it and it's just a really nice look.
• 35:10
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it looks great.
• 35:11
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 35:13
  SPEAKER_04: When we when we paint on with the watercolours, do you use any what sort of mediums or do you or do you use to paint on a uh I use uh uh proper watercolour paper.
• 35:24
  SPEAKER_00: Um I like arches, um, just French paper.
• 35:30
  SPEAKER_00: Uh also there's a new there's a Chinese paper called Bao Hong, which is um really nice too to work on.
• 35:38
  SPEAKER_00: Um it's uh 300 GSM weight.
• 35:42
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah and I usually get there's three different types in it.
• 35:46
  SPEAKER_00: There's a smooth, a medium, and a rough.
• 35:49
  SPEAKER_00: So it just depends on what sort of work you want to do.
• 35:53
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so if you're doing fine work, fine um portraits or um botanicals, um, you use the smooth paper.
• 36:03
  SPEAKER_00: Then the medium paper is good for all sorts of things, and then the rough paper is really great for doing like ocean scenes and um, you know, the rainforest and things like that.
• 36:15
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 36:16
  SPEAKER_04: Gives it lots of texture in the end.
• 36:18
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 36:18
  SPEAKER_04: Give that oomph in the thing with lots of detail.
• 36:21
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 36:22
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 36:22
  SPEAKER_04: That's so cool.
• 36:23
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 36:24
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah.
• 36:25
  SPEAKER_00: Even in my sketchbooks, uh, I like the good watercolour papers in those as well.
• 36:30
  SPEAKER_03: How many sketchbooks do you have just laying around?
• 36:32
  SPEAKER_00: I've got quite a few now.
• 36:34
  SPEAKER_00: Adding up and adding up.
• 36:36
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, no, with piles of them.
• 36:38
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 36:38
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 36:39
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 36:41
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, sorry.
• 36:42
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, no, you're right.
• 36:42
  SPEAKER_03: I was just gonna say, um, I just want to circle back to when you what you were saying earlier um about when you would travel to these art fairs.
• 36:49
  SPEAKER_03: How would you logistically, how would you get your prints from or your paintings, sorry, um, from place to place?
• 36:55
  SPEAKER_03: Did you drive or did you ship them and then fly down?
• 36:58
  SPEAKER_00: No, well, what we do is um the first one I did in Italy, we took easels and it was watercolour.
• 37:04
  SPEAKER_00: So I always do watercolour when I'm away.
• 37:07
  SPEAKER_00: Um, it's easy to transport because, you know, oils are so hard to dry in time and messy and very hard to transport.
• 37:17
  SPEAKER_00: So um, yeah, I do watercolour, but um what I do now with all of my tours is we do uh sketchbooking.
• 37:27
  SPEAKER_00: So there's not a great deal, it's watercolour sketchbooking.
• 37:30
  SPEAKER_00: So um and the sketchbooks are only uh 14 by 20 or something centimeters.
• 37:38
  SPEAKER_03: So you could fit that in a in a little bag.
• 37:40
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 37:40
  SPEAKER_00: Anything you can fit in a bag is better than having to take a whole lot of materials.
• 37:47
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 37:47
  SPEAKER_03: Have you got suppliers overseas?
• 37:49
  SPEAKER_03: Like if you went to a certain country, you know, you've got a supply there that you could pick up.
• 37:52
  SPEAKER_00: I do we do look for supply places just in case, you know, things get lost.
• 37:57
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 37:58
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 37:59
  SPEAKER_00: So we went to a lovely one in um Italy in Arezzo.
• 38:04
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 38:04
  SPEAKER_00: And had a great time in there buying bits and pieces.
• 38:08
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 38:09
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, and in Paris, the Sennellia Smart Store is really worth going to.
• 38:14
  SPEAKER_04: It's like a candy shop for Yeah.
• 38:18
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, and knowing that, you know, a lot of the great impressionists actually shop there.
• 38:23
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 38:23
  SPEAKER_00: You know, so you're walking in their footsteps.
• 38:26
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 38:26
  SPEAKER_04: It's unreal, isn't it?
• 38:28
  SPEAKER_04: That's so cool.
• 38:29
  SPEAKER_04: Do you put like a package together for your clients with that?
• 38:32
  SPEAKER_04: Um when they rock up, there's like a package that you give them for the course or they No, I encourage them to get their own.
• 38:39
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 38:39
  SPEAKER_00: Um, because I think that's all part of it is, you know, I give them the list and they go and get their own.
• 38:46
  SPEAKER_00: It's very well supported because um the people are supported with a Facebook group.
• 38:53
  SPEAKER_00: So I do tutorials and you know, ideas on what to pack, what to take, um how to go about it and all that sort of thing.
• 39:02
  SPEAKER_00: Um also we have meetup groups before we go.
• 39:06
  SPEAKER_00: We've just had one not long ago where um we had all the um people coming on the tour who could make it somewhere from away, but some who could make it came and we had a good chat about what we're gonna do and um you know, if anyone had any fears about it, you know, what what um we could sort of do to alleviate those fears that they might have or um just chat about where we're going to go and it's really lovely.
• 39:35
  SPEAKER_04: It really sounds like you have a super customer focus oh with your workshops.
• 39:40
  SPEAKER_04: That's so cool.
• 39:41
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, uh I was like just like your paintings, I was so looking forward to just hearing about that.
• 39:44
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, but this is like this, like I said, mind-blowing.
• 39:47
  SPEAKER_04: There's there's so many extra things to the Cathy Carras story.
• 39:50
  SPEAKER_00: It's probably only just part of it.
• 39:52
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, I know.
• 39:53
  SPEAKER_04: Well, we can revisit again for more episodes if we have to.
• 39:58
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, um anytime.
• 40:00
  SPEAKER_00: I love talking art.
• 40:01
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that's for sure.
• 40:02
  SPEAKER_03: And that's why we started the show.
• 40:04
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, yeah.
• 40:05
  SPEAKER_03: How many um returning customers do you get on the on on your tours?
• 40:10
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, we get yeah, we have um several that will come every time they say just put my name down.
• 40:17
  SPEAKER_03: Unreal.
• 40:18
  SPEAKER_00: Um that's great.
• 40:19
  SPEAKER_03: That's that's great for like um feedback, isn't it?
• 40:22
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and then there's other be friends of theirs or have heard about it.
• 40:26
  SPEAKER_00: Um then uh others, you know, find me on social media and things like that.
• 40:32
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 40:32
  SPEAKER_00: Uh yeah, yeah, it's um seems to build.
• 40:36
  SPEAKER_00: And we've got full numbers going to Greece.
• 40:39
  SPEAKER_00: We can't take any more people.
• 40:41
  SPEAKER_04: Uh you're gonna have to start chartering.
• 40:42
  SPEAKER_04: You have to do back-to-back workshops.
• 40:44
  SPEAKER_04: You have to like double up.
• 40:45
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 40:46
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, then we've had a few years where we couldn't travel.
• 40:49
  SPEAKER_04: So everyone wants to get out and about.
• 40:51
  SPEAKER_00: Everyone wants to go now.
• 40:52
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, raring to go.
• 40:54
  SPEAKER_00: And I I want to do more in Australia too.
• 40:56
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm dying to get up to the Kimberley and places like that.
• 41:00
  SPEAKER_04: You and me both.
• 41:02
  SPEAKER_04: We actually talking to another lady who lives up there, um, her name's Tanya, and she's a photographer from there.
• 41:08
  SPEAKER_04: So I was actually talking about getting her on the show and talking about going for a flight up there with her, like um to do some aerial photos of the area.
• 41:15
  SPEAKER_00: So it's definitely a place that's uh I envy you doing that.
• 41:19
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 41:20
  SPEAKER_00: You should come one day.
• 41:22
  SPEAKER_03: You could take some snaps and then you can paint.
• 41:25
  SPEAKER_00: All right.
• 41:29
  SPEAKER_03: Come hang out of a plane with me.
• 41:31
  SPEAKER_00: No, I've seen you hang out of a plane.
• 41:33
  SPEAKER_00: I don't think I want to hang out.
• 41:34
  SPEAKER_03: You just said, Hey, can I take a photo of that so I can paint it?
• 41:43
  SPEAKER_04: You've got this hang title to that's surprisingly enough, I'm I'm petrified of hearts.
• 41:49
  SPEAKER_04: Um as soon as I put a camera in front of my face, I forget about it.
• 41:52
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 41:53
  SPEAKER_04: As soon as I stop and I'm looking around, I'll be like holding on the deal.
• 41:57
  SPEAKER_04: I'm like, I'm not gonna also like you've got to get turbulence, and when you get turbulence with no door on, it's it's a little bit different when you're I don't know, when you sit in helicopters.
• 42:06
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, if you sit on the plane or a helicopter, you like um the you once the door's actually removed, yeah, there's you're literally pretty much outside already.
• 42:17
  SPEAKER_04: Like if you move your arm, you're outside.
• 42:19
  SPEAKER_04: Because they're they're tiny, right?
• 42:21
  SPEAKER_04: So you kind of sit there and it goes, and you're like, whoa, you start getting a little bit of the heebie jeebies.
• 42:26
  SPEAKER_03: The last time I was in one of those planes, I jumped out of it.
• 42:30
  SPEAKER_03: That's a whole nother level.
• 42:32
  SPEAKER_03: It's the opposite.
• 42:34
  SPEAKER_03: I love heights, that's worse.
• 42:39
  SPEAKER_03: Just makes you go, oh, I wonder what happens if I get that little bit closer to that edge.
• 42:43
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, yeah.
• 42:44
  SPEAKER_03: That's one of the reasons why I don't shoot the mountain.
• 42:46
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I get that better shot.
• 42:47
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 42:48
  SPEAKER_03: S firmly next to the coast, thank you.
• 42:50
  SPEAKER_04: I'm always cautious of that.
• 42:51
  SPEAKER_04: I'm always cautious of that.
• 42:53
  SPEAKER_04: Let's swing into some of your exhibition work.
• 42:55
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 42:56
  SPEAKER_04: Um sort of tell us about any of your recent exhibitions and ones that might be coming up.
• 43:02
  SPEAKER_04: So anyone that wants to come and see your work in person.
• 43:05
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so um, yeah, recently, most recently, was uh 55 parrots up at Bull Eye.
• 43:12
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and that was lovely with uh four other artists.
• 43:16
  SPEAKER_00: So we had Emma Mags, who is a fabulous.
• 43:18
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, so her work's amazing.
• 43:20
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I loved her work.
• 43:22
  SPEAKER_03: So feminine and yeah.
• 43:23
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, so I've seen that in the print in when it was getting printed, and I'll just I just stood there.
• 43:29
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, it's it's amazing.
• 43:31
  SPEAKER_03: In awe.
• 43:31
  SPEAKER_03: And it was in black and white too.
• 43:32
  SPEAKER_00: So I was black and white did and she did extremely well, she, by the way.
• 43:37
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, the exhibition.
• 43:38
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 43:38
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and Wendy Lee and Rennie Paramezzos.
• 43:43
  SPEAKER_00: Uh so there were four of us, yeah.
• 43:45
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah, I think we all sold.
• 43:47
  SPEAKER_00: We all sold.
• 43:48
  SPEAKER_03: That's fantastic.
• 43:48
  SPEAKER_00: So that was sport.
• 43:50
  SPEAKER_03: Um successful show.
• 43:51
  SPEAKER_03: No, that is great.
• 43:53
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, and remember speaking to the the the guys at all, the girls down at uh 55 Parrots, and they did say that they've had Some low times recently.
• 44:01
  SPEAKER_03: So having people come in and buy and people other artists work is fantastic.
• 44:04
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it makes me really happy that you've got time at the moment.
• 44:07
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 44:07
  SPEAKER_03: Oh yeah.
• 44:08
  SPEAKER_00: We had the elections and we had the uh yeah, everyone's interest rates going for the rest of it.
• 44:14
  SPEAKER_00: So um it's nice to see that people value the art buy.
• 44:19
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, goodness.
• 44:20
  SPEAKER_04: It makes me so happy to hear that the market's still there.
• 44:22
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 44:23
  SPEAKER_04: When you hear art is still selling, it makes me super happy.
• 44:26
  SPEAKER_04: Even in hard times, people are redecorating and takes their money off, doesn't it?
• 44:31
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 44:32
  SPEAKER_00: We all need art.
• 44:33
  SPEAKER_00: Everyone needs art.
• 44:34
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 44:35
  SPEAKER_00: It's um such an important thing for our mental well-being.
• 44:40
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 44:41
  SPEAKER_03: And if you can't afford it, just draw or paint.
• 44:44
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 44:44
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, create your own.
• 44:46
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 44:48
  SPEAKER_03: Cause it's a piece of your work.
• 44:49
  SPEAKER_00: That's right.
• 44:50
  SPEAKER_00: Exactly right.
• 44:51
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 44:52
  SPEAKER_00: So that was my most recent, and also um my dad's an artist as well.
• 44:56
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 44:57
  SPEAKER_00: So um he does uh wood block prints, so he carves uh wood blocks.
• 45:02
  SPEAKER_02: Mm-hmm.
• 45:04
  SPEAKER_00: Does that so um yeah, so we've had two exhibitions on the around the same um theme about Lake Ilawara.
• 45:14
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 45:14
  SPEAKER_00: And dad's also a historian, so he researched all about boating on Lake Alwara.
• 45:21
  SPEAKER_00: And uh from the 1850s.
• 45:23
  SPEAKER_03: So it's a rabbit hole.
• 45:25
  unknown: Yeah.
• 45:27
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 45:27
  SPEAKER_03: It's a lot of history, there's a lot of history.
• 45:29
  SPEAKER_00: There's a lot of history, yeah, more than what you think.
• 45:31
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 45:31
  SPEAKER_00: And not just about fishing, but you know, all sorts of things.
• 45:34
  SPEAKER_00: There was a lot of tourism.
• 45:36
  SPEAKER_00: There was a lot of tourism on the lake in the early years.
• 45:39
  SPEAKER_00: And uh yeah, so we did artworks revolving around that.
• 45:44
  SPEAKER_00: We showed at the Shell Harbour Um City Council there.
• 45:49
  SPEAKER_00: They've got a some cabinets there that you can put art into.
• 45:53
  SPEAKER_00: And uh which is great.
• 45:56
  SPEAKER_00: And so we did that, and then from that we're invited to show at the Wollongong Library upstairs in the exhibition space.
• 46:06
  SPEAKER_00: So we did that, and that's just finished as well.
• 46:09
  SPEAKER_00: So none of those paintings were for sale.
• 46:12
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 46:13
  SPEAKER_00: So we did a lot of research, we interviewed a lot of people, uh, fishermen and and different people involved, uh, sailing clubs and all that sort of thing.
• 46:24
  SPEAKER_00: And um, so all of those works that we did will go back to those various people.
• 46:31
  SPEAKER_04: Oh, that's that's even that's even really cool.
• 46:34
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 46:35
  SPEAKER_04: Like giving back to the community if you build the exhibition.
• 46:38
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, exactly.
• 46:38
  SPEAKER_04: That's so cool.
• 46:39
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I I like that feeling.
• 46:41
  SPEAKER_00: I like that feeling of giving it.
• 46:42
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 46:43
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 46:44
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah, it was just nice to do it.
• 46:47
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, my dad's 92 now, so it's um it was nice.
• 46:51
  SPEAKER_00: We it took us 12 months to collate those.
• 46:54
  SPEAKER_03: That's fantastic together.
• 46:56
  SPEAKER_03: Creating.
• 46:58
  SPEAKER_00: And uh yeah, just goes to show that you can be an artist your whole life.
• 47:02
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 47:02
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 47:03
  SPEAKER_03: That's fantastic that he's still creating too, isn't it?
• 47:06
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 47:07
  SPEAKER_03: That healthy mind.
• 47:08
  SPEAKER_03: Ah, Sharp's attack.
• 47:10
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 47:10
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
• 47:11
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 47:11
  SPEAKER_00: So um yeah, I mean, I love my life around the arts.
• 47:16
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I'm not teaching so much now.
• 47:19
  SPEAKER_00: I'm definitely focused on the travel.
• 47:24
  SPEAKER_00: Um creating art in my own space.
• 47:28
  SPEAKER_00: Love doing that.
• 47:29
  SPEAKER_00: Um Yeah, I've had exhibitions.
• 47:34
  SPEAKER_00: Uh was uh down at Terror Gallery when it was going at Kayama, which was fantastic.
• 47:41
  SPEAKER_00: I sold lots of works through that gallery.
• 47:45
  SPEAKER_00: Uh Isabella was fantastic there.
• 47:48
  SPEAKER_00: She was the owner of the gallery.
• 47:51
  SPEAKER_04: Such a good little place, wasn't it?
• 47:52
  SPEAKER_04: Right on the main street, we were hustling and bustling on all the long weekends and sometimes eight o'clock at night if you kept the doors open.
• 47:59
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, it's lovely.
• 48:00
  SPEAKER_00: I love the openings.
• 48:01
  SPEAKER_00: You go see what great entertainment and everything, yeah.
• 48:06
  SPEAKER_00: Uh yeah, so that's uh yeah, that's now closed, so I'm not exhibiting there anymore.
• 48:11
  SPEAKER_00: Um But there's I've been in lots and lots of um group exhibitions around the Ulawarra, umara art gallery.
• 48:23
  SPEAKER_00: Uh had solos up at Katoomba at Gallery 188 and solo exhibitions locally.
• 48:33
  SPEAKER_00: Um Yeah, so it's just been a busy time.
• 48:36
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 48:37
  SPEAKER_00: Just a little flood chat, I was actually I was yeah, I was doing all of those um classes and workshops and uh, you know, just prior to the lockdowns and uh then that you know COVID turned up.
• 48:53
  SPEAKER_00: And just before that, I was starting to think I'm gonna have to cut back a little bit because I was getting feeling, you know, a bit exhausted and feeling like I was gonna burn out.
• 49:03
  SPEAKER_00: I was actually feeling I wasn't giving my best to everybody because I was spreading myself too thin.
• 49:10
  SPEAKER_00: And um couldn't say no to a good opportunity and sort of thing.
• 49:15
  SPEAKER_00: So COVID arrived and it was like, okay, I can't go out.
• 49:22
  SPEAKER_00: So I'll just have to paint.
• 49:24
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 49:25
  SPEAKER_00: So anyway, yeah, I threw myself into painting and I listened to a lot of great podcasts, which were great art podcasts, fantastic.
• 49:34
  SPEAKER_00: Um and uh of course I had a lot of students who sort of were you know missing classes and I thought, well, everyone's gonna be um really feeling this, not being able to get out.
• 49:50
  SPEAKER_00: And it's that it's really not good for your mental state, is it?
• 49:56
  SPEAKER_00: Um so I started doing some videos of some class videos and putting them in a closed group and all that sort of thing.
• 50:05
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 50:05
  SPEAKER_00: On Facebook and just keeping in contact with everybody.
• 50:09
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 50:10
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 50:11
  SPEAKER_00: So I did a few um online classes as well.
• 50:16
  SPEAKER_00: Um I own online classes, sold a few of those.
• 50:20
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 50:22
  SPEAKER_04: Found a way to make money without going out.
• 50:24
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 50:24
  SPEAKER_03: It's really cool.
• 50:25
  SPEAKER_03: And and not just not just making money, but you keep keeping that community going.
• 50:29
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, it's more about the community.
• 50:31
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 50:31
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 50:32
  SPEAKER_00: Keeping connected.
• 50:33
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 50:33
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 50:34
  SPEAKER_03: And and it also helps check in on people as well without checking in just saying, Hey, how are you going?
• 50:39
  SPEAKER_03: It's like, hey, let's do some.
• 50:40
  SPEAKER_04: During during COVID, the video call was like, you know, the reset of your mental health, wasn't it?
• 50:45
  SPEAKER_04: And you talked to someone and go, oh, that was so good.
• 50:47
  SPEAKER_04: Like it felt like it was so like the biggest part of your day was like you got to chat to someone and see them.
• 50:53
  SPEAKER_00: So I know.
• 50:54
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, uh at first it was like, oh great, you know, because now I can just be in the studio and paint.
• 50:59
  SPEAKER_00: But then it sort of was too much, wasn't it?
• 51:02
  SPEAKER_00: Because, you know, you sort of um were hungry for contact with everybody else.
• 51:09
  SPEAKER_00: And, you know.
• 51:10
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 51:11
  SPEAKER_00: So we got through that, which was great.
• 51:13
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 51:14
  SPEAKER_03: See, I was lucky enough.
• 51:15
  SPEAKER_03: I didn't actually have a lockdown for me personally.
• 51:18
  SPEAKER_03: Me either, really.
• 51:20
  SPEAKER_03: I just traveled I'd had to travel interstate for work.
• 51:22
  SPEAKER_03: So um they'd shipped me up to Queensland for a while and we got to go out there.
• 51:26
  SPEAKER_03: So I kind of avoided it a little bit.
• 51:28
  SPEAKER_03: So I really I think I did maybe two weeks of it and that was about it.
• 51:31
  SPEAKER_03: Um but I I really feel for the people that like my wife and my kids stayed at home and and I just felt so bad because I'm like, I'm up here playing golf or oh jeez.
• 51:41
  SPEAKER_03: And all these people just at home, I was miserable.
• 51:43
  SPEAKER_03: I'm like, I just felt so bad for them.
• 51:46
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I would not I would have gone insane if I was in lockdown.
• 51:50
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 51:51
  SPEAKER_03: I think I would have to I go classified.
• 51:54
  SPEAKER_00: Mentally it does something to you when someone says no, you can't go out.
• 51:57
  SPEAKER_03: It's like, why not?
• 51:58
  SPEAKER_03: Well, why can't I?
• 51:59
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, yeah.
• 52:00
  SPEAKER_00: All your freedoms are gone.
• 52:01
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you know.
• 52:02
  SPEAKER_03: But that what you did there, that was that that's um something's gotta be said about that.
• 52:06
  SPEAKER_03: That's awesome.
• 52:06
  SPEAKER_03: Um you're still keeping that communication as much for me as what it was for them.
• 52:12
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 52:12
  SPEAKER_03: So exactly.
• 52:13
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 52:13
  SPEAKER_00: And uh yeah.
• 52:15
  SPEAKER_03: So um where can people find your work um at the moment?
• 52:19
  SPEAKER_00: Um, probably online.
• 52:21
  SPEAKER_00: Yep.
• 52:21
  SPEAKER_00: Um, yeah, it's through my social medias, and I'm about to put work uh online as well.
• 52:27
  SPEAKER_00: I've got blue some which I haven't done much with for a long time.
• 52:32
  SPEAKER_04: But I haven't done anything with it.
• 52:34
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
• 52:35
  SPEAKER_04: I made an account, that's as far as I go.
• 52:37
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, uh, yeah, I've got that as well, but haven't done much with it.
• 52:40
  SPEAKER_00: It's sort of just on hold at the moment.
• 52:42
  SPEAKER_00: So I might look at that again and do a bit of that.
• 52:46
  SPEAKER_00: And at the moment, um I probably will be looking for somewhere else, but um we want to do a bit of traveling as well.
• 52:54
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
• 52:54
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so travel is now that we can uh is sort of at the forefront of what I want to do.
• 53:03
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 53:03
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 53:04
  SPEAKER_03: Cool.
• 53:05
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, we'll put um we'll put up all your links to your website and your social media's in the um in the show notes for everyone who was listening and wants to see Kathy's work.
• 53:14
  SPEAKER_03: And I could not recommend highly enough to to check it out.
• 53:18
  SPEAKER_03: Uh you can in person as well.
• 53:20
  SPEAKER_04: In person and uh buy yourself a piece, they're mad.
• 53:22
  SPEAKER_04: They're the probably one of the coolest paintings you've seen.
• 53:25
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, uh I love them.
• 53:26
  SPEAKER_04: I every time I see them, I'm like, I've got to buy one of these one day.
• 53:29
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, and then a house full of everyone else.
• 53:32
  SPEAKER_03: We need big houses, like just we need a house just for the artwork that we want to buy.
• 53:37
  SPEAKER_04: I don't know.
• 53:38
  SPEAKER_04: Every time I see the I look at your every time I saw your paintings, I could see it.
• 53:41
  SPEAKER_04: I was like, that's a cat's cares.
• 53:43
  SPEAKER_04: And like checking it out.
• 53:44
  SPEAKER_04: I I love them.
• 53:45
  SPEAKER_04: I love them blowing trees and everything.
• 53:47
  SPEAKER_00: I think that came a lot through um COVID too, because I was so um sort of in my own space.
• 53:53
  SPEAKER_00: And I think you know, my work became a little bit more authentic than mine.
• 53:57
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 53:58
  SPEAKER_00: So um, yeah, yeah, I think that sort of came from that.
• 54:03
  SPEAKER_00: But uh yeah, I think it's a lot of people are starting to say, you know, you've really got your own style, which is great.
• 54:09
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, it's a great compliment.
• 54:11
  SPEAKER_04: It's the best compliment.
• 54:13
  SPEAKER_04: You can tell if I see your work in a gallery, I'll be like, I I can tell it's yours.
• 54:17
  SPEAKER_04: From the the way you paint your trees and the way you like you cut layers into things like as well.
• 54:23
  SPEAKER_03: It's the lines and the detail, everything combined.
• 54:26
  SPEAKER_03: There's uh people can do one one thing or the other thing, but the way Cassie, you the way you put everything together into one piece is it's the colours.
• 54:35
  SPEAKER_04: The choice of colours and the way you mix them, I think is it's it's uh very complementary.
• 54:40
  SPEAKER_04: It works, it just works as as cohesively.
• 54:43
  SPEAKER_00: So thanks so much for that.
• 54:44
  SPEAKER_00: That's that's very high praise.
• 54:46
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
• 54:47
  SPEAKER_04: I appreciate it.
• 54:48
  SPEAKER_04: I love them, seriously.
• 54:49
  SPEAKER_04: They're so cool.
• 54:51
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, sorry, the other thing I wanted to say is I've always had a great family, you know, behind me.
• 54:56
  SPEAKER_00: So with whatever I do, particularly my husband.
• 54:59
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 55:00
  SPEAKER_04: Good support.
• 55:01
  SPEAKER_03: Great support.
• 55:02
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 55:02
  SPEAKER_03: For for our partners um and family members to let us do what we do.
• 55:06
  SPEAKER_03: Well, it's it's it's um a lot of patience and it's a lot of ups and there's a lot of downs.
• 55:11
  SPEAKER_03: Ups and downs.
• 55:11
  SPEAKER_03: It's not all rows.
• 55:12
  SPEAKER_03: No, that's right.
• 55:13
  SPEAKER_03: There's probably more downs than there are ups.
• 55:14
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 55:15
  SPEAKER_03: A lot of the art.
• 55:16
  SPEAKER_03: Um need some trophies for their sacrifice.
• 55:18
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, exactly.
• 55:18
  SPEAKER_03: And and for what they do for us um to keep us sane and to keep on going.
• 55:23
  SPEAKER_03: That's that's they're they're the they're they're what keeps us going.
• 55:27
  SPEAKER_02: Definitely.
• 55:28
  SPEAKER_03: I I could not agree more.
• 55:29
  SPEAKER_03: Definitely.
• 55:30
  SPEAKER_03: And um, on that note, um, Kathy, thank you very much for joining us today.
• 55:33
  SPEAKER_03: Um, we've just run out of time.
• 55:36
  SPEAKER_04: Unfortunately, we might have to do a Kathy version two for sure.
• 55:40
  SPEAKER_03: But um, we're truly honored for you you to be on the show and um and for all the listeners, um, jump onto um Kathy's website and socials and and um say hello and and check her work out.
• 55:51
  SPEAKER_03: You won't be disappointed.
• 55:52
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, all the links will be in the show notes.
• 55:54
  SPEAKER_04: So jump in there, have a look, purchase some artwork, view it as much as you can, and and really enjoy Kathy's work.
• 56:00
  SPEAKER_03: All right, and uh thanks for listening.
• 56:02
  SPEAKER_03: And again, thanks for joining us, Kathy, and we'll catch you all on our next episode.