It’s monday now and I’ve had an enormous week. Yesterday was the Ivanhoe market – battling the cold in our art deco hall and being grateful to everyone who braved the weather, ignoring olympics and heating for a short while. It was our first birthday actually, with cake and champers to celebrate, and I set up a big canvas and oils, working from one of my moleskines pictures.
The evening before I was driving back from a Bendigo festival.
The festival was a good event. I was there for a joint exhibition of my and John Nicholson’s work, with accompanying talks. Early Friday afternoon I arrived at the Phyllis Palmer Gallery at Bendigo’s La Trobe Campus and set up a glass case-full of my thoughts, inspirations, art materials, and nick-knacks. There was so much inside… A model plane Pete made for me as reference for a book, roughs, foreign editions, origami rabbits, a little plastic Eiffel tower, japanese prints, a fake eye, owl sculpture, feathers… that kind of thing. It felt weird to basically put my brain on display. Everything was meaningful – especially early sketchbooks from my first year of uni and a drawing my grandfather did when Pete and I moved into our house in 2000. The rest of the exhibition was put together wonderfully by the curator, Paul Morris, who framed and hung and documented it all despite being sick and having had a hell of a month himself. Thanks Paul! We had the opening that night, dinner at a local restaurant and welcome sleep at the beautiful Bishopscourt B&B. I must mention that Hazel Edwards, a co-presenter, had a confessional in her room. I don’t know if she used it. Mine had a little heater which I curled up in front of on the floor and could easily have spent the night there until I found the bed had an electric blanket. The next morning there was ice on the windows of the car so it wasn’t just me!
On Saturday I did a couple of talks – to adults for a change – walking around the gallery and moving through ideas, showing dummy books and ending up at the Night Garden work, my Moleskines and a couple of the oils I’ve done for my forthcoming exhibition. This was the best part. It’s pretty strange and wonderful to get the opportunity to gather work representing the last 12 years of illustration, what I have tried to achieve and how the work and the way I work has changed. There were over 20 paintings – encompassing Bunyips, Elephants, Max, Where’s God, What About Me, the Night Garden and the dummy book from Ali the Bold Heart. I got to read The Night Garden and got a few join-in Awroos too 
Going further back into the week saw me fly to Brisbane on Monday evening, and drive out to Ipswich with Jenny Stubbs and her sister for three days of school visits and a workshop. I went to the wonderful West Moreton College and had a lot of fun with the kids there. And then to Lowood who had never had an author or illustrator visit them before. They were terrific – with questions and honest enthusiastic responses to everything. It was an absolute pleasure! And then on the last day, a workshop with talented young artists… as seen here!
Which brings me to the secret pleasure of Festivals. Amongst everything is the odd moment to talk, in between things, to other authors, illustrators, lecturers, librarians and people who just love what they do. You trade experiences, insights, thoughts and processes. You cut straight to the things that you want to talk about most. In the last week I’ve had many opportunities for that and it’s been great. Talking to Jenny Stubbs who took such good care of me and organised everything in Ipswich, talking to the organisers and presenters at Bendigo… what a pleasure. A much as we do these events for the kids – I think these opportunities are even more important sometimes – especially to those of us who work so much in isolation.
