Friends that are new...

Saturday is my rostered day on at Soul. The Gaye Evans Gallery resides inside the walls of Soul and shares room with nine others. Saturday has become a rather special day for me with word of mouth invites going out to people to call in and say Hi. Most of us on this tiny Island are flat out 24/7 so to have a whole day where I'm placed and must remain, is a bonus. One visitor last Saturday was Elizabeth Nowell. She was (im)patiently waiting for the plane to fly in, bringing her husband Rob. I later watched them drive past and she looked very happy. I'm writing about Elizabeth because she is always incredibly positive and encouraging. And also, I've been trying to follow her on her blog and I think I've succeeded! Hah. And is it true that the last post you published was in DECEMBER! Get on with it girl. I haven't any new pictures to upload which is pretty shameful but I've had a great idea. Yep. Another one. I'm going to cruise around Norfolk, taking photos of the things that have inspired me to paint and maybe, upload a photo of the painting also, so you can compare the two. Hmm. That's a whole new thought.

Soul Art Gallery Opening

Artists Co-op Gallery and Gift Shop

Last Friday night was full of activity here on Norfolk Island. Not only was it the last night of the tremendously successful Country Music Festival, but it was also the much anticipated opening of Norfolk Island’s newest art gallery ‘Soul’.

Soul was formed to offer public exposure for many of the fine artists in Norfolk Island and to serve our customers in their search for a broad range of locally made, high quality gifts and collectables.

At 5 o’clock sharp, the first guests came through the door and over the next 3 to 4 hours, the gallery was full to overflowing as some stopped in for a quick look around, and others stayed longer, drank champagne and chatted whilst wandering through the art-filled rooms.

Much genuine and heart-warming support from locals, visitors and local artists from other island galleries was given to all of the Soul artists over the course of the evening and some great sales were made. Soul is already a successful venture.

The opening night was a triumphant affair and a fabulous launch for this positive new enterprise that has already greatly spruced up the top end of town. Now, when tourists arrive on Norfolk Island and are taken through town for the first time, they see a pretty building bursting with art – a wonderful first impression.

The gallery is managed by each member of the co-operative on rotating days so that each day there is a featured artist – one day there is weaving, the next printing, or painting and the list goes on. With such a variety of glass jewellery, acrylic and oil paintings bursting with colour and themes, effervescent lino and block print artworks, printed fabrics and tapa, traditional Bounty hats and weaving there is certainly something for everyone.

All of the artists would like to thank those who have already come through Soul’s doors and all those wonderful salan who came and supported the opening.

If this works - it's a RedBubble feature which will be perfect!

Once upon a time there was a card rack...

...on the other side of the room from Pauline's wall. Looks spectacular now that Lou has done some further decorating. I sincerely miss the fact that I didn't get a photo of her up on the ladder but sometimes one has to forgo one's pleasures in light of one's own security! Check out one of the two card stands she got for us. This whole thing has been such FUN!

Busy, busy little bees

Ada standing in Cristina Rose's room. We call it the fairy room. I don't know if Cristina does, but we do!

Visit our gallery in Norfolk Island

Let me take you for a little stroll, whilst I point out some of our people.

Ada has spent many hours with us here at night whilst we paint, hammer, and hang pictures. Ada's eye, which is so much younger than ours, has been fantastic for pointing out where things should go.

This is Maeve and Beck's wall. Maeve paints beautiful oil paintings of Norfolk's scenery and history while Beck makes jewellry from our shells and plaits and weaves hats from the local flax or mu-uu. David Evans, master woodcarver, has a child's rocking horse on display in the background.

Pauline Reynolds is a fabric artist and her cloth is shown here with her husband George's designs printed. A further picture of the foyer shown from another angle, follows on with one of my paintings of a large white hibiscus on a red and maroon background. Norfolk pine frame completes the setting.

Opening of Soul

Continuing with images from our opening, I point out to you Cristina Rose, centre photo, pointing her camera at me whilst I take her photo. No doubt my image will be high and proud on her blog. Mor pics anyone? Yeah

Yvon Adams makes the most amazing jewellry with dichroic glass. Seen here Yvon is hanging some of her pendants on the wall. They're incredibly priced and are walking out the door.

Gaye Evans Gallery at Soul

Wow! Well we've finally had our opening and what fun. Friday night on Norfolk Island at the top end of town, and it was rocking! I've taken a few photos but nothing like the amount that I could have. Unfortunately, my photographic abilities is less than perfect, so you will need to use your imagination! Let me share some images with you.

Work, work, work, work, work.....

We've been working like little trojans and you should see it now! Looks fantastic. Naturally, I forgot to take my camera, but we're having our opening tomorrow so I'll upload all sorts of goodies that will take your breath away. I've got Eve and Doug framing at the very last minute, but it will be so worth it, because it's a lovely little watercolour of No 10 Quality Row. Oops. That's right. I think I was to take it's photo BEFORE it get framed. Too late. Wish us well!

Walls in Room 1 - coming along nicely thank you

Vibrant Frangipani's in or out of season

The latest photo

Well I've managed to add and remove photos and now I've got to somehow get back in there and load it up again. I've totally removed the heading so no-one knows who or what this blog's about. This could be an advantage or disadvantage. I'll have to wait and see which one.

What's On?

So now you can see that we're moving along smartly. Most of the walls are painted and the front verandah is moving along at pace. We each have a wall space of our own and then we share four smaller rooms. The photo of the black and white drawings are one of my walls with the gorgeous card cabinet that I found and David altered to suit my purposes. Isn't it just great. It's been fabulous to have everyone working together.  We're still very new and polite with each other. It will be interesting to see whether we degenerate into the last hour of a children's party by this time next year! Hah. Fun. If anyone would like to email me to tell me how to make my blog more interesting, then please do so. My email is on this thing somewhere. Maybe I'd better help. It's goodevansnorfolk@gmail.com. Call me!

Information underload

Well as you can see, it is very fortunate indeed that I'm not the photographer of the SOUL gathering. We have two of those. Louise Donald and Cristina Rose. Now there's no need for me to talk about those two when this blog is all about ME so I'll move on. The last three photos were what was, and now I'm going to upload some of where we are at now.

Roll Over Red Rover

Well, I've tried very hard to move my Studio 123 blog over to my (soon to be) lovely and new Gaye Evans Gallery blog. It didn't work. I've also written a very newsy blog that's taken off into cyberspace somewhere so I'll have to start again. My gorgeous little gallery at Studio 123 has momentarily gone off air and I've moved myself and my art to Soul. What is Soul? It's a gathering of artists at the old Smithy's building at the Hospital Corner, Norfolk Island.  Ten creative souls have decided that if two heads are better than one, then ten is just awesome. We've been painting and polishing and last Saturday we had a soft opening. I'm still trying to work out what that means, but anyway, we've done it. An official opening is set for (maybe) 14 May. That's with a bit of luck and a fair breeze because some of us are still waiting for orders to fly in from Australia. And now, I will try to share some photos with you. It's very important for you to have a look at the linked blogs (once I work out how to get them on here!)

Setting up blogs

Well. Wow. Haven't been here for a while. In fact I'm trying to move my old Studio 123 blog over to my new Gaye Evans Gallery blog. This could be very very messy. But such fun! I've joined a gathering of artists who have moved en masse into the old Smithy's building, on the Hospital Corner, Norfolk Island. A really different mix of people and already it's showing in the designs.  It's been a bit of hard work but the building ~ which is incredibly big ~ has been given to us rent free for six months to give us all a butt boost. We've spent time painting and polishing and now we're into the hanging and pricing phrase. But before I get into that, perhaps I should try and move my old blog over. Here goes!