"Perspectives" - Creativity in the rain.

Rain…rain…rain…well, after all, it is the Wet season in Far North Queensland and right across tropical Australia as the monsoon settles in to cloaking the northern part of the continent with grey.

We also had a cyclone warning – Olga was headed straight for Port Douglas at one stage. There is always quite a bit of preparation and anticipation as cyclones approach, with residents and businesses making sure that they have a safe, protected place in their house, with food and water and other necessities ready in case disaster strikes.

Fortunately, as Olga crossed the coast she decided to turn into a low pressure system, bearing lots of rain. So it waterfalled down, relentlessly, the ocean turned brown with violent looking waves crashing on a vanishing beach...and surfing stalwarts took advantage of the unusual conditions to cavort amongst them.

The school holidays are over and it’s back to normal for most. Artists are planning their year ahead, with some, such as Judith Bohm-Parr hopping right into it by offering a wonderful series of glass workshops at her studio at Fishery Falls, south of Cairns.

So if you have always wanted to learn how to work with slumped and fused glass, or even pate de verre, now’s your chance!

Check out what’s on offer here and contact Jude straight away so that you don’t miss out. She even has classes for children. What an opportunity!

Watch this space for other interesting North Queensland and Australian workshops.

Anyone else who would like to upload information about their art stories, poems or activities is very welcome to do so by following the links on this page. There is no charge for this service. What you are doing is building your very own web-page, to which you can send your friends to see your latest artwork, painting or photography tips etc.

I had a chat with Linda Jackson this morning. She is currently in Sydney, cataloging her body of work at the Sydney Powerhouse Museum but has plans for lots of exciting additions to her web-pages. So do check them out in a few weeks' time.

Go Troppo Arts Festival is cranking up again with lots of new art activities and performances in the gestation stage. Do let us know if you would like to be involved this year as a participant, helper, spectator – or benefactor!

In the meantime – happy creating!

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