Nancy Bentliegh

People reading my earlier posts may have been wondering what Nancy Bentleigh is.

It's the latest picture book I've illustrated and was written by Tracey Hawkins.
Everyone should buy it, because it's fabulous!

It really is a wonderful little piece of hidden Australian history. It's all about how a 6 year old girl became the first female member of the Australian Navy. True story - promise.

Nancy Bentley was bitten by a snake on the shores of Port Arthur in Tasmania. There was no medical help nearby so Nancy’s father rowed her out to the HMAS Sydney in the bay.
In 1920 women were not allowed on naval vessels. In order to comply with regulations Nancy Bentley was enlisted into the Royal Australian Navy. Nancy was six years of age and the first female to be inducted into the Royal Australian Navy. The Navy looked after her for eight days before discharging her because she was ‘required by her parents’.
A moving and fascinating true story.

Mona

I managed to find time to get to the new gallery Mona in Hobart.
Very interesting!
And very contraversial. I recommend going, but be prepared before you go.
I won't say more in case kids read my blog!!!

Sick of driving

Driving, driving, driving.
Sometimes I think it's all I do. After driving 3 hours to Bendigo I drove for another 2 to the airport. I didn't manage to get lost which was most impressive, and managed to stay calm and at peace despite the ridiculous and unexpected traffic.

After a further hour of travel I landed in Hobart and met with Tracey Hawkins, author extraordinaire, for the launch of Nancy Bentleigh.

The launch was wonderful and we met Nancy's family which gave the event quite a different feel. It was very personal and we could find out in person all about this remarkable lady.

Tracey and I had a great time - lots of food and chatting about books.
She did snore very loudly though, so I was quite sleep deprived when I got home.

Below are photos of her before getting ready and after -  the hair rollers are a nice touch.

Bendigo Festival and windscreen wipers

A big day last Friday that started with a drive to Bendigo to do some workshops at a Literary Festival at Catholic College Bendigo.
Along the way my windscreen wipers stopped. I discovered this because, of course, it was raining. I did discover that the faster you drive the less the rain stays on the windshield. It tends to make the rain travel up the glass like it does in a car wash.
The impressive thing was that I managed to change the fuse all by myself and fix them. If I was a super hero I could be called 'Windscreen Woman'.

The workshops were great and the kids all lovely. Photos below!

A day at Dromkeen

I had a very lovely day last Sunday at Dromkeen for a 'Meet the Artist' day.
I was the artist and the theory is that people come to meet me, but really I end up meeting people - and people who love kid's books what's more.
It's really quite pleasant.

My latest picture book that I've illustrated called 'Nancy Bentleigh' is on exhibition there, so if you have a spare afternoon make you're way down to have a look. It's a beautiful homestead with the odd friendly peacock or two to say hello to.

Dromkeen-National Centre for Picture Book Art
1012 Kilmore Road
Riddells Creek VIC

Just thought I'd share a wonderful clip.
Arty, musical and a lovely message....

(Limited Edition Prints nearly there......)

I'm working on two lovely portraits at the moment, commissioned by two gentlemen for their wives as a present.

It's so lovely and romantic.

One of these lovely gentlemen was unable to keep any secrets and his wife was onto him straight away!
He had to come clean and tell her and now she's very much involved in the project as well.


To all the romantic men out there, a portrait is a very lovely present.

Very cute Halloween message.
Click here to see very scary message!!!!!!!

Happy Halloween.

limited edition prints coming soon

I'm not far off having my website updated and people will be able to purchase limited Edition Prints of my art. I'm really excited about launching it. I've so many requests to release prints it will be great to finally do it.

Cute quote from Oscar Wilde:
“One should either be a work of art, or wear a work of art.”

Saw this You Tube video on latte art and thought I'd share.

Last week I went to the Yarra Valley Literary Festival that was organised by Ford Street Publishing, and gave workshops to kids from  Rangeview Primary school, Hampton park Primary, Camberwell Grammar, Yarra Valley Grammar, Kingswood Grammar and Scotch College.

The kids were fantastic. I promised that I'd post an illustration of a dragon I drew and was showing them how to draw, but for the life of me I can't find it anywhere. Really sorry kids. Your dragons were gorgeous though. (posted YouTube clip of top 5 dragon movies to make up for it)

Some of the other wondrful authors and artists wthere were Claire Saxby, Dee White, Judith Rossell, Sean Mcmullen, Mark McBride, Meredith Costain, George Ivanoff, Michael Panckridge, Hazel Edwards, Paul Collins, Phil Kettle, Tania McCartney and David Miller.

Jacqui
www.jacquigrantford.com


 

Harold and Stephanie

Some of the amazing subjects in my exhibition.
I thought I'd start with some of the people who do amazing things to help other.

Harold Mitchell - He moved 20 times when he was a kid and his mother walked out leaving his father to bring him and his brothers up alone. Harold has become one of the biggest media sellers around and uses his wealth to help others. He started the Harold Mitchell Foundation that provides enormous amounts of money to support projects in health and the arts. He's also been Chairman of the National Gallery and the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, Director of Tennis Australia and so, so much more. He even has an extinct fish named after him.

Stephanie Copus-Campbell - Stephanie lives in Papua New Guinea and works for AusAID over there. Every weekend she visits the AIDS Ward at Port Moresby General and gives every single AIDS sufferer there an orange and words of hope and sympathy. She also visits the labor and maternity ward and the Disabled Orphanage. She is a remarkable woman who really makes a difference to people's lives.

The show is launched

I'm finally resurfacing after A Show of Hands opened. (open till August 7)

 It was such a great night and so lovely to see all my wonderful friends and celebrate with them.

I got a terrific photo of all my gorgeous book writing friends in front of the painting of Madge.




Over the next few days I'll post a few photos from the night.
There were lots of amazing people there. Tootsie owned his painting and chatted to anyone who came by.

Tootsie's real name is Ken Atherton. At the age of 19 he was imprisoned for being gay. When he told me I didn't actually believe it could be true. He's 78 now, and does mime drag cabaret acts which he started doing when he was 62.

hung the art today

Just put up all the works today - so much fun seeing a year and a half of work on display and how it all fits together. And also seeing the works out of my studio space and with room around them.
It's been a big day, but I'm really please with how it has come up.I
And I'm now and expert at using a drill and attaching picture wire!!

A Show of Hands - nearly there

It's the countdown to the opening of my exhibition and I'm nearly ready.

Just finishing off the final touches. It really is a bit like a picture book with really big pages I've decided.

I was delighted to find out that Colleen Hewitt is coming to the opening.
She donated an old saw of her fathers for me to paint as a pressent for Harold Mitchell. It was so lovely of her to do it, so it will be great to thank her in person.

Finalist in Charlatan Ink Art Prize

I just discovered that I'm a semi-finalist in the Charlatan Ink Art Prize. http://www.charlatanink.com/artprize/jacquigrantford.html
100 semi-finalists were chosen from across the world and in July they choose 25 finalists from this list.
Fingers crossed!
The painting is one that is part of my exhibition coming up at Chapel off Chapel in Melbourne. It's of sculptor Jo Linsdel's hands.

On Classically Kids last Saturday mornng, on 3MBS 103.5 fm, Adam and I inverviewed David Jones, an amazing percussionist.

His performance is quite visual so we decided to film it. I've uploaded the video here.

Enjoy!

Break-a-Lead

Filming for Break a Lead went really well last Wednesday. Chris and Simon are very professional and we managed to film three new podcasts. Hopefully they'll be edited and up soon.
I'll keep you posted.
We had some great ideas generating as well. Should be some interesting stuff developing on Break a Lead.

Archibald Portrait - Rod Hardy

I met with Rod Hardy yesterday for a sitting for the Archibald.

He's a fascinating man - director of December Boys with Daniel Radcliffe, X-Files, Burn Notice, The Mentalist, and Battlestar Galactica to name a few. And he's mixed with some BIG names...Michael Caine, Pierce Brosnan, Henry Winkler. There's plenty more.

You can read all about him on his website http://www.rodhardy.com/index.htm

It's fascinating talking to him. We don't talk a lot about Hollywood, but rather life and all its strange synchronicities.

I'm very much enjoying the painting process and Rod is very generous with his time.

Break a Lead

On Wednesday I'll be filming 3 new episodes of Break a Lead with Chris and the team from Pro Eye. Should be a fun day.

You can see the 2 we already did on Breakalead.net

Painting on Air

Next Tuesday at 9 in the morning I will be 'Painting on Air' on 3MBS fm.

The amazing Tony Gould is going to improvise over a painting that I do.

We'll chat at the start and then paint and chat at the end to see if the experience was what we expected.

It will be a terrific challenge to get the painting done in such a short time limit.

I'm hopin to develop this into an exhibition if it's successful.

3MBS is on 103.5 fm in Melbourne, but you can stream it from the internet as well.

holidays in fairyland

It's been a long time since my last post, but I"m back. I have been fortunate enough to visit Canada since since my last visit here. My gorgeous partner Stewart took me and thoroughly spoilt me. Considering the number of times I fell over, though I think I needed spoiling. I did get a black eye and have to be rescued from the lifts with my bad lift technique. Great fun though ...and SOOOOO beautiful.
I'll post some photos soon and maybe create some art from it all. It was like fairyland all full of ginger bread houses.