Whoopsy daisy!

Uh oh! Due to some unforseen technical action, my website's gone missing, or rather deleted by accident! Whoops! Until my super smart technician also known as Darren resolves it, here's what I'm working on. I am still designing it here and there. Adding a better 'About page' and stuff like that. It's going really slow though. I am such a hopeless case when it comes to web stuff! I need to work on it a little faster. I created a brochure last night for my home kids classes and I plan on printing heaps out and cycling around south side so I can pretend to be a mailman and slot them into nice mailboxes.

Commissioned illustration

It was my birthday yesterday and I spent the morning singing along to Bieber's 'Baby' ( Not that I'm a fan. Sorry Bieber lovers! ) and working on a commissioned illustration for a nice foodie magazine. Well, before this project, I never ever thought beef ribs or any form of ribs were that difficult to draw! It was kind of exciting. Haha. My day was pretty much spent after that, having the worst dim sum at a dim sum buffet with Darren. The food was so bad and the service was just atrocious. But it was what made it so fun. I think the both of us had too many rock-hard dumplings, we started giggling a lot and coined the term ' death by char siew'. Their rice noodle char siew roll, oh it was just bad. After lunch it was a whole lot of errand running and buying stuff for my classes next week. It's nice to not have to think about job hunting ( I'm trying to look for a full time art-related job in a school ) and just spend the day laughing and having bad dim sum. Darren gave me a super lovely ring as a present. I'll show you more in the next post!

Till then, I'm off to spend my day with Darren, have more birthday cake, and just relax in this nice sun before we come home and camp out in front of the television in anticipation of the royal wedding! And yes, I am one of those funny ones who's pretty excited about it. I am not really in support of all the money that's being spent. But well, I must admit, I can't wait to see Kate's dress! Anyone of you excited too?

Frankie Time!

Hooray! Once again, I got to do some fun drawings for Frankie and here's the page in print. Before this project, I never thought beer bottles were that tough to draw! But well, a challenge is always good! I hope you like it! Here's the close ups of each bottle. I wonder which is your favourite? I can't decide which ones I like best. The Dogbolter, Coopers vintage ale or the Long shot. Hmmmm....

Kids home art classes

To all Melbourne parents with young kids who are ages 3 and up, I am now offering home art classes for kids! Yes, you don't need to travel, I'll come straight to you and have 2 hours of fun with your kids, making art while you sit back and relax. Your kids will feel safe knowing you're around too! No crying or anxiety issues. No waking early and driving your child halfway across the city for classes. All's good! It's such a good thing I reckon, especially for busy parents who work in offices or even at home.

My classes are specially catered for kids who are interested in fun crafty hands-on type projects. Perfect for pre or prep schoolers. Depending on what your child likes, I will come up with a extra special lesson for your child. For example, if your child is into fishes, we could do a mini little crafty aquarium. Or if he's into spaceships, we could do our own super rocket and he or she can pretend to be an astronaut. Wooohoo! There's really so many fun things out there that can be done. So it's really up to what your child likes! Oh and did I already mention, all art materials will be provided too.

Classes are offered as mostly one-off classes, but you can also sign up for a month-long 4-week block. Group bookings are available for siblings, best friends, cousins, neighbours, etc. Art making's always a little more fun with little friends around! At the end of each session, you'll be surprised with a beautiful spiffy new artwork from your kid! Now doesn't that sounds wonderful? Do hop over here or email me at dawntanwenyi@gmail.com for more info! Thank you : )

* Do take note, I am still teaching at both Harvest and Art encounters. I started home art classes because parents who read my blog ( hi there! ) have been emailing to ask if I could go to their homes to teach, due to conflicting work schedules, location, etc. So I thought why not! Thanks mummies and daddies for the suggestion! It's such a great idea and well, thanks to all your encouragement, I've started it!

Happy handmade things

It's my birthday this week but I have been so stressed over some things. I've been tearing a lot and not sleeping much, or rather waking up too early cause I'm too stressed. But yes, let me take my mind of things for a while and introduce you all to the cute things Molly Dyson paints. Oh and that's a quilt she made for her friend ( how nice! ) and oh that's her room. Yes! A map on the wall! I'm sold!

I went to uni and she was in a few of my history classes. We never quite spoke to each other I think. For most part of my uni life, I thought Molly reminded me very much of Nancy Drew. In a cute way of course! In class, she always wore the cutest clothes just like Nancy Drew's. Art history classes were always so boring so sometimes I'd be looking at what others wore to make time pass faster. Molly's outfits were always the highlight! During grad show, I came across her work and have been smitten ever since. The painting above is just so beautiful, my photo ( 3rd Picture ) does it no justice at all! It is so amazing and it makes me happy just looking at it. Well, I think I am not the only one who thinks she's cute. The lovely Pip wrote about Molly here too! Molly has a cute blog here, why not you take a look!

pictures all taken from Molly's amazing blog! ( Except 3rd picture! )

Holiday fun at Harvest

Three days filled with lots of colourful crafty bits. Beads, vegetables for stamping, crayons, markers, paint, paper and even umbrellas! I got bright fluorescent green paint on my favourite black skirt but it's ok. I had fun, the kids had fun and well,there's always dynamo right?

Have a nice Easter holiday everyone! I'm going to dye some eggs tomorrow. I cannot wait!

Home art class

I went to a beautiful home in East Malvern today to teach two sisters. They were such lovely 14 and 11 year old girls. Very polite and eager to learn. It was such a joy teaching them. Lessons were meant to go on for two hours but it was so much fun just learning to paint and draw. The girl's super mum, Catherine even spoiled us all with yummy baked treats! I ended up staying for almost 4 hours. But it's cool. So fun and we all ended up with awesome recipe drawings! Just look at those works! I love it when kids are so ready to learn. Thanks Catherine for such an opportunity!

I am offering home art classes to children ages 3 and up. Apart from learning watercolouring, drawing and even illustrating, I also teach crafty fun stuff. Especially so for the younger kids. Totally up to your kid and what he or she wants/is interested in. Lessons are $45 per 2 hour class. And I go to your homes so your kids can feel safe knowing you're in sight. And best part is, you don't have to travel! So if you're a mummy and this sounds like a cool idea, feel free to drop me a line at dawntanwenyi@gmail.com

Thanks!

The very hungry caterpillar

Day 1 of my little kiddy art classes over at Harvest Workroom! We made movable caterpillars, a giant glittery leaf for it to sleep in, some fruits for it to enjoy. Just like the very cute and hungry one in this story! We're decorating our very own umbrellas tomorrow. Thanks to a mention on the radio yesterday, we are having a huge class. 15 little kidlets! Yay! Thanks Triple R!

Crazy Plant Lady

Oh no. I think I am turning into a crazy plant lady. It seems I actually need plants around me, on my table, in order to work and concentrate better. Call me crazy. But I actually find watering plants really, really calming. This here, would be my ultimate dream studio. Plants, plants plants and more plants!

Ps: I kind of only like the ferns though.

Fair Food

Darren and I decided to give this a try after hearing about it from Emma and Paula ( Our friends ). We signed up for it over the weekend and ordered our very first veggie box along with some lovely sourdough bread and extra mushrooms. We waited in excitement after our Sunday order for our Wednesday pick up time. I thought it was quite fun to wait and guess what would be in the box. We picked our box up last night and found lots of freshly harvested veggies and fruits. Super sweet fuji apples, pears, potatoes, onions, corn, mushrooms, lettuce, zucchinis, juicy red tomatoes and the list goes on. I think it's quite worth it. I like knowing I get fresh veggies that have no funny chemicals in them. And at the same time, I'm helping the farmers out there. I think being a farmer is like being an artist. We both have our own kind of craft. One's making things look pretty, another's making sure people get healthy foods. I like buying organic and would if I could afford it. This is my first little step. One at a time. I wonder if any of you do buy or eat organically as well. What are your thoughts about the idea of going organic, buying whole foods?

PS: I'm making cream of mushroom soup tonight with those nice bags of mushrooms. I love mushrooms!

Home

My knitting basket. New Mt tapes that I got for about a dollar from Borders. New little work-studio nook in my room. See that lettuce seed packet? I think that's going to be turned into a giant soft sculpture. I haven't sewn anything since my grad show but I think it's time to start again. Oh and guess what? I got myself a studio space at Harvest afterall! I will be moving in sometime early June. Hooray! I'll be sharing the space with the fantastic Harvest trio - Jess,Lara and Emma, Pete - Emma's friendly writer husband and guess who else? EMILY GREEN. Woah! Awesome space, awesome people, what else can I ask for?! So super excited!

Studio Visit

Some time ago, I did an interview with the very clever Gemma Jones and we talked about my studio at Harvest. I showed her lots of pictures and got asked fun questions. Well, the write up is up. You can visit my little studio and read about interesting things that happen in there over here! Thank you Gemma. What a delightful opportunity!

PS: Gemma has cool cat-eye glasses! I want one too!

Have a super weekend!
x

East Brunswick

A few photos taken while walking about one afternoon in March. I can't believe I've moved out of the Harvest workroom. My month-long residency just went by so quickly! I had so much fun and it definitely helped me to cope a little with the loss of my dear friend. I still miss and think of him every single day. Sometimes during the day, I imagine he's just 2 blocks down the road, just a call away. But I know he isn't. That makes me a little sad. There's just so much I want to tell him about. Things that have happened, the stuff I've been doing, I even want to show him my new haircut! But he's not there anymore. But these things do take time I suppose. Anyway, I'm keeping my fingers crossed. If all goes well, I might end up having a studio space again in June at Harvest. It is just way too much fun there, Lara, Emma and Jess are all so nice to me and I've come to love the little neighbourhood so much. There's the organic grocer, Each Peach, the friendly sustainable bee farming guy, the foodworks lady who always talks about music and the weather and oh the private homes too. They are so cute. I'll show you pictures the next time I get around to uploading them.

Professional Photoshoot

Guess what?! Home Beautiful Magazine's doing a story on our collaboration/pop up shop and we had a photoshoot yesterday! I'm serious! it was my first ever photoshoot, with a photographer. Cool! The issue will be out in July. And I cannot wait. I even got a haircut specially for it! I cut off 4 inches and got bangs!