Australia – Page 4 – Nicci Carrera

November 24, 2013March 20, 2014 Nicci Australia, Travel

Bondi Beach Australia, sculpture walk 3: favorites

Thank you KidazzleInk, SuzJones, and Gwennie’s Garden for helping me decide what to do for my favorites post.

I’m going to start with my inspiration from Suz Jones, who said she doesn’t understand abstract art but loves the sea and landscapes. I agree that these were the most breathtaking of all. So if you don’t happen to be in Sydney during the exhibit, no problem, just enjoy a long, ambling walk on the path from Bondi Beach to Tamarama Beach along the seaside walkway. Starting from Bondi Beach:

go past the rock pool:

ascend:

observe exquisite views:

rock formations:

trees:

and end at Tamarama Beach:

Washed Up by Tunny (Antony) Kraus

And now for the sculpture. Like Gwennie, this was my favorite because the second I spotted it up on the rock:

I stopped and my jaw dropped. This earns it the wow factor. I also love its simplicity, the way it is just a simple reflection of our beautiful world. And finally for its elegance and its message.

Here’s that same shot, enhanced:

The artist, Lucy Humphrey, is a winner of the Helen Lempriere Scholarship for 2013. Here is more info about her and this piece on Facebook.

In second place also because of the wow factor, was this one:

In third place, we have a tie. I loved this one for the wow factor: I didn’t notice it at first. Like in any exhibit crawl, I was saturated from already seeing so many pieces. Any of these pieces, if I came across them by themselves, would make my day, but they were becoming ho hum and I was doing a bit of staring glaze-eyed into space when my friend pointed this one out to me. It was right behind me.

It also places high on my list for concept, beauty and movement. I love visual arts that can depict movement, such as the drawings and bronze sculptures of Degas.

Weight of the world — A Shared Weight, by Elyssa Sykes-Smith

This mobile was exquisite. I wish I had captured it on video for you. It moves so gracefully in the breeze. Each of the arms was of equal length. The piece definitely wins for wow factor, beauty (it’s so tall and graceful), engineering and movement.

November 22, 2013March 20, 2014 Nicci Australia, Travel

Bondi Beach Australia, sculpture walk, 2

Here are the rest of the sculptures from the Bondi Beach sculpture exhibit in October, 2013. This way you can get a feel for the exhibit’s size and for the environment. Then I’ll do another post with my favorites. Please feel free to vote! (To see the first post, go here Bondi Beach Australia sculpture walk, 1.) I didn’t capture many of the names of the pieces or artist’s names, because this was for fun and enjoyment, not work! But where I did, I included that information.

Since this one is in both the first and second post, you can already guess it’s one of my favorites!

Miniatures close — Inside the miniatures

Metal 2 — camel country ii, by Koichi Ogino

de Composition Family 1 — (de) composition: family, by Arun Sharma

de Composition Family 2 — (de) composition family (2)

Plastic spoons on a tree — Saved (rusty pipe), by Rox De Luca (Note: the pipe was already there, the artist put the plastic-ware on the existing item.)

Good night Uncle John, by Eko Bambang Wisnu and Ida Lawrence

Sunscreen station (not part of the exhibit)

November 22, 2013March 20, 2014 Nicci Australia, Travel

The beauty of dead trees, Magnetic Island, Australia series, 6

November 18, 2013March 20, 2014 Nicci Australia, Travel

Bondi Beach Australia, sculpture walk, 1

We were in Sydney on the first day of this amazing outdoor exhibit. Combine a stunning location with these brilliant, mind boggling sculptures and you have a lot of photo ops and a very enjoyable, thought provoking experience.

I love this weight of the world one. The artist built it just for this cliff.

From this perspective it looks like a bunch of boards.

And here it is a life sculpture. I like the sense of movement.

This is granite! How did the artist do it? I have no idea.

This one is called World.

This one is called Multiverse:

November 17, 2013March 20, 2014 Nicci Australia, Travel

Street art of Sydney Australia

Can you make out what this is? It’s clear to me now but I couldn’t figure it out when I was standing close to it.

I moved further away and I could finally see it.

Further away and I could see it plainly.

Weird how that works. This was my favorite piece. As you can see, the tagger was respectful and wrote on the guard rail instead of on the painting.

This was my second favorite. I think it was commissioned by the owner of the venue.

Here’s the companion piece:

I didn’t like this one, but I thought it was amazing nonetheless:

A couple more.

November 16, 2013March 20, 2014 Nicci Australia, Travel

Charters Towers 3, the streets

Given that Charters Towers is inland (from Townsville), behind a mountain range and in the outback, I expected a desert city. The town is filled with trees, though, a lush oasis, though the outback in this area is also dotted with trees, filled with grass and fed by a huge river (the Burdekin River), so it is not quite right to call Charters Towers an oasis either. But the trees are larger and there is a wide variety of them.

The visitor’s center is open 7 days a week and the town has preserved its historic downtown.

I think my favorite thing about Charters Towers was seeing contemporary people living in this historic town — the mix of the old and the new. It is a charming place where I could well imagine living!

We parked across the street from the visitor’s center. This is looking down the main street. Our little white rental car is in the foreground on the right.

Another street shot:

Some of the historic buildings:

The bank:

The police station:

And every day life:

A tavern:

Modern stores in old buildings:

A pub:

An open lot with a park behind it, showing some of the trees.

November 15, 2013March 20, 2014 Nicci Australia, Travel, Uncategorized

Charters Towers, Australia, the florist

An interesting display in a florist and a reflection of the city and the photographer.

November 14, 2013March 20, 2014 Nicci Australia, Travel

Great Barrier Reef

You have to get up early to get to the reef from Townsville.

It’s a long boat ride, but it’s worth it! The dark patches are the reef.

The environment is very peaceful. I saw 3 big, kind of flat (vertical) fish hanging motionless in the water near the reef. They were so still! And there’s not much sound, just your own breath. Gazing down at the life below from the surface was really peering into another world.

The captain suggested I shoot some pictures through his polarized sun glasses. They allow you to see more deeply into the water.

November 12, 2013October 26, 2013 Nicci Australia, Travel

The beauty of dead trees, Magnetic Island, Australia series, 5

November 11, 2013November 11, 2013 Nicci Australia, Travel

Lighthouses of Victoria, Australia, 1, Split Point

Leanne (of Leanne Cole Photography fame) took us to this fabulous spot. I must admit that at the time I was dizzy from travel and not really able to absorb everything. I mean Melbourne and The Great Ocean Road are somewhat overwhelming. Thankfully, it doesn’t take much mental alertness to point a camera and click. Now I can go back and enjoy some of the nuances of the experiences.

Looking at these photos reminds me of the feeling I had at this light house. The feeling was cozy. Some lighthouses feel lonely to me.

I wonder if you will get that feeling from the photos.