Sculptures – Page 2 – Travels with Ali

~ Sun, Sea Sand and Sculptures – A Taste of Things to come ~

It’s been so hot in Perth these last few days I finally persuaded Anthony to come to the beach with me. We arrived around 4.30 pm and found somewhere for the deckchairs. This week is the opening of Sculptures by the Sea 2023, so it was pretty busy on the beach with some sculptures already up and others being erected. Bulldozers were going up and down on the sand creating spaces for sculptures that needed reinforcing.

“The beach is a place of art,
Where sand comes alive by the sun’s light,
Where sculptures spring up like mushrooms in the night.
Each wave that greets the shore,
A brush stroke of ambience,
Creating a masterpiece on the sea floor
Sculptures of sand, soaked by the sun’s kiss,
Moulded with care, to make us never miss
The memories of our days at the shore,
And the special places we just can’t ignore.”

A poem created by the new AI Block on WordPress

I have just been reading Deb’s post about this new block and thought I would give it a try! I suppose it is cheating but so much fun.

As you can see Anthony is waiting patiently for me to have a quick swim. It’s ironic that I decided to go for a swim on the first day of Autumn and no sign of the end of the Summer in sight!

So far there are some wonderful colours dotted around and I’m looking forward to sharing more in the next couple of weeks.

My featured photo shows the surf lifesavers practicing their exercises. I thought this showed a certain order as I watched them paddling out, circling around and back again. (For Marsha’s WQ post).

In a sea of chaos and dismay
Order can brighten up your day.
An unbroken pattern of sound
That summons things around.

Another AI poem!

Bright Lights and City Sights

I’m linking up this post with Natalie’s Weekend Coffee Share and Public Art Challenge.

We arrived back in Perth very early Thursday morning, around 1 am and I’ve been busy ever since. Especially today as it’s Munchkin Monday and have been run ragged by my two adorable grandchildren. The plan was to see Santa and choose a Christmas decoration each. They both declined the visit to Santa, Rosie being particularly scared and anxious, she is only two. Anyway I didn’t push it and we just stood and had a look at the scene before us. We had a pitstop in a cafe, coffee for me and smartie cookies for them. Back to the house for some Christmas baking, more cookies and then chocolate cake for hubby’s birthday. A huge sugar hit today, hope they sleep okay!

Below are some photos of Hong Kong at night.

Let City Lights guide you home

One thing for sure about Hong Kong, it really knows how to dress up at night, Christmas especially. Walking around the city that never sleeps there’s always something to catch your eye. Brightly lit skyscrapers, shop windows and side streets.

Oohing and aahing at every corner!

John “Rudolph” Travolta

Even the trams get a sprucing up, just captured this as it trundled by in a blur!

This is just because! I turned around walking through this shopping centre at night and just liked the clean lines and the diagonal pattern it made.

Just like to say thanks to Natalie for taking on the PPAC challenge after Marsha, something I’ve always enjoyed. This is also my first time for Weekend Coffee Share, although I’m a day late.

Hong Kong – Streets, Alleys and Quirky Sights

Over the past couple of days we have been traipsing around the streets, reacquainting ourselves with our favourite areas of Hong Kong. Central is one area that we have always enjoyed walking around, from here you can join the Central-Mid-levels escalator to access the streets of Soho, namely Elgin Street and Staunton Street. The escalator was built in 1993 and at that time was the longest in the world. Old and new buildings exist along side each other creating unique scenes.

The Old Hong Kong Police Station, Hollywood Road and Jardine House, Central

The two guys above are both wearing safety harnesses that aren’t attached to anything! No helmets but to be on the safe side they have their masks on.

We stopped for lunch at a tiny Italian restaurant just off one of the levels of the escalator, one which we had been to many times before. We were happy to see that it wasn’t a Covid victim.

Just outside Anthony noticed a girl painting a mural, so I asked her if I could take her photo.

The damp grey walls could all do with a bit of paint. She was doing an excellent job. Take a look at the murals in the slideshow below.

The smell of fresh pine leaves outside this shop brought back so many memories of our Christmases in Hong Kong. We would always have a real tree, since moving to Australia we just have a fake one now.

Anthony’s favourite food, animal intestines. Sadly I don’t share his taste in food and I’m not a fan of Chinese or Japanese food.

I mentioned before that there are many wonderful sculptures in Hong Kong, I love the ones below.

Thanks for coming along for the walk around Central. There’s always something to see that’s odd or quirky and you can always find so much artwork around. It’s great how Hong Kong are renovating all the old buildings and holding onto the history. There is a place for everything here.

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🎨 Art and About in Subiaco, Western 🎨Australia

On a visit to Subiaco recently I saw there were some great new murals, so I went back the other day and did a walkabout and spotted a few more. I also took snapshots of sculptures which I’ve always admired.

The featured image is called “Sky’s Chorus” by Clare MacFarlane and shows a migrating flock of Carnaby Black Cockatoos.

From the same wall, quite difficult to get a shot of the whole wall down the alley.

**Subiaco was built on a Sunday** – **Artist: Melski McVee**

**The Boy on the Red Bike – Artist Evoca1**

God’s Chair aka
Arrive to Paradise – **Ayad Alqaragholli**

The artist’s statement for God’s Chair : God’s Seat…with an angel on each shoulder, decisions being made about who gets into paradise ..

**Artist – Robert Jenkins “Works for Walls Programme”**

I enjoyed my afternoon walk in Subiaco, reacquainting myself with this suburb. It was like a ghost town during covid plus the landlords decided to get greedy! Many places shut down, but on this Friday afternoon it was buzzing with weekend drinks starting early. I noticed too that the “Sip and Paint” bars are becoming very popular. Also called Canvas and Cabernet, where you paint a masterpiece with a brush in one hand and a drink in the other, sounds like such a fun experience.

My favourite mural here is “Boy on a Red Bike” – how about your’s?

Posted as part of PPAC by Marsha at Always Write.

Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge – Triangles

This week for CFFC the theme is squares and triangles. I’ve found a few triangles and possibly squares.

Concrete artificial reef block, Dunsborough, WA

Sculpture from “Sculptures by the Sea, Cottesloe, WA

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A Family Trip to Melbourne – Part Two – Walking the Yarra Trail

Waking up to blue skies again was a very nice surprise, especially after the weather forecast had predicted rain for the whole of our stay here. We had the day to ourselves, so what to do! I do like a walk along a river so did a quick search and saw we could walk the Yarra Trail into town.

We hoped on a tram right outside our apartment building and got off at the start of the trail to walk into Melbourne. It’s a great scenic walk, good for cycling, walking and running, starting with bushland and ending up with skyscrapers.

As you can see there are many bridges to cross the Yarra River, whether by foot, train or car.

I spotted these concrete blocks high up on the ridge, the photos make them look larger than they are. Pretty cute I thought!

Rowing is a very big part of Melbourne sports, dating back to the 1800s. There are many clubs to choose from and the Yarra River is ideal for training.

“Warin the Wombat was carved from a 2.5- tonne redgum log by Des McKenna and took two weeks to complete. The wombat is named ‘Warin’ pronounced Wareeyn, a name derived from the local dialect of the two most important Aboriginal tribes of the Melbourne area.” . Source: City Collection Melbourne

This is one of my favourite photos of the trip that I took. I’ve decided to call it “Elements and Textures”. There is sky, water, earth and foliage and also steel, glass, tile and brick. It captures the diversity of Melbourne.

“Temple of the Winds” and Government House

**Finally ending our walk with some beverages!**

Of course as we were now so near to the city what choice did we have but to go shopping! Anthony always says it’s just for a look, but I think I know better after 30 years.

PPAC – 🐘Herd of Hope Elephants 🐘

For Cee and Marsha’s Public Art Challenge this week I have some elephants from the Herd of Hope. They are bronze sculptures created by acclaimed artists Gillie and Marc, I came across them on our recent day trip to London in Spitalfields.

They are a family of 21 bronze elephants, who were lost when they became orphaned and are now in the care of the Sheldrick Trust.

I would have liked to look at all of them and read the stories but there was not enough time, maybe on another visit.

Wish you were here with me

A beautiful spring day in Perth, WA

After playing mahjong last week this sculpture caught my eye, I couldn’t work out what it said at first, it took my friend and I several tries! It sits on the beach promenade at City Beach, WA.

Posted as part of Six Word Saturday and PPAC

~ Most things look better when you put them in a circle ~

Another fun photo challenge from Cee, and you may have guessed from the title that she’s asking for circles and wheels.

Once again I’ve combed my archives and put together a gallery.

“Life is a full circle, widening until it joins the circle motions of the infinite” : Anais Nin

Cottesloe, WA

South Bank, Melbourne

Looking through volcanic rock, Iceland

To finish, some jokes I found about circles!

Art in the Forest, Northcliffe, WA

The featured image is titled ‘Treecycle’ by Cecile Williams. It is indeed made from recycled books, wood and screws.

These are more artworks that we discovered on our recent tour of Pemberton, WA. It’s an amazing trail of nature and art, cleverly designed to blend in with the natural surroundings of the forest.