Progress of sorts

So close. Exhausted though, and sorely needing a break. Going off on a trip
by myself to Darwin.

Another state, and hopefully coming back with a new state of mind. Seeing
a friend of 33 years.

Before I go a last post, demonstrating the creative legacy. Started in Great
Grandmother Hannah's family, her daughters well versed in the genteel arts,
sewing, embroidery, art, craft and more.

Continue on to her grandaughter, great, and great great grandaughters, all
creative.

Here are some of my pieces that show the appreciation of heritage.

Title: 'Museum of natural history'. Currently hanging in Hornsby Library. 

This won a prize and was an aquisitive award.

The Museum-like display features birds, descriptions of birds, 

a collected eggshell specimen. Labels, details etc.

 A handmade hatbox, an old idea remade using recyclables. findings, collage, slogans etc.

Artworks - then put into vintage frames.

Printmaking artwork based on a heritage building, including a poem. Stained with tea wash.

Very feminine additions, ribbon, beads, lace, fashion pictures.

Using the building to make an installation, on the grand staircase of the 

heritage listed building for the exhibition ' Indigo'. (artist in the centre)

Wrapping the staircase. A detail showing paper, fabric, real feathers, print portions, words etc.

Slogans and sketch inspired by the building.

Preliminary sketches, and Lillypilly ink.

Paper mache sculpture inspired by the 3 graces of antiquity. Additions of  shards of old china, 

and phrases like 'The ties that bind'.

Dismantling 'the museum', and the further excavations of my family history.

It's not your everyday Estate to deal with. Collections across many themes, and that is not
including my family's heirlooms.

All a bit overwhelming, I've often felt terribly confused, the house was like a Margaret Olley
house, and so before the shifting of anything had to be recorded with photographic journalism.

This was also the way to deal with the garden. Her sacred places and spaces, not necessarily
mine, but I got it. Family traditions also employed here, writing and documenting, photography.

Heavy responsibility, to respect what I had been left with. My three children not quite able
to grasp the significance of it all yet, being still 18 x 2 and 23.

So I make executive decisions for all of us. I know there will be some errors and regret,
because it is too hard to store or display all. So much. Both my parents collectors.

Some goods donated, aviaries to WIRES, a suitcase owned by Annette Kellerman to The
Annette Kellerman Aquatic Centre, a hand made Amish doll to an Amish family, made by
my mother.

As the pics get ordered and archived, captioned where I can, it starts to grind slowly towards
some order. Two lifetime collections of photography and associated equipment. An archive
building on my Great Aunt's creative adventures. Personally important to me as a fellow artist.

It continues, my own life on hold for a while, it's endlessly fascinating and terribly distracting.

More Charlotte - part 4

Here are some more of her artworks. I now have to preserve them archivally.

Now have enough to start forming a digital archive, which I will share with Bathurst
Historical Society and Powerhouse Museum, where her Mum's wedding dress
is currently on public exhibition in 'Clothes Encounters.'

It is the one, you can see online, - 'When Hannah met Alfred', her parents.

 This was in with hers, not hers, but maybe a contemporary, a friend she went out 

painting with? or an Art teacher? It is very bright and appears to be Gouache, or poster paint.

 This is a grand gate post, she did do a painting of Government House in Sydney, further research needed.

 This is quite fanciful, very quaint, and has been in a frame at some point, as it is still on it's backing board.

 Is this Bathurst? It could be in the late 1800s or early 1900s.

 Another artist's work again in with her collection. Gertrude E. Brown.

 We could possibly research this bridge.

 Farm buildings and a detail.

 This was done when she was at school with pen and ink. It is extremely brittle now.

 The detail and precision is quite amazing.

 The only figurative work I have found to date. Who is it? Below another detail 

of 'Spring' my favourite season of the year too!

The Lost Artist - Charlotte Adlam Part 3

Have finally photographed most of the watercolours of Charlotte's.

There are more in existence, my Aunt, also Charlotte, Mum's sister,
was given some, she gave one to her daughter, Jane, my cousin.

I have some more, and some crafts of hers. Also her childhood chair.

 A quiet creek, with someone gathering wildflowers in the background. Where? Maybe Bathurst?

 My Mother used to holiday at Patonga or Pearl Beach. could this be there?

 Are these buildings the family's old farm or somewhere in the district?

 Is this Sydney heads? Love the old steamship.

 Only one is signed, but assume all hers.

The Lost Artist - Finding Charlotte / Part 2.

Here is a space I'll reserve for the further findings of my Great Aunt Charlotte,
my Grandmother's eldest sister.

She was an artist, school teacher, spinster who died tragically young. Her artworks
were locked away in a trunk for 40 years, until they saw the light of day again.

Now she has become my quest. Photos will be displayed here, and further
information as I find it, or photograph it.

At the moment I am photographing her hand-painted china, and like family history,
two generations later - packing it into vintage metal trunks, so it survives the move
to my place.

I might contact the school she worked at, to find out if there is any information there.

 You can see her signature - C. Adlam.

 This is a set of 4 plates, all berry fruits.

 Several quite grand vases.

Violets are my birth flower

 This is interesting, it matches the other vase, just has a different design on each side. See 3 pics down.

 This is a piece of Ruby glass that belonged to her baby sister, my Grandmother.

Finding Charlotte - The Lost Artist

Here is a page I will dedicate to my Great Aunt Charlotte, my Grandmother's
oldest sister of the ten siblings.

She was an artist, teacher, and died tragically young - a spinster. Her artworks
were stored away for 40 years until they saw the light of day again.

Not much can be found on her actual life, but I am slowly finding her, amongst
what I have just inherited.

The reason she has become a misty legend, is that she died when my Mother
was only 3, she was my Mum's Godmother. There may have been 20 yrs
conceivably between her and my grandmother's ages. My Grandmother was the
baby of the family.

I will add to this archive from time to time. Next to come are the hand painted
china pieces she did, photos of her, her craft work, and whatever else comes to
light.

Who knew, the glazed brown pot top shelf far left, is hers.

There are 4 of these hand painted plates.

One of the rare oils, the biggest and most atmospheric. Others are a tiny tobacco tin with seascape, 

and 3 farmyard animals on circular tin shields. Probably from her family farm out Bathurst way.

Inside this cabinet, many vases with hand painted botanical specimens on them.

A picture of her mother, Hannah Palser Prior, her wedding dress is currently 

on display in The Powerhouse Museum.

In this room, the oil, the dresser with 4 plates, and a picture of her mother in old age.

The cabinet with many vases, and a lovely waratah watercolour on the wall is hers.

Below is a doll owned by her baby sister, my grandmother. A piece from a teaset her youngest sisters 

played with, and the 3 Sydney scenes as they are uncropped. We also have the cedar boards she 

pinned her paper to. There is a painter's palette, is it hers?

Below is the studio where we find a trunk full of her watercolours, and heirloom linens, 

and a suitcase owned by Annette Kellerman.