One of my favourite
pastimes is playing tourist. And one of the things I love about
Hobart is that I don't even have to leave home to do it! Take today,
for instance.
First I had to go to
work, teaching my regular Saturday drawing lesson. As it was a nice
day we spent a couple of hours outside in Princes Park.
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| drawing in Princes Park |
Back at the Salamanca
Arts Centre I found 40 Artists from the Island, an exhibition of paintings, drawings, prints, sculpture, textiles, assemblages and more, opening at the Long Gallery. This is one part of Rediscover Bruny, a three-part showcase of Bruny Island arts. It seems practically
every artist I meet these days lives on Bruny, or at least has a
holiday house there, and this event has almost a hundred participants
– not bad, when you consider there are only seven hundred people
living on the island.
Of course, they are not all visual artists. In the Sidespace Gallery beside the Long Gallery there is a charming exhibition of Childhood Treasures, precious items people have kept for most of their lives: teddy bear, puppet, building blocks, favourite books, each with an explanation by its owner telling us just what makes this particular toy so special.
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| 40 Artists from the Island opens in the Long Gallery |
The third part of the
Bruny Island spectacular is As Time Goes By, written by
Barry Weston and directed by Megan Weston, a theatre piece "written, directed and performed by Bruny Islanders for Bruny Islanders and about Bruny Islanders”, which played in the Peacock Theatre on 20th and
21st September.
I was really impressed
by the overall quality of the artwork in the main exhibition – some
truly lovely work, and I took my time enjoying it, along with a glass of white
wine and some super Bruny Island cheese.
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| Tall ships, a carousel, live music, terrific food . . . |
Returning to the sunshine
outdoors I wandered through Salamanca Market to the Tall Ships
Festival. Lunched on a delicious goatmeat-and-elderberry-wine pie at
Princes Pier, tried some apple, pear and cherry cider (more, please!)
and strolled round listening to musicians, admiring ships and
generally enjoying the atmosphere. Here are some of the things I saw.
This wonderful steam
carousel, complete with calliope to provide music, always brings a
lump to my throat, and true to form I had a little Stendhal Moment in
front of it today.
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Europa's figurehead
caused some comment.
This old Greek tale of woe should serve as warning to all young ladies not to believe that bull . . . |
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| Is this the youngest jazz band in town? They played very well. |
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| Of course, Preana isn't a tall ship, but she's so pretty another photo of her doesn't hurt. And there's a real Tall Ship there, too. |
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| Lots of history here at Constitution Dock - some of Australia's oldest wooden boats and the old Customs House |
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| The Vikings are back! |
It was time to return to the car and head for home. Stopped for a while on the lawns of Parliament House to
listen to the Hobart Old Time String Band along the way.
By now the market was closed and stall-holders were packing up.
The sky was beginning to cloud over. I made it home just
before a brief shower of drizzly rain, tired but happy. Who wouldn't love this place?
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| just a little corner of our garden |
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