Week 44/2024: Art and food
Week of 28 October 2024
The last public holiday before Christmas has gone, and we’re into the final two weeks of school for my Year 12 student. There are hints of warmer weather too. If I were a proper gardener, I’d be thinking about tomato plants.
Weekend wanderings in art and food
An arty Friday
Paul Gundry
Some days my walk to work takes me past the Colville Gallery on Castray Esplanade. A couple of weeks ago I saw a poster in the window for an exhibition of landscape paintings by Paul Gundry.
I didn’t know who Paul was, but the image displayed in the gallery window reminded me of a project I have on the back burner, and I wanted to see more.
As the exhibition closed on Saturday, my last chance was to go in on Friday after work. And I’m really glad I did.
Paul has been painting Tasmanian landscapes for many years and has had 12 solo exhibitions at the Colville Gallery. The current exhibition explores ‘the profound stillness that pervades the various places [he visits] when the fog rolls in and the weather descends’.
I loved it, even though most of the paintings in the exhibition weren’t what I expected based on the image out the front! The misty, dreamy qualities of the work was captivating.
Paul’s work took my thoughts about my project in a different direction to what I’d been expecting them to do, which was really cool. I started inhabiting a more introspective place that is relevant to my project but in a different way.
I was also interested in the different sizes of the artworks, including a couple of 30×35 cm canvases, similar to the 8×10 ratio that I like to play with in my photos.
Chatting to the gallery staff member about the paintings, I had to confess I hadn’t seen any of Paul’s work before, and told them how this exhibition was reminding me of my photography project. They asked if I photographed landscapes. Well, I said, country landscapes like these ones aren’t subjects I do a lot of but I do have an interest . . . For the most part, however, my photos are more about buildings, suburbs, cities and empty spaces. The staff member said if that was my thing, I should go to the gallery next door to take a look at the exhibition there.
(When I got home I looked up some of Paul’s other work. I was really excited to find he has a lot of suburban landscapes in his back catalogue as well, which I found super interesting and inspiring.)
George Kennedy
I had time, so I headed into the Despard Gallery. Here was an exhibition by George Kennedy, an emerging artist based in Hobart. The exhibition, ‘the same as ever’, is George’s tour through the suburbs of the eastern shore, especially Rokeby, exploring ‘the fragile and often chaotic boundaries where the manmade and nature collide’.
Very cool!
If ever there was to be a contrast to Paul Gundry’s dream-like world, this was it. Yet still there were links.
Brightly coloured paintings featuring rusty abandoned cars, piles of tyres, and stacked houses in the suburbs offset with images portraying the solitude of the nearby bushlands.
Amazing!
It was a terrific way to end my working week.
And just at the end of the day, as I was waiting for the bus, this view of kunanyi put me right back in Paul’s exhibition.
Hamlet Downs
On Saturday, we headed off to the Derwent Valley for a night at Hamlet Downs Country Accommodation in Fentonbury. Hamlet Downs is run by Trish and Steve, who also do the cooking (but more on that later).
We stayed in the Hamlet Suite, which is part of an old homestead on the property. This suite could cater for up to five people, so was perfect for the three of us, with the teenager getting their own room. The property itself is a 36 acre farm, with plenty of places to explore, including getting to know the resident sheep, goats and pigs.
There’s also a rooster, hens and ducks. (This was relevant for tomorrow morning’s breakfast.)
There’s a lovely walk to the top of the hill where you can see all the way back down the valley to kunanyi and beyond.
And a dam to relax by if you don’t want to walk anywhere.
Dinner time
The kitchen is fully self contained, but there’s also the option of getting dinner brought to your dining room, which is what we opted for. A friend who put us onto this place recommended the Burmese Feast: a choice of three curries served with rice, lentil soup, salad and chilli condiments.
It was a most excellent choice! I don’t know a lot a about Burmese food but Trish does, and she explained that the curries are full of flavour but not in the ‘heavy’ way that some Indian or Thai dishes can be. For me, the lentil soup was the absolute star of the show and I’d be quite happy to have a huge bowl of that as a complete meal.
The three curries we picked were chicken, pork and vegetables, and they were all delicious. We were divided on which was the tastiest. (It was the chicken.) To make it even harder to choose, Trish had very generously given us a prawn curry as well. (It was still the chicken.)
I’d go back and spend another night there just for the food.
But unfortunately, circumstances were such that we only had one night, and after a fabulous breakfast (with their own bacon, ham, eggs and sausages), we had to go home.
A quick stop in New Norfolk to visit my favourite stationery store and the lovely, but quick, weekend trip was over.
Week 44 summary
Habit tracker
- 15 minutes exercise sequence in the morning (7 days): 6/7
- Physio’s hip exercises (5 days): 5/5
- Go outside before 8 am (7 days): 7/7
- 2 walks or bike rides or a combination (6 days): 6/6
- Long walk (1 day): 0
- Walk 8,000 steps (7 days): 7/7
- Evening exercise sequence (5 days): 5/5
- 9.00 shutdown (5 days): 5/5
What was the best thing about this week?
Arty Friday and our Hamlet Downs adventure were great. And along with that, I was a bit excited that Brady Michaels asked to use one of my photos (from my blog post last year) in his promo for this year’s Open House Hobart ‘Signs of Hobart’ Tour.
What did I notice this week?
An unidentified spider in the bath Wednesday morning. It is now outside.
What did I learn this week?
According to the Twinings website, where I went to find out more about Earl Grey tea—in which bergamot is a key ingredient—the word ‘bergamot’ comes from the Turkish words “beg-armudi”. This means “The Prince’s Pear”. The word is pronounced “burger-mott” in English, Bergamotto in Italian and Bergamote in French.
Not ber-zhar-moe.
I was never sure.
What am I reading?
- Food for Menopause by Linia Patel
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