YARNS Summer Issue 05

EDITORIAL

Hi, I am Petra Jungmanova a Czech artist, author and curator living in the beautiful bush Capital of Australia, Canberra. YARNS Magazine is my creation. In the Czech Republic I was immersed in the creative arts, culture, adventure, and nature. When I came to establish my new life in Australia some 20 years ago, I was determined to discover and expand upon the things I love in this amazing and unique new world that unfolded before me.

The inspiration for the Magazine came from my love for adventure, travel, human stories, and connection to the land. I believe in the beauty and goodness in people, and that as we are the ultimate creators of our lives, we have the power to uplift each other. Added to this is my conviction of our need to learn to connect with, and understand, the collective experiences of Indigenous communities around the world, as their stories become increasingly relevant to our lives today and for the future.

In YARNS we will all share stories of various dreamers, romantics, creatives, travellers, adventurers, and achievers from Australia and other cultures around the world. People who have ‘walked the walk’ and are telling their unique ways of how they experience their lives. Plus, we will be featuring places and things, that I feel complement these experiences.

This Summer Issue (Volume 5, 2023) contains a curated mix of stories from, and about: people, places, and things, covering the tapestry of a ‘real’ life in Australia and places overseas. These are stories that touched my heart deeply; I hope they will touch yours too!

Future Editions will come out quarterly. From Australia the incredible stories of a unique Australian - Darrell Bossley, the Indigenous Tjanpi Desert weavers from Central Australia and the incredible Norman Lindsay. From overseas we have a world leading furniture designer Anker Bak from Denmark and internationally known botanical artist Pavlína Kourková from Czech Republic.

Importantly, we at YARNS Magazine acknowledge the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the First Australians and the Traditional Owners and Custodians of the Lands where we live, learn, work and play; and we pay our respects to them and their elders past, present, and future.

Peace, love and happiness, Petra

Cover Image:

© The Wooden Boat Centre

DISCLAIMER

All rights reserved. No part of this publication - YARNS Magazine (ISSN 2653-5343) may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any forms or by any means, including photocopying, or other direct or electronic methods, without the prior written permission of the Editor, except in the case of brief quotation embodied in critical reviews and certain other non-commercial uses permitted by Copyright Law.

Editor PETRA JUNGMANOVA Contact details: +61 413 644 284 petra@yarns.today

CONTENTS

3 5

12 9

6 2

16 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

The Wooden Boat Centre

1

David Frazer

33

Kate Nielsen

61

La Renaissance Patisserie

83

Pavlínna Kourková

117

Robyn Convoy

155

Tjanpi Desert Weavers

189

Waubs Harbour Whisky

215

Broadwater Oysters

247

Rustico

277

14

15 13

4 17 1 8

10 19

7 18 11 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19

Rockpools

311

Darley’s Restaurant

341

Anker Bak

373

The Point Perpedicular Lighthouse

409

Castle Beděz

459

Il Palazzo Experimental

499

Mark Maggiori

529

Petr Malina

561

Poetry

595

THE WOODEN BOAT CENTRE DAY 1 William Proud from The Wooden Boat Centre in beautiful Tasmania shares the story of the picture-perfect Franklin Village and its very special Wooden Boat Centre where everyone is welcomed. If you ever dreamt of building your own boat from scratch, this is the place!

It often happens when I interview someone for Yarns that I learn more than I expected, not just about the subject, but also about a range of other fascinating topics. In this case one aspect was the origin of boat building in Tasmania. A brief history from its amazing origin some 40,000 years ago to the Wooden Boat Centre today is at the end of this yarn. I hope you find it as fascinating as I did!

Petra: Where are you located and how would you describe your part of the world?

William: The Wooden Boat Centre is located in Franklin, a small village nestled along the banks of the Huon River in Southeast Tasmania. Founded in 1836, like many places, Franklin has changed over the years. However the main street is still bordered by 19th Century houses, many of which were once shop fronts. Beside the river’s edge, the marina is still home to many historic vessels, some of which are well over 100 years old. Much like learning the craft of wooden boat building, visiting the town of Franklin allows people to journey back in time and gain a better understanding and connection to the past.

Petra: Keeping the rare trade of wooden boatbuilding alive must take a big love and passion. Do you have people from different places interested in learning and experiencing your unique environment?

William: It certainly does, and ‘yes’, people from all walks of life share this passion. Enquiries about our courses come from all corners of Australia and sometimes even internationally!

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Petra: Who can attend your courses?

William: Anyone, we’ve had students from all backgrounds and skill levels attend our courses. Some have never done any wood working in their lives, but by the end of the course they have successfully built a paddle, kayak, or even an entire dinghy. Learning these skills gives many a new sense of confidence as they achieve something they once thought impossible.

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Petra: Can you describe the “Shipwright Course”?

William: The shipwright course runs from February 15th through to December 15th, it’s designed to prepare students for work in traditional boatyards or marinas, and ready them for life as a professional wooden boat builder. The skillset learnt in this course gives students the knowledge to restore old vessels to modern standards; construct, carve & clinker style hulls; and readies them to perform the duties required of a junior shipwright/boat builder.

To achieve this the shipwright course is broken into 4 main components Component 1:

Induction, safe work practices, basic joinery, construction of a boat builders tool chest, construction of a half model, & lofting.

Component 2:

Marine ply boat construction.

Component 3:

Wooden boat restoration.

Component 4:

Huon Pine clinker dingy construction

Extra components:

Fine furniture/wood working, and a personal project which can be anything from a kayak to an entire dinghy.

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Petra: What kind of heritage restoration does the Centre facilitate?

William: The Wooden Boat Centre facilitates heritage restoration on both large and small projects.

In fact, we’re currently restoring several vessels, one of which, an 18ft Tamar Cod boat named Iola that originally was constructed in 1919, is nearing completion. Thus far students have rebuilt her entire deck, with new beams, carlins, hanging and lodging knees. Also, the deck has been over-laid with Celery Top pine, and much more. There are still many jobs left to do, such as the rigging, but things are progressing well.

A few other notable vessels currently being restored alongside Iola include: Undine, a Derwent class boat, which is a joint restoration project between the Wooden Boat Centre and the Australian Wooden Boat Festival team; and Annella, a traditional Cray boat from Bicheno, Tasmania, which is undergoing significant repair and restoration.

In February 2023 we plan on bringing several of these restoration projects, including Iola, up to the Australian Wooden Boat Festival in Hobart. This is the largest wooden boat festival in the Southern Hemisphere. The public will be able to see these vessels being restored and will be welcome to ask our shipwrights any questions relating to the projects.

Petra: Do you keep much information about Tasmanian Maritime History and Cultural Heritage? Is that an ongoing process?

William: Yes, in fact we’re custodians of many rare Tasmanian boat plans, and books. Eventually, our hope is to set up a library system through which the public may safely access these items without potentially damaging them. However, for now they are kept securely within our facilities and accessed by our shipwrights, students, and volunteers.

Also, we teach the public about the cultural and historical ties that boats have with Tasmania. This is done by providing tours which include not only information on wooden boat building, but also its history within the local region. Visitors are encouraged to look through our display area which includes information on historic Tasmanian vessels and various boat building methods.

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Petra: What are the practical elements of your training?

William: The courses are almost entirely practical, the exception being the theory work that takes place during the shipwright course. All short courses however are based entirely on practical training. This allows the students to gain hands on knowledge and be guided by our shipwrights every step of the way - from lofting the boat plans, to creating the planks, until things eventually culminate in a beautifully constructed dinghy. Students on dinghy courses are taught not only how to build a boat and read boat plans, but also how to use many traditional tools and wood working techniques.

Petra: What are examples of your projects?

William: There are many, as the Wooden Boat Centre has been building boats for 30 years, and we’ve had everything from dinghies to 39ft. yachts, but a few boats come to mind when I read this question.

A few examples of our projects include: • • •

Viking boat: a 20ft Viking boat made of Huon Pine in 2017 for a man in Sydney. Clinker boat construction originates from the Vikings, so it was quite special for the shipwrights to have a chance to construct one themselves; Z-Lectra: a boat based on 1950’s Barrel-back ChrisCraft designs. For those unfamiliar with boats, think of any of the wooden speed boats from the James Bond movies, this’ll give you an idea of what at Z-Lectra looks like; and The Franklin 29: our 29ft boat based on the 1920s style gentlemen’s launches, which we hope to have completed soon.

Those are just a few of our many projects, not to mention all the beautiful Huon Pine dinghies that have been constructed at the Centre which can be found in marinas and along waterways throughout Australia.

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Petra: Who are your staff and volunteers?

William: There are many people involved in the operations of the Wooden Boat Centre. The most obvious is our team of shipwrights who instruct and guide students on their boat building journey.

The shipwright team includes: Head Shipwright: Cody Horgan; Lead Instructor: Mike Johnston; Shipwright: Gordon McGill; Junior Shipwrights: Sarah Mantel, Mitchel Bray, and Hannah Fitzpatrick.

The Wooden Boat Centre is a community owned, not-for-profit organisation, so we are overseen by a committee of local community members. Additionally, we have many volunteers who are the lifeblood of the Centre and without them it would be impossible for the place to continue in its current form. We have a little over 30 volunteers in total - some are regulars, others may come in once every 6 months, but all of them lend a hand and help to keep these skills alive. The volunteers are involved in almost every aspect of the Wooden Boat Centre - from providing tours, to creating items for out giftshop from offcuts of our speciality timbers like Huon Pine. You’ll even see volunteers helping with restoration (provided they have some existing experience with wooden boat repair, etc).

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Petra: I can’t think of anything more Australian than the humble dinghy, can you share it’s role and function over the years?

William: Dinghies are a big part of Australian culture, being a country where so many people live close to the coast. So, families throughout the nation’s history have used dinghies for recreational use and sometimes even for work, such as in Tasmania where ‘timber getters’ would travel the waterways of the Southwest looking for Huon Pine in a type of dinghy known as a Piner’s Punt. Also, there were many of families in the early Colonial days who would row out in dinghies to catch fish to provide food for their families. Dinghies are ubiquitous within Australia, though admittedly, most wooden dinghies on the mainland have found themselves replaced with their aluminium counterpart, known colloquially as ‘tinnies’. That being said, you will find wooden dinghies still hugging the coast in many small towns, particularly in Tasmania.

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Petra: Whaling began in Tasmania with the beginnings of White Settlement, so does it play a significant role in the local maritime history?

William: The whaling industry does play a big part in Tasmania’s maritime history. It led to the construction of many shipyards, particularly in Battery Point, where 103 vessels were constructed and fitted-out for the purpose of whaling from the years of 1830 to 1900. These shipyards would continue operating, even after the decline in whaling, going on to build many iconic vessels, such as the MV Cartela. Even today there are shipyards still in the Battery Point area. In fact, one of our first instructors, shipwright Adrian Dean, apprenticed under Jock Muir in his Battery Point boatyard back in 1944 when he was just 14. Many years later in the 1992, while still a successful shipwright, Adrian joined the team at the Wooden Boat Centre and began passing on his skills to the next generation. Adrian is 92 now, and has been retired for many years, but from what I’ve heard, he is building boats still and working with wood. The maritime history of Tasmania is an intricate web, with connections between every place and person. It is our job not only to pass on the skills associated with wooden boat building, but also the stories and history.

Petra: Given the perfect combination - you location in Franklin on the banks of the Huon River, and proximity to the Huon Valley, how important is the wooden boat building culture and sentiment now, and is it still a direct reflection of its environment?

William: Wooden boat building culture is still very much alive in Franklin. The boats we build often are designs created by Tasmanian shipwrights, and always am I hearing stories from locals of family members who have built their own boats at home. Wooden boat building has deep cultural and historical ties to Tasmania, so it is important that the stories, skills, and knowledge are passed on to future generations.

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Petra: How important is The Wooden Boat Centre’s community spirit and closeness for everyone being part of it?

William: It’s extremely important. As many of our students come from interstate, when they arrive at the Wooden Boat Centre, often they don’t know a single person in Tasmania. So thankfully we’re part of a very welcoming community and students often make lifelong friends and connections with other students and also with our volunteers and locals from the Huon Valley. The Wooden Boat Centre is tied closely to several rowing and sailing groups, and so often our students find themselves joining these organisations in their free time, thereby immersing themselves in the local area and really becoming a part of the community while they are here.

Petra: What is the best part of building a boat from scratch?

William: I think the best part is the sense of accomplishment and newfound confidence that students gain while constructing their boats. Being able to successfully turn raw material, like wood, into something as beautiful as a boat really shows that, with patience and attention to detail, anything is possible.

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A Quick History Of Boat Building In Tasmania (leading to the Wooden Boat Centre) The Origin – over 40,000 years ago Tasmania’s boat building history starts with the aboriginal people that came to the land when it was still a peninsula, over forty thousand years ago, they watched as rising sea levels slowly severed them from the mainland turning their home into the island we know today. These first nation people would cut and bind paperpark to create canoes which they would use to travel the waterways throughout the island.

The Arrival of Europeans Later with the arrival of Europeans came new boat building methods to the Island, such as Clinker (also known as lapstrake) construction wherein boats are built with overlapping planks, or Carvel construction with planks laid edge to edge forming a smooth hull.

In Tasmania’s southwest convicts unfortunate enough to find themselves sent to Sarah Island were used as an unpaid workforce in the shipbuilding industry, and for a short period Sarah Island boasted the largest shipbuilding operation in all the Australian colonies. These convicts laboured under harsh conditions and were not only forced to build boats, but also harvest Huon Pine, a timber still used in wooden boat building today.

When Sarah Island closed in 1833, private individuals known as Piners began to travel the rivers of the west coast, where continued felling Huon Pines for the boat building industry for many decades, though this would eventually come to an end when it became illegal to harvest Huon Pines in the 1970s, as a result all Huon Pine today is salvaged, often from the same waterways the Piners once travelled.

Whaling Arrives In Tasmania’s southeast along the river Derwent the whaling industry spurred on growth in the fledging colony of Hobart Town, with the first whaling stations being established as early as 1805 along the shore of the river. This led to the construction of many shipyards, particularly in Battery Point, where 103 vessels were constructed and fitted-out for the purposes of whaling from the years of 1830 to 1900. These shipyards would continue operating even after the decline of the whaling industry, going on to build many iconic vessels, such as the MV Cartela, Australia's oldest continuously licensed passenger vessel.

South of Hobart, in the Huon Valley, boat building took place alongside both the eastern and western banks of the Huon River. On the eastern side ships were built at Wilson’s Boat Yard in the town of Cygnet from as early as 1863, while on the western side of the river, in the town of Franklin, boats such as the SV May Queen were constructed by Alexander Lawson. The SV May Queen is today known for being Australia’s oldest sail trading vessel still afloat, having been launched in 1867. Today she finds herself moored outside the Maritime Museum in Hobart at constitution dock.

Modern Times In modern times, these wooden boat building traditions of old are kept alive in the town of Franklin at the Wooden Boat Centre. Founded in 1992 by John and Ruth Young, and community owned since 2014, the Wooden Boat Centre has continued to pass on traditional boat building skills for 30 years, ensuring future generations can enjoy the craft of wooden boat building for decades to come.

Visit: Images:

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http://www.woodenboatcentre.com/ © The Wooden Boat Centre

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DAVID FRAZER DAY 2 The very beautiful Castlemaine, located in Victoria is home to a wide creative community and I was lucky to visit local artist David Fraser in his stunning studio. David tells stories through his art, so everyone should be able to connect to the very human themes in his work. I loved the atmosphere of his studio which features an amazing vintage printing press and artworks all over the walls.

Petra: Where were you born?

David: I was born in Foster, Southern Gippsland near Wilson’s Promontory in Victoria. I wasn’t there long though as my dad was a teacher and later a high school principal, so we moved around for my pre-schooling we lived in Ararat; for primary, in a little Wheatfield town in the Wimmera called Murtoa; and finally, for my high school years, on the Mornington Peninsula in a town called Rosebud.

Petra: You have mentioned a family connection to Lionel Lindsay, has he been an influential person in your life?

David: Not really, the Lindsay’s are some distant relation and the family kind of hung onto it as they were famous. I discover the engravings of Lionel Lindsay in more recent years, realising that they are really good!

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Petra: Did you grow up with a creative family?

David: My immediate family weren’t creative but my Dad’s father was a very good amateur painter, especially with watercolour. He was 2nd cousins to the Lindsay’s I think. My cousin on that side was a very good painter for awhile in the 80’s and her sister, my other cousin was an exhibitions designer. They were all a bit kooky and eccentric on that side of the family.

Petra: Was it through books you fell in love with art and printing?

David: Not really. I wanted to do something creative as a kid, I didn’t want to have a normal job, I wanted to be an artist of some sort, I didn’t care which, although probably my greatest desire was to be an international rock star.

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Petra: You are painter as well, how does your training influence your finely detailed wood engravings, lithographs, etchings, paintings and bronze sculptures?

David: I don’t paint anymore, I kept trying for awhile but realised I wasn’t really into paint. I was into narrative. Also at best I only ever got the odd quite good painting, but quite good wasn’t good enough for me. I don’t do sculpture either that was just a brief flirtation. I basically learnt nothing anyway when I did painting at art school, (not that I was a good student) I love the wildly unique Australian landscape and the story in each of your works. Were you always a storyteller? Yep, I think I was always a cartoonist really. (Look on the essay I wrote for that American art book attached).

Petra: What are the themes in your work?

David: Loneliness, frustration, yearning, alienation, hopeless men, failed ambition.

Petra: Why are the topics of existentialism, relationships and isolation important in your work?

David: It’s just a story I have; its melancholic yet funny. Its like a sad song and I always wanted to be able to write sad songs; something that moves people and inspires emotion.

Petra: When did you move to Castlemaine?

David: 2008

Petra: What is the story of the ‘Unstable Press’?

David: When I first bought this property there was just an old stable at the top of the block, looked charming but was a dump. I added the ‘un’ to ‘stable’ when I was thinking of a name for my press when I started producing hand made books. It’s a good name and excuses my wonky typesetting.

Petra: How did the beautiful press make its way to your studio?

David: I found it like a miracle on eBay just before I moved up here to Castlemaine. An ink company was getting rid of it. I re-acquainted with a second cousin who lived in Bendigo and I asked him what he did, he managed a freight company. So he organised a truck with a crane and we got it delivered here and placed on the newly layed slab for my new studio. We then built the shed around it. Its my pride and joy, built in the 1850’s and still going strong. Looks sexy too!

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Petra: What role does the local landscape play in your work?

David: I’ve always liked this rocky, nuggety landscape of central victoria. I had friends who grew up here so I came a lot over the years. Its also hilly so fills up the picture plane well. Where I grew up in the Wimmera, although being a big influence on me re that empty melancholic mood, the flat landscape can be challenging to portray.

Petra: What is the history of wood engraving in Australia and are there many artists using this art form compared to the linocuts?

David: Wood engraving is not that common here although there are a few wood engravers around.

I run lots of workshops so I’m probably creating competition. Lionel Lindsay was a brilliant engraver. There is a lot in the UK, and quite a few in America.

Petra: Can you share your limited-edition books inspired by music and musicians? What is your latest book and what does its creation look like from beginning to the end?

David: I wanted to write songs but couldn’t do it. When I discovered wood engraving, I found it to be the closest thing to writing a song. It was comfortable sitting with text, poetry and lyrics. I started an engraving like a song, I still do. Then I discovered if I stitched them together I could make a book, like an album. I wasn’t really a wordsmith so then I came up with the idea of illustrating songs, like an ‘oldie worldie’ music video clip. My first such book was with Paul Kelly, then Don Walker, then Nick Cave, then Nick Lowe and now my latest one, to be released early next year is with my childhood hero Tom Waits. Every page is printed by me, individually on each piece of paper. Done all old school, using old type for the text and the engravings for the illustration. The front cover has an original linocut on it and the books are all stitched together using a needle and thread. The songwriters and I sign each book.

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Petra: What is so special about publishing books for you?

David: I like telling stories and I enjoy doing them. Sadly most people couldn’t care less about them.

Petra: Do you take your work around the world? Where is the greatest appreciation of your art and what it represents?

David: I’ve had a couple of shows in London, as well as China. My work seems well appreciated here in Australia. In recent years my London gallery has been showing my work in international art fairs.

Probably my best-selling work overseas are my big landscape prints.

Petra: Your studio in one of the most impressive ones I’ve ever been in, how important to you is to have such an incredible working space to dream, think and create?

David: You can work in a shitty, cold laundry; and I’ve done that, but it sure is nicer working in a big clean studio.

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Petra: What do your workshops look like and can anyone have a go? Do you open your studio to the public?

David: I open my studio as part of an annual open studios program here in Castlemaine, usually March/April.

Petra: You have an extensive list of your creative life, and various galleries representing you. What are your personal highlights?

David: Winning the first international print biennial in Quanlan, China in 2007 and going over there for the awards and ceremonies. It was totally over the top and unforgettable. Having Paul Kelly, Don Walker and Nick Lowe sing at my book launches.

Petra: What brings you joy?

David: Completing an artwork that I think is good, selling work and seeing people happy with what I’ve done. Especially if my work inspires emotion.

Visit: Images:

https://www.dfrazer.com/ © Petra Jungmanova

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KATE NIELSEN DAY 3 I fell in love with the confident, bold paintings of Kate Nielsen which capture the little sweet moments in everyday life. The larger ones that capture still life, bring such a calm and escape into a world of perfect stillness and colour. I believe they add a different dimension to the quality of life in the spaces where they hang. Kate Nilsen welcomed me into her Sydney studio that was packed with various paintings, and I felt like I was sitting in them - it was wonderful. Her artworks are examples of how space can be transformed completely by just one painting!

Petra: Where were you born?

Kate: Hornsby Hospital, Sydney

Petra: Where do live now?

Kate: North Epping

Petra: What influenced you growing up? Did your father’s Danish heritage play any role in your home aesthetics?

Kate: Definitely, the house I grew up in was a very cosy home, full of my parents’ treasures and history. I feel the Danish culture is very closely aligned with that. To me, Denmark is a nation full of beautifully crafted furniture, cosy lighting, classic patterns and romantic, dramatic outlooks. It’s a recipe for the perfect painting! My childhood home was very much like this. Dad has paintings from his childhood by various members of his family dotted around the house. My mother is also an artist, and she has had a huge influence on me and the way I work. She has collected many beautiful and prominent works over time and also made sure that there was creativity around us all the time.

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Petra: When did you start painting?

Kate: I can’t remember… when I was young. I have had paintings always in my life.

Petra: What was your first painting?

Kate: I can’t remember my first painting, although I do remember a portrait that I did of my art teacher, Mrs Slee in year 1. I absolutely loved her, and she was so inspirational. So, when we did a portrait project, I chose her as my subject. The portrait still hangs in my parents’ house. I remember being very proud of myself. Another significant painting for me was the first painting I made after a long break from art making as I booked to go through IVF. When I finally fell pregnant, I managed to relax enough to make the first painting I had made since art school at NAS. It was a landscape of a bay in Mosman, and it made it into the Mosman art prize. This was the catalyst for where I am today. I still have the painting; I can’t seem to let go of it.

Petra: You paint a lot of still life, was it always the case? Also, your paintings come in different sizes from medium to some really large pieces, so do you have a favourite format?

Kate: I have loved still life always. All through high school and university, it was my subject. I had a long break from painting in my late 20s and early 30s and when I returned to it, I began with landscape. Now I love the combination and ‘push and pull’ of the two in the same composition.

Although I explored that for a while, somehow I made my way back to still life. My comfortable size to paint is 120cm x 120cm… I seem always to go back to that size and paintings flow out of me on this format. However, I love absolutely the challenge and thrill of an insanely huge 2m squared canvas.

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Petra: I love your confident use of colour and celebration of everyday objects with the nostalgia of the old world. What does your creative process look like?

Kate: I paint places that hold memory; places of importance to me. There are key places that I return to often and explore. However, sometimes when I enter a place, I can see compositions and possibilities everywhere and I begin to formulate paintings in my mind.

Petra: Do you have a sketchbook / journal for putting down your thoughts and painting concepts?

Kate: Not really… I have a messy studio with drawings and ideas everywhere. I wish I was an organised person with diaries, washed brushes, and clean surfaces - but I’m just not… perhaps one day when the kids grow up, I’ll turn into that person... maybe. I figure that it’s the one place over which I have full control and that I don’t share. So, I’ll have it exactly how I want it. However, I do think that drawing and diary work are essential to any art practice.

Petra: You live in one of the beautiful, old, leafy suburbs of Sydney directly facing the bush, so what is its impact on your everyday life and work?

Kate: I feel it has had a profound effect on my work. Drawing and painting from life is the best way to make work, and I have a constant source of it out of my window. The view often features in my work, as does the wildlife. Also, it is nice to sit and paint to the sounds of the birds and quiet of the bush. The concept of inside / outside in my work has come about since I have lived near the bush.

It wasn’t a conscious decision, but perhaps the space and quiet of the area in which I live have crept into my work because of this.

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Petra: Your studio is on the second floor of your house. How do you create the quiet working space with little children around? Also, you run art classes for kids, how does that mix with motherhood?

Kate: Ummmm…. I really don’t know. It’s extremely hectic in my household. My children are gorgeous but also are busy and exhausting and literally never stop moving. I can’t understand from where they get their energy. I’m very conscious of the fine balance of them needing attention for their development and wellbeing and me being able to give my painting attention for my development and wellbeing… every mother’s dilemma really. Also, I have a part time job teaching at a beautiful school called - John Colet and am doing a Masters in Primary Teaching - so really there isn’t a lot of spare time. I find pockets here and there, as well as having a day of the week ‘child free’ to paint… I love it so much that it’s the calm in a very crazy (but fun) storm. In addition, I do hold art classes for children and manage to squeeze them in during the school holidays. I enjoy them and my kids are just getting to the age where they can join in… I love that.

Petra: How did recent world events affect your work and what did you notice about people investing in art?

Kate: For a while there, during the worst of the lockdowns, the art world was taking off! My shows that I had mainly at the Purple Noon Gallery were very successful. I think that was due largely to Robyn, owner and curator, absolutely pushing and promoting them on social media and online.

Also, I think that people realised they were not going on a holiday any time soon and chose to spend money on improving their homes instead. Even though sales were good, I found the uncertainty of COVID still very difficult. My workshops ceased and money was coming-in very sporadically. The art world was hit the hardest and many people suffered. I feel like things are leveling out now, but if COVID has taught us anything, it’s to expect the unexpected.

Petra: Where do you exhibit, and do you take private commissions?

Kate: I have my work all over the place! I’m at the Purple Noon Gallery, a beautiful gallery in the Hawkesbury River area of Sydney and well worth the visit! Also, I have my work at the amazing Studio Gallery Group in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane – brilliant spaces. I have work at the Grainger Gallery in Canberra and while I have never been there, it looks amazing, and Kacy is lovely. I’m represented in the United States at the Maybaum Gallery in San Francisco. I’m going to have a solo there in 2023 and am hoping to visit at the same time. It looks wonderful online! I have just started a relationship with a beautiful gallery in my favourite city, Hobart, called Colville Gallery. This excites me extremely as I hope to be living in Hobart one day. Yes, I do take commissions.

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Petra: Where do you sit in the whole self-promotion game? In your opinion, how does social media impact professional selling artists from anyone untrained simply having a go on Instagram and gaining sales through extreme exposure and low prices of low-quality pieces?

Kate: The art world is a tricky one to navigate. Instagram is very powerful and can make or break your entire career. I think it is important to play along with this a little bit as it’s unavoidable and the way of the future. As for everyone becoming an artist… trained or not… I think it’s a freight train that can’t be stopped. The market is saturated with so much art that there is literally nothing new or shocking anymore. However, I have a few artist friends who never have had any formal training and are extremely talented and successful. I think it boils down to a few main things. You must be obsessive about making art; live it every day; and make an abundance of work. Also, you need to enter competitions as there is nothing more validating than a panel of people saying that your work is worthy of a prize. Lastly, there is experience - the more you exhibit, the more you are known. I think these are the things that should be on an artist’s mind even before social media comes into the picture.

Petra: What are you working on now?

Kate: I’ve just returned from Tasmania and am working on a series of interiors and seascapes.

Tasmania is breathtakingly beautiful - I love everything about it and am so deeply inspired by its charm, community, character and history. I am exploring new ideas, concepts, colours and ways of composing my work. I have a few big solos coming up so I will be concentrating on those.

Visit:

https://www.instagram.com/katenielsenart/

Images:

© Petra Jungmanova

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LA RENAISSANCE PATISSERIE DAY 4 I can trace my first visit to this place of heavenly delights back to my single parenthood days when my son was three years old. It’d become a regular ‘thing’ on our Sydney trips to pop-in and pick up the cakes we loved to celebrate little birthdays and head to Luna Park on the ferry across the beautiful Sydney Harbour. Located in heart of the Rocks, everything fantastic is within close walking distance - the Harbour Bridge, the fabulous Opera House, galleries, historical pubs, and everything in between with which to marvel and relax.

The Rocks has a life of its own and not just tourists flooding the narrow streets day and night. There is a vibrant daily life, including markets on the weekend. So, I think we are very lucky to have such an amazing, delicious destination in the very cultural centre of Sydney which then teleports you straight to Paris. It’s also a rare Patisserie being inducted into the world’s most exclusive French Pâtisserie Association, Relais Desserts. French-born, Jean-Michel Raynaud is the co-owner of the business (and head chef) along with Sally van Drempt. Jean-Michel kindly shared with me this delicious story, bon appétit!

Petra: Where are you based?

Jean-Michel: In the historic precinct of The Rocks, Sydney – just around the corner from Circular Quay and the Opera House.

Petra: What is the story of your building?

Jean-Michel: We have been in this building at 47 Argyle Street, The Rocks since 1991 – over 30 years now!

Petra: What is special about your location?

Jean-Michel: We love to be here in the middle of Circular Quay, within walking distance to all of Sydney’s best buildings and yet away from the high-rises in the CBD. There are local businesses, families living nearby, and tourists – all our regular customers.

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Petra: When did the business start and what inspired it?

Jean-Michel: La Renaissance was created by Sally and Pierre Charkos in 1974 and first opened in North Sydney, moving to The Rocks in 1991. Pierre has sadly passed away since, but Sally continues to co-own La Renaissance with me. We continue the tradition of a fine French patisserie begun all those years ago.

Petra: What is the philosophy of La Renaissance?

Jean-Michel: To create artisanal pastries, cakes, savouries and macarons - all by hand in the traditional French manner. We use only the best ingredients and there is no compromise on quality.

Petra: How was the French Patisserie received in Sydney when it opened?

Jean-Michel: La Renaissance has always been fortunate enough to have a loyal clientele, but we have loved the past 10-15 years when the appreciation of French food has really grown in Australia.

Petra: What is available in your beautiful shop and what are the most popular items?

Jean-Michel: Being a patisserie, we are well known for: our baguette sandwiches which are made freshly in the store each morning; our pure butter croissants and pastries; and one of the most popular lunch items, our Ham & Cheese Croissant. This is made with a bechamel sauce, so it is a little different to the standard Ham & Cheese Croissant and has a very loyal following amongst our clientele, as does our Almond Croissant.

Petra: I love visiting with my son and selecting a few gorgeous sweets from your display. What can people experience in their visits?

Jean-Michel: They can experience a touch of France in Sydney, including French chefs, along with some staff members who speak French. We have beautiful locally roasted coffee and stunning desserts, and individual cakes or full-size Celebration Cakes.

Petra: What is the Relais Desserts Organisation?

Jean-Michel: Relais Desserts is an invitation-only Association of the best 80 Patisseries around the world, and we are the only member in the Southern Hemisphere – a huge honour for me when I and La Renaissance were invited to join. Relais Desserts denotes quality to the highest degree and a true adherence to the artisanal craft of Patisserie Fine; dedication to teaching the next generation of pâtissiers (pastry chefs); and constant learning within the industry.

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Petra: What is available in your beautiful shop and what are the most popular items?

Jean-Michel: Being a patisserie, we are well known for: our baguette sandwiches which are made freshly in the store each morning; our pure butter croissants and pastries; and one of the most popular lunch items, our Ham & Cheese Croissant. This is made with a bechamel sauce, so it is a little different to the standard Ham & Cheese Croissant and has a very loyal following amongst our clientele, as does our Almond Croissant.

Petra: I love visiting with my son and selecting a few gorgeous sweets from your display. What can people experience in their visits?

Jean-Michel: They can experience a touch of France in Sydney, including French chefs, along with some staff members who speak French. We have beautiful locally roasted coffee and stunning desserts, and individual cakes or full-size Celebration Cakes.

Petra: What is the Relais Desserts Organisation?

Jean-Michel: Relais Desserts is an invitation-only Association of the best 80 Patisseries around the world, and we are the only member in the Southern Hemisphere – a huge honour for me when I and La Renaissance were invited to join. Relais Desserts denotes quality to the highest degree and a true adherence to the artisanal craft of Patisserie Fine; dedication to teaching the next generation of pâtissiers (pastry chefs); and constant learning within the industry.

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Petra: Who are your customers – a mix of regulars and tourists?

Jean-Michel: We enjoy a mix of locals living in the area, tourists (now that the borders are open again), and also weekday office workers coming in for their daily coffees, lunch and sweet treats.

Petra: In a world of trends, and cooking becoming very popular especially in Australia, what is the magic of a French patisserie?

Jean-Michel: The constancy of a French patisserie is what we think draws our clients back again and again – quality, delicious food, and a tradition rich in history. The food industry in general has so many transient trends, but we stay true to our lineage and ethos of fine French patisserie.

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Petra: Your beautiful creations are available online for catering and special occasions, how far do you deliver?

Jean-Michel: We aren’t delivering at present, but we can book a courier for customers who are not able to attend either of our shops (at The Rocks, or in Waterloo); this is done on a case-by-case basis via email.

Visit:

https://larenaissance.com.au/

Images:

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PAVLÍNA KOURKOVÁ DAY 5 Botanical art has a special kind of charm and air of timelessness about it. I’ve caught up with Czech botanical artist, Pavlína Kourková to bring you a yarn about nature, its importance, and how she brings this home through her beautiful artworks, capturing the essence of familiar plants that often we take for granted.

Petra: Where are you from?

Pavlína: I come from a small village near Jihlava, the Capital of the Vysočina Region in the Czech Republic, where I spent my childhood. I have fond memories of this time because I was growing up surrounded by beautiful nature which I perceived as an absolute normal part of my life. I used to play outdoors a lot with my three sisters and other kids from the neighbourhood and did many walks with my parents. It was not until I studied in larger cities that I realized being surrounded by beautiful nature is not a common thing. So I looked forward always to going back home to see my parents and take my walks in the forest.

Petra: How did you end up doing you creative work?

Pavlína: My path to botanical art was not straight forward - it was more a series of small winding roads! However, when I look back at my life, everything that has ever happened to me had its important place and time in taking me to where I am now. I had always a relationship to drawing, mainly nature, but becoming a painter and doing it for living was never on my mind. It was a natural part of my self-expression, my hobby and my joy. It was after many years when I was working as a landscape architect in the UK and had a contact with a botanical art, when I felt something inside that led me to decide it’s what I’d like to pursue.

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Petra: What inspired and influenced you along the way?

Pavlína: My time in other countries, firstly in Netherlands, then the UK, and also some people whom I had the pleasure to meet. I think it’s important, especially for a you as a person, to experience other countries, their cultures and so widen your horizons. I felt free in the Netherlands, and it was there that I started to paint again after many years. It felt like returning home to myself. The UK felt familiar, and I was inspired by its old spirit, mythology and the botanical art which has a long tradition, so I just fell under its spell.

Petra: Czech Nature is very picturesque, so do you have favourite spots around Plzeň and other parts of the Country?

Pavlína: Yes, you are right, nature provides rest and endless inspiration for me. I love observing how everything changes through all the seasons and when I’m on my walks. I stop often near some shrub or blossom, and now in Autumn, I love picking up fallen leaves from the ground so I can observe the details of the veins, gentle colours - so much beauty. There is plenty still to discover and find something at which to marvel. Plzeň is situated where you are close always to nature, so often we find ourselves wandering in the great outdoors. There are many places close to my heart.

Petra: Can you share you experience of living in the UK? Pavlína: I lived in the UK for two years. I ventured there after completing my studies in landscape architecture together with ‘then’ boyfriend. At first, we lived in Canterbury, a small medieval town with a gorgeous cathedral. After arriving I started to volunteer in a private garden, which was normal back then, and after a few days thanks to my volunteering job, I found work in a garden company. A year later I got another job offer when we had moved to Oxford. I cherish this time of my life as I loved my job; the walk to work and back was very pleasant; and I learned a lot. I enjoyed exploring the area, mainly near the river where houseboats were berthed - something of a novelty for me.

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Petra: Where is the magic for you in botanical art and does it thrive in this world full of technology?

Pavlína: You know, botanical artists are usually people who practice it as their hobby along with their main jobs. They have the desire to share the beauty of flowers with others through their need to capture it with the brush and thereby share the experience. Simply, they are not doing it for a gain, but from the sheer joy and love of flowers and nature. That’s where the magic of botanical art really lies. I believe that people then feel this passion from looking at those pictures. Botanical art has the ability to calm and quiet a busy mind, and it helps people not only to acknowledge the beauty of nature, but also its importance in our life.

Petra: What does nature mean to you?

Pavlína: Thank you for this question. A picture of my birth village where we used to take long walks with my dad to surrounding forests came to mind. I remember that on one of those walks, a beautiful wide meadow suddenly appeared, and dad spread his arms like an eagle and started to run in circles, just like a bird, with me behind him. I remember the feeling of total happiness and joy.

Nature is breathtaking, we have come from her. Although we humans don’t always treat her well, she’s lovingly embracing us over and over again and enriching us.

Petra: How long does it take to create one of your artworks?

Pavlína: It depends always on the individual piece, its size, and the complexity of the composition.

However, usually it’s around 3-4 weeks. Generally, flowers in the paintings are larger than they are in real life and are very detailed. While I paint large artworks, I sketch also small drawings of treasures I find on my walks.

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Petra: What are you working on right now?

Pavlína: I have a painting of Rowanberries on my table. Rowanberries and Rowan trees are one of my personal favourites decorating the Autumn landscape beautifully with their orange berries complementing the green leaves so well.

Petra: What is the story of your illustrations?

Pavlína: I’ve done a few fairy-tale inspired illustrations for children’s books. Also, from my other fantasy and fairy-tale paintings I have created, together with my husband who writes poems, comprehensive works of paintings and poems for each month, in a monthly calendar. Additionally, I offer author’s prints.

Petra: Where around the world have you travelled with your artwork?

Pavlína: In terms of international exhibitions, I have had the opportunity to travel to the UK and I was invited to Russia. However, my fondest memories are from my very first business trip to the Western Sahara Desert, where I worked on botanical illustrations of medical plants used by the local Saharawi people. It was a completely fresh and very interesting experience with the different environment, culture, way of life, etc.

Petra: What does travelling mean to you?

Pavlína: To be honest, never have I been a person who has needed to travel. Even now despite of living in the same place for the last few years, I’m still finding new things, and places in nature. It’s enough just to wander into the woods in different times than usual to find different plants, mosses, etc. All is alive and never the same. Even though at my core I feel like this, life has taken me to various places and so I’m grateful for that because it’s enriching to look around and gain a different perspective. However I love always my returns back home to my beloved Czech.

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Petra: What do love about living in Czech most?

Pavlína: I remember when I was living in the Netherlands or the UK, that it often was not possible just to wonder into nature as many places had fences and had ‘private property’ signs. These were unpleasant surprises as I appreciated that in Czech you can wander through nature sleeping under the stars in summer, or go mushroom hunting. I love all of these things very much.

Petra: What brings you joy?

Pavlína: Apart from the health of my closest and dearest, I value when people appreciate and react to what I spend so much time on creating - painting flowers. It gives purpose to my work. In October my first book - Duše Květů was published and almost sold out within two months. This is great news for botanical art and signals that people are interested in botanical art and flowers. It brings me great joy.

Petra: Can anyone buy your art?

Pavlína: Yes, my works are available in limited print editions on my website. There is a lot of interest in originals as well, so almost all are sold out. I keep any remaining ones for international exhibitions.

Visit:

https://www.kourkova.cz/en/

Images:

© PAVLÍNA KOURKOVÁ

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ROBYN CONVOY DAY 6 I met Robyn Convoy by sheer chance during one of my trips to the far South Coast of NSW to explore the local surfing culture. She appeared carrying her board on the way from the beach and I had never seen anyone like her - athletic, youthful, and positive. She was the picture of what my initial ideas of Australia were before arriving here. I thought everyone would be looking like her. It took a few years for me to return to Merimbula after the lockdown break and so when Robyn agreed to my visit I was overjoyed. Her story is fabulously timeless and holistic on every single level of being.

Enjoy!

Petra: Where were you born?

Robyn: I was born in Sydney and grew up around Caringbah / Cronulla.

Petra: When was your first encounter with surfing?

Robyn: When you are brought up around the ocean (my dad and brother being keen fisherman), you learn to appreciate just how much fun it is to catch waves. We started really young with zippy boards, body surfing, surf mats, and foamies. Finally, as a teenager I fell in love with wanting to surf properly!! That required asking my parents if I could get a fibreglass surfboard. I had no idea what I was doing at first but was totally obsessed. My whole life (all of 17 years) now evolved around surfing. I was completely addicted and knew this was what I wanted to do for rest of my life. I drew surfing pictures on all my schoolbooks; played the sound track to Morning of the Earth about a million times; and learnt all about weather patterns, low pressure systems, ground swells. Big Wednesday was the classic movie, and everyone knew Matt, Jack and Leroy!

Petra: For how long have you been surfing?

Robyn: Over 45 years now – while the body is finding it so much harder these days, it’s not ready to retire just yet.

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Petra: Can you describe the Sydney surfing culture at the time you were growing up and what were the surfing rules among the beaches?

Robyn: When I was growing up in the 1980’s in Cronulla, there weren’t many girls that surfed. It didn’t bother me who was in the water as all I wanted to do was surf and try to improve all the time.

You start meeting lots of guys, but really they didn’t worry about me being out there at all. It was dominated definitely by males back then though!! Most people knew each other, and it was a much closer community at the city beaches compared with today. There was definitely a pecking order back then where the older crew were more respected, and the younger surfers were aware to keep out of their space or else.

Petra: Has much changed since then and are there more girls and women surfing now?

Robyn: My friend, Chris started the Elouera Women’s Boardriders Club back in the early 1980’s as the local girls, who were starting to surf more, really weren’t getting much of a chance in the Male Boardriders Club. Chris’s Club eventually evolved into the Cronulla Women’s Boardriders which still is going today. There are so many more girls surfing now, it has taken off with the likes of Steph. Gilmore leading the way in the Pro Surfing ranks.

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Petra: You are also an artist - what inspired you to explore your creativity?

Robyn: I wanted always to spray (paint) boards when I was younger and loved the look of airbrushing on the older boards from the 70’s and that became a big influence in the style I have now. Back then I was lucky enough to share my house with my partner and his brother who both decided to start making their own boards. Then we were making boards for lots of family and friends. I did a surfboard making course and learned to glass boards, as well as spray them, so that was so much fun.

Petra: How would you describe your art and what are you working on now?

Robyn: My art is totally influenced by surfing and the colours and feelings that surround it. Probably more on the idealised side, rather than the reality side though. It’s what people dream about!! Also, I like to experiment with abstract painting. It’s great to play around with colour and texture and just cut loose and see what happens. Sometimes it works, and if not - you can start again. There’s nothing like lots of layers.

Petra: You’ve had many addresses, so were art and surfing always part of your life?

Robyn: Most of my life I was lucky enough to live only a few kms from the Coast of NSW. Growing up we had a shack at Little Garie Beach, in the NSW National Park. So, at a very early age the water and ocean were always at the forefront. After being close to the surf, and with surfing always being important, there was a 3-year stint in Queanbeyan in South Eastern NSW, where on the weekends we would head down to the coast, some 130 kms. away. I remember always enjoying drawing and painting, so it was fairly easy to fit-in, no matter where I was.

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Petra: The South Coast is such a great escape, but what did the everyday life look like?

Robyn: I can’t complain about living here, it’s one of the best places on the East Coast. The day usually starts with a surf check; coffee or breakfast; and lots of solving world problems with the older local crew at the “Seat of Knowledge”. Maybe then home to do some painting and visit my mum for an ‘arvo’ coffee and some chocolate!

Petra: What are the different local outdoor activities?

Robyn: There are many activities to do here like fishing and boating. Then there is the beautiful clear water for snorkelling and diving. You can jump off the wharf; laze on the beach; or go whale watching - just to name a few activities. We have so many amazing cafes and restaurants; everywhere has a great coffee and food.

Petra: What does the surfing look like along the Coast and what ages are involved?

Robyn: There is a huge local surfing community here from tiny grommets to school kids, mums and dads, and us old ‘peeps’! The Sapphire Coast Boardriders Club holds contests with the other clubs from Dalmeny to Mallacoota which is just over the border in Victoria.

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Petra: Everyone seem to know you, so how close is the local community?

Robyn: Ha-ha, yes, it’s been quite a small community for a long time, but now more people are moving here and there are lots of new faces that I’m having trouble remembering! It’s a nice friendly atmosphere, people are pretty chilled, and it doesn’t matter what age you are - everyone is happy to have a chat.

Petra: Your daughter is a professional surfer, when did you teach her to surf and what does your family quality time look like?

Robyn: Freya first learned to surf in the lake at Short Point. She would float down the stream when the tide was going out, then turn around and catch the little waves going back up. Soon she graduated to being pushed onto little waves down the line at the bar and before long she was matching it with the boys and started to compete in the Junior Compass around Australia. Even back then there were hardly any girls surfing down here. After finishing school, she decided to compete on the Women’s Qualifying Series, which took her all around the globe, surfing against some of the best women surfers in the world. It’s great when she has a time to come home a couple of times a year, so finally we can hang out and just relax - although she seems always to be training.

Also, usually around Christmas time my son is here so the whole family can hang out with their dad and gran.

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Petra: What do you love about surfing most, and what is the secret to being fit and vibrant your whole life?

Robyn: I’m not sure about the fit and vibrant – hahaha. When you have been surfing for a long time, it does take a toll on your body, but I do think people who surf seem to have a youthfulness about them. It’s probably because we are always at the beach and out in the sun doing what we love!

Petra: How would you describe the feeling of catching a wave?

Robyn: I guess it’s really exhalating and addictive. Once you get your first waves you just want to get more and more. It’s a great feeling standing on a board with the ocean moving around you, while being able to manoeuvre the board up and down the wave and paddle back out for another one.

Petra: What does your perfect day look like?

Robyn: I feel like I have been spoiled totally in that department. Definitely living here on a beautiful sunny day; grabbing some friends for a few 3ft left handers; then coffee and cake and a nap. What more can I say?

Petra: Sharks?

Robyn: There are definitely plenty around, but people who surf usually understand the risk of surfing in the ocean where sharks and other creatures live. I call it a healthy respect.

Petra: What brings you joy?

Robyn: I think just being able to appreciate the great things in my life: family, friends, surfing and living in the best place in the world! They’re what brings me joy.

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TJANPI DESERT WEAVERS DAY 7 I feel very honoured to share this beautiful and important Yarn celebrating the oldest living culture in the world through its continuing traditions and generational sharing of skills representing one of the significant cultural expressions of grass weaving, an art form which connects the many diverse tribes in Australia. Michelle Young from the Tjanpi Desert Weavers in Northern Territory in Australia shared with me stories behind the natural fibre art and the women creating it.

Petra: What is the history of fibre art?

Michelle: Tjanpi (‘desert grass’ in Pitjantjatjara) began in 1995 as a series of basket-making workshops facilitated by the NPY Women’s Council in the Ngaanyatjarra Lands of WA. Women wanted meaningful and culturally appropriate employment on their homelands to better provide for their families. Building upon a long history of using natural fibres to make objects for ceremonial and daily use, women quickly took to coiled basketry and soon were sharing their new-found skills with relatives and friends on neighbouring communities. It was not long before they began experimenting with producing sculptural forms. Today there are over 400 women across three states (NT, SA WA) making spectacular contemporary fibre art from locally collected grasses.

Working with fibre in this way has become a fundamental part of Central and Western Desert culture.

Petra: Can you describe the Ngaanyatjarra Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara (NPY) Women’s Council?

Michelle: Tjanpi Desert Weavers is the dynamic social enterprise of the Ngaanyatjarra Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara Women’s Council (NPYWC). NPYWC was formed in response to the Land Rights struggles of the late 1970s when women realised that they would have greater power, a stronger voice and be able to improve the life of women and children on their lands if they united and collectively advocated for systemic change. Since that time NPYWC has grown from an advocacy service into a major indigenous directed and governed organisation delivering a wide range of health, social and cultural services across 26 desert communities on the tri-state border of NT, SA and WA.

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Petra: How many remote communities are there? Does each of them have its own language?

Michelle: The NPY region encompasses 26 communities and three language and cultural groups, Ngaanyatjarra, Pitjantjatjara and Yankunytjatjara.

Petra: What are the ages of your members, and do you have many young women interested in learning and practicing the culture?

Michelle: The priority for NPYWC Directors and Members is to find income opportunities for younger women, so Tjanpi has been active in attracting younger women during the delivery of skills development workshops. Certainly, the evidence suggests a greater engagement of younger women is taking place through these concerted efforts, but the core of artists remains predominantly 45+.

Petra: How is artwork being purchased in the remote communities?

Michelle: Artwork is purchased during field trips. Three Creative Development Officers and three Anangu Arts and Culture Assistants travel across 350,000 square kilometres to purchase artworks and sell art materials and bush gear. Artists often travel into Alice Springs or can be staying in town as carers for family members with medical issues, so additionally they can sell their work at our Office and Gallery. Also, Tjanpi has the support of NPY Art Centres which purchase work on our behalf. We find numerous creative ways to get work in, and payments out to women, as we negotiate such vast geographical distances.

Petra: What role do stories play in the gatherings and as an inspiration for the final products?

Michelle: See the South Australian, Tjanpi artists’ talk: Mary Katatjuku Pan (Amata), Nyurpaya Kaika-Burton (Amata), and Niningka Lewis (Ernabella).

Linda Rive - Translator and Interpreter

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These comments (edited by YARNS) were made during visits and artists talks at the exhibition of Tjanpi Desert Weavers major installation artworks as part of the String Theory exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, 16-20 August 2013.

Niningka: We want to honour those old stories that the old people told us.

Nyurpaya: I am concerned that our traditional grasses get due recognition. … These are absolutely crucial grasses to our culture and our lives. These grasses were used to their fullest extent by our people. We have very strong feelings towards our grasses, we love them. They have sustained our lives for ever. So, when people ask us about our Tjanpi grasses and we say they have great ‘Tjukurpa’, we really mean it. Beyond our daily use of these grasses, we are using them now also to create sculptures such as the Seven Sisters.

We know that there are many other grasses around, but they are weak and inconsequential and mean very little to us. They are just grasses that break off and blow away in the strong winds. We do not use these for anything. No. The grasses that are important to us are the grasses that are useful for us, like straining and padding grasses, or they feed us with their seeds, and they are strong enough to be used to make sculptures. We want to pay homage to those grasses.

Linda: [Linda’s live interpretation of the above] Well, with Tjanpi, also, we would not like to lose sight of the fact that grasses and the seed bearing grasses have fed and nurtured and nourished our people for millennia, and we want to pay homage to those grasses.

Mary: ‘Wangunu’, ‘Wakati’ and all the bush tomatoes - we had such a huge variety of foods. Our people grew up on that. So, we think about that, and we remember it. Every piece of land that people are born and raised on has a different geology and a different soil, so it bears different grasses and foods. We all know where we were born and where we were raised, and you know, we are all from slightly different country. There are certain plants that grow better in certain areas and all of us are aware of that.

So, in these times of transition, where money started to come in and food, instead of being foraged, was bought with money. We found out really, we didn’t have any money and that is where that real starvation set in. Now we are turning that around - curiously enough by using the very same plant that fed us. So, a couple of steps along the way, that plant is being turned around to make money to feed the kids, but there is always going to be a bit of tension there. Now I say: ‘Ok, I am going to forage in the country for our food, but as it is going to be produced in a different way, I am going to forage and then I am going to make things with what I gather which will be sold and then I’ll make money’. So, our land is still feeding us.

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We are not rich people. Our grasses sustained our Predecessors - our grandparents and our great grandparents. So, one thing, that really we feel concerned about, is when people think that Tjanpi means ‘grass’ and everyone has lawns. So, they might think that our things are made from lawn grass! They might think, ‘Oh, this is made from grass! That’s nice!’. It’s really important for them to know that the fibres with which these items are made are of historical value and have sustained Aboriginal life in the desert since the beginning, and that these grasses themselves are of inestimable value.

We are very ‘Pumpana’, which means ‘lucky’. Where would we be today if Tjanpi Desert Weavers hadn’t have come along? Think about that. Where would we be? Where would we have found the money to feed our kids? If we didn’t have this, we would be a lot worse off. Tjanpi Desert Weavers has been a kind of life saver.

Nowadays there are many different ways in which we transmit those ancient stories because we really held those stories strong. This sculptural way is a whole other new way. We go out into the country to the actual place where the stories take place; where those dreaming tracks move through the country. We go there and we find the materials. These sculptural pieces here are filled up with the story from the land. Our children watch us doing this and they learn directly from us. So, it is for the ‘Malatja, Malatja, Tjutaku’ that we are very concerned. They are the descendants of our children. We believe that our stories will remain as strong as ever because of the absolute power and strength of these sculptures and the community involvement in making them. Those trips to country and making the sculptures involve all the family. So, the children are learning from us, and are getting to know these stories in a completely different way.

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Petra: What is the importance of shared skills and experiences in the communities?

Michelle: At its core, Tjanpi embodies the energies and rhythms of country, culture and community.

Women come regularly together to collect grass for their fibre art, taking the time to hunt, gather food, visit significant sites, perform ‘Inma’ (cultural song and dance) and teach their children about country, while creating an ever-evolving array of fibre artworks. The shared stories, skills and experiences of this wide-reaching network of mothers, daughters, aunties, sisters and grandmothers form the bloodline of the desert weaving phenomenon and fuel Tjanpi’s rich history of collaborative practice. In 2005, the ‘Tjanpi’ Toyota, produced by 20 women from Papulankutja (WA), won the Telstra NATSI Art Award - just ten years after the first baskets were made.

Petra: Can you share more about the two movies and story of the donkey?

Michelle: ‘Tangki’ (Donkey) is a short film produced by Tjanpi Desert Weavers. It combines the art forms of Tjanpi fibre sculpture, stop-motion animation, and oral storytelling to depict the special relationship between Anangu and donkeys in the desert community of Pukatja. It depicts also the unique culture, landscape and humour of the APY Lands in Northern South Australia.

Kukaputju – The Hunter is a short film produced by Tjanpi Desert Weavers. It combines the art forms of Tjanpi fibre sculpture, stop-motion animation, and oral storytelling to bring to the screen a proud episode in the everyday life of the Aṉangu woman, Yanyangkari Roma Butler.

In her first language of Pitjantjatjara, Yanyangkari gives a beautifully expressive account of a day like many others when she decided to go hunting in the bush, near the tri-state border of Western Australia, South Australia and the Northern Territory. We see her and her clever hunting dog next in their animated Tjanpi fibre sculpture (puppet) forms, heading off in a vehicle through Spinifex, Mulga trees, and bright flowering Parakeelya, in country inhabited by zebra finches, rare parrots and other creatures. This is the essence of the ecosystem of the Western Desert as conceived and created by Yanyangkari and 16 other Tjanpi artists from the region, using Tjanpi (desert grasses) – primarily native Minarri grass (Greybeard grass) gathered on their country. The grasses were wrapped around wire armatures and stitched with raffia. The handmade ethos of both forms was maintained carefully, with almost everything on screen handmade and from natural fibres, and all animation created in camera.

Director and animator, Jonathan Daw says: ‘Tjanpi sculptures are great playful material for stop-motion animation. Both are created through handmade and labour-intensive processes and the two complement each other well. As animator, I appreciated the unique medium and the creative challenge of working with it. The use of natural materials gives Tjanpi art some of its charm, but it provided challenges for animation. A balance in design had to be found to make the puppets malleable enough to animate but strong enough not to fall apart when moved. The puppets would often drop small pieces of grass in animation, so this was incorporated into the style: fine loose Tjanpi on the set was used to create things such as footprints and tyre tracks.’

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Tangki features three women: Akitiya Angkuna Tjitayi, Imuna Kenta, and Anne Karatjari Ward, who narrate stories to the camera in their first language of Pitjantjatjara. Their accounts are interspersed with stop-motion animation of adorable characters and beautiful props handcrafted by Tjanpi artists and made primarily from Tjanpi (Desert Grasses) in Pukatja.

Tjunkaya Tapaya OAM, led the way with the film as Cultural Director from its inception in 2019. The aesthetic vision and tone of the film is shaped by the women’s happy childhood memories of riding donkeys in the ‘mission times’ in the 1950s and 60s. In total, 20 Tjanpi artists – all women, as Tjanpi arts practice is the domain of women – created the characters and props for the sets of the film. The artists used Minarri, Wangunu and Intiyanu Desert Grasses collected from their Lands. They bound the grass together around wire frames with string, wool or raffia, and then stitched the outer layer.

The hair on the human characters is unspun sheep’s wool, a historical reference to the days when sheep were introduced by the Ernabella Mission and many members of the artists’ families worked as shepherds, wool classers and shearers in exchange for rations.

The white donkey, made by Carolyn Kenta, is based on Wilma, a donkey living in Pukatja who inspired the story told by Anne Karatjari Ward. That puppet is made from Buffel grass, which, like donkeys, was introduced to Australia by ‘Piranpa’ - white people. Sadly, Wilma died just as the film entered post-production in late 2021 and after a community funeral, she was buried alongside Ernabella Arts. There is one prop that wasn’t made by a woman: the artists commissioned a man to make Older Brother’s spears from twigs of ‘Urtjanpa’ - Spearbush, because spears are not an implement made or used by women.

Tangki arose from an artist-led imperative to explore different ways to tell and share stories through Tjanpi artwork. Tjanpi’s first animation ventures: Ngayuku Papa: Tiny, and Ngayuku Papa: Bluey and Big Boy (2018), had proven that animation is an exceptional storytelling medium for the tactile form and inherent whimsy of Tjanpi sculptures. The Papa (Dog) films were hits with audiences at the 2018 Remote Indigenous Media Festival, Desert Mob Symposium (Alice Springs), Revealed (Perth) and the Melbourne International Animation Festival. The films were selected also for the 2019 Real to Reel: The Craft Film Festival, touring Australia, Korea and Austria. In 2022, they are showing in Continuum: Independent Animation from Japan and Australia at the Japan Foundation Gallery, Sydney and in The Magic Arts: Australian Animation 1970s to Now at the 10th Asia Pacific Triennial at QAGOMA, Brisbane.

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Petra: Where are the works exhibited, stocked and being seen? Do you take commissions?

Michelle: A growing tradition of artists camps held in bush locations has proved fertile ground for the realisation of major commissions and projects including: • Kuru Alala: Eyes Open, a national touring exhibition generated in partnership with Gold Coast City Art Gallery 2009-12; • Paarpakani (Take Flight) commissioned by Tandanya Aboriginal Cultural Institute for the Adelaide Festival 2012; • Tjanpi Minyma, Tjanpi Punu commissioned for String Theory at the Museum of Contemporary Art, 2013; and • Hidden Stories commissioned by TarraWarra Museum of Art for their biennial presentation, ‘Whisper in my Mask’, in collaboration with guest artist, Fiona Hall. Hidden Stories then travelled overseas as a part of Fiona Hall's exhibition, 'Wrong Way Time' at the 56th International Art Exhibition, Venice Biennale in 2015.

More recently there has been: • Tjituru Tjituru with Fiona Hall for Sappers and Shrapnel: contemporary art and art of the trenches for the Art Gallery of South Australia in 2016; • Manguri Wiltja in partnership with Polyglot Theatre and FORM between 2017-19; • Minyma Punu Kungkarangkalpa, Seven Sisters and Kungkarrangkalnga-ya Parrpakanu for Songlines Tracking the Seven Sisters at the National Museum of Australia 2017-18; and • Kungkarangalpa (Seven Sisters) for Know My Name: Australian Women Artists 1900 to Now at the National Gallery of Australia in 2020.

Petra: How would you describe the connection to the land, being located in the middle of Australia far from the hustle of big cities, and the sense of pride and belonging people have in those remote communities?

Michelle: Let Jennifer Mitchell, Papulankutja, WA - Tjanpi fibre artist, explain. When we go out to get Tjanpi we fill the car up with Tjitji (kids) and Minyma (women), all the family mob, and the Papa (dogs). Then we put in our digging stick (Wana), shovel, Wira (small wooden bowl), some water, sugar, tea leaves, pannikin or milk tin and a little bit of Mayi (food). Then we are ready and all of us get excited. We love to go for a ride to get out bush and to feel the country shaking us, and to think about what we might find. We know we’ll get some Tjanpi, but who knows what else we might get in that Tjanpi place? We might look around for Tirnka (lizards) or Maku (witchetty grubs) or dig up some shining Tjala (honey ants) or it might be Yurrarnpa (Honey Dew on Mulga) season. We like to spend time with family in country and show the little ones the different foods to get and the family places to look after. We like to walk around in our country, feel it. That country is Walytja (family) for us. (Thanks to Jennifer Mitchell for her explanation – ref: Watson and NPYWC 2012, 215) – as edited by YARNS).

Visit:

https://tjanpi.com.au/

Images:

© Tjanpi Desert Weavers

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WAUBS HARBOUR WHISKY DAY 8 I’m someone who immensely values a good adventure in life, so imagine how excited I was when I came across Waubs Harbour Whisky in pristine Tasmania and connected with one of the founders, Bec Polmear for a Yarn. I hope sincerely that this beautiful story delights all the sea-dogs and wanderers out there!

Petra: Where are you based?

Bec: Waubs Harbour Distillery is based on the Far East Coast of Tasmania in a small coastal town called Bicheno.

Petra: What is the story of Waubs Harbour?

Bec: The vision for Waubs Harbour began first when brothers Tim and Rob were sitting around a fire (whiskies in hand) one evening in early 2017. Tim asked Rob, who was previously Head Distiller at Overeem Whisky and Head of Production at Lark Distillery: “If you could make whisky your way, using the best equipment in the perfect location, how would you do it?” That night sparked the vision for what we, Tim, Rob, and Bec Polmear, now have brought to life as Waubs Harbour, Tasmanian Maritime Single Malt Whisky. *Tim and I are married; Rob is the brother of Tim; and we’re all co-founders in Waubs Harbour.

We’re ocean lovers ourselves and have spent many hours wandering up and down the East Coast of Tasmania, both in and out of the water. When we were seeking a location for our distillery, we were naturally drawn to the Coast. It’s been proven in Scotland that a maritime influence creates beautiful, characterful whisky and we dreamt of creating a rich and oily Tasmanian maritime single malt. The day we first set foot in our building, right on the edge of the ocean in Bicheno, we knew there was no better place to do so.

Our name, Waubs Harbour, the former name of Bicheno, which was named after a Tasmanian Aboriginal woman named Wauba Debar. Growing up and around Bicheno and with Aboriginal heritage ourselves, we'd always connected with Wauba’s story and are proud to carry on the Waubs Harbour name.

Wauba was stolen as a teenager to become a ‘sealer’s slave’. She is said to have rescued two men from a sinking boat in a wild storm after swimming 1km offshore and dragging them back one by one. Known as the ‘heroine of the sea’, the town was named after her. Wauba died in the early 1800s with the only known gravestone erected to a Tasmanian Aboriginal person during the 19th century and the only Palawa woman known to have been buried and commemorated by non-Indigenous locals. You can still visit Wauba’s gravestone today, only a few hundred meters from our distillery.

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Petra: How did Waubs Harbour come to life?

Bec: After Tim and Rob’s initial dream of the whisky they would make around the fire in early 2017, the vision soon unfolded. By early 2018, Tim and I (with years of experience in businesses of our own), and Rob (with years of experience in the distilling industry), had refined our vision for the whisky we wanted to make; designed and had our equipment custom made; and acquired our dream location on the ocean’s edge. After years of renovating, distilling and maturing our whisky, Waubs Harbour released our Preview Series in February 2022, and officially opened our doors to guests to tour the facility and taste our whisky.

Petra: You have incredible premises, what is the history of the building?

Bec: Thank you. We’re very fortunate to have the premises we do. Our production facility building, which was the building we first acquired, was an old oyster hatchery where they grew baby oysters to sell to oyster farms. However, the hatchery had to move further south due to rising ocean temperatures and the building was vacant for a few years before we approached them and asked to acquire it. It was a building we’d walked past for many years with so much potential. We’ve spent the past few years renovating it ourselves and repurposing a lot of the existing infrastructure and materials.

Bicheno is an old fishing town and still today has fishermen unloading their haul on the jetty outside our distillery. In October 2021, we were able also to acquire the three neighbouring buildings, similarly set right on the edge of the ocean. They were once home to an abalone farm and still today have large saltwater tanks in one of the buildings where the abalone once lived. Today the tanks are home to our personal crayfish catch before they become dinner!

We’re passionate about continuing to share the story of our old fishing town and how our buildings were a big part of that.

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Petra: What makes Waubs Harbour Whisky unique?

Bec: Waubs Harbour is unique due to our truly maritime location and its resultant influence on the casks. The high tide mark literally touches one of the concrete pillars on our building. We believe the salt air influence really draws out a maritime like character that’s unique to us, particularly on the nose. We liken it to salt on roast potatoes. It doesn’t make them taste salty, but it really extracts the flavour.

Another unique element to Waubs Harbour is also our custom-built lab. inside our distillery. Our Co-founder and Head Distiller, Rob comes not only with years of experience distilling but also has a Masters in Antarctic Marine Science and is a natural craftsman. Over the years, he’s kept his own bees; cultured his own cheese; grown mushrooms; and so much more. So, when we began making whisky, he was passionate about culturing his own fresh yeast and experimenting with elements, such as coastal peat, to make hyper local whisky, rather than just using traditional dried yeast and highland peat. His lab enables him to experiment and produce limited releases using these hyper local elements. Something that we can do being a smaller, craft distillery.

Our team also is a unique part of Waubs Harbour and the whisky industry. We are three, passionate founders in our thirties who are also family. The whisky industry is changing and is no longer just made by older men, for older men. We’re excited and proud to be a part of that change, particularly with a young, female co-founder.

Petra: How important is the relationship to the sea and how does it reflect in your philosophy?

Bec: The relationship with the ocean is very important to us. We’re ocean lovers personally, but also, it’s incredibly important to the whisky we’re making. I touched on it earlier, but the reason we are located on the ocean’s edge in Bicheno is for the maritime influence on our maturing casks and the way that extracts character and flavour.

Personally, we’re passionate about the ocean and conservation efforts. We spend hours in the boat, just off the coast from the distillery, fishing or taking our young kids out on the ocean, educating them and watching the seals laze on the rocks and regularly spotting whales, dolphins and stingrays. We have a dingy tied up on the jetty out the front of the distillery in which, in cray season, Tim goes out each morning and sets the cray pot, keeping any he’s caught in our saltwater tanks.

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Petra: Can you share the creation process and the story of private casks?

Bec: Whisky distilling is said to be where science meets art and we do believe that. Being made from only barley, water and yeast and then matured in an old cask, it takes a huge amount of knowledge to create a high-quality whisky that’s uniquely your own. From the design of your equipment; to the quality of ingredients you use; to the precision of measurements; to the types of casks used in maturation; and any blending that occurs post maturation. It’s incredibly important to have a skilled distiller and our Head Distiller Rob’s experience has definitely set us up for success.

We offer a very limited number of private casks. We have only ever released 100 20L casks for private purchase to keep the experience exclusive for those who are able to secure one. Our private cask owners are taken on the journey as their cask matures over 2 - 2.5 years and are able to taste a sample as the spirit matures; visit their cask in our private cask room which overlooks the ocean; and once matured, receive approximately 40 bottles with their chosen name handwritten on the bottle. For some, their bottles are given as gifts, or shared amongst family members or friends, or just stored away for the future.

Petra: What can people experience on your tours and tastings?

Bec: We’re now hosting tours and tastings most days, by booking only. We offer a Tour & Tasting Experience where guests are taken on a full tour of the distillery production and bond store, including samples of the spirit throughout the production and three whisky tastings in our ocean view tasting room, looking out over our production facility. Also, we offer a Guided Tasting during which guests are guided through tastings of our three recently released whiskies in our ocean view tasting room, looking out over our production facility.

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Petra: Do you ship all ever the world? What’s the most exotic destination?

Bec: We’re shipping only within Australia at the moment. We have only quite a limited amount of whisky available and to date, our releases have sold out incredibly quickly. So we’re happy to be able to offer it to our local and loyal supporters first. In the future, as we have more available, we will begin to ship internationally.

Petra: How do you see sustainability and how do you put it into practice? (Ocean cooled, heat recovery, feeding pigs..)

Bec: We look actively always for ways to reduce our impact. Single malt whisky, thankfully by nature, has a relatively low impact on the environment around us, being made from only four elements - Tasmanian barley, local fresh water, yeast and repurposed casks. However, in addition, we do three key things to reduce our impact - our saltwater cooling system; using heat recovery systems; and gifting spent grain to local farmers.

To save on high energy consumption from the large chiller machines, literally, we use the salt water from the ocean to cool our equipment during distillation. It’s a genius, yet simple system, involving titanium heat exchangers to convert the cool ocean water’s energy into an efficient and environmentally friendly cooling system. All made possible by the existing repurposed oyster hatchery infrastructure.

Our distillery uses heat recovery extensively. As simple as louvre windows that cool the distillery with the ocean breeze, or alternatively the radiating heat of the stills to warm it. As complex as using cold water in a heat exchange to cool the 100 degree waste water from the stills, which in turn converts the cold water into warm, ready for the next run.

Once our Tasmanian malted barley has been through the mash tun, the spent grain is then given to our local farmers to feed to their pigs and other livestock.

Petra: What is your favourite way to drink whisky?

Bec: When someone asks us how they should drink their whisky, we tell them. However, if they think it tastes best on its own, or with a drop of water, it’s their choice. Our preference is to drink it neat as our whisky, and the Tasmanian whisky industry as a whole, is premium, craft whisky that is not designed to be mixed. So personally, we believe that’s how it drinks best!

Visit:

https://waubsharbourwhisky.com/

Images:

© Andrew Wison, Bec Polmear, Waubs Harbour Whisky

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BROADWATER OYSTERS DAY 9 Oysters. Love them or hate them, they are fascinating and delicious! This yarn comes from the pristine Sapphire Coast’s Broadwater Oysters farm where Greg Carton and Sue McIntyre lovingly farm them in the Pambula Lake. I was lucky enough to visit and learn about the farming processes and shuck my first oyster.

Petra: Where are you located?

BO: On the foreshore of the pristine waters of Pambula Lake, 10 minutes’ drive south from the historical township of Pambula, NSW.

Petra: What is the story of your Oyster Farm?

BO: It’s a guy-meets-gal love story… we started with just the retail shop at Imlay Oyster Sheds, buying and selling oysters from other local farmers and have slowly built up the business to have nine hectares of leases and capacity to grow 60,000 dozen oysters a year.

Petra: How do you start an oyster farm from scratch?

BO: The approach really depends on your appetite for risk. We started small. Over 26 years (celebrated this January 2023) we have slowly built up the business to have nine hectares of leases and capacity to grow 60,000 dozen oysters a year. Like most farming enterprises, we are beholden to the will of mother nature and external environmental factors. Over that time have battled more than a few epic challenges including stock losses, bush fires, multiple flooding events, Covid-lockdowns and unprecedented rainfall that impacts growth and condition and even significant loss of stock.

Sydney Rock Oysters are resilient creatures and we are finding as Sydney Rock Oyster farmers we need to be resilient too.

Petra: How does life of an oyster look like?

BO: Happy days in the pristine waters of Pambula Lake. Over three years, they filter litres & litres of water to help clean the estuary and create a habitat that supports a diverse range of birds, fish, kelp and other estuary loving creatures. We care for them over that time and then harvest them when they are ready to impress.

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Petra: And how does life on an oyster farmer look like?

BO: For Greg and I there’s never a dull moment at the farm. Our work fulfills our love for being outdoors and working with a natural, native product. Protecting the natural environment around us is at the core of everything we do. Our award-winning oysters and our livelihoods depend on healthy waterways. We are tied to the tides, working with mother nature to produce our Sydney Rock Oysters.

Petra: What are the most common myths and mistakes people do?

BO: Unopened (unshucked) Sydney Rock Oysters are easier to transport, store and open at home than most people realise. Being tidal creatures, they can stay alive in the shell for 10 days which means anyone can embrace their inner-hunter-gatherer at home by shucking their own fresh oysters straight from Pambula Lake.

Petra: You are uniquely positioned with other oyster farmers around and each of them seem to have their own dogs, how do all the people and dogs get along? What is the name of your dog?

BO: There are around 20 oyster farmers working the lake so the processing sheds and launching ramps at the Pambula Lake Oyster Sheds make for an authentic, vibrant, happy and very busy working farm atmosphere. Boxer is our Kelpie, who loves a pat, a sleep and only gets excited if a seagull tries to harass visitors!

Petra: You are open to public all year compared to the other oyster farms, can you describe the different taste experience?

BO: We sell oysters all year-round because we love to share the changes in flavour throughout the seasons. In winter our oysters are leaner and more herbaceous and in summer they are fatter, offering the perfect balance between salt and cream, with our famous ‘just dunked in the ocean’ freshness.

Petra: How much do you rely on technology in your farm practice?

BO: Oyster farming is extremely labour intensive, on the water and in the processing sheds. 20 years ago we graded all of our oysters by hand. Since then we have invested heavily in technology to help improve our capacity to farm, grade and process oysters. We love showing visitors around the farm and sharing the story of the advancements in technology, including our new ‘Flip-Farm’.

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Petra: Is summer the happy season with happy visitors?

BO: The farm is a wonderful place to visit all year-round. Autumn and winter offer sunny blue sky days and summer offers creamy plump oysters. There is always something to do, see and eat at the farm!

Petra: Can you describe what your classes look like?

BO: We have always welcomed visitors at the farm and offered a window into our farming-world.

Our new classes give us an opportunity to give visitors our full attention as we share why native Sydney Rock Oysters are so precious and delicious!

Petra: What is the best thing about being an oyster farmer?

As above – working in the outdoors working with a natural product Visit:

https://broadwateroysters.com.au/

Images:

© Petra Jungmanova, David Rogers Photography

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RUSTICO DAY 10 A recent trip to the Blue Mountains got more delicious thanks to Italian chef, Juri Cagnano, who brought his love of Italian food to Katoomba. I sat with him to find out what makes this place so inviting and perfect for an intimate meal.

Petra: How long have been in Australia?

Juri: I’ve been in Australian for 8 years and Katoomba just for one.

Petra: From which part of Italy do you come?

Juri: I’m from Tuscany, but originally from Naples. I attended school in Naples and after that I moved to Tuscany and then went back and forth. I learned to make pizza in Naples when I was young around fourteen. Then, when I was 23, I started to travel making pizza all over Europe Austria, Spain, Germany, & Berlin. As I never had to speak the local language, this job was gold because I could travel without needing any other language!

Petra: So were you always working for Italians and was it a good experience for you?

Juri: Yes, and then I started to learn other languages which I got to understand. I loved the whole experience: seeing new places; meeting new people; and exploring. It was challenging which I loved also as in each new country, I started again from scratch!

Petra: So how did you end up in Australia?

Juri: I was in Berlin in Germany in this pizzeria full of Italians and one of my colleagues said: ‘You should try to go to Australia’, because he had been there a year earlier. After three months I thought: ‘Yeah - why not’ and I applied for a Tourist Visa and came here. I came to Sydney and moved to Bondi and loved it a lot, so I stayed. I spent three months there on this visa; returned to Berlin; packed everything; got another visa; and came back here.

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Petra: Did you fall in love with Australia?

Juri: Yes, I loved it straight away. I love the ocean and living near the beach as that’s where I come from in Naples. I loved also the warm weather. Back in the day, like eight years ago, it seemed like eight months of summer and four months winter, with ten degrees being the coldest back in Bondi.

It was perfect for me. Also jobs were easy to find with good conditions and money. So I thought to myself: ‘Ok, this is a country where I can start something serious’.

Petra: Did you see your future here?

Juri: After the first year I fell in love with this Country, then I started to think about being away from my country on the other side of the world and I thought: ‘Do I want to stay here’? Then I realised: ‘Yes, it’s given me a lot this country - I love it’. I worked very hard for the first two years and then I opened my first business in Bondi. It was very hard to save the money to open the business.

However, Bondi has a big Italian community and when I opened I had a lot of people, not friends, that supported me.

Petra: So was it the same model like you have here? Pizza and a glass of wine?

Juri: Yes, and pasta - home-made pasta. However, it was super traditional there more than here. For example, here we have pineapple on the pizza just because kids love pineapple. There it was very authentic with dishes from many regions of Italy and only Italians working in the kitchen as I hired only Italians. There are not many Italians here, because the Mountains are different, however, the recipes are the same. Everything is made from scratch: we buy the tomatoes in cans and cook them for the pizza; we buy the cherry tomatoes and we cook them with oil, salt, garlic and mix them!

Petra: Do you work with local suppliers?

Juri: It’s important for me, because it’s a little town, so it’s nice to help each other and it’s also a way to get to know people who live here and to network. Our veggie supplier is here in the Mountains, but for the other stuff, 70% of the ingredients come from Italy, including the wine and beer as well.

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Petra: Do people love the fact it’s an authentic experience?

Juri: Yes, many do. I love delivering my concept to them: the full ‘Italian experience’, including beer and wine - why not? You can got to the pub for Australian beer, but see if you can get Italian beer!

I think it’s nice to have something different, that counts you know. So I have everything Italian. As a customer, if I go Italian, Spanish or French, I expect to have a full ‘Country experience’ and that’s what I want to do with my restaurant, give an experience like what it would be like in Italy!

Petra: Why did you move from Bondi to the Blue Mountains?

Juri: After six years at Bondi I got a bit sick of it. I had a lot of fun and was very happy. However for six years, it was a little ‘full on’ every day. After I sold the business, I spent one month just thinking about what’s next. Then a friend, one of my suppliers, told me about this shop that was empty. She called me saying: ‘Juri I know you are looking for some new spot and I found something in Katoomba’! I thought Katoomba was a little bit far as I had visited Katoomba eight years earlier to see the Three Sisters and never returned as I’m not really a mountain person. Also, it was cold!

However I came here and just looked around and felt this was a great business opportunity. I noticed also the people and tourists who come all year round. The big point was that there was no Italian restaurant around. This made me more interested and so I started looking further. I liked the place: lots of bush-walks; very natural; fresh air; and you get the feeling you can slow down. It was a good time for me to change, so I thought: ‘You know what, let’s try it’.

Petra: So, you don’t miss the ocean?

Juri: I miss it a lot, but Bondi is just an hour and a half away. So now I have a good balance because I’m busy here with the restaurant for five or six days, then I go to Bondi and it’s more fun than living and working there - everyday the same people. Now when I go there for a day, I feel like I’m on a holiday. I meet my friends and go to beach!

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Petra: There is a lot of opportunity in Katoomba isn’t there?

Juri: It was a good moment to start a business here, even with the Covid restrictions, because as soon as they finished, it got very busy as people just wanted to go out. Now on the weekends lots of tourists come here - it’s like people have discovered ‘local’ tourism!

People are different here to those in Bondi. There, they seem more casual and open; whereas up here, people seem more reserved and so it’s a bit harder to build connections. There seems to be more of a ‘local’ than ‘multicultural’ focus here, although this seems to be changing - gradually.

Petra: Is this your dream? Clearly, people love Rustico!

Juri: I’m very grateful for what I’ve built. I’m very ambitious, so for me it’s just a start as already I’m looking at how to make it better and how expand. So who knows, I might open another Rustico nearby. However, I’m really happy and satisfied with all I’ve done and very happy with the staff I have.

Petra: How is your family with all this?

Juri: Of course my family wants me to be over there; but also they want me to be happy! As being here makes me happy at the moment, that’s the important thing. For me, it doesn’t make sense if you stay next to your family and you are not happy. Usually, every year I spend one month back in Italy, so it’s a good balance for me.

Petra: I noticed one of your staff is a local teen.

Juri: Yes, he’s fifteen. When he came initially, he started from the back- dishwashing in the kitchen area. Then after one month, I moved him to the floor and next to pizzeria. Now he’s very good and I’m very proud of him. We’ve stared to teach each other - he teaches me English and I teach him Italian!

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Petra: What do you think people enjoy most about coming here? I don’t think I’ve ever seen so much joy.

Juri: I think it’s a combination. Once you know you are going to have a pizza you are happy - let’s eat pizza; pizza makes everyone happy! So when you get here, you are happy already.

Then we try to make everyone feel at home all the time - this is the most important thing. So when you come here, someone will be smiling at you. Also it’s very rustic, small and clearly Italian. The music is very relaxing as well - I’m usually playing 70’s and everyone loves it. Then there’s the excellent food as all involved in food preparation are experienced - for example, I’ve spent 20 years making pizza and Giovanni 35 years.

It’s proper Italian food - we are friendly and loud. I love that.

Petra: What makes you happy?

Juri: When I see that people love their dinner, enjoy what they eat and their time in here, I am filled with joy and this makes me very happy. I love to see people happy and if I can do something to make them happy that’s it! It’s important.

Visit:

@rustico_katoomba

Images:

© Petra Jungmanova

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ROCKPOOLS DAY 11 Australia is a place like no other and after 22 years of living here, there are still new spaces that take my breath away. This is a yarn about the humble rock pool which comes in different shapes and sizes all over Australia’s beautiful coastline and provides a full immersion in nature.

Imagine arriving in Sydney for the first time without actually knowing what the city and its beaches looked like. My naïve idea of Sydney came I guess from watching, back in my native Czech, the Australian TV series ‘Heartbreak High’ and the American TV show ‘Baywatch’, which I thought also was an Australian show - only to find myself living in the very same environment.

Back then in Czech, internet and computer use still was in its infancy and going to the ‘internet cafe’ was the new cool way to catch up with your friends rather than google what places looked like.

So ‘yes’, I arrived in Sydney only knowing its traditional imagery of a lit-up Harbour Bridge and Opera House from walking past the `paper shop’ in my home town and little bits I learnt about the Sydney Olympics. Bondi looked nothing like the Californian beach with its cute bungalows and everyone wearing white on their romantic strolls! Also winter greyness didn’t help!

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Apart from the culture shock, and discovering the lack of heating compared to winters in Central Europe, the cold weather was a good catalyst for me wanting to explore the natural beauty and ocean environment even more.

The famous ‘Sculpture by the Sea’ starting near the fabulous Bondi Rock Pool, home of the ‘Iceberg Swimming Club’ which encourages swimming every day of the year, also was a great and dramatic introduction.

I’m still fascinated by the busy life in this little pool and in adjacent restaurant.Visiting there even for a lemonade on the terrace and watching swimmers of all ages and backgrounds remains a must and to me it is a total celebration of Australian culture.

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Sydney is blessed with many magical rock pools and I’ve picked some of the most picturesque for your viewing pleasure. Not everyone living in Sydney is lucky enough to be able to wander casually for their sunrise or sunset swim in one of these pools. However, thanks to their being so many around the foreshores, people can come from the non-beach suburbs and enjoy these fantastic rock pools, some entry free, and make it part of their regular health routine.

Of course the Australian has many rock pools - some more rustic than others, being part of larger geological landforms. I love finding and exploring them on my adventures. They invite people to wander around and discover the vibrant life in their strange and varied shapes and sizes, being home to many sea creatures. Personally, I prefer to visit areas that offer the opportunity to wander and get a bit lost in the hidden natural Aussie world, still so raw and primal.

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When I compare the Australian beach experience to what is ‘normal’ around the world, I find that it’s very easy here and really impossible ‘there’ to find yourself alone on the beach perhaps with just a few fishermen on a distant rock!

Even more amazing is that this ‘paradise’ quality and the pristine nature is not ‘hours’ driving from a city. The wonderful National Parks, part of Sydney’s landscape, are something unique when it comes to urban environments and the scattered habitats through the bush are the proof that with a lifestyle close to nature - you can have your cake and eat it too!

Written by Petra Jungmanova Images:

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DARLEY’S RESTAURANT DAY 12 A true fine dining experience is made of many small elements seamlessly working together to create something out of this world. This secret formula keeps the rest of us curious and simply wondering at the end result - being totally immersed in the environment and just wanting to come back for the same feeling. It’s an opportunity to taste the best local and international flavours in a beautiful setting with great service and, if you are lucky, with a great companion to explore the wine list!

Darley’s Restaurant had been on my bucket list for many years, and it exceeded all my expectations with one of the best table services I have ever had and a wine list to die for! For anyone wanting to experience something different this is a fairy-tale like place to disappear into the world of incredible flavours and combinations.

The Magic Location With views across the historic formal English gardens and the escarpment of the Jamison Valley in the background, Darley’s Restaurant is located within the grounds of the 5-Star Lilianfels Resort and Spa in Katoomba in the World Heritage-listed Blue Mountains of NSW. The soaring mountain views and lush manicured gardens lure guests not just from Australia, but also from around the world. Here, they will not only immerse themselves in the timeless beauty that abounds at Lilianfels, but also in culinary delights of Darley’s which is situated in the original Lilianfels House.

Lilianfels House was built over 100 years ago, and recently refurbished to retain the original character and mystique.

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Darley’s This multi-award-winning restaurant is the Resort’s signature fine dining restaurant and is the only Two Chef Hatted Restaurant in the Upper Blue Mountains. Darley’s provides a delectable dining experience through an innovative cuisine of fresh produce that certainly will tempt and expand the senses. The modern Australian cuisine is served a la carte, or as a degustation, and is complemented by specially selected local and imported wines. The main dining room seats up to 50 people and features two open ornate fireplaces, stunning leadlight windows, crystal chandeliers, luxurious designer wall prints, evocative artworks and plush furnishings that radiate style and grace. With this magnificent décor, Darley’s sparkles with newly revived old-world charm that truly heightens the dining experience.

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A Brief History A summary of the history of Darley’s will also heighten the experience. The Restaurant is set in the heritage listed, original homestead of Sir Frederick Darley, the sixth Chief Justice of NSW. Sir Fredrick Darley was born in 1830 in Dublin, Ireland. His wife, Lucy Forest Brown, who was born in Melbourne, and they married in December 1860. They met while she was traveling with her brother to England. They arrived in Australia in 1862, on the advice of the Chief Justice of NSW who convinced him that he would further his career in the Colony. Sir Frederick was knighted in 1887 and served five times as Lieutenant Governor of NSW, one such term spanning the formation of the Federation of the six British Colonies into the Commonwealth of Australia in 1901.

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In August 1888 Sir Frederick Darley purchased over 11 acres of land adjacent to Echo Point in Katoomba. He built a summer residence for the family over the year of 1889 which was designed by architect and politician - Varney Parkes (son of Henry Parkes, the longest non- consecutive Premier of the Colony of New South Wales). The Darley’s had seven children, five daughters and two sons, and it was Lilian, who died of tuberculosis at age 22, for whom the Katoomba property was named. The property was used for a summer residence and nearly every noted visitor to Australia accepted the Darley’s hospitality enjoying the magnificent outlook. Royalty, Vice Royalty and Princes of Statesmanship, Jurisprudence, Science and Art came to view the Mountains from the magnificent vantage point at Lilianfels.

Before his death, Sir Frederick sold Lilianfels to George Begg Vickery in 1908, and again over the next 4 years Lilianfels was used as a summer residence only. In 1912 Mr Albert A Kemp of Sydney purchased Lilianfels and for the first time the house was used as a permanent residence. Mr Kemp was the first to subdivide the original land parcel and sold the property in 1920.

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The Garden at Darley’s No experience at Darley’s would be complete without exploring the magnificent, perfumed gardens with their walkways and hidden features, statues and water features. Sitting on one of the benches is a great way to take-in the whole experience!

Visit:

https://www.darleysrestaurant.com.au/ https://www.lilianfels.com.au/

Images:

© Darley’s Restaurant, Petra Jungmanova

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ANKER BAK DAY 13 Danish design does not need much introduction - the decades of design and fine craftsmanship truly put it on the world style map. Danish design became an endless inspiration for bringing some intentional beauty, function and form into our daily lives. Anker Bak is a real champion of Danish design, and I loved talking to him about his creative process and work.

Petra: Where are you based?

Anker: I’m based in Denmark. I live 100 km west of Copenhagen at the coast of Sjælland. My girlfriend and I love to stay a little bit outside of Copenhagen. Our place here, which you could call our creative or summer place, is a small wooden cabin that we re-built ourselves close to the water which we love, as the water clears the head and particularly now we have our daughter. We stay there a lot of the time, except in winter when we stay elsewhere.

Petra: How would you describe what you do?

Anker: I design furniture, but for me furniture design is not just producing a piece of furniture – it’s my way of telling stories. Let me give you an example - maybe four years ago I started designing a coffin for my grandparents. As they were around 90 years old, we knew one day they would die. So for me, as I’d spent so much time with them, I wanted to create and show them the last thing I could give them. Also, I wanted to tell the story of how much I cared about them and how much I loved the time we had together. I believe that old people can teach us so many things, so for me to make the coffin was a way to say thanks and tell other people it’s important to spend time with your grandparents and all the people you love.

So, when you ask me what I’m doing, in around 90% of my furniture, there is always a story behind the piece. For me the driver is the story, and the design is the physical end goal - I’d say I tell the story through design.

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Petra: We connected a few years ago when you designed your beautiful Rocking Chair, can you share what inspired that design?

Anker: The rocking chair was one of my first stories in wood. My little sister was pregnant and lived in a really small and crowded apartment in Copenhagen. Before she gave birth to her daughter, she bought a big ‘old school’ style rocking chair because she thought it would be nice to sit-in while breastfeeding. When I came to the kitchen which was small and saw this big rocking chair, I asked her what it was doing there, and she told me the story. So, we decided that I should try to design a foldable rocking chair which she could collapse and store in the corner after use. That was one of my first stories where I tried to solve a problem with a design.

Petra: That chair is quite famous now, how did it get there?

Anker: In 2013 I started my own company as a furniture designer and at that time I was little bit naïve. I thought that when I start my own company, manufacturers would come to me - I just need to draw! I made the chair in 2014 before I approached Carl Hansen & Son, an institution in Danish furniture design that manufactures Hans J. Wegner and Arne Jacobson to name a few. Given the status of the company, it was intimidating to approach. In 2015 I sent an email telling the story and received a response asking whether I had a picture, or a prototype and I responded ‘yes’ to both questions. After that I was asked to visit so they could look at the design and we started collaborating from that day!

Petra: Would you consider it luck?

Anker: Everything in the design field is about luck and struggle - so getting into Carl Hansen & Son was luck, but it was also a struggle. Not many designers do prototypes like me, but as I’m also a cabinet maker, I always do a 1:1 prototype to show it as it would look in the shops. This takes a long time and costs a lot of money.

A prototype is the proof that my idea for a new design is possible to make and works as it should.

For example, with my latest design - the coffin (Ro), I spent two months just building a prototype after the design was finished. This was a big task for me and also a very important one as with new or special designs that have not been seen before, prototypes can make producers dare to say: ‘Yes’!

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Petra: When did you get interested in crafting functional objects?

Anker: When I was a kid. My granddad was a wood carver and lived in Sweden. I just remember being in his workspace - a kid sitting in a big pile of wood; the smell of wood; and him teaching me a bit. I’m dyslexic, so the whole school thing was not something for me. I did not like school at all, except the two hours a week when I could go to the wood workshop and do something.

So, when I came out of school I started to train as a cabinet maker, which I liked as a job. However, I liked it more after work when I could do my own projects, and I did a lot of them! After that, I studied production technologies - something in between design and engineering. I figured out that in that field I liked the functional part. Then I figured out I needed more education in design, which I undertook.

Design School equipped me to express my ideas better and to make the design cleaner and more understandable for the public. Simply, the cleaner design, the more understandable it is for the end user. So for me, design education led me to understand how to form the story best with the chosen material.

Now in my business mostly I do functional designs and mainly in wood, and I am comfortable with that. For me, the more natural the material, the better. Sometimes I do little bits in steel because I need that for functional parts. The reason I do ‘functional’ products (in wood) is also because many of the functional products we are using today are made from plastic, aluminium and / or steel and as a result are not that beautiful. Also, it’s really easy to build-in function using such materials.

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Consequently, the reason I do the things I do and why I work so much with ‘function’, is because I think there is a big missing piece in the whole furniture field. We do need ‘functional’ products, but in more natural materials - so I use wood instead. Then, in my opinion, we get more beautiful furniture. So by using wood, I believe that I’m filling in some of the missing pieces in furniture design.

My other goal is to look at how long such furniture will function - can you have your chair for 60 years? When you make furniture that needs to last for a long time, you have so many aspects to consider from the simple ones – like colouring; to the complex - like the whole construction of the design. You know colouring today may be fashionable for (say) 5 years given magazines promote new colours (say) twice a year. So, in five years your colouring might be ‘outdated’. For me, I try to do my best by not colouring things and in this way just keep it as classic as possible.

The reason I say this, and why it is so difficult for me, is because I look at the ‘safe’ choice. The ‘safe’ choice is to design a chair that can last for many, many years and not in all colours, etc. Really, I’m just very basic - so it’s wood for me, as wood can last for many years. Maybe I’m neither that modern, nor that fancy at the moment. However maybe the whole field will look different in 10 years.

I just think sustainability has been looked at the wrong way. Simply, we should understand that we have so much furniture in the world today. I saw an interview with a designer who said that we have produced so much furniture already that if we stopped making more today, we could last for the next 80 – 100 years! Therefore, before we talk about the right plastic, the right steel, the right wood, etc., maybe we should consider whether there is the need to produce it? However, that is very difficult to talk about, because when you look at the whole global economy, it is based on consumerism.

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Petra: What does your creative process look like from beginning to end, and how does it differ from mass produced items?

Anker: The thing I do is to produce one prototype and then talk with manufacturers about it. Then I try to find the best manufacturer to produce it. So, taking Carl Hansen & Son is a good example: I do one prototype and then Carl Hansen might say: ‘this is a really good design; so, we will manufacture it as your design in our name’. Therefore, for me it’s really important to find good collaborators and good manufacturers with whom I can be proud of working. It’s like we are partners in a way. The most important thing for me is to find manufacturers that are good at manufacturing in wood. Because of this I really love manufacturing in Denmark, Sweden and Japan, where I’ve been living with my family and working with a local manufacturer for the last one and a half months and will be staying even longer.

Back to the process which starts with the idea. It’s always a feeling - something I see; something I hear; something that I’d like to change; or a story I’d like to tell through design. That is the idea, with that idea coming, in a way from living my life, meeting people, seeing how they live. That is where the story emanates. This is a very important thing for me to design in this way. It’s the necessary way for me!

When I have an idea, I just start with some small sketches that maybe only make sense to me. Then I do a lot of running and a lot of sitting, looking out over the water, and such stuff to get the sketch into the right design. In this flow my head is working like a 3D program turning the design around again and again. So, you could say getting the sketch into the right design is a long process of running, swimming, walking, sitting and drawing and living. After this process I draw everything on computer, work a little bit in the workshop and little bit more on the computer. When I’m happy with the design, I take off my designer’s cap and put on the cabinetmaker’s cap to make the prototype.

Petra: What role does nature play in your work?

Anker: Nature is the reason I work only in wood, as for me, the more we can surround ourselves with nature, the better. While many designers are getting inspired by nature, the part nature plays in my design is that I can sit in nature, observe, and just be there and through that hopefully introduce something of that feeling when drawing my product.

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Petra: Danish design is unique and distinct. Is it an everyday practical functionality, or a luxury for people who can afford it? What does an average Danish household look like?

Anker: So, we have a really good design tradition. I’d say that there are many good Danish designers, but there are really good designers all over the world. Maybe Danish design has had some influence as Danish designers are not unique anymore. However, we are still born into a tradition, a structure - so I think how we do it remains unique.

Regarding the home, in Denmark we think a lot about how our homes look and how everything fits and is nice together, particularly when buying new furniture. While the whole vintage market still exists, I think it’s becoming less popular. There always will be some vintage furniture in the homes because it’s so nice to put vintage together with some modern stuff. However, I think full vintage is getting slowly less and less. We have a lot of second-hand stores, including cheaper second-hand ones. Back in the day, maybe 10 years ago, you could find really nice furniture in those kinds of stores. Now you will find mainly IKEA, so generally the quality of the second-hand stores is low at the moment.

Petra: What are you working on now?

Anker: I am working on two different office chairs to put more wood into office chairs given so much work now is being done at home due to COVID! The other product that I have worked on a lot is the coffin (‘ro’ – Danish for quiet or peace) I mentioned previously for my grandmother. When I finished working on it, I thought maybe I should try to put it into production and talk to some manufacturers about it. I thought in a way I could tell the story about my grandparents all over the world.

So about two and half years ago I spoke to Fredahl Rydén, a coffin manufacturer. I told him that he hadn’t seen a coffin like this ‘ro’ anywhere in the market. A coffin, that in that moment when you say goodbye, would tell the whole story about the person’s life and in a design that did not reflect sadness about the death, but a ‘thank you very much for all you gave us’. The manufacturer liked it and we have worked on it for manufacturing and production since that meeting. It is on sale already in Scandinavia

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Petra: Can you share about your solo exhibition ´Renewed Dignity’ that was held in an exhibition space Officinet next to the Design Museum Denmark.

Anker: It’s a big thing for me because that is one of the best exhibition places in Copenhagen and I can tell my stories there. So, I put a lot of effort into it, including many new products. The whole exhibition is, as you mention, ‘Renewed Dignity’ and showed my furniture and prototypes for the last part people’s lives, and for the elderly or people in need of physical support. I felt it’s so important to get focused on products shrouded in tabu. We don’t talk much about the struggles of getting older or living with different struggles or disabilities. It is a field where we can do a lot as designers.

Also, to be honest, it's very difficult for me to produce a new dining chair as it is not really introducing anything new into the world. While there are so many places where we need good design, the focus remains in the same areas: the dining chair and table, and the couch. Simply, if we could hive-off a little bit of attention to other areas, furniture design could be creative again.

So, back to the Exhibition, I don’t like the word ‘healthcare product’. We prefer to call it ‘assisted furniture’ - that is furniture with one extra function, but still looks like regular furniture.

The crutch (‘værdig’) that I made many years ago and now has been accepted into the Danish Museum as a permanent design object was in the exhibition. Also, I designed a siting cane chair (‘snild’), and a pill holder (‘cyklus’) in wood, along with a new shopping trolley (‘ærlig’) and a walker (‘sindig’) with wheels, brakes and everything. Lastly, there was the coffin (‘ro’). As usual, everything is in wood. Recently, the exhibition won a National Award for ‘Exhibition of the Year’ from the Danish Arts Foundation, which meant a lot to me.

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Petra: How important is practicing your creativity to your wellbeing?

Anker: To be honest creativity is part of my life. I don’t believe that you can separate work, free time and holiday time - everything is life. Every moment is a countdown to that day you die. It doesn’t matter if you are at work, on the beach, or gardening. I try to live every moment and therefore it does not matter if it’s designing or running. Creativity is just everything - it’s in a new design, or if we have a small party in the garden, or we go to the beach with our daughter. Creativity is more a way of trying to be in the world and be useful, connected, and curious about the world and what’s happening.

Visit:

https://ankerbak.com/

Images:

© Andreas Taulow, Carsten Ingemann, Jacob Fox Maule

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THE POINT PERPENDICULAR LIGHTHOUSE DAY 14 Following the yarn about the Cape St George Lighthouse in the Summer Edition, I’m excited to bring a yarn about the other equally stunning lighthouse in Jervis Bay, NSW – the Point Perpendicular Lighthouse with its tales of human endurance and tragedy. The Point Perpendicular Lighthouse is located on the tip of the towering headland of the Beecroft Peninsula as part of the Jervis Bay Military Reserve.

As the original lighthouse is closed now, access to the inside is no longer possible. However, the historic building remains and with its adjacent lookout, some 90m. above sea level, offers an ideal location to experience amazing sunrises and sunsets all year round, as well as whale watching as they migrate south during the cooler months. It’s also a great spot to sight some resident seals and white-bellied sea eagles, the second largest raptor found in Australia.

Access to the Lighthouse is by gravel road which may deteriorate during bad weather. Also, at times the road is closed because of Naval gunnery training exercises. So, for the latest conditions, it is a good idea to check the Beecroft Weapons Range and Peninsula Facebook page before proceeding.

Special thanks go to the Shoalhaven City Council, Jervis Bay Maritime Museum (formerly the Lady Denman Maritime Museum in Huskisson, NSW) and Bridget Sant and her publication ‘Lighthouse Tales’ (selected extracts from which appear below) for their assistance in putting this yarn together.

The Beginnings After all the controversy surrounding the location of the Lighthouse at Cape St George, the site for its replacement on Point Perpendicular was selected in 1883. The site was 150 feet (around 46m.) from the edge of the cliff and 284 feet (around 87m.) above the high-water mark. The decision to build at Point Perpendicular was not itself without debate. The selection followed a visit to the area by the then Colonial Architect, James Barnet and Captain Francis Hixson of the Marine Board.

Alternative sites on Bowen Island or Crocodile Head were rejected. Bowen Island had been proposed in 1873 by a Conference of the Principal Officers of the Marine Departments of the Colo-nial Governments, who considered a light there would indicate safe harbour during inclement weather.

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Keepers’ Duties The long list of duties to be undertaken and all the rules to abide by indicate that the job was becoming more rigorously controlled (than was the case at Cape St. George). Improved transport would have made inspections much easier and more likely. Some of the 52 Rules and Regulations are printed below to show the level of prescription regarding duties.

Modern Times John McCabe was Principal Keeper at the Lighthouse in the 1980s. His recollection was that Regulations were far less prescriptive in these later years. Maintenance duties and regular meteorological recordings dominated daily responsibilities. He was followed by John Hampson and Mark Williams, who were the last two keepers at Point Perpendicular. John Hampson was the Head Keeper and almost ready for the retirement when appointed. Williams was only 29 and had been guaranteed that he would not be retrenched, or his job made redundant.

Their duties were quite varied. They did alternate 24-hour shifts when they were on call. Their regular duties started at 6.00 am, when they did meteorological observations every hour until 9.00 pm.

These were telexed to the Meteorological Office in Melbourne.

All the ground and simple building maintenance duties were their responsibility, as of course, was keeping the light operating. This was far less onerous than in the old days when it was a kerosene lantern that was lit with a blow torch, and winch weights were used to enable the lens to revolve, and which had to be reset every four hours. Following electrification with two diesel engines providing the power source in 1964, John and Mark merely had to ensure that the light always shone by maintaining electric power and changing a light bulb when necessary. By day they had to draw curtains to protect the prismatic glass. An additional duty was dealing with tourists by answering their myriad questions and rendering first aid if necessary.

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John McCabe: A Modern Lighthouse Man. John McCabe had two periods of service at Point Perpendicular. His first was as Assistant Light Keeper to Harry Handicott in 1969. Then he was posted briefly to the Solitary Islands before returning for a second period as a Principal Keeper for six years until his retirement in 1985. John Hampson was his assistant for part of this time. After his retirement he remained in the district and became an active volunteer at the Lady Denman Heritage Complex in Huskisson, before moving to Northern New South Wales to be closer to his children. This connection with the Lady Denman has enabled us to gather his personal tales of life at Point Perpendicular.

John joined the service as a second career. Previously he was a rather bored real estate agent in Double Bay, Sydney when he saw an advertisement for Light Keepers and applied. His interview was extremely perfunctory, going little beyond his age, his height and whether he liked heights. On the other hand, his wife, Norma, was questioned intensively to determine whether she could cope with the level of isolation and the need for self-sufficiency. John got the job and took four small school-aged children to some very isolated spots, where schooling was by correspondence. Point Perpendicular (by comparison) was comparatively civilised, and the children attended regular schools, Pyree Public and Nowra High. To get them to school, the service vehicle (a Range Rover) was driven to Currarong each morning to meet the school bus. This was not always easy. The Beecroft Peninsula was a naval firing range and when there were naval exercises the road was closed. Special provisions had to be made. John would telephone the relevant defence personnel and let them know the children were on their way to school. Firing would stop: in the correct, official military parlance there was a ‘fouled range’. Having stopped the firing, the journey could be made safely. Even when foreign navies were firing, there would be a brief cessation of activities for the children’s journey.

When John and his wife Norma lived and worked at Point Perpendicular there were only two families there, the head keeper in the main house and his assistant in one of the semi-detached cottages.

The other cottage was maintained as accommodation for a relief keeper when one of the others was on leave. Living with only one other family there made it very difficult when the two families were not compatible, as was occasionally the case. However, their overriding memory about their sixteen years in the service was how happy and uniquely rich in experience it had been. John remarked on the beauty of the light as it shone out into the sky.

Many of the duties were not particularly onerous but required constant presence. Although they worked a 40-hour week in regular eight-hour shifts, one or other keeper was always officially on watch. Also, the weather recordings continued to be made every three hours (except midnight) and telegraphed to the weather bureau. Other duties involved the lighting and extinguishing of the light every dusk and dawn as well as all the basic maintenance of the buildings and the light equipment, keeping the glass prisms polished and all the brass work gleaming.

Every Thursday was officially ‘open house’ when visitors were supposedly welcomed. Secretly they were often cursed as they could not go up and down the tower without using the brass rail, leaving handprints all over it. (Lighthouse keepers knew of the hard work involved in polishing it and avoided touching whenever possible). Some visitors were welcomed, such as the children from school for the visually impaired. They were encouraged to touch objects, even to the extent of holding the light. Visual impairment was compensated by other senses - children often remarked that they could smell the sea.

Another major duty was the regular reporting of all shipping movements. Sail boats were referred to as ‘rag-and-stick’ boats and John had a remarkable ability to recognise the different types of sail boats that went past.

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Tragedies and Dramas Point Perpendicular, like Cape St George, had its share if dramatic incidents. Many did not end happily. Often, they were results of actions that were foolhardy. Modern visitors are advised by signs and prevented by fences from getting too close to cliff edges or handling unexploded shells. If they do get into trouble help can be summoned quickly. This was not the case in earlier times.

A Gory Recovery Francis Hammer, the subject of the next tale, was the son of a general servant who worked at Point Perpendicular. His mother had sent him out in search of kindling, but he loved to throw sticks and stones over the edge of the cliff, which presumably led to the tragedy that occurred in 1902. The boy fell to his death; his body landed on the rocks at the bottom of the cliff face.

William Bailey (a hero of the recovery) was one of the younger brothers of Arthur Bailey, himself one of the First Assistant Lighthouse Keepers at Point Perpendicular. Arthur had taken over the family responsibilities supporting his mother and his (ten) siblings after his father, Edward Bailey had been taken by sharks at Cape St George (where he was Third Assistant Lightkeeper).

The following extract from a newspaper article on 3 December 1902 describes the retrieval of young Francis Hammer’s body.

Terrible Accident ‘The body smashed, and unrecovered for three days. The body could not be reached from the sea, so rather than the grief-stricken mother of ten year old Francis Henry Hammer suffer the pain of watching the corpse slowly disappear, a plucky trio set about a perilous descent of the cliff near the new lighthouse, to retrieve the body. A youthful Master William Bailey led the party of John O’Keefe and Constable McSpaddon. Master Bailey led the way over the positively perpendicular wall, and the trio disappeared from the gaze of anxious watchers above. Down, further down they gradually and cautiously descended. At one time they had a nice broad ledge to walk on, at another it had narrowed to 12 inches (30cm.), still the descent was kept up and still the path narrowed until the rescuers had only a narrow ledge of 4 inches (10cm.) of rock to stand on but clinging desperately to the wall and not daring to look down, they still continued. At last, the ledge disappeared entirely, and the party could be seen clinging to the sides of the cliff by means of holes in the rock worn by seawater, in which they placed their hands….

The worst however was not yet come. At last, the saucer-like holes entirely disappeared, and a doubt occurred in the minds of the two men as to whether it was wise to go on. However, before they had much time to deliberate, Bailey had tethered a rope to a protruding ledge, and was the next moment swinging amid air and gradually descending hand over hand…. At last, this part was also safely negotiated and with much more climbing and struggling the party arrived at the bottom and reverently placed the remains in a cloth which was hauled to the top by friends above.

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On reaching the corpse they found it lying face downwards, and from appearances the lad had struck the rocks with his face and chest. The face was smashed to atoms, there being only a little of the head - the back of the skull left. The number of crabs which were noticed had eaten most of the particles, but the body was yet intact.

On arriving at the top, they were congratulated, and much needed refreshments administered.

Each member of the party vowed that they would never again undertake the same journey and that they all returned is a wonder. They undoubtedly exhibited great bravery and practically volunteered their lives. It was not as though they did so in view of earning some handsome reward, for it was purely a labour of love-compassion for one in distressing circumstances.’

Sadly, a later newspaper report on 3rd February 1904 had this announcement: ‘William Bailey, a lad well known about Nowra and district, and who it will be remembered distinguished himself by making the descent of the cliffs at Jervis Bay Lighthouse and recovered the body of the boy Hammer who fell over a distance of 300 ft. (91 m.), died on Thursday at Bulli, from heart disease.’

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Danger! Unexploded Shells One of the attractions of the Beecroft Peninsula is the abundance of grass trees (Xanthorrhoeas).

Their resin or gum was a lucrative source of income. The gum industry involved the collection of flakes from the burnt stem of the plant, the heat from burning causing the gum to exude and lodge between the fibres. An axe was then used to strip back the char and then cut off the short remaining fibres and gum. The gum or resin was then dispatched in bags to agents who exported most of the resin mainly to the UK, USA and Ceylon where it was used in low-priced lacquers and varnishes.

During World War Two it was used in Australia in the munitions industry as a binder and fuel in pyrotechnic compositions.

A Huskisson family, the Speechleys, was engaged in this industry. They would take their boat across the Bay to Bindijine Beach from where they had good access to sources of gum. On one trip they suffered a bizarre tragedy, as described in the following article from the Shoalhaven Telegraph of 16 November 1904.

Fatal Accident at Jervis Bay ‘A frightful accident of a fatal character happened near a Jervis Bay lighthouse on Monday. A man named William Speechley, his son Thomas, six years of age, and Cristies Carpenter went from Currumbene Creek, where the Speechleys reside to Point Perpendicular to get gum. The boy picked up a shell that had been fired from the warships when practicing in the Bay. The shell weighed 7lb (3 kg.). The father took the missile from the boy and threw it away in the bush. The boy evidently picked it up again when the man returned to their work of gum getting, and either struck it with hammer or let it fall on the rocks near the landing place. Whatever the cause, the shell exploded, blowing away the boy’s right arm and lacerating the abdominal wall, through which a portion of the bowels protruded. When picked up by his father immediately after the terrible explosion, the boy was quite dead. He was at once removed in a boat to the Currambene. Mr Z.G. Bice, J.P., coroner for the district, held a magisterial inquiry yesterday into the sad circumstance, when the foregoing facts were elicited. The verdict was that death was due to injuries and shock received by the explosion of a shell.

There are numerous shells of the same description lying about in the bush in the locality. They have evidently been fired from the warships when at Bay. Falling on soft ground they apparently did not explode. No one seemed to have any idea of there being any danger from the shells exploding. The unfortunate boy’s father had no less than eighteen of these live shells, weighing up to 80 lbs each, in his boat, using them as a ballast.’

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The Steeple Jack Rescue The next amazing tale needs some introduction. Every Easter from 1907 to 1921 a group of professional men, mainly from Wollongong but some from Sydney, camped and fished at Jervis Bay. Each year this group published a daily journal, at first called the Jervis Bay Times, and later, the Abrahams Bosom Times. The few surviving editions provide a wonderful insight into their journeys, and their camping, fishing and hunting expeditions. Until 1914 they camped near the Hole-in-the-Wall but when HMAS Creswell was opened, they regarded the areas as too congested!

Thereafter they camped near Currarong.

These early tourists took their pleasures very seriously. They came with about 3 tons (2.7 tonnes) of equipment and supplies, two cooks, hunting dogs and poultry (in case they did not catch anything edible). They must also have had a typewriter to compose and print their daily ‘newspaper’.

They were well supported by local people. When they camped and Hole-in-the-Wall, it was always a Dent launch that ferried them from Huskisson and served them during their stay. One year when they thought they will have no fish to take home and the end of their holiday, Mr. Dent was able to sell them five dozen lobsters. When they camped at Abrahams Bosom it was Alex Carbis who was their chief local organizer/helper. He has been described as the Shoalhaven’s first tourist operator as, according to their newspaper, you just had to write to Alex C/-Moroney Bros. at Nowra and ‘you will be assured of a great fishing holiday with Alex’. He lived at Currarong in a shack built out of the wreck of the Plutus. He had arrived in Currarong in the late 19th Century – probably the first white resident in the area- initially to collect gum on the Beecroft Peninsula, though he soon resorted to fishing for a living and relieving at Point Perpendicular when necessary. He helped the campers to unload their three tons of supplies from their launch and used his hand cart to haul it to camp. Not many of them were keen to accept transport in his 8 ft 6 in (2.5 m.) rowing boat from Greenwell Point to Currarong, a trip he undertook regularly as his main route to the Shoalhaven River and Nowra, before a road link was established. He also showed them where to find bees and their honey. The following story, printed in the final edition of the Abrahams Bosom Times involves this fishing party.

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The Steeple Jack ‘At Easter in 1918 a fishing party was camping at Abrahams Bosom. One evening a stranger swam across to the party in great haste. He had come from the lighthouse at Point Perpendicular where the 18-year-old daughter of one of the light-keepers had fallen over the cliff and was discovered lying on a ledge 50 feet (15m.) down the side of the perpendicular cliffs. A boat had been taken round to see if she could be rescued from below, but this was clearly impossible, but they could see she was still alive. A number of the party led by a local who had worked at the Lighthouse, Alex Carbis, then made haste over the eight or nine miles (14km.) to the Lighthouse. Luckily it was a full moon and incredibly the party included an Englishman who had made a name for himself in England as a steeple jack (a workman who repairs tall chimneys and steeples). All hope rested with his skill.

He was soon hard at work bracing a set of shear legs near to the edge of the cliff. From these he attached a rope and iron pulley block. This enabled him to be lowered down to the girl. It was not then long before the order came to hoist the girl to safety. This task was completed successfully much to the joy of her doting parents. Finally, all that had to be done was send the rope back to the steeplejack and hoist him to safety. However, it was now realised that the hoisting mechanism had loosened an enormous 1000 ton (90 tonne) block of rock which was likely to give way at any moment. This precarious situation was related to the steeplejack on the ledge below. He calmy instructed the supporting party to throw him a rope, down which he was able to climb, to sea below, to be picked up in the ocean by a boat which went round to rescue him, minutes before the dislodged rock went crashing into the sea.

Coincidence and luck were still not spent. The mother of the girl came to thank the steeplejack for his brave deed, only to discover that years before she had fallen in love with the very same man in England but refused to marry him as his occupation as a steeplejack was too dangerous, a profession he had not been prepared to abandon.’

The remote wild locations make these great beacons to mariners an enduring fascination. The tales of the difficult and lonely lives of the people who manned them make for even greater interest.

Today Point Perpendicular, like other lighthouses, is automated. The Lighthouse was shut down in July 1993 and replaced with a fully automated solar powered lamp on top of a lattice skeletal tower – now called the Point Perpendicular Light!’

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MARK SHERIFF The last Keeper of the Lighthouse I am so fortunate to be able to conclude this yarn with a fantastic, eloquent, poetic and romantic reflective letter sent to me by Mark Sheriff, the last Keeper of the Lighthouse about his time there then, and such is his devotion, now! So here it is - thanks again Mark!

‘Dear Petra, You form an attachment with a lighthouse - mine began by driving in the gate in 1990 as the Eastern Sea-board Relief Light Keeper for Commonwealth Lights. Every station was like going to a new Club Med by the sea - weather an island, cape, point, or headland.

Point Perpendicular had its seclusion - a corrugated gravel road, a Defence Force bombardment range with the light station located at the end of the line, overlooking the entrance to Jervis Bay with 250 feet (76 m.) perpendicular cliffs near the base of the light .

I had numerous 4 month stints in my relief keeper duties over several years, so you grow close to the other keepers, their wives and kids; you become trusted and family - the CLS (Commonwealth Lighthouse Service) family - there to serve the light.

As a keeper it was like having a god in your backyard. Today this ideology lives on as I tend many a lighthouse - think ladies of the night on a headland near me; days I run ragged; I shall never give up only when the universe decides the fate.

I left one year - January 1994; was the last keeper standing, John (Hampson) and Mark (Williams) long gone; like minding the fort for the Defence Department to one day hand over the keys. In the meantime you sweep sheds out, paint benches, dust and polish surfaces - it had been manned by keepers for 96 years.

I’m uncertain of the significance to be the last, but maybe when today I ring up the Commander and wish to tend his light and stay in the quarters (a grand big unhaunted mansion), he does notice the wind in my sails and passion in my veins .

Like many a classic lighthouse around the world with de-manning, when a keeper closes the door for the last, a web of time passes over. Once ‘if it moved, you’d oil it; stayed still, you’d paint it’ one of many Keeper mottos.

Over 28 years had passed, with the tower in very poor condition, along with the odd complaint, Defence had to temporarily suspend funding on their weapons of mass destruction and spend some cabbage on an old lighthouse they inherited!

I’d often receive calls from government folk who’d heard in the wind of this strange chappie who would shimmy all over the light - fairy dust and wand in pocket. Peter Pan, the Lighthouse Man, some would call him. He would do it for love and some, as you can’t eat the view at a lighthouse!

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Empire building I was not - it’s hard work; many stairs to climb; weather to wear. It was a chance to tend a beacon of hope; make it watertight; service a wind vane; interpret some history; and like a dog at a bone never give up, only until the man from the Government makes the call.

Grateful I am, blessed with opportunity, and thankful to the universe that fate has etched my palm print of DNA in the protective coating of this light.

Today I service both lights - the Tupperware disposable structure out the front on the old flagpole site and the classic light!

The yarn of this story is a long piece of rope braided with human touch and spun with open individual stories of joy and often heartache - a grain of sand is mine!

We did not come here forward Like the trees that are broken To start again Drawing up from the great roots.’

© Shoalhaven City Council, Jervis Bay Maritime Museum, Mark Sheriff

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Petra: How can people buy a painting from you?

Petr: Through my webpage.

Visit:

www.petrmalina.cz

Images:

© Petr Malina, Karel Cudlín

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DAY 15 I’m very excited to share a story of this stone castle in the Czech Republic whose occupants were never defeated in the first 350 years the Castle was occupied. It is on a bucket list of many Czechs, including mine! Gracing the pleasant landscape of North Bohemia, this romantic castle has been an inspiration to many artists and appears in many paintings, poems and movies and never seems to lose its enigmatic presence.

Forget the story of the fictional Count Dracula, this is a real place with a great and true story, or stories given its long and intriguing history. One day I’ll have a schnitzel sandwich and black beer there with my family and dream of the next beautiful adventure waiting in the distance.

The Royal Castle of Bezděz, founded in 1264 by the ‘Iron and Gold King’, Přemysl Otakar II, is one of the Czech Republic’s most important Gothic monuments. The Castle is considered the most sophisticated type of castle ever. Bezděz often is called the ‘King of all Castles‘ for its original early Gothic appearance, which has never been tampered with, unlike most other castles. As the Castle is situated at the top of the hill of Bezděz (604 m above sea level), it was difficult to access and so any extensive renovation also was nearly impossible.

The Castle is steeped in myths and legends - one claiming that the local monks hid some treasure there. Bezděz became famous in the Medieval Period as the place where the penultimate Přemyslid King of Bohemia, Wenceslas II, was imprisoned as a young man. In the Baroque Period, when the Castle was used as a Benedictine Monastery, it was a destination for many devout pilgrims. Finally, in the Nineteenth Century, Bezděz, by that time abandoned, became an attraction for romantic souls, among them the famous Czech poet and writer, Karel Hynek Mácha.

Today visitors can visit the Royal Palace and Chapel, which display many architectural details of the High Gothic Period. The Burgrave Palace and other parts of the Castle, including the Great Tower with its Knight’s Hall on the top floor, offer unique panoramic views of the Castle’s surroundings — the nearby Mácha Lake and Ještěd Hill near Liberec, and also in good weather, the peaks of the Krkonoše (Giant) Mountains and sometimes (with a pair of binoculars) the spire of St. Vitus Cathedral at Prague Castle (some 85km. away).

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Brief History of the Castle Ottokar II was known as the Iron and Gold King for his military prowess and wealth, building castles and founding royal towns as a means of consolidating his power over the Bohemian nobility. It is probable King Ottokar II built this strong stone castle on this dominant hill above an old estate, wanting to protect a busy trade route and prevent his neighbours, the noble Ronower and Markwartinger families, from expanding their possessions.

Soon after Ottokar’s death in the Battle of Marchfeld (August 26, 1278), the Castle, although designed to be a respectable place for kings to live, became a well-appointed prison for Kunigunda, his widowed queen and Wenceslas, Ottkar’s son who was seven years old at the time. Both were brought there on the night of January 25, 1279 by Wenceslas’s guardian, Otto of Brandenburg.

Though officially he was only a steward of the young King, Otto treated the country like he was a conqueror - his troops occupied the Castle as well.

Early in the Fourteenth Century, the Castle was given to local aristocrats in pledge as security for royal debts. With the king’s consent, Hynek Berka of Dubá founded a new village to the east of the Castle, called Nový Bezděz, which was granted all the rights and privileges of a town 1337. Later, this village was renamed Bělá Pod Bezdězem.

Shortly after Charles IV was crowned King of Bohemia and Holy Roman Emperor in 1347, the Castle returned to royal control. Charles IV tried to regain control over all the royal property that had been pledged before his time. He established a new legal code for the Country – the Maiestas Carolina.

This code stated that royal property could no longer be pledged to secure debts, and Bezděz was one of the items that were listed specifically. However, the aristocracy refused to accept the limitations of the Maiestas Carolina on their privileges. Charles IV was fond of Bezděz. In 1366, he constructed the Big Pond near the Castle, together with his Burgrave, Oldřich Tista of Libštejn.

Today, the pond is known as Máchovo Jezero (Mácha Lake), named in honour of the poet, K. H. Mácha.

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During the Hussite Wars between 1419 and 1434, the Castle became the biggest stronghold of the Catholic Church in the north of Bohemia. Its impregnability was taken for granted, so the Castle became the repository for Bohemia’s land title records and numerous valuables of the Church and secular owners. Until 1468, it was controlled by the house of Michalovice.

For the next 120 years, it passed from one pledge holder to another. In 1588, Emperor Rudolph II finally cancelled the pledge and sold the Castle to the last pledge holder, John of Wartenberg. After John’s death, the Castle became the property of Wenceslas of Dubá, who married John’s widow.

Later, Wenceslas became one of the leaders of the Bohemian Revolt against the Habsburgs of Austria, and after the rebels’ defeat at the Battle of White Mountain in 1620, he fled the country along with the ‘Winter King’, Frederick V of the Palatinate. The Austrians confiscated the Castle and later sold it for a low price to the Imperial Army General Albrecht of Wallenstein. Just before Wallenstein took control of Bezděz, it was conquered for the first time in its history after being occupied by mutinous allies of Wenceslas of Dubá. Wenceslas’s men were ousted by mercenaries hired by Maximilian of Bavari and the Castle was set on fire in the process.

Despite serious damage, Wallenstein decided to rebuild it and turn it into a Baroque fortress.

However, later he changed his mind and in 1627 invited monks of the Order of St. Augustine to turn it into a fortified monastery (which Wallenstein and his army could use for themselves if necessary).

However, the Augustinian monks were quite sluggish in rebuilding the Castle, so nine years later Wallenstein gave it back to the village of Bělá. Then, he promised Bezděz to the Spanish Benedictine Order of Montserrat out of gratitude for their saving his life during the Battle of Lützen.

Like the Abbey of Montserrat in Spain, Bezděz was to be used to shelter pilgrims, and a big monastery was meant to be built at the foot of the hill. Wallenstein’s gift, minus the monastery under the Castle, was eventually completed by Emperor Ferdinand II after he confiscated it from Wallenstein together with the rest of his property. The Emperor gave the Castle to the Benedictine Monastery of Emmaus in Prague, where years before Wallenstein had met with the Montserrat Benedictines and their Abbot, Penalosa to discuss his gift.

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During the Thirty Years War (from 1618 to 1648), Bezděz was for a time occupied by the Swedes.

After the Peace of Westphalia, as the area remained rather dangerous for quite a long period, the monks did not arrive at Bezděz until 1661. They repaired the Chapel and the Royal and Burgrave’s palaces. In 1666, the monks brought in a copy of the reputedly miraculous statue of the Black Virgin in Montserrat. Tens of thousands of pilgrims visited the statue every year, passing on their way fifteen small chapels built from the foot of the hill up to its top by Duchess Anne of Wallenstein (1686). The chapels were decorated first with paintings, then woodcuts depicting the crucifixion — the Way of the Cross — were added. Nowadays, the woodcuts are stored in the museum in Česká Lípa.

The property amassed by the monks over the previous century was lost in 1778. The monks asked Prussian troops to protect them against the Austrian army, but the Prussians discovered the monks’ treasure and carried it off.

Soon after that, the monastery was closed by Emperor Joseph II. Some of its furnishings were transferred to Emmaus and other churches. The rest was sold at auction four years later, together with building materials taken from the Castle. For various reasons, the houses inside decayed rapidly, particularly because of plundering by treasure hunters. Interestingly the gold fever that gripped the local population inspired Bedřich Smetana to compose his opera - The Secret, with a libretto by Eliška Krásnohorská.

At the beginning of the Nineteenth Century, the Castle decayed further and fell into ruin. However, this didn’t affect its history or popularity, especially because the period of Romanticism made castle ruins very popular, as did the Pilgrimage Tradition. Visitors came not only for religious reasons but also to see a true masterpiece of medieval castle architecture, and a monument to the glory of Czech history. Also, Bezděz was a special place for the greatest Czech romantic poet, K. H. Mácha, who often visited his friends in nearby Doksy. He found a great deal of inspiration for his works at, and around, the Castle, including ‘An Evening at Bezděz’ and ‘May’.

As Bezděz became a popular tourist destination, the Wallensteins began various repairs and reconstructions. In 1932, the last private owner, Karl Ernest of Wallenstein and Wartenberg, sold the castle to the Czechoslovak Tourist Club for the symbolic price of 2,000 Czechoslovak Crowns.

Immediately, the club started to rebuild the Castle for tourist purposes. Their efforts were interrupted by World War II when the Castle and the whole Region were seized by Germany as part of the Sudetenland. After the war, in 1953, Bezděz was taken over by the National Heritage Institute.

No mention of the Castle would be complete without a discussion of its outstanding main features.

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The Palaces Both Vassals’ Palaces in the Castle consisted of three rooms - the central room being twice as large as the other two. The ground floor, with its flat beamed ceilings, was used for technical and service functions, while the main residential areas were located on the upper floor. The central hall was lit by two large Gothic windows in the outer wall and was over-arched by two groin vaults. In the corner, there was a spiral staircase leading to the upper floor, which provided access also to the adjacent rooms. The eastern room is fitted with a groin vault and could be heated by a fireplace.

The Palaces in the upper Castle are based on another floorplan with a small central hall and two adjacent rooms (a setup that is typical of many other buildings constructed by Ottokar II). However, no other castle used this arrangement in such a consistent way as Bezděz. A low-ceilinged room under the roof, or attic, was built above the vault of the first floor. It was used for residential purposes and the defence of the Castle. The buildings were covered by gabled roofs.

As its name indicates, the Burgrave’s Palace was the seat of the Burgrave. The Burgrave was the steward of the Castle and represented the King in his absence. The Burgraves of the major royal castles were naturally leading members of the aristocracy.

The Royal Burgraves played a major role in the feudal vassal system at Bezděz. During the reign of King Wenceslas, his vassals were exempt from the jurisdiction of all courts in the country except the court of the Burgrave at Bezděz. From there, appeal was direct to the king. Understandably, the Burgraves worked for the aristocratic pledge holders as well.

The Royal Palace is the largest of all those in the Castle, and its structure is the most complex. It was unique as the residence of the King, being reflected in its size and spaciousness – more than double that of the other residential buildings in the Castle. The architectural details of the Palace also reflect its importance. In the northeast part there is a rectangular room adjacent to the Chapel.

When the monks occupied the Castle, they used this room as the monastery’s tomb. For technical reasons, not all rooms of the Palace could be connected. To go from one room to another, a wooden balcony had to be used - its remains are visible on the façade. The outer side of the balcony probably ran up to the Chapel, which protruded from the façade on the courtyard side. The ground floor of the Palace originally was fitted with a flat ceiling.

Medieval aristocrats were required to live according to a certain Code of Chivalry. They were, for example, expected to organize spectacular festivals and demonstrate their generosity. Something even more expected of monarchs. However, Bezděz wasn’t built as a place for the King to receive high-born visitors. It was furnished only for the accommodation of the Monarch and his Court.

Stays by the Monarch were not frequent. However to Ottokar II, the prime purpose of the Castle was as a defensive stronghold, with predominantly military and administrative functions.

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The Towers The Devil’s Tower is a circular Bergfried tower that was for defensive purposes only and was not inhabited during times of peace. Bergfried towers could be defended separately, and so were the last resort of the Castle’s defenders when enemies had seized the rest of the Castle.

The Main Tower also has all the typical features of a Bergfried tower, including its diameter of approximately 10 metres. Access was provided by a portal on the first floor. Compared to its original form, the portal is now about 3 metres below ground level, and access is via a modern staircase. Originally this tower had five floors supported on beams anchored in the outer walls. The current arrangement of the rooms dates from the mid-Nineteenth Century, when access to the Tower was provided first to the public. At that time, the Wallensteins did a romantic, pseudo-Gothic reconstruction of the fifth floor, fitting it with large new windows that completely defied the logic and purpose of a medieval defensive tower. Also, the room was given stylized internal wooden panelling and a wooden vaulted faux ceiling.

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The Chapel The Chapel, dedicated to the Archangel Michael, is not only one of the most valuable early Gothic castle chapels in the Czech Republic, but also one of the Country’s most important architectural works dating to the thirteenth century. As can be seen in this spectacular Chapel, the master builders who constructed the Castle took most of their inspiration from the Hessian Style that originated in Central Germany.

The Chapel’s current appearance is the result of restoration work done before World War I. At that time, missing elements were added, and damaged ones were replaced. In the 1960s, the Chapel was plastered, paved, and fitted with stained glass windows.

The Chapel has a single nave with two groin vaults and a top vault. In its south-western section there is a balcony where the Monarch sat during religious services. Access to it is provided by a spiral staircase, the current design of which is the result of reconstruction at the beginning of the Twentieth Century. Besides the winding staircase, there were two other ways for the king and other palace residents to enter the Chapel from the first floor.

The thick ground floor walls of the Chapel allowed the building of a gallery on the first floor, with a groin vault without ribs. The current design of the exterior windows, which are set into pointed arches and vertical columns, is largely the result of modern restoration. The gallery was also used for military purposes when, in case of need, the space could be defended from attack from three sides.

The floor of the chancel (the area between the triumphal arch and the end of the Chapel) is raised up one step. There used to be an altar in the middle of the chancel.

Images:

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IL PALAZZO EXPERIMENTAL DAY 16 Romance is not dead, and there is not a better place than Venice to find a gentle connection and slow down surrounded by beauty. In the City of Love, where anything is possible, historical buildings certainly still hold their mystery and we are lucky to be able to drop in and soak up the marvellousness. However, not all places have the ‘old-world charm’.

This yarn with Christina Seredzinsky tells the story of one old palazzo playfully reimagined and transported into the 21st. Century with all the comforts a modern adventurer needs.

Petra: Where are you based?

Christina: Venice, Italy.

Petra: What’s the history of the hotel?

Christina: The hotel is based in Venice’s city centre, in one of the most historic parts of the Italian city.

Petra: When did Il Palazzo Experimental open to the public?

Christina: In 2019.

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Petra: What was the thought behind the unique design?

Christina: Dorothée Meilichzon’s design was inspired by signatures of the city like terrazzo floors and dramatic marble accents. Bathrooms, stocked with a curated selection of toiletries, are equally stylish, with black marble trims and hand-glazed tiles.

Petra: What is an Il Palazzo experience like?

Christina: Guests can dine at Ristorante Il Adriatica, which only uses seasonal, locally-sourced ingredients; has an in-house wine bar that emphasises regional producers. Later in the evening guests can enjoy the cocktail bar, designed by Cristina Celestino.

If guests wish to spend time seeing the art and culture of Venice this is the perfect stay as The Palazzo is near to such cultural attractions as the Guggenheim Collection and the Galleria dell’Accademia. It’s slightly off the main tourist path, and has a secret back garden that opens onto a quiet canal served by the hotel’s own pontoon.

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Petra: Does the Il Palazzo offer traditional cuisine or is the menu unique as well?

Christina: Reflecting the Experimental Group’s properties, Il Ristorante Adriatica emphasises the fresh and seasonal products from the area. It embraces the Venetian tradition of focusing on innovation, creativity, and playfulness, but offering a different way of interpreting Italian food.

Petra: Are tourists coming to Venice the whole year?

Christina: It’s less busy from late October to February, but very busy in the warmer months.

Petra: Does the rising sea water affect Il Palazzo and what are the overall effects of this phenomenon on Venice in general?

Christina: At the moment, the rising water levels are not of direct concern. However, of course the team is monitoring this situation.

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Petra: What are the most interesting places (tourist attractions) close to the hotel?

Christina: The Baccaro tour; a boat tour down the canal; visiting the Guggenheim collection and the Galleria dell’Accademia.

Petra: Do people still come for the feeling of luxury and even a touch of decadence?

Christina: Definitely, guests who visit Venice come for the long-lasting feeling of luxury it is known to offer.

Visit:

www.palazzoexperimental.com

Images:

© Il Palazzo Experimental, Dreamstime.

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MARK MAGGIORI DAY 17 Mark Maggiori is an artist who’s hard to miss. His images of cowboys, beautiful skies, and the ways of the old world are very evocative and have the ability to transport you into another sphere.

This yarn gives a glimpse into what made a Frenchman fall in love with the romantic ways of the Wild West and the rich cultural heritage of America - please enjoy.

Petra: Where were you born?

Mark: I was born in Fontainebleau, France.

Petra: Where are you based?

Mark: Currently I share mv time between Taos and Los Angeles.

Petra: What inspired you to capture the spectacular culture of the Wild West?

Mark: It's a life long story. I think a lot of it came from childhood dreams about the West - wanting to be a cowboy and be free out there in these beautiful landscapes. Later on, I came to learn so much about its history and this made me appreciate it even more.

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Petra: What was the thought behind the unique design?

Christina: Dorothée Meilichzon’s design was inspired by signatures of the city like terrazzo floors and dramatic marble accents. Bathrooms, stocked with a curated selection of toiletries, are equally stylish, with black marble trims and hand-glazed tiles.

Petra: What is an Il Palazzo experience like?

Christina: Guests can dine at Ristorante Il Adriatica, which only uses seasonal, locally-sourced ingredients; has an in-house wine bar that emphasises regional producers. Later in the evening guests can enjoy the cocktail bar, designed by Cristina Celestino.

If guests wish to spend time seeing the art and culture of Venice this is the perfect stay as The Palazzo is near to such cultural attractions as the Guggenheim Collection and the Galleria dell’Accademia. It’s slightly off the main tourist path, and has a secret back garden that opens onto a quiet canal served by the hotel’s own pontoon.

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Petra: Did you want always to paint?

Mark: I started to paint at age 20, and ‘Yeah’, I really took a liking it. However, it took me 15 more years to stumble upon a form of painting that suited me.

Petra: Can you describe your creative detour of being in a band, doing animation, photography, and filmmaking?

Mark: It’s not a detour, it’s a journey. That is what they say, right - ‘The destination doesn't matter much, it’s the journey that counts.’ To me, all the things that I have done have some energetic connections.

Petra: Was it love that brought you to America?

Mark: I was coming to America before, but I did find love here.

Petra: What were your impressions of the American countryside and what talked to you most?

Mark: America still has areas that are totally remote and where the word ‘wilderness’ still has meaning. I think coming from France and discovering this was a game changer.

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Petra: Did you have any mentorship in the Western art world?

Mark: I think Logan Hagege is one of the artists who taught me so much, especially in terms of how the business works here in the US. Also, I can say that the great masters like Remington and Dixon taught me more in terms of artistic choices.

Petra: When did the figurative cowboy images come on the scene, and what keeps it relevant for you?

Mark: I discovered the art form around the cowboy pretty late in life. There was a raw aspect about it that I loved. Nowadays, I think my paintings evoke in the viewer a sense of timeless freedom; a mystical life that is out there; and represent freedom and beauty.

Petra: Did your unique approach to the topic bring many creative opportunities?

Mark: Yes, it did - everything is possible around the same subject.

Petra: Did you have to adopt the cowboy way of life to connect to your creative subject?

Mark: No, you don't have to be a cowboy, but you have to spend time with them to understand their way of life and culture.

Petra: What are you working on now, and can people all over the world experience your work?

Mark: I am working on my solo show which opens on March 11th in Scottsdale Arizona at the Legacy Gallery.

Visit:

www.markmaggiori.com

Images:

© Mark Maggiori

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PETR MALINA DAY 18 Featuring Czech artists in Yarns, who bring beauty, tradition and mystery, has been my pleasure and joy. Here is a yarn with painter Petr Malina who captures his environment with a fresh and sensitive eye. I hope you will enjoy our conversation about the hidden, secret lives of cities and seeing the little things.

Petra: Where are you from?

Petr: I’m from Prague 7 Letná.

Petra: What inspired you to follow a creative path?

Petr: I’ve been inclined always to creativity and have most of the drawings I’ve ever done still at home. I started drawing at a very early age and I never thought about it too much. I just followed it up and when I was 6 and started my primary school, I started also in art school. I attended art school for 12 years because I wanted to get into the College of Fine Arts. However, when I ended up not going, it was blessing in disguise as I discovered the world of comics. Then at 16, I started to attend a night drawings course at the Academy of Fine Arts - with real life models! When I had the opportunity at age 18 to apply there, I got accepted.

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Petra: How did creatively influence you? You’ve mentioned the comics, but when it comes to your current work, is it inspired by the urban landscape and capturing daily life?

Petr: When it comes to influence, it was the comics from my childhood that Mum regularly bought me like ‘Čtyřlístek’ and other specialty comics in Jungmannova Street. I was attending art school when my teacher asked me if I was doing anything else, and rather than answer, I stayed silent, because I had the feeling it would be a wrong answer, and he said: “Oh, that’s good”! He was an academic painter; his father was an academic painter; and he grew up in a traditional artistic environment, so in a way he despised new and modern influences. However, I stayed open minded, and when I was sixteen, I really liked Roy Lichtenstein and Andy Warhol and related to them, even though I was not touched by major new art movements and did not follow or know much about them.

So, some seven years ago when I saw a Roy Lichtenstein (now a legend) exhibition in Paris, with my 30 years art experience, I viewed his art as if it was created a week ago. Still, I get the same feelings as when I was sixteen, but now understand his timeless language more.

The main influence from comic artists would have to be Kája Saudek who was a phenomenon of Czech comics. Recently at our cottage I discovered old issues of ‘Mladý Svět’ that my dad had collected with their black and white or coloured columns of the wonderful new world outside Czech which did not exist anywhere else - he was an amazing person. Another influence was Burian, with his wonderful book about prehistoric ages which I loved to look through for a few years. When I look back now, Burian was a wonderful painter who was brilliant from a young age and although he did study at the Academy of Fine arts, some talents don’t really need a classical art education. Later, I discovered Edward Hopper who is fantastic, and I see him as one of the first American painters who managed to capture an authentic view of the world without copying some European style, but he was influenced by the Impressionists (particularly Monet).

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Petra: When did you start painting Street Art? Petr: I started to paint houses at the Academy - following the example of Hopper, but based on the environment and imagery of urban life in Prague around 2010. So, my Street Art in effect emerged from the early imaginative works at the Academy with some still-life. For me Art School widened my horizons and I started to discover the beauty of everyday objects, like photos from childhood.

Then suddenly I had a big inspiration after which I created watercolours and paintings based on the ‘everyday’. I started using photographs, and inspired by Hopper, I painted landscapes with houses and cars but applied the American landscape onto the Czech one. In communism, travel outside Czech was restricted usually to day trips for shopping to East Berlin. So, to escape from the urban environments, a ‘Cottage Culture’ developed throughout Czech. We have a cottage near Zbraslav and it was a world that fascinated me and still does today. I love my escapes from the city to the cottage and so I started incorporating these into my works.

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The next horizon on my creative way was when I started to be fascinated by the sea, marinas and the relaxed atmosphere there after my trips to Italy. I think there is a natural tension to discover something that is an essential part of creative life. I had been pulled to city life, because I was born in a city and have lived there my whole life. Additionally, I explored other cities like Berlin; London where I studied; and Paris where I visited my then girlfriend. I think because we grew up in communism, travel and tourism had another dimension. So, travel really was not on Czech consciences or in their dreams. I remember in Year 5, one of my classmates went to visit his aunty in Western Berlin and my desire and sadness knowing that it’s something I’d never be able to experience. So, when I went to London (after communism), it was surreal because I was never ever thinking about it - it was just like science fiction.

That’s when I discovered that each of these cities has its own identity - not just in its inhabitants, but in its architecture and the simplest things like roads, crossing patterns and walking paths. I noticed the shapes of the windows in different places from Austria (where there’s a similarity to Czech) to Paris with its large windows like you see on the paintings, and London. America has a completely different system and styles of opening windows to Europe. At the same time, I observed how different these societies looked and people dressed. Prague was grey and neglected during communism and after the revolution compared to the other cities.

Lastly, when you have the opportunity to study and live in a completely foreign environment, you have the advantage of looking at everything with a fresh eye that locals don’t have. For example, a Czech Škoda car parked in front of a house in Prague was not as interesting as an English car standing in front of an average English house – this in itself provided inspiration for a new painting for me.

Simply for me, the magic of painting urban environments is that you apply the same principles as if you were painting a traditional landscape!

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Petra: How do you perceive the role of people in the urban landscape and in your paintings?

Petr: I feel to some extent that as a figurative painter, I find landscapes interesting. Often when I’m painting a figure appears in there, and so, it would not make much sense without it. I think lot of other figurative painters feel the same, as if the figure was the central motif and the painting gains a story or a secret with it. I find observing people in the city easy when I can capture a moment painting without them noticing. I capture people on my mobile or digital camera; there are not many painters who could capture reality based on sheer memory! I remember when I went to London in 2000. I saved up and bought 12 rolls of film, each with 36 frames. Enough I thought for two and half months, I thought very hard which image to take.

Simply, the city fascinates me - it has its secrets, and many themes meet there. People walking through the urban landscapes with element of dreaming without seeing their faces. I love to paint people from the back thus allowing the observer to dream and imagine what the painting’s about.

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Petra: How do you view graffiti as an art form?

Petr: I like it. I must say that I’d been ignoring it for a long time and really only discovered it a few years ago. We have a little daughter. When I started walking her in the pram in Holešovice, where we live, we passed a 200m. long wall that’s been used often by ‘sprayers’. I had been walking past that wall for many years, but not paid attention to it until the walks with my daughter. I discovered that it’s like a new world; an alternative and creative one in Prague, with absolutely no connection to the serious art world. Both worlds now co-exist and these ‘sprayers’ live in the community and on the internet where they share their graffiti anonymously. When you start observing it, you see that some are repeaters; some sign underneath. There is one who is really good, however, I haven’t worked out yet if he’s local or just travels here from elsewhere.

Next, I started photographing such work as graffiti was a new theme that moved me somewhere else - the landscape and its colours and the quality of the work. Most are average, but from time to time, interesting ones appear seemingly inspired by classical and abstract artists. I’ve discovered also that they follow each other a lot – having websites where they display their works and call it a ‘graffiti jam’! They get a whole group together on a weekend and work on a 200m. wall creating 10 large pieces. They have music playing and a picnic including their whole community and kids playing amongst it.

It’s a bizarre world, totally different from ‘high art’ where the artists are closed in their studios and gather really only at exhibition openings. ‘High art’ is an artificial world, creating an artificial reality! The ‘graffiti guys’ on the other hand don’t reach ‘society’ in the respected mainstream media but work subtly, directly in the everyday environment. Also, what’s very interesting in all this is the fact that they don’t make personal gain from their efforts as their images are not for sale and they have no guarantee that their images are going remain!

I’ve observed the tensions between them when after one week an image disappears under another layer, and then the week after a similar image to the old one appears again as fresh layer. I have discovered that they have their own code of around 10 rules about not spraying a new layer too soon on an image; rules about how to deal with the police without provoking them and showing their citizens ID cards! They have this half-official world where the police and the council respect the spaces dedicated to graffiti and spaces that are taboo! Professional graffiti artists know what to avoid and to focus on the right spaces. In Modřany, there is a huge 3 km wall along a tram route covered with hundreds of graffiti. It’s a gallery of graffiti artists and very interesting. The talented, clever ones are travelling all over the world and supporting each other with other graffiti artists traveling to Prague.

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Petra: How can people buy a painting from you?

Petr: Through my webpage.

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Visit:

www.petrmalina.cz

Images:

© Petr Malina, Karel Cudlín

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POETRY DAY 19

THE OLD POND Matsuo Bashō An old silent pond A frog jumps into the pond— Splash! Silence again.

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A WORLD OF DEW Kobayashi Issa A world of dew, And within every dewdrop A world of struggle.

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LIGHTING ONE CANDLE Yosa Buson The light of a candle Is transferred to another candle— Spring twilight.

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THE TASTE OF RAIN Jack Kerouac The taste Of rain —Why kneel?

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HAIKU FOR YOU Sonia Sanchez Love between us is speech and breath. Loving you is a long river running.

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LINES ON A SKULL Ravi Shankar Life’s little, our heads sad. Redeemed and wasting clay this chance. Be of use.

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