Olley ¡Olé!

Every bit of the Margaret Olley story that I know seems incredible from the first to the last.

Bill Dobell's 1948 portrait of her was awarded the Archibald Prize - they "were both at a party given by Russell Drysdale. Margaret was wearing a fancy dress costume made from ex-war-supply parachute silk and sleeves from a friend's grandmother's wedding dress. Dobell asked if he could paint her portrait and she agreed. Olley recalled that she sat for him in his flat in Kings Cross wearing normal street clothes and an old battered hat, which she had decorated with flowers. When she saw the finished portrait, she was amazed because Dobell had not seen the fancy dress since the party. She later described it as "truly a magnificent work."
Dobell was seen running through the streets of Sydney with the still wet painting to get it to the Art Gallery of NSW before the close of entries".
And how amazing that 63 years later, Ben Quilty's portrait of her won The 2011 Archibald.

Miss Olley lived and painted for decades in what had been prior to 1964 a hat factory in Paddington NSW's Blue-Ribbon real-estate district and after her death it was no surprise that despite what must have been frightening condition it sold for $2.8m (actually with the 4-br terrace fronting Duxford St that she leased out, quite a bargain at 2.8).

Francis Bacon's studio was , in my opinion, his greatest work, and so it is with Olls.
Fortunately I am not the only one who thinks this way and the whole lot including her ashtrays with the butts still in them, has been packed in Paddo for travel up the highway to Murwillimbah and reconstructed so we can all make pilgrimages. Obviously we will merely be able to peep over the red velvet ropes to enthrall at this dust-free reassembled room built within the white-space gallery -
"the Margaret Olley Arts Centre in Murwillumbah early next year. The green kitchen, orange room and yellow room will be recreated.":

Lovely Kelim under all those bits and pieces - what tough rugs they are to survive 60 years without a good shake. Apparently she cooked a good roast and terribly important people dined there safely.
and

The most extraordinary achievement for all involved and I am just itching to get there.

 Read about it at this link - Known in her time as "Australia's greatest living legend", her work was predominantly still life and intimate interiors, much of which was featured in a major exhibition at the Art Gallery of NSW in 1997. (In 2006 she donated more than 130 works valued at over $7 million to the Art Gallery).

SMH
Her handsome and historic Newcastle property.
Not all her stuff went up to the fab new museum though.
Until I went gathering links for this post, I had not known that Francis Bacon's studio was also relocated from London to Dublin. 
I just love the internet informing me every day of more than one new fact.

thatched heir

If it looks like a Thatcher and acts like a Thatcher then ... here is our Foreign Minister and her Prues n Trudes. She played hard and dirty sacking by telephone our NY Consul-General Steve Bracks.
If I was as mean as, I would photoshop a face on this -

Not a joke Joyce

Under all this crap is a drophead Riley some car restorer would kill for. This disgusting collection belongs to avid Xtian Fundies who are too busy accepting the lord JC into their hearts to cleanup their bloody yard. I should never have climbed the compost heap to look over the top of the fence. No complaints will be made, as disturbing this lot will only cause mass migration of all the rodents and reptiles so comfortably housed within.
This is a temporary post just for commentors at Hawt Andrews Highrise, where Sedgwicke The Younger referenced my new neighbours (well actually I am their new neighbour and we are not gonna be good friends). . The origin of the saying "It's a joke Joyce" is the legendary In Melbourne Tonight of the 1960's where a regular comedy skit The Wilsons had Graham 'King' Kennedy playing George and Tivoli veteran Val Jellay playing wife Joyce bickering at the kitchen table, with Joyce never getting the meaning of sarcastic humour. Another George Wilson was the actual manager of GTV9 at the time and his teenage son George got studio tickets for all his Brighton pals when The Rolling Stones recorded there in 1965. Those were the days.
His 21st was at The Royal Oak on Bridge Road, where all the GTV9 staff drank, and it later became The Tiger Room where Radio Birdman played their first Melbourne gig and The Boys Next Door played their first pub gig. i was there for that too ...

better stop, but I could go on and on and on.

clean air

I haz been in Flinders on Westernport. This cottage is in the main street. Not far from the truly glamorous handmade chocolates shop.
Very lovely there, even in winter. The coast road past Cape Schanck is like a roller coaster and apparently: 'The cleanest air in the world
Fill a bottle with the air at Cape Schanck, which is bottled by CSIRO scientists after gale-force winds blow pure, uncontaminated air directly from the Antarctic' (Follow this Flinders link for more).

Named after Matthew Flinders who - 'In 1804 while imprisoned by the French in Mauritius, Matthew Flinders completed a map showing his circumnavigation of the continent, which he titled ‘Australia or Terra Australis’.

This original map is stored at the UK Hydrographic Office in Taunton Somerset.
Flinders returned to England in 1810, and his account of his explorations, A Voyage to Terra Australis, was published in 1814. A new map with the order reversed to ‘Terra Australis or Australia’ accompanied this two-volume work.

This was the first map of Australia to be published, and it is this map that is normally reproduced.
Matthew Flinders died on the day before the publication of his monumental work, and thus 2014 is the bicentenary of his death. To mark this anniversary, a campaign has been launched Bringing Home the Birth Certificate of Our Nation.
There is evidence to suggest that this 1804 map was not the first use of the term Australia on a map. But this quibble aside, the 1804 map is of considerable historic significance for Australia, and anyone wishing to support the call for the British Hydrographic Office to relinquish the map can add their name to the online petition.'
That's enough about him, so back to me: I was in a house with a mirrored wall and can report that seeing all of oneself every minute of the day, takes some getting used to ... I preserved this image of a Santa statue ... just for you.