ms crankypants

Adjacent to Crib Point is the small town of Somers. I’d have taken photos of its pretty surrounds for you, but I have a hideous habit of getting lost when driving to Somers and ending up in completely disparate places without realising. The nice people at my last job ended up banning me from driving to lunches at the Somers Store as I’d end up in Balnarring or on the main road to somewhere else even though I’d photocopied the Melway page and had the route down to no more than two turns.

But Somers is a hidden gem on the peninsula, so perhaps other people get as disoriented as I do. The houses are mainly single-storey or timber split-level on generous blocks with simple but complementary native gardens and many street trees. The population seems to be comprised mainly retired folk who enjoy the relaxed lifestyle, self-employed people and tradies who like taking their boards to the nearest surf beaches and artistic types who appreciate the quiet beauty of the area.

One artistic type in Somers specialises in pastel animal portraits and she’s been working on capturing the meezers and sausage dogs over the last few months. Kathryn is rather forgiving of my inability to find her house and allows me to spoil her lovely Labra-poodley-spoodle dog rotten and drool over her kick-arse Apple Mac where she stores photos for commissions. She said no to me living in her sun-drenched and spacious studio though.

The four cat portraits are complete (I wish I had taken photos *before* having them framed so excuse the glare) and the dogs’ portraits will be finished last December. Trying to ask an artist about a deadline is like trying to herd cats, so things will be done when they’re ready. She has done an amazing job and the picture of the late Tabasco as a wee thing brings tears to my eyes.

Crank-o-meter: artist envy

January 25th, 2010 | Tags: general delusions | Category: general delusions | Subscribe to comments | Leave a comment | Trackback URL