Colourful World

Since we first moved to Hong Kong, Craig and I have been searching for a special piece of art to commemorate our time here. We knew we wanted a piece that featured the famous Hong Kong skyline, but we did not want any cheap, mass-produced, available-in-any-market-stall kind of painting.

In my online investigations I discovered and fell in love with the work done by an Italian artist named Francesco Lietti. He traditionally paints landscapes from his travels all around the world. However, his bright and colourful representations of the impressive Hong Kong skyscrapers were exactly the artwork that we had in mind.

The problem was that Lietti's paintings are hard to obtain. Imagine our joy, then, to discover a local gallery near Craig's school with an upcoming exhibition of some of Lietti's paintings. We went along to Yan Gallery with three children in tow to preview the collection. I would like to go on record to say that I would have been thrilled to purchase any one of Lietti's Hong Kong paintings. Craig, however, felt that only one piece truly did justice to the amazing city in which we currently live. He bought the artwork on the spot, regardless of the price, and we are now the proud owners of "This is Hong Kong 2012". As the three-piece artwork measures one meter high by three meters wide, we will be on the hunt for a new house in Australia with a wall sufficiently large on which to proudly hang our beautiful painting depicting Hong Kong's skyline by night.

Craig attended the "Colourful World" exhibition at Gallery by the Harbour where he was blessed to meet artist Francesco Lietti in person. Here they are posing in front of our new painting.

Lietti told Craig we are the second family to purchase some of his work for display in an Australian home.

Amanda, you can probably tell that Lietti works in acrylic and oils on canvas, but also uses collage (like scraps of newspapers) to give his paintings texture and depth. He varnishes his finished works, which enhances the brightness of the colours much more than these photos show.

Craig found humour in the fact that numerous visitors to the exhibition stopped to admire and photograph "our" painting.

If you live in Hong Kong you should definitely view Lietti's "Colourful World" exhibition at Gallery by the Harbour, 2/F, Shop 202, Ocean Center, Harbour City, Tsim Sha Tsui. It lasts until January 6, 2013.

World's largest floating bookstore

On Friday we travelled as a family to Ocean Terminal in Tsim Sha Tsui to see the Logos Hope. Carrying more than 5000 books and measuring more than 430 feet long, the Logos Hope is OM International's largest ship. Its mission is to take books, education (AIDS prevention, for instance), and community outreach around the world. The crew and staff represent over 45 different countries and are all volunteers on the vessel. This was our first time visiting the Logos Hope, although we have previously boarded the Logos II and the Doulos ships in Australia and Africa.

At the bookshop you can buy books in English and other languages on a range of topics.

We bought some drinks at the International Cafe where Tirzah chatted to a crew member and drew her own picture of the Logos Hope.

Jemilla especially enjoyed the visual presentation called "The Journey of Life", which was based on the Biblical story of the Prodigal Son.

Maybe you would like to visit the Logos Hope in the near future? Here is the docking schedule for Asia.

Port                                      Arrival Date                   Departure Date

Hong Kong                          December 15th, 2012    January 4th, 2013 

Keelung, Taiwan                January 6th, 2013          January 21st, 2013 

Sihanoukville, Cambodia    January 28th, 2013        February 19th, 2013 

Bangkok, Thailand              February 20th, 2013      March 12th, 2013 

Christmas gifts

I know our Australian relatives would like to know what the children received for Christmas this year. As I was feeling unwell on Christmas day, we didn't take any photos of the stockings and presents being opened.

To give you an idea of how lazy relaxed our day was, here we are, still in our pyjamas, eating our Christmas turkey lunch.

And here are some belated pictures of the three presents the children each received this year from us.

Jemilla: SOMETHING TO WEAR

Jemilla: SOMETHING TO PLAY WITH

Jemilla: SOMETHING TO READ/WATCH

Keegan: SOMETHING TO WEAR

Keegan: SOMETHING TO PLAY WITH

Keegan: SOMETHING TO READ/WATCH

Tirzah: SOMETHING TO WEAR

Tirzah: SOMETHING TO PLAY WITH

Tirzah: SOMETHING TO READ/WATCH

Despite (or perhaps because) we are living in a technologically advanced city, it proved rather difficult to find a purple digital clock for Tirzah's Christmas present.  I don't expect this model to last very long as it was purchased from a dodgy street vendor in Sham Shui Po. In the meantime, however, Tirzah is thoroughly enamoured with her very own alarm clock, especially the button that recites the time aloud in Chinese.

"I'm dreaming of a crocheted Christmas"

The world’s most famous crotchet artist, Olek, makes her debut in Hong Kong this month by creating a Christmas house with carpets, furniture and props all covered in crocheting at Elements Mall in Kowloon. Featuring more than 2,000 balls of yarn, it is a truly amazing display.

As Tirzah and I walked past the Christmas House, we admired the crocheted mannequins.

Imagine our surprise when the woolen props stood up and walked around!

Olek says, "I think crochet, the way I create it, is a metaphor for the complexity and interconnectedness of our body and its systems and psychology. The connections are stronger as one fabric as opposed to separate strands, but, if you cut one, the whole thing will fall apart. Relationships are complex and greatly vary situation to situation. They are developmental journeys of growth, and transformation. Time passes, great distances are surpassed and the fabric which individuals are composed of compiles and unravels simultaneously."

 

 

Lauren, I wish you could have seen Olek's work! Maybe it will inspire you...