Other Melbourne memories...

As well as enjoying the conference and friends, I also took a little time to explore Melbourne. I particularly love visiting the art galleries and reacquainting myself with old friends, like all those beautiful early Australians -- Charles Conder and Tom Roberts, Arthur Streeton and Frederick McCubbin.

I could stand for hours in awe of 'The Pioneer'. It tells such a story. And then there are the more modern artists like Dobell and Blackman and Whitely...
For me, these wonderful, familiar paintings help me to feel centred and they refill the well.
This time, we also wanted to see the collection of Art from Vienna, but this involved crossing St Kilda Road -- which proved to be impossible, because Cadel Evans was about to make his victory procession into Federation Square. So instead we were caught up in the huge crowds waiting to see him, which was an unexpected and exciting bonus. I was more than happy to yell for Cadell.

As were these construction workers, who scored a birds' eye view.

And being a romance author, I always have an eye for a noteworthy hero type in the crowds. -:)

When we were finally able to get across to the second gallery, we were wonderfully rewarded. Gustav Klimt was the star of course, but it was fascinating to learn about the flowering of art, fashion, interior design and music (Mahler, for example) that occurred in Vienna in the first part of the twentieth century (until WW2).

And even at the art gallery, there was an eye-catching male...

Or two... I'll take my inspiration any way it comes...

Tomorrow, I'll share my notes from Susan Wigg's workshop -- Plotting From the Inside Out.