A rush of blood to the.....wallet. (aka the day I became an art collector)

Long story, but some of you will know about my dog Keg, who has been living with Mum and Dad in Sydney since I moved to Brissie just over two years ago. Keg is a typical 4yo male Staffy and as such is under everyone's feet (including poor old Buddy, Mum and Dad's aging Rottweiler/Kelpie/German Shepherd (?) cross who has bad hips and can ill afford being barrelled by a rapidly moving lump of dog). Everyone loves him but it's probably not the absolute best situation for him to be living in.

Noone ted him to go to the RSPCA, because we couldn't be guaranteed of any home for him let alone a great one, so Dad has been mentioning Keg to everyone he knows in an attempt to find the perfect new Mummy and Daddy for my Keggy.

Well, finally we found one. (note that I'm using we here in the sense that I'm not involved at all) A friend of Dad's found a friend of his who has had Staffies before and wants another one but didn't want to go through the puppy stage again. Phonecalls and arrangements were made and Keg will be flying up with the good people of Virgin Blue on the 18th of August.

Keg's new Mummy is an artist. Her name is Lyn Barnes and she lives in Quilpie with her husband Jack and some horses. You can see some of her art here.

Lyn has an exhibition in Brisbane once a year and it opened on Wednesday. (it's on at the Graydon Gallery on Merthyr St in New Farm. If you're in the area drop in and have a squiz) She invited me along so we could meet each other. I had looked at the artwork on the website and while it's all quite nice, I felt that none of it was really my thing and I would just go, say hi, stay for a little while and then go. As is probably usually the case, the art was all much more impressive in person than it was in the photos. I met Lyn (who's lovely - Keg's on a good wicket there I think) and started to walk through the gallery until I came around a corner and stopped dead. It was a pastel drawing of spoonbills in a tree at Stonehenge (the one in outback Queensland, I don't think the English one has Spoonbills...) and it's gorgeous.


I walked around that gallery about three times, each time hoping as I came around the corner that someone had bought that drawing so that I didn't have to keep arguing with myself about whether I'd buy it. After the third time when there was still no little red dot on the name plaque, I went and called Dad. He convinced me that if I loved it, and could afford it, then I should buy it. Done. Mine.

I'm now an art collector.

I just hope there's enough credit left on my mastercard.