MY NEW NOVEL

My new novel "The Nursing Home" has been published and is available on Amazon. I've been told by several people that it's a good read :-)

This post is part of the My Sunday Best meme

AT THE ART BOOK FAIR

Featuring the world’s most creative emerging and established publishers, artists and writers, Melbourne Art Book Fair 2024 presents a diverse program of ideas, discussions and book launches. The National Gallery of Victoria's Great Hall was a splendid venue for the event. It is on until the 2nd June. More details here.

This post is part of the My Sunday Best meme

IN THE BOOKSHOP

Visiting the fantastic "Through the Looking Glass" bookshop in Sassafras in the Dandenongs. A perfect place to spend some time in (allow a couple of hours!) and buy some wonderful books.

This post is part of the My Sunday Best meme

BOOKSHOP

At the National Gallery of Victoria there is an excellent bookshop where one may find all sorts of books relating to art, design and topics that would interest any civilised, rational human being. I love spending time not only in the Gallery itself, but also in the store, where I invariably succumb to temptation, such as this book on Botticelli, who is one of my favourite Renaissance artists.

Alessandro di Mariano di Vanni Filipepi (c. 1445 – May 17, 1510), known as Sandro Botticelli, was an Italian painter of the Early Renaissance. He belonged to the Florentine School under the patronage of Lorenzo de' Medici, a movement that Giorgio Vasari would characterise less than a hundred years later in his Vita of Botticelli as a "golden age". Botticelli's posthumous reputation suffered until the late 19th century; since then, his work has been seen to represent the linear grace of Early Renaissance painting.

As well as the small number of mythological subjects which are his best known works today, he painted a wide range of religious subjects and also some portraits. He and his workshop were especially known for their Madonna and Childs, many in the round tondo shape. Botticelli's best-known works are The Birth of Venus and Primavera (see below), both in the Uffizi in Florence. He lived all his life in the same neighbourhood of Florence, with probably his only significant time elsewhere the months he spent painting in Pisa in 1474 and the Sistine Chapel in Rome in 1481–82.

This post is part of the Wordless Wednesday meme,

and also part of the ABC Wednesday meme.

OLD BOOKS

Books deemed to be too old to be useful any more, hence culled from the library collection. Scientific monographs tend to age fairly rapidly, hence the publication of revised and improved, up to date editions...

This post is part of the My Sunday Best meme.

LIBRARY

The State Library of Victoria is the central library of the state of Victoria, Australia, located in Melbourne. It is on the block bounded by Swanston, La Trobe, Russell, and Little Lonsdale streets, in the northern centre of the CBD. The library holds over 2 million books and 16,000 serials, including the diaries of the city's founders, John Batman and John Pascoe Fawkner, and the folios of Captain James Cook, R.N.. It also houses the original armour of Ned Kelly.

This post is part of the My Sunday Best meme,
and also part of the My Sunday Photo meme,
and also part of the Photo Sunday meme.

GEELONG'S DOME

Geelong is a port city located on Corio Bay and the Barwon River, in the state of Victoria, Australia, 75 kilometres south-west of the state capital, Melbourne. It is the second largest Victorian city, with an estimated urban population of 187,417 as at June 2015, having grown 1.8 percent since June 2014.

Geelong runs from the plains of Lara in the north to the rolling hills of Waurn Ponds to the south, with Corio Bay to the east and hills to the west. Geelong is the administrative centre for the City of Greater Geelong municipality, which covers urban, rural and coastal areas surrounding the city, including the Bellarine Peninsula.

Geelong City is also known as the 'Gateway City' due to its central location to surrounding Victorian regional centres like Ballarat in the north west, Torquay, Great Ocean Road and Warrnambool in the southwest, Hamilton, Colac and Winchelsea to the west, and the state capital of Melbourne in the north east.

The new Geelong Library and Heritage Centre ('The Dome'), was erected on the site of the former Geelong Volunteer Fire Brigade Station (which was demolished in 1918) and the former library adjacent to the Geelong War Memorial and Geelong Art Gallery. The centre's new building, which has been designed by the Melbourne architectural firm, ARM Architecture, features a unique geodesic dome constructed of glass and reinforced concrete, has been described as "... an iconic addition to Geelong’s architectural and cultural landscape".

The centre covers over 6,000 square metres, and includes a children’s exploration and discovery zone, a youth area, as well as a heritage centre repository, which will hold 120,000 print and multimedia collection items. The cost of the redevelopment has been put at A$45 million. The fractured dome design uses over 400 prefabricated glass-reinforced concrete tiles, which make up the sphere roof, which was described by ARM Architecture technical director Wayne Sanderson as having been "...modelled on the domes of great historical buildings." 

The design of the building references the domes of the great libraries of the world, Library of Congress and the State Library domed reading room. Clad in 332 panels of glass reinforced concrete, which reinforce the appearance of a geodesic domes and allow the building to harmonise with its surrounding masonry neighbours. These included the classical Geelong Art Gallery and old Geelong Town Hall, the Art Deco courthouse and the brutalist State Government Offices. The new building was opened by Geelong Mayor Darryn Lyons on November 21, 2015.

This post is part of the Our World Tuesday meme,
and also part of the Ruby Tuesday meme,
and also part of the Travel Tuesday meme,
and also part of the Wordless Wednesday meme.