The artist and his muse is an oft-played concept but one not so often seen in the living Brisbane landscape.

“To Your Arts Desire” was the event to celebrate a music and art collaboration three years in the making.

Gold Coast-based painter Brett Moffatt initially contacted me in 2010 with a request to paint my portrait. The calibre of his art and thoughtful words instantaneously piqued my interest and we met soon after for the first time. A warm friendship has blossomed over the years through gallery visits, emails, phone calls, brainstorming ideas, sketches on the back deck and photo shoots. Brett is one of those all-giving artists – he puts one million percent into every brush stroke. I knew asking Brett to create the artwork for my new EP cover would result in something very special. I have asked Brett to guest blog in the near future to share some insight into creating this artwork.

“To Your Arts Desire” was initially a simple EP launch idea for the newly released “Things That We Had Said”, which in itself was a four year creative process. But I wanted this launch to be something different; something that reflected my new angle – the creative things that inspire me: light, art, food, music.

The Box in West End was an intimate place to exhibit nine of the beautiful photographic images Brett captured as part of a photo shoot at the Woolloongabba Antique Centre back in June. The exhibition also included the original EP water colour art work, Brett’s book of creative treasures – he calls this his ‘Francesca Book’, some exercise sketches, and a stop-motion video of a classic Brett/Francesca sketch session on the back deck as recorded by renowned photographer John Reyment.

 

 

My charismatic mother (it runs in the family clearly) was the host of the evening and so appropriately applauded Brett for his generosity in sharing his work on the night. It wasn’t until the exhibition was in full-swing that I realised, despite his immense artistic experience as a painter, this was Brett’s first photographic exhibition. You would never have known it! I loved the interaction with guests and Brett as they all shared with him their favourite photos.

In order to transform the exhibition space into a concert space, I thought of my perfect bribe – food! So I baked what felt like hundreds of cupcakes the night before (rum and raisin cupcakes with lime icing – ooh la la!) and used the tropical courtyard space at the back of The Box to feed my guests.

 

 

As a special treat for guests, I shared with them an exclusive preview of my “Beautiful Night” music video preceding an hour-long concert. My favourite part of the evening was when everyone in the audience sang every word to “Something New” – it will be very hard to top that experience as an artist. I challenge you all!

Oh, and of course, how do lights fit into this night? I have a facination with lights – pretty warm coloured lights. There were strings of fairy lights upon entry, and a hundred candles on the piano during the concert, and to really bring home my true feelings about lights, I filmed 700 photos of pretty twinkling fairy lights and made a stop-motion video that looped on the projector screen behind me.

 

 

I had the best night – the high lasted a good 24 hours.

See “To Your Arts Desire” EVENT photos here.

For information on purchasing Brett Moffatt’s Limited Edition Photos, please email Brett directly.

“To Your Arts Desire” was held at The Box, West End on Fri 6 Sept 2013 as part of the Brisbane Fringe Festival.