Marie Jonsson Harrison » Adelaide

133 Pie Floater in Acrylic or Sculpture

mariejon — Fri, 04 May 2012 02:29:27 +0000

ACRYLIC PAINTING

This acrylic painting is called the Pie Cart and I have also made a similar one in ceramic and mosaic as a commission that hung at the Adelaide Airport. Perhaps you also have some pie carts in your town?

Here in Adelaide we have had them since 1870 in Norwood and later in the city, at one stage there were 13 of them around town. My memory of them does not stretch that far lol, but I do remember one on Franklin Street and the other in front of the Adelaide rail way station.

THE ART OF THE PIE CART

A Pie Cart is a caravan or trailer with a window along one side where you can sit and eat, although most people stand and eat, perhaps that is because you want to test yourself, to see if you still can. Well that is because the pie cart is usually the place to go late at night after too many drinks, when you start to get hungry and need a little help to sober up. Of course I had to paint from experience as usual – you know I had to stay up till 2am in the morning, have too much to drink and really gage the atmosphere right? All in the name of research of course, suffering all the way!

THE ART OF THE TECHNI-COLORED YAWN

Not that they sell too much that I could eat there anyway being a vegetarian and all. The menu consists mainly of pies (funny about that) they did sell hot chips which I could eat and pea soup. Speaking of which, pea soup that is, as you can see above not all people like it – or is that a reflection of too much to drink. Here in Australia we call that a Techni-colored yawn. LOL. If it also looks as if someone has Casino chips and throwing money around on the painting that is because our Casino is in the same building as the Railway Station in Adelaide.

Then there was Beef pie, Camel pie, Chicken and Vegetable Pie, Chilli Steak Pie, Egg, Bacon and Tomato Pie, Lamb Pie, Steak and Kidney Pie, Roo Pie, Tuna and Vegetable Pie, also ice coffees and soft drinks as well as hot tea and coffee, donuts and some cakes. I do have a distant memory of scoffing down a vanilla slice early in the morning way before I even had my painting research to blame that on! I am reliably informed that more recently they were also offering vegetarian pasties, spinach and fetta triangles, but the most famous of all their dishes were the Pie Floater.

THE ART OF THE CONDIMENTS

So what is that I hear you ask, well self explanatory really, a bowl of soup with a pie in the middle, often served with tomato sauce on top, you can also add other condiments such as Worcestershire sauce or vinegar. We actually have it every Australia Day now at home, my hubby makes a great vego version with a vego pie and it is delicious. As the Pie Floater was recognized as a South Australian Heritage Icon in 2003 by the National Trust of Australia we think it is fitting to serve it when we have overseas visitors too. You know a bit of Aussie fun and so far it has always been a big hit.

There are 2 trains of thought how the pie floater was originally created. One story takes it back to the Great Depression, whereby pie manufacturers would donate their left-overs to soup kitchens, who in turn would add the pie to their soups to make the meals for the homeless more substantial.

The other thought goes back even longer than that – 130 years no less as early records held by the South Australian National Trust puts the Pie Floaters origin in Port Pirie where a man named Ern “Shorty” Bradley ate one. It is not known if it was his intention to put the pie in the soup or perhaps he dropped it into the bowl by accident, no one really knows. But I am glad he did.

ARTISTS WHO LOVE IT

Famous people who love the Pie Floater are Joe Cocker, Billy Connolly, Nigel Mansell, Shane Warne and Angus Young from one of my favorite bands AC/DC.

Here is a Jewish Proverb by that I think fits well here;

“Worries go down better with soup”.

Although perhaps this quote by Robert Byrne hits the mark a bit more;

“Anybody who believes that the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach flunked geography.”

Till next time happy painting and sculpting and eating to you all,

Love Marie xxx (c)

If you liked this food and art blog you may also enjoy this one; 83 Art & Are you fond of Fondue

Why not come and have a look at Marie Jonsson-Harrison’s PAINTINGS FOR SALE, GICLEE PRINTS FOR SALE and SCULPTURES for sale or WALLBASED SCULPTURES. Enjoy an original artwork on your walls or perhaps one on your bed ARTnBED.

122 Its not over till the fat lady sings & Art

mariejon — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 04:50:45 +0000

NAIVE PAINTING

I have always loved that expression, so of course I had to paint the image one day and this (acrylic on board) painting is the result. If you look closely in the first row on the left hand side by the stage you will see me and my family, hubby and me with our arms around each other and Kai and Hillivi standing enthusiastically with their arms up looking at the stage.

ARTISTIC EDUCATION

As the kids were growing up we believed it was part of their education to take them to all sorts of events and places, to try to expose them to as much culture as possible so this Opera in the Park was part of that.

I am not really an Opera lover myself but I do enjoy the spectacle of it once in a while and when the South Australian Opera company were presenting the free entertainment of “Opera in the Park” it was a wonderful opportunity to take advantage of. It was held in Elder Park on a stage and the audience sat on the lawn in the grass, just wonderful as the sun set and the stars came out to play.

ADELAIDE THE ARTS CAPITAL

We are very lucky in Adelaide to have the whole city surrounded by park-lands, the city itself was set out by Colonel William Light, a British military officer who designed it in a grid pattern with wide streets and lots of little town squares whilst he was the Surveyor –General of South Australia. He is famous for choosing this area to put Adelaide on and his lovely design, which works very well even today some 170 years after his death of tuberculosis in 1839. Today he rests in Light Square the only person legally buried within the town square.

Elder Park is in between the Torrens Lake and the Festival Theater and has a famous rotunda in the middle of it which was built in 1882, one which constantly is debated whether it should be moved to make place for some new idea and concept of the day. It is very lovely and quite big with ornate lace and roof and is very popular for wedding s and photo opportunities of every sort. My brothers (he is also an artist) band the Clowns of Decadence also played in the rotunda for a very worthy cause; against Vivisection during the 1990’s.

Elders Park is a very popular place to have picnics with lots to do for the whole family with cycling trails and cycles and paddle-boats for hire. The river is usually full of water birds of different varieties and some interesting looking sculptures are now in the water – made to look like giant origami newspaper boats which add a childish playfulness that I love.

ART & MOVIES

My philosophy has always been “to look on the bright side of things” and the “cup is always half full” “It isn’t over till the fat lady sings” which has kept my spirits up during some harder times that we all have in life. I was reminded of another great saying from Dev Patels character in the new movie The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, which by the way looks really great and follows a bunch of English retirees adventures in exotic India.

Any way what his always optimistic character Sonny says;

“Everything will be alright in the end, so if it is not alright, it is not yet the end”

Till next time happy painting and sculpting and perhaps singing to you all,

Love Marie xxxx (c)

114 Elders Fine Art Gallery.. never give up

mariejon — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 00:13:36 +0000

GALLERY DIRECTOR

This painting “Christmas for the Elders family” was commissioned by Jim Elders from the Elders Fine Art Gallery in Adelaide, South Australia, a man I much admire and without whom I would not be enjoying this wonderful career as an Artist.

I have told you how I started painting in How it all began, which is something that I did every minute of the day (in-between looking after a new baby & going back to modelling) early morning, late into the evening, when baby Kai had his naps, and all weekend when hubby took over the child minding.

PAINTING OBSESSED

Friends and family was highly amused at my newfound love of painting and would come over to see the latest artwork. They would giggle and laugh and I am sure in a lot of instances pat me on the head, shake their heads and think that at least I am amusing myself but it won’t amount to anything much, LOL.

JUNK ART SCULPTOR

Not that I thought it would either I just knew that I could not stop and if I wasn’t painting I thought about painting, dreamt about it or talked about it, like a woman obsessed. My dad, who is an artist himself but generally more in the abstract area or as a junk art sculptor, would encourage me and buy me paints and materials. After a while he said:” you know honey I think you are on to something – there is a genre in the art world called Naive Art and although it does not look anything like yours it seems to be in the same vein.” So dad got me a few books and I started to dream that maybe one day I could become a “real artist”.

It took about 2 years for this penny to drop and I thought I should see if I could get representation from a gallery. Now obviously as my father was already an artist with gallery backing and I had quite a public profile from being the Australian Model of the Year it probably would have been much easier to take advantage of that but I wanted to make it on my own arts merit.

CALLING ART GALLERIES

So armed with the Yellow Pages (Telephone Directory) I started calling galleries. I started with the less known and worked my way up the list. In the most polite of fashions I explained that I was a new artist and was wondering if at some stage I could either come in or send them an image of my work. Without fail every single gallery I called said: “sorry we are not interested in seeing any new artists, or we are totally booked out”, and some of them were rather rude and abrupt. At this stage there were only 2 Galleries left in South Australia (that I hadn’t called) and that was the two most famous ones 20 years ago; BMG (Kim Bonython’s) and Elders Fine Art Gallery, and as luck would have it I called Elders first.

Jim Elder answered the phone himself and I couldn’t believe it when he said; “sure come on in! I will warn you however that I very rarely take on any new artists but I always look”, and with that we made an appointment.

ART GALLERY APPOINTMENT

So on the allotted day I turn up, Jim is very busy getting a show up and hardly acknowledges me but points at where I should put my work along the walls on the floor. I had 14 works with me so it took quite a while back and forth from the car and finally it’s all in and eventually Jim comes to take a look.

His face gave nothing away, he looked grumpy to me and sort of huffed and asked what the price on this and that one is? I said that I had no idea at all what the prices were, so Jim said, well that painting I think would be 300 dollars, and this one 500 and the artwork with the flowers 950. By this stage my eyes were round as saucers as I listen to this obviously quite mad man, lol. But who was I to argue and when he then said he would buy, this one and that one and the other outright, counting up 10 of the artworks and taking in the other 4 on commission basis I nearly fainted. I left Elders Fine Art Gallery that day with a cheque for nearly 7 thousand dollars, which with a young family and a mortgage made me skip to the car!

The paintings sold the following weekend in their Christmas show and I now had a new career painting full time and the rest of it is history as they say!

So thank you Jim and Helen Elders, you provided the most wonderful start to my career and I am forever in your debt. It goes without saying, that if the Elders had not changed the gallery to an Auction house: Elders Fine Art & Auctioneers, I would still happily be on their books.

So here is a quote by George Allen, I think fits very well in here with light of what everyone thought initially about my art career, lol.

“People of mediocre ability sometimes achieve outstanding success because they don’t know when to quit. Most men succeed because they are determined to.”

Till next time happy painting and sculpting to you all,

Love Marie xxx (c)

15. The Art of The grass is always greener

Marie — Tue, 18 May 2010 07:22:51 +0000

FRINGE FESTIVAL

We went out to dinner recently with some close friends, to Enoteca in Adelaide which I highly recommend.

There were 9 of us and afterwards we went and saw the Ukulele playing, Lady Carol at the Garden of Unearthly Delights for the Fringe Festival and the whole night was such a treat. You can see from this ceramic and mosaic wall hanging, I do like eating out and do so often which is a constant source of material for my paintings & sculpture as well as the Artwork blogs, as is everything that I see around me. The title of this artwork is “The Grass is always Greener on the other side”.

In this artwork that is exactly what both the man and the dog are thinking about.

ARTISTS INSPIRATIONS

Every night we eat out, ‘that’ is how my husband feels about whatever he has chosen to eat. As the food passes by him to their rightful owners he looks longingly at every plate and with wistful eyes and sad voice bemoans the fact that he should have ordered that instead. Always cracks me up inspires another artwork.

One of our companions on the night, a very dear friend, is currently recovering from a triple bypass but you would never suspect this from looking at him.

THE ART OF RECOVERY

Never have I ever seen someone 7 days out of hospital walking all around the city and shoe shopping with his wife, dinner and lunch in different eateries and to top that off he has just spent 4 days at the Clipsal car race.

What’s with this man does he not realize he has just had a major operation, lol, his luck is certainly holding. According to his doctors he could have dropped dead any time during the last 3 years, however being a non smoker would have certainly helped him.

He is, at the best of times, shall we say a grumpy little bugger, and was of course true to form, although I think the food and wine did pass muster that night. He made me laugh though with his running commentary of the salt content in everything and heaven forbid just a little grain of salt should ever pass his lips again.

Here is a little wisdom about friends from Oprah Winfrey that I like.

“Lots of people want to ride with you in the limo, but what you want is someone who will take the bus with you when the limo breaks down.”

I hope you come and visit me again, till then happy painting and sculpting to you all!

Love Marie xxx (c)

13. The Art of Happy Mothers Day

Marie — Sat, 08 May 2010 08:18:51 +0000

BEING A MOTHER & ARTIST

I drive my kids nuts, but hey that’s a mothers job, keeping them safe and out of danger.

Happy Mother’s day to all you wonderful mothers and being one is the most fantastic gift but at the same time a guilt ridden curse. It was hard enough when they were little but at least then I was the boss and could tuck them safely into their beds at night and keep the monsters from the door. Now I need a Lear jet and an Uzi to be of any use.

This Painting is one of several artworks I have painted over the years on the trial and tribulations of motherhood. Having a family is very inspirational for an artist and this acrylic on canvas painting is called ” A Mothers work is never done”.

ARTISTS AND IMAGINATION

Just had a call from my baby boy Kai, well baby boy is a bit much he would say, after all he is 23. Funny though I know that, but he will always be my baby boy and I will probably be annoying him and his sister till I die, with various warnings of imminent danger just as I have done now. I wonder if my imagination and worry is worse because I am an artist?

You see he has just called from Sweden in transit to London, and as you know they have had a terrorist attacks there, never mind that said baby boy has been living and surviving perfectly fine in London for the last 10 months or the fact that his’ imminent doom preaching mother’ takes us all off to Bali nearly every year for a holiday.

But oh no, that does not count, I am there to protect them. Like Darth Vader against a terrorist bomb, that’s me! Then there is the volcano to worry about, he already had his flight to Sweden cancelled for a week. Let’s not forget there is also swine flu, Pick pockets, the Bangkok riots, sitting no further that 7 seats from an exit on the plane, drink spiking and gangs with knifes!

( our family is the 4 people on the right on the detail of the painting below)

Oh grow up girl and get a grip, I know I should, but my children are so precious, bad enough with baby girl here in Adelaide, I know I drive her crazy too. Poor baby girl 19 years old now and still having to text her mum after every car trip to say she is safe, never mind the fact that one could get ones eye poked out with a sharp stick (lol that was always my ARTIST dad’s warning too, as soon as me or my brother did anything remotely dangerous).

The Swedes have a very good word for my behavior and that is “Mesar” which is a bird in Sweden that is known as a little coward, wimpy, so that’s what an overprotective mother preaching excessive caution is called!

So Mums take a deep breath and enjoy your day, relax, permit yourself to get pampered and forget about the worries for one day.

Oh Bugger I wish I could….my baby boy is still in transit, London-Bangkok-Adelaide, I guess I will have to wait till next year……

Here from Douglas Pagels book “30 Beautiful things” -a thought, I wish for all of you.

May trouble, worries and problems never linger; may they only make you that much stronger and able and wise. May you rise each day with sunlight in your heart, success in your path, answers to your prayers, and that smile – that I love to see – always there in your eyes.

Love Marie xxx

( Thanks Sonja and Jimmie )

Happy painting and sculpting to every one and a Big Happy Mothers Day to Nanna and Mormor and all of you too xxx

(c)