I am a bit lost for words actually as this is the biggest break in the blogging since I launched my artist website, so with nearly 2 months away from writing I feel slightly lost, lol.  I have been back at the easel painting furiously for the last few weeks though as I have some pressing deadlines that had to be met.  I have just finished one of my painting commissions but still have several artworks still to do, so I am sneaking a little bit of time from one creative process to furnish another.

This artwork is handmade ceramic and mosaic and is called Travelling Cats, which fits this art and travel blog perfectly I think.

ART AGENT AND NAIVE ART EXHIBITION

Anyway I will start by sharing the reason for my absence and it starts with our very hectic but wonderful trip to Europe.  My husband and I had 5 weeks overseas and the pace was frantic at times.  We had originally planned a trip to India this year but as our daughter and boyfriend were going to Greece and invited them to join us our plans were changed.  As it was things snowballed from there as I was also invited again to the Naive Festival in Katowice Poland and to come and stay with my lovely European art agent in Copenhagen.  Then of course there were other places we wanted to see as holiday makers and other art business to attend too.

ARTISTIC ITINERARY

To give you some idea of the places we traveled to here is the countdown; Dubai,  London, Milan, Cinque Terra (Italy), Florence, Amsterdam, Copenhagen, Krakow & Katowice (Poland), Vienna, (Budapest, Belgrade) Bucharest (Romania), Sofia (Bulgaria), Athens, Rafina, Mykonos, Santorini, Istanbul and then back to Dubai for another 3 days and then home to Adelaide Australia again!

ARTISTIC INSPIRATION

Some of the countries and cities I had of course been in before over the years but others were completely new to us and every one of them had something new to offer and was a delight to explore.  Very important for the artist inspiration to explore new horizons and I hope to share some of the travelling stories in future blogs and artworks.

Here is a quote I think fits rather well here by Susan Heller,

“When preparing to travel, lay out all your clothes and all your money.  Then take half the clothes and twice the money.”

Till next time happy painting, sculpting and travelling.

Love Marie xxx

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.

So another year is just about to have passed us by and a new one is on it’s way.  How did it all happen so fast, where did the year go?  There never seem to be enough days of the week or hours in a day does it?  So much to do and so little time!

Each day, as a lot of you know, I use a different quote that I find either funny or inspiring and post it on my Facebook page Naive Art by Marie Jonsson-Harrison together with an image of a painting or sculpture and a link to my art blog to my artist website.  This week among others, I used this quote;

“Christmas is not as much about opening our presents as opening our hearts.” by Janice Maeditere  and one of the comments I got back was “ That should happen every day and not just at Christmas…. too much emphasis is put on being good and kind at this time of year but it only is one or two days out of 365… what about the rest of the year?” from one of my FB friends.   Which I thought was a point well made and a good place to start another art blog about New Year’s Resolutions.

WALL BASED SCULPTURE

This wall based sculpture in handmade ceramic and mosaic called Champagne Charlie was bought from one of my exhibitions at Greenhill Gallery and hangs in the restaurant of a hotel in Adelaide.  The subject matter I thought had a good fit for New Years.

THE ART OF BEING GOOD

I am quite sure that I am not always “good” lol, being a touch naughty at times, however trying to be kind to everyone is something I always strive to be, of course even with the best of intentions that does not always hit the mark but hopefully most of the time perhaps.

The experts say that most of our well intended new year resolutions go out the window after about 14 days and if we want to make sure we stick to them to promise small things – make tiny changes which therefore are not too daunting to stick too and then use them as a base to add some more.  Really New Year’s resolutions are just good habits.

Here are some of mine, most of the things on this list I do already but it never hurts to reinforce them I figure.

AN ARTISTS NEW YEARS RESOLUTIONS

1. Pay it forward – be kind and do onto others and all that.
2. Eat healthily, and for me that means also sticking to my Vegetarian/gluten free diet, and try to read the labels of food a little more carefully to avoid falling off the band wagon.
3. When out partying make sure I drink one glass of water with every alcoholic drink, to help my liver and my head the next day.  Oh I know what some of you are saying – perhaps cut the wine out – but you got to have some vices right!!  As I have already cut out the Bad Men lol, I still got to have some fun!
4. Keep up the exercise an hour a day come rain or shine and don’t forget the arms Marie – you got to get some upper strength too – remember what the physio said – 127 Use it or Loose it in Art
5. Cut out the sugar, apparently sugar is responsible along with the sun for an increase in wrinkly skin, never mind the body’s overall health– so the sugar has got to go.  (have always had a low sugar diet but need to focus on that some more)
6. Stay close to family and friends, spend time together and tell them they are loved.
7. Try new things, keep up with technology, explore new horizons, keep interested, learn, move forward.
8. Travel and see the world – you only live once and are a long time dead, so do it now whilst you can.
9. Write down your paintings and art blog ideas in one book like you used too – makes things so much easier to find!

So this is my list, I would love to hear what your new year’s resolutions are?

GREAT QUOTES

Here is one I love by Edith Lovejoy Pierce;

“We will open the book.  Its pages are blank.  We are going to put words on them ourselves.  The book is called Opportunity and its first chapter is New Year’s Day.”

I love to think that the next year is full of possibilities and opportunities – just there for us to go and find.  Another one is a quote on the topic of New Years Resolutions by a favorite of mine Mark Twain;

“Yesterday, everybody smoked his last cigar, took his last drink and swore his last oath.  Today, we are a pious and exemplary community.  Thirty days from now, we shall have cast our reformation to the winds and gone to cutting our ancient shortcomings considerably shorter than ever.”

However I will leave you this time with a quote that has been attributed to Mark Twain as well (although there is some controversy over that) which is one of my favorites quotes;

“Twenty years from now you will be more

disappointed by the things

that you didn’t do than by the ones you did

do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away

from the safe harbor.

Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.”

Till next time happy painting and sculpting and whatever else takes your fancy.

Love Marie xxx

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.

This painting is a self portrait of me a couple of years ago when I had viral meningitis,(that itself is another story)  but what I want to focus on is the book that I am reading in this acrylic on board artwork, this painting which was bought by a psychiatrist  funnily enough.  Anyway the book is called “From France with Love” and is written by my dear friend Nadine Williams.

We  have been friends ever since she did a story about me in the South Australian daily newspaper The Advertiser where she had been a Senior Journalist for the last 20 years.   Here is a link to some of the stories photos from the Advertiser on my website News and News Archive

Over the years I have lost count of the number of times I have been interviewed, both as a model and an artist and I have meet lots of great reporters, but Nadine was really someone special and we immediately struck up a great friendship.

I think I liked her right away because she is such a warm hearted person, another generation up from myself but very young in her thinking, with an open mind and knowledgeably in just about every subject having dwelt into stories from around the globe at some stage or another.  Now Nadine has had some amazing things happening in her life lately.  Firstly she fell in love with a wonderful Frenchman Olivier Foubert.  He is quite the business man in his own right being the man behind the famous ‘Caleche by Colette Foubert ‘label, with a wicked sense of humor for a soft spoken very French kind of guy.   He totally cracks me up with his sly and dry remarks!

THE ART OF WRITING

Nadine decided to write about their love story with ‘baggage’ as she calls it, love in mature years and all that entails, and including a road trip in France.  The book became a best seller and the rest of course is history, as the book has now been optioned for a movie by acclaimed film producer Peta Astbury.  Peta shopped the possible film around Cannes recently, with quite a bit of interest, ”as there seems to be a gaping hole in the market for films targeted at baby boomers”,  she says.

ARTIST WEBSITES

Nadine and I have been on this website journey together as our websites were being designed at the same time, both of us with no knowledge in the world of the web or even with technology as our long suffering husbands know.    However, never say never,  because here we both are making quite an inroad on the net and getting some very good traffic numbers too.

So perhaps you may like to check out Nadine’s site, she is writing hers in a magazine style, offering up a regular blog on the delights of the French Kitchen, as well as covering everything from women’s issues, spirituality and sexuality, yes you will find articles on all matters, love, loss, relationships, family dynamics and divorce, gossip and book and movie reviews.  The age group she is aiming for is the 50 – 100 but I know it would appeal to a younger audience too.

So check it out www.nadinewilliams.com.au

Nadine and Ollie

But hey, don’t forget to come back and visit me too lol.

Here is a quote I like from writer Katherine Mansfield:

“Make it a rule of life never to regret and never look back.  Regret is an appalling waste of energy; you can’t build on it; it’s only for wallowing in.”

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

Love Marie    (c)

(As you can see the book I painted and the one Nadine is holding in the photo below looks quite different, well that is because they changed the book cover for the second edition.)

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.