40. Tree Change for a Sea Change & Art

Marie — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 01:32:02 +0000

ARTIST INSPIRATIONS

This painting is one I painted early on in my career (which sold in America) which was inspired by our new life on the farm, and what a lovely time it has been too.

Here we are unloading the truck with the dairy cows that we had on agistment each summer, they actually came on foot so the red truck is artistic licence.

We have lived here for the last 17 years and loved every minute of it, if it wasn’t for the fact that our children both now need to live in the city and find it hard to work such long hours and study at uni at the same time we would probably never have thought about leaving the country. I must admit I have had quite a few changes in my life from international model to artist for one! Leaving the farm though will be hard.

Now however it has finally happened and we don’t know whether to be happy or sad about the next chapter of our lives by the sea and with only 30 minutes to the city centre.

To wake up to the twitter of little birds and loud screeching of Galahs and Corellas is something that we will miss (oh maybe not the screeching bit, lol)

Speaking of Twitter if you would like to follow me there, here is a link https://twitter.com/Naiveview

Other things we will miss is the serene 40 minute river walk on our own property that we do each morning, often seeing the kangaroo who lives part time in our paddock and also ducks and other river birds that visit from far flung places.

The possum who comes to visit us at night looking for an apple or some bread, a wild animal who reaches out and grabs the treats with his little hands so trusting that we won’t harm him (we won’t miss the little brown pellets he leaves behind though lol)

HORSES AND ART

Our two remaining horses Pringles and Zipper, miniature ponies, have already found a wonderful place to live, with rolling hills and lovely people who spoil them with treats.

Our horses inspired many paintings and art blogs and here is a link to one of those with some artworks 61. Can Horses Write ?

I will sorely miss the open fires, the rain on the iron roof, the smell of the freshly cut lawns and rain, the peace and quiet and not a neighbour in sight. Not to mention; our permanent waterhole and the river when it flows and the whole area rebirths with new life and the trees full of figs, apricots and oranges.

Our 2 dogs and the birds will be coming with us and also Milo the cat, however we are going to have to plead our case with the new owners for Ozzy (yes named after Ozzy Osborne) our other cat, as he never took to being inside and likes roaming the country side. I must say that it is very rarely that we find a bird eaten, he is however quite the Mouser so he earns his keep so to speak, and with the current mouse plague that is quite an asset.

This saying by Titus Livy (Historian) fits well here I think.

“In difficult and hopeless situations the boldest plans are the safest.”

Till Next time happy painting and sculpting to you all.

Love Marie (c)

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.

38. Little Birdy Floyd painting

Marie — Sat, 14 Aug 2010 09:32:50 +0000

BIRD PAINTINGS

In this painting “Spring at last” is a sweet little bird named Floyd, a cockatiel whom we shared our life’s with for several years after Bryan and I got married.

You see, at that stage we lived in an apartment and the rules were no pets. Well I think a bird did not count with the landlord, at least I hope so because Floyd was there.

He was our “Practice child” if you like. You know how it goes you do not feel ready for real children but you want to nest and share your life with the patter of little feet and in this situation they were very little indeed.

Floyd was an absolutely gorgeous bird, and I cried buckets when he died very young after only a couple of years.

ART OF BEING PARENTS

Poor Floyd, you see as far as a ‘practice child’ goes, we were terrible parents, well I haven’t had it confirmed because the vet told us an autopsy on the little bird was out of our price range at the time. However Floyd did develop kidney problems and I have a strong suspicion that had to do with his party trick of loving to drink out of our wine glasses when we had a party, much to the delight and amusements of our guests.

We were obviously young and stupid and very lucky he was not of the human variety or we would be facing serious charges by now for being bad parents. If you fancy another art blog about birds with a funny and happy ending here is a link for you 16. In a Jam with ART

ARTISTIC INSPIRATIONS

Another thing Floyd used to do just for kicks was to totally trick us. He lived in a cage in the kitchen mostly, although he would fly around our apartment quite a lot, much to the dismay of our cleaning lady whom thought bird poop on the curtain rod or the tops of the doors was a bit much. So even in that area we had a lot to learn about keeping house and looking after offspring, lol.

Anyway in kitchen at the time we had one of those kettles that would whistle as loud as can be until we came running to turn it off (technology has moved on somewhat!)

In any case Floyd learned to imitate the kettle perfectly and had both me and Bryan running into the kitchen constantly as if you didn’t turn that damn kettle off it would spill water all over the place and just continue with the noise until you did.

Clever little Floyd ran that house hold and fooled us time after time, whenever he felt like a bit of company.

I am happy to report our parenting skills improved and I think Flannery O’Connor (writer) quote fits in here.

“The truth does not change according to our ability to stomach it”

Till next time happy painting and sculpting to you all!

Love Marie (c)

Marie Jonsson Harrison » bird

40. Tree Change for a Sea Change & Art

38. Little Birdy Floyd painting