I am so happy to finally be able to announce that my 3^rd set of duvet (quilt covers) for ARTnBED is finally on the market.  It is called Pottering at the Port and the original painting was bought by the Country Arts Trust of South Australia at an exhibition a while back.  Now the wonderful Lior Rapaport and his company ARTnBED have chosen it for their new collection.

Lior writes a blog on his ARTnBED website and this is what he wrote about initially finding my artworks;

NAIVE ART IS GOOD FOR YOU

“I have been interested in art ever since I lived in Paris.  I spent many winters’ weekends in its great museums carrying a 6 month baby when her mother needed some sleep.  It was then when I started to develop my own taste. Impressionism, contemporary and modern paintings were my favourites, I love colourful paintings that inspire and make you happy.

A while back I landed on MOMA’s FB page to see what’s new – and my eyes popped out!  I was enchanted with the colours, details, joy that filled every corner of a naive painting by artist Marie Jonsson-Harrison from Australia.  It was the first time I saw Naive art and I was hooked.

It appears that in the past Naive artists were outsiders, not in the mainstream and not taken seriously or considered professional.  Therefore most of them painted for themselves.  It was only about 100 years ago that Naive art was accepted as an artistic mode of art.

Take my word for it – there is no art as raw, honest and engaging as Naive Art!”

Lior writes a great blog and with lots of interesting stories about his family, life, travels and of course art which you may enjoy to have a look at.

If you are interested to find out how this all eventuated when my first quilt (duvet) cover called Hindley Street was released here is a blog about that 140 ART n BED as well as a page on my website where I also wrote about it and now I will have to go and update it and add the 2 new designs there as well.

CHILDLIKE INNOCENT ART

When I paint and sculpt I enter into another world and imagine myself as part of the artwork perhaps that is what keeps me so happy and childlike, who knows?  Although my kids think sometimes I should act my age and hubbys always maintains its unbecoming for a 40+ woman to skip!  Lol but I don’t care I skip anyway – although I try not to do it in a crowded place, in case I get carted off and locked up!  Anyway when ARTnBED had decided to use my painting Pottering at the Port, Lior asked me to write a little “something” to put on his website about that and this was my thoughts;

“Sailing off from the Port to new adventures across the world and then returning to your loved ones waiting with open arms to embrace you.  This will be one of many wonderful dreams to be had when you sleep in “Pottering at the Port” by artist Marie Jonsson-Harrison.  Come on – come pottering around the port with us, perhaps have a snorkel or a drink at the local pub or just enjoy the buskers and the atmosphere.  Why not travel the seven seas in your dreams and wake up happy every morning without leaving your bedroom?”

So I leave you today with a quote from Lior Rapaport from ARTnBED who says;

“So with our duvet sets you can spend a day at the beach, a weekend in New York, enjoy the nightlife on Hindley Street and now… snorkel in bed.”

Till next time,

Love Marie xxxx

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.

A couple of weeks ago I posted the art blog 185 PAINTING KINGS CROSS, SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA and featured the first half of my acrylic on board painting of Kings Cross.  This time here is the second panel of that painting and as you can see the night life in this street never stops!

ARTISTIC INSPIRATION

There are pimps and prostitutes, Rastafarians yes people from every class and culture, an eclectic mix of police, brothels, strip clubs & girlie reviews, pawn brokers, thieves, Salvation Army playing the tambourine, fire breathers, gays and straights, cafes and restaurants and a bakery.

THE ART OF A MASSAGE

Among all that if you look really hard you will find me and my hubby and our two kids as well.  Just on the left of the middle underneath the Swedish Massage sign you will find Chinese Massage and there on the footpath sitting on chairs in order from left to right are Kai (our son with ice cream) me (in the pink dress with hearts, I had long brown hair then) and my husband (curly blond hair and moustache) We are all enjoying a neck massage by the Chinese masseurs whilst our little daughter is standing on the footpath in front of Kai with an ice cream in her hand.  There is another random lady on the other side of hubby but we don’t know her!!

ART & CURIOSITY

We did have a lovely massage and an ice cream before going down to Circular Quay and catching the ferry to Bundeena and our little holiday house where we were staying whilst in Sydney for the wedding.  As an artist I find I get inspiration from just about anything and am curious about nearly every topic under the sun.

ART & THEATRE

Next time we go there I would like to see a play at the Griffin Theatre Company where they showcase Australian playwriting and contemporary theatre.  Several famous actors got their start there like David Wenham and Oscar winning Cate Blanchett.  The Cross Art Project has a wide range of contemporary, international and Aboriginal art on show there too with events such as workshops and film screenings.

UNDERBELLY ART

As I told you last time the illegal alcohol trade as featured in the Underbelly series was called sly grog and was infamous in The Cross led by the rival brothel owners Tilly Devine and Kate Leigh back in the day.  So if you are an Underbelly fan you must do the Kings Cross Razorhurst Tour.  It comes highly recommended and features the sordid tales of the criminal mastermind Kate and her war in the 1920 against the infamous madam Tilly and that dreadful razor gang.

COCA COLA & ART

Of course you must also have a photo taken beneath the iconic coke sign, which is just referred to as “The Coke Sign” and the red and white neon billboard was erected in 1974 and is located above the intersection of William Street and Darlinghurst Road.

Here is a quote I think fits well here by Pearl Buck,

“If you want to understand today, you have to search yesterday”.

Till next time happy painting and sculpting to you all.

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.

Ever since I started painting I have been a big fan of Henri Rousseau’s work. My father said that the art I was producing had something in common with the naifs and bought me a couple of art books; one on Grandma Moses and the other on Henri Rousseau.

HERO ARTIST

So Henri has been one of my heros for such a long time, so you can imagine my joy when I was invited by the organizers of the annual Henri Rousseau exhibition in France to participate. I jumped for joy! The curator is Jacques Dubois who also is involved in the Art Naif Festival in Katowice, Poland which I took part in last year. Jac is very heavily involved in promoting Naive art in Europe and throughout the world really and his wife Martha Dubois is a very well known and talented naive artist herself.

FRENCH EXHIBITION
This year the Henri Rousseau exhibition will take place in the Abbey of Montivilliers in Normandy opening on Saturday 21st January until 19th February with an auction of the paintings being held on 12th February at 3pm. The exhibition itself is open 7 days a week and it is not to be missed.
Henri Rousseau was called Le Douanier which translates to the customs (or customs officer)a name he got from his job as a tax collector on goods entering Paris. Henry married twice, first Clemence Boitard with whom he had six children and after she died he married Josephine Noury.
Henri also tried his hand at music and writing but it was painting that was his first love, which he started doing seriously in his early forties and by the time he was 49 he retired from his job to pursue the art on a full time basis. Rousseau was represented in the exhibitions of the Salon des Independants from 1886 onwards, and his pictures hung side by side with Matisse, Cezanne, Toulouse-Lautrec, Van Gogh and Picasso.

INVITED ARTISTS

This year 2012 there were 88 artists invited from around the world with 20 different countries represented among them France of course and Spain, Germany, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Cuba, Belgium, Italy, Japan and “moi” from Australia just to name a few.
As this is an exhibition in homage of Henri, most artists are sticking to that theme and I had so much fun painting “You Rock, Henri Rousseau”. I wanted to do a contemporary celebration and incorporated elements of Henri’s art into it by putting in a detail of “The Dream of Yadwigha” (the naked lady lying on the couch).
The Dream of Yadwigha was the last painting that Henri painted before his death in 1910, in it the lady in question is laying on a red velvet sofa with a luxurious jungle behind her listening to the notes of a single magic flute. I of course painted a myriad of musicians and singers, artistic license and all that, LOL. If you look a little closer at my painting you will also see the influences of two other of Rousseau’s work in “The Sleeping Gipsy” which is the woman sharing the couch in the striped outfit.

HENRI ROUSSEAU ORIGINALS

In Henri’s original artwork a lion is standing over her as she lies dreaming under an ancient green sky in the solitude of the desert. Some say this is the lyrical prelude to Surrealism, with a mandolin and a jug which stands beside the sleeping figure, these objects would inhabit the dreams of the Surrealists and the space of the Cubists.
The third painting of Henri’s represented in my artwork is of Henri himself, from his self portrait painted in 1890 “I – Myself Portrait-Landscape”, he is holding a palette of paints and a brush and in the original painting he is standing on a road in front of a bridge, although he does look like he is standing in mid air, lol.
NO ART RULES

That is the naive charm, us naives are so lucky that we can just paint whatever we feel and see without having to worry about rules and other people’s perception of how things should look. As the whole idea of perspective is totally lost on me that is really lucky!!
Thank you Henri Rousseau – you gave me the freedom to be me, to paint in my own style and not to be embarrassed by the child in me. Instead my childishness it is something that I celebrate and hope that I will never grow up, or out off- but wake each day full of wonder and excitement.
So Henri I hope you approve of me painting you like a Rock Star, complete with women swooning at your feet and throwing their knickers at you. There is wild music supplied by a rock band and a brass band as well as the choir and Can Can girls dancing and pirouettes by ballerinas and of course no party is complete without balloons.

So here is a quote I like by another Henri – Henry Ward Beecher who said;
“Every artist dips his brush in his own soul, and paints his own nature into his pictures”

Till next time happy painting and sculpting to you all,
Love Marie xxxx

If you have enjoyed reading about this artist perhaps you may like to see this art blog too; 91 He ain’t heavy, he’s my brother, the Artist

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.

On Tuesday this week it was my very overdue turn to have “The Artist lunch” at my house.  You see a bunch of us have been meeting every now and then for the last 20 years, getting together over a good meal and some drinks and talking shop!  Well not just about art, life in general too and along the way we have shared in the ups and downs of life and as you would expect over time there has been plenty of those too.

THE NAIVE GROUP

We were trying to figure out how we met the other day – there were 3 of us “core” people, all 3 naive artists that initially got together, we think it came about when another naive artist Howard William Steer (Story Art) had wanted to meet the new kid on the block, moi!  As he and I had a joint exhibition over in Melbourne very early on in my career, I did not attend the opening so Howard came to visit when we lived in the church and brought Ursula Kiessling with him.

ARTISTS OF ALL GENRES

Ursula paints bush and wildlife in a semi naive repeated pattern – her use of colors is second to none.   How we then met Bronwen Roodenrys (who paints gorgeous sophisticated naive ladies and big cats) is for now a blank, lol but anyway glad we did, and we have added more “core” people to the group and not just naïf but all sorts of artists.  Catherine Fitz-Gerald who paints mainly large succulent and delicious fruits that cover the whole canvas, which makes me hungry every time I see them and Lynley Cooper who can turn her hand to any medium and style and always experiments and surprises us every time often with large scale contemporary works.  My image above is from another lunch that whoops, lol turned into midnight, funny how that happens.  It is handmade ceramic and mosaic and if you look closely on the left hand side you can see me with the ponytail sticking up in the air and hubby a little worse for wear spilling his beer.  Fun time had by all!

ARTISTS & ANIMATORS & WRITERS

The person that hosts the lunch can invite whoever they please and can add and subtract the invitation list as they chose which makes it very interesting.  So in attendance on Tuesday at my place were apart from the aforementioned were Valli Palmgreen, a Finish/Estonian artist who I have admired from afar for many years, she paints quirky pictures with the feel of Beryl Cook but in her own way.  Sarah Philip, the wife of our electrician that did our new house and as it turns out she lives on the same street as us and is a talented muralist and abstract artist.  Jenni Mumford paints in oils in Post-Impressionistic styled landscapes and still life and lives in Encounter Bay with views to die for which no doubt inspires her work.  Also in attendance was Suzie Flashman, my neighbour whose talents include animation (she did my animations on my website) and wildlife photography and she has also recently started drawing in pastels.  Of course we cannot forget Nadine Williams, journalist and award winning Author of the book From France with Love, which is optioned for a movie.  She also runs her own website which is in magazine style and always very interesting.

ART AND FOOD

The only problem now was what to feed these lovely people as I don’t cook, well unless you count burned toast and boiled water as a good menu for a dinner party!  Lucky for them I had a flash of an idea – I am good at assembling, lol.  So off to the supermarket I trot and with help from a great guy behind the counter, who was very amused at my lack of knowledge in the small goods section (as a vegetarian that is not my forte, lol ) I came home with shaved smoked ham, turkey, roast beef and salami.  To that I added cheese, dolmades, boiled eggs, tossed salad, olives, broccoli and capsicum sticks, crackers and dip, red/white wine and sparkling red (my favorite).  The artists brought dips and bread, chicken, coconut rice, fruit and cake, wine and champagne and so we had a feast fit for a king.  Hubby who was supposed to have a rest day could not keep away and was like a bee in the honey pot!  This time around all the artists was women, but that is not the rule!  We finished up just before 5pm and I look forward to the next one!

Another naive artist I greatly admire is Grandma Moses who lived to the ripe old age of 101 and I named my darling dog Moses after her and just like his name sake Moses lived to the grand old age of 18 which for a dog is pretty good.  Grandma Moses didn’t start painting until her late 70’s, a late bloomer so to speak and spent her old age as an American celebrity.  Here is one of her quotes that I like:

“Life is what we make it, always has been, always will be.”

Till next time happy painting and sculpting and whatever else you are doing,

Love Marie xxx  (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.

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