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)

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 “Looking for Lochy” was one I decided to do after seeing a doco on TV about a film crew who did just that, looked for Lochy the Lochness Monster in a submarine and I of course saw the whole image in front of me.  Although I do know that tropical fish could not survive the Scottish weather !!

I have never myself been to this part of the world, England was as far as I got however both my husband Bryan and son Kai has and their tales inspires me too.

TRAVEL  & ART

Bryan went there in his backpacking days and tells of a beautiful country side and very very cold weather.

He and his mate stayed in a youth hostel which was in a castle on the banks of Loch Ness,  the caretaker met them there late one cold winters evening, unlocked the 25 bed dormitory and then promptly left them to it.

Two blokes alone in a rather spooky environment if you have been raised on the “Chain saw massacre” type of movies.

It was so cold that they took all the blankets of the other beds and lay under them like little pin heads, with just big eyes poking out waiting for the end to come.  In those days you could score yourself a youth hostel bed for just 5 bucks and a promise to do a chore in the morning such as clean a toilet or two.

GICLEE PRINTS

This image is available as a Giclee print with  Union Art who welcome everybody who are interested in art and specialises in limited and open editions prints, photography, sculpture and original works of art.

THE ART OF TRAVEL

I was more of a 5 star hotel kind of gal myself and our son falls somewhere in between the two and also visited Scotland recently; he loved this country too and started his Loch Ness tour by walking up the Royal Mile to the Edinburgh Castle where they caught the tour bus.

Now my son and his mate are two rather tall lads and had a hard time squeezing into the tour bus seats having to resort to sitting with their legs on an angle for the twelve hour round trip.   This would have looked rather demure if they had been wearing kilts, Kais mate has size 17 size feet which would not have helped either (shoes like small canoes on the end of his legs).

In any case they admired the sights from the bus and saw Hamish the highland cow, ( pronounced, Hooland Coo) who Kai said is quite famous for a fat hair covered hamburger having starred in a few movies.  Followed by the snowy mountains and the 3 lochs; Loch Lochy, Loch Linnhe and Loch Ness.  But neither of them did see Nessie that I had painted unfortunately, however Kai did take a lot of pictures so we could share in his travels and what made me laugh was this picture of The Wee Gift Shoppe, and Kais caption under it on FB ‘that this will make his mother laugh’.

You know when kids are around 5 years old and they laugh uncontrollably at the smallest mention of wees and poohs, well that’s ME, I never did grow up and any joke to this day that refers to those bodily functions always cracks me up lol.

As they say small things amuse small minds!

So obviously I am in good company because this quote is attributed to

Benjamin Franklin, Statesman

“He that lives upon hope dies farting”

Till next time happy painting and sculpting!

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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