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)

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.

ARTISTS BACKGROUND

When I grew up in Sweden my father worked as a carpenter and my mother stayed mainly at home and both provided a wonderful environment for me and my brother to grow up in. ( I will tell you about my maternal grandparents another time but this is about my father’s family.)

This particular work “The Acrobat” is one of my dads, Ted Jonsson and made entirely from cardboard which he has cut up and painted and glued like a mosaic effect and as you read on you will soon discover how he  became an artist.   This artwork of my fathers was  no doubt was inspired by my grandfathers early career as an acrobat.

My father did not want to work in showbiz as he wanted to join the” establishment” that he saw around him and not wanting the circus life.  So he went out to sea with the merchant navy first and then went to trade school and qualified as a chef, before settling in as a carpenter.

During the summer months when my grandparents would take their Tivoli around Sweden we would go and visit them from time to time.  During the day we would find my grandfather fishing in some stream (stress release) and at night we would help out with the sideshows and it was all very exciting.

I would usually be allowed to pick something out from the prizes in sideshow ally, and that was a big treat.

NAIVE PAINTING; ANTONIS TIVOLI

In this painting my grandfather is throwing knifes at my grandmother but he wore many hats and also had the stage name as DEVIS-THE LIVING VOLCANO,  eating what appeared to be burning meatballs,  this trick he would also do for us kids at family gatherings and me and the cousins just loved it.

My Grandfather Anton also appeared as Nilo the comical juggler, dressed as a clown, and juggling to the delight of the watching audience.  My aunty Eyvor is the lady with the cigarette and she would do a disappearing act and also a dance with feathers and fans, later on Eyvor and her husband also travelled the country side with their own Tivoli.  I have just found out that my cousin Sonja was also left at home alone for months at a time, although she was around 13 years old when that first started.

Uncle Willy sitting on the camel did lots of behind the scenes jobs, before being in charge of the lights in several Swedish Theatres and later on worked for one of the TV news channels in Sweden and was part of breaking many exciting news stories.

Uncle Charles became a civil engineer and was revered as the one who went to University, and joined the elite so to speak.

GUN JONSSON; ACTRESS & DIRECTOR

My Aunty Gun Jonsson (dressed as a ballerina) won Miss Lucia in 1947 and was a most sought after beauty of her time, making headlines in all the papers,  she got a life supply of Palmolive soap (never had to buy one again!)  She then went on to dance in an international dance troupe called “The Cassel Girls “and later became a famous actress.  She was in several plays directed by Ingmar Bergman and Gun is also a much admired director and producer, something which she still does today.  (‘Bad Javlarna’,’ Hem till Byn’ and ‘Sova rav’ are just some of her Swedish movies and TV shows, you Swedes know what I am talking about.)

WORKING AS A SCULPTOR

My father decided after working as a carpenter both in Sweden and in Australia and doing painting and sculpting in his spare time, it was time to bite the bullet and he now dedicates his time to the arts either by helping my brother or me or doing his own fabulous sculptures out of  found objects and if you feel like checking out his art go to Ted Jonsson Junk Art on face book or use this link Ted Jonsson Junk Art.

This is a detail of a painting and shows my Dad (he is climbing a tree house and flying a kite, one of those blokes that is forever young and refuses to grow up! Good on you Dad! )

However most of his work could not be more different than mine, I think perhaps he chases away the demons from his door still today through his art.  My dad creates art from other peoples discarded objects, is a keen connoisseur of junk and an ace rubbish tip scrounger.  He has had a great deal of success and exhibits with Greenaway and BMG Galleries in Adelaide and is represented in the National Gallery in Canberra.  My father has been instrumental in my own career, always there to encourage and urge me on and always ready to lend a hand and most importantly love me unconditionally.  Thanks Dad

Here is a quote by James Russell Lowell that I think my knife throwing Grandfather would have agreed with:

“Mishaps are like knives that either serve us or cut us, as we grasp them by the blade or the handle.”

Happy painting and sculpting everyone,

Love Marie xx  (c)

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