Marie Jonsson Harrison » marie jonsson harrison

142 ARTENSION LE MAGAZINE

mariejon — Fri, 06 Jul 2012 07:20:58 +0000

LIFE AS AN ARTIST

The life as an artist always has it’s ups and downs. Luckily I have been very blessed and mostly experience the former but had my fair share of downs too during the twenty something years I have been painting.

This painting which was featured in ARTension magazine is called The Two Bridges of Port Adelaide, South Australia and is in the private art collection of Rosalie and Kevin Zerk.

INCLUSION IN FRENCH ART MAGAZINE

When I found out I had been chosen together with 11 other naive artists from around the world to be featured in a French Art Magazine called ARTension I was thrilled of course. What had led up to this was my inclusion in the Art Naif Festival in Katowice, Poland 2011 where some 190 naive artists from all over the world had been invited to exhibit. This in turn led on to another invitation to take part in the Henri Rousseau exhibition which was held in the Abbey of Montivilliers in Normandy, France in January and February 2012. These exhibitions as well as this year’s Naive Art Festival in Katowice, Poland 2012, has all been made possible by the wonderful Jacques Dubois, who eats, sleeps and breathes Naive Art!

The special edition of ARTension is called L’Art naïf aujourd’hui. Which is available on back order from that link and is absolutely full of articles on Naive art and they quote;

“The air and the fragrant art of time a little too much stress. In lack of light, we wanted to look at the most modern solar adventures: that of naive art. Revelation of the early twentieth century, for decades it has enthused poets, historians and enthusiasts arts. Now, almost thirty years, calm… Where are the masterpieces, why are they out of fashion, and who now renews this style of painting? In the company of experts-curators museums, exhibition organizers, auctioneers, gallery owners, collectors and artists, now more than ever passionate about this art– dive with us in the wings, wheels and glare. Brazil to Slovakia, find and discover treasures imagined by the most popular and most serene creators. Naive Art? An excellent antidote to all forms of gloom! “

12 NAIVE ARTISTS

So here is the article about the 12 naive artists and keep in mind that the pages have been translated from French to English so there are a few problems with the grammar, but that adds a little French charm, no?

Around the World

Jacques Dubois

For six years, Jacques Dubois has abandoned his original trade of business to devote himself to painting he loves, and his wife practice. Creator of the World Festival of Naive Art in Verneuil-sur-Avre in 2005, he moved to Katowice, Poland, five years later.He presents the naive current world, convinced that this art still has a bright future ahead of him. We asked him to introduce his recent twelve strokes of heart.

Germany

Olaf Ubricht

Born in 1951

Olaf is currently the most talented of the few German naive. Its uniqueness, its trademark, it is twilight, in a German village on the Rhine. It uses a marine varnish to enhance its color.

Australia

Marie Jonsson-Harrison

Born in Sweden

A sculptor father, a circus family, she is top model in the 1980s and devoted himself to painting. Sense of humor, acute observation of life, Mary painted cheerful and positive experiences, accompanied by a social commentary of the human condition. His paintings and sculptures are presented in Australia, Japan and the United States. This is the painter’s most exhilarating and most creative.

Brazil

Edilvado

Born in 1956. Jacques is Ardies who exhibited in 1995, for the first time in his gallery in Sao Paulo and who became his agent. Its deserved success he owes only to the development of Brazilian landscapes with lush vegetation and bucolic nature and enchanting. This is what distinguishes it from all other painters Naïve.

Côte d’Ivoire

Roger Hamado Djiguemdé

Born in 1966 in Burkina Faso

Installed in Ivory Coast for many years, he developed an “African naïve art” in his own words. His descriptions of daily life are as much of a dream than reality. Surrealism is not far. One of the best contemporary painters in Africa. Currently in their forties, he still has a bright future ahead of him ^ and full of ideas of tables in the head.

Cuba

Armando Torres

Born in 1956 in Havana.

He lives with his mother in the suburbs of Havana. In his neighborhood, he was immured to escape the noise and Salsa. He paints his dreamlike paintings while listening to baroque music of the eighteenth century. Obviously, his neighbors are crazy. Amahoro gallery of St Martin in the Caribbean defends his work very creative.

Spain

Crucita Gutiérrez Segovia

Born in 1951 in Madrid

Born into an artistic family, she has been painting since 1977 and many European museums possess his works. Based in Barcelona, she made prints in the studio Artcontraprova and teaches visual arts at the Foundation for the Arts Hervás Amezcua. This is goodness personified, and his paintings emit an enormous amount of things certainly because of the flat technique perfectly mastered.

Israel

Rafi Perez

Born in 1965 in Jerusalem

A graduate of the School of Visual Arts in Jerusalem in 1992, he lives in Tel Aviv where he painted landscapes and couples.Despite its “youth” Rafi is one of the most talented of his country and handles very large formats with ease that commands respect.

Serbia

Drago Terzic

Born in 1956. It is one of the most representative of the third generation of self-taught artists of “on glass”. Known but also acknowledged it now opens on Europe. His style PureColour and impeccable style gives this notoriety,

Tanzania

Stephen Lewis

Born in 1964

It is the best representative of the current Art Tingatinga, invented by Edward Tinga Tinga, who is becoming known throughout the world and gives local artists the opportunity to live their art. Audience Award at the 2011 World Festival in Katowice, he will appear this year. Just reward for this humble artist, who paints for sixteen years. The French association Tinga is African-charge of its promotion.

Turkey

Sema Culam

Born in 1951 in Izmir

Former pupil of the sculptor Turgut Pura at the State Museum of Painting and Sculpture in Izmir, then Cavit Seref Bigali Atmaca and the Department of Painting Education Institution, she has since won numerous Awards of naive painting and often exhibited in different countries. His landscapes are particularly noteworthy.

Netherlands

Joop PLASMEJEIR

in 1942, the grandpa of Naive Art is still the most inventive today. But looking at his paintings and retailer, it must be quite a prankster. His favorite themes are the urban landscapes such as Amsterdam, where he is particularly fond of representing ports and major facades of Dutch houses. He also painted the interiors of these houses with precisely these landscapes through windows. It’s great art.

Veronica LABAT

Born in 1960 she still lives in his country Argentina. This is one of the few painters have Naives to study drawing, sculpture and also engraving. Since 1990 she exhibited nationally since 2004 but that its course becomes truly professional with the gallery GINA Gallery Tel Aviv. At each table, but it is renewed crunches always living in Argentina. The most successful in his country and most interesting, for me, naturally.

I urge you all to Google these artists and have a look at their fabulous work!

Here is the quote again from ARTension who said;

“Naive Art? An excellent antidote to all forms of gloom!”

Till Next time happy painting and sculpting and collecting art to you all,

Love Marie xxx

If you enjoyed this art blog you may also like this one; 14. Adam & Steve 2 Sculpture

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.

110 Artists Lunch

mariejon — Sat, 26 Nov 2011 02:52:52 +0000

DISCUSSING ART

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)

109 Stories behind the Wall – Public Sculpture

mariejon — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 06:19:56 +0000

PUBLIC SCULPTURE

These images are from “The Centenary of Federation Gateway” sculpture which was commissioned by the Wakefield Regional Council and took some 18 months to complete. It started as a seed planted by Dale Gathercole and grew into an amazing community project.

Prior to this I had been awarded a mentor-ship grant jointly by the Australia Council, Arts S.A. and the South Australian Arts Trust (Country Arts SA) in 1999 to pursue the idea of turning my colorful naive paintings into public sculptures. My mentor was artist Andrew Stock and the idea was to explore the ideas surrounding the use of colorful mosaics and combining that with clay (ceramic) figures.

As the Centenary of Federation celebrations date was looming Dale, the Headmaster at Balaklava Primary School, thought it would be a great idea to mark that in some way in our community with a permanent landmark. As a friend and a fan of my work, she had watched me transform my art from canvas to sculpture and approached me with the idea of doing a public sculpture.

PLANNING A PUBLIC SCULPTURE

This then led to letting my imagination soar and conceptualizing, developing and planning ideas whereby my husband Bryan’s knowledge as a former builder and draughtsman was invaluable. Robert Veitch from the Wakefield Council was then approached and after presenting drafts, models and detailed budget requirements he whole heartily endorsed the idea and got the council behind it. The project was also helped along the way by Dale’s tenacity of chasing grants, and as a result we received several grants by the Centenary of Federation Committee & Country Arts SA & Veterans Affairs as well as many hundreds of “in kind hours” generously donated by the whole town.

THE CENTENARY OF FEDERATION GATEWAY PUBLIC SCULPTURE

The sculpture was officially opened on the 23^rd November 2001 by Neil Andrew MP, Member for Wakefield following a community celebration in Balaklava, South Australia. The Centenary of Federation Gateway stands proudly as you enter into the township and is believed to be the largest Naive Sculpture in the Southern Hemisphere spanning 44 meters across. The idea is that the whole sculpture looks like a Federation house, complete with roof and a veranda. So in the center are two six meter by three and a half meter walls, located at 22.2 degree angle to each other which are rendered to look like sandstone with red brick quoins on the corners and around the doors.

One wall represents 1901 and the other 2001. In the 1901 doorway we see the back of a life-size woman, made from hand-made ceramic tiles and mosaic, strutting through the door in all her finery, long dress, hat and umbrella in hand. Through the 2001 doorway, she emerges as the modern woman, complete with short skirt, sunglasses and a mobile phone. This reflects the changes that our society has undergone during the last 100 years.

CERAMIC AND MOSAIC

The 1901 wall depict 9 separate stories and the 2001 wall tells another 8 stories of both ordinary and famous people who have connections with our district. Their tales are told in pictures and words with my hand-made ceramic tiles surrounded by mosaic and the words by Dale which has been etched on aluminium plaques. These are rendered into the wall to allow the sandstone to surround each story. Dale who was the Project co-ordinator also compiled the book “Stories behind the wall” which was also launched on the same day by John Meier MP, Member for Goyder. (Which I have used to jog my memory on the events too!)

There are of course many stories to tell you about the making of this project and I will do that as time goes on I promise! Use this link if you want to see some of my other Public Sculptures.

Here is a quote I like that fits well here by Daniella Kessler,

“You can do anything if you put your mind to it… and you will succeed when you put your heart into it.”

Till next time happy painting and sculpting to you all,

Love Marie xxx (c)

46. Artistic Learner Drivers

mariejon — Fri, 24 Sep 2010 03:08:18 +0000

ARTISTIC INSPIRATION

This Artwork is called “Shop till you drop” but it should probably be named according to how we felt at the time lol but that would have to include some not so lady like words – you see if you look closely in the orange car on the left you will see us.

There is a Japanese exchange student in the back, next to her is Hillivi they are both happy and giggly and chatting away like girls do at the age of 13. Then there is Bryan less pleased and me sitting next to Kai who is learning to drive….. need I say more, you get the picture?

THE ART OF DRIVING

I really should have painted me pulling my hair out and can you see the steam coming out from my ears?

Both Bryan and I taught our 2 kids to drive, and for the most part they were really good students and careful drivers. However there were always one or two days here and there when our patience was tested to the limit.

One night as we were leaving the city driving at 80 km on a straight road with not a car insight we saw the traffic lights up ahead and they were clearly red, however darling son for some unknown reason decided that RED meant go and just sailed straight through them. Claiming that he never saw the red light at all, it actually worried us so much that we sent him to the Doctors to get checked to see if he was colour-blind, imagine that for the son of an artist!

Another time when it was our daughters turn to learn to drive and we had been out to dinner in the city and I again was sitting in the front seat supervising when we were pulled over by the Police. This was a Random Breath test and Hillivi passed with flying colours of course, not so much fun when it was her mother’s turn.

In Australia you are allowed to have one or two drinks as long as you register under .05 and as I had only had one drink of wine with dinner I thought this would be a synch, however the police man looked at me sternly and insinuated that it was touch and go.

Lucky for me I was still under the required limit, but it did give me a fright. Off we went again with baby girl at the helm for the one and a half hour drive home, and we had not gone too far before we were diverted by road works, very badly sign posted and confusing road works which threw the “new driver” into a tizz. However she managed well with the diversion and we were on our way again.

If you fancy seeing some more of my handmade ceramic and mosaic wall based sculptures here is a link MOSAIC & CERAMIC ARTWORKS

MORE ART IDEAS

By this time out of the city limits and laughing and talking about our adventures when I suddenly screamed at Hillivi to stop, luckily her reflexes were good because just as we go into a bend doing 80km there were 200 sheep standing there in the middle of the road.

So suddenly again we have to spring into action, two of us walking and herding the sheep in the pitch black night and Bryan in the car but to no avail so we get help from the nearest farm house (where as we found out the sheep belonged there anyway) We did have some extremely hairy moments when a couple of big trucks came ploughing through not seeing either us or the sheep as this bend is very dangerous in an otherwise straight road. All is well that ends well and all the sheep lived to tell the tale.

Here is a qoute I like by Jean Kerr (writer)

“If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs, it’s just possible you haven’t grasped the situation.”

Happy painting and sculpting everyone!

Love Marie