Before we emigrated from Sweden to Australia my father promised my brother and me that when we get there we were allowed to have both a large swimming pool and a donkey!  Well I guess the perception of what life would be like in sunny Australia when you sit and dream about it from snow-covered Sweden can alter a bit, LOL.

ARTISTIC INSPIRATIONS

We did not find any kangaroos hopping about the suburban streets, nor was it ever possible to have a donkey in the ½ an acre suburban house block, but my dad did come true with the big swimming pool.  Would you believe he actually dug the hole for it himself, there wasn’t much he couldn’t do my dad when it came to it.  Seemed to us like he was in the hole for months and digging all the way to China.

(I actually eventually got 2 donkeys when we lived at the farm, but that’s another story)

The pool was eventually finished and it was the most magnificent oasis away from the hotter than hot Australian weather and we enjoyed swimming night and day.

GICLEE PRINTS

So the inspiration for this acrylic on canvas painting comes from a combination of our swimming pool and seeing the movie “Jaws” at the drive-in.  It’s called “At The Drive-in” (also available as a limited edition GICLEE PRINT)

Drive-in movies were something we did not have in Sweden and we all really loved going to them in Australia.  You would just pile into the car, it used to cost a few bucks for a carload of people, you’d hook up the speaker (although sometimes it took a while to find one that didn’t crackle) and you were set to go.

Of course you would make a trip to the canteen and buy those “sometimes foods” like Chico rolls and pop top ice creams and see lots of kids who already have their pajamas and dressing gowns on begging their parents for lollies and sweets. (The kids usually fall asleep before the end of the movie and would be easily transported straight to bed then.)

ART & MOVIES

So it was on one of these nights that I went to see “Jaws” and lol that so spoiled my love for the water, so much so that it took quite a while before I would have any night swims in the pool.  Of course I knew it was illogical to think that a shark could be in the pool – but there still was that silly thought in the back of my mind!  I do love swimming still but never again had the devil may care attitude to the sea.  Perhaps that has been good anyway as there certainly have been quite a few shark attacks locally.

ART FROM AUSTRALIA

Which brings me to a wonderful new Australian movie called “The Reef” which I strongly recommend that you all go and see.  It is based on a true story which I remember reading about in the papers some years ago, about a group of friends who were to spend a week on a yacht whilst delivering it to a new buyer in Indonesia – when it all goes pear shaped and the yacht capsizes off the North Australian coast and the group have to decide whether to sink or swim!

I won’t tell you anymore details, so I don’t spoil the story for you – other than to say that the four of us that went to the movies forgot to breathe quite a few times and actually had to think about doing so, lucky for us the time just flew by, or we would have been out of oxygen!   The actors were great and you will recognize a couple from the Underbelly series such as Damian Walshe-Howling and Gyton Grantley and the movie was written and directed by by Andrew Traucki, who is an up and coming director to watch.

So here is a quote from Woody Allen which I think fits perfectly here;

“A relationship, I think is like a shark, you know?  It has to constantly move forward or it dies.  And I think what we got on our hands is a dead shark.”

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 SALEand 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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