Carols by Candlelight is such a lovely Australian Christmas tradition.  Last week my art blog and painting featured the acrylic painting of Swedish Lucia which was used for Project mapping on the Swedish Embassy in Poland see this story 205 Projection Mapping & Art in Animation This week however the artwork is a wall based sculpture and made from handmade ceramic and mosaic and captures my memories of the Carols by Candlelight celebration in Elder Park here in Adelaide.

AUSTRALIAN TRADITION

The history of the tradition heralds back to the 19^th century in Moonta, South Australia where the Cornish Miners would get together on Christmas Eve with candles stuck to the brims of their safety hats and sing Christmas carols.

The tradition then spread to Victoria and Melbourne and was made popular by a radio personality named Norman Banks.  According to Wikipedia,  Norman was walking home from his night time radio job when he walked past an elderly woman sitting up in bed listening to Christmas carols being sung on the radio.  The woman’s face was lit by candlelight as she sang along and this made Norman wonder how many other people spent Christmas alone.  This in turn gave him the idea and the first ever event was organized in Alexandra Garden Christmas 1938 where 10,000 people attended.

ARTISTS & STARS

These days we celebrate Carols by Candlelight all over Australia in all the capital cities and smaller country towns and they are held on many different dates all throughout December.   The tradition has now spread around the world and people gather usually outdoors in parks and sing carols in choirs and usually accompanied by bands.  Lots of talented artists both very famous and up and coming stars do the rounds of the different shows and they are compared for the most part by Radio and Television personalities.  The audience of course sing along and everyone has a candle or two which they hold up and sway from side to side with the music at times, a very atmospheric sight.

THE ART OF A GOOD CHARITY

The Adelaide event was sponsored this year by Woolworths with the funds raised going to the Women’s & Children’s Hospital Foundation due to the hardworking Marta Harbuzinska, Christina and Natalie Angus and their team and some of the acts featured here were Samantha Jade,  The Collective as well as Humphrey Bear.

ARTISTIC INSPIRATION

As a family we started going to the open concert after our son Kai was born and have only missed a few along the way.  We used to arrive early in the afternoon to stake our claim on a spot close to the stage put down a picnic blanket with a basket full of delicious goodies and lovely wine.  It was a quite a few hours wait before the show began at sunset and we would take turns to head up to the city to shop and walk about.  These days we arrive a little later but it is still something we look forward to very much.  However there was one year that nearly turned us off for life when the weather suddenly changed and turned so nasty we thought we would freeze to death, lol.  We still talk about how the coldness that night was equal to shopping down Canal Street in New York at Christmas time, well nearly anyway!  All wonderful memories for more sculptures, paintings and artworks in the future.

THE ART OF LIGHT

So next year if you haven’t been go along to your nearest Carols by Candlelight no matter what religion or culture you come from it is a lovely event for all concerned.

So here is a quote I think fits well here by Earl Nightingale;  “We all walk in the dark and each of us must learn to turn on his or her own light”

Till next time happy painting and sculpting and maybe carol singing to you all.

Love Marie xxx

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 was such a delight for me to paint with the blue, blue sea in front of our house and the sailing boats for inspiration, added to some photographs of the beach area  locally and then my imagination did the rest.  Obviously it is a really windy day and the title of this painting is “Holdfast at Holdfast” as Holdfast Bay is the council area that takes in the beach suburbs from Kingston Park to Glenelg.

SUMMERTIME ART EXHIBITIONS

Now it will be part of an exhibition organized by the Holdfast Bay Discovery Centre in Mosley Square, Adelaide, South Australia which opens this coming week and will continue until March 2014 called the Bathing Box Project and the Sea Change exhibition.

Some of the other artists taking part are Jim Kinch, Margo Miles, Cat Leonard, Tim O’Shea, John Hamilton and a couple of artists still in school Macy Newman and Anna Foley who already shows great talent.

ARTISTIC SEA CHANGE

This ART exhibition celebrates the local beach environment and that summertime feel and the launch will include the reprint of the book produced by the CHB History Centre titled Sea Change as well as the opening of the Bathing Box Project.  Which is a bathing box from yesteryear that has been lovingly been reassembled on site and features vintage bathing costumes and paraphernalia and beach shades.  You are invited to dip your toes into this snapshot of seaside life from the 1900 to the 1960 for the price of a gold coin donation.

BATHING BOXES AND BEACH HUTS

Bathing Boxes, beach cabins or beach huts as they are often referred to are a small often brightly coloured wooden box which featured on the beaches in Australia an idea the settlers took with them from England originally.  These beach huts can be privately owned or owned by the local council.  The privately owned beach boxes can sell for an amazing amount of money and in Melbourne they are priced between $60,000 to $210,000 dollars.  However take a couple of hours drive from there to Portsea and the bathing boxes the size of a small garden shed will set you back nearly $600,000.  The same sort of money needed to buy 2 modest houses in the outer Adelaide suburbs!

That’s a lot of money to pay for what is essentially just somewhere to change into and out of your swimming cossie, perhaps spend a little time sheltering from the sun, wind or rain and also storing your belongings whilst you cool down in the sea.    Some people have more money than sense I think!

THE ART OF MORALITY

The bathing boxes in Brighton, one of the seaside suburbs in Melbourne famous for them, are known to have been there since 1862.  They originally were constructed to preserve the modesty during the Queen Victorian period.  Just recently in 2003 the Queens beach hut in Norfolk was destroyed by fire, this building had been in the Royal Family for over 70 years.

ARTIST TRACEY EMIN AND THE SAATCHI ART COLLECTION

Also recently the British “bad girl” artist Tracey Emin sold her Whitstable beach hut to ART collector Charles Saatchi (Nigella Lawson’s husband) unfortunately this hut was later destroyed when a fire broke out in the warehouse where it was stored.   Tracey is a very interesting and confrontational artist, part of the group known as the Britartist or YBAs (Young British Artists) she has used a lot of different mediums in her art as well as tried many art forms such as painting, photography, fabrics, bronze sculpture, neon, monoprints and found objects but is probably most known for her installations.  The most talked about is “My Bed”, an installation consisting of her own unmade dirty bed featuring stained bed sheets, used condoms, empty cigarette packets, dirty knickers – this was also bought by Charles Saatchi for the Saatchi  Art Collection as were her famous “tent” called “Everyone I Have Ever Slept With 1963-1995” which was a blue tent where the names of everyone she had ever slept with were appliqued all over it (this work also perished in the Saatchi warehouse fire).  So her artwork is always controversial and challenging and Tracey is collected by many well known stars such as George Michael, Ronnie Woods, Madonna, Elton John and models Kate Moss, Jerry Hall and Naomi Campbell to name a few.

SELF PORTRAITS AND BATHING BOXES

So going full circle which brings us back to the subject of the bathing boxes  where Tracey took two self portraits naked inside her beach hut, a diptych called , The Last Thing I Said To You Is Don’t Leave Me Here I (2000) and The Last Thing I Said To You Is Don’t Leave Me Here II (2000).

I can assure you though that the bathing box on show here in Glenelg is tame by comparison but certainly worth a look and reminisce about times gone by.

Till next time happy painting, sculpting or just reminiscing!

Love Marie xxx

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.

I often miss my grandparents and infact hardly a day goes by when I don’t think about them. In this painting I have painted myself and my husband as we may look in our old age.  If you look on the paintings and photographs on the wall behind us, some of those are my version of actual paintings that we have on our walls that were painted by my talented father artist and sculptor Ted Jonsson. (The REAL paintings I have photographed and posted below for you to see:)

My grandparents on both sides of the family were the loveliest of people and I do deeply regret not spending enough time with them.  One reason for that was as I entered into the teenage years hanging out with my friends suddenly became really important and then the other that we immigrated to Australia and distance kept us apart.  Unfortunately by the time I had started to model and earned some serious money to go over and see them they had all already died.  If you fancy a read about our recent trip to Sweden here is a travel and art blog 167. THE ART OF LETTING GO

THE ART OF NO REGRETS

So these regrets I have inside is something I didn’t want my own children to be burdened with and therefore spending time with their grandparents is something I have always prioritized for them.  I found a lovely article on the subject in the Saturday supplement to the Advertiser by Mark Dapin which I would like to share with you here;

Here’s to you, Jimmy (by Mark Dapin, from SAWeekend)

“I had a drink with my grandad last week, although he’s been dead for 24 years. It was a ritual I used to observe, a pledge I’d always planned to keep: every time I found myself alone in the bar, I’d toast Jimmy. I’d think of him, and share my thoughts with him, as if he were there. Because, in life, Jimmy was always in a bar, raising his beer glass to clink with another, or lowering his whisky glass under the table to take a surreptitious refill from his hip flask.

He died the week I left England, so I couldn’t go to his funeral. For many years, asleep in my bed in Australia, I dreamed he’d ask me to go for a beer. I’d tell him I couldn’t, because he was dead. He’d say it was all a mistake, and we’d set out for the pub, happy and relieved. And then I’d wake up believing it was true, that I was still young and my grandad hadn’t died.

One night, the dreams ended, and Jimmy never came again, although occasionally in my sleep I’d find myself in the warm, dark living room of his tiny terrace house, with Jimmy asleep on his armchair and my nan perched fretfully on the lounge.

We probably stopped having our first beers together when I had children. Then I got my first iPhone, and gave up the few small spaces in my life I used to fill with memory and contemplation. I texted the living rather than drinking with the dead.

Jimmy took me for my first drink at a pub called the Mansion in the middle of a park, and I brought him his last, in a hospice as he lay dying. We had a couple in between, but too few, far too few.

There were so many things I didn’t ask him, so many answers I thought I’d never know. But as I’ve grown older, I’ve grown into him, and now I realise what his life must’ve been like, and there’re many things between us that can go unsaid.

Which is just as well, since he’s dead.

But last week I was sitting alone in a country pub, a snug steakhouse bar with a log fire, and I was about to message a friend when I remembered Jimmy, and I sipped my beer and gave him the time of night. I thought about the tickle of his whiskers as he rubbed them against my cheek when I was little, and the smell of alcohol on his breath and on his skin.

When my meal arrived, I remembered his favourite dinner (he called it “tea”) was steak and chips, and the way he’d mop up my nan’s gravy with soft slices of white bread. I could see the bubbles of fat in the gravy, taste the salt in the juice. He liked HP Sauce on his chips, and it’d been years since I’d thought of that.

I tried to build a picture from there, to recall all I could about the house where they’d lived: the odd things they’d kept in their cupboards, the treasures they’d stored in their drawers. I thought of their dictionary with its section of maps and I wished I had kept it so I could look at it again.

I have so little of my grandparents: a handful of photographs, and a sprinkling of memories which fade, in truth, into memories of memories, until they become just stories I have told or been told.

They lived through the Depression, the war, the blitz, rationing, austerity and the end of Empire.

Jimmy saw children’s bodies smashed into kindling and crushed among the bricks of bombed out homes. So by the time he had grandchildren, I think he understood how fragile and temporary we were.

Across the bar in the pub I saw a boy eating out with his grandparents. I watched him ignore them as he played games on his iPad. I wanted to tell him to look up from the screen, and make himself some memories. Because one day he would need them more than he could ever guess.”

An article well worth reading I thought and even though it is something we try to keep in mind I still made the whole family read it!

Here is a quote I think fits well here by Alex Haley;

“Nobody can do for little children what grandparents do.  Grandparents sort of sprinkle stardust over the lives of little children.”

Till next time happy painting, sculpting and also spending lots of time with your own loved ones.

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.

Funny isn’t it this thing about being pigeonholed, fitting in under a banner or label.  Well I guess if truth shall be known I have never really fitted in anywhere with anything – always been a bit rebellious and found my own way.

DECORATIVE ART

So why should anything be different now with my Art – I have for the longest time been told that the way I paint was Naive and yes that label has fitted me pretty well – however as it has been pointed out to me many times the naive title conjures up a Nice and Pretty painting.  Yes some of my paintings and artwork are just that no doubt but often there is “more”.   The “more” for the most part, is that often there is a often a subtle message or should I say a commentary on the world I see around me, I poke fun at the world, just letting you the viewer know not to take yourselves so seriously.   Also just a gentle poke at myself at the same time not to sweat the small stuff which I have a habit of doing!

NAIVE ART

Some people also think that as an ex model I don’t fit the innocent naive label either, why my past profession should have any bearing on the way I paint I don’t understand.  Oh I do paint subject matters from my past but it’s not like we learned to paint in modelling school exactly!  The fact that one can remain innocent in the way I view the world and hope the world would be, is perhaps what saved me both as a street kid and later as an international model with the Australian Model of the year title many years ago.  In my world happiness reigns and everyone are “Happy as a pig in shit”! The title of one of my first paintings which I painted incidently because I was going through a crisis in my life and painting little pigs having fun made me forget my troubles for a little while.  Here is a link to that painting and the Art blog that goes with it; 33. Art & Dont worry be happy

SELF TAUGHT ARTIST

I am self taught artist and have never even taking an art class either unless you count my primary education,  where I was ridiculed by the teachers for not seeing perspective and not being able to draw and paint which lead to me not touching art materials again till my late 20’s.    Instead I left school at 14 when I ran away from home and never went back.  What I learned in those initial 8 months fending for myself made me street smart if nothing else.

OUTSIDER ARTISTS

So am I an Outsider Artist?  Again some so called experts say yes and some say no.  What seems to irk some people putting me into this category is the success I have enjoyed as an Artist.  As an Outsider artist you are not supposed to produce art to exhibit or for fame or monetary reward.

What these so called experts forget on this topic is that I painted for several years with a love and compulsion that I didn’t understand myself and I had no idea there was such a thing as Naive art or Outsider Art until it was eventually suggested by my father.  That was not mentioned for a long time as I just feverously painted every second I had spare, long before any thought of exhibitions or fame or fortune was even a glint on the horizon.

So what about the mental illness aspect – does an Outsider artist have to be mentally disturbed?  Well some ARE undoubtedly however you do find people in all professions dealing with mental illness and you don’t just classify someone who paints landscapes or photographic (realistic) portraits and has a mental illness as an Outsider artist, right?

CONTEMPORARY ARTIST

So what about the term; Contemporary artist, I have been classified as that as well.  But as usual the camps are divided by that too. Can a  contemporary artist paint colourful happy paintings for the main part and get her social commentary taken seriously, mustn’t they be all broody and deep with long explanations of what their art actually means.  Oh my, she hasn’t attended Art School either, fancy that – not a clone of an art teacher!  Now that is probably a touch mean of me to say and not entirely true as there ARE many wonderful art teachers out there I know, mentoring the pupils to be the best they can be without influencing them too much and taking away their individuality.   I just hope that the ones that thought I was terrible in school can see me now!

PASSION IN ART

To me Art shouldn’t be Rocket Science, Art should make you feel!  Feel something either for the subject matter for the artist or tweak some memory deep within.  Passion is good whether it is happy or sad, angry or give you the giggles, when you look at art and it stirs up a “feeling” any feeling then it’s good art in my opinion.  So perhaps the label I am most comfortable with is an Outsider Contemporary Naive Artist – yep perhaps that is the label for me!!!

Here is a quote I think fits well here by Henry Ward Beecher,

“Every artist dips his brush in his own soul, and paints his own nature into his pictures.”

Now I would like to invite you to a wonderful exhibition of so called Outsider Artists – some more so and some less so!  The show is on until the end of December.

ART EXHIBITION OPENING

Official opening

Sunday, 1

December

2:00 PM

The West Torrens

Auditorium

1, Brooker

Terrace, Hilton

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.

At this stage I had signed with the Japanese Art gallery and then spent one year painting like crazy.

This painting “If I could turn back time” was one of the artworks that the Japanese Gallery wanted to see in real life before we signed the contract and it was sent over during the negotiating stage (available as a limited Giclee print).

My contract stipulated 40 acrylic artworks in various sizes from small 30cm x 40cm to the larger ones at 120cm x 90cm, luckily I had a few in stock but all the rest needed to be produced.

The problem for me is that all my artworks take a very long time as they are so very detailed and also the paint is layered with lumps and bumps (all bottoms and breasts stick out!)   At times I wish I was an abstract artist and could just slap the paint on and make at least one painting each day, but oh no life cannot be that easy, mine take at least a week for a small one and more like a minimum of 3 weeks for the larger works.

ART STUDIO

My studio is just outside the backdoor in a separate building with views of the paddocks and the trees along the river, so it’s just as well that I love being there and painting as that next year and the years following I nearly spent every waking moment in there.  My husband always jokes to friends that he keeps me locked up in there, and that is almost true, lol.

Finally the big day has come, I had an all expenses paid trip to Nagoya Japan Business class mind you, for me and for the two art gallery guys from Melbourne who were my art agents at that stage.  We get picked up from the airport and put up in one of the nicest hotels and wined and dined every night at some of the most wonderful and interesting restaurants in Nagoya.

However it was the actual opening of the exhibition that really threw me!  I am used to going to exhibitions obviously, lol with a drink of wine or champagne in your hand you stand around and chat to the clients and friends and have a merry old time, and that is what I was expecting.

ART EXHIBITION OPENING

Wrong!  Around an hour before the opening I get told that I am actually going to be sitting behind a desk and drawing little pictures for their clients.  So now I get really worried, I am really not very good at drawing on command like that.  As you know I am an naïve artist and my drawings look more like stick figures – so now I was really breaking out into a sweat.  If that wasn’t enough now I also find out that we have to sit in a tiny little room and wait for the gallery to fill up with people where I will be presented like the Queen, lol,  I have to walk through the crowd as they part ways and line the sides and clap, and present me with a huge bouquet of flowers before the speeches.

DRAWING

Then as promised I sit at a table with my translator and meet the people one by one as the clients stand single file in a big line which snakes along the room.  Each Japanese person has got a white board embossed with gold edge which they ask me to draw something on.  Most of them know what they would like me to draw, maybe a bird, a cat or a flog (well that’s how they pronounce FROG lol) and I am to write their names and a little message as well as well as sign it.   As paintings sold I also had to write a message on the back of them too.    So I was flat out working for a couple of hours straight and not a drink in sight (unless you count the glass of water lol, but that doesn’t count does it?)

I must say though that in the end I thoroughly enjoyed it and found the Japanese people so very lovely, warm and giving.

The exhibition was held over 4 days with four separate openings and each night we waited in that small room until it was time to start.  I felt like a movie star by the end of it and each day an average of 10 paintings sold until it was a sell out!  (I have now made many trips to Japan over the years, but I will tell you about them another time.)

Here is a saying by Michael Jordan (basketball player) that I can appreciate,

“I’ve missed more than 9,000 shots in my career.  I’ve lost almost 300 games; 26 times, I’ve been trusted to take the game-winning shot and missed.  I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life.  And that is why I succeed.”

This Japanese family bought this painting at my first Japan show in 1993 and then came back for the 2006 exhibition.  They are holding up the drawings I was talking about.

Till next time happy painting and sculpting to you.

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.