As another year turns the corner I cannot help but be very thankful for the last one and wishing the New Year will also be kind to us all.  The most important thing for me is of course the health and wellbeing of my family and friends but if I could I certainly would extend that wish to all living people and animals big and small!  World peace, health, wealth and happiness for all that’s my wish.  Yes of course I am a dreamer,  that goes hand in hand with being an artist!  So I will try with my art to make you smile with my paintings and sculptures.  Perhaps also poke a little bit of fun and hopefully now and again also make you think about something that you hadn’t thought of before, perhaps something that you could also do to make the world a better place.

ART ON A CHOCOLATE BOX

I have had an amazing year work wise and it has ended on such a perfect note with my chocolate box (chocolate tin) by Sv. Michelsen for 2015 just having arrived on the market.  They are the leading chocolatier and collected by the Her Majesty the Queen of Denmark.  All the chocolate boxes (tins) are numbered and the first one; number #1 goes to the Queen Margrethe ll, number #2 stays with Sv.Michelsen which are third generation chocolatiers and number #3 goes to me the artist.  It goes without saying that the chocolate tastes divine and it’s all gluten free too.

2015 KUNSTDASE

This amazing privilege all came about last year after I had quite a few exhibitions in Denmark, organized by my European agent Eliane Kristensen who divides her time between France and Denmark.   At the Easter show for the Knud Grothe Gallery (one of the most prestigious galleries in Denmark) I was selected to be the featured artist and this then led to Sv Michelsen seeing my work for the first time and commissioning me to paint an image for the new 2015 chocolate tin.

MY ROYAL CONNECTION

If you look really closely at the painting you will find Princess Mary and Prince Fredrick and their 4 children clad in formal clothes with their sashes and tiaras on too.

It was so fun to paint and I would really like to thank both Eliane and Knud for this wonderful opportunity!

ADVERTISER NEWS ARTICLE

The newspaper article attached was on page 3 of the Advertiser on Boxing Day and from all the messages and emails, phone calls and text I got afterwards I can only assume that a lot more people sat down during the Christmas break and read the paper than they normally do during the week, lol!  So thank you so much everyone that was really special.  Very special too for me to have Hillivi beside me, it has been so much fun for us to get to model together.  So many people remark on how similar we look and now Hillivi calls it Twinning! LOL

ART BLOGS

The coming year is proving to be just as busy as the last one and therefore something has finally got to give I am afraid and that is the regular big blogs – you may have noticed for the last little while I have been a little lax with my artblogs and for that I apologize.  This year I will try another format.  I have found that my blogging takes up so much time and I have been struggling so hard to keep up with my painting and sculpting deadlines that eventually something had to give!  So from now on I will perhaps write a longer blog only now and again and instead keep you updated with photos and some words about what is happening in my world.  I look forward to still seeing your comments and sharing your worlds too.

QUOTES

So for now I leave you this year with this quote by Bill Vaughan;

“An optimist stays up until midnight to see the new year in. A pessimist stays up to make sure the old year leaves.”

Till next time happy painting and sculpting and Happy Holidays 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.

This painting is a self portrait of me a couple of years ago when I had viral meningitis,(that itself is another story)  but what I want to focus on is the book that I am reading in this acrylic on board artwork, this painting which was bought by a psychiatrist  funnily enough.  Anyway the book is called “From France with Love” and is written by my dear friend Nadine Williams.

We  have been friends ever since she did a story about me in the South Australian daily newspaper The Advertiser where she had been a Senior Journalist for the last 20 years.   Here is a link to some of the stories photos from the Advertiser on my website News and News Archive

Over the years I have lost count of the number of times I have been interviewed, both as a model and an artist and I have meet lots of great reporters, but Nadine was really someone special and we immediately struck up a great friendship.

I think I liked her right away because she is such a warm hearted person, another generation up from myself but very young in her thinking, with an open mind and knowledgeably in just about every subject having dwelt into stories from around the globe at some stage or another.  Now Nadine has had some amazing things happening in her life lately.  Firstly she fell in love with a wonderful Frenchman Olivier Foubert.  He is quite the business man in his own right being the man behind the famous ‘Caleche by Colette Foubert ‘label, with a wicked sense of humor for a soft spoken very French kind of guy.   He totally cracks me up with his sly and dry remarks!

THE ART OF WRITING

Nadine decided to write about their love story with ‘baggage’ as she calls it, love in mature years and all that entails, and including a road trip in France.  The book became a best seller and the rest of course is history, as the book has now been optioned for a movie by acclaimed film producer Peta Astbury.  Peta shopped the possible film around Cannes recently, with quite a bit of interest, ”as there seems to be a gaping hole in the market for films targeted at baby boomers”,  she says.

ARTIST WEBSITES

Nadine and I have been on this website journey together as our websites were being designed at the same time, both of us with no knowledge in the world of the web or even with technology as our long suffering husbands know.    However, never say never,  because here we both are making quite an inroad on the net and getting some very good traffic numbers too.

So perhaps you may like to check out Nadine’s site, she is writing hers in a magazine style, offering up a regular blog on the delights of the French Kitchen, as well as covering everything from women’s issues, spirituality and sexuality, yes you will find articles on all matters, love, loss, relationships, family dynamics and divorce, gossip and book and movie reviews.  The age group she is aiming for is the 50 – 100 but I know it would appeal to a younger audience too.

So check it out www.nadinewilliams.com.au

Nadine and Ollie

But hey, don’t forget to come back and visit me too lol.

Here is a quote I like from writer Katherine Mansfield:

“Make it a rule of life never to regret and never look back.  Regret is an appalling waste of energy; you can’t build on it; it’s only for wallowing in.”

Till next time happy painting,sculpting and reading to you all,

Love Marie    (c)

(As you can see the book I painted and the one Nadine is holding in the photo below looks quite different, well that is because they changed the book cover for the second edition.)

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.