We just received a Christmas card from the kids, nothing unusual about that I hear you say and you are so right – normally.

It read “To Mum and Dad, Seasons greeting, Miss you both! Don’t worry we are getting lots of treats up in ‘dem dare hills. Love Zipper & Pringles.

This naive acrylic painting depicts the Werocata Pony club which was located next door to our property for many years (that’s me on the left kissing my horse Rumor).

Back to the greeting card and we were tickled pink, as it was from our little miniature horses we had on the farm and their lovely new owners, who must have helped them with the spelling, lol mm.. maybe?

SEX, ART & HORSES

They are the cutest little misters around, Zipper is a gelding and Pringles a stallion and a very frisky little one he was too.

He would try to have a go at Zipper who was most put out and not at all interested in Pringles advances.  When that would not work he would be chasing my big horse Cally-she however was very interested and happily backed up to towards him, their only stumbling block was that she was more than twice as tall as him and there was no way that he could ever reach.

Oh the pitfalls of a short man (well in the horse world that is!)

So when that had come to nothing and poor little Pringles still had the urge he would have to scale the fence and try to find some lovely ladies somewhere else.  It happened quite a few times that my husband would come in and tell us we all had to hop in the car to go and try to find the little Horny Mr!

ART INSPIRATIONS

Once he had a female in his sight (the neighbor’s horses) nothing would lure him back home, we tried apples and carrots and stern words and praise, but in the end we had to try to come in from all four sides and throw a rope around his neck and the walk him back across the paddocks of the farm.  Of course he would still be ducking and weaving and doing loop the loops to get back to the pretty girls.   In the meantime Zipper is patiently waiting for his companion to come back and probably enjoying the peace and quiet for a little while.

Zipper had won a couple of ribbons at Pony club, well not really any big deal in the horse world but very cute.   Zipper belonged to our son Kai who was no more than 10 years old when he led the little horse around a little obstacle track and got a purple ribbon to show for it.

When we recently moved from the farm I found the bag of ribbons from the various horse shows but neither kid wanted to pack them, but I think we still took them, it’s hard to throw away all those memories!

So has the frisky little Pringles mellowed with age I hear you ask, well not according to the horses new mum and dad, Pringles does still, if the occasion arises so to speak, lol take off for dem dare hills to look for cute girl horses.

If you enjoy stories and paintings about animals here is another of my art blogs about my pet bird; 154 Galah Art

Therefore I think some wise words from Winston Churchill (British prime minister) is in order here although I think Pringles only listened to the first part before he took off!

“Never give in, never give in, never, never – in nothing, great or small, large or petty.  Never give in except to convictions of honor and good sense.”

Till Next Time happy painting and sculpting to you all!

Love Marie                                                                                   (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.

Dancing asparagus I hear you say, mmm…well moi have always been a little bit crazy and that probably is and asset when you are an artist! Lol Anyway this painting was the first one that I actually painted, on canvas that is.

MURAL ON THE NURSERY WALL

You see I was pregnant with my first child and was getting the house ready for this little bundle of joy (and as it turned out he was too) I asked my brother who is a very good artist if he could paint me a mural on the nursery wall.

So he came and started, laid down the background of grass and hills and a sky with the start of a train running through the country side.  However at the time he was the drummer in a band called Clowns of Decadence, and they had a very strong following and were always out on tours.  So I would be calling Matt up and asking when he would be back in town, and it would be “oh sorry sis, we are touring New Zealand now and won’t be back for a month.”

In the meantime I was getting fatter and fatter and fatter, and being a bit of a perfectionist there was no way that my baby was going to arrive with a half painted nursery.

So I thought to myself there is nothing to do but roll up ones sleeves and get on with it and start painting .

Now there were a couple of things wrong with that idea, one was that I had some complications with the pregnancy and should be mostly having bed rest.  The other was that I could not paint my way out of a paper bag!  I mean that literally, you see both my father and my brother are fantastic artists, very skilled and can do anything, whatever I had ever tried to draw or paint was usually laughed at, well not in a mean way but probably slightly mixed with pity,  lol.

ART IN SCHOOL

On top of that during my school years in Sweden I would be receiving maybe an F for Art,  I remember distinctly having to paint a still life; fruit bowl and mine was very hard to figure out what it was.    Us naive types find it very hard to see perspective (and hey maybe we don’t want to, maybe the world is just better when everything is close and within your grasp!)  In those days you were only considered good in art if you could reproduce something like a photograph.  So therefore I had not drawn or painted for years.

But as I was a woman on a mission and nesting,  watch out!  I got the paints out that my brother had left and off I went, and you know what, with an eye blink it was lunch time, too busy to eat. Kept on painting although I would lie down on the floor from time to time and look at my handy work (doctors orders you know) I blinked my eyes again and now it was night.

FEELING LOVE & HAPPINESS THROUGH ART

The next morning I woke up, feeling so very excited and energetic and I did not know why, I was 8 months pregnant and usually exhausted, so I laid there and tried to figure it out.  Well you know what, it was LOVE, I had fallen in Love and not with another man, no with painting.  I did not care what anyone else thought of my handy work, but I loved it, I loved painting it and I loved looking at it and it made me feel good.

That was how it began and if you are curious how this led to my life as a full time artist in the Naive genre here is a link for that art blog 114 Elders Fine Art Gallery.. never give up

So take heart you budding artists out there, don’t let anyone say you can’t and that you are no good, if it makes you happy then DO IT.

This saying by Winston Churchill fits very well here;

“Success is going from failure to failure without a loss of enthusiasm.”

Till next time happy painting and sculpting to you all!

Love Marie  xxxx                                              (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.