Marie Jonsson Harrison » writer

101 From France with Love in Art

mariejon — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 01:55:26 +0000

SELF PORTRAIT

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.

87 Art & It could be worse, they could be fleas

mariejon — Sat, 18 Jun 2011 05:41:15 +0000

ACRYLIC PAINTING

This acrylic on canvas board painting is part of my “Cat & Dog” series. The inspiration for these artworks is all the years living at the farm as well as being an animal lover from way back. You have to admit that a swarm full of butterflies is a lot better than fleas, not so sure about the bees though.

CATS AND ART

When we moved recently we had to leave one of our cats behind Ozzie is his name a gorgeous gray and white cat, the trouble with him was he never learned the nack of being house trained. Instead he would save up his “business” I’m sure for when he came inside and promptly go to our son’s room, back up against the wall and do “it”. Very unsavory to find when you happened upon it later. So consequently he became an outside cat, and I think he prefers it that way too. We were very lucky that the people that bought the farm were happy to keep him on; he does you see, earn his keep, as he is a great mouser!

PAINTING CATS

Our daughter’s cat Milo moved with us and used a litter tray for the first month or so in the new house but now we have a cat door so he comes and goes as he pleases. We think he is a lovely cat but I may have to rethink that now as I caught him having a major scrap with the neighbor’s cat. I did feel a bit bad about it as since we have moved here we put the blame on the “bad cat” next door beating up our sweet, innocent darling. However when I caught Milo red-handed, flying out from his hidden vantage point and attacking the neighbor’s cat, I just may have to admit he is not the angel I thought.

But I still felt a bit sorry for Milo (I think he came out second best) as he lay on our bed for the next few days nursing a cut on his head and a cheek which had swelled up to twice the normal size.

POEMS ABOUT CATS

Now I am again going to share with you a poem by my friend from Scotland, Annamarie Causer, writer, columnist and author of many poetry books. Here is a link to one of the websites CRAIGMILLAR that she writes for called (look under Memories for a Diary of a Countryside Lady).

This poem was written about her own cat which was 19 years old and very sick at this time when Annamarie took him to the vet, and she was sure the only outcome would be the poor cat’s demise.

ODE TO A PUT-UPON & BLIGHTED KITTY
Whey
Hey
And what do I have on today?
A trip to the PDSA.
Cat [carrier] box on the busy bus.
How he doth writhe …me? well I just cuss!
The death knell,
That ominous bell
Was pronounced.
Uh,
Huh, I stood my ground.
I tells them
Ahem,
I renounced
Their findings.
Several hours later
Now here’s me minding
My own business.
The phone trings
Would you plez brings
Your catty box.
This isn’t a cat ..he’s a ravenous fox
Eating up a storm.
It really can’t wait till morn.
Now he sits sprawling
Waiting
Anticipating?
Tongue lolling.
Toothless.
Not mauling,
Any more.
Ever debating.
What’s happened to my teef?
I’ve got a real beef
‘Bout my tongue…where does it go now?
Gee-whizz, wish I’d been born a bow
Wow♥

So the lesson from this is to remember it’s not over until it’s over and here is a quote I like by Francois-Marie Arouet Voltaire (philosopher & writer)

“Life is a shipwreck, but we must not forget to sing in the lifeboats.”

Till next time happy painting and sculpting to you all,

Love Marie xxx (c)

If you enjoyed this art blog about cats you may like this very funny one about 2 dogs 28. ART & Sometimes its just about the little noises you hear

52.Art & All Roads lead to Mallala

Marie — Fri, 29 Oct 2010 05:05:00 +0000

ART IN THE GRAVEYARD

All roads lead to Mallala, is the name of this painting and when we first moved out to the country from the big “smoke” this is where we moved to, well nearly, 10 km from here, as you can see there is a lot that goes on in the country too depicted in my naive art way.

We lived in an old church which had been converted into a 2 story house, surrounded by paddocks and with a graveyard over the back fence.

A lot of people would comment that we were brave to live there, but even though I am a scary cat in other aspects the graveyard never affected me, it was a serene and peaceful place.

ARTISTIC INSPIRATIONS

We were told when we bought the place that it was no longer in use, so I must say that once when we arrived home and there was a fresh grave there it was a little confronting, lol.

But still no ghosts or any funny goings -on, the only funny business came from our dogs at the time Spike and Saba and the rabbits that lived under the graves.

Spike our small terrier used to chase them down the rabbit hole and I would be beside myself wondering if she would come out alive, or get stuck there forever, or goodness gracious- bring up a bone that did not belong to a rabbit!

If you enjoyed that dog story you may just enjoy this art blog too 8. Thunder in the Thunder Box & Art

Mallala was our first taste of country life and we were welcomed to the district with open arms and met such a lot of nice people, some of whom we count as our best friends even today 20 something years later.

ART OF CUSTOMER SERVICE

However there was one less than friendly person there, who shall remain nameless lol. In any case this woman was not from the district but opened a video hire outlet there in conjunction with the local takeaway.

She was grumpy as, heaven forbid you should bring a video in a minute after the allotted time, or even worse actually had faulty video that you could not watch and then complain about it.

It would be like facing the Gestapo; you would tremble at the thought of bringing the video back and telling her about it. Of course she would insist it was your fault and that you deliberately broke the video and you better pay up or else.

Lol luckily this particular woman did not last long in this business. Funny don’t you think when people run their own business and have a shop front and then have not learned to be friendly to their customers, they do not realize that repeat business comes not only from the product they sell but also from their demeanor too, you know customer service. You can see the Video shop a little left of center in the artwork.

Here is a quote from Victor Hugo (writer)

“Adversity makes men, and prosperity makes monsters”

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

Love Marie xx

38. Little Birdy Floyd painting

Marie — Sat, 14 Aug 2010 09:32:50 +0000

BIRD PAINTINGS

In this painting “Spring at last” is a sweet little bird named Floyd, a cockatiel whom we shared our life’s with for several years after Bryan and I got married.

You see, at that stage we lived in an apartment and the rules were no pets. Well I think a bird did not count with the landlord, at least I hope so because Floyd was there.

He was our “Practice child” if you like. You know how it goes you do not feel ready for real children but you want to nest and share your life with the patter of little feet and in this situation they were very little indeed.

Floyd was an absolutely gorgeous bird, and I cried buckets when he died very young after only a couple of years.

ART OF BEING PARENTS

Poor Floyd, you see as far as a ‘practice child’ goes, we were terrible parents, well I haven’t had it confirmed because the vet told us an autopsy on the little bird was out of our price range at the time. However Floyd did develop kidney problems and I have a strong suspicion that had to do with his party trick of loving to drink out of our wine glasses when we had a party, much to the delight and amusements of our guests.

We were obviously young and stupid and very lucky he was not of the human variety or we would be facing serious charges by now for being bad parents. If you fancy another art blog about birds with a funny and happy ending here is a link for you 16. In a Jam with ART

ARTISTIC INSPIRATIONS

Another thing Floyd used to do just for kicks was to totally trick us. He lived in a cage in the kitchen mostly, although he would fly around our apartment quite a lot, much to the dismay of our cleaning lady whom thought bird poop on the curtain rod or the tops of the doors was a bit much. So even in that area we had a lot to learn about keeping house and looking after offspring, lol.

Anyway in kitchen at the time we had one of those kettles that would whistle as loud as can be until we came running to turn it off (technology has moved on somewhat!)

In any case Floyd learned to imitate the kettle perfectly and had both me and Bryan running into the kitchen constantly as if you didn’t turn that damn kettle off it would spill water all over the place and just continue with the noise until you did.

Clever little Floyd ran that house hold and fooled us time after time, whenever he felt like a bit of company.

I am happy to report our parenting skills improved and I think Flannery O’Connor (writer) quote fits in here.

“The truth does not change according to our ability to stomach it”

Till next time happy painting and sculpting to you all!

Love Marie (c)

32. Art & What, a thalidomide budgie?

Marie — Sat, 24 Jul 2010 01:16:51 +0000

CAT & BIRD PAINTING

This painting was one of several I painted on this theme of Cats and Birds for my gallery in Japan.

Obviously I am an animal lover so it is not too much of a stretch to be inspired by them, and over the years we have shared our lives with many gorgeous little creatures.

ARTISTIC INSPIRATION

So let me tell you about the Thalidomide Budgie, well in a minute I will, let’s just make it clear first, that I am the type of person who always feels sorry for the broken winged among us and it does not even have to be alive either.

My mum and dad always tell the story when I came home from a stay with my grandparents with an old mangled and very rusty letterbox.

You see I was out walking with my Morfar (Mothers Dad-in Swedish) and we spotted a very old rusted letterbox lying in a ditch, and right away I felt so sorry for it, discarded like that, it used to be such a proud shiny fellow, I imagined. My poor grandad thought we should leave it there, He said; it was just old rubbish ( he knew that he would be the one, to lug it all the way home too, poor Morfar, but I insisted.) I also could see that it could regain its former glory, and it did after my artist dad had the same vision and restored and painted it and we had the most interesting letterbox on our street! Anyway I digress, back to the budgie.

ART OF RECOVERY

We now lived at the church (another story I have to tell you about) and had a big aviary, so I went to the Pet shop to buy some budgies, just a few to start.

Well I asked the shop keeper what‘s the story with the bird walking down on the floor looking a little forlorn, he said; never mind him he hasn’t got any wings. This little birdy looked very peculiar with little stumps for wings and just walking everywhere and very cute so of course I had to buy him, along with a few of the normal variety!

I think all the birds must have liked the country air just like us, because they breed like rabbits and before long we had 14 budgies. Lo and behold eventually the little Thalidomided Budgie started to grow some wings too, which was almost a shame, because he was ever so cute without them, lol.

Anyway one day the door to the aviary had been left open accidently and we lost the lot, they just all flew away.

We left the door open, whilst I moped around and went to work as usual and then 2 days later I was met by an aviary full of Budgies again, funny thing was though that now there were 15 of them, one extra!

Guess they found a wild one and convinced him life was easier with us then out there fending for yourself.

Here is another story & naive art in my art blog about another bird we shared our lives with 38. Little Birdy Floyd

So I think this saying fits perfectly here said by Toni Morrison (Writer)

“Wanna fly, you got to give up the shit that weights you down.”

Hope you come back and see me soon, till then happy painting and sculpting to you all!

Love Marie x (c)

30. Moggy Fontain Painting, and the Melbourne trip

Marie — Sat, 17 Jul 2010 03:39:36 +0000

MORE PAINTING IDEAS

Just a few days after baby boy came home from Europe we all flew over to Melbourne as one of our Godchildren were turning 21, and what a beautiful girl she has grown up to be, well perhaps I should say always was, as she started modelling as a baby and never really stopped.

We have shared lots of time over the years with the Burns family but my favourite funny moment was when our son Kai and Saasha were playing hospital as little children, and Saasha lay down on the floor and declared that she was a LITTLE bit DEAD. Lol,- Out of the mouths of babes.

CAT AND DOG SERIES PAINTING

This painting Moggy Fontain was bought by them for their second daughter Tarrah who is a fantastic Ballet Dancer presently in New Zealand where she won a 3 year position at the New Zealand School of Dance.

Their son Tristen is very talented as well and dances, sings and acts in various shows around town and recently appeared in Home and Away. Anyway we had a fab time at the Cowboys and Indians themed 21^st birthday party.

But what I enjoyed the most was that we were all together again us four, and boy did we have fun, as we always do.

ART OF LAUGHING

For some reason we spend more time belly laughing than anything else. You know that deep in your gut laugh where you lose control, well if you were in Melbourne a little while ago and spied a tall family of four, doubled over laughing that was us! Lol

Outside of the Melbourne museum Perth based artist Bennett Miller had built a smaller scaled set of the United Nations Commission as an Art installation, for the Next Wave Festival called Dachshund UN.

In this performance “artwork” there were 47 sausage dogs that took part and formed the delegates, speakers and interpreters of the UN Human Rights committee. It looked so funny, the dogs were all different types of sausage dogs; short , long and wired haired, black, brown and reddish and some were constantly barking, while others whimpered or sat quietly whilst others were bored and some could be found napping- just like the real thing really. The detail of the painting below is one of my own Sausage Dogs.( Melbourne tales to be continued)

Here is some advice by Hermann Hesse (writer) that the real UN Human rights Committee should perhaps take.

“Some of us think holding on makes us strong; but sometimes it is letting go”

Till next time happy painting and sculpting to you all!

Love Marie xx (c)