I just stumbled on an interesting fact as I was writing another art blog about my art being on duvet and quilts featuring the rather new crisp looking white Hindley Street set.

I was amazed that it seems to be a Swedish invention: my home country and here is a great article by Kate Watson-Smyth which was published in The Independent this week.

THE SECRET HISTORY OF:THE DUVET (by Kate Watson-Smyth)

“It was the 1950s, before the halcyon days of the swinging Sixties. Sir Terence Conran was in Sweden. With a girl. And he found himself lying under a strange cover that was a bit like an eiderdown but with no sheets or blankets between him and it.

He enquired casually what it was and was informed that it was a Slumberdown quilt. A few years later, he would be the first person to sell duvets in Britain in his new shop on the King’s Road in west London.

Habitat opened on 11 May 1964. It was selling a lifestyle and stocked new and interesting homewares – the chicken brick, the wok and, of course, the duvet. When the catalogue was launched in 1966, it became a coffee-table book in its own right and the store expanded rapidly throughout the country.

Sir Terence recalls: “People do credit me with bringing the duvet to Britain. I had been in Sweden in the 1950s and was given a duvet to sleep under. I probably had a girl with me and I thought this was all part of the mood of the time – liberated sex and easy living. It was wonderful that when you came to make your bed, it was just a couple of shakes.”

You have to admit that it was rather sweet that after his liberated sex, he even bothered to think about making the bed. Anyway, the continental quilt, as it was more usually known until the mid-1970s, wasn’t an instant best-seller. James Greig, the assistant producer of If Walls Could Talk, an intimate history of the home (to be shown on BBC 4 later this year), says: “When they first came out, people were very reluctant to give up their sheets and blankets, which might have been wedding presents. But the duvet was really pioneered by the housewives who loved the idea that it was so quick to make the bed. Habitat even had an advertising slogan: ‘the 10-second bed’. I think they had a few in some stores to see how they went and the advertising tended to include a series of illustrative pictures so people could see how they worked.”

Greig has been unable to pinpoint the very first appearance of the duvet, but says it was used mainly in Scandinavia and the colder alpine countries.

To start with, Habitat sold more single duvets than doubles as they were initially regarded as something that was good for children. But gradually they became accepted by everyone. Today, it’s practically impossible to find anyone who sleeps under blankets any more.”

ART ON BEDDING

I of course remember growing up in Sweden and sleeping under a quilt cover (duvet) so it makes me extra happy and proud to be having my art shown in this way by ARTnBED.  Just to make the connection a little more amazing for me was that the name duvet is what they were originally called in Australia (the country I know live in) now for the most part in Australia we refer to them as a Doona and the cover a Quilt cover.  Here are a few more links to see the other blogs and pictures of the bedding available.  I hope you like it. 140 ART n BED and 188. ARTnBED and the painting Pottering at the Port and here is ARTnBED website where all their artists and bedding products can be viewed.

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 SALEand SCULPTURES for sale or WALLBASED SCULPTURES.  Enjoy an original artwork on your walls or perhaps one on your bed ARTnBED.

The life as an artist always has it’s ups and downs.  Luckily I have been very blessed and mostly experience the former but had my fair share of downs too during the twenty something years I have been painting.

This painting which was featured in ARTension magazine is called The Two Bridges of Port Adelaide, South Australia and is in the private art collection of Rosalie and Kevin Zerk.

INCLUSION IN FRENCH ART MAGAZINE

When I found out I had been chosen together with 11 other naive artists from around the world to be featured in a French Art Magazine called ARTension I was thrilled of course.  What had led up to this was my inclusion in the Art Naif Festival in Katowice, Poland 2011 where some 190 naive artists from all over the world had been invited to exhibit.  This in turn led on to another invitation to take part in the Henri Rousseau exhibition which was held in the Abbey of Montivilliers in Normandy, France in January and February 2012.  These exhibitions as well as this year’s Naive Art Festival in Katowice, Poland 2012, has all been made possible by the wonderful Jacques Dubois, who eats, sleeps and breathes Naive Art!

The special edition of ARTension is called L’Art naïf aujourd’hui. Which is available on back order from that link and is absolutely full of articles on Naive art and they quote;

“The air and the fragrant art of time a little too much stress.  In lack of light, we wanted to look at the most modern solar adventures: that of naive art.  Revelation of the early twentieth century, for decades it has enthused poets, historians and enthusiasts arts.  Now, almost thirty years, calm… Where are the masterpieces, why are they out of fashion, and who now renews this style of painting?  In the company of experts-curators museums, exhibition organizers, auctioneers, gallery owners, collectors and artists, now more than ever passionate about this art– dive with us in the wings, wheels and glare.  Brazil to Slovakia, find and discover treasures imagined by the most popular and most serene creators.  Naive Art? An excellent antidote to all forms of gloom! “

12 NAIVE ARTISTS

So here is the article about the 12 naive artists and keep in mind that the pages have been translated from French to English so there are a few problems with the grammar, but that adds a little French charm, no?

Around the World

Jacques Dubois

For six years, Jacques Dubois has abandoned his original trade of business to devote himself to painting he loves, and his wife practice. Creator of the World Festival of Naive Art in Verneuil-sur-Avre in 2005, he moved to Katowice, Poland, five years later.He presents the naive current world, convinced that this art still has a bright future ahead of him. We asked him to introduce his recent twelve strokes of heart.

Germany

Olaf Ubricht

Born in 1951

Olaf is currently the most talented of the few German naive. Its uniqueness, its trademark, it is twilight, in a German village on the Rhine. It uses a marine varnish to enhance its color.

Australia

Marie Jonsson-Harrison

Born in Sweden

A sculptor father, a circus family, she is top model in the 1980s and devoted himself to painting. Sense of humor, acute observation of life, Mary painted cheerful and positive experiences, accompanied by a social commentary of the human condition. His paintings and sculptures are presented in Australia, Japan and the United States. This is the painter’s most exhilarating and most creative.

Brazil

Edilvado

Born in 1956. Jacques is Ardies who exhibited in 1995, for the first time in his gallery in Sao Paulo and who became his agent. Its deserved success he owes only to the development of Brazilian landscapes with lush vegetation and bucolic nature and enchanting. This is what distinguishes it from all other painters Naïve.

Côte d’Ivoire

Roger Hamado Djiguemdé

Born in 1966 in Burkina Faso

Installed in Ivory Coast for many years, he developed an “African naïve art” in his own words. His descriptions of daily life are as much of a dream than reality. Surrealism is not far. One of the best contemporary painters in Africa. Currently in their forties, he still has a bright future ahead of him ^ and full of ideas of tables in the head.

Cuba

Armando Torres

Born in 1956 in Havana.

He lives with his mother in the suburbs of Havana. In his neighborhood, he was immured to escape the noise and Salsa. He paints his dreamlike paintings while listening to baroque music of the eighteenth century. Obviously, his neighbors are crazy. Amahoro gallery of St Martin in the Caribbean defends his work very creative.

Spain

Crucita Gutiérrez Segovia

Born in 1951 in Madrid

Born into an artistic family, she has been painting since 1977 and many European museums possess his works. Based in Barcelona, ​​she made prints in the studio Artcontraprova and teaches visual arts at the Foundation for the Arts Hervás Amezcua. This is goodness personified, and his paintings emit an enormous amount of things certainly because of the flat technique perfectly mastered.

Israel

Rafi Perez

Born in 1965 in Jerusalem

A graduate of the School of Visual Arts in Jerusalem in 1992, he lives in Tel Aviv where he painted landscapes and couples.Despite its “youth” Rafi is one of the most talented of his country and handles very large formats with ease that commands respect.

Serbia

Drago Terzic

Born in 1956. It is one of the most representative of the third generation of self-taught artists of “on glass”. Known but also acknowledged it now opens on Europe. His style PureColour and impeccable style gives this notoriety,

Tanzania

Stephen Lewis

Born in 1964

It is the best representative of the current Art Tingatinga, invented by Edward Tinga Tinga, who is becoming known throughout the world and gives local artists the opportunity to live their art. Audience Award at the 2011 World Festival in Katowice, he will appear this year. Just reward for this humble artist, who paints for sixteen years. The French association Tinga is African-charge of its promotion.

Turkey

Sema Culam

Born in 1951 in Izmir

Former pupil of the sculptor Turgut Pura at the State Museum of Painting and Sculpture in Izmir, then Cavit Seref Bigali Atmaca and the Department of Painting Education Institution, she has since won numerous Awards of naive painting and often exhibited in different countries. His landscapes are particularly noteworthy.

Netherlands

Joop PLASMEJEIR

in 1942, the grandpa of Naive Art is still the most inventive today. But looking at his paintings and retailer, it must be quite a prankster. His favorite themes are the urban landscapes such as Amsterdam, where he is particularly fond of representing ports and major facades of Dutch houses. He also painted the interiors of these houses with precisely these landscapes through windows. It’s great art.

Veronica LABAT

Born in 1960 she still lives in his country Argentina. This is one of the few painters have Naives to study drawing, sculpture and also engraving. Since 1990 she exhibited nationally since 2004 but that its course becomes truly professional with the gallery GINA Gallery Tel Aviv. At each table, but it is renewed crunches always living in Argentina. The most successful in his country and most interesting, for me, naturally.

I urge you all to Google these artists and have a look at their fabulous work!

Here is the quote again from ARTension who said;

“Naive Art? An excellent antidote to all forms of gloom!”

Till Next time happy painting and sculpting and collecting art to you all,

Love Marie xxx

If you enjoyed this art blog you may also like this one; 14. Adam & Steve 2 Sculpture

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.

The day before Australia day, hubby comes in from the backyard and says “I think I just got bitten by a Redback, something crawled up my shorts and a minute later I saw the spider crawl away” With hubbys track record lately I was starting to fear for the “Family Jewels” lol.  For you familiar with my art blogs there has been a myriad of mishaps culminating in the heart attack scare, however in this case it was just a false alarm!

PAINTING REDBACKS AND SNAKES

Redbacks and other creepy crawlies is something we have an abundance of here in Australia, although on this acrylic on board painting “The Snake Pit” snakes are shown in the zoo, in the everyday backyard there also lurks many dangers.  Something we take great delight with in scaring the wits out of any tourists that comes to stay, lol, well just a bit of teasing really.

Lets start with the Redback which is considered one of the most dangerous spiders in Australia and has a neurotoxin venom that causes severe pain.  There have been only 14 deaths recorded from the Redback spider bite which is quite low compared to the numbers of people that get bitten by them each year thought to be in the thousands.  Only about 20 percent of people bitten require hospital treatment and get the antivenin, after experiencing severe pain and swelling spreading from the site.  This can then lead to nausea, vomiting, abdominal and chest pain, headache, fever, tremors, coma, and of course death.

SEX AND ART

However spare a thought for the male spider as he is the one who almost never comes out of the sexual encounter alive!  The female who is much bigger than the male spider consumes the male spider in 2 out of 3 cases while the mating continues.  He is one of only 2 species of animals who actively assist the female in sexual cannibalism.  The advantage for the male spider is that he is able to copulate for a longer time whilst he is being eaten!!!  You men just don’t know when to stop!! LOL

THE ART OF THE ITCH

“Stop” being the operative word here as it brings me to my daughter’s boyfriend Brett and his itching, lol which I will tell you about in a minute.   We had actually decided in having a quite Australia day as we had done such a lot of partying in the weeks and days leading up to it.  However we quickly got into gear after Hillivi called to say she wanted to celebrate with us, much the same as Tim Allen and Jamie Lee Curtis from Christmas with the Kransks.

So they arrived fresh from the Chemist with a bag full of potions and lotions to try to sooth Brett’s feet.  He had managed to get a thousand little bites all over his feet which were suspected ant or sandflies bites and they were driving him crazy.  The poor boy could hardly concentrate on anything other than the itching and tried to discreetly itch them with anything he could find all the while being told off by Hillivi.  The conversation over the dinner table pretty much became a 3 way deal whilst Brett was alternating his attention between the itching or Googleing cures for his ailment on the Iphone.

Every now and then he would pipe up and say “Did you know they suggest smearing vegemite on the bites or maybe marmite” or “They say here I should pop them with a needle and put on some alcohol”.   So watch out all of you planning a trip down under and come prepared.

Here is a quote I think fits well here by Bill Vaughan;

“We hope that, when the insects take over the world, they will remember with gratitude how we took them along on all our picnics.”

Till next time happy painting and sculpting or perhaps itching?

Love Marie xxx  (c)

If you enjoyed this art blog you may also enjoy this one also featuring my daughter and her boyfriend Brett also featuring more artworks of course ; 100 Some like it hot in Art

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.

So here it comes again, New Years Eve 2011, seems only yesterday that we were ushering in 2000 never mind the 10 in between.  How does that happen?  Where did all that time go, you tell me because I haven’t got a clue!

This acrylic on board painting “Happy New Year, New York” (which sold in America) was such a lot of fun to do and it was painted in the time of innocents before 9/11 when the Twin Towers were still standing proud.  At the time I had not yet been to the USA so it was great fun to do the research on all the buildings and images of New York.  Then finally we did go to New York and here is a link to some of those adventures;  I MISS NEW YORK, sadly by the time we got there the Twin Towers were reduced to Ground Zero but we did see all the rest of the things I had painted.

THE ART OF THE YK2 BUG

You know it’s funny to think about the turn of the last century when we thought the whole world may stop and planes would fall out of the sky due to the Millennium Bug, remember that one?  The YK2 problem or YK2 bug, that whole problem stemmed from the programming of computers.  When the computer programmers were trying to save space in the computer files they abbreviated the year to just the two last digits as in 91,92,93, but as the turn of the century grew closer they realized that the clocks of the digital age would turn from 99 into 00 which may make the computers of the world fail.

THE ART OF AVOIDING MAYHEM

Hence we may have all sorts of mayhem arising, from planes dropping out of the sky to hospital life support equipment failing, trains stopping, phone lines & mobile phones dropping out, electricity and water getting turned off and supermarkets and businesses in general not being able to serve their customers. The experts on TV and Radios around the Globe were discussing the various scenarios whilst us the public were in two camps on the issue – the “believers” and the “not”.

We lived on a farm at the time and fell into the middle ground on the subject and decided that we better stock up on some food and drinks just in case, lol.  So we had a few boxes in the shed with the necessities, should the worst happen.  Canned food, long life milk, potatoes and onions and candles and batteries, oh and plenty of alcohol, we figured we may as well be a little inebriated if we were going to live on the crap we had stored in the emergency boxes, lol.

MY BROTHER THE ARTIST

My brother was totally fascinated by the subject and read every book there was and preached doom and gloom, his artist brain ticking over.  To his credit he really was on the right track because if the “IT” world had not gotten their act together in the mid nineties and started to seriously work on the problem we really would have been in dire straits.  There was one person though who had spotted the mistake as far back as 1958 whilst working on genealogical software.  His name was Bob Bemer and he had then tried for the next twenty years to make the programmers, IBM and the U.S. government aware of the problem.  But as usual the whistle blower was ignored and it took nearly 40 years before they took him seriously!

THE ART OF WHAT DID HAPPEN

For most of us midnight 1999 past without too much trouble however there were a few glitches around the world and these statistics are from the Wikipedia site;

UK – incorrect Down’s syndrome test results were sent out and two abortions were carried out and four babies were born with Down’s syndrome even though the mothers had been told they were in the low-risk category.

Japan- had radiation-monitoring equipment at a nuclear power plant fail at midnight and at another nuclear site an alarm sounded at two minutes after midnight, both with no risk to the public they stated.  Also in Japan their largest mobile phone company found their phones were deleting new messages instead of old ones but that was also fixed within a short time.

Australia- had problems with their ticket validation system on the buses in two states.

US- had 150 slot machines stop working at some race tracks in Delaware and the U.S Naval Observatory with runs the master clock that keeps official time for the whole country showed the date on its website as Jan. 1, 19100.

France- had the same problem on the weather forecast website Metro France which showed Saturday’s weather and the date as 1/01/19100.

No doubt there were some other minor problems across the world but all in all we were pretty lucky really that for the most part all was good!

So that brings me to this year and the first New Years Eve in our newly renovated house, the weather forecast is for a hot 37 degrees and we are planning a pool party in our Bali hut with good friends and too much food and drinks no doubt.  The only thing I wish for is relative quite in the morning lol, and not like one New Years Day morning many years ago when we lived in an apartment.  Apart from the annoying dog next door that would bark loudly at his own shadow we had a water pipe burst under the road opposite where we lived and the “Government emergency water brigade” thought they would find the problem at 7am with a jackhammer going at full speed! Normally when you call and tell them about a water leak they take six weeks to come out, what the??

If you enjoyed this art blog you may also enjoy this one; 2. SWEDISH EASTER & Art

So here is a thought for the New Year by Edith Lovejoy Pierce,

“We will open the book.  Its pages are blank.  We are going to put words on them ourselves.  The book is called Opportunity and its first chapter is New Year’s Day.”

From me to you – I wish you the best New Years ever and hope it will bring love, joy, health, wealth and happiness to you all.

Till next time happy painting and sculpting and partying 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.

This painting is of Popeye which is an iconic Adelaide institution, it is privately owned and the first ferry was launched in 1935 and took you between Elder Park and Adelaide Zoo.  The first two boats in service carried 20 passengers each and the three next Popeyes made seated up to 40 people. A very popular tourist attraction and they even took Queen Elizabeth ll and Prince Philip on a little ride in 1977.  The new fiberglass models,  was launched in 1982 by the then Prime Minister Malcom Fraser.

If you look closely at this acrylic on board painting you will see me, my husband and the two kids in the middle of the boat, the kids loved going on it when they were little (I’m in pink and hubby green).  I have even done a ceramic and mosaic version of this painting which hung in the old Adelaide Airport for many years.

JAPAN & ART

I will get back to the Popeye story soon but firstly let me tell you why we came to take another ride on the boat a few years back.  When the kids were in high school here in Australia they had a program going whereby Japanese exchange students would come over for 2 weeks each year and learn English and also learn about the Australian way of life. So we discussed this as a family and all thought it would be a worthwhile experience for our family to do.  We thought it would help to teach the kids tolerance and respect for other customs and cultures and perhaps learn a little Japanese too. I have for many years had a strong connection to Japan anyway.

During my modeling days I fulfilled a couple of contracts there as a Fashion model each one of three months duration (that’s another story) and then as I have written about in these art blogs 57. “THE SIGNING OF THE CONTRACT” ‎as well as 64.  “FLYING TO JAPAN” ,  I have also traveled there many times for my art exhibitions as well.

In any case all the parents who agreed to have the Japanese students attended meetings and were given information and lists of what to do and not to do, what was expected of us and also some basic words in Japanese. According to this information the Japanese students loved going for car rides, sightseeing, shopping (particularly for souvenirs), food shopping (as they liked to see the different types of food we have here) exploring Museums and Galleries and going out for lunch and dinner.

THE ART OF BEING A TOURIST

Over the years this had all worked very well and we had 5 students come and stay with us over the years and all were delightful.  However one particular boy drove me completely nuts one day, he was a very quite boy and hard to communicate with but seemed happy enough.  A week or so into his stay when we had been very busy with life and work we thought we better plan a day for the boy to see a bit more of Adelaide.

None of us really had any time to this, I could not really afford to take any time away from the art studio, my teenage daughter was supposed to go to a birthday party which she regretfully cancelled and son and hubby likewise cancelled other engagements. We asked him what he thought of the plans and he seemed very excited at the prospect so up early in the morning and into the car for a big day of fun.

Now we lived a three hour round trip to the city and with a few detours for points of interest we covered a quite a few kilometers to say the least.  However the “Star” of the day sat bolt upright with his eyes firmly closed asleep for the entire trip, (as only the Japanese can do on transport,lol) only to open them for a minute or two when poked to have a look at something.

ART & TOURISM

Then as we showed him the Museum and the Art Gallery, he walked everywhere with us but looked down on the floor the whole time, and when we sat down to enjoy a lovely lunch he was not hungry and only had a glass of water. So we thought a spot of shopping would surely get him in the mood and took him to the center of the shops and asked what type of things he wanted to get and which shops he would like to go to?

That’s when he informs us that he doesn’t like to shop and doesn’t want to buy anything! What was wrong with telling us that yesterday!!  So at this stage we are nearly all tearing our hair out, my children rolling their eyes as teenagers do. We then ask him what he would like to do now and when no suggestions were forthcoming we suggest a few other things and he settles for a ride on the Popeye.

So we go and purchase the tickets, now the tickets aren’t expensive but for the five of us it’s still 60 dollars, ordinarily I would not have minded, but when the five of us sat down and the Japanese boy promptly fell asleep again I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry, lol. However the four of us looked at each other and just cracked up laughing, thinking about what we should/could have been doing that day instead of dragging this sleeping boy around Adelaide and totally wasting everybody’s time.  We laughed till tears streamed down our faces and still the boy just slept.

So as we drove the one and a half hours back to the farm I thought of this quote by Ralph Waldo Emerson (essayist and Philosopher)

“Finish each day and be done with it.  You have done what you could. Some blunders and absurdities no doubt crept in; forget them as soon as you can.  Tomorrow is a new day; you shall begin it well and serenely.”

Till next time happy painting and sculpting to you all,

Love Marie xxx

FOOTNOTE; we hope and pray that our Japanese exchange students; Kaori, Kazuya, Takahiro, Yuki and Megumi, and their families and friends are all safe and well after the Tsunami.  We are thinking about you and hoping to hear from you.  Love Marie, Bryan, Kai and Hillivi xxxx                (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.

As previously said I started painting when I was pregnant with my first baby and the very day my son Kai turned one years old we set off travelling by car to Katherine in the Northern Territory.

We had his birthday party on the Sunday before and then said our goodbyes as my husband was going to be working on the Tindal Airbase where houses for the air force were currently under construction.

ARTISTIC INSPIRATIONS IN COOPER PEDY

The distance was only, lol 3000 kilometers, this country Australia is big remember, so we figured we should do it in 3-4 days without too much trouble.  The first night we spent in a dug out, that’s the way most people of Cooper Pedy live in what seems very much like a normal home but completely underground.  The town inhabitants are mainly opal miners and other essential services that support the town of about 5000 people.

When you first get there you think it’s a deserted place as all you can see is holes in the ground and something poking out of the ground which is actually the ventilation shafts that go down to all the rooms (looks like a small white plastic pipe).  There are some larger ones to let a bit of light into the kitchen and living rooms.   We stayed the night in a dug out motel, it was lots of fun but I have to admit I felt just a little claustrophobic; however it was totally silent and very cool.  The temperature can get to 50 degrees in Cooper Pedy so it is a very clever way to keep cool without air-conditioning.

THE ART OF CELEBRATING

We had done a day’s drive when we got to the dugout hotel, our little boy Kai was ready for bed so Bryan and I settled into our room and celebrated our sleeping baby boys birthday with a take away hamburger (vegetarian for me) and a bottle of champagne (of course!)

ART AND A SPA

The next day we kept driving and in the end it took us 4 days to reach Katherine, the whole way I was excitedly looking out for the rainforest and the palm trees which I mistakenly as it happened thought would soon appear on the horizon.  But oh no that is up Cairns way and the closest we got to that tropical feel was in the very picturesque Mataranka Thermal Pool.  Now that is my idea of heaven, a virtual oasis in this very bare and hot landscape sprouts a palm forest with a natural pool which is a constant 34 degree fed by a spring.  I could have stayed there for a month at least!

However it is the subject matter of this painting that I was going to tell you about “Condos in Katherine” acrylic on canvas board, sold long ago, but available as a limited edition Giclee print for any of you out there interested;  Giclee Prints for sale

ARTISTIC INSPIRATIONS

What so fascinated me when we first got up to the Northern Territory was this great big mounds made of clay by the termites.  To me they seemed like little cities with skyscrapers full of little apartments and I just could not get the image out of my mind.  I saw all the ants, living in their little flats, going about their business, making meals, house cleaning, having a sleep and going about their days just like we do.  So of course I had to paint it.  The image has been very popular and was also used in a book published by McGraw-Hill Publishers called Art Smart written by Lou Chamberlain, there I had my own chapter in a field of the great artists like Picasso, Miro and Da Vinci, and so you understand I was rather pleased.

THE ART OF TERMITES

The termite “homes” are usually referred to as Anthills here in Australia and they grow very large in the Northern Territory.   The ants mix saliva and mud together which becomes like cement (the ones I saw were red oxide in colour) and can take over 50 years to finish, and can contain a few million ants.  So I probably gave them bigger apartments then they are used too, lol.  However the termite nest can actually stretch up to 10 meters underground apart from what we can see aboveground, so perhaps that was where the opal miners of Cooper Pedy got their dugout ideas from?  The ants also have lots of tunnels that act as an air-condition system and also contain indoor gardens, nurseries and it goes without saying that the Queen has her own chamber!  Here is another travel art blog that you may enjoy 6. San Francisco Art Blog with more artworks and fun.

So here is a quote from Charles Darwin (naturalist) which I think fits well in here,

“It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives.  It is the one that is the most adaptable to change.”

Till next time 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 is of my brother Matt’s band Clowns of Decadence, they all came from the Northern suburbs of Adelaide South Australia and the music grew out of the punk genre and they became a very well known pub band during the early 80’s and 90’s touring around Australia and also New Zealand.

A very Arty band of course due in part to my brothers influence. The Clowns of Decadence ensemble was large scale which also included fire eaters and other various artistic acts in its repertoire.

Matt Jonsson was the drummer and in charge of designs of backdrops and album covers and other visual influences, however all the band members were all very creative and talented and they made a fantastic team.

They still have a fan group on Face book all these years later.  So this painting was obviously a lot of fun to create.

BANDS & ART

This particular night was at the Entertainment Centre in Adelaide where they had a live cross to Hey Hey It’s Saturday, (television show) and an interview by Molly Meldrum.

There was another 3 bands I think performing that night as well. I went there with Bryan (husband) and met my mum and dad in the car park.

ARTISTIC MOTHER

What made me laugh was that my darling mother had been to a Melbourne cup luncheon recently and had made herself a rather unusual hat. My mum is very good at sewing and not afraid of standing out in the crowd even though at this stage she was in her 60’s.   You can spot her in the left hand corner with the rather tall top hat with a horse on it, a real artwork.

My Dad was mortified and tried to talk her out of this hat before we went in,  but mother would not be convinced of otherwise.  She was going to wear this hat come hell or high water to her son’s concert.

I must say I applaud her courage.  It is a fantastic thing to be and individual and proud of it and most probably some of my getting out on a limb also comes from mum, although most people say the artistic side is from my father’s side but I think it’s a bit of both. So the man with the beard is my father and then there is my husband and me dancing next to them.

Check out the action under the sound guys table.

What a wonderful night.

From the wit and wisdom of Oscar Wilde here is another saying that I like,

“All women are like their mothers.  That is their tragedy.

No man does.  That’s his.”

Hope you come and visit me soon again till then happy painting and sculpting everyone!

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.

We Swedes are weird, you know in a nice way, and it wasn’t until we immigrated to Australia that I realized that fact.  Well if you don’t believe me take a look at the painting below.  That’s an Easter painting that I was commissioned to do by my American gallery a few years ago.  The owner like me is Swedish and I had free reign to paint whatever I choose as long as it was to do with Easter.  Notice something strange about it, what’s with all the witches on broomsticks I hear you say????  Well that’s perfectly normal, no little cute bunnies for us Swedes, no we have witches flying around and flying off to Blakulla (the Blue Mountain) to meet the man downstairs!

As a child we would dress up as Easter witches, raided mums or grandma’s wardrobe for long skirts wore colourful head scarves and painted our cheeks red, and then we would go from house to house in our neighbourhood and knock on the doors and be given lollies and sometimes fruit.  Much like the Americans does for Halloween.

PAINTING EGGS

We would also spend a day painting boiled eggs which would later be eaten for the Easter celebration together with a smorgasbord feast.  We would go and pick small branches and twigs of willow and birch (the ones with lots of soft little fury buds, so cute!) and then we would decorate it with feathers and small witches on broomsticks and other decorations much like a little Christmas tree.

Here is the painting framed and now you can see the eggs on the side.  Yes we would receive an Easter egg to but not one made from chocolate, instead it was made from cardboard with bright pictures on it or from plastic and usually filled to the brim with lollies and chocolates.

But of course mine was a bit different, always being the eccentric (oh yes I do admit that).  So what do you think mine was filled with, something really yummy, that I could not usually eat as much of as I would like of course….a jar of peanut butter that’s what.  Weird kid, weird Swedish kid.lol

If you fancy seeing this painting animated with all the witches flying around use this link on Youtube Art and Music with Marie

Here is a true fact from the book “The mammoth book of useless information”

Chocolate contains phenyl ethylamine, the same chemical that your brain produces when you fall in love.

So eat up good folks and also happy painting and sculpting everyone!

Till next time

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.