Marie Jonsson Harrison » Nadine Williams

110 Artists Lunch

mariejon — Sat, 26 Nov 2011 02:52:52 +0000

DISCUSSING ART

On Tuesday this week it was my very overdue turn to have “The Artist lunch” at my house. You see a bunch of us have been meeting every now and then for the last 20 years, getting together over a good meal and some drinks and talking shop! Well not just about art, life in general too and along the way we have shared in the ups and downs of life and as you would expect over time there has been plenty of those too.

THE NAIVE GROUP

We were trying to figure out how we met the other day – there were 3 of us “core” people, all 3 naive artists that initially got together, we think it came about when another naive artist Howard William Steer (Story Art) had wanted to meet the new kid on the block, moi! As he and I had a joint exhibition over in Melbourne very early on in my career, I did not attend the opening so Howard came to visit when we lived in the church and brought Ursula Kiessling with him.

ARTISTS OF ALL GENRES

Ursula paints bush and wildlife in a semi naive repeated pattern – her use of colors is second to none. How we then met Bronwen Roodenrys (who paints gorgeous sophisticated naive ladies and big cats) is for now a blank, lol but anyway glad we did, and we have added more “core” people to the group and not just naïf but all sorts of artists. Catherine Fitz-Gerald who paints mainly large succulent and delicious fruits that cover the whole canvas, which makes me hungry every time I see them and Lynley Cooper who can turn her hand to any medium and style and always experiments and surprises us every time often with large scale contemporary works. My image above is from another lunch that whoops, lol turned into midnight, funny how that happens. It is handmade ceramic and mosaic and if you look closely on the left hand side you can see me with the ponytail sticking up in the air and hubby a little worse for wear spilling his beer. Fun time had by all!

ARTISTS & ANIMATORS & WRITERS

The person that hosts the lunch can invite whoever they please and can add and subtract the invitation list as they chose which makes it very interesting. So in attendance on Tuesday at my place were apart from the aforementioned were Valli Palmgreen, a Finish/Estonian artist who I have admired from afar for many years, she paints quirky pictures with the feel of Beryl Cook but in her own way. Sarah Philip, the wife of our electrician that did our new house and as it turns out she lives on the same street as us and is a talented muralist and abstract artist. Jenni Mumford paints in oils in Post-Impressionistic styled landscapes and still life and lives in Encounter Bay with views to die for which no doubt inspires her work. Also in attendance was Suzie Flashman, my neighbour whose talents include animation (she did my animations on my website) and wildlife photography and she has also recently started drawing in pastels. Of course we cannot forget Nadine Williams, journalist and award winning Author of the book From France with Love, which is optioned for a movie. She also runs her own website which is in magazine style and always very interesting.

ART AND FOOD

The only problem now was what to feed these lovely people as I don’t cook, well unless you count burned toast and boiled water as a good menu for a dinner party! Lucky for them I had a flash of an idea – I am good at assembling, lol. So off to the supermarket I trot and with help from a great guy behind the counter, who was very amused at my lack of knowledge in the small goods section (as a vegetarian that is not my forte, lol ) I came home with shaved smoked ham, turkey, roast beef and salami. To that I added cheese, dolmades, boiled eggs, tossed salad, olives, broccoli and capsicum sticks, crackers and dip, red/white wine and sparkling red (my favorite). The artists brought dips and bread, chicken, coconut rice, fruit and cake, wine and champagne and so we had a feast fit for a king. Hubby who was supposed to have a rest day could not keep away and was like a bee in the honey pot! This time around all the artists was women, but that is not the rule! We finished up just before 5pm and I look forward to the next one!

Another naive artist I greatly admire is Grandma Moses who lived to the ripe old age of 101 and I named my darling dog Moses after her and just like his name sake Moses lived to the grand old age of 18 which for a dog is pretty good. Grandma Moses didn’t start painting until her late 70’s, a late bloomer so to speak and spent her old age as an American celebrity. Here is one of her quotes that I like:

“Life is what we make it, always has been, always will be.”

Till next time happy painting and sculpting and whatever else you are doing,

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.

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.)

24. Noodles Anyone – painting

Marie — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 01:25:17 +0000

COUNTRY ARTS

I had so much fun painting this painting “Noodles Anyone” which depicts Francis and Putu , a couple who run this fantastic restaurant in the small mid north town of Burra called White Cedars Indonesian Cafe and Gallery.

ART & BALI

It is the last place on earth that you would expect to find a gorgeous little Balinese place, but once you’ve been there you have to return.

I don’t remember how I was initially introduce to them, but what I did know right away was that I really liked them both and we had so much in common particularly as we go nearly every year to Bali.

They asked me a couple of years ago to have an ART exhibition there for the Sala Festival and a great success it was too, they do not do things by half.

White Cedars was filled to overflowing with people and both the food and the wine were too. It is the people that make a town great so hats off guys!

You see Putu is from Bali and Francis after spending 32 years as a Primary school teacher built his ultra-modern minimalist dream house at Maslin Beach SA.

Four years later the adventure bug bit and Francis moved to Bali where he met Putu and together they built another dream house but this time in the Balinese traditional style with grass roof and open to the elements surrounded by a vibrant tropical garden, jungle and fast flowing streams and art of course.

They eventually decided to pick up stumps and settled in Burra where despite the cold they have made a wonderful go of it. So much so that Putu is now becoming a true blue Aussie this coming Saturday.

ARTISTIC LICENCE

On this painting it is Putu dancing on the table in their establishment, he actually does a stunning Balinese performance and has even done so at several major events around the state although I must claim artistic licence to the noodles between the toes, I never did see him do that, lol.

Putu also doubles as the head chef, whilst Francis handles front of house with nothing being too much trouble for his guests. So if you are in Burra look them up!

This exhibition has now come and gone but went very well and I thank you all for attending Naive View.

Apart from my artworks in the main gallery, there was also artworks on show by the Ladies from the Valley showing Pots ‘n’ Paints and also Parallel 1930 by Gaara Arts showing works by Broken Hill Women Artists.

AUTHOR & jOURNALIST

It is being opened by Nadine Williams, acclaimed international journalist and author of the bestseller “From France with Love” which has now also been optioned to be made into a movie. So it should be quite a swell affair. Here is an art blog 101 From France with Love on Nadine.

I know for most of you spread across the world that is way too far to go, maybe next time.

Here is another quote I like by Ernestine Ulmer (writer)

“Life is uncertain. Eat dessert first.”

Happy painting and Sculpting everyone.

Love Marie xxx