This Artwork is called “Shop till you drop” but it should probably be named according to how we felt at the time lol but that would have to include some not so lady like words – you see if you look closely in the orange car on the left you will see us.

There is a Japanese exchange student in the back, next to her is Hillivi they are both happy and giggly and chatting away like girls do at the age of 13.  Then there is Bryan less pleased and me sitting next to Kai who is learning to drive….. need I say more, you get the picture?

THE ART OF DRIVING

I really should have painted me pulling my hair out and can you see the steam coming out from my ears?

Both  Bryan and I taught our 2 kids to drive, and for the most part they were really good students and careful drivers.  However there were always one or two days here and there when our patience was tested to the limit.

One night as we were leaving the city driving at 80 km on a straight road with not a car insight we saw the traffic lights up ahead and they were clearly red, however darling son for some unknown reason decided that RED meant go and just sailed straight through them.  Claiming that he never saw the red light at all, it actually worried us so much that we sent him to the Doctors to get checked to see if he was colour-blind, imagine that for the son of an artist!

Another time when it was our daughters turn to learn to drive and we had been out to dinner in the city and I again was sitting in the front seat supervising when we were pulled over by the Police.  This was a Random Breath test and Hillivi passed with flying colours of course, not so much fun when it was her mother’s turn.

In Australia you are allowed to have one or two drinks as long as you register under .05 and as I had only had one drink of wine with dinner I thought this would be a synch, however the police man looked at me sternly and insinuated that it was touch and go.

Lucky for me I was still under the required limit, but it did give me a fright.  Off we went again with baby girl at the helm for the one and a half hour drive home, and we had not gone too far before we were diverted by road works, very badly sign posted and confusing road works  which threw the “new driver” into a tizz.  However she managed well with the diversion and we were on our way again.

If you fancy seeing some more of my handmade ceramic and mosaic wall based sculptures here is a link MOSAIC & CERAMIC ARTWORKS

MORE ART IDEAS

By this time out of the city limits and laughing and talking about our adventures when I suddenly screamed at Hillivi to stop, luckily her reflexes were good because just as we go into a bend doing 80km there were 200 sheep standing there in the middle of the road.

So suddenly again we have to spring into action, two of us walking and herding the sheep in the pitch black night and Bryan in the car but to no avail so we get help from the nearest farm house (where as we found out the sheep belonged there anyway) We did have some extremely hairy moments when a couple of big trucks came ploughing through not seeing either us or the sheep as this bend is very dangerous in an otherwise straight road.  All is well that ends well and all the sheep lived to tell the tale.

Here is a qoute I like by Jean Kerr (writer)

“If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs, it’s just possible you haven’t grasped the situation.”

Happy painting and sculpting everyone!

Love Marie

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.

]]> https://mariejonssonharrison.com.au/46-learner-drivers/feed/ 2 https://mariejonssonharrison.com.au/44-what-a-disaster/ https://mariejonssonharrison.com.au/44-what-a-disaster/#comments Tue, 14 Sep 2010 08:33:09 +0000 http://www.mariejonssonharrison.com.au/new/?p=1156 ART IN THE SPA

So you know the drill, you have a special occasion coming up, something romantic like an anniversary maybe, lol and you want to celebrate in style and make it special.  Well that’s what we have done with nearly all of our wedding anniversaries, bar a few when the kids were little and we could not bear to leave them or money was short.

(In this painting “Rub a dub dub, there is a woman in my tub!” I was having a somewhat better time that what evolved, oh and there seems to be some Romeo peeking in too, I’m sure that’s not Bryan.)

Otherwise a night or two in a fancy hotel is in order, room service, champagne, best bottle of red we can afford, romantic dinner by candlelight, room with a view and a spa of course.  Now as it happened this year we had just had 2 weeks with all of the above in Bali and then come home to a very very hectic move into the new house and we thought mmm… new house, kids away for the weekend, let’s just stay home- we now have the view, 2 spas to choose from, hubby had bought ingredients for a lovely dinner set the table with candle lights etc., everything was planned.

So it should have been perfect then right?  WRONG  – Silly us – instead of taking the day off, we decided that we would each work until 3pm when we would meet on the patio for drinks and nibbles.

You see with the new house and all and it’s renovation time, the laundry needed an overhaul, so hubby is busy doing that whilst I am in the art studio.

Both of us tearing our hair out as it happens, as everything that could go wrong did go wrong!  At hubby’s end the newly bought cupboards are the too small, shelves are for a pantry and not a laundry, wrong hoses and fittings that doesn’t match and to top that off he drops the bench top on his leg and at first thinks it’s broken (lucky it is not but looks nasty). Oh and the new tiles are the wrong shade of white and will have to be returned.

ART GALLERY

In the studio I am fearing no better, I have just received a $400 dollar cheque for a painting which should have sold for $1500!  So I am trying to find out what went wrong there, is the mistake our end or gallery end?  Then the emails decide that they won’t send, not even one email, they just go into cyberspace somewhere.  Where do all this emails go anyway- is there some sort of catchment area for stray emails?  I cannot reach anyone by phone either as our new number is playing up, topped up with the iphone that now is refusing to send messages too!  Oh and did I forget to tell you the ART website was having issues too!

So there were two cranky people that met up not at 3pm but by now 5pm for a bottle of Champagne!   Ok so hubby has now got the spa going and has lined the entire bathroom with candle lights, very romantic.

He goes off and checks the water level and adds a bit more bubbles to the water and then rather sheepishly calls for me to join him.

NEW PAINTING IDEAS

Well you should have seen it – he had somehow upended the bottle of soapsuds and now we had a ‘white soapsud monster’ growing in the spa, it grew and grew and covered half way up the walls and put all the candles out, filled up the wineglasses and then proceeded to travel over the spa itself till the whole bathroom was covered.  Well as if that was not enough, why should that be enough I ask you- let’s bring it on! – and it did, because now the ‘white soapsud monster’ was starting to travel down the carpet covered hallway, as I am alternatively laughing and screaming at hubby to hop out of the spa and help me save the carpet and furniture!  You get the picture!

I know now why he did nothing to help as by the time I finally hopped into the spa I understood entirely- the temperature of the spa was that hot-you actually cooked upon getting in and any rational thoughts, never mind the romantic ones simply vanished!

So in the end when the water cooled down a bit I ended up having a lovely spa with our two dogs, whilst hubby called the local Indian take away delivery service, as by this stage it was really late and he was not in the mood to cook.  We did finally have a rather nice night, exchanged presents, laughed and said let’s just get DRUNK!

I think this saying fits rather nicely here by Martin Luther (Theologian)

“He who does not like wine, song, and wife, Remains a fool for the whole of his life.”

Till next time happy painting and sculpting to you all,

Love Marie  xx

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.

How fantastic the internet is!!!

Oh it’s probably all ho-hum to you lot, but you see I am a real newcomer to this.  My Husband/Manager Bryan has been looking after my old art website and anything electronic since forever and I swore black and blue that I was just not INTERESTED and did not even know how to turn the stupid thing on!  I used to say when asked that I still marveled at the invention of lighting a match.

Well how things change….I got a laptop for Christmas and here we are and now I think it is the best thing since sliced bread and my children and husband say, welcome to the 21^st century.

SOCIAL MEDIA & ART

One of the fabulous advantages for me has been the re-connection with my Swedish relatives through Face book which is another thing I so love.  The time just runs away when you are on that, so parents don’t be so hard on your kids, they can’t help it, time speeds up I swear. Lol Really nice to meet so many new face book friends too.  You see there is a whole artistic community on Facebook & Linkedin and so many art groups and artists which is fantastic.

Anyway had a message from my cousin, whose mother had bought 3 of my paintings at my Swedish exhibition a few years back.  He had heard that I often paint the family in my work and asked where we were.  His question was “Where is Waldo?” (The Swedes have a funny way with translations; it should be Wally, right lol)

MY FAMILY IN PAINTINGS & PRINTS

So I sent him this picture of “Pottering at the Port” so he could compare and find us in the other paintings (we are on top of the lighthouse on the right hand side Bryan in an orange shirt, little Kai and Hillivi and me next to them waving. No clue who is next to us, never spoke to them, so never found out! Lol)

You see I nearly always paint us as we were when the kids were little.  Hillivi will be forever 4 and Kai 8 years old. I don’t know why I do that; perhaps it is because they were just mine and Bryan’s then.

We did not have to share them with boyfriends and girlfriends and work and just life.

They will forever be my baby girl and baby boy and I still call them that today, as you can imagine that was not a cool thing to be called during the awkward teenage years but they coped well with their mothers little idiosyncrasies.  Although understandably teenage son at 18 was less than pleased when I called him my little “Possum Poo” in front of his new girlfriend, I think as I remember I got a bit of silent treatment then, well deserved too, but I swear it just slipped out.  The lights were on but there was no one home. Lol

Here is another saying I like from Price Cobb a racing car driver.

“Some days you’re a bug.  Some days you’re a windshield.”

Till next time, 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.

As a lot of you know by now we live on a farm, although recently we have reduced said farm’s acreage substantially.  However it is and has been a wonderful place to live and for our children to grow up on, and with so many tales to tell. The farm and the country side in general was a wonderful and inspirational setting for an artist, supplying vistas that I never got tired of recreating in artworks or paintings or writing about in Art blogs.  Here is a painting which sold in America which pictures the country side here, not quite our farm but a romantic view of it.  What it does show is the White Ute (pickup truck) and that is what this story is all about.

One of our friends had a sheep called Smokey, not your normal type of sheep, no this one was the potato chip eating variety, that had been hand raised in a Hotel, all you had to do was to rattle a chip packet and Smokey would come running and nearly bowl you over whilst licking her lips.  The Publican and his wife were now moving away, the cute but by now Big sheep was looking for a new home.  Yep and that was us, so Bryan dear hubby of mine thought he would swing past said friend and pick Smokey up.

WHAT A PICTURE

He rolled up in his White ute and now with a bit of blokey discussion back and forth they decided that the only way they could transport this sheep (as he was you know, more like a family member than a sheep) in the FRONT Seat of the ute.

Yep that’s right, that’s where Smokey sat for the 25 minute drive from Mallala to Balaklava.  Oh did I forget to tell you, of course he had his seat belt done up, that’s the road rules you know.

So here is little wifey-poo patiently waiting for hubby and sheep to arrive home, you know on the back of the ute like, and I cannot tell you of the fright I got when they arrived home late after dark and I looked into the passenger window and saw this very strange creature sitting there looking at me, sitting on her bum mind you, upright with the seatbelt across her and looking out the window.

Crazy men, I just thank the lucky stars that she sat perfectly still the entire trip cause otherwise neither of them would probably have made it home that night. Lol

Here is some more of the wit and wisdom of Oscar Wilde with his quote:

“I sometimes think that God in creating man somewhat overestimated his ability”

I hope you will come and visit me again, 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.

So here I am again, talking to myself lol, or maybe you, if you are out there somewhere.  So my artist website is finally up and running after its initial crash and then what seemed to be an eternity whilst it was being redesigned by Powwow.  And they did a very good job too I am pleased with it.  Hope you all use the E cards, free of course and add your own caption to a couple of them.  I have had fun thinking of captions myself, but I am sure you can think of plenty. You should find something there for every occasion.  We will be changing them from time to time to, like Christmas and Valentine’s Day etc.  This painting now a print and a portion of it is an E-card “The true colours of Hindley Street” is a favorite of mine.

HINDLEY STREET

I had so much fun painting this and it was bought by a psychiatrist and hangs in the waiting room, where it is very popular with the clients.  In my youth Hindley Street in Adelaide, South Australia was The place to hang out, we would often “crack a Hindley” and check out what was going down, lol.  You would find every type of person there, much like Kings Cross in Sydney.  The establishments offered everything from fast foods, to books, gelaterias, charity shops, pasta and pizza, nightclubs, dry cleaning, as well as adult only shops and strip joints.  People of every race and religion was there just to look or in the case of The Salvation Army and The Hare Krishna’s, there to convert some wayward souls.  Don’t know if it did them any good but it certainly was interesting.

So what a fantastic place for an artist to get inspired to paint a picture, there has been many reincarnations over the years and different shops have come and gone, but basically the feel of the street has remained the same.

If you are not familiar with the twisties packets in the pockets of the raincoat brigade, you may have to listen to the lyrics of Skyhooks’ Living in the Seventies Album’.  Lol, they were a major influence on me and a band I still love.  Mmm…Talking bands, AC/DC you ROCK!!

ARTnBED – ARTWORKS ON YOUR BED

There has actually been a very interesting development in this story as this painting Hindley Street has this year 2012 been made into quilt covers or duvet by ARTnBED.   So if you are interested in having art not only on your wall but also on the bed here is a couple of links for you to check out ArtNBed website and also my blog on the subject 140 ART n BED as well as the page ARTnBED.  Look out for more of my artworks, as the bedding range will be added too soon.

Here is another saying that amuses me…

God may have created man before woman but there is always a rough draft before the masterpiece.

Till next time happy painting and sculpting to you too!

Much 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.