As another year turns the corner I cannot help but be very thankful for the last one and wishing the New Year will also be kind to us all.  The most important thing for me is of course the health and wellbeing of my family and friends but if I could I certainly would extend that wish to all living people and animals big and small!  World peace, health, wealth and happiness for all that’s my wish.  Yes of course I am a dreamer,  that goes hand in hand with being an artist!  So I will try with my art to make you smile with my paintings and sculptures.  Perhaps also poke a little bit of fun and hopefully now and again also make you think about something that you hadn’t thought of before, perhaps something that you could also do to make the world a better place.

ART ON A CHOCOLATE BOX

I have had an amazing year work wise and it has ended on such a perfect note with my chocolate box (chocolate tin) by Sv. Michelsen for 2015 just having arrived on the market.  They are the leading chocolatier and collected by the Her Majesty the Queen of Denmark.  All the chocolate boxes (tins) are numbered and the first one; number #1 goes to the Queen Margrethe ll, number #2 stays with Sv.Michelsen which are third generation chocolatiers and number #3 goes to me the artist.  It goes without saying that the chocolate tastes divine and it’s all gluten free too.

2015 KUNSTDASE

This amazing privilege all came about last year after I had quite a few exhibitions in Denmark, organized by my European agent Eliane Kristensen who divides her time between France and Denmark.   At the Easter show for the Knud Grothe Gallery (one of the most prestigious galleries in Denmark) I was selected to be the featured artist and this then led to Sv Michelsen seeing my work for the first time and commissioning me to paint an image for the new 2015 chocolate tin.

MY ROYAL CONNECTION

If you look really closely at the painting you will find Princess Mary and Prince Fredrick and their 4 children clad in formal clothes with their sashes and tiaras on too.

It was so fun to paint and I would really like to thank both Eliane and Knud for this wonderful opportunity!

ADVERTISER NEWS ARTICLE

The newspaper article attached was on page 3 of the Advertiser on Boxing Day and from all the messages and emails, phone calls and text I got afterwards I can only assume that a lot more people sat down during the Christmas break and read the paper than they normally do during the week, lol!  So thank you so much everyone that was really special.  Very special too for me to have Hillivi beside me, it has been so much fun for us to get to model together.  So many people remark on how similar we look and now Hillivi calls it Twinning! LOL

ART BLOGS

The coming year is proving to be just as busy as the last one and therefore something has finally got to give I am afraid and that is the regular big blogs – you may have noticed for the last little while I have been a little lax with my artblogs and for that I apologize.  This year I will try another format.  I have found that my blogging takes up so much time and I have been struggling so hard to keep up with my painting and sculpting deadlines that eventually something had to give!  So from now on I will perhaps write a longer blog only now and again and instead keep you updated with photos and some words about what is happening in my world.  I look forward to still seeing your comments and sharing your worlds too.

QUOTES

So for now I leave you this year with this quote by Bill Vaughan;

“An optimist stays up until midnight to see the new year in. A pessimist stays up to make sure the old year leaves.”

Till next time happy painting and sculpting and Happy Holidays to you all.

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.

Today I thought I would share with you some of the pictures taken at Danish art exhibition in Copenhagen, Denmark.  The naive paintings show is at the Galerie Knud Grothe and on until the 4^th May.

This acrylic on board painting below is called Viva La Nudie Rudie which just sold the other day.  It features the Adelaide Rundle Mall during one of our Festival of Arts that happens each year.  The people running through the mall were painted in bright block colours and were part of a French performance troupe that visited Australia as part of the Festival and were completely nude apart from being covered in a bright coloured paint.  Part of their performance was to run through the city where they were unfortunately arrested by the police for public indecency, being naked in a public place, lol.  The South Australian police obviously had no sense of humour and certainly did not understand art!  I however took great delight in this spectacle and it inspired at least 2 paintings on the subject.

GALERIE KNUD GROTHE

This exhibition is with a very prestigious  art gallery in Copenhagen, Denmark called Galerie Knud Grothe and this Easter Exhibition is the 30 year celebration of this Naive Art show.  Knud does not do things by half so he had a Jazz Band playing, chocolate eggs by Michelsen and served lots of red wine!

CONTEMPORARY ARTISTS IN DENMARK

Gallery Knud Grothe was established in the 1970’s and is still going strong exhibiting a rich mixture of contemporary art from around the world as well as Denmark of course.  Knud says his favourite genre of art is naive paintings and he has a yearly exhibition at Easter showcasing the naive artists in his gallery.

There are so many wonderful artists in this show it is impossible to feature everybody or even to feature my favorites, as there are lots.  So all I can offer is a little snapshot of the exhibition and hope that you enjoy the wonderful work of these Danish naive artists.

ARTISTIC HISTORY

I have shared with you in another artblog that I have recently had some other art exhibitions in Copenhagen, Denmark and you may be forgiven to think that it was  GALERIE KNUD GROTHE I was exhibiting with, but no it was some other gallery and if you fancy you can read about one of them here;   177 ART EXHIBITIONS IN COPENHAGEN, DENMARK & SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA Also here are a couple of blogs about Knud and his incredible generosity and the history of how my participation in this show came about; 182 GIVING PAINTINGS AS GIFTS and 180 ART AND THE KINDNESS OF STRANGERS and 193 NAIVE ARTIST Walther Schaldemose

ARTS AND QUOTES

Here is a quote I love about skipping which also reflects what I think about Naive art.

“Skipping is inner joy meets outer joy.”

(Jessi Lane Adams)

My husband once told me that skipping is unbecoming for a woman past 40 but really I couldn’t care less I do it anyway!

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

The Art of Golf is a strange title really for someone like me to write about as I must confess that at golf I am hopeless, lol but I do have a lot of fun anyway.  Perhaps even more fun than actually playing the game was painting golfers in this naive artwork in acrylic on canvas board of some golfers who perhaps unlike me know what they are doing.

My experience with golf is very limited to a few rounds in my teenage years with my dad and then recently with our son Kai and his girlfriend Samantha.  My husband and I in anticipation of the planned golf day even got ourselves a set of clubs, second hand from a market but they seemed in good nick and were bought for a song!

PAINTING INSPIRATION

So the golf day arrived and we even had a motorized buggy for the 18 hole golf (Par 5) course and our teachers were Kai (who had played quite a bit in his high school years) and Samantha.  What probably should have taken them a few hours to get around the golf link took nearly the whole day as I managed to hit the balls in every direction with ducks flying for cover that was, if I even managed to hit the balls at all.  On top of this my son points out time and time again trying to hold his frustration in check; “that golfers do not follow through with their legs and do a high kick like a can-can dancer at the end of every golf stroke”.  And neither do they follow through with their tongues outside the mouth, so it is obvious that I still have a lot to learn!  Who knew!  And there I was thinking I was starting to show some good form.  Luckily we had our lunch packed so there was a highlight to the day, and eating is something that I am good at!

Our second attempt went a little better; no change in either the leg or tongue but this time the course were only Par 3 with a shorter 18 holes and no ducks for me to maim either which Greenpeace will be happy about.

MORE PAINTING IDEAS

My only other connection to Golf was in my modelling days when I was just starting out and had a couple of days on the golf course during a televised tournament with the golf stars of the day.  I guess the job would be better described as a promotional one and my brief had been to try to get as much air time as possible wearing a T-shirt with the “brands” logo on it and shorts.   Long time ago now so I don’t remember what I was advertising but I do know that I they were very pleased with my efforts as I turned up quite frequently on the TV.  Seems to me I should have concentrated a little more on the game and perhaps then I could have learned a trick or two from the overseas golf stars that were here that time.

GOLF QUOTE

So here is a quote I think fits well here by Nubar Gulbenkain;

“It is more satisfying to be a bad player at golf.  The worse you play, the better you remember the occasional good shot”.

Till next time happy painting and sculpting and perhaps golfing.

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.

This week was going to be the one where we finally got to see the Rolling Stones live! Ever since I remember I have loved the Stones, the bad boys of “sex, drugs and rocking roll”.  Well that is before they finally grew up a couple of years ago and decided to kick the bad habits and got healthy.  This  painting was one I did for one of my Japanese art exhibitions in Nagoya and sold to a keen Rolling Stones fan.  The distinctive Rolling Stones big lips logo was designed by John Pasche, was introduced in 1971 and as my naive art exhibition was primarily Cats and Dogs for this show I added some cats to the homage.

ADELAIDE STONES CONCERT

The tickets for the Adelaide concert sold out in minutes and it was just through pure luck that we got some by trawling through the ticket site where only single seats were available.  One seat here and one seat there however we were not to be outdone and had 2 computers set up where we opened page after page looking for 2 tickets in the same area.  And when you are looking at some 50.000 seats in areas numbered from 100 – 500 and then alphabetic rows that is not an easy task.

Well as luck would have it finally we struck gold well figuratively speaking and managed to get 2 seats immediately in front of each other, so we can technically still hold hands lol

WALL BASED ARTWORK

We also purchased at a fundraising dinner the framed Rolling Stones vinyl record and photograph plaque set to commemorate the concert in Adelaide.  Underneath that hangs my grandparents poster for their tivoli and if you want to find out more about that here are a couple of  art blogs; 20. Antonis Tivoli Art and 21. Life in a Circus Tent

Well that was until the sad news of Mick Jagger’s girlfriend fashion designer L’Wren Scott which has put the concert on hold for now.  As disappointed as we are I am sure everyone understands and empathizes with Mick, such devastating news for anyone to deal with.  We are hopeful that the Rolling Stones will announce another date later in the year.

CUTTING EDGE

The Stones formed in England in 1962 and were noted for their long hair and a blues feel to their rock and roll also an air of cutting edge and rebelliousness than that other famous and fabulous band of the same era -The Beatles.

HALL OF FAME

They were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1989 and are on everyone’s list of the Greatest Artists of All Time with estimated album sales of more than 250 million dollars.  The Rolling Stones celebrated their 50^th anniversary in 2012 and last year embarked on a series of concerts in the UK.

BEST STONES SONGS

Whilst I think every one of the stones songs are great my personal favorites are the following; Miss you, Beast of Burden, Can’t get no satisfaction, If you start me up, Emotional rescue, Waiting on a friend, Let’s spend the night together and You can’t always get what you want.

So here is a quote by the Rolling Stones I think fits perfectly here;

“You can’t always get what you want, but if you try sometimes, you might find, you get what you need.”

Till next time happy painting, sculpting and listening to music.

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.

For an artist Adelaide in South Australia is a wonderful place to live, it is a buzzing metropolis for the arts with various festivals and exhibitions and excitement.   We just manage to get over Christmas and then it starts again with the Adelaide Fringe which is the largest annual arts festival in the Southern Hemisphere.  It’s on for 24 days and nights and starts in the middle of February and spills into March – March itself is known as mad March as we then also get the WOMAD ADELAIDE which is a world music festival and also the a tad more highbrow Adelaide Festival where you can catch a performance like The Ring Cycle by Wagner.  Added to the mayhem of March is also Symphony under the Stars and the annual Clipsal 500 which sees the racing car drivers from all over the world descend on little old Adelaide to go round and round and round.  Mind you they arrive hot on the heels of the Tour Down Under which saw all the bikers fresh from Tour de France, who always seem to have to slog their way up impossible hills in 40 degrees of burning sun, their reward is to be celebrated and join in to all the festivities the city has to offer and that is plenty.

This photo was taken at the SALA award night by talented Adelaide photographer Julie Camilleri from Captured in Time Photography.

THE ADVERTISER BUSINESS SA CONTEMPORARY ART PRIZE

This sculpture is called “The Last Catch” and a little unusual for me as normally I am always doing colourful ARTwork, but sometimes it is nice to surprise the audience a little.  It was selected as one of the finalist in The Advertiser Business SA Contemporary Art Prize for the most outstanding work in any medium in another of the famous Adelaide Festivals called SALA which stands for South Australian Living Artists – so it is for those among us that are not dead yet! LOL and if you want to find out more about that Festival here is a link:

FRINGE FESTIVAL

In any case one of my personal favourite is the Fringe Festival, it is a little more grungy, less high brown and more edgy with performances from artists of all kinds from all over the world.  It usually features over 4,000 artists with more than 900 events that are staged in pop-up venues lanes, unused buildings, warehouses, parks, restaurants, theatres, hotels, art galleries and cafes.  What is on offer is EVERYTHING, you name it is there!

ART FORMS GALORE

Adelaide Fringe starts of with a free street parade and opening nights celebrations and parties and then you can choose from all sorts of contemporary work in all the art forms such as circus and physical theatre, dance, film, theatre, puppetry, music, visual art and design, cabaret and of course comedy.  I have previously told you about “The Old Fellow” Rod Gregory:  and now let me tell you about the young fellow Jon Bennett.  He is actually the son of our children’s school teacher Mr Bennett (as he was known to them) they both had Ray as a teacher in primary school and a sweeter are more caring teacher is hard to find.  Ray and his wife Mary are lovely people, very religious and always care for the underdogs and take in foster children and try to make a difference.  But as things happen in life things don’t always go according to plan and that is where Jon Bennett comes in – he is a master of storytelling and has you spellbound with his recollections of his life during the bad times and the good, all whilst having you doubled over in laughter.

COMEDY WITH A HEART

So below is my take on seeing his show the other night and if you get a chance to catch his show when he turns up in your part of the world I highly recommend it.

“Home grown comedian with HEART”

I was busting with pride the other night attending the packed out performance of comedian Jon Bennett son of local couple Ray and Mary Bennett of Pinery.  The show was called Fire in the Meth Lab and yes for some of us who know the history of that event it does sound very controversial and if you are easily offended it is best not to attend.  However for everyone else I really urge you to go as Jon has an incredible knack of taking you on a journey laughing most of the way but also tearing up which usually does not go hand in hand with comedy.  Jon whilst being small in stature has an incredible stage presence which has taken him across the world performing in New York, Chicago, Seattle, Portland, San Francisco, LA, Vancouver, Montreal, Edmonton as well as touring all around Australia Apart from having had a wonderful night what I took home from his performance was the fact that Jon loves his family very much and I hope they are very proud of him, they certainly should be.

Here is a quote I think fits well here by Mary Hirsch;

“Humor is a rubber sword – it allows you to make a point without drawing blood”

Till next time happy painting and sculpting and laughing.

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.

This wall based mosaic and ceramic sculpture hung at Adelaide Airport for many years before the new renovations it was one of 3 commissions that hung in the only cafe open at the airport.   Of course it was lots of fun to make and hopefully cheered people up after a long flight or made them smile before boarding!

THE ART OF A HEATWAVE

Eating and drinking alfresco is something I have always loved.  The name al fresco comes from the Italian language and means to eat outside at a fresh temperature, in the fresh air.   Being born in Sweden and having Europe on our doorstep it is something I grew up doing.  However here in Australia particularly in the summer, the air may not be what you call “fresh” well at least not the temperature (as I am writing this today our temperature here is soaring at 42 degrees Celsius) we are however lucky to have pretty unpolluted air in Australia, so perhaps the saying suits us in that regard.

ARTISTIC INSPIRATION

When we first immigrated to Australia many moons ago there were no outdoor eating places not that we could find anyway.  Luckily for us it is something that has slowly evolved as times gone by with more and more settlers from Europe and Asia arriving and now finally there are alfresco dining places all over Australia.  There used to be all sorts of council laws that forbade it, with scaremongering saying we would all be run over by cars, trucks and buses if there were tables and chairs on the footpath.  The thought that you could take a dog with you and sit outside was another law that took a long time to change.  At first there were only special dog friendly places where you were able to take your dog and sit outside with.  I don’t know what the hiccup was perhaps the old Councillors thought we would all get rabies or transfer the germs to the food or something?  Mmmm maybe that is another idea for a painting or sculpture.

THE ART OF WALKING THE DOG

For many years alfresco dining was a special treat as we lived on the farm in the country where the practice was slower to catch on.  These days we reside in a beach suburb and take daily walk with our dogs on the beaches close by, often with a little stop along the way for a coffee or milkshake.  I cannot tell you how lovely and atmospheric I find it.  I try to always take such delight in the small things in life – the ordinary things like a good cup of coffee, a beautiful view, a smile from a passerby, the happy wag of a dog’s tail.  Each of those things makes up the mosaic of a happy life.

THE ART OF POSITIVE THINKING

I hope you are having a happy life too, and are noticing all the elements around you with a view to the cup being half full, even when you finished the coffee.

Here is a quote I think fits well here by Drew Deyoung;

“Of course I look at the glass half full.  The only time I would look at it half empty is when I think about how good the first half tasted”

Till next time happy painting and sculpting or maybe alfresco dining!

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.

Carols by Candlelight is such a lovely Australian Christmas tradition.  Last week my art blog and painting featured the acrylic painting of Swedish Lucia which was used for Project mapping on the Swedish Embassy in Poland see this story 205 Projection Mapping & Art in Animation This week however the artwork is a wall based sculpture and made from handmade ceramic and mosaic and captures my memories of the Carols by Candlelight celebration in Elder Park here in Adelaide.

AUSTRALIAN TRADITION

The history of the tradition heralds back to the 19^th century in Moonta, South Australia where the Cornish Miners would get together on Christmas Eve with candles stuck to the brims of their safety hats and sing Christmas carols.

The tradition then spread to Victoria and Melbourne and was made popular by a radio personality named Norman Banks.  According to Wikipedia,  Norman was walking home from his night time radio job when he walked past an elderly woman sitting up in bed listening to Christmas carols being sung on the radio.  The woman’s face was lit by candlelight as she sang along and this made Norman wonder how many other people spent Christmas alone.  This in turn gave him the idea and the first ever event was organized in Alexandra Garden Christmas 1938 where 10,000 people attended.

ARTISTS & STARS

These days we celebrate Carols by Candlelight all over Australia in all the capital cities and smaller country towns and they are held on many different dates all throughout December.   The tradition has now spread around the world and people gather usually outdoors in parks and sing carols in choirs and usually accompanied by bands.  Lots of talented artists both very famous and up and coming stars do the rounds of the different shows and they are compared for the most part by Radio and Television personalities.  The audience of course sing along and everyone has a candle or two which they hold up and sway from side to side with the music at times, a very atmospheric sight.

THE ART OF A GOOD CHARITY

The Adelaide event was sponsored this year by Woolworths with the funds raised going to the Women’s & Children’s Hospital Foundation due to the hardworking Marta Harbuzinska, Christina and Natalie Angus and their team and some of the acts featured here were Samantha Jade,  The Collective as well as Humphrey Bear.

ARTISTIC INSPIRATION

As a family we started going to the open concert after our son Kai was born and have only missed a few along the way.  We used to arrive early in the afternoon to stake our claim on a spot close to the stage put down a picnic blanket with a basket full of delicious goodies and lovely wine.  It was a quite a few hours wait before the show began at sunset and we would take turns to head up to the city to shop and walk about.  These days we arrive a little later but it is still something we look forward to very much.  However there was one year that nearly turned us off for life when the weather suddenly changed and turned so nasty we thought we would freeze to death, lol.  We still talk about how the coldness that night was equal to shopping down Canal Street in New York at Christmas time, well nearly anyway!  All wonderful memories for more sculptures, paintings and artworks in the future.

THE ART OF LIGHT

So next year if you haven’t been go along to your nearest Carols by Candlelight no matter what religion or culture you come from it is a lovely event for all concerned.

So here is a quote I think fits well here by Earl Nightingale;  “We all walk in the dark and each of us must learn to turn on his or her own light”

Till next time happy painting and sculpting and maybe carol singing 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.

One thing I am absolutely sure about and that is that everybody are artistic in their own way and the key to that sentence is “in their own way”.  Too much emphasis is put I think on what art is and what has merit and what doesn’t.

Cooking, baking and cake decorating for instance can certainly be an artform, no I don’t mean the vegies and mash, lol but if you have watched the Master Chef series or any of those cooking shows so in vogue now you know what I mean.  Some of those dishes are just too good to eat, real artworks.

PAINTING AND CAKE ART

The cake in this painting “You can have your cake and eat it too” pales in comparison to what you can see offered by the fantastically artistic chefs around the world.  I must say though that I was absolutely thrilled by the surprise birthday cake that my darling daughter made for my recent birthday.  A real piece of art it was “Pigs in Mud” was the theme and as I am rather partial to pigs and have collected pigs for years it was a fitting cake indeed.  I have even painted a painting with the same name although I didn’t say mud but used the word s…, here is that painting and the artblog if you fancy a look 33. Art & Dont worry be happy

ART, MUSIC AND CRAFTS

To me art is about the “doing” “the pursuit”, so whether that is whilst painting, sculpting, drawing, ceramics, china painting, photography, doing mosaics, singing, acting, writing, playing a musical instrument, knitting, crocheting or cooking doesn’t matter.  Whilst we may argue about what is art and what craft is or what is good or bad, it seems to me that the goal posts shift according to time and fashion of the day.   I mean really could the Sex Pistols have sold a million records in the 40’s – I don’t think so and what about a digital art – imagine just 20 years ago asking thousands of dollars for something you can only see on a computer or TV screen.

INSTALLATION ART

What about installations then, some artists are paid millions of dollars for what looks to the rest of us like a pile of firewood or rubbish in a heap.  So I think where I am going with this is don’t be afraid to express yourself in whatever way you desire.  As long as what you are doing is not hurting anyone else and you enjoy the journey, whatever other people think about your artistic expression really is irrelevant as long as you are passionate and fulfilling your dreams.  So go for it!

JEFF KOONS ARTIST

Jeff Koons is a good example of an artist not afraid to come from the left field and do something unconventional.   His artwork Tulips sold for US$ 33,682,500 and Jeff holds the title of the highest auction price paid for a work by a living artist.  I love those tulips which are  in highly polished stainless steel and then plated in beautiful colors and whilst they are in a medium traditionally used for sculptures Jeff explores many other mediums too.

PUPPY, TOPIARY ART

Another one of his works that I really loved was the installation “Puppy” which he was commissioned to make to coincide with Documenta 9 in Germany, not as part of that exhibition but nearby, by 3 art dealers.    It was a 13 meters tall topiary sculpture of a West Highland Terrier puppy all made in a variety of flowers.  Some of those flowers included were Begonias, Impatients, Petunias, Marigolds and Lobelias and all attached on a chrome stainless steel structure in the shape of a dog.  This artwork was then dismantled and reassembled for a time at the Museum of Contemporary Art at Sydney Harbour, Australia.

PREJUDICE IN ART

Here is a quote to think about which fits in with not just art but life in general by an unknown author;

“We are each burdened with prejudice; against the poor or the rich, the smart or the slow, the gaunt or the obese.  It is natural to develop prejudices.  It is noble to rise above them.

Till next time happy painting and sculpting and maybe cooking to you.

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.

This painting was commissioned by my US  art gallery a few years ago; the Director wanted me to paint a naive version of The Birth of Venus which was originally painted by Sandro Botticelli in 1486.  My brief was just to paint the head but with various items hanging in the hair, however I would like to do the complete picture one day as I love that image.  The original painting is on display in Florence and was commissioned by the Medici family and depicts the goddess Venus having emerged from the sea as a fully grown woman, arriving at the sea-shore.  Venus supposedly had two aspects, she was a goddess here on earth that aroused humans to physical love or she was a heavenly goddess who inspired intellectual love in them.  Whatever it was she did have beautiful hair and that is my topic today.

FROM MODEL TO ARTIST

As you can see from the photos my own crowning glory has been fashioned into a lot of different styles during my modelling days.  The weirdest one was actually when my hair was made into a Christmas tree, sprayed green complete with ornaments for a hair show in Nagoya Japan.  Strange really that  both my professions has taken me there and here is a link if you fancy a look at my first art exhibition in Nagoya;  57. Art & Signing the Contract and   64. Art & Flying to Japan (continuation of Signing the Contract)

THE ART OF A GOOD HAIRDRESSER

One thing I don’t miss about modelling was all the hours waiting whilst having my hair done, so for a long time after becoming an artist I just kept my hair really long and just cut it myself.  Finding a hairdresser you trust is such a tricky thing and luckily now I have one again.  But that wasn’t always so, lol.  A while ago I decided to try someone else and the first giveaway should have been the dirty looking surroundings, all looked great from afar but on closer inspection (when I was firmly in the chair) I saw the whole salon needed a thorough clean, the toilets were even worse and I seriously debated whether to drink the coffee they made me!  By this stage I was committed and had to tough it out and the finished product i.e. my hair was terrible.  Don’t know what she had done but the blond streaks were yellow and the hair felt like straw and I had to pay a fortune at another hair salon to fix it!

ART AND ALCOHOL

My aversion to hair dressers probably started when I was 7 years old in Sweden when my mother took me to a Barber who unbeknownst to her was drunk and he cut my locks of into a crew-cut, by cutting one side uneven and then having to cut the other and so on, until there was no more hair left to cut. I remember the alcohol on his breath and a hip-flask in his Barber shirt pocket he kept swigging from.   I left that Barber in the back of our car with a blanket over my head and refused to go to school for days, no wonder since then I have for the most part always had longish hair!

ANOTHER PAINTING IDEA

However the worst hairdresser story comes from a girlfriend of mine who sent me a HELP text once; “Help Marie, my hairdresser is on something” so I texted back to find out what was going on.  Turns out the hairdresser really was “on” something or else had a psychotic episode and my friend who realized this too late was already in the chair and the hairdresser was both coloring and cutting her hair and talking a million miles an hour whilst frequently dropping the scissors and acting very weirdly.

In the middle of all this another client came in for her appointment but luckily spotted the commotion and made up an excuse and left.  My girlfriend was not so lucky but still her hair was not permanently damaged and could be fixed up by someone else when she eventually escaped.

A few months later we heard on the TV news that this particular hairdresser went missing, her car was found abandoned and there were serious fears for her safety.  However she turned up safe and well a week later much to the relief of her husband and children, although her salon had shut down.  Lol so choose your hairdresser carefully, that’s my advice.

Here is a quote I think fits well here by Dolly Parton;

“I’m not offended by all the dumb-blonde jokes because I know that I’m not dumb.  I also know I’m not blond.”

Till next time happy painting and sculpting and going to the hairdresser if you dare!!

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.

This painting Balloon Wedding is one of my favorite artworks and is available as a Giclee print these days. Often bought as a wedding present which brings me very neatly to the wedding we attended on the weekend and also to the topic of opposites attract.  I love painting wedding scenes and going to a good wedding, well what can I say I am a party kinda girl!

THE ART OF A GOOD WEDDING

It was a beautiful occasion on the foreshore of Goolwa South Australia, the ceremony in a garden setting beautifully decorated, the only colors prominent being white and the lovely bridesmaids in pale yellow set against the green green color of the grass and trees. The bride; Stacey, Hillivi’s best friend had never looked lovelier with her hippy free flowing hair and in a stunning sparkly one shouldered dress. The day was full of wonderful memorable touches such as the bridal party arriving at the reception by boat and then going with the beachy feel we had to find our names on a colored thong (flip-flop shoe) and then match it to the one in a clear vase on the tables. Original and fun, relaxed and very Aussie beachy feel, we partied until midnight and had a great time. Thank you Eva and David and thank you to the beautiful Stacey and handsome groom Brad too and we wish you an amazing life together.

THE ART OF OPPOSITES ATTRACT

One thing I know for sure and that is you will not be bored together, for as often is the case, opposites attract. I can see that Brad is the steadying force, planning ahead and thoughtful, to Stacey’s exuberant, full of fun and vivaciousness.  Isn’t that just so often the case that we are drawn often to the qualities that we lack ourselves or that we only possess a little of. It is like the Universe has already decided for us to make a complete unit we need all the elements together as one. My own marriage is much the same although I probably have a little of the crazy thrown in as well but I plead artistic license on that LOL. The same is clearly evident in my daughters relationships and it is also rather fitting that for Hillivi’s 21st birthday Stacey delivered a very funny speech – most of which I cannot repeat here for risk of my daughters wrath. However I will share with you how Stacey described their first meeting and also her being instrumental in introducing Hillivi to her boyfriend Brett;

THE ART OF FRIENDSHIP

“We met when we were around 5 years old and Hilly and Kai had come over to ice gingerbread biscuits at Christmas time. At that age we didn’t understand the underlining reason for us kids to be playing together until later when we realize it was an evil plan of our mothers forcing us to be together just so they could brag about their daughters being best friends with another Swedish girl.

I’ll admit it definitely wasn’t love at first sight for me as it was for Hilly….who locked eyes with my little mermaid handbag as soon as she walked through the door. This was our one and only serious fight we’ve ever had. We didn’t see much of each other after that as we parted ways, until the first day of high school came round and we were both hassled by our mothers to find the other Swedish girl once again. Conveniently we were placed in the same home group. Our love blossomed but it was very early on that we realized that we were the complete opposite. Hillivi liked everything pink and pretty, doing her music and drama lessons, makeup and hairstyles and already talking about boys. While I was one of the boys and had no idea what mascara was? However we became inseparable.

THE ART OF ROMANCE

Hillivi and my cousin Brett will always have me to thank for their relationship! I introduced the lovers to begin with and played an active part in getting them together from organizing catch up days with Hilly and giving Brett the tip-off where she was. To taking Hillivi to tennis and football games and where her interest in these sports somehow came about after meeting Brett is anyone’s guess? I know what you all thought and still think about these two…how do they make it work? They are the complete opposite and to this day I still can’t tell you. It maybe because Brett has a secret love for fashion, hair, nails and the Kardashians? Or is it because Hillivi has a secret love affair with John Deer farm machinery, wife beater singlets and sculling jugs of beer?”

THE ART OF RELATIONSHIPS

So what is it that makes your own relationships work? I would be very interested in your thoughts and points of view?

I think the jury is still out on the subject so here is a quote along those lines by an unknown author;

“Opposites attract but the like-minded last”

Till next time happy painting and sculpting to you all. Love Marie xxxx

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.

I have just joined a gym today, finally after 20 or so years since last time.  Oh and before you get the wrong idea – I have still been keeping fit during that time.  You see we had been living on a farm in the country with the closest gym an hours’ drive away, so I had a treadmill at home in my art studio and could watch telly there whilst I walked.   I used to often do aerobics whilst watching the Good morning programs and go for a run outside (you had to keep the pace up as there were lots of flies in the Australian countryside) and then there were body pump and various fitness classes held in a hall in the local country town as well.  My son Kai and daughter Hillivi would often join in too and we also used to light candles and do yoga in the TV room in front of a roaring fireplace in winter.

ACRYLIC PAINTING

Whilst I was pregnant I had several videos that I used to follow as although we hadn’t moved to the farm yet we had bought a renovated church in the countryside to live in.  I did travel to the city and attended a couple of the keep fit classes for the expectant mum as this acrylic on canvas board painting shows.  That is me in the middle of the artwork in black and green gym gear and baby boy Kai with the balloon!

However this big Gym set up seems like a real luxury to me and lots of fun.  Strange really how things go as I had absolutely no thought about joining a gym again.  Years ago when I lived in Melbourne and Sydney and traveled the world whilst modelling I attended Gyms in every place I traveled to.

THE ART OF DOING WEIGHTS

These days hubby and I are great walkers and do 40 minutes minimum a day often joined by the kids and always joined by our two dogs Cheech and Vegas.  Although I have to admit people that see us often ask me ‘who is walking who’ when it comes to my Chihuahua – you see she refuses to walk for the first 10 or so minutes so I carry her to start.  Lol I figure that is a bit of weight training for me and she has such a cute little face and big brown eyes that I just cannot resist.

THE ART OF A BARGAIN

Anyway my daughter and I found this Deal on the internet where they offered 10 fitness classes for 10 dollars, what a steal we thought and promptly went and checked it out, with the intention of just doing the 10 classes and that would be that.  Well I guess these marketing guys know what they are doing because 2 lessons later and they have got us signed up for the foreseeable future.

THE ART OF THE HOT BOD

Well what can I say; the deal was too good to refuse and the classes so good and the body felt amazing after being pushed that little bit further than you generally do yourself no matter how motivated you are.  It also felt good to be in a structured environment with lots of people keeping fit and all sorts of exercise machines there to use and some hot bods to spur you on too!

THE ART OF PILATES AND LAUGHTER

Yesterday time slipped away from us when we remembered the class was on and hopped in the car to get to the Pilates class.  It is held in with the lights dimmed in a big room with soft atmospheric music and as we were beginners to this class we did a couple of wrong moves which made us giggle between ourselves.  Then all of a sudden my daughter is in absolute hysterics, really trying to contain her laughter in between trying to quietly tell me something.  Well I cannot for the life understand what she is trying to say but now she got me giggling too – both of us like two naughty school girls up the back of the class.  As it turns out she was laughing at me – of course – in my hurry to get ready for the class I had put my yoga top inside out with the tag hanging out at the back!  So much for looking Cool in front of all the buff and fit people, I guess you can take the girl out of the country but not the country out of the girl!   I have to look on the bright side least there are always more inspiration for new paintings.

Here is a quote I think fits well here by Rita Rudner;

“The word aerobics came about when the gym instructors got together and said; If we’re going to charge $10 an hour, we can’t call it jumping up and down”.                                                                                                                                                  

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

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.

If you enjoyed this health and art blog you may also be amused at my attempts at meditation; 97 Meditation are you serious & Art

Todays travel and art blog continues on from 166. Rondellhund, Roundabout dogs Sculptures as we finished a great smorgasbord spread in the Rondellhund factory.  So if you should want to catch up on the travel and art blogs leading up to this point in our recent Europe trip here are the links;  156. ART & FREQUENT FLYER POINTS and 157. Art & Never judge a book by it’s cover and 155 The Art of Packing Light and 164. ART, TOILETS AND TRAVEL

REVISITING SOLD PAINTINGS

After dinner we were taken to my Aunty Lillian and Hasses little red cottage for coffee and cake, it was lovely to see it and three of my paintings hanging on their wall which they had purchased when I had a Swedish art exhibition some years ago in the South of Sweden.

After a nights rest we were picked up by Aunty Lillian and Hasse again to go for a sightseeing tour around both Huddinge where I grew up and Spanga, Solna and Sundbyberg where my mum and dad lived and went to school many moons ago.

First we visited the house that my father built and that I lived in from age 7 until 13 and we were very kindly invited inside when we were found lurking, lol outside taking pictures of the front of the house by the owner.

Lol, we could have been undesirables casing the joint but the lovely owner trusted us and it was fantastic to see my childhood house again.  My dad was way ahead of his time in building it with lots of fantastic features that still looked modern today, among them a great big slate fireplace in the middle of the room and a marble tiles floor in the entrance hall leading into the big room with a parquet floor.  The kitchen had not stood the test of time unfortunately and a new one had been put in and in the backyard the pergola, potter’s wheel and my cubby house were long gone, as were the gate to the neighbour’s yard as they had moved long ago taking with them their 3 kids, my playmates.

THE ART OF LETTING GO

The next stop was a little tricky emotionally – we were going to visit my Grandparents graves.  I was very very close to my Mormor and Morfar (as Grandparents are referred to in Swedish; Mothersmother and Mothersfather, that way no one is ever confused as to which sets of Nanna and Pa’s you are talking about!)

Last time 30 years ago when I visited their graves I was a total wreck with the grief and hurt so raw that I had been dreading going back.

My cousin Berit had arranged to meet us there and had bought a beautiful flowering rose for me to plant on their grave which we did together.  What I really appreciated this time around was the beauty of this graveyard.  It was beautifully looked after with trees, bushes, flowers everywhere.  The paths continued on through from the graveyard meandering in a picturesque setting to where my Grandparents had maintained a little Summer house (Kolonistuga).   These miniature cottages of one or two small rooms each are set out like a tiny little town on small plots of land with lots of vegetable and fruits growing and a communal park area for parties and Midsommer celebrations.  Swedes who live in apartments buy or rent these types of cottages as place to get away during the summer and potter in the gardens and feel one with nature.

ARTIST INSPIRATION

The inspiration for this  acrylic painting called “The Good Life” no doubt comes from my childhoods memory of seeing all the vegetables, flowers and fruit my grandfather grew in his little garden, whilst my grandmother rustled up delicious food all the while telling funny stories and laughing lots!

So this area was so full of wonderful memories of my childhood and I really felt at peace with the fact that my Mormor and Morfar were no longer alive but that their spirits were still here and so very much part of this place for me.   They were actually buried in the absolute best possible place for them.   If I looked up to my right there were the Rasberrymountains where their apartment had been and on the other side of the graveyard was Lotsjon; a small lake that my Grandfather and I always walked around feeding the ducks and birds.

THE ART OF BEING THANKFUL

All of us were then treated to a lovely lunch by Lillian and Hasse in this gorgeous little Grona Stugan (Green cottage restaurant) that was next to the lake with all the ducks.  So atmospheric and beautiful my heart was filled with happiness and grateful for the wonderful childhood I had experience with the most loving and caring Grandparents ever and also felt so cherish by the lovely relatives sharing this day with me.

So I think this quote by an unknown author fits well here:

“There are things that we don’t want to happen but have to accept, things we don’t want to know but have to learn, and people we can’t live without but have to let go.”

I wish you all a beautiful day, month and year and happy painting or sculpting or whatever else gets your fancy.

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.

The time had come to leave Sundsvall and it is with sadness that we do so.  Our visit with my lovely cousin Kent and his gorgeous family was not nearly long enough and the setting and town so picturesque that I could have stayed a long long time!

TRAVEL AND ART BLOGS

Our travels today take us to Stockholm by train and if you should want to catch up on the travel and art blogs leading up to this point in our recent Europe trip here are the links;  156. ART & FREQUENT FLYER POINTS and 157. Art & Never judge a book by it’s cover and 155 The Art of Packing Light and 164. ART, TOILETS AND TRAVEL

ACRYLIC PAINTING

This acrylic on canvas board painting is of a little red Swedish cottage during the winter months.  It was commissioned by my American Gallery and as chance would have it unbeknownst to me at the time; my cousin Bjorn and his wife Ann live in a setting almost identical to this by a lake in Huddinge.

My cousin Bjorn picked us up from the train station when we arrived and had arranged for us to stay in an apartment with his son Kalle.  I had really been looking forward to seeing Bjorn again, we knew each other as very young, playing together at family celebrations but had lost touch and reconnected through my art website and Facebook.

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MAKING SCULPTURES FOR CHARITY

Bjorn has been especially supportive with my art and my artblogs and I think we have found a few common bonds too.  Bjorn who is a whiz kid in IT with IBM commutes between Sweden and England for work, found that in his spare time he would like to give back and thought to combine that with his love of tinkering in his shed where he was originally carving wooden figures.  So to cut a long story short, Rundellhund.com was born.  Roundaboutdogs is the English translation and it is about making small dog sculptures and placing them into roundabouts across the world for the general public to enjoy.  All dogs are made from recycled materials and all money collected goes back to charity.  If you would like to participate or know a little more about this use link RONDELLHUND.  Also here is a previous art blog that I have written about this Roundaboutdogs – sculptures for charity.  The other thing we had in common was that he is a big kid just like me!  Bjorn is all grown up obviously but acts and looks decades younger than his years, full of life and fun.

Before we settled in to the apartment Bjorn took us on a tour of Huddinge which is where I grew up when I lived in Sweden.  A lot had changed of course but some things stayed the same, my high school looked completely foreign to me until I figured out that I always came to it from the opposite entrance climbing up a hill.

ROUNDABOUTDOG SCULPTURE FACTORY

After all this sightseeing we were taken to the little red cottage, home and also head office to the Roundaboutdogs Factory whereby after meeting Bjorn’s gorgeous wife Anne and afternoon tea we were promptly inducted into the Rondellhund makings ourselves.

THE ART OF FOOD

Then we were treated to a scrumptious smorgasbord of Swedish treats including more kantarell dishes (my favourite mushroom) where we were also joined by Bjorn’s mother Lillian and stepfather Hasse.  Yet again I felt as I was in the bosom of my family right at home even though it was 30 years since I was in Sweden the last time.

Here is a quote I think fits well here by John Ed Pearce;

“Home is a place you grow up wanting to leave, and grow old wanting to get back to.”

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

Today’s art blog was going to be about something entirely different but then when I turned on my computer and checked the emails I got sent “50 Life Lessons” by Regina Brett by a friend.  Well actually it was called 45 life lessons in the email and also said to be written by a 90 year old whereas the real author is only 56 however the contents and the life lessons that were brought up so resonated with me that I did want to share them with you.

ACRYLIC PAINTING

I though this acrylic on board  cat painting would go well here as it is called “Celebrate our nine lives”.   Underneath this artwork are “THE 50 LIFE LESSONS “and afterwards I will tell you a bit more about the wonderful author/columnist/journalist Regina Brett.

THE ART OF LIFE

1. Life isn’t fair, but it’s still good.

2. When in doubt, just take the next small step.

3. Life is too short to waste time hating anyone.

4. Don’t take yourself so seriously. No one else does.
5. Pay off your credit cards every month.

6. You don’t have to win every argument. Agree to disagree.                                                                                                                                  

7. Cry with someone. It’s more healing than crying alone.

8. It’s OK to get angry with God. He can take it.

9. Save for retirement starting with your first paycheck.

10. When it comes to chocolate, resistance is futile.

11. Make peace with your past so it won’t screw up the present.

12. It’s OK to let your children see you cry.

13. Don’t compare your life to others’. You have no idea what their journey is all about.

14. If a relationship has to be a secret, you shouldn’t be in it.

15. Everything can change in the blink of an eye. But don’t worry; God never blinks.

16. Life is too short for long pity parties. Get busy living, or get busy dying.

17. You can get through anything if you stay put in today.

18. A writer writes. If you want to be a writer, write.

19. It’s never too late to have a happy childhood. But the second one is up to you and no one else.

20. When it comes to going after what you love in life, don’t take no for an answer.

21. Burn the candles, use the nice sheets, wear the fancy lingerie. Don’t save it for a special occasion. Today is special.

22. Overprepare, then go with the flow.

23. Be eccentric now. Don’t wait for old age to wear purple.                                                                                                                                  

24. The most important sex organ is the brain.

25. No one is in charge of your happiness except you.

26. Frame every so-called disaster with these words: “In five years, will this matter?”

27. Always choose life.

28. Forgive everyone everything.

29. What other people think of you is none of your business.

30. Time heals almost everything. Give time time.

31. However good or bad a situation is, it will change.

32. Your job won’t take care of you when you are sick. Your friends will. Stay in touch.

33. Believe in miracles.

34. God loves you because of who God is, not because of anything you did or didn’t do.

35. Whatever doesn’t kill you really does make you stronger.

36. Growing old beats the alternative – dying young.

37. Your children get only one childhood. Make it memorable.

38. Read the Psalms. They cover every human emotion.

39. Get outside every day. Miracles are waiting everywhere.

40. If we all threw our problems in a pile and saw everyone else’s, we’d grab ours back.

41. Don’t audit life. Show up and make the most of it now                                                                                                                        

42. Get rid of anything that isn’t useful, beautiful or joyful.

43. All that truly matters in the end is that you loved.

44. Envy is a waste of time. You already have all you need.

45. The best is yet to come.

46. No matter how you feel, get up, dress up and show up.

47. Take a deep breath. It calms the mind.

48. If you don’t ask, you don’t get.

49. Yield.

50. Life isn’t tied with a bow, but it’s still a gift..

MORE ART BLOGS WITH QUOTES TO LIVE BY

If you want to read some more uplifting quotes by a variety of different authors have a look at these art blogs 136 Quote and Unquote in Art and 148 Art and my Favourite Quotations

THE ART OF THE AUTHOR

Regina Brett was born 31^st of May 1956 and is a journalist and Pulitzer Prize finalist and writes for the Plain Dealer which is a daily newspaper in Ohio.  To date she has also written two books “God Never Blinks: 50 Lessons for Life’s Little detours”  as well as “Be the Miracle: 50 Lessons for making the impossible possible” which was published in 2012.  She has been nominated for umpteen awards and also won several outright for her writing.

THE ART OF LIFE

Regina says her lessons in life comes from being a single parent for the first 18 years, struggling to find the right partner and battling breast cancer at 41 years of age.  Put that together with healing the bruises from a bumpy childhood and also what she has learned from her readers during her time as a journalist.  She says she is thrilled to be growing old – having battled breast cancer especially, however it is slightly amusing that she is said to be 90!

She says that she is happy for her life lessons to be forwarded on as long as her name is kept on them of course.

So I leave you then with Regina Brett’s quote;

“Growing old beats the alternative – dying young”

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

Today I am continuing the travel and art blog about our adventures in Europe during 2012 and if you would like to recap of what has happened up to this point here are some links with lots of artworks too of course;  156. ART & FREQUENT FLYER POINTS and 157. Art & Never judge a book by it’s cover and 155 The Art of Packing Light

ACRYLIC PAINTING

This acrylic on canvas board painting shows the typical red and white timber cottage in Sweden although I have painted a very small house “stuga” here of course.

We loved our stay in Gothenburg and now we were catching the train for the 7 hour journey north to Sundsvall to visit my cousin Kent and his lovely wife Karin.  But of course there is a call of nature to be done before we get on the train so I go for a quick visit to the ladies at Gothenburg train station.

ANOTHER PAINTING INSPIRATION

I opened the door into a small walkway and then tried to open the next one when I heard a cough and a stern voice call out to me, sitting behind some glass in the corner was a very grumpy man demanding money to enter, and he was sort of hidden behind the door.  Coming from Australia where all the public conveniences are both plentiful and FREE the Swedish public conveniences was a shock to the system.

Anyway in I go and as I am washing my hands with another 5 or 6 ladies in walks this old woman in her 80’s and lo and behold – suddenly another door opens and in sweeps this grumpy man in amongst the rest of us women in the “ladies only” toilet and belittles this poor woman for not paying.  She just like me had probably not seen him on her way in and was not trying to get a free pee, although the way he was acting it was more like she stole the queens silver!

The toilet visits in Sweden seemed rather expensive I thought and just to make it a bit more unpleasant as I later found out most of them are also unisex.   Which means that at Stockholm’s Central for example where there are some 30 or so toilets you stand with a huge mixed group of people waiting, something I wasn’t a fan of and then to be ushered into the loo where a strange man with a newspaper under his arm just vacated.  Never mind having strangers of the opposite sex staring at you when you retouch your make up, something I found very unsettling.   I think some of them didn’t really need to go to the toilet but were just in there to have perve!  (My apologies to the lovely men I do know read this who would not behave in this way I know, I am just talking about a few bad apples!) Although these type of moments for an artist provides great inspirations for paintings and sculpture though so you gotta look on the bright side!

LOL, I digress and that’s enough about toilets, anyway we now find ourselves 395km north of Stockholm in Sundsvall, a picturesque town with a population of 50 thousand plus another 45 thousand in the surrounding areas.

THE ART OF TRAVEL

The city has quite a history as it has burned down and been rebuilt four times.  In 1721 it was set on fire by the Russian Army in what was called the Great Northern War.  The last time was in 1888 when they think the fire was caused by a spark from a steamship, this fire was the largest in Sweden’s history and the town this time was rebuilt out of stone and nicknamed “The Stone City”.

However my cousin Kent lives in a traditional 2 storey timber Swedish house, but instead of it being painted red and white it is blue.  Their house is a few kilometers away from the so called city of Sundsvall and about 5 minutes walking distance from both the forest and the water’s edge in an idyllic setting.                                

THE ART OF A GREAT COOK

Kent picked us up at the station, whilst Karin had gone all out bathing the whole house in candle lights and cooking up an amazing 3 course feast, starting off with a to die for Kantarell soup (a yellow Swedish mushroom that grows in the forest) and is my absolute favourite mushroom!  Karin is a wonderful cook and lucky or unlucky for us we only had 3 days with them otherwise I think I would have put on some serious weight!  Of course just like in Gothenburg we were spoiled rotten with wonderful sleeping quarters, we had the whole top floor to ourselves and food galore.  We also visited their children and their partners and the feasts just continued.  My hubby also tried elk for the first time which he enjoyed; the elk had been hunted in the forest by our host’s father.  Being a vegetarian myself I found it hard not to think about the poor elk, but tried to comfort myself with the thought that at least he enjoyed a free life in the forest unlike all the cows, calves and pigs etc, that are penned and killed for human consumption every day.

I again felt so well loved and connected to my relatives and my Swedish roots and kept on talking Swedish all the time much to hubbys annoyance, but he coped very well considering.

So here is a quote about languages which I thought fitted well here by Franklin P. Jones;

“It’s a strange world of language in which skating on thin ice can get you into hot water”.

Till next time happy Painting and Sculpting and travelling to you all!

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.

Footnote;  Special Congratulations to the little baby boy born today up in Sundsvall to Asa & Tobias, a little brother to Anton, nephew to Kristoffer & Annikki and long awaited grandchild to Kent and Karin.

So another year is just about to have passed us by and a new one is on it’s way.  How did it all happen so fast, where did the year go?  There never seem to be enough days of the week or hours in a day does it?  So much to do and so little time!

Each day, as a lot of you know, I use a different quote that I find either funny or inspiring and post it on my Facebook page Naive Art by Marie Jonsson-Harrison together with an image of a painting or sculpture and a link to my art blog to my artist website.  This week among others, I used this quote;

“Christmas is not as much about opening our presents as opening our hearts.” by Janice Maeditere  and one of the comments I got back was “ That should happen every day and not just at Christmas…. too much emphasis is put on being good and kind at this time of year but it only is one or two days out of 365… what about the rest of the year?” from one of my FB friends.   Which I thought was a point well made and a good place to start another art blog about New Year’s Resolutions.

WALL BASED SCULPTURE

This wall based sculpture in handmade ceramic and mosaic called Champagne Charlie was bought from one of my exhibitions at Greenhill Gallery and hangs in the restaurant of a hotel in Adelaide.  The subject matter I thought had a good fit for New Years.

THE ART OF BEING GOOD

I am quite sure that I am not always “good” lol, being a touch naughty at times, however trying to be kind to everyone is something I always strive to be, of course even with the best of intentions that does not always hit the mark but hopefully most of the time perhaps.

The experts say that most of our well intended new year resolutions go out the window after about 14 days and if we want to make sure we stick to them to promise small things – make tiny changes which therefore are not too daunting to stick too and then use them as a base to add some more.  Really New Year’s resolutions are just good habits.

Here are some of mine, most of the things on this list I do already but it never hurts to reinforce them I figure.

AN ARTISTS NEW YEARS RESOLUTIONS

1. Pay it forward – be kind and do onto others and all that.
2. Eat healthily, and for me that means also sticking to my Vegetarian/gluten free diet, and try to read the labels of food a little more carefully to avoid falling off the band wagon.
3. When out partying make sure I drink one glass of water with every alcoholic drink, to help my liver and my head the next day.  Oh I know what some of you are saying – perhaps cut the wine out – but you got to have some vices right!!  As I have already cut out the Bad Men lol, I still got to have some fun!
4. Keep up the exercise an hour a day come rain or shine and don’t forget the arms Marie – you got to get some upper strength too – remember what the physio said – 127 Use it or Loose it in Art
5. Cut out the sugar, apparently sugar is responsible along with the sun for an increase in wrinkly skin, never mind the body’s overall health– so the sugar has got to go.  (have always had a low sugar diet but need to focus on that some more)
6. Stay close to family and friends, spend time together and tell them they are loved.
7. Try new things, keep up with technology, explore new horizons, keep interested, learn, move forward.
8. Travel and see the world – you only live once and are a long time dead, so do it now whilst you can.
9. Write down your paintings and art blog ideas in one book like you used too – makes things so much easier to find!

So this is my list, I would love to hear what your new year’s resolutions are?

GREAT QUOTES

Here is one I love 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.”

I love to think that the next year is full of possibilities and opportunities – just there for us to go and find.  Another one is a quote on the topic of New Years Resolutions by a favorite of mine Mark Twain;

“Yesterday, everybody smoked his last cigar, took his last drink and swore his last oath.  Today, we are a pious and exemplary community.  Thirty days from now, we shall have cast our reformation to the winds and gone to cutting our ancient shortcomings considerably shorter than ever.”

However I will leave you this time with a quote that has been attributed to Mark Twain as well (although there is some controversy over that) which is one of my favorites quotes;

“Twenty years from now you will be more

disappointed by the things

that you didn’t do than by the ones you did

do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away

from the safe harbor.

Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.”

Till next time happy painting and sculpting and whatever else takes your fancy.

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.

So why this title; “Fifty shades of grey in Religion & Art”? Perhaps something to do with the painting of the cats and all the shades of grey they come in.  Well not exactly but as it is Christmas I thought this painting was a good fit even though it is not a religious artwork, which really is the topic of this art blog.

NAIVE ART BY MARIE JONSSON-HARRISON

You see I recently wrote a blog about Fifty Shades of Grey & Art about the book phenomenon and my thoughts on the matter and as I got hundreds of messages, comments and feedback on that I thought it was worthwhile to canvas the issue that was brought up time and time again.  Most of the comments were really positive and some 160 people shared the initial post from my Naive Art by Marie Jonsson-Harrison page on Facebook with over 1680 likes.

ART BLOG

The thing was that I had posted the blog with an artwork of mine made in ceramic and mosaic, a wall based sculpture depicting Adam and Eve and that caused some heated debate both from the Christian side as well as from the Muslims.

ADAM & EVE, CERAMIC & MOSAIC SCULPTURE

Some Christians thought it was an outrageous artwork and that Adam had a bottle in his hand was terrible.   That to me seemed a weird comment as I am sure both Adam and Eve had a drink, let’s get serious they would have gotten bored just eating those apples without making some apple wine or schnapps occasionally right?  The bible is all for alcohol anyway that is what every Christian church gives their followers on a Sunday morning, in the guise of the “blood of Jesus”.   That I had painted them a little bit plump which was for the most part approved of.

RELIGION AND ART

As far as the Muslim comments go, again for the most part the artwork was met with great comments and positive feedback however there were some that took offence and thought it was outrageous and anti Muslim!  So go figure if both Christians and Muslim think it is against their particular religion then I must have done something right I figure.

Which brings me to the question of religion and the fervor it stirs up in people, seems to me that all that matters is that their own point of view is right.  Why can’t everyone just believe in whatever religion that makes sense to them?  Whether that is Christian, Muslim, Jewish, Hindi, Budda or none and be an Atheist.  Why does it matter so much to some people what other faiths people believe in?

How do we even know for sure that there is a God?  I hope there is one; I do want to go to Heaven if there is such a thing.  I do believe in doing onto others and all that.  But in this evidence based world I just cannot say for sure what is true and what is fiction.  So until we get word from above as to who is running this show and what particular religion is right, let’s just try to live together and in harmony with each other.

THE ART OF THE CHRISTMAS WISH

My cousin Sonja sent me this picture from her time in Accra, Ghana.  It shows one of their favorite dancing spots where all sorts of people gather to have fun.  To the right is a Jew and to the left a Muslim, then there is two Atheists and behind are some Christians and they all had a great time together, that is the type of world I wish for.

Let me take this opportunity to wish you all a Very Happy Christmas or Happy Holidays and Happy New Year to everyone apart from the Chinese (which has their New Years a bit later).  I hope you are all able to spend some time with your loved ones, for that is really all that matters after all.

Here is a quote by the 14^th Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso, which I think fits pretty well here;

“The purpose of all major religious traditions is not to construct big temples on the outside, but to create temples of goodness and compassion inside, in our hearts.”

I think he has a fair point.

Till next time,

Happy painting, sculpting and spending family time to you all,

Love Marie xxxx

If you enjoyed this art & religion blog you may also like to see some of my religious paintings here are some links; 92 Art & walk across my swimming pool and 29. Religious Paintings

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.

Well what is all that about I hear you say, and yes for the uninitiated it does sound quite weird and have gotten many people in trouble and I have to point out, even me now as recently as Saturday night, lol. You know how you wake up the following morning and think oh boy I shouldn’t have said that!  This acrylic on board painting is of a similar night that I am going to tell you about, and now I will just have to get started on another artwork and capture this recent event!

You see we were at a very swanky “do” indeed for the Women’s and Children’s Hospital Foundation raising money for a very good cause.  Adelaide’s Glitterati were there in all their finery, Simon Bryant the renowned chef provided the meals Brenton Ragless was the MC and the girls in charge; Marta Harbuzinska and Christina Angus could not have done a better job.  It was indeed a successful night raising some $130.000 for the babies in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit.

THE ART OF EAGLE ROCK

So what about the Pants Down reference about the Eagle Rock song and Ross Wilson who sings it, well here is the history about that from Hobsons bay weekly;

Since the 1980s, it’s been a regular sight at gigs for patrons to unbuckle belts and hobble around with their pants around their ankles when the song is played.

“I didn’t invent it, Australians invented it as a response to Eagle Rock,” says Wilson, who turns 65 next month.

“But in certain parts of the country, whenever Eagle Rock’s played —in bars, or uni, and it’s big in the military — they’ve got their pants around their ankles and sort of do this dance.

Wilson, whose last visit to Williamstown was about five years ago, has warned the custom may reveal itself at the RSL.

“The word’s getting out there; it’s happening a little bit more at my shows and also women are starting to do it,” he said.

“Up in Queensland, the University of Queensland, they lay claim, whether it’s true or not — I don’t think it is true but they claim that they invented it.

“So, you’ve got this thing in the student bar that one of the rules in the bar is that patrons are not to be ejected if they drop their pants to this song, Eagle Rock, but they must replace them at the finish of the song.”

Well now you know the tradition of this song and it has as I said gotten quite a few people in trouble over the years and some have even gotten arrested over it.

At our daughters 21^st birthday party for instance the song came on and all the boys got into a big circle and dropped their pants (undies are left on of course LOL) and shuffled to the music.  At the time we had a lovely couple from England staying with us and although he was not familiar with the custom he got into the spirit of it and followed suit, much to the ire of his girlfriend who was not amused.  She had never heard of this tradition and thought it very uncouth to have her fiancé dancing without pants all of a sudden.

THE ART OF NOT KEEPING YOUR MOUTH SHUT

Which brings me to Saturday night at this fine event; we were all up dancing with a bunch of fairly new friends all having fun when local band Acoustic Juice plays Daddy Cool’s Eagle Rock.  I get into the spirit of things and tongue in cheek I say (obviously as this is not the venue for it) to a couple of the guys; Pants down!  Lol, well you should have seen the looks on their faces – they clearly had not heard of this custom and to make things worse I know some of them had read my recent blog on“Fifty shades of grey”and now thought this woman is clearly sex mad and crazy as a cut snake!

So here is a quote by Don Herold, which we should all keep in mind when it comes to things we should and shouldn’t have done and worry about;

“If I had my life to live over, I would perhaps have more actual troubles but I’d have fewer imaginary ones”

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

Love Marie xxxx

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.

Funny isn’t it this thing about being pigeonholed, fitting in under a banner or label.  Well I guess if truth shall be known I have never really fitted in anywhere with anything – always been a bit rebellious and found my own way.

DECORATIVE ART

So why should anything be different now with my Art – I have for the longest time been told that the way I paint was Naive and yes that label has fitted me pretty well – however as it has been pointed out to me many times the naive title conjures up a Nice and Pretty painting.  Yes some of my paintings and artwork are just that no doubt but often there is “more”.   The “more” for the most part, is that often there is a often a subtle message or should I say a commentary on the world I see around me, I poke fun at the world, just letting you the viewer know not to take yourselves so seriously.   Also just a gentle poke at myself at the same time not to sweat the small stuff which I have a habit of doing!

NAIVE ART

Some people also think that as an ex model I don’t fit the innocent naive label either, why my past profession should have any bearing on the way I paint I don’t understand.  Oh I do paint subject matters from my past but it’s not like we learned to paint in modelling school exactly!  The fact that one can remain innocent in the way I view the world and hope the world would be, is perhaps what saved me both as a street kid and later as an international model with the Australian Model of the year title many years ago.  In my world happiness reigns and everyone are “Happy as a pig in shit”! The title of one of my first paintings which I painted incidently because I was going through a crisis in my life and painting little pigs having fun made me forget my troubles for a little while.  Here is a link to that painting and the Art blog that goes with it; 33. Art & Dont worry be happy

SELF TAUGHT ARTIST

I am self taught artist and have never even taking an art class either unless you count my primary education,  where I was ridiculed by the teachers for not seeing perspective and not being able to draw and paint which lead to me not touching art materials again till my late 20’s.    Instead I left school at 14 when I ran away from home and never went back.  What I learned in those initial 8 months fending for myself made me street smart if nothing else.

OUTSIDER ARTISTS

So am I an Outsider Artist?  Again some so called experts say yes and some say no.  What seems to irk some people putting me into this category is the success I have enjoyed as an Artist.  As an Outsider artist you are not supposed to produce art to exhibit or for fame or monetary reward.

What these so called experts forget on this topic is that I painted for several years with a love and compulsion that I didn’t understand myself and I had no idea there was such a thing as Naive art or Outsider Art until it was eventually suggested by my father.  That was not mentioned for a long time as I just feverously painted every second I had spare, long before any thought of exhibitions or fame or fortune was even a glint on the horizon.

So what about the mental illness aspect – does an Outsider artist have to be mentally disturbed?  Well some ARE undoubtedly however you do find people in all professions dealing with mental illness and you don’t just classify someone who paints landscapes or photographic (realistic) portraits and has a mental illness as an Outsider artist, right?

CONTEMPORARY ARTIST

So what about the term; Contemporary artist, I have been classified as that as well.  But as usual the camps are divided by that too. Can a  contemporary artist paint colourful happy paintings for the main part and get her social commentary taken seriously, mustn’t they be all broody and deep with long explanations of what their art actually means.  Oh my, she hasn’t attended Art School either, fancy that – not a clone of an art teacher!  Now that is probably a touch mean of me to say and not entirely true as there ARE many wonderful art teachers out there I know, mentoring the pupils to be the best they can be without influencing them too much and taking away their individuality.   I just hope that the ones that thought I was terrible in school can see me now!

PASSION IN ART

To me Art shouldn’t be Rocket Science, Art should make you feel!  Feel something either for the subject matter for the artist or tweak some memory deep within.  Passion is good whether it is happy or sad, angry or give you the giggles, when you look at art and it stirs up a “feeling” any feeling then it’s good art in my opinion.  So perhaps the label I am most comfortable with is an Outsider Contemporary Naive Artist – yep perhaps that is the label for me!!!

Here is a quote I think fits well here by Henry Ward Beecher,

“Every artist dips his brush in his own soul, and paints his own nature into his pictures.”

Now I would like to invite you to a wonderful exhibition of so called Outsider Artists – some more so and some less so!  The show is on until the end of December.

ART EXHIBITION OPENING

Official opening

Sunday, 1

December

2:00 PM

The West Torrens

Auditorium

1, Brooker

Terrace, Hilton

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

So here we are still in Gothenburg staying with Leif, Lena and Emma and if you wanna recap here are the art blogs leading up to this point in time.  156. ART & FREQUENT FLYER POINTS and 157. Art & Never judge a book by it’s cover

This is the first time I have been back to Sweden for 30 years, seems crazy that it was that long ago.  We had good intentions of returning several times and showing the kids their roots but got waylaid by a travel deal to America and ended up doing LA, Vegas, Mexico and New York instead.  This painting of Swedish Midsummer celebrations was bought by my aunty Lillian at an art exhibition in Sweden organized by my USA Art Gallery.

ART OF EMOTIONS

Oh well,  finally my husband and I are here the kids were too busy with uni to make it this time, and being in Sweden fills me with mixed emotions too.  It is both exciting and scary to revisit your home country, my thoughts go to the people no longer alive particularly my 2 sets of grandparents whom I loved so very much and miss every day still.  Coming home to Sweden feels melancholy without them here.  Then there is the other relatives that I have missed too and the times and get-togethers – birthdays, Christmases and parties. Over the years I often felt regretful and sad to miss out and imagining how they cherished each other’s company and fun.

THE ART OF HOLDING IT TOGETHER

So it is with very mixed emotions that my childlike view of the world is brought back to reality when I find out that in many cases even though they live in relative proximity to each other some of them have not seen each other since I was home last 30 years ago!  And no they are not fighting or dislike each other from what I can see they just simply got on with their lives and time slipped away.

ARTISTIC INSPIRATIONS

Over a series of 9 days travelling from Gothenburg – Sundsvall – Stockholm we gather together with both my mothers and fathers side of the family and have many lunches and dinners and catch ups.  I felt so blessed to be within the bosom of my longed for family, at all times I felt cherished and loved and the misapprehension and melancholy soon lifted.

The first gathering in Gothenburg started at 11 am and did not conclude till 11pm with lunch, dinner with coffees and snacks in-between some fine wine.  The company was wonderful with Lena, Leif, Emma who we are staying with, then joined by my 82 year old aunty Actress and Director Gun Jonsson and she is something else altogether.  Only in the movies have I ever seen a woman that is 80 and looks and acts 50 but here she is.  The thing about Gun is it is all natural – no plastic surgeries or trout pouts, nothing fake, a few lines but they do not detract from her beauty, just a woman comfortable in her own skin with hutzpa and vivaciousness, oh I hope I take after her in the “getting old” department!  If that is what getting old means we have nothing to fear at all.

She was a chorus girl in her day and a former Miss Stockholm Lucia before she got into acting and has been held dear by the Swedish people and even received a medal from the King and Queen of Sweden for her services to the Arts just recently.  If you fancy reading more about her and my fathers upbringing in Sweden in the Circus here is an art blog about that;  20. Antonis Tivoli Art and 21. Life in a Circus Tent .

ART AND SEX AGAIN

Guns most recent engagement was at the theater  in Falkenberg where she presented “A naked man” a story by Johan Werkmaster about friendship in life’s autumn.  Perhaps on reflection it is from my aunty my own fascination with sexuality comes from, lol.

The “teaser” from this production reads:

“Miss Lasker is old and alone.  Mr Jansson is old and fat.  They are neighbours .  They drink coffee and talk.  Afterwards Mr Jansson goes home again.  But one night he comes back.  Miss Lasker wakes up.  Her door bell rings.  She opens the door and screams because there is Mr Jansson totally…..

Shame it was not still playing when we were there as it sounded right up my alley!

Anyway back to the gathering, we were also joined by Gun’s son and my cousin Mikael Lind who being the fruit of two actors, his father is Lars Lind, couldn’t help but also getting involved in the limelight in one way or another.  Mikael has for the last 20 something years played on cruise ships with his band where he plays the drums.   Just like my brother in his band the Clowns of Decadence  25. Shake Rattle and Roll & Art & Music The next generation has also followed in this path with Mikael’s son and daughter enjoying some showbiz accolades through acting and music.

MORE ARTISTIC INSPIRATIONS

The other people present this day was my gorgeous cousin Sonja and Per-Ove who also have lived a very interesting life.  Per-Ove was an agronomist and Sonja taught in schools among other things and they lived together in several of the African countries.  Their main objective was to help the poor pull out of their circumstances and learn alternatives to conventional agriculture, aiming to produce crops in a sustainable way.  Couple this together with their stories about living life in Sweden and alternating that with living in third world countries and you have conversations which was just fascinating.  We then spend the next day on tour with them being shown Gothenburg through Per-Oves eyes who was born there and told stories to transport you back to when he was a little boy, a wonderful and enriching experience.

Here is a quote by Gaston Bachelard which is how I felt during my time in visiting Sweden again;

“So, like a forgotten fire, a childhood can always flare up again within us.”

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

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