WordPress is in the Air

I have participated at the very last moment in a contest organised by  The Infectious People… You might have seen it featured already in WordPress, as that is how I found it myself by accident yesterday. The theme was

I<3 Blogging!

“Show us what makes the heart of a blogger tick… An image for the voice of bloggers everywhere”

the aim of Infectious being to make laptop and iphone skins for bloggers.

It is certainly not my way to participate in such competitions, but well, in this case, my heart really ticked as I find blogging, and especially WordPress, a

World Wide Wonder.

So, these are the designs I submitted for an iphone and a laptop .

If you like them, you are welcome to vote for me there. But really, I am not trying here to gather votes from my friends, as it is something which I really hate in such competitions, when the participants mobilise their net of connections to vote for them.

My aim here is much more to show you one more of the 1,000 things I am busy with, and also to to incite the artists among you to participate to such competitions, They have another one going on at the moment, with the title

“The City Series”

Travel Sketch from Scotland – 05 -

Scotland - Watercolour, pastel and Ink - By Miki, Summer 2007

Scotland has always been a dream for me as a painter. And as we finally went there, in the Summer of 2007,  I was incredibly excited and couldn’t wait to see with my own own eyes these incredible landscapes I had seen on photos and films.

Well, as we crossed the border between England and Scotland the sun was shining a little bit, and life was wonderful. But then it started raining, and it never stopped again until we left the UK! I must say that I ‘d never in my life seen so much water falling from the sky, rolling down the mountains, and flooding the fields and the roads. That was really impressive!

But well, the problem arose that I hardly could spend an hour sketching outside, and anyway most of the time everything was grey on grey and one couldn’t distinguish any lines or forms! I especially remember how frustrated I was as we arrived at the famous Loch Lomond and I couldn’t see anything!

But well, I still  managed to do some sketches of many of the places where we had been. What I couldn’t see, I simply invented… as I often do anyway!

Yesterday I started working on these sketches, adding colours… as you can see, the colours are invented too!

Perhaps you want to know where this one was… if I remember well, it was in North Uist.

Like a Bull in an Artshop

I have added today some bullfight paintings and other stuff to my new online shop Miki’s Mart.

It is not easy to make a choice, what to put for sale, and what not. Tastes are so different! And I have had the experience in my life that my taste often does not correspond to the clients’ taste. or at least there is a time difference… what I most like today my clients will like most in about 2 years!

I have often wondered about this phenomena, as I have heard the same from other artists.

I was asking myself if the artist is always  ahead of his clients’ time…

Anyway, among all my bullfight paintings, and as a contradiction to the theory I just presented and the aim that a shop which should be to sell what what people want to buy,  I chose to put for sale this one above, which is my most favourite bullfight painting of all time!

Miki’s Mart

Following in the steps of my friend Susan Cornelis, I have opened

“Miki’s Mart”

my online shop, where you can buy on-line many different products featuring my art work:

Original paintings

Giclee prints

Calendars

Mugs

Greeting Cards

Posters

For the moment I have put on sale only about 30 products, but I will regularly add more. When you are interested in a product featuring one of my paintings which you have seen in one of my websites but not in Miki’s Mart, please drop me a line at

miki@goodaboom.com

Thanks for visiting anyway!

I bEGG you!

Soon it will be Easter and following my Christmas, New Year and Valentines tradition, I have started creating eCards for Easter.

Or rather: WE have started. In fact, 2 years ago Kevin created for Easter a series of cartoons featuring wordplays on the word “egg” .

I liked them so much that I decided to work on them, adding my little personal note.

On this particular one, I can’t help making an additional word game for my readers who understand German… the title could be

Ei bEGG you!

……………………………………………………….

Please feel free to use my eCards service, which allow you to send these cards, or any of my paintings as free eCards. To see how it works go to the page

My eCards Service

Portraits for Life

Hugh Laurie, by Miki - Brown Pencil and White Pastel, 60 x 50 cm, 2009

My last portrait… I hope you recognise him!

Unfortunately there are not many artists making portraits, I find, and I feel quite alone here in WordPress with this art. If you feel like discussing with me about the art of portraying, or about anything concerning portrait paintings, or simply love this art, please join me at

Portraits for Life

I would be very pleased about that. I present there regularly my last works in this field, “classical” portraits in different techniques as well as caricatures.

Colours of Hope

The winner of my last competition “Give Me a Title”, which ended on the 31st of January 2009, is

Carmen, from Australia, with the title

“Colours of Hope”

A Giclee print of the painting has been sent to her to Australia. As she received it she sent me the following mail:

“Hi Miki!

J’ai recu “Colours of Hope” est trop belle!!! Merci beaucoup!!!!

You are truly amazingly talented!!! I love it.

I showed some of my family and they love it too!”

NEXT COMPETITION COMING SOON!

Travel sketch from Cassel (France) – 01

Cassel, France - Watercolour and Ink - By Miki, Summer 2007

I just came back from Susan Cornelis’ blog, and still feel quite humbled by her last painting.

“The Tree of Life”

It is really not easy to post after having seen such a master work… especially to post only a travel sketch, it seems so small and insignificant compared to that powerful tree..

Anyway, I am still working on my travel sketches from 2007, having just started the series from Cassel, a little town in the North of France, where we spent  some days by the canal there. I made a lot of sketches there, and I will certainly present some more here over the following days…

Delirium Tremens

Somebody in America commented

“… provocative… and well done…”

I was quite surprised by the “provocative”. To tell the truth this was only a further game with the photos of the glasses I took the other day instead of making the washing up…

and well, a drop of creative delirium on top of it,  a drop of eroticism and plenty of color.

But I do wonder about the provocation… just because of one naked breast? Some artists show whole naked bodies all the time… my only aim was to make something appealing…

it does not matter, anyway, the “well done” is more than enough for me!

If you like that artwork, and want to buy a print, they are available directly obline, on paper or canvas, in many different sizes. even as greeting cards, just click on the widget below

Cherchez La Femme…

I guess you will need quite a while to find her here… La Femme I mean!

Please let me know if you found her!