Back To My German Past

Reute in Germany - by Miki

Once upon a time I was living in Germany. It is a long story how I ended living up there, after having being born in the French Pyrenees and spending my youth in different parts of France. But it is thanks to an encounter in Spain with a German physics student that this could happen. Back to France after the Spanish holiday, I packed the most necessary things and escaped from Toulouse, the southern French town where I was studying at that time. I didn’t tell anybody, being much too scared that they would try to stop me. I was always a very impulsive person, especially where guys were involved, and nobody should cross my path when I’m making my move!

Anyway, this is how my life in Germany started, in the wonderful university town of Goettingen, where I studied maths and physics, without knowing one word of German. My God, when I think about myself sometimes, and the things I did, and still do, I really get dizzy… frankly I must have some balls somewhere!!!! 

It is in Goettingen that I also took up art and writing again. Another guy, another long story…

There were other milestones in my German life, but before I definitively moved to Spain I lived in a lovely little town called Reute, next to Freiburg, in The Black Forest. I had just decided to dedicate myself entirely to art, giving up my mathematician career. In those days I spent much time sketching. Sketching everything: landscapes, people in the cafes, children in swimming pools, animals, stuff … my new artist’s eyes fell in love with everything I saw!

Unfortunately I have hardly anything left from the work I did at that time, I left everything back in Germany, auf niemals wiedersehen…. But recently, just before the Joe Bonamassa gig, we went to empty my house near Benidorm and luckily I found some of these sketches done in Germany there, around the year 2000. It was an in-between time where I spent half of the year in Germany, and the other half in Spain, before I moved to Spain for good. The painting above is one of them. It features the place next door to where I lived in Reute. In fact it is originally a black and white ink drawing, but I thought it might be nicer in colour, so I just water coloured it. Unfortunately I don’t remember the colours of the roofs, houses  or the church there, so I went with my fantasy. As you can see, at this point the houses in my drawings were not dancing yet, as they used to do in my  sketches of Portugal for example. Perhaps due to the fact that I hadn’t found out yet that houses can dance… or more probably that German houses don’t really like to dance! One should give them some beer, I guess 

You can see a stork on the roof of the church. I loved the storks up there, directly in front of my atelier window. I spent much time watching them, listening to them and even sketching them. Here is a watercolour, based on one of these sketches

Stork on top of the church of Reute - by Miki

I know that some of my followers here love to see where exactly are the places I mention, so here is Reute on the Google map

As I said, I started sketching much outside in Germany. I had always a sketching book and a pen with me, wherever I went. Some of the sketches have annotations on them, stuff which happened to me while I was painting in the nature. Here is an example of words written on one of the sketches (in German though):

“An old lady saw me drawing and came to me. She smiled at me, and without looking in my book she asked

“Are you doing a lovely drawing?”

“Well, I am trying…”

Reading these words, I remember now how much I appreciated the German people … they were always very discreet when they saw me sketching. Never tried to have a look behind my back, always very polite and discreet, and staying at a respectable distance, not invading my private space. And so happy to see me painting their lovely landscapes, houses and storks!

So, I think it is enough for now. I will probably dedicate some more posts to my German time, having now some sketching material to publish. My next post should be about Cafe Life, in and around Reute… be prepared to see some big jugs of beer!

These artworks are available directly online as Giclee print in many different dimensions, on paper or canvas, and also as greeting cards. Just click on the widget below to access my FAA Gallery

Joe Bonamassa in Spain

Joe Bonamassa 01 - by Miki

Well, I am cheating  a little bit here… this artwork does not actually represent Joe Bonamassa  in Spain. But it does not matter, it is Joe with his guitar and all the divine electric sparkles he is filling space and time and fans with!

It is not  a total bluff though. We have just come back from a Joe Bonamassa gig in Murcia, Spain. As I discovered that he would be coming so close to us -we live 150 kilometres further south- I could not believe it: these stars normally honour Madrid, Barcelona and sometimes Bilbao with their presence, and that’s about it. Well, without wasting one second more I bought our tickets! The first time we had seen him was in July 2011, but that time we had to fly and drive thousand of kilometres for this pleasure. More precisely: it was in Loket, in the Czech Republic, at a concert by his supergroup Black Country Communion. In Loket I had suffered like hell, the concert being outside under non-stop rain. But here in Murcia we were sitting comfortably in a nice auditorium, and I could totally focus on the gig. One might think, that sitting in an armchair is not very rockmantic, but I don’t care, when I am listening to Joe, I simply want to enjoy it to the max. Well, I was not disappointed, the gig was a super feast for the ears and the eyes:

fab people, fab music, fab lights!

And I will certainly try to make some new painting of Joe, in Spain this time. The light patterns and colours at the show were artistically very inspiring to me.

I was especially happy – and to be honest, surprised  – to see Joe smiling quite often, and even making fun. Everybody there laughed at his joke about El Cortes Ingles, this Spanish department store chain. He had entered one of them on the morning of the gig, and was amazed about the size and the fact that you can buy there “a suit as well as a dog”!

I was also happy to see that the Spanish audience, probably about 90% of the total punters- really enjoyed the show. I didn’t appreciate so much the screaming of some of them  in the middle of a Joe solo, stuff like

“Guapo!”

or

“Ole”

 but one should not forget that these people come from a different culture, where these words and behaviour simply mean a deep mark of admiration. And well, even if bullfight is not very popular any more, the “ole” will probably stay a long time in the Spanish vocabulary!

Oh yes, a last funny detail. Perhaps you know it, I am not a very tall person.. well, I am not that tiny either: a whole 159 cm! At least in the morning… unfortunately, I am starting being in that age when one’s own size diminishes through out the day… this reminds me that when we were in Loket, we met Joe Bonamassa by accident in the town, and we had a photo taken with him. But when I saw it later at home, I forbade Kevin to publish it anywhere: I looked so small next to these 2 giants, like a dwarf really! Kevin had to photoshop me away…

Anyway, at the gig, I was a little bit worried that somebody would sit in front of me and I could not make the photos I wanted to. And by chance, until 10 minutes before the gig began, the seats in front of us remained empty although the room was gradually filling up. I could not believe my luck. But then suddenly, they arrived. A whole family. Mom, Dad and their 2 offspring,  2 very young children, twins probably, around 4 years old, spreading themselves in these sits in front of us. I ended up having in front of me probably the smallest gig attender in the world! He was of course, with his sister, the only children in the whole audience… isn’t it incredibly lucky? Normally, on such occasions, exactly the contrary happens: I always get in front of me the biggest person in the world! I was by the way wondering why the parents brought their children to the gig… well, obviously, the father was a musician, and he probably  wanted to make a Joe Bonamassa out of his son, using all possible tricks to motivate him: like for example using his son’s arm as a guitar neck and playing on it all the time. I am not so sure, but I had the feeling that the boy was not very responsive to music… for the first half of the gig he tried to impede everybody around to listen to the music, and slept the other half… a long way to go! Funny, yesterday at the swimming pool, Kevin randomly met a guy who told him about a genius 17 year-old musician playing in Los Gringos, a local band here. He said that he was like Joe Bonamassa. Why is it so hard to believe?  Well, the world is not as full of wonder kids as parents and friends want to believe 

And also, it takes much more than some kind of talent to be like Joe Bonamassa!

Joe Bonamassa 02 - by Miki

I was very happy to meet again The Pianist, the one I had seen on the DVD of the Royal Albert Hall in London, when I had seen Joe for the first time in my life. That pianist who had inspired me to some paintings. In Murcia I missed his little Buddha though…

The Pianist 02 - by Miki

Anyway, if you have a chance, go and see Joe, you won’t regret it. You can check here his tour dates

A big thanks from us to Joe for coming to us, and also to his manager Roy Wiseman for having organised the event in Murcia.

These artworks are available directly online as Giclee print in many different dimensions, on paper or canvas, and also as greeting cards. Just click on the widget below to access my FAA Gallery

And if you are interested in seeing more of my music art, please click on the image below

Music Paintings Gallery - by Miki

The One-Third Mug

The One-Third Mug - by Miki

This mug has got a very special personal story! I designed it on my own some years ago, in 2007, as the result of a fatal dead-end in our relationship.  As you perhaps know, we drink many milk coffees all the time, and 90% of them are prepared and served by my so caring partner Kevin. Now, that guy is the most perfect partner: he never criticizes me, whatever I do or not do. With one exception: he always moaned that I never finish my coffee off, that I always leave a big quantity at the bottom and that I then have the temerity to ask  for a new one.

It always goes like this:

Kevin: “Do you want a new coffee, baby?”

Baby: “Oh, yes, BigBoi, I would love a new one!”

So, BigBoi puts the kettle on and comes to get my mug. Before he takes it, he has a peek inside.

BigBoi: “You haven’t finished this one!”

Baby: “I don’t care… I want a new one!”

BigBoi:“You have to finish this one first!”

Baby:“No, it’s cold, I don’t like cold coffee!“”

BigBoi:“Then let me warm it up in the microwave for you!”

Baby:“No way! I don’t like second-hand coffee!”

And it goes on and on and on. BigBoi never understands that a French Lady doesn’t like a cold coffee, and even less a second-hand one. An English thing probably, they all love their second-hand stuff up there! And anyway, what do they know about coffee, these effing tea drinkers?

In his defence, I should perhaps say that we only drank Nescafe Gold, and that at that time we could not find it in Spain, or only in tiny quantities and at an infamous price. We had to bring it from the UK or France when we went there. So of course we were often short of it and it was not allowed to waste any gram of it.

Anyway, even more than cold or second-hand coffee, I hate recurrent situations and conversations. It just drives me crazy! To avoid me ending up in a mad house,  I decided to stop drinking Nescafe Gold and stepped down to a cheap powder coffee we could get everywhere here in Spain. Not a big deal for me, as I don’t really notice the difference. I thought we were clear now and I could go on wasting my cheap coffee with gay abandon. But this was underestimating English human nature… nothing changed:  he still wanted me to drink my coffee cold or warmed-up!

Eventually we had to make a drastic decision: we needed a RULE. After long negotiations, we agreed that if there was less than one third left in my mug, I would get a fresh coffee, without any discussion from his side. That rule applying only to the cheap coffee of course. A simple, objective rule, one would think. But very soon we noticed that the real problem had just started: considering the quantity of different shaped mugs we have, we could never agree about how much is one third. I tried to tell him that I am the mathematician in the house, and exactly know how much one third is, but he hates maths and always proved me wrong, using a bewildering array of dubious measuring devices.

It became really ridiculous, so ridiculous that one day I decided to design one mug which we would take as the only impartial judge in the future. Of course it had the inconvenience that I could never ever again drink my coffee out of our wonderful mugs, but well, one must know how and where  to do sacrifices in order to keep the perfect partner.

And this how I designed the One-Third mug featured in the painting above. I had planned it to have a hole at one third of the height, and when I could see the surface of the coffee, it meant that I was under the third, and could stop drinking and ask for a new one. Now, my mathematician nature got a little bit carried away, and having started with one third, I went one with a two thirds hole, and a three thirds hole. I was so proud of my new mug!

  But of course when the time came to test the mug, it was a big catastrophe: we had coffee all over the place! The irony being that the only coffee which was left in the mug and I could drink was the last third!

Well, let’s be honest, there was a design flaw from the very beginning: the mug wouldn’t even have functioned with just the one third hole!

BigBoi being a real gentleman, I didn’t even get shouted at, but the mug landed on a high shelf beyond my reach. By the way, interesting to see which was my favourite literature in 2007: Le Petit Prince from Saint-Exupery, the Russian author Doblatov (in Russian), and a big manual to learn FLASH.

If you like this mug and want to try it out, it is available directly online as Giclee print in many different dimensions, on paper or canvas, and also as greeting cards. Just click on the widget below to access my FAA Gallery

If you are interested in seeing more of my Coffee Mugs art, please click on the image below

Coffee and Cafe Art Gallery - By Miki

Trip to Morocco 04

Old and Lonely in Morocco 02 - by Miki

Some more paintings from our trip to Morocco in December 2011, especially from the lonely old people there… well, at least they seemed lonely, but perhaps the community there cares for them more than in our European countries… it was just a feeling I had, as I saw many local people giving money to the beggars… a religious thing probably, but great!

no time for more words today, we have to make preparations for our new mini-trip tomorrow!

Old and Lonely in Morocco 03 - by Miki

These paintings are available directly online as Giclee print in many different dimensions, on paper or canvas, and also as greeting cards. Just click on the widgets below to access my FAA store

And if you are interested in seeing more of  “My Dear Old People” series, please click on the image below

"My Dear Old People" Gallery - by Miki

Com’on Bear on Bourbon

Bear on Bourbon - by Miki

Sometimes I get comments on my paintings where people say:

“This painting tells a great story!”

and I always wonder what they mean, as I generally don’t intend to tell any story with my art.

But this one today is different. It does indeed tell a story.. to be more precise: loads of stories, where each one of them has a deep emotional value for Kevin and me. I will tell you these stories in this post, and will try to be as concise as possible, as I know you are terribly busy and totally overbooked, like we all are nowadays… so we say!

Well, these days, you will have noticed it if you follow me,  I am into mugs paintings again, trying to catch up with the new stars of our collection. A Sisyphusian task, as their number increases at a much faster pace than I am able to paint them. And as the Germans so beautifully say:

„Wer hat die Wahl

hat die Quahl“

(He who has a choice has a pain)

the question being: which mug should I paint next? Well, generally I trust fate and let it decide for me.

This time for example… yesterday evening I made a big compromise with Kevin – even liberated women must do that sometimes  …- I generously agreed to watch a film, called “Hard Target” and featuring Jean Claude Van Damme. Now I had never seen that guy before, being a French intellectual I have my prejudices against Brussels muscle men -although I do love my English rocker’s swimming muscles… , and in my milieu, we don’t look at such films! But Kevin convinced me to give it a go, as the action took place in New Orleans. And since we have been in New Orleans 2 years ago, we deeply miss it and look at everything featuring the city!

And anyway: I am a kick boxer, and I thought it could be useful to look at some real professionals.

Well, shame on me perhaps, but I loved the film! I won’t comment on it further for now, as I must go on with the stories of the paintings. Suffice to say, in the film we saw many places where we had been, and we became very nostalgic. We even planned another trip there this morning… just in our heads for now! I thought of the Saints cup we brought back.. and all the other stuff we got there at the Carnival, and I felt this all would make a great mug painting!

We were in New Orleans the night The Saints won the Superbowl, and I think I have never felt so emotional before, at least not about a sports victory. Probably the Gods up there on Mount Olympus were also celebrating the victory of their Saints, with all the thousands and thousands of people in the streets. It was AMAZING!  In memory we bought that wonderful mug, which we will always cherish more than any other. We got the beads following the Saints Parade on the following day. And the fabulous sunglasses the bear is wearing were given to me by an artist friend from New Orleans, whom we had met for the first time in the South of Spain, one year earlier. Really, what a night it was!

And now to the bear itself. His name is “Com’on Bear”, in French “Camembert”. Kevin gave him as a gift to his mother when she was diagnosed with cancer many many years ago, he was still a young boy, having just started his professional career as a musician. And when she died, not much later,  he just adopted her Bear… Camembert was not with us in New Orleans, but we gave him the beads and the glasses as we came back, and he never takes them off!

If you like Com’on Bear and The Saints mug, they are available directly online as Giclee print in many different dimensions, on paper or canvas, and also as greeting cards. Just click on the widget below to access my FAA Gallery

If you are interested in seeing more of my Coffee Mugs art, please click on the image below

Coffee and Cafe Art Gallery - by Miki

And more generally you can see ALL THE STUFF I paint by going to my gallery “Miki’s Enchanted World”. Just click -gently!- on my face. By the way this photo was taken on Valentine’s evening 2012, I wrote about it some days ago!

Miki's Enchanted World

I Wish I was Pink

I Wish I Was Pink - by Miki

Inspired by my last Love Mug painting, Today I decided to make some more art work for my series “Coffee Cups”.

Some of you will think

“Oh, NOOOOOO! Not her bloody mugs again!”

Well, sorry, but YES! I love my mugs. I love to drink hot milk coffee out of them all, and I love to paint them. Apart from the new Valentines Love Mug, our collection has become bigger since I painted my last mug, and it is really time to give some of them the honour they deserve: being immortalized in a Miki painting! 

Now, today something very special happened with one of my mugs, one more reason to grab my brushes. While I was working in my atelier, Kevin had prepared a coffee for me, as he always does. He is the coffee chef in the house. In fact he is the everything chef here. He likes to say

“I must be the only guy in the world with a French woman who cannot cook!”

Anyway, I left my atelier to go and look for the coffee. Kevin had prepared it in that wonderful mug he had bought for me in a fine arts shop in my home town Tarbes, in the French Pyrenees, as we were on our way to Italy last year. In fact the mug and its little matching plate with room for a cookie, was not for sale. It was exhibited in the shop as an example of stuff they did in their ceramic classes. The mug had been created and painted by the shop owner, and was not even ready to use, not having passed through the oven yet to fix the paint. But Kevin wanted it for me. I love pink, and this one had such an amazing unusual shade of pink, and such a great design on top of it. He took some effort and many charming smiles to persuade the woman to sell it to him. The mug and its plate travelled for 6 weeks with us,  all the way to Tuscany and back, and as we were back home Kevin put it in the oven according to the instructions given by the woman. A long cooking process, certainly more complicated than these fabulous gratin dauphinois or crepes au fromage which my mother, a perfect French woman, sometimes cooks for us when we visit. No, I am not losing my marbles right now: just mentioning it  because very soon we will go to my parents again and although we hypocritically say to my old Mom:

“Please, don’t cook for us, it is too much work!”

we secretly hope to get one of her food wonders! 

Anyway the mug works fine now, the pink colour is coffee- and even dishwasher – safe. This afternoon it was waiting for me next to my computer, with one of my favourite cookies on the plate, one of these fabulous “double-choc biscuits” with tons of chocolate inside, a real chock for the senses! But they were not alone there. A little rainbow pig stood next to the mug, starring at it with wide-opened eyes. First I had thought the pig was after the cookie, but when I asked him what he wanted there, he just said

“I Wish I was Pink!”

If you like my new pink mug and the fancy pig, they are available directly online as Giclee print in many different dimensions, on paper or canvas, and also as greeting cards. Just click on the widgets below to access my FAA store

If you are interested in seeing more of my Coffee Mugs art, please click on the image below

Coffee and Cafe Art Gallery - By Miki

And more generally you can see ALL THE STUFF I paint by going to my gallery “Miki’s Enchanted World”. Just click -gently!- on my face.

Lidl Love

Perhaps you have noticed (and if you haven’t, let me tell you: then you are in big love trouble!): some days ago it was Valentines Day!

Now me, I am not one of these purists who reject this celebration, and all the other ones like Christmas, Easter, Mother’s Day, etc too, moaning that this has all become so commercial and so on. Me, I love Valentines Day! To start with, if it was me, I would have Valentines every day! Being in a wonderful relationship I would love to be given official permission to scream it all the time to the entire world. But apart from that, I love all the gifts I get from my English rocker. And this year it was just FAB!

The day started with a painting which I found on my computer keyboard as I got up, full of hearts and including the words “Be My Valentine”. Well, this alone would have been enough to make my day. But then, later on, he went out under the pretext of looking for some books and came back with a big box of chocolates. He told me that his Auntie used to work in the factory where these chocolates are made (Thornton’s)and always came home with huge bags of mis-shapes. Great stuff, I must say, although I am generally not a fan of English chocolate! But these indeed taste like a really delicious Auntie! 

Then he took me out for dinner to our local Indian restaurant and it was  NAN! (I just decided to use this word to describe how tasty a good Indian meal is… sounds great and adequate to my ears!)

But then came the most beautiful surprise of all time. Late in the evening, at a time when I was quite depressed because our football team had lost, he gave me a beautifully wrapped box. You might not know it, but we are both huge fans of coffee mugs, and never miss an occasion to find some new, wherever we are. Well, I opened the box and found these two incredibly cute mugs which I could not resist to paint today.

Love Mugs - Watercolour painting by Miki

I really could not believe my eyes. Simply perfect and so very ‘Valentines!’ For artistic reasons, I painted the mugs in different sizes (better for the composition) but they both have the same height, and HERS cuddles herself exactly in HIS with her concave recess… and all these lovely drawings of cat, dog, fish skeletons and bones.. and all these hearts.. and all these cute words.. and these amazing heart-shaped handles

I asked him where he did find such mugs, knowing how difficult it is in our Andalusian desert to find such special stuff.

“LIDL!”

UNBELIEVABLE! Now I really want to thank the Lidl chain, a discount supermarket chain based in Germany that operates over 10,000 stores across Europe. And I swear I don’t get paid for this super advertising I am doing here! But I must say that they have put on the Valentines market a product which made me incredibly happy, and probably many others around Europe, and at such a cheap price! As I told Kevin that I would write a post about it, he became very pale in his face and asked”

“Won’t it make me look bad?”

Well, I don’t care, and he shouldn’t either. If some snob people out there think that it is a big shame to buy from Lidl (and there are many, I know… although I have seen some of them secretly going to Lidl!!!!), then it is their problem. My love mugs are the cutest thing ever, and the most beautiful Valentines gift I have ever had! I hope my watercolour painting does them justice.

If you have missed that amazing deal at Lidl, you can still get these mugs: they are available directly online as Giclee print in many different dimensions, on paper or canvas, and also as greeting cards. Not as cheap as by Lidl though, sorry! Just click on the widgets below to access my FAA store

If you are interested in seeing more of my Coffee Mugs art, please click on the image below

Coffee and Cafe Art Gallery - by Miki

And more generally you can see ALL THE STUFF I paint by going to my gallery “Miki’s Enchanted World”. Just click -gently!- on my face.

Still Life in Albufeira 02

Still Life in Albufeira 02 - by Miki

I wrote yesterday that I might do another watercolour painting based on the wonderful sculpture I saw in Albufeira, Portugal during our last trip there early in February 2012. Well, I did make an effort and here it is. All the persons featured in the painting were part of the sculpture, except the fish in front of the dog, and also the fish in the hands of the woman. The woman was holding something, but I don’t remember what it was! So, I gave her a fish too, like the dog… I just hope I won’t get any hassle from the feminists!  

Also the dog was from another breed, short on its legs though, like its mistress….

I don’t remember either if there were palm trees in Albufeira, on the beach or anywhere else, but I thought it fitted to the subject and we’ll put it in on the account of my artistic freedom.

And in case you don’t understand: the big blue mass in the foreground are fishing nets, and the guy is just fixing them. Also I beg forgiveness if the nets are not blue in Portugal, I just can’t remember, and the sculpture was made out of colourless stone… but most of the nets are blue or green in Spain, so I assumed they were there too… correct me if you know better!

I won’t start with the other elements of the painting: the fishermen, the buildings, the beach, the boat… any dissimilarity is coincidental!

In short: everything might be wrong and have hardly anything to do with the real Albufeira! Well, it was meant to be just an impression, and above all an artistic memory of that beautiful place. I hope, this at least is right!

The painting above is available directly online as Giclee print in many different dimensions, on paper or canvas, and also as greeting cards. Just click on the widgets below to access my FAA store

If Portugal interests you, you can see many of the sketches and paintings I did there on some different trips. Just click on the image below and you will enter my Portugal Gallery

Portugal Paintings Gallery - by Miki

And more generally you can see ALL THE STUFF I paint by going to my gallery “Miki’s Enchanted World”. Just click -gently!- on my face.

Still Life in Albufeira 01

Still Life in Albufeira in Portugal 01

As I announced  in one of my last posts, we were recently in Portugal to watch and support our under-17 National football team playing in the 2012 Algarve Tournament. And of course we were especially interested in two of the lads, Mason Bennett and Will Hughes, playing usually for Derby County, our all time favourite team in the English League. Perhaps not the best team – at least not yet    – but surely with one of the most honest and likeable managers Nigel Clough, son of the famous Brian Clough!

Well, the Kids did a great job,  England won the Tournament and one of our two Derby players even scored a goal. We were over the moon! I wished our Derby players had scored yesterday evening too, in the Championship… I hate that they they lost against Reading, spoiling my so far so wonderful Valentines Day!

Now the games took place at different stadiums all over the Algarve, and we had to travel a lot. Apart from that, it was freezing there, like never before, at least not in my lifetime! No much chance really to make some sketches on-site. But I still wanted to remember that wonderful little trip in some paintings, somehow. I always do it. For me travelling is painting, and I can’t really deal with having been somewhere without having some painted memory of it.

So, I just made this watercolour, inspired by a wonderful statue of a fisherman I saw in Albufeira. It was not on the beach, but in a town square, not far from the beach though. And in fact there were many more figures involved in that “still life”, and if I can find the time, I will try to make another painting where one can see them all. They are surely worth it! I am not generally a big fan of statues and sculptures, but the Portuguese have a very playful and creative way with that particular artform. And one can see them in many places, outside, in town squares, on roundabouts, etc. Much more interesting than to see them in museums… it makes them look almost alive!

For those who don’t know where Albufeira is, I attach a Google map

Albufeira in Portugal

The painting above is available directly online as Giclee print in many different dimensions, on paper or canvas, and also as greeting cards. Just click on the widgets below to access my FAA store

If Portugal interests you, you can see many of the sketches and paintings I did there on some different trips. Just click on the image below and you will enter my Portugal Gallery

Portugal Gallery - by Miki

And more generally you can see ALL THE STUFF I paint by going to my gallery “Miki’s Enchanted World”. Just click -gently!- on my face.

Friar’s Point on The Mississippi River

Church in Friar's Point - by Miki

Searching for some earlier painting for which I had received an order, I came across two sketches I did on-site in the USA, in the Winter of 2010, both in ink and watercolour. It was an extremely cold winter, and I hardly did any sketching outside on that trip. And when we came back, I probably thought that these 2 from Friar’s point were not good enough to be published. But seeing them again, I feel that they are quite lovely, and perhaps some people in the world, originally from that town or having spent some time there, might enjoy seeing them.

As I did them we were on our way from Memphis to New Orleans, and spent 2 days in Clarksdale, exploring the town itself and the surroundings. We were especially interested in The Mississippi Blues Trail, trying to see as many markers as possible. Friars Point had been honoured by the Mississippi Blues Commission which placed a historic marker for Robert Lee ‘Nighthawk’ McCollum, otherwise known as Robert Nighthawk. And this is how we came to Friar’s point. We enjoyed the trip, although Friar’s point as itself seems like a weird place to me, a little bit scary even. We Europeans are not used to such kinds of villages. Our villages are cosy somehow, and the houses really give the impression that they and their inhabitants are living together… it was so different there. It seemed to me that each house was by itself… well, in fact, I got that impression very often in the USA, probably they have so much space there that they don’t need to build their houses on top of each other! But we did meet very lovely people there, eager to speak to us and help us, one lady in particular who stopped in her car and urged us to explore her village, full of pride.

Oh, wow! I have just read that a tornado hit Friar’s point in April 2011. This really does give me goosebumps, and makes me SAD! I can only hope that there was not too much damage… “tornado”, to my European ears, sound like BIG BIG DANGER…  I don’t like it! I hope the church and the red barn are still standing… and if not, at least they still exist in my gallery!

Red Barn in Friar's Point - by Miki

The paintings above are available directly online as Giclee print in many different dimensions, on paper or canvas, and also as greeting cards. Just click on the widgets below to access my FAA store

And more generally you can see all the stuff I paint by going to my gallery “Miki’s Enchanted World”. Just click -gently!- on my face.