Happy Valentine’s Day 03: A Frog in Love

“A Frog in Love”

A Painting to celebrate Valentine’s Day

Thinking one cannot begin too soon to celebrate love, I recently started a series of blog posts featuring paintings created especially for Valentine’s Day. The last one I presented in this blog was “The Queen of Hearts”.

“A Frog in Love”

(Acrylics painting in impressionist and more or less abstract style.)

I had started this painting many years ago in that secret recipe of mine involving acrylic paints and other cooking ingredients, but I had abandoned it, not able to see any interest in it.This happens sometimes: I begin with a painting, bring it normally quite fast to a conclusion, but if it develops too slowly I then lose the patience and the interest, put it to one side and normally forget it. And then years later it reappears and suddenly catches my eye and I know what to do with it and how to finish it. The painting above fell into my hands as I was browsing through old stuff, in search of an older painting I wanted to photograph and publish. I was in the middle of doing Valentine art works, and as I saw it, I recognised hearts in the red flowers … and also there was this big green stain among the hearts and it suddenly jumped out at me that it was a cute little frog!

So here it is, my cute little Frog in Love, celebrating Valentine’s Day with all of us.

This painting, and also other paintings to celebrate Valentine’s Day, are available directly online as Giclee print in many different dimensions, on paper, canvas and metal, and also as greeting cards. Please click on the widget below to access my FAA store

The Giclee prints from the above mentioned Online shop are manufactured in the USA and sent directly to the client from there. For personal or financial reasons it might not be appropriate for everybody to order their prints in the USA. Also, you might prefer to purchase my Giclee prints hand-signed. If so, you can alternatively order directly from me. Simply contact me indicating in which size. Go to

Goodaboom Boutique

to see a guideline of pricing for different dimensions.

I also sell A3 posters (297mm x 420mm) as high quality digital prints on a Heavyweight White 350gsm paper, each packed in cello with card stiffener.

Poster Price: 50 euros.

They are a great alternative to the Giclee prints, to a more affordable price.

(the price does not include packing&shipping)

Happy Valentine’s Day 02: The Queen of Hearts

“The Queen of Hearts”

A Painting to celebrate Valentine’s Day

Thinking one cannot begin too soon to celebrate love, I recently started a series of blog posts featuring paintings created especially for Valentine’s Day. The first one, “Chocolate Hearts and Champagne” bubbling all over the painting, was rather a transition between Christmas, New year and Valentine’s Day. But today, I want to go into the heart of Valentine’s and present

“The Queen of Hearts”

(An acrylics painting in what ‘they’ probably call an impressionist style.)

I ask my partner and occasional art adviser if the painting was nice, mainly if the big heart was ok. His answer was:

“It is very nice… but if the heart was meant to be anatomically right, then no, it is not ok… it is too big!”

MEN!

Anyway, in my romantic world, and especially for Valentine’s Day, no heart could be big enough. And well, the lady is The Queen of Hearts, so not only has she got a giant heart herself, but she also grows hearts for everybody in need…

This painting, and also other paintings to celebrate Valentine’s Day, are available directly online as Giclee print in many different dimensions, on paper, canvas and metal, and also as greeting cards. Please click on the widget below to access my FAA store

The Giclee prints from the above mentioned Online shop are manufactured in the USA and sent directly to the client from there. For personal or financial reasons it might not be appropriate for everybody to order their prints in the USA. Also, you might prefer to purchase my Giclee prints hand-signed. If so, you can alternatively order directly from me. Simply contact me indicating in which size. Go to

Goodaboom Boutique

to see a guideline of pricing for different dimensions.

I also sell A3 posters (297mm x 420mm) as high quality digital prints on a Heavyweight White 350gsm paper, each packed in cello with card stiffener.

Poster Price: 50 euros.

They are a great alternative to the Giclee prints, to a more affordable price.

(the price does not include packing&shipping)

 

Jesus Walking On The Water

A Biblescape: Jesus Walking On The Water

I am pleased to announce that my painting “Jesus Walking on The Water”, from the series

“The Biblescapes”

has been chosen to illustrate an article in the September/October Issue of Horizons, the US magazine for Presbyterian women.

The article itself has the wonderful title

“The Gift of Troubled Water”,

by Cecilia Amorocho Hickerson: a mother, spouse, church musician, artist and writer living in Louisville, Kentucky.

“… A Well-known hymn tells us, “Wade in the water, children; God’s gonna trouble the water.” I confess that for some time I didn’t understand the reference to troubled water. How do you feel about trouble water? Most people I know would rather build a bridge above troubled water than wade into it. They make great efforts to avoid troubles of any kind. Even in our spiritual lives we may feel pressure to toe this or that doctrinal line, so as not to stir up trouble…”

With  a little effort you should be able to read the rest of that wonderful article on the publication underneath.

A big thanks to The Presbyterian Women, and especially to Laura Lee, PW Art Director/Production Associate, with whom I was in contact all along and who was profoundly kind!

This artwork featuring Jesus walking on The Water, as well as many others Biblescapes, is currently available as Giclee prints in different dimensions, on paper, canvas and metal, as well as greeting cards. Just click on the painting above to access my shop online.

The Giclee prints from the above mentioned Online shop are manufactured in the USA and sent directly to the client from there. For personal or financial reasons it might not be appropriate for everybody to order their prints in the USA. Also, you might prefer to purchase my Giclee prints hand-signed. If so, you can alternatively order directly from me. Simply contact me indicating in which size. Go to Goodaboom Boutique to see a guideline of pricing for different dimensions.

I also sell A3 posters (297mm x 420mm) as high quality digital prints on a Heavyweight White 350gsm paper, each packed in cello with card stiffener.

Poster Price: 50 euros.

They are a great alternative to the Giclee prints, to a more affordable price.

(the price does not include packing&shipping)

A New Fantascape: Coup de Foudre

Today I eventually painted a new Fantascape, from this series where trees take human form and start to interact with each other in rather dramatic ways. If you want to know more about the story of the Fantascapes, please go to the Fantascapes Gallery, it is explained there.

But this special Fantascape today has another story. Some months ago I was contacted by Trey Knight, who wrote

“Hello Miki,

I wanted to reach out to you. I recently came across your roller skating paintings and it struct me they are very familiar. Do you know which team you painted? The painting of the one arm trick/flipping the women looks like the final trick in our freedance competition. It was a Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers inspired piece dressed in black tux tailcoat and she was in peach crystals and ostrich feathers.

The yellow looks familiar as well because we had a lemon yellow compulsory tux/dress one year as well.

My name is Trey… My partner Kyoko Harada were the world dance champions in roller skating in 1995.

I could be mistaken but they do seem very familiar.

All the best and love all your paintings!!

love life
Trey Knight”

And indeed, it was him and his partner whom I painted on the two roller skating paintings. The painting below is one of them.

I was extremely pleased to meet him, and we had a very pleasant email exchange. At some point he sent me some photos and links to videos presenting his actual work. The best would be to go and have a look by yourself at Stilt World. He said, it might inspire me to some new painting.

And in fact, when I looked at his people on stilts, and especially his Amphibians, it strongly reminded me of my Tree People. And since then I wanted to make some new Fantascape work based on the Amphibians. So, this is the first one. I called it “Coup de Foudre”, as I couldn’t find any appropriate English translation. It French it means that you are struck by a lightning bolt of love. I think the closest thing in English is “love at first sight”, but really it does not convey the supernatural power of the Coup de Foudre. Don’t English people fall in love that way? I do!

The above paintings are currently available as Giclee prints in many dimensions, on paper and canvas, as well as greeting cards. Just click on the paintings above to access our shops online.

The Giclee prints from the above mentioned Online shop are manufactered in the USA and sent directly to the client from there. For personal or financial reasons it might not be appropriate for everybody to order their prints in the USA. Also, you might prefer to purchase my Giclee prints hand-signed. If so, you can alternatively order directly from me. Simply contact me indicating in which size. Go to Goodaboom Boutique to see a guideline of pricing for different dimensions.

We also sell A3 posters (297mm x 420mm) as high quality digital prints on a Heavyweight White 350gsm paper, each packed in cello with card stiffener.

Poster Price: 50 euros.

They are a great alternative to the Giclee prints, to a more affordable price.

(the price does not include packing&shipping)

Watercoloured Words

In my new artist website www.mikidegoodaboom.com, I have put together, in form of electronic books, poetry which my partner Kev Moore has written, inspired by some of my paintings. So far I have published 2 books:

“A Brush with Poetry”    and     “Watercoloured Words”.

The ” Brush with Poetry” collection is older, more or less from the time just after we met. The artworks are mainly painted in gouache and acrylics.

Recently Kev Moore got inspired by another kind of artworks, mainly painted in watercolour.

In both books it is so far only a short selection of paintings and poems, but I will gradually add more pages.

Also I will certainly add some more poetry books, but it is quite a work to put everything together and I need more time. The next will be a book of the poetry written by Helen Losse, an American poet. She had been inspired by some of my Fantascapes and Landscapes.

So, if you are interested, go to my new website and have a look at the books. At the beginning of the books Kev Moore and I tell about the process of creating these pieces together. And also, less but not least, it is really FUN to flip the pages, it is almost like a real book!

So here you go

A Brush with Poetry

Watercoloured Words

PS: If you are a poet, or any kind of writer, famous or not, and you feel inspired by any of my paintings and want to write about them, or already have , please contact me. It would be a pleasure for me to publish your written work in my website.

Le Tour de France in Art

So, Le Tour has started again, and I hope to be able to follow it from the beginning to the end this year. Last year I saw the first 10 stages, and then we went away to the Czech Republic. But before I left I had had time to start an artwork series called “Le Tour de France” -very original, isn’t it?  – . which I partly presented in this blog in different posts. This series has been so far extremely popular, the most  among them having been

Le Tour de France 03 – by Miki

Here is one more from the series, more abstract perhaps, but full of recognisable cycling movement!

Le Tour de France 10 – by Miki

I have recently sold in the USA following original painting in acrylics, “Breaking Away”, but if you are interested prints are still available

Breaking away – by Miki

And also I though that a detail of that painting might very interesting standing for itself. I personally like it a lot.

Breaking away 02 – by Miki

Anyway, all my Tour de France 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 Gallery

9 Kids and 1 Teacher in Art Movements

In the Summer of 2011 I received the following email, with the title “Art Movements”

“Hello Miki

My name is Victoria Thornton, I am currently working as a teaching assistant and training to become a primary school teacher. I am due to teach art to a year 6 class in September and we are studying the unit ‘people in action’. I have decided to draw inspiration from artists such as Leger, Degas, Picasso, Matisse and yourself! I will be introducing the children to your cyclist and dancer paintings as I am sure your style of work will really inspire them to produce something amazing. We will be creating a fact file for each artist that we are studying; could you tell me what art movement you class your work as/ what style of artist you would describe yourself as? (For example I will be introducing the terms Cubism, Impressionism and Fauvism to the children) Which artists have inspired you?…

I hope you are able to help, thank you.

Victoria. “

Now, without blowing my own trumpet , I must say that I am often contacted by students and teachers from around the world, who want to use my art for their purpose, the teachers to teach, the students to learn. And honestly I find it quite flattering and touching. I don’t make a big deal out of my art myself , I just paint. Not that I am deprecating myself, I do like much of the stuff I paint, it’s just that I don’t like to make big words about it, pretending I am an ARTIST, inspired by higher forces and things like that. Read my answer  to Vicky and you might understand better how my artist soul functions….

“Hello Victoria,

thanks for your mail.. and for the great company (Degas, Picasso, Matisse…)  you will give me! 

I am a very unusual artist in the sense that I was never really interested in art. I just love painting and creating. This means that I was never inspired by any artist, as I hardly ever looked at their works! I am a very spontaneous, intuitive artist, never think about what I do, I just take my brushes or pen and start… . I am certainly not that kind of artists making big words about their own art… I hope this is not too disappointing for you!

I gave many interviews to art students and teachers, who wanted to use my art in their studies. One of them was about my sport paintings. If you are interested to read it, just let me know. it might contain useful info to you.

Concerning sports, and dancing: well, I am myself a very active sportier, and this is why movement takes a very important place all across my art. I love movement, and I need it.

I can’t describe myself in a special style. I change my styles according to my moods.  If there is a style which describes movement in art, something like “Movementism”, or “Changism”, yes, this would be me!

I have the feeling I am not helping you very much with my answers, I feel really sorry about that. But i don;t want to pretend to be something I am not. Let me know please if we can “approach myself” in a way which could help you. And as I said, some of the interviews might be useful…

Warm regards from Spain”

Well, we had some more exchanges, and eventually I was able to give Vicky some useful info about myself and my art, and we both were happy. She wrote

“Perhaps once the children have produced some work I could email you with an attached photo….”

As I read this sentence, I thought,  well, they always say it, and I never hear from them again after they have got what they want! This indeed always happens to me, and in the meanwhile I am so bitter about it that I tend not to answer these students/teachers requests any more. Which saddens me very much in fact. But you know, I put work into it to answer their questions, make big interviews sometimes, send high quality painting files, and then I never hear from them again in spite of big promises. Something I will never understand! I know it is a result of the internet social interaction -forgetting all good manners and respect and memory!-, but I do hope I will never become like this myself!

Anyway, to my immense surprise I received an email from Vicky some days ago

Hi Miki,

It’s Vicky Thornton here, I got in touch with you last summer in order to get some info about your work for my art lessons (children aged 10-11). Well, the kids really enjoyed studying you and were particularly inspired by your cyclist pieces. They went on to create similar paintings themselves (please see photo-album attached for a selection of the artwork) using oil pastels and watercolours. They were very excited when I told them that I had been in contact with you via email and that I would be sending you some examples of their work : )

Hope you’re well and had a lovely Xmas- we had a huge snowfall last night in fact so it feels like Xmas again here in the UK!
Vicky x

Well, believe me, this made up for all the previous disappointments!

So, here they are – these wonderful artworks created by these 9 kids and inspired by my cycling paintings. I hope you enjoy them as much as I do! I personally find them great, so great that they really are worth to be published WORLDWIDE!

Number 01

Number 02

Number 03

Number 04

Number 05

Number 06

Number 07

Number 08

Number 09

I hope these paintings won’t be the last ones I see from these kids. ALL of them have the ability and the talent inside of them, I can see it in each of these paintings. I hope that in their life they will come across such wonderful teachers as Vicky seems to be, who know to motivate them to go on with their art and get it out into the world, in colours and lines and forms, what they artistically have got inside!

I of course asked Vicky for the permission to publish these artworks and her name in my blog. She was enthusiastic about it and asked me to add following info:

 ”the paintings were done by year 6 children (aged 10-11) at Weston Village Primary School in Cheshire, England”

Well, kids, be sure then if I go to Cheshire one day, I will visit you at school and see how you are doing. So better take your pencils and brushes again right now and go on creating such great art! But before I can come, I guess I will have to check on a UK map where Cheshire is… we French are so bad at geography!

Now it is my turn to ask you all something: I would like to know, just because it interests me, who painted which painting. By that I mean: girl or boy? I have my little idea about it, and I really would like to  see if I am right. So please, leave me a comment on this blog when you recognise your painting (Just put the number of the painting and “girl” or “boy”.. you can write more about you if you fancy, I would be very happy to know more about you!).

THANKS TO ALL OF YOU!

Art and Sports 03 – Motorsports

Formula 1:Teamwork 01 - by Miki

 (Watercolour painting)

Now again, as with golf, many people might not consider the motor sports as real sports. But often I suppose it is simply a question of definition. If one considers a sport an activity which involves a big physical effort for a certain amount of time,  then yes, motor sports are sports! Well, according to this definition, dock workers for example, or farmers, or  musicians who gig all the time for little money,  the ones who have to carry all their equipment around all the time, could be considered as sportsmen too.. in fact almost everybody is making sport.. great, the world is healthy!!! 

Anyway… I personally prefer sports without a motor attached somewhere, and this is probably the reason why I haven’t done many motor sports paintings in my life. So far only two if I remember well. The one above, which features one of the most fascinating scenes of Formula 1 for me, the tyre-changing. What impressive team work these guys are managing there! I sold that painting a long time ago to a German, he wanted to hang it in his office.  Unfortunately I haven’t got a good quality photo of it. A pity… but well, I have been asked many times  for reproductions or/and new Formula 1 paintings, so I guess one day , soon perhaps if you really insist, I will make an effort… aesthetically speaking that race is certainly worth it!

Powerboats World Championship in Portugal - by Miki

 (Acrylics painting on canvas)

And this is my second motor-sports painting, featuring a scene from the 2008 World Powerboats Championship in Barca de Alba in Portugal. We attended the event totally by accident, as we were touring Portugal. At the Championship we even became friends with one of the UK competitors, and Kevin, my English Rocker,  became his Chief assistant for the race. That was great fun! I meant to do more paintings about this theme, but I  missed the opportunity. Not that I am lazy, on the contrary, I am kind of painting all the time, when I am not taking care of my blogs and art sites, But I love to paint everything , and I always focus on what just crosses my path and attracts my artistic attention. According to the LIFO principle: Last In First Out.

That painting has been sold recently to a Spanish sports paintings collector. At least I took quite a good photo of it beforehand, so if you are interested in buying a print, available on paper or canvas, in many different sizes, just click on the widget below

And more generally you can see all this stuff I paint by going to my gallery “Miki’s Enchanted World”

A Nightmare

Nightmare 02 - by Miki

(Acrylic painting)

I just woke up from a terrible nightmare:

“…I was at my parents’ flat, in the ninth floor, in front of the sea. There was a hurricane, big flooding and the waves were already licking the base of the building. My old father said he would go down to pray for all the poor people who were in danger. our dog Maya followed him. I was watching the  through the large bay windows After a while I saw him from above, carried away by a gigantic wave, and the dog too.Between two waves the water was very transparent and I could see them both under water, but at different spots, fighting for their life. Somehow the dog succeeded coming out of the water, but then he git mad, searching for my father, and drowned again… My mother was screaming at me that I should go down and try to rescue them, but  I could’t move, and anyway I knew it had no sense….”

Needless to say I had a tremendous headache as I woke up, and  deep guilt feelings. Aspirin helps against physical pain, but not against guilt…

And don’t tell again

“This was only a dream, this is not real!”

because then I will engage you in an endless hot discussion about what “real” is. When a dream has such consequences, so intensely measurable  in my reality, then it must be real! At least, as a scientist, this is my position.

Anyway, here is a nightmare painting, recently created. It is not a reference to an actual, concrete nightmare, but it does symbolise very well what my nightmares are normally about (not like the one from tonight, which was quite realistic): supernatural kind of ordered nonsense, and scary like hell. Full Stories worthy of the most fantastic film scenarios.

I don’t really like this painting, but well, my art is not about what I like. I have noticed that I better sell the paintings I don’t like than the ones I like! This is why I decided, once and for all, to publish everything I do and let the rest of the world be the judge of it.

But don’t misunderstand me: if you don’t like it, you don;t need to tell me. Just keep quiet! 

So, if you like it, and like it so much that you want a print, you can purchase one directly online, on paper or canvas, and in many different sizes. it is even available as greeting card, if you want to make one of your enemies a bad surprise… Just click on the widget below

And more generally you can see many of my dreams, nightmares, passions, loves and hates by going to my gallery “Miki’s Enchanted World”

The Harem

The Harem - by Miki

Well, to be honest, I have never been in Morocco. But it has always been a dream destination of mines… there was a time when my brother lived there, he had a nice house and a 4by4 a motorbike and even a wonderful white Arabic horse, but at that time I lived in the north of Germany, and not alone, and not happy, and travelling with that partner was not a clever option. And anyway, although horses are beautiful and great painting motifs, I have the greatest respect for them, and keep at distance…  they have got such a weird face structure.. these big eyes… and this big mouth… and the big teeth… does remind me some horror story of my childhood somehow… Anyway I missed the occasion of fulfilling a dream!

But now that I live with my dream man in Andalusia, Morocco is no more that far, and one day we will go. I needed some time though to convince him that Morocco is not as dangerous as one might say. I want to paint all the time and everywhere there, for it is without doubt our Boomobile. But one does hear so many horror stories, that the bravest among the motorhome fans can’t help going there, travelling in convoy. This is definitely not for us, we love it free and independent and planless. So we will see. For now we might start with a standard trip to Marrakesh, flight, ho0tel and rented car. We will see.

But images of Morocco are always haunting my paintings. These Arabic woman regularly appear in my paintings without me calling them. It must mean something. If I was an superstitious freak, i would see a sign there. But I guess it is just my dreams pushing to the surface..

Anyway, I did the acrylics painting above some days ago. It took me some time that Mister Random had lead me inside a harem that time. I first didn’t understand where I was, probably because I never was in a harem before. Really not… : Really, I don;t like to share my guy -) ! Apart from the languishing Madame on the sofa in the foreground, there is a sultan, and perhaps another guy, and a musician playing some kind of guitar for the Madame.

And here are two gouache Morocco paintings from the past. . Always when i look at them, I got the feeling that the two women will collide at the street corner… It’s kind of fun.. or at least, if you haven’t got enough sense of humour to get the fun, it adds some dramatic to the scene…

Moroccan Women 01 - by Miki

Moroccan Women 02 - by Miki

Hope you enjoyed that little fantasy trip to Morocco. If you enjoyed it that much, that you want to purchase prints of these paintings, they are available directly online in many different sizes, on paper or canvas, and even as greeting cards. Juts click on the widgets below