When Maths meet Sport…

Painting Football

Today is Saturday, and that means football day and our team DCFC, Derby County Football Club, nicknamed “The Rams”, is facing Blackburn in the English Championship. As with every time they play, nothing else matters in this world, our whole energy and attention is focussed on the game. So deeply are we invested in this ritual, that we even start the day drinking our morning milk coffee out of 2 giant DCFC mugs! To give you an idea, here is a watercolour painting of one of our pets, Bear’nadette, with one of these mugs.

As we usually drink milk coffee many times during the day until late in the night, the rule is: when DCFC is playing, we use these mugs until the end of the game. If they win, we go on using them. If the opposition win, we stop using them until next game. If we draw, we can choose what we want to do, we go on with these mugs, or we take some new ones.

Some years ago, my partner, the Derbyshire-born English rocker Kev Moore wrote a whole album in honour of his team, “Fan Fayre for The Commons People”. And the same year, to celebrate DCFC and the new album, I created a series of 12 artworks featuring the teams which Derby was facing that season and put them together in a calendar. Here is the artwork about the Club Swansea, whose nickname is “The Swans”.

Well, the Queen must have done a great job as their goalkeeper, because in the meanwhile, the Swans stepped up to the Premier League, even doing quite well up there, currently being in 9th place! I wished our manager Nigel Clough could sign up the Queen for the next season… Anyway, I have heard that DCFC is organising an exhibition of Club Memorabilia, and right now my calendar is proudly standing among them, signed by Nigel himself and two players, Craig Bryson and Jeff Hendrick. I am very glad about that, and I want to give a special thanks to Vernon Moore for having made it possible.

Now I want to come to the title of this post: “When Maths meet Sport”. In one of my previous lives, I was a passionate mathematician (still am somehow, but not active as such) and I was one of the first people to get interested by the World of Fractals. Later on when the fractals became so fashionable and even started invading the world of art, I lost my interest in them. But recently I had the idea to combine classical art with digital art, and one of these techniques I invented was to “fractalise” some of my paintings until something very different and attractive appears. The following painting, called “The Football Game”, is one of the artworks resulting from that experiment.

It was a coincidence, but the players on the painting are even wearing the DCFC colours, black&white! Some people would argue that the other colours have hardly anything to do with football, the pitch being green. But firstly, I don’t like green very much, and secondly, the red is meant to express the passion and the heat of the game! And anyway, as I always say: I am an artist and I am free to paint the world as I want to!

Well, for those who want to see some green around the players, here is another fractal football artwork, called “Quarterback Dance”. This one however is meant to represent the entirely different sport of American Football.

So, our game will start in one and a half hours, I need to start focussing now and gathering my positive thoughts for our team.

UP THE RAMS!

The football paintings presented in this gallery, and many more sport paintings, are available directly online as Giclee print in many different dimensions, on paper, canvas or metal, and also as greeting cards. Please go to my Sport Prints Gallery  to see prices and eventually purchase 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 which painting you are interested in and in which size. Go to Goodaboom Boutique to see a guideline of pricing for different dimensions.

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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 stiffner.

Poster Price: 50 euros.

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

(the prices for the Giclee prints and posters are not including packing&shipping)

Hand-signed prints incur a surcharge of 30 euros.

 

Who Are You Today?

Who are you today – watercolour painting by Miki

Everybody should know by now that we have a huge collection of coffee mugs and that I love to paint them. Well, when we were on on our last trip, through Cyprus and Crete, I started a new series of mugs paintings, featuring the most important and interesting coffee breaks we had along the island roads. The idea came late to me though, we were already quite at the end of the Cyprus trip, and I developed it mainly in Crete. But in Cyprus I did some in our last stay, in Limassol, both featuring Starbucks mugs.

The painting above represents one of our coffee breaks in a Starbucks Cafe in Limassol.  I was especially attracted by the table and the words written on it in the form of a spiral.In case you can’t read it on this small image it goes like this:

“Hello… who are you today?”

“how, not who,  I answer quickly… fine thank you”

and many other philosophical considerations, which I can’t remember and also can’t put back together from the painting as the essential words are covered by the mug itself.

In that cafe we also bought a new mug for our collection and I featured it later on at the hotel in a funny painting:

Starbucks Coffee  in Limassol – Watercolour and ink travel sketch by Miki

The fish itself was inspired by a painting I saw on the wall of a little cabin on the beach. He seems to be calling forth a Rainbow Genie from the mug!

By the way Kev Moore has created a great piece of music called “Coffee Cup Mambo” and put many of my mugs paintings in the form of the following video. The result is great, have a look!

My Limassol Starbucks mugs– and all others too – are already 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

Sleep Tight in The Travelodge

So, here I am. Back from a 6 week painting and sightseeing trip through unknown territory, that is to say: 3 weeks Cyprus, 3 weeks Crete, 1 day London. And although the weather was great almost all the time on these Mediterranean islands, it can never be as warm as at home, at least psychologically not. So, not a trace of vacation withdrawal, simply happiness to be back home after a fantastic time in which I did loads of sketches. Because in fact, what I call here vacation, is not really vacation for me, it is work too.. a dream job though!

And now it ‘s time to gradually complete and publish all this work.

Well, I have a very weird habit: when I read a magazine, I cannot help starting with the last page and browse my way back to the cover. No idea where this comes from -I have researched, I have definitely no Arabian ancestors!-, have often tried to fight it, but I cant: I have to start with the end. The reason might be my impatient nature, I perhaps cannot face that amount of pages until the end? Whatever:  for some obscure reason, I will now start my publishing work with the very last sketch I did, yesterday evening in London.

London Gatwick

We had to come back from Crete through the UK, Kevin having a BCSweet gig  in Great Yarmouth  and I had to wait for him in London. For all kinds of reasons we had booked a room for me in a Travelodge at Gatwick airport. Now, I didn’t know exactly what a travel lodge is, but I imagined some very cheap, cold, impersonal and unpleasant place. But let me tell you: I have been in many hotels in my life, some very posh and some very fancy, in any case much more expensive than the Travelodge… and much worse! I know I am running the risk of being judged as a tasteless and common person – truly a bad reputation for an artist! – but I do love well-thought-out and functional things. This hotel is one of them:  the shower is hot, the shower curtain is not too short, there is enough room around the sink for 2 persons toiletries, the towels are immense, the bed is double and big, the pillows are soft enough to not break my neck and long enough to be cuddled in case of the loved one’s absence, the TV is not microscopic and does not offer hundreds of useless channels, there is a long table-top to display all my painting stuff and start painting without having to move everything else, there is a big wardrobe area set apart, the heating works fine, and the most important thing in the world: there is a water kettle and a tray with instant coffee and milk!!!!! And outside the rooms, there is a vibrant cafeteria/restaurant area with loads of nice stuff to drink and eat, and free speedy internet. Now this is much more than what I got in some 500 euros a night hotels in my luxurious past!!!!!

So, there, I was, Friday evening, ready to pack again for our flight to Alicante next morning, when I noticed one of the leaflets pricing the services of the Travelodge. There were some very cute photos on it, featuring 2 bears having a ball at the Travelodge, drinking coffee, looking at TV and surfing the net. Having started a series of coffee mugs sketches  on this holiday capturing our coffee adventures in Cyprus and Crete, I decided to make a sketch of these bears, strongly inspired by one of these photos. And here it is:

Sleep Tight in The Travelodge - Watercolour and ink sketch, by Miki

By the way: If you really think now that I have a cheap taste, then I must tell you that I am not the only one. Among the bears and also all sorts of people there, of all ages and nationalities who seemed to enjoyed their stay there, I discovered a celebrity of the rock scene, obviously trying to stay incognito behind his sunglasses, probably not to admit publicly that he too loves the Travelodge at Gatwick Airport! He couldn’t fool me though, but well, to respect his wishes,  I won’t tell his name and and considering his aristocratic look, I decided to baptise him

“The Count of  Gatwick Travelodge”

Any similarity with a living person is purely intentional…  

The Count of London Gatwick Travelodge - Watercolour and ink sketch, by Miki

PS: I haven’t been paid for this article, but if the Travelodge company wants to give me  a free life pass for all Travelodges of the world (do they exist outside the UK?), I won’t say no!!!!

As usual, 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

Bear’nadette

Bear'nadette - Watercolour portrait, by Miki

Allow me to introduce my new baby:

And to tell you how she suddenly stepped in her new life with me.

Well, sometimes I get fed-up… who knows why? I don’t! I can’t even say that it is because of my feminine condition and its monthly bloody attacks, as I am already too old for that. But when I get this way, I am quite a tough challenge for Kevin, and he always try by all means to get a smile on my face. But when the situation is really dramatic and his natural charm does not work, he goes out and comes back with a present, usually something pink, for The Rosa Baby… The result being that I have quite a collection of lovely pink stuff at home.

But don’t get me wrong though, I am not misusing his generosity and getting nasty on purpose!

Now, yesterday afternoon was one of these serious moments. I felt quite down, without any tangible reason… boredom probably… but it became worse and worse with time passing by and Kevin intuitively felt that some drastic measure was called for. So, as usual he went out under the pretext of buying some bits and bobs, and came back with…

Bear’nadette!

You should have seen the expression on my face.. an immense delight!!! Don’t ever say again that men don’t understand women: my guy always know exactly what I need  and at  exactly the right moment!

I spent ages cuddling my new pink baby -she is really such a cuddly thing, all peluchy and tender! – and this totally calmed me down. But as soon as I put her down, Bear’nadette started to inspect her new home. She of course found my pink collection and claimed some of the stuff: my favourite pink New Orleans shirt, my Converse pink bag, my pink mug of fine China porcelain with the lovely red roses on it, and even my Animal pink hat. I fought a little bit, but that girl has got really a strong will and I gave up. I just tried to persuade her that an Animal hat was perhaps not appropriate for her, or better said, too appropriate, but Bear’nadette answered,

“I am an animal, and I am proud of it!”

So, not only a strong will, but tons of self-consciousness apparently!

Anyway she put the all stuff on, and asked me how she looked. Amazing, I said. She then declared that she wanted me to make her portrait! With the mug on it! Seeing a good occasion to complete my mugs art series, I agreed, quite worried though about the whole pink business, wondering how I would make the difference between all these pink things. Really not easy for me who loves contrasts! She even wanted me to get her pink contact lenses, but I categorically refused, and got her some blue instead, much better for the portrait and the contrast. I also managed to convince her to put a green ribbon around her neck, instead of the original pink one. This made my painting job easier!

So here she is, my new baby, in all her splendour! I wanted to pour some milk with grenadine in the mug, sure that she would love the colour match again, but she wanted coffee with milk, like us. Well, being a big fan of freedom and knowing nothing about children’s education, I gave her coffee. Caffeine-free though… so please, animal protectors, don’t come now and insult me!

I am glad that she didn’t insist on getting pink curtains on the window behind her, but as you can see, all that pink is already starting to rub off everywhere…

But still, it is very much pink on that portrait… I hope you will be able to find out where Bear’nadette starts and where she stops!

And if you want to get a Giclee print of her portrait, it is out in the business world now, and  you can get one in many different dimensions, on paper or canvas, and also as greeting cards. Just click on the widget below to access my FAA Gallery

PS: Don’t be misled by her cute appearance: she is a tough businesswoman.  She only allowed me to publish her portrait if we go fifty/fifty on the sales! She said she needs new pink stuff for her wardrobe…Needless to say, I agreed.

Back to My Golfing Past in Soufflenheim

Houses in Soufflenheim - by Miki

Before I moved to Spain, I used to live in Reute -see here my previous post about it -, a charming little town in the South West of Germany, in a region called “The Three Countries Triangle”, the three countries obviously being Germany, France and Switzerland. And it was indeed a fabulous location to do loads of exciting stuff, like skiing, diving (in the Swiss lakes) or golfing.

We had the chance to have a nice little flat on a wonderful golf course in the little Alsatian town of Soufflenheim, directly opposite us on the other side of the French border, about 80 kilometres away from Reute, and we used to spend most of our weekends there.

Soufflenheim in France

A few sketches from that past – I am speaking about the years between 1996 and 2000- reappeared as I was emptying my house in Albir, Costa Blanca, last week. I must say that I became very emotional as I saw them, as I did enjoy my time there: the golfing itself, the course, the town and its people. Being French, and having lived at that time for almost 30 years in a German environment, I was happy to hear my language, even if the people there spoke it in a quite different way than I was used to! But their accent was delightful, funny and “cosy” somehow.

All the sketches I found were just in ink, and I simply added water colour to them, with a tiny fragment of memory I have of the real colours there and loads of fantasy! But I am quite sure that the tree leaves were green though, so at least this will be ok!

Place de La Gare in Soufflenheim - by Miki

The above sketch mentioned “Place de la Gare, 8h” (Railways Station square) on it. I don’t remember why it was called so, or even if there was really a train station in Soufflenheim. But judging by the buildings, it was quite an old place and probably the station had moved somewhere else. Anyway I remember exactly when I did that sketch. I had got up early that day and gone to the local bakery to buy some croissants for the breakfast. I had made some quick sketches on the way, and when I had come back home, I had put the radio on:

they announced Princess Diana’s death!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I even found a sketch I did on another morning, while having my first coffee. It makes me smile that at that time I already loved to draw coffee mugs and put them on the foreground! Soufflenheim being a quite famous ceramic town in the region, that special mug had probably been bought there, but I don’t really remember it, and I invented the colours. The design though is true to the original drawing. Funny too to see which book is on the table, next to the mug : “Russckij Jasik”.. I was learning Russian at that time, my dream being to read the Russian classical authors in their own language! Well, I learned some Russian, but unfortunately my reading never went further than some short poems…

Our Flat in Soufflenheim - by Miki

The paintings on the wall behind the big yellow lamps was a golf painting by me: a golf player in the woods searching for his ball! I wished I had a photo of it, as with all the other things I drew and painted around that time…

The Golf Course -I hope it stills exists!- was designed by the famous German golf professional Bernhard Langer, and is just one of the most beautiful I have ever played, with its 18 lakes, its mini-forest and the hundreds of more or less wild animals. One of the most challenging too: you had better take a big bag of balls with you if you wanted to finish a round, as most of them became lost in the many woods and lakes!!

Sometimes I stood there alone, a whole week, between 2 weekends, and used to play a round by myself every morning around 8. I adored it, the course was a nature Paradise at that time of the day. No other human being was on the course, wild animals such as does and deers were wondering around on the fairways, and I needed only 2 hours for the whole 18 holes, something very suited to my impatient nature. And sometimes I took a sketching book with me and did some rapid drawing.. like the one below.

Golf Club Soufflenheim - by Miki

The little lady in the background walking to the tee is not me though. Well, it could be me symbolically, but I didn’t look like that when I played golf. I never pulled my bag on a trolley, I carried it on my shoulder, like a real guy. And I only wore trousers, and always a cowboy hat or a baseball hat. I never was one of these female golf players whose main reason to play golf is to showcase their new outfit… in fact I was quite often told off for not complying with the golf course clothing etiquette! Well, I never liked rules, on the golf course or wherever… not that I am an anarchist though, I understand the need for rule,: I just find it hard to have them applied to me! 

What I also did there on occasion was to sketch the golfers in the Club house. The bar-restaurant had a wonderful terrace and I really enjoyed the opportunity to sit and relax there when we had an afternoon game on the weekend.With a glass of Cremant in one hand – Cremant is a typical Alsatian bubbly drink,  similar to Champagne  – and a pen in the other, sitting in front of that gorgeous natural view, I just felt as if I was in Paradise! Well, here are 4 of these golfers I sketched there on one of these occasions

Golfers in Soufflenheim 01 - by Miki

Golfers in Soufflenheim 02 - by Miki

It was the 19th of August 2000, probably one of the last times I was there before I moved to Spain. So, if you were there that day, and recognise yourself on the sketches, please say hello! But I doubt you will -recognise yourself I mean -, I was at that time not very good at reproducing similarity! But to be honest, I didn’t really try either, I was more interested in expressions and attitudes, more than in exact features. And what I especially loved in sketching golfers after their game, was that you could see in one second, through the body language, which kind of games they had just had: excellent or catastrophic. There was hardly anything else, especially not in Soufflenheim. And most of the time it was catastrophic.

Well, time to leave Soufflenheim now, I have nothing more to show. But I hope I will go back there one day.. and of course I would love to play the course again. Although, being out of practice, I guess I would need 100 balls for a round.. and unfortunately I gave all my balls to charity last week as I emptied my house! Well, not all, I kept the ones I was collecting, with the logos of the courses I had played around Europe and elsewhere. But I don’t think I could ever bring myself to play and lose them!

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

Oh, yes, and if after having bought my paintings, you still have some money left, you can buy my house in Albir, Costa Blanca. It is quite cheap on the market right now, a real deal, think of it as an investment: it will assume a huge value as soon as I am dead, me being the famous just-passed-away artist Miki!

Cafe Filou and Cappuccino

1999 in “Cafe Filou” in Reute – By Miki

I explained in my last post “Back To My German Past” that I had recently found some sketches from one of my many previous lives… more exactly from the one in Reute, a municipality  about 10 kilometres away from the wonderful town of Freiburg, in Baden-Wuertenberg and on the edge of the famous Black Forest. And I promised some insight into the cafe life in and around Reute, based on some of these sketches done on site… some of them probably drawn while drinking one of those fabulous big Weizenbeers! I certainly was having one as I painted the above sketch! “Cafe Filou” was the main Gasthaus in Reute, a very cool place, where the whole town, young and not-so-young people gathered most every evening, to have some drinks or a meal. Or to have a date. This was THE place where to find a new girl or boyfriend if you had inadvertently lost one. A typically German place, with loads of wood and beer and solid tasty food… and allowing intimacy as well as social interaction if you needed to… I just loved it! And of course I loved the name, “Filou”, a French word, which my dictionary inelegantly translates into “crook, cheat”. Well, I suppose you don’t have any filous in English speaking countries, as a filou is nothing of that. It must be something typically French. I don’t know if you have heard from Arsene Lupin, the gentleman thief, but he was a typical filou. In fact, a guy doing very naughty stuff, but doing it with such a charm that one can’t help forgiving him, and even loving him! Normally used for a guy, but my mother sometimes calls me that, when I am especially “cheeky”… and honestly, I am, deep inside, a filou… but so deep that only my mother can know… and Kevin of course – who just told me that ‘rascal’ is perhaps the closest approximation to filou! But this, to my French ears, is far less delightful!

I Am Only Here For My Beer – by Miki

The above sketch was drawn in Cafe Conditorei Cappuccino, in Hochdorf-Freiburg. This also was a great place, but more for the morning or the afternoon. The Milch Café were served in immense bowls with much foam on top, gargantuan mueslies and fruit-salad yoghurts in huge crystal dishes .The cakes you could get with them were just soooo tasty, lecker as they say there! Most people indeed went there for breakfast, especially business men when they had their morning break like the guy with the tie in the background. I do miss sometimes the food from Germany, there was something quite gemütlich in it. Gemütlich, a word I could never find an appropriate translation for in French. In English I would say something like “cosy”… well, I guess the French don’t like it cosy, they just like it filou!

But even though it was more of a breakfast or afternoon cafe, you could also see people drinking beer there, at any time of the day… and when it happened to be in the morning, it was usually a lonely person and a very sad view indeed…

And now a last sketch from that time in Germany. I believe though that the subject is universal!

You drink too much! – by Miki

I am wondering though if times have changed since 2000, the date when that drawing was done … is it perhaps more the men nowadays moaning after their women that they drink and smoke too much? Possible, isn’t it? The world has changed so much these last 10 years… 

So, this was my trip back to my past in Reute. It was fun to relive this time through these sketches. As I always notice, sketches and paintings have a much deeper and much more emotional memory value than photographs. Probably because when one does them, one generally goes much deeper into the subject, and stays much longer on it, even if the sketches are quickly done, like mine normally are.

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 more generally you can see ALL THE STUFF I paint by going to my gallery “Miki’s Enchanted World”.

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

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.