Le Tour de France in Tucson, Arizona, USA

I know, the Tour de France is finished. And yet, not totally … Somewhere else in the world the Tour de France is racing

The place: Tucson, Arizona, USA.

And how did this happen you ask? Well, thanks to my magic wand of course! My magic wand in this case being… my brush!

Le Tour de France 02 – by Miki

The painting above has been chosen for a big ad for the Tucson lawyer firm Velolaw

“… Scott Biaggi and Kurt Kroese have been riding and racing with you for well over a decade.  Both are trial lawyers with over 25 years combined experience in personal injury law.  Scott and Kurt practice throughout the State of Arizona and are admitted in state and federal courts.  Past clients range from professional and world-champion cyclists and triathletes to kids on BMX bikes, runners, and bicycle commuters...”

I would advise you to read the philosophy of this firm, it is REALLY convincing and honest, and worth the two minutes of reading. Totally opposite to all my experiences with lawyers, which is one of the reasons why I was happy to be part of it with my art, at least for the time that the ad runs.

“…  it will go to the St. Mary’s location first, which is the route to get to the mountains on the west side of Tucson.  After a few weeks there, it goes to the eastside of Tucson on Tanque Verde, which is the route to get to Mt. Lemmon – a very popular cycling area.  I will send you a pic. …”

The artwork needed to be altered to fit the requirements of the ad, approximately 4 feet x 6 feet. In fact a vertical format, contrary to the very horizontal format of  the original painting. But I managed to digitally alter the original artwork in a way which still works beautifully. Here is the result:

I would like to thank Kurt Kroese, with whom I was in contact all the time about this project, for his kindness and courtesy. I am dealing with people all around the world who want to use my art work, but I must say that Kurt was certainly one of the nicest. Well, this confirms my theory that sportsmen are the best people in the world. And obviously Kurt is a sportsman prior to being a lawyer. But the combination works wonderfully, I am sure he is great at what he does!

And as he promised, he did bike to the place where the ad is displayed and made a photo for me.

Mikis Cycling art in Tucson, Arizona – Photo by Kurt Kroese, from http://www.velolaw.com

If you are interested in buying a Giclee print of this painting, or indeed any of my sports paintings -a huge collection by the way, and currently working on an Olympics series!- it is available in many dimensions, on paper or canvas, in my shop online. Just click on the widget below.

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

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

Cats and Tourists in Paphos

As I said in a previous post “Living among Gods in Paphos”, where I published some artworks inspired by the wall paintings in our hotel, we stayed only 2 days in Paphos. A pity, as I loved the place, there was so much great stuff to see there. But well, we still managed to have a very interesting time, starting  with a lovely walk along the seaside promenade and to the castle, followed by an intensive visit to the fabulous open air archaeology museum and, the next day, to “The Tombs of The Kings”.

Unfortunate the castle by the harbour was closed at that time and we couldn’t go inside. Instead I sat on the top of the little amphitheatre in front of it and made a quick sketch of the 4 English tourists sitting there and enjoying the beautiful view, the sun and obviously the togetherness! I must say that I understood very well all these old English people spending the winter or even their whole retirement time in Paphos: it is surely a place where it is fun to live!

Together Old in Cyprus 06 – watercolour and ink travel sketch by Miki

A wonderful motif for my series “My dear Old People”!

We were told by a musician friend of Kevin that there is a wonderful pelican by the harbour, earning his living by gigging for the tourists on the street. We searched for it, but could not find it… I did regret it a lot, as I would have loved to paint it, it would have made a fabulous motif for my “Street Musicians” series!

But well, it must not always be pelicans… cats do the job too!

Romance in Paphos  – watercolour and ink travel sketch by Miki

As I had mentioned in a former post, cats are omni- present in Cyprus. One day I even saw a T-Shirt featuring “All The Cats of Cyprus”: .

big mouth cats, stoned cats, seriously pissed-off cats, horny cats, romantic cats, wicked cats, shy cats, confused cats

Well, the two cats on my sketch belong obviously to the romantic sort! One might argue that tombs are not the best place to start a romance, but on the other side, these places do have a kind of romanticism, I find. A romanticism full of gravity and dramatic of course… like love itself!  I don’t know for certain though if these two cats were having a true romance or if they were playing an act for the tourists!

En Catimini  – watercolour and ink travel sketch by Miki

I can’t find in the list above any category for that red and blue cat lurking behind my back. Well, humans and animals are not that different in many points: people always try to look behind my shoulder when I sketch on the site, and like that cat, they always think that I can’t see them. But I have very sharp eyes in the back of my head, you know… and when they have seen what I do, they often go some steps further away to take a photo of me, still thinking that they are invisible to me. I understand them of course. Not that I look especially great, but an artist painting on the site is always a favourite photo motif for tourists. When they are back home and show the holidays photos to family and friends,  these photos  somehow send the message

” look everybody, we were in such a great place that artists painted it!

Window to Life – aquarelle and ink travel sketch by Miki

It was interesting to see that many tourists, who, judging by their appearances, probably hardly move at home, were ready to make much more efforts here to visit the places. But it was indeed fun to jump and climb all over and around these old stones. And concerning the woman above:  I don’t know if the people buried in the Tombs of the Kings ever reached the sky after their death, but that little woman up there was apparently trying to do it in her life time!

Old and Lonely in Paphos – aquarelle and ink travel sketch by Miki

Funny, when I look at all these sketches, they are all in a kind of cartoonish caricatural style, and in fact totally the contrary of the ones I painted the evening before in the hotel. I didn’t choose this style on purpose. I just seem to change my sketching and painting style everyday, according to my moods and the motifs. Well, in Paphos that day I must have been in a light superficial mood, weird, considering the serious ancient backdrop.  Although I must say that I didn’t find these places sad, not even the tombs. Perhaps was death not that sad in the old days?

I also need to say again that these frequent changes of style are NOT a sign of me not having found my style., as most of the art critics so wisely pretend. They are just a sign that I don’t want a style!!!! The BBC’s Sherlock Holmes would understand me so well: one style is SOOOOO BOOOORING!

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 widget below to access my FAA Gallery

Sports Art Video

I’ll make a short interlude now between all my Crete and Cyprus travel paintings and stories to present to you my new video. It is a a selection of my sport artworks in a variety of techniques depicting a huge range of different sports such as cycling, golf, horse racing, motorbike racing, skiing, snowboarding, surfing, boxing, skating, ski jumping, etc.

Kev Moore has created a great piece of music called “Higher, Faster, Harder, Stronger,  “ and put all the stuff together in the form of the following video. The result is great, have a look!

And don’t forget: each of the artworks presented there is available directly online as Giclee print in many different dimensions, on paper or canvas, and also as greeting cards. Just click on the image below to access my FAA Sport Paintings Gallery

FAA Sports Art Gallery – by Miki

Night Life in Ayia Napa, Cyprus

The Strippers of Ayia Napa - Watercolour and ink travel sketch, by Miki

I started my Cyprus paintings series yesterday with the restaurant life in Ayia Napa, and announced the chapter about its “infamous night life”. If you missed it, and also want to know where Ayia Napa and perhaps even Cyprus are, here it is.

I won’t pretend here that I really experienced the night life in Ayia Napa. To start with, nights, I have better things to do at home than to go out… Well, to be honest there was a time in my life when I loved to spend my nights in night clubs, flirting and partying and dancing until daybreak. I still love to dance myself to exhaustion, but I don’t like the night clubs any more, and anyway I don’t have time and energy for hangovers. And more than anything, I have at home the best guy in the world – BY FAR!  – , so really no need , thanks.

But Ayia Napa is well-known for its “infamous” night life, and when we walked through the town in the daylight, I could not help but get excited by all the night clubs there, and their incredible façades. I must admit that they did look like a lot of fun! So I  guess the people have a great time there, and the fame of Ayia Napa’s nights is probably well-justified, even the “infamous” part of it!

The first night club I saw was Toga Toga, a strip club on the main road. It was about midday and the place was closed at that time of the day, but an indiscreet glance inside  revealed to me a delightful scene: three of the strippers -at least I guess they were strippers, wearing only a red thong on their naked bodies…- were sitting on the stone lip of a little round pool, immersed in deep philosophical discussions about the world, which was floating as a big air balloon in the middle of the pool. Truly an interesting insight into the soul of a strip club, I would say!

Night Clubs in Ayia Napa - Watercolour and ink travel sketch, by Miki

The sketch above is a kind of pot-pourri of some of the other night clubs I saw walking through the upper part of the town. “Nightmare”, “Bar Code”, “Teasers bar”, just a few among the many attractive buildings. I wished I could paint them all, as usual to make a choice is painful for me as an artist. For that sketch I chose some of the ones which matched in colours, mainly red, white and black. I must say that many of these façades were very attractive and quite artistic, a real feast for my eyes.

I am including here a sketch of a cemetery in Ayia Napa. I guess it is not classed as being part of the night life scene, but something in it tells me that exciting things are going on there at night… from black magic to gambling, and everything in between seems to take place there!

Cemetery in Ayia Napa - Watercolour and ink travel sketch, by Miki

When I travel abroad, I always try to visit some cemeteries. For me they are immensely interesting, telling big stories about the soul of a country. If it was only me, I would paint ALL cemeteries I visit, but suppose that too many people would think I am weird and necromantic. Well, I am weird, but not necromantic, I am not attracted at all by anything touching death, on the contrary, it scares me like hell. But cemeteries tell stories about life, not about death.. at least that’s what I feel!

This will do for now. Perhaps one day one of the Ayia Napa clubbers will tell me what is going on inside these wonderful buildings,  it would really interest me!

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 widget below to access my FAA Gallery

Restaurant Life in Ayia Napa, Cyprus

11th 0f March 2012, here we go.

Destination: Cyprus

I had never been in Cyprus before, and neither had I any idea where it was. I just knew that it was an island, but not even knowing that it was a Mediterranean island! Well, I am not to blame really, we have so many islands in our sea, one surely  cannot expect me to know them all!

First visit in Cyprus:  Ayia Napa, on the south-East coast. Check the map below if you are as ignorant as myself.

Ayia Napa, Cyprus

We chose Ayia Napa  because Kevin has an English friend living in the neighbourhood there, a musician and music producer with whom he toured the USA many years ago with the Punk band The Gonads. I had seen photos from Ayia Napa on the net, and I didn’t expect much really, at least not from the artistic point of view. It looked to me like a boring town, and from what I had read, a place where people go to party and get drunk in the dozens of “infamous” night clubs. So, nothing for me really, at least not nowadays…

But as we walked through the town, I was quite pleased and charmed by all the colours and fun which emanate from all the businesses, the shops, the cafés, the restaurants, the infamous night clubs even. They did inspire me artistically, even if the result is only “silly” sketches, stuff which art critics surely wouldn’t qualify as “art”. But what do I care really? It was simply exciting! The restaurants in particular didn’t try to get tourists in by having ugly annoying guys pouncing on them on the pavement, as we often see in tourist places. Look at “Moo Moo” for example

Welcome to Cyprus 01 - Watercolour and ink travel sketch, by Miki

Isn’t she delightful, this blue cow inviting one to carefully step in, with her fish and flowers and sea plant tattoos all over her cute little body? Who could ever resist? Well, to be honest, we did resist entering the place, as I don’t eat beef, but I certainly couldn’t resist immortalizing the Moo Moo Cow!

And then there was that delightful Mexican restaurant…

Welcome to Cyprus 03 - Watercolour and ink travel sketch, by Miki

I am not sure if it was open to normal human guests though, as I only saw cows eating there. Might be a result of the economical crisis? Or was it in fact an inverse thing, something like cows eating Mexican people? Don’t laugh, this could happen, you know. Haven’t you seen all these fish doctors around the world nowadays advertising their services with the slogan:

“Now you are the Fish Food!”

and apparently, judging by their faces, people love to be eaten by fishes!

Welcome to Cyprus 05 - Watercolour and ink travel sketch, by Miki

And then came “Senior Frog’s”, with that cute frog surfing on the top of his fed-up car.

Kevin too was fed-up. As a specialist in Spanish language he said

“They can’t even spell señor!”

I personally don’t care about spelling, I just found the whole scene very nice, probably appealing to my childish and kitschy soul. yes, I can’t help it. I like kitsch sometimes. And I like to paint kitsch. Probably because I hate serious art!

I checked the net in the meanwhile, and found out that “Señor Frog’s” is a well-known chain, even having its own Wikipedia entry

“Señor Frog’s is a Mexican-theme franchised “infamous party scene” bar and grill in tourist destinations throughout Mexico, the Caribbean, South America, and the United States. You go to Señor Frog’s when you’re on vacation, if you want to get crazy and nobody knows you…”

I am wondering now… As far as I know now, Ayia Napa is neither in Mexico nor the Caribbean nor South America nor the United States. So, it might well be that Senior Frog’s was a kind of fake and  the wrong spelling was intended, to avoid problems… you see, Kev Moore, you might have been a little bit hasty with your accusations 

All in all I would day, the Ayia Napians love to have animals representing their food business. I wonder if one should see a deeper meaning in it…

Next post will be about the infamous night life in Ayia Napa…so be prepared to get off your head!

These unartworks 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

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

A Dog Called Pushkin

I have a dog. His name is Pushkin. A strange name for a dog, one would think. Alexander Pushkin was a Russian author of the romantic era and is considered by many to be the greatest Russian poet. Now, my dog has some Russian ancestry, and when he was drunk, he got really poetic and romantic. I use the past tense here, because Pushkin is old now, he does not drink so much any more and his poetry has become very solid again, hard to get it out …he is still a romantic bugger though, and tells me very often how much he loves me when I hold him in my arms. Pushkin has learned English and Spanish in the meantime, but when it comes to such deep feelings, he goes back to his native language… and blushes much, as you can see on his portrait! The green thing around his waist, in case you wonder, is a kick boxing green belt. I’ll tell you about it later.

Anyway, a wonderful Russian lady called Ludmilla gave me that dog many years ago. She was the mother of a Russian painter with whom I had an art Studio in my previous life. I felt lonely quite often and had thought to buy a dog. Now, some Russian friends of Ludmilla wanted to get rid of one, not being able to deal with him any more especially because of his alcohol problems. This is how Pushkin became mine!

Now, I love to have a drink from time to time, red wine, champagne, beer, but I really don’t like alcoholism, it does change the people in a very bad way. So I decided to try to cure Pushkin. I could not face sending him to a detoxification home though, so I tried with him the only way I knew: sport! At that time I was learning kick boxing, and I simply took Pushkin with me. He really got into it, and we gradually made our belts together. And as soon as he got his yellow belt, I gave him the most wanted job in the world:

Miki’s Body Guard!

Rude Boy Pushkin - by Miki

He took his job very seriously, especially when I was sleeping. He sat by the side of my bed, the whole night long, without closing one eye -at least I think-, holding a big banner, and written on it:

“Careful!

Rude Boy

Miki’s Body Guard”

“Rude Boy” is by the way the  label of a Spanish company selling stuff for kick boxers. It is an incredibly cute name and label, I love it! On the painting above you can see Pushkin proudly taking care of Miki (at the bottom of the sketch is written is Spanish: “Miki duerme aqui…”,  Miki is sleeping here..  I obviously had no room left on the page to draw myself sleeping!)

In the meanwhile Pushkin is much more advanced in kick boxing, and is a green belt now, like me. But we both stopped our kick boxing career as I met Kevin, thinking I didn’t need to learn self-defence any more, and even less employ a body guard! So, green belt it is, and green belt it will stay!

As I said at the beginning, Pushkin does not drink so much any more. But it was a long process to get him clean, alcoholism is not really easy to cure, especially not when you are a Russian dog. Sometimes Pushkin fell back again, and instead of guarding my body in the night, he drank a whole bottle of champagne. In the morning I found him there, holding with a shaky hand a banner stating that he was sorry, that Rude Boy was drunk…  poor thing, he looked so tired, and so guilty, I always had to forgive him!

Drunk Pushkin - by Miki

I have many more stories and sketches of Pushkin from that time. I was focussing on learning drawing, especially portraits. Having no children, I often took him as a model…

His glorious days of body guard and model are finished now, but I still love him loads and he still spends his nights by the side of my bed… both eyes closed now!

The Albufera de Valencia in Spain 02

Albufera de Valencia 10 - Watercolour and ink, by Miki

Some more paintings from my trip to the Albufera de Valencia in 2004. But no time to add text to the sketches today, so l will let them speak for themselves. Anyway these landscapes radiate so much peace – better to keep silent and enjoy.

Albufera de Valencia 16 - Watercolour and ink, by Miki

Albufera de Valencia 25 - Watercolour and ink, by Miki

Now I have to start preparing our 6 weeks trip, at least mentally,  the most difficult part being to make the choices of the right clothes, the right hardware and much more important: the right painting material. We will be on 6 different flights altogether – Kevin even more and he will have to go back to England for a gig in the middle of the holidays- and to avoid long check-in and luggage waiting time in all the airports, we have decided to travel solely with hand luggage: a big challenge for 6 weeks! Not my favourite challenge though, I hate to have to choose which painting material and sketching books I take with me. You can be sure that I will always be missing something important there! And when I try to find an art supply shop abroad, in places I don’t know, it takes me so long that my lust to paint is gone when I find it… if I find it: usually I give up before!

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

I have much more paintings from the Albufera. If you want to see them all, and also many more paintings from other regions from Spain, simply click on the picture below.

Miki's Spain Sketches and Paintings Gallery