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

The Cats and The Potamos of Cyprus

CAThedratical in Cape Gkreko - Watercolour and ink travel sketch, by Miki

We spent 4 days in Ayia Napa, and unfortunately the weather was not the best. Sunshine, but constantly alternating with heavy rains and wind. Consequently, we could not visit the places around Ayia Napa as much as I wanted, and of course, sketching on the sites was quite impossible. Still we managed to make a trip East of Ayia Napa, on the coast, to the Cape Gkreko. This is where I was first really confronted with “The Cats of Cyprus”. I had met one the day before in the cemetery of Ayia Napa, but this was quite normal, I thought, cats go usually to cemeteries when they go out. In Cape Gkreko though, they had taken over the church! I sketched the one who seemed to be the boss. He majestically modelled for me like an archbishop for a Vatican painting. Well, who knows? The Vatican might be interested!

From that moment on, I noticed that cats were everywhere in Cyprus. One day I even saw a T-Shirt featuring “All The Cats of Cyprus”: .

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

Yes, by the time we left Cyprus I had met them all and they constantly appear in my  paintings. I apologise to all my followers who are allergic to cats, but I really had no chance of keeping them away!

On our last day in Ayia Napa, we went west to the coast, to a little harbour called Potamos …. It was a weird place, chaotic somehow, but very romantic too, as if from another time…

Potamos Liopetri 01 - Watercolour and ink travel sketch, by Miki

At some point while we walking along the beach at the end of the harbour, Kevin suddenly stopped and said:

“Potamos… does it mean river?

“Don’t know…”

and I felt some ancient anger emerging from the depths of my delicate soul .. I will tell later why…

“Look, the hippopotamus.. they are river horses aren’t they? Hippo means horses, right?”

I must say, that guy is sometimes very clever! I gave him a big hug for that and added:

“There is Mesopotamia too… could be true, you know!

I loved that logical explanation, but  so far I haven’t checked if it is right… too scared that it isn’t. But from that moment, we called “potamos” every river or stream we saw in Cyprus and Crete , big potamos, little potamos, dry potamos, wild potamos, confused potamos, pissed-off potamos, etc… sounded really cultivated! When I was young I  had 8 eight years of Latin at school, and I adored it, I really did. Nobody could ever understand that, but I found it very exciting. As a third language (the first being English) I wanted to take ancient Greek, but my father said no. I had a hard time understanding why, as my two brothers before me were forced to learn it. And then along came me and I wanted to do it, of my own free will, and I was not allowed. Instead I had to learn Spanish, and to cap it all, with a black-bearded teacher I hated. Ridiculous!  I still haven’t forgiven my father for that!

Potamos Liopetri 02 - Watercolour and ink travel sketch, by Miki

As I said, this Potamos was quite chaotic . Some of the places right by the docks looked like as if people had their living room there…

Old and Lonely in Potamos Liopetri - Watercolour and ink travel painting by Miki

In this painting the whole décor is faithful to the place, but to be honest, the old man himself was not really there. But I am sure that he often sits in this armchair, at sunset, thinking of all the fishes he caught in this potamos when he was younger…

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

The Last Post

Watercolour painting - by Miki

I mentioned it earlier this week, we leave today on a six-week trip.

Destinations: Cyprus and Crete.

I have never been to either of these places, so loving everything new,  I am quite excited . Of course we live in a wonderful place, and I would not need to travel very far to find great motifs, but one knows how it is: one does not look at home with the same curious eyes, the brain works in a very different way. When I am somewhere else, my brain is in acute discovery mode and my hand wants to paint everything my eyes see.

And if contemplative immobility does not overrule artistic eagerness, I should come back with loads of sketches to share.

Close Encounter of The Fourth Kind - Watercolour, by Miki

Time to make the last travel preparations now, the most important being: making sure that I have all my painting stuff,watercolours, pens, sketch books. Unfortunately I won’t be able to take my watercolour tubes to refill the pans,  as security at the airports would take them away. Well, this gives me an idea… I could take 2 tubes:  of the probably most needed colours there, yellow for the sun and blue for the sea… and put them in my toilet bag among deodorant, tooth paste, mascara and so on! It would at least make the bag look much more attractive!

So, I will say Bye Bye for now… I wish you -and Kevin and me!- a great time, and see you again at the end of April… with a new post! 

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

And if you are bored, you can have a browse through my Enchanted World, plenty of artistic magic there!… just click on the image below. , there is loads to check out !

Miki's Enchanted World - Paintings Gallery

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

The Albufera de Valencia in Spain 01

Albufera de Valencia 01 - Watercolour and ink, by Miki

As I said before, I am right now trying to catch up with my artistic past, browsing through loads of sketching books I found recently in my house on the Costa Blanca which we had abandoned some years ago to live 300 kilometres further down the coast. I’ve already published some sketches here from my past in Germany and in France, and will probably show some more from these countries at some time. But right now I am going back to Spain, to a region called “Albufera de Valencia”, which I visited and painted in 2005.

These trips back to my past seem to touch me quite deeply by the way, as I suddenly dream every night of places and people from before, something which I never do normally. And I don’t like it really: my dreams always interact when my reality, and right now I really have the feeling of living parallel lives at the same time, with different people and in different places. I almost have the feeling to betray Kevin… It is WEIRD!

But back to the Albufera now, and let’s get first some facts from the Wikipedia:

“…The Albufera is a saltwater lagoon and estuary on the Gulf of Valencia coast in eastern Spain. It is the main portion of the Parc Natural de l’Albufera (“Albufera Nature Reserve”), with a surface area of 21,120 hectares (52,200 acres). The natural biodiversity of the nature reserve allows a great variety of fauna and flora to thrive and be observed year-round….”

And some location info from the Google map:

Albufera de Valencia, Spain

For me who loves watching birds so much, and who is always in search of a rare species, the place was really a Paradise. I even saw a purple heron there, a bird I had been wanting to see for a long time, since my sister-in-law, a real expert in ornithology, had told me that they were very rare. I spotted the purple beauty per accident, as I was driving by in my car. It was really a big chance that I saw it, as his colours were the perfect camouflage among the purple and orange surrounding plants. Perhaps they are not that rare at all in the end, just that we don’t see them?  Anyway,  I just had time to stop the car and make a photo, for the proof you know, and it was gone!

This is why the heron on the painting is not the purple one… but well, the white ones are really beautiful too, I find, and so much much easier to sketch on the site!

Albufeira de Valencia 03 - Watercolour and ink, by Miki

Well, some days later, when I was back home, I did a drawing of that rare bird in my Moleskine personal birds book, with coloured pencils, but it was just a copy of a picture in an ornithology book. Funny to read the annotations next to the picture though.. the bird names in different languages, and, written in Spanish, the exact place and date where I saw it… yes, I was such a person at that time, always eager to draw and document everything! It makes me smile today, but somehow I like that person I was, perhaps even better than the lazy actual one…

Not only the birds were in search of food in the waters there. There were anglers everywhere, alone or in small groups, and the sight of them was always inspiring to me. Plus, they hardly moved: the perfect subject!

Albufeira de Valencia 13 - Watercolour and ink, by Miki

I will stop here for now, but this week there will be some more blog posts about the Albufera as I have got many lovely  sketches from that trip. And then, on Sunday, we leave again, for a six weeks painting and musical adventure… the destination will be announced only shortly before, so that fans haven’t got the time to prepare an assault in the airports! 

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

Still Life in Albufeira 02

Still Life in Albufeira 02 - by Miki

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Portugal Paintings Gallery - by Miki

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

My Home on Planet Goodaboom

My Home on Planet Goodaboom - by Miki

Sometimes, when I have nothing better to do, or just lack an energy to start a new painting, I revisit some of my immense drawers where hundreds of my past paintings are stocked. These are paintings from a time -not long ago really-  when I was not bothered with any kind of digitalisation and publication.  Painting is fab, but everything involved in the process of having them published on the net is awfully boring and time taking. In fact quite practical that I have these uncreative moments sometimes, at least I can do the boring job meanwhile!

Anyway, some days ago, I found per accident, not in a drawer but in  a big travel folder, loads of watercolours paintings, which I did not even remembered.  They are scenes from around the place where I live with my English Rocker: Planet Goodaboom! On that Planet everything is wild, and passionate, and loving: the Rocker, the skies, the trees, the houses, the sea, the mountains, me, etc…

You can see above our home on Planet Goodaboom. Well, it was like that as we started here and I painted it. It is a little bit bigger now, having gradually added some more rooms to be able to stock all the drawers full of paintings and all the guitars. But it is still an enchanting home, cosy and cut from the rest of the world, a love island, kind of…

A Village on Planet Goodaboom - by Miki

And this is a village nearby, with houses like piles of sugar cubes behind curtains of blossoms…

Well, I hope you love my Planet. If you love it so much that you want to have it on your walls, 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 widgets below to access my FAA store

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

Monpazier in the Perigord

NEW…NEW…NEW…           Miki’s new artist’s website www.mikidegoodaboom.com           NEW…NEW…NEW…

Monpazier 01 – by Miki

Sometimes, when I need a creative break, I go back to my collection of travel sketches from recent years and work on them. Well, “work” is a too big a word. I simply refresh them a little bit, scan, photograph and publish them. I have a huge amount of unpublished works, or at least not published in a way which makes them available to the public. Travel sketches are an important part of my artistic work, probably because they are the most emotional ones, the ones to which I always associate wonderful memories. They are really attached to magic moments of my travelling life, and always when I go back to them, I start feeling quite nostalgic -which is certainly not a strong characteristic mark of me, as I never look towards the past- and above all, I feel like I want to go, to be on the road again.

My travel sketches are also important for my business life, people love to buy paintings from places where they have lived or been on their holidays. I am always glad when people in the world can relive great moments of their lives thanks to my art.

Recently I stumbled upon a series of sketches from the Perigord, which we visited for one week some years ago on our trip up to Scotland. We loved that part of France, and really, we need to go back there and explore it more fully. It is certainly worth a trip in itself.

Today I will present here sketches from the charming town Monpazier,  a commune in the Dordogne department in Aquitaine in southwest France.

Wikipedia:

“… Monpazier is an ancient bastide town from the 13th century. It was home to Eleanor of Aquitaine and Richard II of England for a time. Nearby is the Château du Biron and the Dordogne River….”

Monpazier 05 – by Miki

Typical houses from Monpazier….

Monpazier 03 – by Miki

All the sketches presented in this post are done on the site, in ink and pastel chalk. All  in my personal impressionist style:  when I say “Impressionist”, I don’t mean it in the traditional sense. I just mean that they are impressions of the places, not being a slave to details and not supposed to be accurate. They are much more the artistic representation of my emotional reactions and interpretations of the sites.

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

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

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

Birds on Fire

Birds on Fire - by Miki

Acrylics painting

One of my latest creations, a mixed technique between natural random and my fantasy.

This is how I imagine birds came to life, arising from the surrounding randomly floating and flying particles. As I did that work, i was amazed how I gradually saw the birds appearing from the background, from something which looked like a giant fire, pulling free of the initial chaos flames. I just enhanced then a little, so that the observer does not need ages to understand what the painting is about, and in fact gets bored before it clicks with them.

Prints in different sizes on paper or canvas can be purchased directly online.