My Dear Old People in Cyprus 01

As I was travelling through Portugal some years ago I had started sketching old people, together or lonely. And last year when I was in Italy I got the idea to make a series about old people from around the world, meaning, wherever I go, I try to capture them in their special loneliness or togetherness. A theme very dear to my heart, as I am generally very fond of our senior citizens, loving to see them still enjoying life, and hating to see them lonely. I called the series:

“My Dear Old People”

I have painted so far old people from Portugal, Spain, Italy, Republic Czech and Morocco. And now from Cyprus.

I had hardly a chance to catch sight of old people in Ayia Napa, it being more oriented towards fun and youth I would say.  It was certainly better  in our next port of call, in Nicosia, the “last divided” capital in the world, apparently – and especially in the Turkish part of it. We had entered it on foot, via the “No Borders Street”, and got a three month visa at the end of it. A very weird feeling by the way. I meant to do a painting of that street full of poignant graffiti and political slogans, but somehow I felt that it would be some kind of inappropriate voyeurism and I let the motif go… It hurt though!

Most of the tourists who had crossed seemed to stay close to the border, not daring to venture further, probably scared of what would befall them. Much blood had been spilled in the  Turkish/Greek conflict in Cyprus, so perhaps it was better to be careful. But Kevin and me, we are two daredevils and we walked a long way away. In fact I wanted to have a better look at the mountain on which an enormous  Turkish flag was painted. But after many kilometres the mountain still hadn’t appeared, as if it vanished once one was in Turkey!

Instead I saw these two old men walking the street together… just wonderful!

Together Old in Cyprus 02 - Watercolour and ink painting, by Miki

I don’t really like to photograph old people, too scared to offend them. So if I want to paint them, I have to be quick, or have a good photographic memory. In fact, no, scratch that, I haven’t got such a memory, it does not work with me, my brain is a machine which transforms everything my eyes see into a mathematical form, and there is hardly any way for me to transform it back into a picture when I need it. So, I have normally to make a sketch on the site, or take a quick photo when they don’t look. Neither of these 2 alternatives is easy. Sometimes the sketches are good enough, other times I have to redo them at home.

Old and Lonely in Cyprus 01 – Watercolour and ink painting, by Miki

I saw the old woman knitting in an old open-air building, with interesting multiple arch architecture, and a kind of inside patio. Through the combination of the warm old stones and the blue sunny sky above  the light inside there was simply divine. The place was vibrant, full of people sitting around, most of them were men though.  And there were also plenty of great motifs for my old people series

That woman did look immersed in her activity, so I thought I could perhaps risk a photo. I observed her for a while first, and came to the conclusion that she didn’t lose one detail of everything which was going on around her! One might think that old people are often absent-minded … no way! They rarely miss a thing, and considering their wisdom -which is not a myth…-  and their life experience, they don’t need long to understand what is going on.

So I went away and made a fast sketch from a distance, drawing only the main lines. The painting is based on that sketch.

Together Old in Cyprus 01 - Watercolour and ink painting, by Miki

I adored that motif of these 4 old guys sitting together around a table and intensely chatting behind a book stand. I don’t believe they were discussing any of the books, as there were no books on the table. Curious as I am, I would have loved to know what they were talking about!

A difficult theme though, but I did my best… One will notice that James Patterson is also read in Turkish Nicosia!

Old and Lonely in Cyprus 02 - Watercolour and ink painting, by Miki

This old guy and the whole stuff around was certainly a delight for my artist’s eyes!

I think every scene I saw in that building was a potential painting as such and I wished I had had time to paint some more. But we had to head back to the other part of Nicosia,  not before having a well-deserved  “occupied latte” which I will publish in this blog later when I start presenting my new ‘travel mugs’ series…

There will be more paintings from my dear old people in Cyprus, but it is enough for now. The walk through the Turkish part of Nicosia was really like a trip to another continent, and the paintings done there should be treated separately, I feel. I would like to add that these four have been done on a very simple sketching paper, usually used for pencil and certainly not adequate for watercolour painting. But I had nothing else with me. It is interesting though to see that this paper is taking the watercolour in a very weird way, it sucks it inside instantaneously, and the colour vanishes slightly from the surface, giving the paintings some kind of  old fashioned, ancient look and consequently  historic depth. And somehow, I feel, it suits very well the motifs and the place. So, ultimately, I am quite happy about it.

Oh yes, for those who don’t know where is Nicosia, or Cyprus, here it is (according to Google Map):

Nicosia, Cyprus

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

Bear’nadette and DCFC

Bear/nadette and DCFC - Watercolour painting, by Miki

Some days ago, I introduced you to Bernadette, that pretty pink bear babe who suddenly entered my life on a dark day and brought so much light into it again.

Now, the same evening as I got her, our most favourite football team in the world -DCFC, Derby County Football Club-  was playing another game in the English Championship, and against the odds we were hoping to win, something we hadn’t done during the last 8 games.

Well, you can’t live peacefully in a house where not all the occupants are football fans, and certainly not fans of the same team. So we decided to get Bear’nadette into DCFC, involving her with the sacred preparations of the game: DCFC hat on the head, DCFC scarf around the neck and DCFC mug for the milk coffee.

We encountered much resistance though. Our Babe wanted to wear and have only pink stuff,  and certainly did not want to make a public appearance in all these black&white stripes and hoops.  “They depress me!”, she said, “and they are not very feminine… I will look like a guy!“. To eventually  get her consent I had to make her a gift: my little pink hippopotamus called “Socrates”. Also she insisted in having dotted and starred rainbow curtains hung by the window to bring some colours around her. And she didn’t want any milk coffee in her mug, “too boring”, she stated. We left her alone in the kitchen to mix her drink herself… don’t ask me what it is, but it did look very explosive! Some kind of Red Bull I suppose….

But all that was still not enough: moaning that her mug was too high to drink out of, she declared that my beloved little pink stool with the pencils and erasers legs was hers! Well, DCFC does deserve some big sacrifices…

And still, after all these concessions  -my God, I am glad I never had children, they never give you any peace!- she still wanted to keep my pink New Orleans T-Shirt on, the one she stole off me the first day and has been wearing ever since. As I said it wouldn’t fit, she started crying: “I don’t want all these guys to see me naked!”.  So we had to wrap her whole little body into the scarf, paying careful attention to entirely cover her young breasts. She seems to be a very prude girl, our Bear’nadette

Well, after all these initial difficulties, having installed Bear’nadette in front of the TV and reassured her million of times that she looked fabulous, we all had a wonderful and lucky football evening together: DCFC won the game, and Bear’nadette is now a fan!

To be totally honest, Bear’nadette did not look as pretty as in her pink clothes from the first day, less feminine somehow. But this is normal, isn’t it? Have you ever seen a pretty, feminine football fan? I just hope she won’t get too engaged into the game, as to me she already shows all the hallmarks of hooliganism… look at her watching the game!

And after all, I am glad that I gave her Socrates. He is her pet now, following her everywhere, too happy to have found a matching mistress. I must admit that I was very worried about him, he had started to have some anxiety crises recently, too much thinking about his little existence… and believe me, a depressed hippopotamus is not to joke with!

So here we are, the whole family happy again:  DCFC because they have got a new fan, Bear’nadette because she has got a new pet,  Socrates because he has got a new life,  Miki, because she has got a new mug painting, and Kevin, who can’t stand sadness,  because he has got a happy family again!

I am a little bit worried for the future though: It is tough to be a DCFC fan! I hope Bear’nadette has got iron nerves and unconditional optimism. If not, we are facing dark times again…

Also her prudery makes me wonder… what will happen when she reaches her puberty? I guess I better start telling her about the woman stuff soon…

And if you want to get a Giclee print of her portrait as DCFC,  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

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!

Rory McIlroy: Total Eclipse… but The Tiger is getting his stripes back!

Total Eclipse, Rory Mcilroy – by Miki

Well, he has done it: Rory McIlroy is now the best golfer in the world! He won the Honda Classic in Florida yesterday and with this win he eventually realised his childhood dream of being the first in The Official World Golf Ranking. It was not only his dream by the way, it was mine too: I had spotted Rory many years ago, as he had just joined the international circuit, and I knew at once he would be one of the best, and perhaps the best.

Last year I did the “Total Eclipse” artwork and wrote following words  in my portraits blog:

“On the evening of the second day of the US Open 2011, I made this painting of Rory Mcilroy. I had followed him with delight , to see how he had taken, kept and even consolidating the lead.I had discovered Rory some years ago, and was immediately captivated by the purity, strength and speed of his swing. As an artist I am addicted to beauty, in my case especially in the beauty of movement,and Rory’s swing is a BEAUTY, probably the best I have ever seen. And as a passionate golfer myself, of course, how could I not love it!!!

Well he did it, he learned from the recent Augusta experience and succeeded in winning. And not only to win, he broke many records, 12 if I remember well, What a tournament! The best moment being as he hugged his Dad on that Father’s day, and later, dedicated him the Cup.”

Now, this post won’t be only about Rory. It will also be about Tiger Woods. As he returned to the golf scene -was it about one year ago? I don’t exactly remember – and was not playing that well, many said that he was finished. I remember having written somewhere that such a Tiger can’t be finished so fast. Whatever he has done in his private life, it concerns only him and his family. It is not up to me to judge him. But what I know is that he has been such a fantastic golfer all these years, and he is so “driven”, so ambitious, that nothing will stop him to try to be on the top of the golf world again. And he is technically and psychologically good enough to not let that ambition rule and destroy his game.

And well, after having seen him this weekend, I must say that I was right. Tiger is undoubtedly getting his stripes back!!!

Earn your stripes - by Miki

And if you are a fan of them and want to purchase a print (available in different sizes, on paper or canvas) or as greeting card, just click on the widget below

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”.

Joe Bonamassa in Spain

Joe Bonamassa 01 - by Miki

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

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

fab people, fab music, fab lights!

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

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

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

“Guapo!”

or

“Ole”

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

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

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

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

Joe Bonamassa 02 - by Miki

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

The Pianist 02 - by Miki

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

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

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

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

Music Paintings Gallery - by Miki

Trip to Morocco 04

Old and Lonely in Morocco 02 - by Miki

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

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

Old and Lonely in Morocco 03 - by Miki

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

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

"My Dear Old People" Gallery - by Miki

Cafe Life in Germany

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”.

Art and Sports 10 – Speed Skating

Speed Skating 01 - by Miki

The first time I really enjoyed Ice speed skating was last year, as we were touring the Southern States of America. The Olympic Winter games in Vancouver were just happening, and sometimes in the hotels, when it was too cold to go out (we are used to warmth all around the year living  in our Andalusian desert…. the temperatures over there were quite a shock!)  we switched the TV on and followed the games. We were especially captivated by the Ice speed skating disciplines,  probably because of the whole theatre surrounding the USA’s charismatic figure answering to the fabulous name of Apolo Ohno.  Apolo by the way, is the guy leading the pack on the painting above, and also on the painting below… well, I didn’t  really try to reach an exact similarity in the facial features,, as these are not meant to be portrait paintings, but really speed skating paintings.

Ice Speed Skating 02 - by Miki

Sorry for the exclusivity,  but he is, through his face and whole body attitude a wonderful painting motif! And speed skating itself is a perfect sports motif for my new technique, combining much movement and bright colours.

For those who want to know more about Apolo, here is the beginning of the Wikipedia entry:

“… Apolo Anton Ohno (pronounced /əˈpɒloʊ ˈæntɒn ˈoʊnoʊ/; born May 22, 1982) is an American short track speed skating competitor and an eight-time medalist (two gold, two silver, four bronze) in the Winter Olympics. He is the most decorated American Winter Olympic athlete of all time.

Raised by his father, Ohno began training full-time in 1996. He has been the face of short track in the United States since winning his medals at the 2002 Winter Olympics.^[3][4] At the age of 14, he became the youngest U.S. national champion in 1997 and was the reigning champion from 2001–2009, winning the title a total of 12 times.^[5][6] In December 1999, he became the youngest skater to win a World Cup event title, and became the first American to win a World Cup overall title in 2001, which he won again in 2003 and 2005.^[6][7] He won his first overall World Championship title at the 2008 championships… “

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

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

Art and Sports 09 – Boxing

Boxing 01 - by Miki

I was thinking about sports which could be appropriate for my new technique, the one developed this Summer to paint the Tour de France, and Kevin proposed that I try boxing. I was convinced immediately! Most people, who know me superficially, or only from photos, would ask:  how on earth can such a tiny, soft looking person  be inspired by that violent sport? Well, this is another aspect of my life which does not match at all my physical appearance, and contribute to my fame of being an “ALIEN”, kind of.

Fact is:

I am a green belt in kick boxing.

And I love kick boxing, Well, better said, I loved it. I stopped practising it some years ago, as my partner was worried for me. I first tried to convince him to do it with me, but he is a professional musician, you know, and as such he cannot run the risk of appearing on stage with broken teeth or nose, a blue eye, broken fingers or tibia, etc… Although this could look very rock ‘n roll I think! And concerning myself: a famous rock’n roller can’t allow himself to have a messed up chick.. at least not that kind of mess!!!  So I stopped my kick boxing career. abandoning the dream of a black belt around my delicate waist one day….

Of course he is right. Each kick boxing class or fight I attended ended in somebody, me or somebody else, being injured, sometimes heavily. I am an intelligent person, I can control my own force, I am disciplined, I am aware of all the dangers coming from all sides, especially when legs and arms and fists and feet are at work. But some people are not, they are there to get the hell out of them, and you can’t do anything against it: The best self protection technique and defensive attitude can’t impede some kicks finding their way to your sensitive parts…. This was all quite traumatic, and I hated it.

What I loved in kick boxing was the training itself. It involved the whole body and brain in an extreme and challenging way, more than any other sports I had ever practised. After each class I was always extremely exhausted, but felt fantastic, and also so proud of myself.

Then, to get the classes were always a hell of a performance. Sometimes I had to throw up afterwards, so excited I was, and this, although my body was very well trained, through other sports too like daily swimming. But you know what? I had many examinations in my life, and some of them very difficult, but I never felt so proud of myself as when I got a new kick boxing belt. By far not! I suppose the pride comes in proportion to the effort one has to invest….

Anyway, here is my first boxing painting. I like the result, so I might do some more soon.

This painting 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”