I think I mentioned it before in my blog, I have been quite busy lately stretching my pens and my imagination to create card designs for the 123 Greetings Studio. Golf being one of my passions, I have developed a whole series of funny golf cards for some of the annual events like Halloween, Christmas, New Year, etc… I will do some more later on this year, but for the moment, I am done with golf, and here is a little video featuring most of these cards.

Last spring I was suddenly involved in a poetry book illustration project… and here is the result:I am proud to announce today the publication of this book, called

“The Unreasonable Man”

and written by the Australian poet

Tariq Segal.

In his own words

“Well…  I’m thrilled to announce, the release of my book, my thoughts about life, through the years that this took.
Glad that it’s finished, and glad that I spent, time penning my thoughts, letting emotions vent…”

The book is designed as a coffee table poetry book. It contains 60 of Tariq’s favourite poems with each poem accompanied by either an illustration or photograph.

Tariq says:

“.. I think the artwork alone is worth owning a copy, and being able to review my thoughts as well can only but confirm your own sanity…”

Well I must confess,, most of these illustrations, about 50 I guess, are my paintings.

And here is what I have written in the preface of the book:

“Having myself been an „unreasonable“ person from the very beginning of my life, my encounter with The Unreasonable Man could not fail. As I started reading his poetry, I felt at once a deep connection to his wild world of thoughts, passion and revolt, and agreed at once to become with my art, a part of it.

I was amazed to see how many of my paintings seemed to have been created exactly for his poems,  illustrating in vibrant colours, lines, forms and structures what the poet is saying in words and the empty spaces in between.

But not each of his poems found its rightful painting.. We both collaborated in a weird process of  re-creation, by which  the characters featured in some of my paintings started to assume a life of their own, moving and wandering around, invading Tariq’s universe of poetry, in search of their own particular place among his words. Sometimes they even ended up taking possession of other paintings, either chasing the original occupants away or, more peacefully, finding their place at their side. You will understand what I mean when you look at the original works through my websites!

Anyway, to work on the illustration of „The Unreasonable Man“ was a totally new and very exciting experience in dealing with my own art, seeing me naturally „forcing“ them to interact and fit to the words.

I want to thank Tariq for this wonderful experience and his wise and creative advice in the choice of the paintings.“

For those of you interested in the musings of this troubled mind the book can be purchased online from the US  at:
1.       Amazon.com : http://www.amazon.com/dp/098052380X
2.       Createspace.com : https://www.createspace.com/3354416

The books are also available through Tariq Segal himself, above all for those of you who are in Australia. If you are interested please contact Tariq at

tariq@segal.com.au

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Here are some of my latest cards creations for the 123 Greetings Studio, for which I was working quite intensively these week, having started there a new project with the team. Many of my actual works are based on my golf paintings, because part of the pnew project is to create a collection of golf greeting cards, and I want to concentrate on it right now.

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There are muhc more cards in my 123 Studio, so, if you want to see them, and send some today for Halloween, feel free to visit my cards gallery here.

When you are there, please browse the pages around, the Halloween cards might be at the end, as they are the most recent ones.

By the way, if you want me to create some personal cards, or if you have some ideas of cards for all the important events, and would like me to create them and publish them in the Studio, just email me…

HAPPY HALLOWEEN EVERYBODY!

Last weekend the Portugal Masters took place in Vilamoura, in the Algarve. Apart from my pleasure in watching golf, it was also very touching to see again the Algarve, where we went last year. I would have loved to attend the Masters there this year, but we had no chance to organise a trip so quickly… next year maybe.

Anyway, I did my weekly work of trying to feature some scenes and players from this week tournament. There were many motifs which inspired me, but unfortunately, I had not much time , as the thing with the ecards  for Halloween and All Saints’ Day (see last post in this blog) came in between.

I saw with pleasure that my favourite player, the 20 year-old  Irishman Rory McIlroy (he has a magnificent golf swing!), was playing there this week, and I decided to make a portrait of him, quite sure that he would be among the best, as he has always been since I started watching golf regularly some weeks ago. Unfortunately, he didn’t play that well this week (which is why he looks quite fed-up in the portrait     )… but anyway, he is worth a portrait! I am not sure he would be happy with that one, I am not sure if I am happy myself with the results, it was a difficult one… but I am sure that one day I will make another portrait of him, as I have decided to feature the winners of each tournament. (Well, as long as I don’t get bored!)

The winner this year was the Englishman Lee Westwood, whom I also like very much, and often saw ‘live’ in the past. Here he is, looking at himself, making the final putt for victory, on the 18th green.

The following painting is in fact featuring another hero of mine, Colin Montgomery, in a delicate situation… but I changed his silhouette a little bit, making him wearing clothes which, for my taste, fit better to the painting… If I’m honest, I don’t believe he would wear a pink shirt… perhaps I changed his body too, I don’t remember. Anyway, this is not meant to be a portrait of him, but just a golf painting…

And to finish, a painting to show just how romantic golf really is…

Some months ago you might remember, I had started working for an ecard company, Studio 123 – and enjoyed creating e cards for all kinds of events which nobody knows about,  like turtle day, ice-cream day, hug me day, internet flirting and suchlike. The challenge for me was to create paintings and designs etc. to illustrate these events, and I don’t care really what then happens with them, if many people look at them, or even send them as e cards. Anyway, my activity with the Studio was then reduced to nil, as we went on holiday, and I had so much work to do as we came back, both professionally and personally. Last week, I was thinking that I should start again creating e cards after finishing my series of Portugal sketches, but before I could act, I received a mail from a manager there, telling me off, how I had been a lazy girl  after the initial fireworks of creations  

This was of course a good occasion to start again. A glance at the events calendar made me realise that it is Halloween soon, and All Saints day. Here are some of the cards I have created over the last few days for these events:

I know, this card is quite naughty, and I am not sure they will publish it, but I couldn’t resist…

One of my older paintings, from the series ‘Impressions”….

Another Impression… the original painting was called “La Dame en Noir” and it’s sold somewhere in France…

You see, I can be a lovely girl too…

Digital painting based on a photo from a cemetery in England, at St. Giles’ Church in Matlock, Derbyshire, where Kevins grandparents are buried…

Sergio Garcia and his caddie in Madrid 2009

The European PGA Golfers  came to play in Spain this week, in Madrid., and I especially enjoyed to follow the tournament these last 4 days. I had the big pleasure and sadness (I’ll explain why) to see the Spaniard  Sergio Garcia, one of the 10 best  Golf players of the World… I saw him life many years ago in Barcelona, if I remember well it was his last apparition as an amateur and I knew a big golf career stood ahead of him. Unfortunately, like most of or young best players, he went to play to America… I kind of never forgave him what I consider as a “betrayal”. Of course sometimes he comes back to Europe to play, especially when the tournaments take place in his native land Spain.

I have a very sad story indirectly related to him… About 10 years ago I was on a  golf trip with my Belgian friend Rita, in the region of Castellon. We wanted to play El Club del Campo del Mediterraneo,  partly famous because Sergios’ mother was (still is?) running the Proshop there. In the evening before we wanted to play, I was sitting with Rita in a restaurant, having some wonderful Spanish food (jamon iberico I suppose!) and some red wine, as I got a phone call from Germany on my mobile. At that time I lived in Germany and spent soem konths the year in Spain). I was told by a friend that mt best freind in Germany had just comitted suicide…. it was a terrible choc, of course… I had met him about 2 weeks before on a golf course in Alsace, with his wife, both golfers, and we had made together all kind od of plans for the next summer, like to rent a narrow boat in England and to navigate on the channels there from golf course to golf course… anyway… the wife having said that there won’t be any funeral, as he had wished his ashes to be thrown into the sea, there was no reason for me to go back to Germany. So I got hammered that night, with a lot of red wine, and as I still could not sleep in the night, Rita gave me a lot of sleeping tablets. The next morning i went to the golf course in a dreadful state, certainly closer to unconsciousness than anyhting else. The strange thing is that I played a great score,,, and then, as always when I am totally depressed, i went to Sergio’s mother’s golf shop and spent there a huge amount of money… but of course, this didn;t help wither and we decided to interrupt the trip, I couldn’t any more….

Sorry for that sad story, but i can’t see Sergio Garcia without mourning, again and again!

And here is the unexpected winner of teh Madrd Masters 2009, not Sergio garcia, but Ross MacGowan, from England! I haven’t worked especially on the likeness, I just wanted to make a golfer portrait ans I liked his attitude on the golf course…

I have done some other paintings from the Madrid Masters… who is interested can see them in my galleries online…

Here follow some of my last 2009 Portugal sketches. I arrived to the end eventually, more than happy, with a feeling of being totally saturated and never wanting to paint Portugal again, but also with the satisfying feeling of having completed a big job (more than 100 paintings) with -at least for me!- satisfying results. I generally pay a big attention not to lose the fun when I paint and rarely do something what I don’t fancy, but I also pay attention to finish my works, especially my paintings series. Anything else would leave me with that unpleasant feeling of having failed. Luckily I have quite a stubborn character, I seldom give up.

To be honest I still have some cute ink sketches form that trip, which would be worth some water colouring job, but i had lost them, just found them back. But they are for me like cold coffee, I can’t have them. They will join now the big drawer with all the other, coloured ones, I will put a label on the drawer “Portugal/Spain 2009″, and then never looked at them again I suppose!

I wonder which my next travel sketches will be. It was planned to go to the Provence in September/October, but this is finally cancelled. One big trip seems to be sure for January/February: 5 or 6 weeks visiting New Orleans, Austin, Memphis and Nashville, following the Mississippi. An old dream from Kevin and me, which could come true. And if yes, sure that there will be a lot of inspirations to me as  painter, and to Kevin as a musician.

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This morning I received  a mail from my dear friend Susan Cornelis  in the USA. She said:

“Reading your blog Miki it sounds like you spend all your time watching and painting golf these days, but what else is going on?“

I was quite surprised to read these lines,, as I have myself the feeling to spend working at some different projects , artistic or not, all the time and at the same time! But perhaps this does not really appear in my blog. In fact I explained her that her impression is perhaps due to the fact that I don’t take care of my blog as much as I would like, meaning I don’t post as often as I would like, hardly answer the comments, and hardly visit another blog!

There are 2 main reasons for that:

first, like surely everybody else, because of the lack of time.

And then there is another problem, which is perhaps much more important and certainly more frustrating, as I have no idea how to solve it: the language. I can of course express myself in English in a way that everybody here understands, but it is not my personal way, it is not the way I would love to write. And then I have been used since always to a very precise language, very differentiated, and I have no chance to express in English all these nuances, these details, these point of views, etc  which make a text attractive and personal. For me who loved to write, in French first, and later on in German, it is deeply frustrating and sometimes I get quite depressive about this point. Communication is so important, and right communication even more, if you want to avoid misunderstandings.

Most of the time, before I publish a post, I ask Kevin to correct it, as I struggle very much with my pride and my whole education to publish texts full of spelling and grammatical errors. Some among you might understand that, but most people say:

“But your English is very good!”

NO, IT IS NOT! It is far not good enough to allow me expressing myself, and enjoying it. This is why I most of the time publish short, quite impersonal texts, and post less often. On top of it I am a desatrous typer, and having to type on an English keyboard does not help much…

To answer Susan’s questions, yes, a lot of things are going on in my life apart from golf. But this blog is meant as mainly featuring mu artist’s life, not much more. So, artistically, as I said yesterday, I have started again with the musicians. Here are Steve Lukather and Leland Sklar from Toto.

PS: this is today me in my English language nakedness,  without Kevin’s correction, he is busy in the kitchen tiling our guitar shaped breakfast bar…

PPS: tomorrow starts a new PGA golf tournament… hurrah!  

Yesterday, early evening, Mister Kev Moore took possession of my computer to look at a Toto DVD… not that he hasn’t got his own computer, as you can see on the photo of our office, but well, mine has a bigger screen. And no, this is not male discrimination. I simply need a bigger screen than him for my work! And anyway, we’ve  got 2 TVs in the house, and God knows how many DVDs players, so in fact, he could have looked at Toto somewhere else… but somehow, this lovely corner of our office in front of the palm tree has become a kind of beloved viewing spot… normally we watch Sport there at the weekends, the football games on the live streams, and me the golf tournaments. By the way, behind Kevin, you can see, at least partly, the sexy curves of the armchair from the new Lap-Dancing club I was speaking in my last post about Golf in Scotland…

It was the first time I saw Toto, Kevin had already introduced me to their music, especially when we are travelling in our motor home, we listen to them. I enjoyed watching the concert with him, but there is something in my character which impedes me to sit still in front of the screen and just enjoy. Some might think I am a workaholic, but I don’t believe so, I simply love working and creating and get easily inspired by anything. Anyway, I found, once more, these musicians very attractive motifs, with all the colours and attitudes, and I started sketching. Today, based on some sketch, I made my first Fantatoto, a portrait of the lead singer Bobby Kimball, in this special technique which I used for the Fantascapes (mixed technique between digital and classical art).

I guess some others will follow, me being especially inspired by the bass player…and this time I don’t mean the one who stole my computer! 

By the way, for me as a French girl it is very difficult to imagine a band called “Toto” – In France Toto is a silly little boy, main character of many jokes, in the style:

Toto:”Mummy, I don’t like my grand-mother!”

Mother: “Shut up, and eat!”

My favourite Sportsmen, The European PGA players, are golfing this weekend in Scotland, on the legendary Saint Andrews course. It had always been my dream to golf in Scotland, but it never came true, although some concrete plans had been made. But today I must say, after my 4 weeks experience in Scotland 2 years ago, where it was raining cats and dogs all the time, I have abandoned this dream. And to prove me right, the third day of the Championship yesterday, has been cancelled because of

“Gale forces winds across the north and east of Scotland have forced the abandonment of Saturday’s planned third round in the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship…”

Anyway. I made some sketches on the first 2 days, and here are some of the resulting paintings. I am aware that this European PGA golf series, which I started about 4 weeks ago now, are not in my current style, less wild, more classical. But somehow if I want to feature the  golf courses where the tournaments take place, I have to stay quite realistic in my painting style. There would be surely a less classical way, but I would need more time for that, and I haven’t got it: first because there is a tournament each week, and I have other things to do  (like for example following the tournaments!) than to reflect about a golf painting style, and second and more importantly, because I never reflect about how to paint something, I just do it, following my impulses and inspirations.

For example, I loved the following scene, but I am not sure that the putting player in the background loved it too… it is well-known that golfers are very sensitive to any kind of noises… I am sure they would classify pipe music as noise too when they are trying to concentrate themselves.

Well, this really very classical painting, I wouldn’t believe myself that it comes from me! Although, when one looks closer, it looks quite messy in some places… I had neither the time nor the patience to take more care of it! 

So, I am gone now, I have to see if the weather is better today in Saint Andrews and if yes, I will sit down in my wonderful armchair (that we bought as surplus from a new Lap-Dancing club) and watch golf for hours and hours… Heaven!