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

Sunset Symphony

Sunset 14 - by Miki

I don’t know why that title popped up to my brain.. sounds good I find, at least to my French ears.

I am revisiting right now drawers full of paintings from the last 4 years, especially a big series of tiny gouache landscapes paintings, from fantasy in quite minimalist impressionist style, they were thought more as exercises to search for exciting colours combinations. They have never been exhibited or seen by anybody else than me so far. Well rediscovering them was a nice surprise, and I am busy now  with the digitalisation, titulisation and Internetlisation of them. Quite a job, but well, I like them, and as far as I am concerned they are worth to be put on the market! The kind of paintings I imagine on the bedroom walls of big hotel chains…

Most of them will land in my series “Times of The Day”, watercolour and gouache  paintings featuring different times if the day:

dawn, early morning, midday, afternoon, sunset, nightfall…

Today I will present you some of the sunsets.

Sunset 15 - by Miki

Sunset 10 - by Miki

And as usual, this painting is available  as Giclee print, in different sizes and different formats, in my FAA Gallery:

Serpa – 4 – (Travel Sketches Portugal 2009)

That little olf woman in the sketch, who is trying to open her door, is one of the rare Portuguese people who came and spoke to me while I was sketching. A lovely olf lady, who wanted to know what i was doing there, by no means understanding that I could find some charm in what i was seeing! She was above all worrying about me sitting in the sun without a hat… i gave her one of my galleries leaflets -I had nothing else, not even that sketch which I had just started!-  with all the tiny little images of my paintings, and she was over the moon, carrying into her house as if it was a treasure. it was very touching…

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All these paintings (and many others!) are available as Giclee print in different sizes and on different supports (paper, canvas) in my FAA Gallery

Like a Bull in an Artshop

I have added today some bullfight paintings and other stuff to my new online shop Miki’s Mart.

It is not easy to make a choice, what to put for sale, and what not. Tastes are so different! And I have had the experience in my life that my taste often does not correspond to the clients’ taste. or at least there is a time difference… what I most like today my clients will like most in about 2 years!

I have often wondered about this phenomena, as I have heard the same from other artists.

I was asking myself if the artist is always  ahead of his clients’ time…

Anyway, among all my bullfight paintings, and as a contradiction to the theory I just presented and the aim that a shop which should be to sell what what people want to buy,  I chose to put for sale this one above, which is my most favourite bullfight painting of all time!

Back Fighting The Bulls…

I will have soon “to fight the bulls ‘ again, so i have started yesterday  to practise again, always on the search of new bullfighting techniques…

I have painted that one today, a quite complicated mixed technique!

By the way, if you are still  interested in my bullfight calendar 2009, or already in the new calendars 2010, or in my bullfight mugs, simply got to

my bullfighting art site

Who I was…

(Selfportrait, golfing – 2004)

Some days ago I received following mail:

“Dear Miki

I came across your art in a search for some inspiration for my own piece of work, and honestly, I just love your style, it’s so full of life and energy! Also I noticed that you like drawing with watercolour and so do I. :]
Let me introduce myself; my name is Anastasia ,I’m 17 years old, and I’m doing my art AS exam this year in school on a little island in the Mediterranean, called Cyprus. And I absolutely ADORE art!:D
I would love to use your works, if you don’t mind, for my reference. You are one of the artists who influences my final art work. At the moment I’m planning my piece on sports, in particular gymnastics. I need to write your biography, but I’m having some difficulties finding it. So would you please tell me a little bit more about yourself and your style, if you have time or could you give me a site where I would read more about you? I will be really grateful if you reply!
Thank you in advance.

Sincerely yours

Anastasia”

As Anastasia says, it is not easy to find my biography on the net, the reason being that there is none (at least as far as I am aware!). I am not even sure that I have a biography, having some troubles in imagining myself in the past, this being one of the reasons why I can’t really write a biography. To avoid this problem, I suggested to Anastasia that she make an interview, asking me what she needed to know about me.

And now, thinking that other people also want to know who I am (or was!), here is the interview…

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(15.01.2009)

Could you please tell me when you were born and where?
I was born in 1955 in the French Pyrenees, in a town called Tarbes. But due to the profession of my father, we moved around  France a lot as I was a child.
At 18 I left France to go and study Mathematics and Physics in Germany, where I remained until about 5 years ago. Then I moved to Spain, having chosen this country partly because of the weather which allows me to paint outside all year round.

Where did you study art?
I am mostly self taught. But I had a correspondence course in design with a University in Switzerland while I was working as a mathematician in the north of Germany. Through my mathematical skills I have learnt to recognise, analyse and lose problems, in which ever field of life they may be. This which means that I was always able to judge my paintings, correct and better them according to my visions (and not according to some art teacher’s vision!)

Was there anyone who influenced you to become an artist or was it your personal decision?
As I was a child, I had been totally driven from art by an Art teacher. She had not believed that  a painting which we had been given to do as home work was done by myself. She thought I had it made by a grownup painter. I was so disgusted that I swore to myself: never art again!
I held fast to my promise until my first husband gave me a tiny little watercolour paints box for my birthday, as I was about 25 years old. As soon as I had put some colours on the paper, the passion arose… and I never stopped again to paint! But I always paid attention to keep my distance from art teachers, you might understand why now!

What else inspired you for your art work?
My own passions, of course, inspire my work: I paint what I love. But I receive much inspiration too from life and nature, from things which happen. The tiniest event might give me some idea of one painting, I start at once, follow the thread until I get totally bored and most of the time I end up having a whole series!
This explains why my work is so diverse: I just follow the  winds… and there are many of them and in many directions!

Do you have favourite artists that also inspire you?
No, not really. I have to admit that my art education is very poor. I rarely go to museums, or galleries. I rarely look at art books. First of all because I fear that looking too close at other artists’ works could influence my style too much, and the  most important thing for me, in painting, is to keep my natural, spontaneous style.
But also I kind of need a private connection to the artist to really get interested and appreciate their artworks. This means that 90% of the paintings I look at and love nowadays  are done by Artist friends and acquaintances. We sometimes inspire each other too. My series „Fantascapes” for example was created based on an idea from my American friend  Susan Cornelis, a wonderful artist and art teacher, we worked in parallel on the theme and published our works simultaneously on our blogs. It was a great moment of mutual inspiration and motivation.
But having said that, I have indeed a favourite, classical artist: Van Gogh.

What art media do you like using the most and why?
I like everything except oil (too slow, too smelly, too messy,  too much preparation to start with…)!
Which media I actually prefer depends on my mood. But one can say that I generally prefer fast media, like watercolour, as I am a very spontaneous and impatient painter.
In watercolour I especially love the transparency, the freshness and the exciting, almost mystical feeling of catching a single point of the Time Space. A well-done watercolour painting has something divine, somehow. I also like the fact that it is not a forgiving medium, it must work at once, or it won’t. I like that, even if it can be very frustrating!
For some special aims like portraits I also love colour pencils. In connection with pastel, they can give a lot of depth and life to a portrait.

What do you aim to show in your works?
Oh, never thought about that! I think I don’t have a special aim when I paint, I just love the process of painting. It is a wonderful way of enjoying life and myself in all aspects!

What inspired your sport paintings? How do you manage to show all the energy and movement of a particular event in your painting?
I simply love sports, and I was, and still am myself a quite active sportwoman (daily swimming, much scuba diving in the past, skiing, tennis, much golf, windsurfing , skateboarding, cycling, kick boxing). I love and need movement, and this is why sport is a basic component of my life. Whatever I paint, even when I paint a still life like a simple coffee cup, it always  strikes with movement… yes, especially my coffee cups love to dance on the paper!
When I paint sport, because I know so much about it and my body and brain are so used to movement, I suppose that  movement and energy are automatically transmitted in my paintings. I don’t do it consciously.

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PS: In the following days I will publish 2 entries connected to 2 of my sport paintings, each one having a nice personal story…

Whirled in Digital Rainbow…

It was a  grey and cold day today in Andalucia,

one of these hated days where the world seems to stand still…

I suddenly felt the urge to work with colours again, took some of my storks

and whirled them around in some digital rainbow…

kind of!

PS: today only humourous or colourful comments are allowed…

Thanks!

The Toroscapes

One would not believe it, but judging by the quantity of hits on my bullfight post on this blog and of  enquiries I personally receive in my mailbox:

there is a big market for Bullfight paintings around the world!

A friend of mine from the U.S.A., who is trying to help me market my calendars there, wrote to me:

“… One thing to remember is that America is a microcosm of many different people, styles and tastes…no different than any place else really, except here we do have a lot of special interest groups, and lobbyists for special needs. The Animal Rights groups are very powerful and influence a lot of laws and perceptions. Bull Fighting items of any kind will be difficult to mass market….the cultural climate is not conducive…”

Well, this is certainly true in Europe too, and even more so where I live. But I have my very own experience in this matter and I answered to him that what people publicly follow is one thing and what they then privately do is quite another.  I have said many times: I sold many bullfight paintings to people who hate bullfighting! I think this says a lot…

Anyway, I have decided to create a new website entirely dedicated to my Bull and Bullfight Art, simply called

T O R O

And to inaugurate it, I started a new series of bullfight paintings, from the “Scapes Family”, called

The Toroscapes.

Like the others Scapes, a mixed technique of classical and digital art.

Like always, “only” available as Giclee prints… an amazing printing technique by the way, the results are really fascinating, so true in colours, details and structure… and with the huge advantage that you can get them in different sizes and on different formats, canvas even!

With this new website I have also opened a new blog, dedicates to the Bulls. You are very welcome to join me there, to comment or even become a co-author. And honestly, I would love to meet some people with whom I can speak about the bulls!

English, French, Spanish and German languages are welcome!

The First Bullfight

Another piece from the series

“La Création du Monde”

Kevin seems to think that it is silly… well, I like it silly sometimes! He even thought that I had painted one bull too many, but just because he did not understand that the green one was in fact a horse!

Anyway most of my paintings from this series must be considered with humour.

And if you want some serious bullfight (I could say “bulls..t” – sorry, I am learning all these bad words from Kevin!)

Please visit my new website:

T O R O : Bull and Bullfightart

Greetings, from Me!

In my last post about The Labyrinth in my new gallery I told you about the  wonderful fine art greeting cards The Bay Attic created from my Bullfight paintings. You could even have a glance of them on one wall.

The Bay Attic has also created many different greeting cards from my Portugal sketches and from my Fantascapes.

All of them on high quality card, in square format, 15 x 15 cm, single-folded, blank inside for personal messages, and individually wrapped with matching envelope in cellophane.

In short: a great product!

The Bay Attic will present them in their programme at The Scottish Trade Fair in January 2009. I must say that I feel very excited about it!

As for me I will try to marketing them in Portugal, Spain and France…

wish me good luck!

PS: If there is anybody outside there who knows how I can find the right people to contact, please drop me a line.

Please visit my new website:

T O R O : Bull and Bullfightart