The Power of Daydreaming

Ink & Watercolour

For about 6 months now I have been in the process of moving.

Moving from one house into the other, from one art gallery into the other.

I hate packing. And believe me, the amount of painting materials and paintings I have is gigantic, so to move only this part of my past life is already a life’s work. This is why I decided to do it gradually, taking it easy. The Housing market in Spain being at a standstill, nobody is rushing to buy my lovely house, so I can take as much time as I need.

The other day I was there, about 260 kilometres north of here, and I wanted to bring back my big new canvasses, which I ordered there before I left last Summer, but unfortunately they are so big that they don’t fit into the car. Frustrated, I decided to bring back some of my older sketch books, and other little things.

Today, a little bit bored and without any energy to start some new stuff, I had a glance at some of them, and found sketches which I of course had totally forgotten. This happens to me all the time by the way: I normally paint so fast and so prolifically that my paintings have no time to get recorded in my memory! Anyway, this is how I found this one. As I saw it, I remembered every detail again. A young girl had posed for me at that time for a fast sketch, and I remember how, a little bit annoyed by the boring position I had started to imagine things around her… and especially the cushions on the armchair, under her bum and behind her back had more and more taken the form of wings which seemed to grow from her body… and I even saw lots of butterflies flying all around her head!

A typical example of what suddenly happens to my brain when I get bored… I see things… bananas things…

some might call it the power of daydreaming!

Cafe Life

Ink & Watercolour, Mojacar Playa, Andalucia, Spain

Asking Kevin a title for this sketch he answered:

“Master of All He Surveys”

A Summit Meeting in Spain

Quite regularly I go to a Cafe by the Beach, and sketch people spending their time there. It is a great way for me to practise live sketching. Well, people are quite still sitting on a Cafe terrace in the sun, but they still move quite a lot and it is a wonderful (but sometimes frustrating too!)  exercise to try to catch them in some position or expression. I much more prefer this way than to go to some figure painting meeting, where the models stand still, almost dead… this does not inspire me at all, and neither does their nakedness I must admit! I much more love to draw the stuff which people put on, sometimes they are such a funny mirror of their souls… no funny clothing on this one though. In this case it was the contrast between the Macho with the black hair and the other people which inspired me…

Anyway, this is the last one I drew, some days ago… I normally don’t put these sketches here, because I have created a special site for portraits and caricature art,

“Portraits for Life“,

some months ago. I just wanted to remind you that it exists. You might like to go there, if you enjoy this kind of art…

Pointing at You

Kevin being in the U.K. at the moment, I played a little bit around with my other favourite subject of the moment…

Just wanted to try another kinf of portrait, in watercolour, and in impressionist style.

Christmas Fun

I was working on some designs of Christmas cards for my Plaxo eCards gallery over the past few days. I chose unusual designs, although including normal stuff like Santa Babies, but I put the Babies in weird situations and environments and with comic words in their mouths… I wanted fun Christmas cards this year, as my life is pure fun and I simply want to share it with the world!

Here are 2 of the cards

And if you want to send these cards for Christmas, sorry, you will have to become member of Plaxo!

(No, they don’t pay me for the plug! )

Yes We Can!

(Based on a photo by Bill Burke, pageonephoto.com)

So, my first Barack Obama portrait is finished.

I think it is quite different from the portraits I have seen from him on the net. On most of them the artists emphasize only one aspect of his personality.

This is not what I wanted.

I wanted to paint Obama as a human being, with all his facets:

his humanity, his leadership, his honesty, his hopes, his decisiveness…

Of course I never met him personally, so it can only be the Barack Obama I perceive through the TV and the photos I have seen from him. And I saw all of these qualities on his face.

I can only hope that I have caught a little bit of his soul…

And if you are wondering what he is counting…. words of course:

“Yes We Can!”

My special thanks go to Bill, from pageonephoto.com, who allowed me to use one of his photos to make this portrait.

A  F  T  E  R  W  O  R  D

I want to thank you Michael Newman from the Newmradio blog for having published my portrait there, with the following wonderful words

“… It really shows the worldwide respect that our country has gained by taking a step in the right direction by electing Obama.  Maybe it takes the U.S. hitting rock bottom to spur our citizenry off of their couches and into realizing that many of the ways we do things need to be changed…”

2 Little Bakers…

Between the last of the work on the new gallery, I did two new paintings last week, especially for our local bakery, “The Pasty Shack”, where I have already hung some of my Coffee Cups Art 2 weeks ago. I wanted a funny theme connected with bread and pastry, but at the same time it should be a kind of advertising for my portraits. I had a look through the internet and found some delicious Black&White photos of Babies and Children Cooks, the ideal theme. I drew them, added some colours, and here they are:

Sorry, something went wrong with the photos, they are not quite well realised,  and I can’t redo them now as my Baby Bakers already hang there close to my Coffee Cups.

Now, I don’t now how it is with the copyrights in this case. I don’t know if I have the right to sell them, having used the photos to make the paintings. I guess exhibiting is not a problem – but selling? I have decided not to sell them, at least for the moment, until I know better. So people, if you are the authors of these great photos or you are a lawyer/artist knowing about this kind of thing, and find this post here, please contact me and tell me my rights!

By the way: as Kevin hung the paintings there the owner of the Pasty Shack asked him:

“Is it you stealing a taste of the chocolate pudding?”

Could be in fact!

Phil in My Blanks!

Today I want to tell you a story. Some months ago I stumbled on the net upon a cute, tiny little man, responding to the gigantic name of  “Harold Lawrence Windcrampe”. I spontaneously felt a big emotion for Harold, and believe me, if I could, I would have grasped hold of him and put him into my pocket. But well, the net is great, but still a dream world somehow, you can’t grasp what you see.

Anyway…

I entered the World of his Secret Thoughts (mainly “Sigh”…)  and found out who his father was. A certain Phil from Syracuse, N.Y., U.S.A. An artist. And what a one! What a talent, what a technique and what a humour!

And, perhaps even more important for me, WHAT A HEART!

I found out that Phil sold some of his self-made comics, and badges. I ordered some, paid with Paypal, but I made a mistake in the name and he did not get my money. An embarrassing situation for him, I guess, and I felt very sorry. I sent the money a second time, and he replied to me, saying that he felt so bad for me that he would add some more stuff in the package.

Some time later, a gigantic envelope arrived, filled with much more things than I had ordered. Of course the post costs had been much higher than planned, but Phil didn’t care. I must say that I have seldom experienced such generosity from a stranger, and I was deeply touched in my heart.

Have a look at his site, and you will see what I mean. Everything Phil draws is full of humour and kindness!

Today, weeks later, thinking of him again, I  had an idea. In my new gallery there is a room where, as soon as the gallery is finished, I will spend my days making art there. Originally I wanted to cover the walls with my paintings too, as part of the gallery. But today I decided that I will cover the walls with art from my friends all around the world. And of course I will start with Phil. So I put some of his art together in a frame, Kevin wrote his website on the frame, and this frame will hang there tomorrow.

And now to my further idea. Last week I got some art work too from my dearest friend Susan Cornelis, and I will make the same as I did with Phil’s work.

So, now, if YOU who are visiting my blog, are an artist and want to be featured in my new gallery in Spain, with your website, your blog, or whatever on the net, then ask me my address and  just send me a little something nice, which I can frame in the form you can see on the photo above. It can be one or more prints, postcards of your art, etc.   it must just look nice! And I promise, for each of you who will be featured in my gallery, I will make a post here, showing what you sent to me. And, of course, show your art to my real world gallery visitors.

I am very excited about this idea. I hope you will be too!

So please, following Phil’s example

PHIL IN MY BLANKS!

Another Pic in The Wall…

So here we go: the first wall of my new Atelier/Gallery here in Turre is (almost) covered with paintings. We started with the portraits, right to the left when one enters the gallery. Kevin did a great job in measuring and making holes, while my important contribution consisted of directing the whole action, saying where I wanted what. In my gallery I am the boss, clearly…

There are many walls and we will dedicate the whole week to covering them, gradually, as I would love to open the gallery officially in about 2 weeks. I guess at the end of the week Kevin will be a psychowreck and I wonder if he will still be happy to love an artist…