January 27, 2012 in Current Art Blog by mariejon

119 Redback and the Cure & Art

FAMILY JEWELS AND ART

The day before Australia day, hubby comes in from the backyard and says “I think I just got bitten by a Redback, something crawled up my shorts and a minute later I saw the spider crawl away” With hubbys track record lately I was starting to fear for the “Family Jewels” lol.  For you familiar with my art blogs there has been a myriad of mishaps culminating in the heart attack scare, however in this case it was just a false alarm!

The Snake Pit

PAINTING REDBACKS AND SNAKES

Redbacks and other creepy crawlies is something we have an abundance of here in Australia, although on this acrylic on board painting “The Snake Pit” snakes are shown in the zoo, in the everyday backyard there also lurks many dangers.  Something we take great delight with in scaring the wits out of any tourists that comes to stay, lol, well just a bit of teasing really.

Lets start with the Redback which is considered one of the most dangerous spiders in Australia and has a neurotoxin venom that causes severe pain.  There have been only 14 deaths recorded from the Redback spider bite which is quite low compared to the numbers of people that get bitten by them each year thought to be in the thousands.  Only about 20 percent of people bitten require hospital treatment and get the antivenin, after experiencing severe pain and swelling spreading from the site.  This can then lead to nausea, vomiting, abdominal and chest pain, headache, fever, tremors, coma, and of course death.

SEX AND ART

However spare a thought for the male spider as he is the one who almost never comes out of the sexual encounter alive!  The female who is much bigger than the male spider consumes the male spider in 2 out of 3 cases while the mating continues.  He is one of only 2 species of animals who actively assist the female in sexual cannibalism.  The advantage for the male spider is that he is able to copulate for a longer time whilst he is being eaten!!!  You men just don’t know when to stop!! LOL

THE ART OF THE ITCH

“Stop” being the operative word here as it brings me to my daughter’s boyfriend Brett and his itching, lol which I will tell you about in a minute.   We had actually decided in having a quite Australia day as we had done such a lot of partying in the weeks and days leading up to it.  However we quickly got into gear after Hillivi called to say she wanted to celebrate with us, much the same as Tim Allen and Jamie Lee Curtis from Christmas with the Kransks.

So they arrived fresh from the Chemist with a bag full of potions and lotions to try to sooth Brett’s feet.  He had managed to get a thousand little bites all over his feet which were suspected ant or sandflies bites and they were driving him crazy.  The poor boy could hardly concentrate on anything other than the itching and tried to discreetly itch them with anything he could find all the while being told off by Hillivi.  The conversation over the dinner table pretty much became a 3 way deal whilst Brett was alternating his attention between the itching or Googleing cures for his ailment on the Iphone.

Every now and then he would pipe up and say “Did you know they suggest smearing vegemite on the bites or maybe marmite” or “They say here I should pop them with a needle and put on some alcohol”.   So watch out all of you planning a trip down under and come prepared.

Here is a quote I think fits well here by Bill Vaughan;

“We hope that, when the insects take over the world, they will remember with gratitude how we took them along on all our picnics.”

Till next time happy painting and sculpting or perhaps itching?

Love Marie xxx  (c)

If you enjoyed this art blog you may also enjoy this one also featuring my daughter and her boyfriend Brett also featuring more artworks of course ; 100 Some like it hot in Art

Why not come and have a look at Marie Jonsson-Harrison’s PAINTINGS FOR SALE, GICLEE PRINTS FOR SALE and SCULPTURES for sale or WALLBASED SCULPTURES.  Enjoy an original artwork on your walls or perhaps one on your bed ARTnBED.

Click here to view blog post where you can view and make comments

January 21, 2012 in Current Art Blog by mariejon

118 Put a Ring on it & Art

ART AND LOVE

As Beyonce sang “If you liked it, then you should have put a ring on it” and we are all familiar with the lyrics from Single Ladies, Shayne a new friend of ours was plotting to propose to his long time lover and girlfriend Samantha.  They were childhood sweethearts and although “life” had temporarily got in the way they found their way back to each other and had been raising their blended family of 4 children for the last 10 years with all the trials and tribulations that entails.  This artwork below was painted for good friends of ours a farmer boy who married a city girl who was into exercise and worked in a nightclub.

Opposites attract!

Back to the story and their friends would from time to time ask when they were getting married, but all was sweet and they were happy – so why tamper with perfection?

Well as time moved on Shayne decided that he better make an honest woman out of her, the problem was they run a small business together and most days are spent side by side, so there is little time for surprises.

THE ART OF BUYING A RING

Firstly there was the problem of buying the ring.  He knew just what she liked but she was also the one doing the books of the business and “miss eagle eye” was always butting her nose in when he took a cash job!  Diamonds are a girl’s best friend right? So pretty tricky to siphon of enough cash without making the little missus suspicious, Shayne had to use all the excuses in the world as to what he was doing with the extra money.

“D-Day” (proposal day) was looming closer and by this stage Samantha was thinking he was acting really odd, so for him to get the restaurant booked and flowers ordered he needed help and enlisted Samantha’s best friend into the secret.

All was set – ring bought, restaurant booked, flowers ordered, babysitter organized.   So at the end of a long hard day at the business Shayne out of the blue suggests that they should go out to dinner.

Samantha does not think so… she is tired after slaving away all day, then came home and sorted 4 kids home work and various dramas no doubt, then started their dinner and just wants to flop by the telly, as you do!  Shayne won’t be put off and insists that they should have a date night, so Samantha reluctantly agrees, makes a minimum amount of effort to get ready as she grumbles about having to go out.

PAINTING THE TOWN RED

So off they drive in the car, then Shayne suggests a little drink is in order and pulls into the bottle shop drive-though and Samantha is thinking this is so out of character, I mean really can’t he wait 15 minutes till they get to the restaurant ? What’s wrong with him?

Anyway they get to their favorite restaurant and the staff looks at them blankly when they say the name;  “No sir, there is no booking in that name”.   The waiters are running around in a flap, then the manager appears and gives Shayne a big wink and a nod to the huge arrangements of roses on the counter “Well of course we have your table all ready for you, Sir.  Shayne is mortified as the game is nearly given away but luckily Samantha is taken with the celebrity pictures on the wall and misses all the goings on.

CHAMPAGNE AND ART

A bottle of champagne is ordered as soon as they sit down and Shayne hops into it by this time he is perspiring profusely and skulls a couple down, Sam is feeling a bit cross and says that “I suppose I WILL have to DRIVE home now”.

THE ART OF THE FLOWER

Also normally they would order an entree each and no dessert but this night as Shayne has arranged for the flowers and ring to come out with the dessert he is insistent that they have that too.  Sam tells him he is being queer but if he insists she will reluctantly go along with it.  She has been looking forward to the scallops for entree but as they now have to share one entree she reluctantly settles for Shaynes choice of oysters.  However after all the fuss about sharing entree Shayne can only manage a couple of oysters in between all the glasses of champagne.  He leaves the rest for a fuming partner, who now obviously will also have to drive them both home and more than likely also tuck him into bed, the way things are going!

GETTING THE RIGHT LIGHT

But wait there is more that is bothering Shayne…. there just happens to be a light shining brightly from the ceiling exactly above their table spoiling the romantic mood.  So Shayne is plotting how to turn that off and finally enlists a waiter to climb up on a chair and take the globe down.  Meanwhile he is having another champagne and Samantha is thinking he has really lost the plot – when finally dessert appears with the beautiful roses and a gorgeous diamond ring.  She cries and says YES and he utters a big sigh in relief, all is forgiven and they live happily ever after!

If you enjoyed this love and art blog you may also enjoy this one; 75 Story about Pooh & Art with not such a good ending, lol.

So here is a quote by Rita Rudner, that I think fits pretty well here;

“It’s so great to find that one special person you want to annoy for the rest of your life.”

Till next time happy painting and sculpting and loving to you all.

Love Marie xxx   (c)

Why not come and have a look at Marie Jonsson-Harrison’s PAINTINGS FOR SALE, GICLEE PRINTS FOR SALE and SCULPTURES for sale or WALLBASED SCULPTURES.  Enjoy an original artwork on your walls or perhaps one on your bed ARTnBED.

Click here to view blog post where you can view and make comments

January 13, 2012 in Current Art Blog, Other Artists by mariejon

117 Henri Rousseau Naive Artist

NAIF PAINTING

Ever since I started painting I have been a big fan of Henri Rousseau’s work. My father said that the art I was producing had something in common with the naifs and bought me a couple of art books; one on Grandma Moses and the other on Henri Rousseau.

Henri Rousseau-You Rock!

HERO ARTIST

So Henri has been one of my heros for such a long time, so you can imagine my joy when I was invited by the organizers of the annual Henri Rousseau exhibition in France to participate. I jumped for joy! The curator is Jacques Dubois who also is involved in the Art Naif Festival in Katowice, Poland which I took part in last year. Jac is very heavily involved in promoting Naive art in Europe and throughout the world really and his wife Martha Dubois is a very well known and talented naive artist herself.

FRENCH EXHIBITION
This year the Henri Rousseau exhibition will take place in the Abbey of Montivilliers in Normandy opening on Saturday 21st January until 19th February with an auction of the paintings being held on 12th February at 3pm. The exhibition itself is open 7 days a week and it is not to be missed.
Henri Rousseau was called Le Douanier which translates to the customs (or customs officer)a name he got from his job as a tax collector on goods entering Paris. Henry married twice, first Clemence Boitard with whom he had six children and after she died he married Josephine Noury.
Henri also tried his hand at music and writing but it was painting that was his first love, which he started doing seriously in his early forties and by the time he was 49 he retired from his job to pursue the art on a full time basis. Rousseau was represented in the exhibitions of the Salon des Independants from 1886 onwards, and his pictures hung side by side with Matisse, Cezanne, Toulouse-Lautrec, Van Gogh and Picasso.

INVITED ARTISTS

This year 2012 there were 88 artists invited from around the world with 20 different countries represented among them France of course and Spain, Germany, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Cuba, Belgium, Italy, Japan and “moi” from Australia just to name a few.
As this is an exhibition in homage of Henri, most artists are sticking to that theme and I had so much fun painting “You Rock, Henri Rousseau”. I wanted to do a contemporary celebration and incorporated elements of Henri’s art into it by putting in a detail of “The Dream of Yadwigha” (the naked lady lying on the couch).
The Dream of Yadwigha was the last painting that Henri painted before his death in 1910, in it the lady in question is laying on a red velvet sofa with a luxurious jungle behind her listening to the notes of a single magic flute. I of course painted a myriad of musicians and singers, artistic license and all that, LOL. If you look a little closer at my painting you will also see the influences of two other of Rousseau’s work in “The Sleeping Gipsy” which is the woman sharing the couch in the striped outfit.

HENRI ROUSSEAU ORIGINALS

In Henri’s original artwork a lion is standing over her as she lies dreaming under an ancient green sky in the solitude of the desert. Some say this is the lyrical prelude to Surrealism, with a mandolin and a jug which stands beside the sleeping figure, these objects would inhabit the dreams of the Surrealists and the space of the Cubists.
The third painting of Henri’s represented in my artwork is of Henri himself, from his self portrait painted in 1890 “I – Myself Portrait-Landscape”, he is holding a palette of paints and a brush and in the original painting he is standing on a road in front of a bridge, although he does look like he is standing in mid air, lol.
NO ART RULES

That is the naive charm, us naives are so lucky that we can just paint whatever we feel and see without having to worry about rules and other people’s perception of how things should look. As the whole idea of perspective is totally lost on me that is really lucky!!
Thank you Henri Rousseau – you gave me the freedom to be me, to paint in my own style and not to be embarrassed by the child in me. Instead my childishness it is something that I celebrate and hope that I will never grow up, or out off- but wake each day full of wonder and excitement.
So Henri I hope you approve of me painting you like a Rock Star, complete with women swooning at your feet and throwing their knickers at you. There is wild music supplied by a rock band and a brass band as well as the choir and Can Can girls dancing and pirouettes by ballerinas and of course no party is complete without balloons.

So here is a quote I like by another Henri – Henry Ward Beecher who said;
“Every artist dips his brush in his own soul, and paints his own nature into his pictures”

Till next time happy painting and sculpting to you all,
Love Marie xxxx

If you have enjoyed reading about this artist perhaps you may like to see this art blog too; 91 He ain’t heavy, he’s my brother, the Artist

Why not come and have a look at Marie Jonsson-Harrison’s PAINTINGS FOR SALE, GICLEE PRINTS FOR SALE and SCULPTURES for sale or WALLBASED SCULPTURES.  Enjoy an original artwork on your walls or perhaps one on your bed ARTnBED.

Click here to view blog post where you can view and make comments

January 6, 2012 in Current Art Blog, Music & Art by mariejon

116. Art and Music with Marie

PAINTINGS AND MUSIC

That is the name of my new YouTube Channel “Art and Music with Marie”, and I have just uploaded another installment of paintings and indie music in conjunction with the fabulous singer/songwriter James Abberley.

This time the song is called “Ghost” and I actually like it even better than “I’ll be a Bird” if that’s possible.

I find that the melody to Ghost just stays in my mind for hours after I have heard it and I hope that all of you like it too, as well as the paintings, sculptures, prints and public sculptures that the images shows too of course.

James Abberley says that “Ghost is a very dark song.  I wanted it to be confronting but still relevant.  Sometimes we can end up in a place that we never wanted to be in.  Sometimes you can feel like a Ghost, but there is always love and there is always someone that can see you.”

This song is also from the new album called “Some kind of Relief” and in the Indie genre as he is becoming known for and if you would like to find out more about James go to this link and have a little read.  Indie Music & James Abberley.  Also if you are in Adelaide, do not forget to catch up with James every Friday night in the front bar of the Governor Hindmarsh Hotel, known just as the Gov to us locals.

ART ON YOUTUBE

I had made a couple of Youtube video clips before which also featured our two dogs Cheech and Vegas whilst we still lived at the farm and we dressed them up in all sorts of doggy clothes and put the photos in between the artwork, as I told you before you have to be a little bit crazy to be an artist!

ART AND SOCIAL NETWORKING

The new changes to YouTube, means that you can personalize the look of your YouTube site and create the feel that you want.  They have also included a new “feed” to make it more interactive as well, something I think may have been inspired by Face book.   It seems to me that a lot of the Social Networking sites are rolling out new changes at the moment, and just as quickly there are groups that form who are against that, just check out all the “I hate the changes to Face book” groups.   As someone who has only in the last couple of years learned the ropes so to speak, any new changes always take a little time to get used too.  However I read somewhere that Cyberspace is the only place in modern culture there should be nothing BUT change, it is necessary to keep the innovation alive.  So hey we better get used to it!

ART AND COMPUTERS

The younger generation take to it like ducks to water and if you Google to find some advice half the time it will be a 6 year old, lol well maybe a 10 year old that is doing the tutorial on how to use a certain function.  It reminds me of what Dolly Parton said about computers “Truth is, I wouldn’t know a gigabyte from a snakebite”, lol but she can afford to employ someone to do all the computer work for her it’s the rest of us that have to try to keep up.  I like my new telephone, my computer works just fine, my calculator is perfect, but Lord, I miss my mind!

So if you just like me need some time out and just chill why don’t you pour yourself a nice glass of wine click on my new YouTube contribution and relax with James and I.

So here is a quote just in case wine is not your drink of choice by an unknown author;

“Take life with a grain of salt, a slice of lime, and a shot of tequila.”

Till next time happy painting and sculpting to you all,

Love Marie xxx

Why not come and have a look at Marie Jonsson-Harrison’s PAINTINGS FOR SALE, GICLEE PRINTS FOR SALE and SCULPTURES for sale or WALLBASED SCULPTURES.  Enjoy an original artwork on your walls or perhaps one on your bed ARTnBED.

Click here to view blog post where you can view and make comments