Do Art

No, I didn't row them up. They just lay there when I walked down this path and I found it hilarious so I took the picture. It's Friday and the weather is horrible. So I will go on with my Spring cleaning. Therefore I've decided to use up and throw out stuff from my pantry. I love teas, so I own quite a lot of them. This goes so far, that when I was flat-sharing I was forbidden to buy any new teas until I used some of mine up. ;-) As my current tea collection is threatening to take over a whole shelf, I've decided to use them up before I buy some new tea. I will throw out quite a lot of my spices too, because the glasses are just collecting dust and I haven't used them in years. Which means they will have lost there taste anyway. And I won't become like some people, who have spices in their pantry that are more then ten years past their expiry-date. Leipzig is awesome in so far that there is a spice shop in the city which sells all kinds of loose spices. So I wil...

Congratulations are in order  for Carole, our  advanced Diploma  Printmaking student who  has been selected for the biennial   Swan Hill Print and Drawing Aquisitive Award ( 2012). The  award  promotes excellence in Australian printmaking and drawing through  an  exhibition  that builds upon the  Swan Hill Regional Art Gallery collection. Selected works must  have been created after January 2010 Caroles' work has had  extraordinary success  having already been selected for - the Blacktown Art Prize (2010), The Fishers Ghost (2010), The Silkcut Lino Award (2010) . “Anthony” - 4 colour linoprint, 82 x 62 cm (2010)

Somehow this picture is right today.

bolsita de nylon sobre papel y palo rojo. osvaldo cibils, 2011

Goooooooood Morning. Yesterday evening at my watercolor class happened something that I didn't even know I waited for. What? For the first time in my life I found that I liked my sketch and painting best of the class. Until yesterday I always had the feeling that almost everyone else is superior to me in almost all areas of my life. So with that development I'm feeling much better and self-confident. Perfect timing.

Holy Moses! Released March 9, 2012. Produced and Mixed by LAZAbeam. Mastered by Interface. Guitars by Michael De Souza. Written by K. Chandradath Singh and V. Girod.  www.soundcloud.com/lazabeam14 www.trinidadtunes.com  

CHEAP & CLEAN: The Documentary from arrdowblu on Vimeo . A project by Ebony G. Patterson.

So since I'm painting tulips right now (scheduled posts are fun), I thought a few of my spring flower pictures from last spring would be welcome. Took this along the road.

This is Wolkenburg, Saxony, on a very sunny April day in 2011. Life can be magical if we let it be and recognize it. A new week has started, giving us tons of possibilities. For me the new week starts out with another watercolor class tonight. We will paint still lifes tonight. When our teacher (not Andreas) told us so last week I wasn't very keen on it, but I've changed my mind. After all I'm attending this class to broaden my knowledge and abilities, if I shut down every time I'm supposed to try something new, I won't evolve as an artist or person. Not a happy prospect. So, tonight I'm going to buy tulips right before class, because I really wanted a tulip bouquet for months. I even bought a beautiful green vase a few months back, the poor thing is still waiting for its first bouquet. Me painting tulips, what a surprise. What have you planned for this week? Are you trying new stuff.

Christian Campbell reads his poem 'Iguana' at the Spaces Between Words pod-cast. LISTEN here . READ the poem and my thoughts on it at my tumblr here .

Enjoy your Sunday!

As I've said, I've got a ton of great pictures waiting to be published. Another picture from last years Darss vacation.

When I went through the pictures on my cameras memory card, searching for some specific food pics, I found tons of beautiful pictures that I had forgotten about. This is one of those forgotten treasures. I took it last March during my Darss trip. I would love to go there today. The seaside is fantastic, as is the Kooks song "seaside" . I had a pretty awesome day yesterday and I hope for an awesome weekend too. The weather is certainly wonderful. Have a wonderful weekend everyone.

Enjoy your Friday everyone.

Intense listening. Two weeks ago I went to a presentation on watercolor painting at my local artists supply. It was held by Andreas Mattern , a Berlin-based artist. The only word that comes to my mind when I think about his presentation: AWESOME. I truly loved every second of it. Explaining something He taught us so much in so little time (only 2 1/2 hours), starting with a little bit of material science (don't buy cheap! I learned that lesson: http://sans-visual-art.blogspot.de/2012/03/lukas-vs-winsor-newton-vs-schmincke.html ) to some nifty tricks. His point of view on some matter. His painting in the background is showing Cottbus. In any case I've decided to definitely take a class with him. He obviously is an amazing teacher. Creating Brush use. Creating a "Mary Poppins" sky, without even noticing it. 

Postcard 71/366 Two versions of the same painting. Above you see the whole postcard, below only the painting and this dead center. Why I had to try this cut? Well, the artist Andreas Mattern (he gave the amazing watercolor presentation at my artists supply, more about the presentation in tonights post) said that if only a certain part of a painting is good, than this part should become the whole painting. So, what do you think? Holds this true for this postcard or not? The picture part of postcard 71/366 Frankly I'm not sure in this occasion. Especially since the card doesn't tilt to the left side. It seems balanced to me.

Leipzigs Plagwitz neighborhood is becoming the place for artists. And even I am pondering the possibility to move there. These murals are on two sides of an industrial building. Plagwitz contains a lot of old industrial buildings (the Spinnerei is THE place for artists in Leipzig) which are turned into living and working spaces. I think I would love to live there.

Our annual staff show is now open for viewing!  This exhibition showcases recent work  by our  fine arts staff  members illustrating a variety of disciplines, approaches and practices.  Peruse the show at  your leisure  then join us for the official launch on Wednesday the 28th  of March at  lunchtime - all welcome!

The works of one of our printmaking teachers - Jo Ernsten is now showing in 'Beyond Language'  at AshvilleBookworks - North Carolina  USA. This is an exhibition of printed works  made using the ' building blocks of communication, all of them structured deliberately not to be read as text, but rather understood as compositions. A few pieces in the show take a path toward literally making illustrations with letters that have been whimsically liberated from their usual work of making words, while other works arrive to use more abstactly and with a strange beauty that is ironically bound to them by their illegibility'

Postcard 74/366 This weekend was filled to the brim with artwork. Especially my Sunday, I started with painting right after breakfast, then went to my usual coffee shop to enjoy my Sunday treat (Caffe Latte and nougat waffles), do some pondering and drawing, after that I went home and painted until sunset, after my dinner I immersed myself in the beauty of islamic architecture and ornaments . During the painting I did get the chance to test three water color manufacturers against each other. Lukas , Winsor & Newton and Schmincke . Postcard 93/366 In postcard 93 you can see colors from all three manufacturers. Lukas = turquoise, Winsor & Newton = blues, Schmincke = purple. Lukas (cobalt-)turpuoise misses the shine (and the cobalt hue), obviously the pigments aren't of the highest quality, which isn't that surprising considering that the colors cost only 1 third of the Schmincke or Winsor & Newton colors. I guess if you just start out and haven't used Schmincke ...

FIND out more here .

A trick vessel is a type of mechanical puzzle. It is an impossible object; a magical trick that seems to do something it should not; that should not, logically, be possible. I was fascinated by this idea and how it is a metaphor for so many processes: for art, for the imagination, for love, for memory; for history; for politics and for power. I hope the book deals with these things and that readers will find many secrets.   READ more here .

Saturday, wonderful weather, Spring, lovely weekend plans, new watercolors to try (I've bought purple and gold(!) yesterday, since I currently absolutely adore the work of Gustav Klimt ), fantastic and huge books about ornaments and Art Nouveau from the library to read. Ahhh, life can be so good. Hopefully your weekend plans are lovely too. What have you planned?

Postcard 62/366 For years I've been searching for the right word for these doodles that I do. During the last year the name search became even more pressing. Since yesterday an epiphany grew within me and finally revealed itself this morning: these are ornaments. Postcard 66/366 Finally I have the correct term for them! You can't imagine how elated I am about this. Enjoy your weekend everyone. I certainly will, we've got fabulous weather and I'm brimming with ideas for San's Visual Art . Postcard 73/366

It's Friday, Folks, and since this weekend will be fantastic weather in Leipzig, it's time for life's simple pleasures. A stroll in one or all of the lovely parks, a bike ride around the Markkleeberger See (preferably without falling of the bike, which I did yesterday), cooking and enjoying great food, reading on a park bench in the sun, drawing on a park bench in the sun, pondering life on a park bench in the sun, going to a crafts market and meeting with friends there. Doing all this alone or with good friends. Enjoy your Fridays and weekends.

Always. We often think we have to safe nature from us. But as a matter of fact, we have to save nature FOR us. We need it to survive ourselves. We need the bees, the beasts, the plants, etc. WE NEED NATURE TO SURVIVE! Nature will survive us, giving birth to new species almost daily. Life will find a way, no matter what.

Theory: Mixing red and blue produces? Purple. The practical test: Postcard 43/366 Adding red to blue produces: coffee brown. In this case a coffee brown dolphin, no, this wasn't planned at all, neither the coffee brown nor the dolphin. "Just do it and then keep going!" , produces quite interesting stuff. In any case I've made some headway in my 366 project. Today I painted postcard 75/366. I'm ahead!!! Postcard 75/366