An Art Work A Day

"Taste of Summer" acrylics on canvas board 24x30cm. Inspired by my first basket of strawberries which I treated myself to after my workout at the gym today with a tiny springkling of sugar and with low fat milk. Deeeeelicious.

$100 p&p worldwide included

Today I started my day by dpoing a 3 hour workout at the gym - yes I know it sounds excessive, but when you need about 400 hours of cardio over the next year to get in shape and get rid of excess weight every 5 minutes extra on the treadmill counts.

Most of the rest of today was spent helping out on the work on the house, borrowing a hanger and taking two trips with rotten or bad wooden materials from my house. I am still struggling to get a skilled roof person so keep those fingers crossed and also that the roof itself beneath the roof stones are healthy and sound.

Tomorrow i hope to find more time to work on chinese brush painting. I am totally faschinated by how even very small variations in how the brances are done have meaning or names.

This painting I first did this weekend outside in acryllics but unfortunately the acrylic reds dimmed too much for my liking when they dried so I used the acrylics as an underpainting and finished it in oils. It was inspired by one of my roses who suddenly hasd lots and lots and lots of bright red roses.

Fireworks of Roses

oil on acrylics underpainting, on gallery wrapped canvas painted on the sides and ready to hang 40c40x1.6cm
$110 p%p worldwide included

I am sorry I can not write and tell you a lot today but I have to reduce the amount of time I spend looking at a screen. My eye aches with the light from tvs and pc after the surgery. I will in short tell you that life is godd and LOl that I have managed nearly to get to the bottom of the piles of papers and clothes and tiny things that filled up my room. Totally amazing how much I am able to gather. It has been raining here so indoor work has been really comfortable to do in the cool weather.



















Life and Beauty
oil on artist canvas panel board 30x40cm
$100 p&p worldwide included



I also thought I would show you my new look without glasses.

Sometimes a person learns most from what goes wrong and that is the case for me today.

I wanted to paint 3 birds on a branch with watercolours but I wanted to use chinese brush techniques nad also background washes. I did it both on Shuen paper and on acrylics thicker paper. The result is fairly conclusive. You can not use washes in watercolours as you can use ink.

In my intro I said I would show failure as well as successes. These are a few failures that I also learnt something from.

My Eye is working out fine. sleeping with the nightglasses on was not easy and also I am used to getting up very early so by approximately 6 this morning I had begun sorting through papers on tidying up my desk at work. VERY much needed. Then the 8th and 9th grade had some entertainment and grades were delivered. Since 4 of our staff is retiring including the inspector and the headmaster of 25 years, the usual coffee and cake afterwards included gifts and speaches.

I hope to get some more painting done tomorrow. LOl I'll probably end up walking around in circles wondering what to do since I am so used to being so very very busy.

One of the most wonderful things about abstract Encaustic art ( wax) is that people usually sees very different things when watching the piece. What do you see?

Working very hard. Today I finished all the seeing through student works and watching the last presentations and then finally getting the last grades into the protocols. Then all of us teachers had the big order-and-behaviour grades- meeting.

Fortunately my daughter came home today so I had a bit og relaxation with her and the "desperate housewifes" before starting to get ready for tomorrow.
Tomorrow I will be away all day for the written exam meeting. For those of you that do not know the system: First two different persons evaluate each exam without knowing what grade the other person puts on each specific paper. Then we meet and if we are not in agreement we send it to an expert who is the third person taking a look. In addition the students can complain about the grades and then 1-2 new persons will take a look. I am fairly tired now and have started to long for the weekend.

Aceo ATC June no 18

no 17 June ACEOs Encaustic art

I promised you an update on the exhibition but I am sorry it will have to wiat a bit. It is 2 a.m. at night here and I am not finished with my work yet. What I will show you though is a glimse of a wonderful exhibition that went on also this weekend with one acrylic painting from each child in the community from kindergarden up to age 16 in school. Watch and enjoy! A fantastic view filling the sports hall.

Today I am totally worn out after this week's stress. I'm doing an early night and will tell you about the exhibition tomorrow. This is no 14 and 15 of the June aceos.

Here is what my part of the exhibition looks like

And here are a few more of those encaustic art ACEOs that I made a few days ago. June: no 12 and no 13

Today was the start of the local exhibition. I am very happy about how people took their time and looked properly at the artworks displayed today. I would like you too see a bit of my fellow artist's work. Gillberg is a very skilled woodworker and a carrier of traditional handmade wood objects. Watch and enjoy and marvel about how he could have been able to make these works.

ACEO ATC june 2007 SOLD to USA

no 9

10 Mouth of the Cave

11 Fantasy

This is the third in the black on black series. Together with "waiting in the Shadows" I will try to get them mounte dand framed tomorrow. All the materials and glass etc is bought and made ready. I find it a bit scary but that is normal - I always find thigs a bit scary the very first time.

A good friend of mine told me: "Don't piddle in your puddle". Here I fear I piddled or fiddled a bit too much. It is so hard finding a balance between making this a kind of non detailed work but not too faded. I kind of wish that I had left it a bit more faded. On the other hand, I need to take a day or two off any work before I know how it turned out. when it is just finished I often feel that it is all wrong and then some days or weeks later, I am able to look at it with new eyes. I would love any comments you'd care to give.

This is how "nightlife" ended up looking varnished and double mounted and framed.

I also need to give you some good news. Yesterday I did not post a painting because I had been to a thourough examination of my eyes and they had put stuff into my eyes. the good news is that my eyes can be done lazersurgery on and I have an appointment for next Thursday. That too will probably be a non painting day hehe. I am very much looking forward to being able to play ball games or exercise without needing glasses. Jippiii.

Today I ordered framing materials and I will try to frame this one and " Waiting in the shadows" similarly for the exhibiiton next weekend. Today I got totally stressed out after having made a list of everything that must be done this and next week. No time for anything to go wrong or being tired or unwell. To get through it I push myself a bit too hard these days but I try to do everything one step at a time and one thing or one task or hour or even half o\hour at a time to make it feel manageable.

Well, that is how june has been for the last 4 years - totally crazy, but fairly normal for teachers. I hope you like my work in blacks mostly. They are among my favourites. I have been working on a third one this week but it is still not finished. This far it is interesting and i only hope I will be equally lucky when continuing to work on it. Unfortunately I can end up ruining with overwork so this one I will be very careful with to try to get it as I want it.

Nightlife, acrylics on acrylics paper, mounted and will be framed this week
unframed, approx 25x30cm, $100 shipped worldwide

Today when I got home from work the sun was wodnerful and I just had to spend as much time outdoor as I possibly could, and since I am part of the challenge daily painter I also needed to find time today for that.

Sitting outside having a break after work, reading Ayaan Hirsi Ali's novel " My Life, my freedom" ,which I by the way hightly recommend, I noticed that the first irises and yellow day lillies had started to bloom. naturally I went off and got my camera and took lots and lots of reference photos.

While I went around with the camera one of my cats started to follow me around "jentepus" meaning girlykitty or similar.

I then quickly got some acrylics paint, my waxy tablecloth to protect the table and just started.

While this happened my cat relaxed in the grass and watched me, probably wondering what I was doing.

And this is the result on a 18x24cm canvas panel board.

$100 p%p worldwide included

And now I better get back to grading end of term papers in Norwegian. Summerhug from Trine enjoying every scrap of sun she can get as you have seen

Many places in the countryside have a museumlike minipark where they put very old farm buildings. Those old faded textures, shapes and wooden materials have inspired this abstract.

Of course I have much to learn before these kind of painting are as I want them to be but I find it an Ok start. I will try to post more of the traditions and symbolisms connected with these kinds of paintings during the coming week. All are approximately 25x30 cm on shuen paper.

I promised you yesterday that I would show some of the results. Today I took lots and lots of snapshots of a real bamboo plant when Hanne (my daughter) and I went out to eat at a chinese restaurant today after her exam. I am no too happy with those leaves so I guess I will practice practice and practice doing them untill I am fairly satisfied.

Guess who made her first trial of a YouTube video today. It is without music but it is a start. It contains a whole bunch of ACEOs, some good - some not so good. Enjoy. You do not have to see it all by the way. I will make mroe mediasorted, shorter and neater ones later with music added etc. First I need to find out where to get music which is not copyrighted to add.

Today out in the sun I brought out a table and ink and lots of stuff and sat there enjoying the sun and practiced painting plum blossoms in Chinese brush painting. . These are painted on quality watercolour paper because that is suitable for cards due to its thickness. I also painted on Shuen paper and I will probably show you the results tomorrow. I really hope you enjoy being with me on this journey where I learn new things and explore and each new thing helps me create and develope further my own style. Friday I got a big parcel from OAS oriental artist supplies which has very high quality materials and books about this technique. If only I had more time. . . well it is only 3 weeks now until the summer holidays. :-). And the coming week the weather forcast here is summer temperatures and sun. I will enjoy it as much I can. Got a bit of tan mowing the lawn and painting in the sun today. See you tomorrow for more of my work.





ACEO ATC 07-06-02 Plum Blossom close up Dien mei style









ACEO ATC 07-06-03 Plum blossoms Dien mei style







ACEO ATC 07-06-06 Plum blossoms chuen mei style