An Art Work A Day

As a new year starts time has come to once again try to work hard on getting slimer and fitter. The road towards mental and physical health is one where you can get some help and sometimes you have someone walking parts of the road with you BUT most of the way you are alone.

The cold is still horrible here but we do go out and watch the fireworks. Here in Norway for the second year only sertified pyrotecnics are allowed to use rockets - ordinary people are only allowed ground staying ones. Unfortunately my photos did not capture it well this year.

Standing there I was amazed at seeing horse shoe track since it has been so very cold lately - at worst -24 degrees Celcius which is COLD.

I am working on an idea using some of my birdlike figures either in a series with musical instruments or together with glasses and bottles in connection with New Year's Eve. Another idea is to let the bird do strenght training. I do not know what will come of it if anything but here are some of my sketches.

Well, now the cold water tap too at the bathroom sink has frozen, and the car is frozen all through and will not offer me any service before we have had warmer weather a couple of days. That is not something to expect soon if one listens to the forecasts. My car has winter heating systems that I can connect to the house's electricity, but since I have swapped cars with my daughter so that I have her very worn out old one, I do not have the option of connecting it to any electrical heating systems. SIGH.

Well, nothing to do about that. At least the weather is beautiful. Temperatures in the -15-20s tends to offer that. Better fetch more wood. Hugz

Well, this has been a day of writing my column and trying to keep the house warm. The hot water pipes to the bathroom sink froze last night and I have not been able to defreeze it. I have also been studying my workout plan for January despering in seeing how many of them will be a problem with my present health issues. Well, well, I'll do my best, that is all I can do. What are your New Year's Eve resulutions?

The temperatures today have been very low -12-20degrees C (5- -4 F) and the forecast is that this cold will last the next 3 weeks. SIGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I must admit I am a bit envious of my Mum being on Cypros at the moment.

Artistically I have done a bit of creative planning in my head but very little on paper, partly due to stiffness and pain in my fingers.

What I have done though is joining Global Health and Fitness as a first step to getting personal ized help getting back into a training routine despite my health and pain issues. Something has to be done, I can't continue being this fat and unfit. There simply is no other option than somehow finding the motivation to get it done. It is hard and some days like yesterday when even getting dressed and using a knife and fork was problematic and painful due to my joint problems, I feel defeated and can not believe that I will manage. I do miss the ability to go hiking on snow free forest paths. Walking on astphalt or slippery ice in this cold is not very tempting.

Hope is always green as they say so I do hope for and plan for an active day tomorrow. :-)

Did a bit of sketching today.






Lots of snow during the night as you can see.

With everything being covered by snow.

That is when it is such a wonderful feeling when finally the driveway is cleared and the car is fairly snowless again - although temporalily.

It has its beauty though and all the kids love this abundance of snow.

Well, then I am doing the last of the finishing touches on my Christmas preparation. For those of you who do not know it, Christmas Eve is the main Day here in Norway.

HAPPY HOLIDAYS EVERYONE

Since I am not a domestic godess, I have struggled getting the house cleaned before Xmas this year. Too won out as well as usual too. This is more what I'd like to spend my days doing hehe

Close to midnight and suddenly I was able to work again. Who cares what time it is :-).

Two Be Or Not To Be, Illustration
acrylics on watercolour paper
24x32cm
$100

Unfortunately today my energy was non existent again. Deja vu. Same procedure as every year, James. Well, that also means that no matter what I will be done by Christmas time.

Today is a very cold day here so much time is spent keeping my old uninsulated house warm.

The best part of today is that it is equinox so that from today on the days will keep getting brighter and brighter every day. Hurray.

I have started planning a couple of project ideas today but nothing is ready enough for me to show yet. The rest of today I have spent cleaning the house and getting rags washed etc. such things that one does not do every week hehehe.

Today's photos are from the competition we had in my class the two last ordinary lessons. They were to make something out of marzipan. The winners were the students that made the first one. The jury fell especially for the reflection of the pig in the water-detail.

Also as you can see, no secret what is on 14 year old boys' minds hehe

Last day at work with goodbyes to students and collegues and all. Me, I am so worn out that I have suffered from periodically blurring of vision on one eye since Tuesday. It returned today as well so paracetamol and bedrest in a dark room has been my main activity since I came home. Due to two of our language teachers being on maternity leave this year, the ones of us remaining have had a bit too much to do lately because our end of term grading and evaluating load have been double this year. Also, due to our school using a socalled learning platform and al students having their own pc - too much intense focusing on screens is part of life as a teacher these days. Students also write 2-3 times longer texts these days. The good part is that it is much easier to read printed essays than handwritten ones - the downside is the length even though we do want students to write much LOL.

Also, as teachers all over the globe know, we keep getting new directions from every level from the government and down all the time. SIGH - no need to say more.

Anyway, tomorrow my holiday starts and hopefully I will manage to find energy to start getting my house cleaned before Christmas and the parcels sent.

Today's painting is one I did earlier in a filosophical mood.

Today we had the socalled Christmas workshop at work meaning that the students walked around all day chosing from different stations, most of them involving doing Christmas crafts. I had planned on getting some drawing done myself since I was on the Xmas card/drawing/painting station but these days I feel like I am too worn out even to be able to sketch. All empty si how I feel. I definately need the holidays soon.

Last night as I opened my bedroom window I realized that I had 3 visitors in my garden. It is not very easy to get good photos in the dark so you'll have to accept them as they are.

Initially I had planned for a day of painting but as usual I had underestimated the need for the occational day of rest. Today was such a day - spent sleeping or resting with a book. Hopefully that will mean that I am ready to be very active and productive from early tomorrow morning hehe.

Here are a few photos from the ball. First the decorated tables, then from the polonaise and last from the party party dancing part. I have other photos but due to rules I can not show photos with faces on. More images and comments on student blogs like this , this or this . Last I have put an image showing that my usual Christmas guests arrived last night.

nodp

Yesterday I sent Day og Contemplation to California to a buyer and collector there.

As for other news, the Xmas ball is coming along nicely and as I write this the ballroom has nicely decorated tables with seats for 150 guests tomorrow night. I will post photos tomorrow. It is looking so lovely - white on white but with red candles and decorations.







Parallell Paths,
acrylics on watercolour paper
24x32cm
$77
p&p is FREE

Continuing the theme of finding friends. Today my focus is that we do not have to be similar to be friends and play together.

Another illustration within the same theme as yesterday's.

As a teacher one of the things I am most concerned about is whether the children have friends. In my work I try to capture emotions. To do that I often chose very simplistic subjects and styles because I feel that the less realistic, more abstract or even more childish cartoonish styles often shows the emotions better. More realistic paintings of a child alone crying or happy together with friends shows just that; a child alone crying or a happy child with friends.

By abstracting the figure or using some kind of personification the emotion or consept itself stands out more I think. By removing the emotion from a particular face or faces representing individuals the emotion itself is something to relate to more than the person with the emotion. The part that is scary though is that many persons just seeing my paintings next to a realistic nice one could just think it is a bad painting. Used alone as for example illustrations they look great.




Left Behind,
watercolours on watercolour paper
21x30cm
$66
p&p is FREE

Today winter have arrived properly and my car had several inches of snow covering it when I got out this morning. The coming week the forecast is for very cold weather, up to -15 degrees C on Thursday. That should bring us some clear beautiful skies.



Lost in the Patterns,
acrylics on canvas panel
18x24cm
$85
p&p is FREE

This have been a weekend of many questions and no answers. In the end I went down in the basement and found a book I have read many times before. That gave me comfort as well as a pause from the questions I could find no answers for.

Today has been a day of Contemplation and reading "Joy is free" By pater Kjell Arild Pollestad. I do not agree with all his opinions but it was a suitable read on a day when my life had more questions than answers. In my painting I have tried to melt together the shape of kneeling and the visual symbol for asking questions. In my life the two are often intertwined.

A Day of Contemplation,

acrylics on watercolour paper

24x32cm

SOLD

Earlier this week this is how lovely the sky looked from the parking lot behind work.

Today they had a "nisse" parade (small children dressed up in red santa hats) in connection with the lightning of the Christmas tree in front of the Community Hall with the school band playing Christmas carols etc etc.

In connection with this there were a few stands selling some crafts and home made delicacies. Also me with a table with some of my books on it. It was quite nice even though sales were not that good. For me the biggest challenge is to come out and dare to admit I made those books. That probably sounds strange but so much of me is inside those covers that I feel kind of volnerable. I promised myself that I would get out there and show myself and my books in connection with several occations. Today was one of them.

As I now retire for the night, my biggest wish is for the muse to come visiting tomorrow and allowing me to see some interesting developements in my art or giving me the stamina to practice drawing systematically. The last days I have worn myself out with all the extra end of term work that being a teacher entails.

I have filled in the forms and sent photos of 3 of my paintings today for a juryied exhibition. Sørlandsutstilllingen.

No time for painting today either

No painting today - too busy evaluation end of term papers. Too busy and too tired too often. My muse is tired. Lots of ideas has been worked on mentally this autumn but too little has come of it. Yepp, like my students I do need the Chritmas break hehehe.

Today I had a lovely visit of a friend of mine Elisabeth bringing her new puppy; Charlie, a golden retriver.

Yellow Birdladies Queueing at the Sale,
watercolours on watercolour paper
21x30cm
$35
p&p is FREE

This weekend one of the local churches has had its yearly Chritmas basaar where they serve and sell bakery, especially specially a traditional bakery called "lefse" which is a tortillasimilar dish baked on a special round plate called "takke". It can last for a very long time in a dry state which is how they stored them in the old days when refridgerators and such were not invented. When eaten it is softened and folded after having had butter suger and cinnamon put on. (or other things depending on where in the country you are from). They can be made by using different kinds of flour and also potatoes.

In the basaar they also sell some handicrafts and some books but most of all I think many comes for all the lottories, especially since the local bingo stopped. I bought some Christmas presents myself and also a couple of books. One of them has been my companion this weekend: All the way home by Ann Tatlock.

Three of my books were also on sale there but as with the rest of the handicrafts and books there, I am sad to say that most were packed up and carried home again. Prices in general were very close to material costs so I really do not know what traditional crafts can do to compete in the modern market. Me, I adore handmade things - the knowledge that it has come to life usually in a home by a person taking care putting it together with personal skills. I also love the fact that most of them are one of a kind things because small differences occur in crafts. Also for a couple of things like wollen stockings - the traditional knitted ones like the ones grans used to knit are the very best ones, way better quality than the store bought ones.

At work things are very busy these days with the end of term tests starting on Monday and we are all running around harassing the poor students to make them as prepared as possible. Tonight I have put the finishing touches on the 9th graders tests for Norwegian. We are trying out a new way of doing it more in line with the new curriculums and evaluation demands. It will be exiting to see whether this works better than the traditional ones.

In between the test days my co class teacher and I thought we would have a nice day in between so next Thursday, weather permitting, we will have a day out with sausage grilling and games. Our 9th grade team tries to find a way to get outdoors once a month but we do not always succeed. This is due to too many children and teenagers spending too much time in front og the tv and computer games and thus getting too little physical activity and schools trying to even that out a tad.



Bird Frying Sausage,
ink drawing
21x30cm
$45
p&p is FREE

Today's painting was originally one I planned on using in a collage or something but when I arrived home from work today my mum, who is visiting at the moment, said that the Eye had kept looking at her all day from my work table. That lead us to considerin just as it was in different versions of mounts. With a cream inner mount and then a black outer mount the imagery really popped out.