An Art Work A Day

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.

This week I will be working extra long hours because both 9th grade classes have done poetry in Norwegian and each student has delivered a folder with several poems each. Most of these will be sorted and put together in a poetry book by me and that work is of course a much bigger job than I considered when thinking it was a great idea. Lots of work sorting and getting layouts fitting together as well as keeping my wits so that I do not include any poems marked private and have removed the author on any poem marked anonymous etc etc . I do believe however that the end result will be great.

For a while I have struggled with the challenge of finding a way to express the feelings one goes through in periods of indecition when one thinks yes one moment and no the next. To and from - to and from, arguing inside, over and over, each time reaching slightly different conclusions. No conclusions satisfactory - non final. There seems to be no start and end to the struggle. The knot is never fully a tight knot but yet it is all untangled and knotty. In the end this is how it ended up being visualized.


Twists and Turns of Indecision,
acrylics on watercolour paper
24x32cm
$108
p&p is FREE

Sometimes I am so tired of be so tired of being tired. I will take an early night I think. Today's posted painting has tons of meaning to me on many levels - due to it being abstract it might not have for you, but then again you might see things I did not see myself. Feel free as always to interprete it as you like and also to find no meaning at all. Art is a personal meeting and that can never fully be predicted.

Sometimes I feel like I'm loosing my balance . . . . .

This weekend I have been thinking about which 3 paintings I should choose as my contribution to SØRLANDSUTSTILLINGA 2010. There are two stages and only a lucky few paintings pass through the jury's critical eyes on each level. We are allowed to start by sending in digital photos of three works initially.

On another note I am happy to tell you that all family members including my 3 cats seems to quite OK again after bouts of different kinds of flu. :-)

Centrifugal,

acrylics on watercolour paper

24x32cm

$65

p&p is FREE

Today I have put up another one of my book illustrations. My main goal making them is for them to be expressive and very very simplistic.


Illustration - Turned Around,
watercolours on paper
30x42cm
$100
p&p is FREE

When the paint, the empty watercolours and I met tonight. I did not feel the muse working properly today but this sheet has something I somehow can relate to. Anyway, since I have promised also to post works I am not sure about here it is.






















Blue Memories,
acrylics on watercolourpaper
20x22cm
$34

Tonight my student daughter is at a late halloween party, and the local newspaper has some wonderful photos from my school's party last Friday. Today's sketch is inspired of earlier times disco parties.


Birds at Disco,
ink sketch
21x30cm
$34
p&p is FREE

My son has the flu. When the grown up children living away from home are ill, in my heart I would like to have the same control I had when they were tiny


Bird with Babycarriage,
ink drawing
21x30cm
$0 not for sale. Will be coloured

Yesterday we had snow in the area in the morning. Later it all turned into rain which have been coming down since. I am not ready mentally for winter and all its challenges. Gone are the times when I enjoyed playing in the snow. Today's painting is a sketch I might colour with watercolours. I have not decided yet. I kind of like black and white illlustrations too. If so I will repost it

Bird with Snowman,

ink drawing

21x30cm

$25

I've spent several hours today searching my whole house for a painting I am sure I have seen within the last weeks that someone wanted to buy and I can not find it. Horror. I have sorted through all possible boxes and stacks several times and frankly I can not think of anywhere else it can be. I hate things like this, don't you. The worst part is that usually the item IS there and only when you have given it up properly will it surface.


Blue Cat IX, SOLD,
watercolours on watercolour paper
21x30cm
SOLD on the exhibition two weeks ago to be used as a Christmas present

No less than 2 cats and 4 hedgehog paintings in this style sold on the exhibition last weekend along with a rooster and hen painting. Online an ink drawing sold too. Hopefully the trend will ocntinue. So many people that I wouldn't have thought that about loved this style. Just goes to show that I should stop doubting myself and just keep painting however and whatever the muse guides me to.