Two Proud!

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Planet Goodaboom, Monday 26th March 2007

We were back working the Street yesterday, but to be honest, we totally missed the time table: we started at 14h instead of 11h! I just felt lazy, somehow, something which doesn´t occur very often, and I couldn´t really convince myself to face that kind of work. And furthermore, we didn´t even realise that they had changed the time in the night, so to add insult to injury it was also one hour later! Some German man, who had been in the Street Gallery early in the morning, came back in the afternoon and mentioned to me, that they changed the time, pointing at his watch in a comically impatient fashion. I guess he hadn´t noticed that I was not one but 3 hours too late!
By the way: I hadn´t even noticed that I still had my painting trousers on, which actually look like one of my wilder creations. The same guy called me and said:
"What is the price of this painting, Miki?"
I was surprised.
"How do you know my name?"
Well, he just smiled, pointed to the signature on the painting he was just holding in his hands, and to my trousers....
Indeed, it couldn´t be more obvious! I realised then just what I was wearing.

It was very windy and cold by the sea yesterday, and we couldn´t set up the easels. Never mind, I put the biggest paintings on the ground and the ingenious Kevin created very sophisticated, anti-wind devices -gigantic plastic clips to hold some of tiny frameless paintings in their display rack, which was itself anchored to the table with even BIGGER clips! The paintings almost disappeared within this mighty construction! But well, he was very proud of himself, this the most important thing, I guess...
Due to the weather, there were not many people walking around, but I still got a lot of attention and compliments, well, my paintings did!. We also had some very funny entertainment by a spanish saint woman called "Puri", a short name for "Purification". Kevin will tell you the story, I would miss out too many words to transmit the glory of the situation...

I -unfortunately- sold one of my favourite sketches, and to tell the truth, I haven´t many. A fast sketch of a village in the "Ribeira del Duero", a famous wine region north of Madrid. I was there two years ago, on a painting trip. Sold to a Spanish Art collector from Madrid, who worked in the past in El Prado.
I must say: I am quite proud!

So plenty of pride all round, for construction, and sales! (Despite, I´m sure, Saint Puri´s admonition that Pride is one of the 7 deadly sins....we´re working on the others!)

Back again on Planet Goodaboom!

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Planet Goodaboom, Saturday 24th March 2007


Yes, we are back home, and this is the way it looked as we entered Spain on the 21st of March in the middle of the afternoon. And you won´t believe it, but some hours later, as we drove through a region called "El Maestrazgo", about 300km south of Madrid, the car thermometer was showing - 6°C outside! So people, if you consider moving to Spain because of sea and sunshine, better stay home... anyway, already too many people are living here, it´s becoming insane! Better regularly read our diaries and get the taste of Spain from a distance!

Kevin will surely soon make a word and photo reportage of our travel to Germany and to France, so keep an eye out for our travelogue.

The first thing I saw when I entered the Art Studio was three half finished kiddies anxiously waiting for me with wide open eyes... oh God, I thought, I had completely forgot them! Of course, two weeks before we left I had started 3 portraits on commission - one English boy, one English girl, one Dutch girl- and had to leave before I could finish them...
It will be so difficult now to go back to them, I have completely lost the personal relationship I had established with them while I was painting them, absolutely necessary to make a good, lively portrait. But well, I am not so worried, I just need to make the first step, sit in front of one portrait, empty my mind concentrating only on the child and start. But well, this tiny step, at the moment, appears to me like a giant one! But it will be wonderful to paint again, after 10 days artistic inactivity. I deeply miss it.

I guess, the best thing is to start at once! Also: write to you soon again!

StillLife, Dead Nature or Barrel?

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Goodaboom, Monday 5th February 2007


I have just returned from the local Eye Centre, where we mounted an exhibition with birds and landscapes in water colour on Friday evening. A nice place for my paintings, and I daresay, the people there have the right eyes to look at them, at least when they come out of the treatment room!

Monday today, and some monday stress in the air... A new week is beginning, new decisions must be taken. By the amount of things we want to do, we would need more than 10 lives each and 100 together to achieve them. So priorities must be set: an awful challenge! On the other hand, the fact that we could theoretically do all we want, if time were not so cruel, is the best proof that we are quite free. But as the Germans say:
„Wer hat die Wahl
hat die Qual!“
He who has a choice, has an agony... How true!
Anyway, first of all, I´ll have to prepare my next exhibition about „Flowers and Still Lifes“. It will be the first time that I exhibit these kind of paintings outside of my gallery. No special reason... perhaps the fear that people might have found them boring... or more probably it is just myself, a fanatic of movement, who hates the idea of „still life“. Although I must say, that it is a far better idea than the French one.. French people call „Still Life“
„Dead Nature“
Macabre! This is a fantastic example how countries use different words for the same thing and how these differences can even lead to philosophical considerations about the national character!
German say „Stilleben“ too. Is that a sign, that German and English respect or love Nature much more than we French do? I have my own ideas about it.
The Spaniards are much less involved in such sophisticated considerations. They call the „Still Life“ „Bodegon“, which more or less means „Barrel“! Yes, they love their wine, and apparently can´t imagine a still life without it! Incidentally, they also use the term „Naturaleza muerta“, „Dead Nature“, and if you see how they handle their environmental considerations, such as the disposal of waste, you will realise they have plenty of examples of it!

Coming back to the Monday stress...Funny thing, fate...the same day as I decided to open Goodaskool, my Painting School online , a German man came and somehow convinced me to give him real lessons. 2 weeks before, I had let him go with a quite categorical „No“, as I described it in the Painter´s Pointer. Well, if the weather is good, the lesson will take place tomorrow, and I´ll tell you about it.

But for now, I have to go back to my two Dutch kiddies on commission.
„Tough ones!“
as Kevin says... Yes I think, I never suffered so much doing a portrait as with the oldest one. And I can´t even say what is so difficult in his face... Well, you can judge for yourself when it is finished... Friday at the latest!