He gets Rumblies in his Tumblies!

Today I want to say a big big thankyou to my partner Kev Moore playing a very special role in my painter career, forcing himself to eat kilos of yoghurt every day -vanilla is his favourite, and straciatella is not bad either...
What has this to do with me as a painter, you may ask...
Very simple. In this way he provides me continually with the enormous yoghurt pots which I use to put the water in awhen I paint, especially with gouache or acrylics. I use a lot of them, because I am quite delicate with that, and hate to use a pot twice. Considering how much I paint everyday, one can imagine how many yoghurt pots I need ...
Sometimes, he really looks like a big bear eating honey, my Kevin..

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!

Birds, Fishes & Inspector Morse!

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Art Studio, Wenesday 31th January 2007

Time is flying by on Planet Goodaboom!


It is always fascinating to experience the relativity of time. Fascinating especially for me, who has studied the deep interconnection of time and the laws of physics ruling our universe.
But even being a scientist loving the abstract beauty of physical laws, as a person I hate to be their slave, especially to the ones concerning time, and I´m really happy to see that Goodaboom seems not to obey any of the laws of physics... or even any law at all!
Except one of course: THE LAW OF LOVE!
By the way, yesterday I got the Spanish version of the Apple Valentines advertising campaign. They were clever enough to slightly change the „Love goes global“ (see my last article about Valentines) into
„Amor para todos“
which means.
„Love For Everybody“
And THIS is really nice!

Also: Time is flying...
I didnt do it on purpose but what a nice intro to my entry today. I am actually preparing a new exhibition for a local eye centre (is there a more appropriate place for a painter?!) and considering the success of the "Parrots Tree" in recent weeks, i decided to exhibit there some of my watercolours „Nomads of the Wind“, a series I painted 3 years ago and never exhibited in public.


My sister-in-law Isabelle. a painter too, living in Paris, introduced me to the birds. In the past we spent some wonderful holidays together, watching, photographing and sketching the birds, the most notable being in The Camargue (South of France) two years ago. We had rented a landhouse by a lake, and we spent hours watching the thousands of birds there. especially the flamingos- Later, I holidayed alone to observe other water birds, to the Bodensee in Switzerland, to „The Domes“ in East of France, a wonderful place of thousand lakes, and to the „Ebro Delta“ in Spain.
One day I may make a birds photo album for Goodaboom, as it was really something very special.




I found the process of watching the birds itself fascinating, but I think that the deepest pleasure consisted of researching at home afterwards in the reference books, trying to find the birds I had seen and of course secretly hoping there would be a rare specimen in amongst them. I remember that I had exactly the same pleasure as I was diving, many years ago, I loved to observe the fishes, trying to burn their characteristics into my memory and later, at home, trying to recall, and identify them in the books.

Kevin "mentioned in his diary one day: We treated ourselves for Christmas to the complete series of Inspector Morse (A wonderful character by the way, and I am tempted to make a portrait of him...).
His career was his life, and as he had to stop working, he had to find something else to keep his brain alive. And see: he chose birdwatching! Of course, the search for a rare bird could not maintain enough activity in his brain and he died... I really doubt it was due to his fondness for Pints of beer!

Technorati Profile

The Collective Soul Mood

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Art Studio, Tuesday 23th January 2007

Allow me to introduce to you the painting which inspires me to write about the collective soul mood today. It is an aquarelle which I painted about 3 years ago in the context of a series about birds and inspired from the wonderful documentary film:
„The wind nomads“
(I may present this series to you one day in the 3D Gallery). I called it
„The Parrots Tree“
In fact the parrots are not parrots at all, as a French woman informed me in the Street Gallery two days ago: they are rather „perruches“. I knew this, but „perruches“ are in French synonyms for silly women, so I prefer to call them parrots and justify it with my right to artistic freedom!

I noticed that this painting is suddenly getting very popular since the beginning of the year, and on many occasions quite close to be sold. I noticed in the past, since I have been exhibiting regularly in the street (by the way a wonderful field of social behaviour studies, above all here where 40 different nationalities are represented!) that paintings underly a strange phenomenon similar to a fashion. „The Parrots Tree“ is a fantastic example of this. The fashion suddenly arises, people suddenly concentrate their look and enthusiasm on just one of my paintings, and this without being in any way connected to each other. I have no idea how that works: surely one of the unresolved secrets of evolution!
I understand how it works with products which are shown on TV for example, or in newspapers. A fashion may just be the result of massive indoctrination by people who recognise better than others the actual need of the collective soul. But how does it happen with my paintings?
Is it the result of a season related mood for some kind of colours, of themes, or techniques? Is for example the „Parrot Tree „ a kind of announcement of the spring? The parrots a kind of symbolism for blossoms? Or is it the fact that one doesn´t notice the birds at the first moment, which attracts people? Is the collective soul right now in a discovering mood? I really don´t know, have not even any theory –normally my speciality- about this phenomenon. If YOU have tell me: miki@goodaboom.com!
Normally such a fashion ends quite soon with the sale of the painting, and in short order a new one becomes the star. I wonder now who will tame the parrots, and which painting will next take the stage!

Anyway, it was a sunny, windless, almost warm day today in Albir, quite ideal weather for the Street Gallery. Many people were taking a walk along the beach and due to the weather, in an open minded mood, which is necessary to take the time to stop, look and enjoy my paintings. It´s always fascinating to see how the weather influences peoples behaviour. I have lived for a long time in three countries each representative in their own way of different weather types, and I can tell that peoples social behaviour is exactly a mirror image of the weather. But this is another story...
I was alone today, Kevin being in Mojacar gigging and installing a new bullfight exhibition. So I had to do the whole social thing alone, and it resulted in my spending the whole day babbling around with old clients, young clients, and hopefully future clients. I got many compliments, and there would be a lot of nice anecdotes to tell you about, but well, I haven´t got enough time to write, I must go on portraiting two Dutch kiddies.
I just want to mention that I even got the attention of a policeman... Strangely enough, he came walking from far away, where the police here normally never seem to leave their cars. I naively thought if he came walking, he might be interested in my art. I was just speaking to clients as he interrupted me:
„Do you have a permit for all that?
„Of course!““
„Can I see it?“
„I haven´t it with me here... but I´ve had for three years already“
He started explaining to me that such a permit must not be taken as guaranteed, and that I should regularly „refresh“ it.
„But I know, I did!“
Admittedly, this may only be partly true. One of the painters who was exhibiting with me in the past did in fact renew the permit that summer, but I´m not quite sure for how long, and I may really be an outlaw now! So I´ll have to go to the town hall and check it out... so if you don´t see me „working the street“ anymore, then you can be sure, that it is not because the weather impedes it... it will be more likely that the local government have decided that I´m no longer contributing to the wealth of the collective soul!



Above: Kevin´s illustration to this entry. Please forgive the policeman for his grammatical shortcomings...

Slave to the Rhythm - 2. Fighting the Bulls

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Art Studio, Friday 5rd January 2007


„Slave to the Rhythm“: what a wonderful title for a song! And what an appropriate title to convey these painful confessions of a painter on commission...
It is not so long ago, a week perhaps, that I dreamt of artistic freedom and was determined to defend it with all my brushes and pencils. Then came the incident with the big painting (see part 1. La Folie des Grandeurs), which I have, by the way, turned to the wall in the hope that some day I ´ll be brave enough to face it again!
Then, 2 days ago, I heard that my bullfight exhibition in Vera should be prolonged, which puts me in conflict with the one planned in Mojacar. Therefore I now have only 2 solutions: either I postpone it, or I paint some new bulls.
But to tell you the truth, I have got a certain kind of bull allergy. Not that I get red when I see some –although I must admit that I would make myself scarce if a real one suddenly appeared in front of me and I´d certainly get red from the exertion! No, you see, the thing is, in the last two years I painted many bullfights, and sold almost as many. Little by little, people seem to steer me into the job of a bullfight painter. Even my father, an active animals rights campaigner, was quite disgusted as he saw my first bullfight painting. So I couldn´t believe my ears as I heard him saying, some days ago:
„I hope you are painting some new bullfights!“
Curiouser and curiouser. He just loves the colours, the movement, and, last but not least, the success I ´ve had with them. Something similar occurs with my clients. When I ask them:
„So, you like bullfights?“
they immediately answer, almost offended:
„Not at all!“
but hastily add with a guilty look:
„But we like how you paint it!“
Anyway... I am currently in the middle of my own bullfight, rebelling against the fate of becoming a bullfight painter. Trying to find a solution, I decided to change the themes, not always in the expected tradition, but a slightly different view, like the bull in the picture above. I didn´t like it at all as I finished it some time ago: I missed of course the colours, and above all the man in front of the bull. So I hid it and forgot it.
Some time later I found it again, by accident. Kevin saw it and said, it was wonderful. I found it to be better that it existed in my memory, so we decided to present it in the Vera exhibition: it was sold within one week! Hard to believe for me, but my agent had a smug grin on his face!

Faithful to my character always trying to reach the impossible – we have in french a kind of proverb saying: „impossible n´est pas francais!“ -, I tried this week to recover some of my, and not to mention the bulls, freedom within our slavery of the rhythm. Put simply, the glorious freedom of a herd of bulls in the wild!
The price of freedom is high: A difficult theme! I thought I would suffer. But I am quite happy now with the result. I will exhibit it tomorrow in the Street Gallery and see how the people react to it. And then, I guess, the herd will make its way to Vera, to fill the vacant places left by the ones who are gone (not dead, no, my bulls never die).


PS: The rhythm slave in me will go on hoping that the spanish animals rights league will succeed in banishing the bullfight from spanish life!

A Night Mare

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Art Studio, Thursday 28 December 2006


I mentioned the other day (december 2006, A Waterproof Dog) that I spent Christmas trying to catch a wild black spanish horse under a blue sky... It was hard work, the Black Beauty rebelled more than once, but I finally succeeded in restraining him in a 70 x 100 cm big timespace cell...
Allow me to go back to the beginning of this adventure. It was in the Street Gallery, a fortnight ago. A spanish car stopped in the middle of the street and the driver opened his window. He looked at my bullfight paintings for a while, then shouted to me:
„Do you have horses?“
„No...“
He looked quite disappointed. My brain went into overdrive, thinking, well, I haven´t got any, but I could paint some for him... I had already painted horses on commission, and the people always loved them.
„Well, I could get some, I´m good at it!“
„What do you say?“
In the meantime all the traffic was backed up behind him and the drivers had started beeping impatiently. I repeated my answer, but the cacophony was so loud, that he couldn´t hear anything.
„Wait, I´ll park the car and come over....“
He came to tell me that he had a poster, and already tried to commission a painting from another painter, but somehow, the painter let him down after some weeks. He said I seemed to have such a talent for the representation of animals and he would love me to paint the horse from the poster. We discussed about the technique, size, price and delivery time.
He said he would come back before nightfall.
I didn´t really believe it. It happens quite often that people spontaneously want to buy or order a painting, but then at home they think about it twice and I never see them again! Well, normally it is the women who think about it twice, the men are generally much more ready to spend their money on these crazy things! Anyway, I was not too excited to get this commissison. I normally paint only horses with people, but that one, he said, was wild and lonely...

But THAT man came back with his horse.

„Oh God!“
I thought as I saw the poster. Without doubt it was a wonderful horse, a perfect horse... too perfect perhaps, everything being too perfect there, the horse, the blue sky, the blue sea... I instantaneously imagined a possible way to transform this perfection into romantic art, using only sepia and white pastel. I tried carefully to lead the client –oh god, I just wanted to write „the patient“!- to this view, but no, he wanted the painting exactly like the poster. And as big as possible, 100 cm wide would be perfect. At least I convinced him to let me do the painting in gouache, as I thought that oil or acrylics would increase the kitsch touch.
He wanted the painting for Christmas, but I had got a portrait commissioned for Christmas on the same day (see „Ho Ho Ho Christmas“)and promised him to finish it for the wednesday after.

And so it transpired that after finishing the Chrsitmas Baby I started the Black Horse on Christmas Eve. I must confess that I felt some panic about that horse in the days before. I had no idea if I could somehow avoid the kitsch and was quite sure, I couldn´t!
I painted the horse, I painted the blue sea, the blue sky...but I could not resist in the end to make the sky less blue and put some wild brushes around the horse to invoke the movement...
It is not for me to say if I succeeded in avoiding th kitsch trap: but here it is!


The client called me yesterday morning.
„You told me I should call today...“
I noticed a certain mistrust, I guess he was not sure at all, after this last experience with the other untrustworthy painter, that I would have really done it.
„The horse is waiting for you!“
„Oh, fine! He hasn´t galloped away?“
„Well... I must say, that he looks as if he could run away at any minute... you´d better come quickly!“
The client laughed and said, he would be there in 10 minutes.
Unfortunately I didn´t see his first reaction to the painting as I was busy on the phone. But his words of praise left me in no doubt about his feelings.
„It is impossible in this area to find a painter who can paint horses... of course, some paint horses, somehow, but they are not able to catch the character of the special horse... you, on the other hand, succeeded in capturing exactly the character of this pure bred spanish horse!“
He told me a lot about this spanish horse, and I must say that I wonder how I did it, as I never saw such a horse before! I must have felt his character, somehow, in the attitude, in the muscles, in the facial expression...
Anyway, my client was totally happy! And please, believe me:
THIS IS THE MOST IMPORTANT THING FOR ME: NOT THE MONEY, NOT THE SUCCESS, BUT THE CLIENT´S JOY!

PS: I would like to show you how I would have liked to paint this horse and let your taste decide which one is the better one. And when you order a painting from me next time, don´t forget that colours are not always an enrichment to art...