Time to decide...

Planet Goodaboom, Saturday 29th September 2007



Most of you surely think that you still have got lot of time to decide what you want to give your family and friends for Christmas. At least this is the impression I have every year... with increasing tendency! I remember last year with a kind of horror... I spent two and half months before Christmas - and even two after, my clients having redeemed some gift vouchers - to paint portraits, simply because my clients had decided at the eleventh hour that a portrait would be the most appropriate gift. At the end I was totally saturated, I almost hated all these little monsters and even thought, I could never face a portrait again!
But well, in the finaI analysis, I love portraiting, and love the deep pleasure I can give people with it. So i just went on... and here I am again, with the awful impending Christmas rush at my door.

I have been portraiting for a long time, and people who received them as a gift have always thanked me and said, it was the most beautiful present that they had ever had. Today I just want to beg you, if you are thinking about giving a portrait (or any kind of painting on order) please think fast and order now! You must not forget that a portrait takes a long time, a lot of energy and inner peace. I always have to go inside the portraited person to be able to capture his/her soul, and I hate to "jump" from one to the other: it just leads to schizophrenia!
And anyway: the longer you wait, the more expensive it becomes... yes, my night rates are very expensive!

If you need some help with your decision, have a look at my portraits on Planet Goodaboom.
Don´t forget: to order a portrait from me is a very easy process, even if you live on the other side of the world. You just send me the appropriate photo, and choose the size and technique. I paint the portrait within 3 weeks (normally!), send you a photo of the portrait via email, make changes if you wish, and then send you the original via normal post. You normally pay when you get it, as I always choose to trust my clients.

I did it many many times, IT´S NOT A PROBLEM AT ALL!

And if you think, yes, it could be a good idea: you won´t regret it, I promise!

Have a nice Sunday.

Back, with Fringe and Horns!

www.goodaboom.com

Planet Goodaboom, Friday 28th September 2007



Yes, that´s me, with my new Scottish look, impossible to miss with my wild fringy hair and my sharp devilish horns, just back from one of the northerly world ends, specifically the Butt of Lewis in the Western Isles of Scotland!
Again 3 months have passed since my last entry here, not such a shame this time as we have been travelling 10 weeks in our wheeled box through remote lands, most of the time without any internet or phone connection. It might sound egotistical, just to disconnect like that for such a long time -and our families don´t miss one occasion to blame us...-, but to tell the truth, what a relief, and what a sensation of freedom!!!!
We had been thinking to put mobile internet in our Boomobile, but it seems that it will be for another time... we can always argue that it is still too expensive, and still not a reliable technology...
But of course it would have been nicer, to put our travel tale with photos and sketches gradually online, and surely much more interesting for our readers. We have just started now to put our travel tale, "10 weeks in a box" online and we can just hope it won´t have for you the taste of cold coffee! You´ll find there Kevin´s daily reports and photos and sketches from me of all the places we have been. I made only ink sketches on the site, without colours, because everything was grey, due to the incessant rain falls. I´am colouring the sketches now, at home, with pastel chalk and with the memory of how colourful it could have been.... or not! In fact, just putting down the colours I fancy, and never mind the truth !!!!

All these sketches have been made from inside the Box. In our travel I could never venture outside to draw or paint. Much too wet and much too cold. Luckily our Box has many windows and Kevin always parked it in such a way that I had a 360 ° panorama view. Thanks so much to him by the way, for his patience and his ability to manoeuvre the Boomobile, very difficult most of the time as I always insisted to go to the most isolated and least "roady" parts of the countries!
I also painted some watercolour sketches, more or less inspired -and more less than more!- by the views outside. I´ll present them gradually in my Carnets de Voyage, just need to polish them a little bit to make them presentable, and to digitalise them. Quite a lot of work!

I hope you will enjoy with us our 10 Weeks in a Box!

www.goodaboom.com

Planet Goodaboom, Tuesday 26th June 2007



Almost 3 months have passed since my last entry here, what a shame! Kev has been a little bit more vocal than me, but generally one can tell that we have both been deserting this blog platform for a long time. Well, we were travelling a lot -England, France, Spain, look and read our travelogues!-
and the rest of the time I was busy with some portraits on commission
-see one of my last works below, a wedding gift from a Norwegian girl for the wedding couple, a French woman and a Columbian man, a wonderful contrast for me!-
and working out hundreds of sketches from the travels -look at my 3D-exhibition of some sketches from our last trip in the footsteps of Don Quijote-.
And Kevin, well, the gig season started again and he is rocking a lot in the South of Spain, England and Germany.

Anyway, I am back again. I have made some changes to the home page today, kept it much simpler and clearer, the art on one side, the music on the other, hoping that some curious visitors will find their way to what was originally the reason for this site: the meeting between a musician and a painter, and the resulting communal work... which one can still see and hear in the section "Brush with Poetry".

I will try to keep writing regularly until we leave for Scotland in The Boomobile, on the 10th of July, for 10 weeks this time...

Last Sunday we were in the Street gallery again, after more than 2 months absence. A strange but wonderful feeling again, the comments, the compliments, and at the end, the sale, to a couple from Madrid, a watercolour landscape from my fantasy which I loved very much... and unfortunately, I have no photo of it! Curiously, this older Spanish woman had a a very modern taste... I think I mentioned it before, but the Spaniards are changing a lot concerning art. I have been exhibiting in the Street for about 3 years; at the beginning the Spaniards only reacted to "heavy", very classical oil paintings, but more and more they start looking for watercolour and seem to go directly to the most modern and creative, without pausing to experience the trivial, schoolish ones., seemingly skipping a stage of their "taste" evolution! It is always fascinating to see how fast the Spaniards learn, how fast they adapt to all the changes which govern their lives in these extremly cosmopolitan areas.
One year ago, I thought I would never sell a painting to a Spaniard, and now, little by little, they seem to become my best and most enthusiastic clients: what luck that I am living here!

Today Kevin started a promoting action for my portraits by the offices of our insurance company "Liberty", what a wonderful and unusual name for an insurance company! So we thought my star portrait of the young tahitian girl would hang in the right place there... let´s hope she will bring me some new clients!



Marion & Pepe: I wish you much happiness in your new life together in France!

Cutting my teeth

www.goodaboom.com

Planet Goodaboom, Sunday 1st April 2007

This is Dutch Esmee, my new child... a pretty girl, my Esmee, isn´t she? To tell the truth, I had some troubles with the birth, as Esmee´s Grandparents were not quite happy with her first teeth... Well, Esmee´s Grandfather was a dentist, specialising in prostheses, and as he says, his attention was focused on teeth aesthetics his whole life. Esmee´s first teeth looked a little bit too aggressive, as if she wanted to bite everything she found... what babies normally do, don´t they? Anyway... Esmee had to go back into mother´s belly, and mother had to work on her dental genetics. Half an hour later -a second birth is always much faster and far less painful than the first one...- Esmee was reborn, with a gentle soft mouth, and I got a gigantic bottle of red wine from Grandpa Frans!
Also: Thanks and Cheers, Frans & Henny, you are wonderful people, and I have no doubts: the best and youngest grandparents in the world!
By the way: Frans is not only a dentist, he is pianist too, and a very good one! Have a look at his website.

Frans told me when he was making teeth prostheses, there were sometimes old ladies bringing the prosthesis back and telling things like:
"The gap between the front teeth is too big!"
or
"The teeth are not white enough!"
Frans had to find a diplomatic way to tell them that, at their age, the rest of their teeth weren´t exactly snowy white either!
One wonders that old ladies are still bothered with such imperfections, but somehow, it is nice, that women fight for their beauty until the last moment!
Frans told me, that he always felt bad when they brought the "dental art work" back. So he said, he could understand my feelings when I have to retouch a portrait...
But honestly, it is not a problem. A portrait is a difficult work, and it´s normal that I might have to do some tiny changes when I think it is finished. I exactly know that a tiny detail, which bothers the eye, can spoil the whole painting because the eye of the observer always focuses on that imperfection. And in the final analysis my job is only finished and the painting only complete when the client is happy!

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!

www.goodaboom.com

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!

Bye bye Goodaboom!

www.goodaboom.com

Planet Goodaboom, Monday 12th March 2007


Just some words between the bags and suitcases, and surely not very original ones... we drive tomorrow to France, then to Germany, not on holidays to be precise, things must be done...
Kevin is quite excited, where ever and why ever we go, he is happy. I guess he just thinks:
„On the road again!“
I normally love to be on the road myself, but well, this time, it is connected to difficult moments. But I will try to make the best of it, and anyway, I will be in the best company, which is surely the most important thing in the world!
We will try to make some entries when we are abroad, but we can´t promise. If not, we´ll see you again in one week... Take care!

Buying my place in Paradise...

Planet Goodaboom, Friday 9th March 2007

My parents live in a flat in Tarbes, in the French Pyrenees, in the first floor. Underneath there lives alone a very old Catholic priest, he must be about 90 years old now. A very funny figure. I remember when I met him for the first time on the stairs there, I was on the way to my kick boxing training. My mother told him that, and he suddenly got very bright eyes, asking me if I had seen the film „X“ –sorry, I don´t remember the name!- with a woman as a kick boxer... he said that he loved the film. And as he said bye to me, he started wildly throwing his fists and legs in the air, in the manner of a kick boxer!
He is also the one who bakes special butter-laden cookies for Maya, my parent´s dog... he knows that my parents don´t want that the dog to eat too many cookies, so he just waits until they turn their backs and he feeds her with all the cookies within 2 minutes! You should see his innocent, sinless eyes after!
Anyway... some days ago he went to my parents flat and saw some of my paintings there. He was fascinated by the abstract ones, especially the one with the very bright colours, „La dame en noir“. Which I gave my mother last year for Mother´s day:

The priest said that he was something of a connaisseur in art and literature, and made many compliments about my work.
„You can believe me, I know what I am speaking about, she is a great artist!“
Oh God!

He spent a long time sitting there, and watching the Lady in Black, At the end he took a very sinful look and asked, with a very shy voice:

„Can you ask your daughter if she can give me one painting? Just a tiny one? I know it is very shameful of me, but... it is so beautiful, I can´t resist!“

My mother was quite embarrassed to tell, me that, but why? I feel quite honoured, I must say! I always feel honoured when somebody loves my paintings so much that he wants to hang one at home, either paid for, or not!
So I have chosen for the priest today one of my favourite „Impressions“, called „Phantasm“, and Kevin will put a beautiful frame around it. My mother thinks it´s too much, but as I told her just now on the phone:
„It might help me to get a place in Paradise!

A Baby in a Rose

www.goodaboom.com


Planet Goodaboom, Tuesday 6th March 2007


I told you it was a successful day 2 days ago in the Street Gallery...but how successful, I didn´t even know myself at that moment! One of the clients who already bought a painting from me came today to my Gallery and bought a further three and a CD from Kevin (see his entry in his diary). It was wonderful to see how they hardly could decide which one they should buy, they loved so many... what a nice compliment for me! Above all because these people were the same who bought my miniature painting 2 weeks ago, saying that they have no place on their walls. They haven´t indeed, but they have children who still have space... I hope they will like the paintings their parents bought for them today!

I wanted above all to tell you about the old Spanish lady who bought a painting from me on Sunday. She is one of these women living in the countryside, and who normally never leave their villages in their lifetime. But some travel companies here organise cheap week-end trips to the coast for these old Spanish people and for most it is their first trip away. They accomodate them in some of the nice hotels by the beach –one of them, Kactus Hotel, is right at the corner of the Street Gallery- and organise there on the Sunday afternoon big sales of things like oriental carpets or modern kitchen appliances. These poor people get the trip cheap, but they then spend such a fortune buying all these extras! Anyway.. my old lady looked at the paintings and came to me, asking:
„Are these paintings signed by any well-known painter?“
I didn´t really understand what she meant. So I said:
„well, yes, they are all signed... the paintings are from me!“
„Yes, I can see they are signed! But I know exactly what I want!“
She sounded a little bit stressed... but whatever she wanted, and however she expressed it, I kept smiling and told her, that I am famous in the area. She was quite happy with that answer and asked me for the price.
„Which one?“
I asked.
She didn´t know. She just wanted a painting from a famous painter, I guess. As I told her the price of various ones, she looked very sad.
„Look, I have already spent too much money on the carpets... I have almost nothing left... and my husband loves paintings so much! It is for him...“
Finally she found a painting which she really loved. It was inspired by a photo from Anne Geddes, featuring a baby in a rose. In fact it was not for sale, it was just to give people ideas for personalised paintings.
But my old lady insisted so much that I gave her a price. Of course it was much too expensive, and normally I don´t let people negociate with me. But I felt some kind of sympathy for this woman. I never had that before but, after 4 rounds, and her leaving and returning each time, finally even showing me the bill for the carpets she had just bought, she succeeded in getting the painting from me for less than half of the price I had first said!
I wonder if her husband will really appreciate it, when she comes back home after having spent so much money. But she was very happy, and wanted me to make a photo of her, me and the baby in the Rose!

Art and Ice Cream

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Planet Goodaboom, Monday 5th March 2007


Wonderful day again for the Street Gallery yesterday. I guess a thousand people must have stopped to look at my paintings and I ask you: where else, if you are not a really famous painter, would you get so many visitors in one day to your exhibition? Whatever one still may think about my choice to „work the street“: it is obviously the best place to touch my clients! (Kevin: „you are such a naughty girl, Miki!“)

And as you see: even the youngest were interested in my art! That one –a lively work of art himself!, with even the colour of the ice cream matching the colour of the sweatshirt!- had really to be dragged away by his parents from my paintings, he wanted to stay there! I guess the parents were scared the ice cream would land on the paintings, and indeed I was scared too although, honestly, I think it would have been funny, somehow, to see the reaction of the parents and if they would offer to buy the painting...
It reminds me, many years ago, I was painting a watercolour landscape in nature, sitting on the ground, in Provence. Suddenly I saw an enormous tongue licking my painting and the whole landscape was transformed into a dog´s breakfast, quite literally! I glanced back and saw behind me a gigantic Saint Bernard, whose tongue, having finished with my painting, moved on to my face for dessert... By the way: the dog´s owner did not propose to pay for the painting, but thankfully kept HIS tongue in his mouth!

I ask you again: have you seen many times such small children in a normal exhibition? This only happens in the street. I am fascinated how such small children are really interested in paintings... and many times it happens that they start explaining the paintings to their parents! This was not the case with that one, as he cannot speak yet!

The problem with my young admirers is that they don´t buy my paintings. They prefer to spend their money on ice cream, I guess, and I must confess, in their place, I would do the same!!!!!!!

Nevertherless it was a very successful day yesterday in the older age category. I´ll tell you next time... if I can find the time to leave all my kiddies for a while!