Buy Nothing

And here we are again.. It Christmas or at least will be soon. Soon Christmas decorations will come up , bathing our streets will the light of a million colored bulbs. Shop windows will be covered in snow spray, plastered with messages that while wishing you a great holiday also tell you to buy. And Buy . And Buy.
It's seems part of the modern day Christmas tradition. From mid November we start seeing subtle messages in the media of what we should buy. Toy commercials become more common( as if children only exist round Christmas). Than there is the rush to buy the dreaded Christmas presents , which lest face it sometimes end up in a drawer or on a shell , never to be used or seen again. You see people's faces as they think " I've got now idea what to get X this year" followed by the realization that a few days before Christmas and you haven't bought all the stuff.
There is the mad rush and rush in the shopping centers. Crowds pushing and bumping into each other in the streets. Sometimes a push leads to an exchange of angry looks and occasionally followed by a few words in anger. Traffic builds up as cars spend hours looking for parking , spending to much time staring in the tail lights of the care in front thinking what the hell am i doing here. Tempers flair.
Than there is the inevitable realization that you have spent a shit load of money..
Is this the modern Christmas spirit?
In the winter of 1914 Germans and allied troops stopped fighting for one day , Christmas eve. They sang Christmas carols and greeted one another much to the dismay of their superiors. Remember this is Belgium in the first world war , one of the bloodiest conflict in modern history.
That is the Christmas spirit. Good will to you fellow human being , charity and bringing a bit of happiness i someone's life. But this seems to have taken a back seat in today's modern world.
Now its buy, spend and give useless gifts to each other and regretting every cent you spend.

The Other Way.
So what can we do about it? Simple. Buy Nothing. Lets face it we could be much better off for it. In countless ways.
Firstly the most obvious of all. The money you save. In these times of economic hard times we all need to save cash. At the end of the day we all have more important things to use the money on.
Than there is all the useless crap we will avoid throwing away sooner or later ( and in most cases quite sooner). The plastic packing, paper wrappers fuel spent going to and fro shopping center endlessly looking for parking....well the list is endless.

And there is less stress.

But there is something you can give to the people to care for. You can give time. Something money can't buy. Spend more time together , have a coffee and a long chat and a good laugh.Sometimes the greatest gift you can give someone is yourself.
Give them a smile.Be more kind to the people around you. At home , at work and even in the streets while driving. Maybe ,just maybe we can achieve the spirit of 1914:)
If you really want to give something why not make an effort and make something yourself.
And even thou its early but i really from my heart wish you all a happy Christmas and all the best .
Ian

Playing with my nuts.

(tree of life)

Ok . It's been a while. But ,hey, there was summer and the sun and than other stuff. Couldnt really site down and right stuff and update the blog .
But... I wasn't idle and here is what I've been up too.

Working with Coconut shells.
These are some jewelry made from coconut shell in combination with other materials. The colored sections are crushed stones (turquoise, Jasper...depending on the colour I need.) I'm also trying to use metals( see the tree of Life). The idea came from seeing the work of a good friend of mine, Peppi. ( also check the BahrijaOasis project. Later on this)

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Latest Painting

These are the latest paintings I have made.

This is my interpretation of "mother and Child". I know its not the happiest of images but it's a reality we want to forget but have to face.

A portrait of a very special person to me:)

More building

My brother building the Chandler out of twigs for "Forest".Ok, It looks like a giant overturned nest. However it works great with the lights and all.

Masks!

Here are some masks I 've made for "Forest". As a base I used papier mache simple masks and than worked on them. I'm really happy with the one's with the branches. It gave me an idea it develop them into a sculpture!

Still alive!

I haven’t been updating the blog lately. Well, it has been a busy time, lots of things gooing on.Lets start with project Forest.

It went a bit pear shaped. Not our fault thou. Bloody rain. We had weeks and weeks of sun and great weather all round than the weekend the party was on all hell break loose: gale force winds and rain. Lots of it. And by the gods we tried . We decided that the show will go on,after all we still had light and sound ...until the power was cut off! We had to cancel it all.

On a positive note we are moving the event to a later day. The Forest will come alive on the 14th June at Mellieha.

So with all the stuff going on I didn’t have time to paint.But I have a few ideas to work on so keep visiting .

Project "Forest"

Work is moving is moving on swiftly.Been busy build mushrooms ,gateways and masks. My costume is coming along nicely. I'll post some pictures( after the event. I don't want to give it away too soon:))

Core Green Exhibitions

Well... exhibition went very well. Got some great feedback and I really looking forward to have my own solo exhibition. Didn't sell anything, but than again no one did.
So..after the event we have created a group called "CoreGreen"which will create organize events combining Art and green principles.The next event will be during "Earth Garden" in Ta Qali.

Storm is over!

Now that the political storm is over ( we just had our general elections for all reading this from abroad ) and after several other events I have some time to up date my Blog.
Well, It's been a very busy 3 weeks , first with the exhibition ( I'll be posting more on that later) , "Story of Stuff" ( the latest green drinks event) and the damn Election. Didn't do much painting (well did some work actually) . But now it should be all hands on deck for "Project Forest".More on this later!

Project Rose and lily

A while ago I was commissioned to paint a mural in a bar in St Julian's by my friend and interior designer Chantal. The theme was a bit awkward, not really my style.You see ,the Bar is called "Rose and Lily" so the mural had to some how tie in. Floral stuff is not really my forte but...
Well here is the work( I took photos of each step):

Started with a ploting the proportions on the bare wall. The area was approximatly 2m X 3m.The horizontal and vertical line ( basically 2 pieces of string) gave me a rough guide. I than proceeded in sketching the design.

Next I started filling in the first colour , the red of the rose. I use mainly acrylic. Its cheap, easy to handle and dries fast.

I than used black to give the red shap and shadows. I avoided using lighter reds on each petal and just used some cadmium yellow on small parts to give a bit of highlight. I believe i gave the rose a more velvety feel( on the side you can see the reference pix i used)Next came the lily.

Lilies are normally thought of as white, i know . But I couldn't really see a white iliy on a white wall!! So I went for a purple colour, high lighted with white.

Finished the lily ( still need to do the stamens but that will come later) I started the background.
I basically used watered done shades of Green , just to give the surface a colour wash , adding more colour using the airbrush.

More green.:)

And finished. After finishing the lily from the Stamens I added the curvy designs on the sides, just to balance out the composition.

Lady in red

I know .It's a crap title. It's not final so suggestions are welcome:)

Dropping coffee on your work?

Another day and more work.This time a portrait( actually2) of Maria, a good friend of mine.
Started with treating the paper with coffee and tea. Love this effect and I used it many times before. It's very simple : basically you sort of sponge a wet teabag on the paper( use thickish watercolor paper as thiner one would start falling apart) .This give it an uneven brown tint. Than, while the paper is still wet sprinkle some coffee ( using powder rather granules gives a more subtle effect) which will seep in the paper , giving the paper a mottled finish. And 'tada' you are ready to start the painting. I remember ages ago doing the same thing in my history projects to age the paper( believe it or not we used to get extra marks for crap like that!)
I find aquarells give the best results , with inks to deepen some areas.Funnily enough the mottled pattern looks like freckles in some areas which luckily enough Maria has:)

Any way me be off to bed.Damn it work tomorrow.
Ian

Finally managed -part 2

Yesterday I posted the entry pretty late and since by bed was beaconing I had to be short. I wanted to include a bit more detail on the process,materials etc..
So.
Wendy 2. Worked mostly with blue and black watercolour pencils on a prepared blue background. I than used ink to deepen the black and oil pastels for lighter highlights .However if i had to do it again I would have gone for brown tones rather than blue as the give a warner feel

(the original pic)

Finally managed

I finally managed to finish a piece I've been meaning to do for some years. I did try several times before but never quite managed to get it right.I was basically a photo I've taken with my old camera phone of Wendy, my ex, some time ago. Well I like the effect. The pics aren't that good so I'll have to take some more before uploading them on the main side.

Detail

(i've worked with solid colours instead of blending the colours into each other)

I also did this while I was at it. Same subject.

The Beauty Of Women.

Most of my art always revolves women. Well I can't deny that women inspire me . I find women ( well to be completely honest most women) beautify and sexy. I love the body and curves of the naked female form .The beauty is in most cases obvious: we see them everywhere in the streets, on telly on the net. But in most cases I find the beauty of a woman in a less obvious places. In their character, their joy for life. The eyes , and I truly believe that the eyes are a window to the soul. I don't really find shiny woman attractive ,much prefer a more curvy figure ,more womanly( for lack of a better word).

However I believe that every woman should be considered beautiful. Every woman has that special thing which make us stop and be fascinated..

So , Here is some more news on my first attempt to exhibit my work. It will be on the 29th Feb @ the Melita Gardens in Attard. For more info click on the link below.
Ian

Core Green Collective Exhibition

Some more work.

Hope you enjoy. More stuff on wood.
Anyway I'm putting some of my work in an collective exhibition .My first. It should be on the 29th Feb at Melita gardens in Attard. More details soon..

Thanks Kar.

Thanks to a cute work mate for landing her face as a subject. I loved some pics I saw and had to try them on canvas..Thanks Kar.

Painting on Driftwood.

Some years ago, during of of my Sunday strolls on the beach, I came across a piece of driftwood.I have always been fasinated by stuff that washes up on the beach. Mostly it's just junk,garbage we recklessly leave behind. But sometimes you find strange bits of junk and wander where the hell it came from ,what was their history.Spent emergency chemical lights probably from a ship ferrying illegal immigrant from north Africa to Italy, bits of netting.... and obviously driftwood.
So I picked up that piece of driftwood .Actually my original plan was to carve the wood into a sort of african mask. Instead one Sunday I decieded to put some paint on it and ,well , it looked pretty good. The rough texture and weathered ends gave the finished piece more character .( well see below the result..)
Personally I loved the effect of the stark black siluette against the red/orange background.
So after this I got more wood and tried some more. The driftwood also gave me advantages which paper didn't. I didn't need to frame the finished work for one. Also I was recycling old wood!
Another thing was the "feel" the weathered,battered surface of the wood gave to the subject I was painting which could never be achived on paper or canvas.

My Artwork ...finally online.

I finally got around to sort out my work. Last weekend ( with great help from my brother) managed to take some photos of the paintings I've done over the last few years.Hope you enjoy them and please leave your comments. Well see you soon-Ian

My first Post

Hi creatures!
This is my first contribution to what I hope will make interesting reading. More to come soon...
Me