Looking at doing

I am starting an interesting process to structure my online presence in a different manner.   It will include art posts but also a more holistic approach and collaborators.  Watch this space!! Transformation in progress.

 

Artist in Residence-Fortune Green

How lovely to be chosen as artist in residence by the Friends of Fortune Green!  You can see the full site There.

The Friends are dedicated to making the green beautiful and useable. During its history this green was threatened and the residents pulled together to buy it in the late 19th century.  More of its history can be found Here

It remains a public park to this day and local resident still care for it through the Friends of Fortune Green.

I made a first painting representing a map of Fortune Green. Oddly it is in the clear shape of a fox's head. There is a fox sculpture in the western area and I was told it is a fox hangout at night!  A good coincidence!

Watch out for my sketching class in the green on July 31. Should be fun!

Sketching and moving - avocado and clementine.

First time I can sketch after we moved house. It took a month to unearth the painting supplies. I painted what was at hand in the fruit bowl, on the kitchen table since there is no other painting space right now.

My Hyde Park stick was also right there in my pen box. I found it a while ago in hyde park, carved exactly as is. The soft wood nib is perfect for ink drawings, as its purple end shows.  

Huge -book announcement!

A huge thanks to Clotilde for the opportunity to illustrate this fab book about French food idioms!

A snippet of Clotilde's announcement below:

Edible French on pre-order !

I have written a brand new book based on my series ofFrench idioms.

Prendre de la brioche (gaining brioche), entre la poire et le fromage (between pear and cheese), manger son pain blanc (eating one's white bread)... This new book explores fifty of the most evocative French expressions related to food, with cultural notes, recipes, and whimsical watercolors by my talented friend Melina Josserand.

Edible French is scheduled to come out in early October, and it is available for pre-order now.

Hyde Park Bunny

We went to Hyde Park last sunday and I picked-up a branch on the grass.  The bark's color was amazing, with fluorescent green micro-moss and bits of purple where the bark was bruised.  It had snapped just at an angle that showed the soft spongy white wood, enveloping a minuscule little brown twig like a blanket.  Back home, the soft wood looked like a nib.  Just sculpted by nature and randomness.  So I dipped it in a little juicy Herbin Ink ("Bouquet D'Antan").  Here's what the twig had to say.

Lamb and mutton

There were lots of sheep and lamb in the Lake district. This is a quick 3-minute drawing from the car window while the children attempted loud communication with the herd...!

The difference in English between Sheep and Mutton is that one is the animal, the other the food.
A lot of culinary terms in English are derived from old French,  Clearly lamb is such an English delight they did not adopt the foreign word for it!

One mile of Potatoes

Lindsey from What You Sow has started this community Project at one mile of potatoes and gave my little potato drawing the spotlight!
It was so much fun writing the personal Hachis Parmentier recipe, check it out!
Thanks Lindsey!

Check it out and do not hesitate to contact us if you want to buy it!

Happy Easter-Pigging out

We have 2 days of bank holidays here in the UK, so time to relax (albeit in the snow...) and "pig out" on the piles of chocolate that will no doubt materialize!  I hope to get my pencils out a bit during these 4 days and bring back sketches of the rural parts of the Lake District!  In the meantime HAPPY EASTER!

 

Martini Olives

I read somewhere that Martinis are for alcoholics.... probably true.  But the olives are always such a cool thing to watch in that recognizable-shaped glass!

Just Beet it!

In the famous words of Michael Jackson....!  :)
Ok so his one will be on sale at the Xmas market this Saturday, unless of course you snatch it before by contacting us here !

Close-up of the wonderfully runny colors..!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN - Why do we dress as witches?

HAPPY HALLOWEEN FROM MELINART!

Halloween, All saints, Toussaint, Eid Al Adha, Shemini Atzeret what do they have in common?  Read on.....

This watercolour witch is riding a watercolour paintbrush....
Interestingly, halloween matches the French "Toussaint" where you traditionally go with your family to visit the tomb of your ancestors/departed family.  It involves a lot less candy.....

So why is this holiday asssociated with witches and grim reapers?

In astronomy, halloween represents the halfway point between the autumnal equinox and winter solstice, the last of four "cross-quarter" days on the solar calendar.  It was the end of the year, beginning of the new one for the celts. And in esoteric tradition the day of the year where the veil between the living and the dead is the thinnest. 

The Celts believed that at the time of Samhain, more so than any other time of the year, the ghosts of the dead were able to mingle with the living, because at Samhain the souls of those who had died during the year traveled into the otherworld. People gathered to sacrifice animals, fruits, and vegetables.

Shemini Atzeret in the Jewish religion is around the same time and marks the end of the year's weekly readings of the Torah (Five Books of Moses) in the synagogue, and the beginning of the new cycle of reading.
Eid Al-Adha for Muslims concludes the annual Hajj, or pilgrimage to Mecca. 
Many more religions have major celebration linked to end/beginning of year around Halloween.

We will be spending Halloween going around West Hampstead and Hampstead with a group of Pokemon dressed teenagers.  I guess it good that these happy teenagers don't really like to dress in ghoulish styles.  But I'll be sure to explain to them why they shouldn't look too cheerful when going to bed less the Hallloween spirits find them too delicious!  (That a good halloween scary story isn't it!)
I'll be dressed as a witch, like every year before!

(Cropped picture below to see better cheeks and ragged hat!)

Donut peach - Feng Shui

£50 - A4 Watercolour paper - Original Painting.

Peach in Feng Shui is a very cheerful symbol of good fortune, as you can read here for example.  "Peach came to be associated with wealth, health, abundance and longevity" and is one of the most popular feng Shui symbols.  Want this peach for your home?  Contact us via the left "Contact us button".

MelinArt at the Tate

How cool is this frame for my little lamb's lettuce drawing! This site is so handy
It would look good in your house too!  Contact us for commissions and prices!