The Art of House Portraits

I am honored that journalist and blogger J. Walters from Sketches and Jottings has picked Melinart for its daily inspiration topic.  I read this blog regularly and the "inspiration of the day" are well...always inspiring.   Here's the blog's own description:
"...looks inside the journals, diaries, sketchbooks and notepads of artists, writers, travelers and other interesting people."

He picked my house portraits.  It was surprising because, I guess it is not a very developed section on my blog.  So here are a few more examples!

Would that be a fabulous christmas or house warming gift for a loved one?  I do custom portraits so do contact me with price inquiries and specifications.

 

It is always so interesting to see your art through other people's eyes. Here's what Mr. "Global Art junkie" said about Melinart:

"Commissioned house portraits are often accomplished with the precision of a draftsman. I prefer works done with the type of creative eye that fuels MelinArt. This British watercolour artist actually focuses on French Food Watercolors on her visually delightful blog. But she also does beautiful house portraits, and this is the one that caught my eye. She is today’s inspiration."

 

 

How about a painting of a specific street sign for someone who is moving? Or a luxuruous dreamy French vacation house ...!

Do contact me if you want to get your house seen in pretty watercolors! 

Velvet Tub Chairs

Back from a long week working in Paris.  I missed the kids.   This lovely "Tub" chair is how I see very colorful things: The vibe of the colors, then the shapes.

 

Original Watercolour 6x6inch (15x15 cm) FOR SALE please contact us!

 

Back Talk

I really like this English expression which is now very handy now that I find myself with a teenager and little ball of toddleristic energy!  "Back talking" also mean "giving lip" as in "Don't give me lip!"

This watercolor is inspired from a painting I did with a macaron been eaten.  I isolated the mouth and the watercolor ran a little.  It ended up looking so nice that I did another one and shook the paper to get it to run again! That is one of the effect I like the most in watercolor, the randomness that becomes integral to the drawing!  You can get that in cooking somethimes with leftovers that become a perfect one-time only dish!

Hope you enjoy!

FOR SALE Original watercolor 6x6 inch (15x15 cm)

Glorious Bees - A Beehive Watercolor

I love Bees. I love everything about them, their intuitive almost psychic way for each single bee to act as a whole.  The way they are so in tune with nature that they are barometers for the state of of it.  The delicious cakes and "pain d'epices" (spice bread).  The morning toasts slathered with dark chestnut honey.  The medicinal properties for sore throats of course, but also for disinfecting and healing a wound without scaring. 
Honey and bees are some of my favorites subjects to draw. Certainly, it is one of my life goals to keep bees.
Here is a an old-style beehive in Watercolor which I enjoyed making in sweet green, honey and rose colors.  I also added a cropped bit of the picture to show the granularity of the watercolor that makes this technique so sweet.  Enjoy!

FOR SALE - £50 original A4  - Contact us here.

Framed it could look like this:

 

Details of the granular Watercolour

 

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!)

Halloween Pumpkin Soup



Hello there! I am back from a short trip and a spicy pumpkin soup was waiting for me at home.  Just what you want to eat for diner rolling off the plane. 

 

"Hearsay" recipe from Husband: A huge butternut squash, 2 small onions and a couple of small potatoes thrown in, a couple of carrots, 2 cloves of garllic, salt, cracked pepper and lots of pepper flakes!  Creme fraiche was witheld due to (my...) diet concerns but the soup did not need any. 

 

 

We are now the proud owner of one of these.  I brought it back in my carry-on suitcases.  Iberia personnel did not see anything odd about having a hoof sticking a fair way out of my suitcase!

 





So one of this now hangs from the kitchen ceiling in a "sock" the shop gave us for it.    It took 2 of us and some fairly deep cuts (finger cuts) but the transparently thin slices are awesome with a bit of pumpkin soup!

HALLOWEEN IS COMING!!!
FOR SALE - Contact me!

Fat Free Calorie Free Donuts!

I had to sit in front of a perfect plate of fresh baked, warm, wafting assortment of chocolate cookies in a very serious morning meeting....and I am on a post-baby diet! 

 

So these Fat Free calories free all you can eat (with your eyes) glazed donuts are the revenge!  Aniseed and rose glazing I'll call them.  What do you think?

Are donut a French Food, ok, maybe not in the strictest sense, but beignets are donuts right?? :)

FOR SALE - Close to A4 size (8x10 inch) .... Contact us using this link!

I finished the donutsat the same time that I put finishing touches to a new commission.

Framed, the watercolor could look like this!