On August 27, 2017 I will have an expo show of my paintings.
De zondag van Scheulder is an anual event, in a small village with a strong community, close to where I live and work. Around 30 artists will show their art. Mine will be at Scheulder Dorpsstraat 72, if you are in the area you are most welkom to join me there.
4D – in my livingroom. Actually a good spot, stone on stone! Still strange to have my own art on the wall, but I am sticking to that decision.
Starting a new series of paintings. Every wall is a door. Every opening is a painting.
There is something in the air today!
And this is what i found.
2 Pictures of Faust Steamer’s giant virtual statue.
Original artwork by Ana Oceanida – the work is called : Insane. I adore this installation!
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Me, painting with lime and pigments.. life, like art, is experimenting.
Mixing limestone with paint, takes the color away. So I use pigments and ink.
The idea behind this work is the dance of life. A journey!
To be continued 🙂
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January 23, 2015 – post 1
I spent summer 2014 outside, in my garden, a plot that had over 40 neglected trees on it. Had, yes, – we chopped most of the trees as they were over 26 meters tall and it was becoming a dangerous situation, neighbors complaining and regular storm-damage. Yes, I am re-planting this spring.
Looking at all the wood, branches, piles and piles of it laying around, I wondered how something good could come from the devastating left-overs of what once was a beautiful, peaceful garden. A purpose for all the wood. Keep my fireplace going, sure – and I am hoping to sell some of it to cover expenses. During the work I found an abandoned kitten between the branches of a tree, the poor thing was only a few days old, and with the help of my daughter and foster mummy Dimphy (thank you, Marjolijn) it survived! Pip now lives in my house. So my little bush-cat is the first good thing that came from the garden.
The odd and beautiful shapes of the branches and trees are very inspiring, and today I started an art project, using material from the ‘lost’ garden. I plan to document it here, with photographs.
Let me show you some pictures, taken during the summer of 2014, leading up to the CatART project – and of course a photograph of Pip, the little treasure that came from my garden.
This is the last day of my enchanted wood – garden. Dad and Andre are about to start their lumberjack days.
My Lost Garden.
And here we go, first tree down.
Inspection! Biertje, my little dachshund.
With a little help from my dad
And chicken “Bitchy” (yep that’s her name)
Pip, September 15, 2014. 63 grams….
Pip in fostercare- TY Marjolein, Ron, Dimphy !!
enough photographs, although – how about this? Do you see what I see?
Ok, a bit closer:
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January 24, 2015 – post 2
CatART. How did it come about?
When I was preparing my house for a kitten, I had to buy 4 essential things:
* Books about kittens/cats – kittens for dummies (?)
* A litterbox for cats
* A transport box
* A cat tree
Cat trees are expensive and ugly, the arty ones I like are completely over my budget.
Soooo -I gave it some thought, and here is my attempt to make my own.
Ingredients:
An old meat grinder, a branch from my lost garden, sisal rope (thanks, Cornelius!) bought on Marktplaats
and glue, sandpaper, glue, white clay, a steel brush and a hammer plus a chisel.
To be continued 🙂
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January 27, 2015 – post 3
Let’s get started. We had a lot of snow out, and even though I really dislike snow – it makes great photographs:
My tools for the next step:
This where I found the branch. I needed a fairly straight one, so the cat wont get hurt when it plays rough.
I started sawing off the bits and pieces.
And now the real work starts. I do love the feel and smell of fresh wood, as much as I love the smell of oil-paint and ironing.
Now off to do the sandpapering, and the branch needs to dry. So far, so good!
To be continued……
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February 27, 2015 – post 4
The branch is fairy dry, time to finish the cat tree.
I started by taking the meat grinder apart, taking out the knife so there is space for the branch. I replaced the bolt, after the glue dries I will need to tighten this to support the branch – my cat is now over 2 kilograms so it needs to be a strong construction.
I made sure the branch fits into the grinder, but let’s double-check before actually using any glue.
Yep! Glue-time.
To be continued……
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March 12, 2015 – Post 5
3 Layers of glue, and some extra re-enforcement and the cat tree is strong enough to hold 5 cats at the same time, if needed.
First I used some sisal, for this:
Believe me, it will look great, when finished.
And now, let’s start!
Lots and lots of sisal rope. I had to stop several times – you need to pull pretty hard to get the rope nice and tight around the branch, it made my hands hurt!
I will cover the little screw up, later, when I start with the finishing touch, with special (white) clay
Sisal is a product of nature, I am growing very fond of it, and lots of ideas for CatART are popping up in my mind.
Almost done, but it needs a bit of color!
To be continued ….
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March 24, 2015 – post 6
Show me your colors. (One of my favorite songs, by Steve Harley)
Let’s add some greens, and some reds:
And create a hook/connection where you can attach your cats favorite toy. I bought a bag full of little balls, mouses, fish, feathers and other toys that cats like, in a discount store. So, lots of variation for hours and hours of play-time.
Does this look ok? It does to me 🙂
Drumroll …. later that evening …… The CatART Tree is ready!
Tomorrow: playtime – will Pip like her CatART Tree?
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April 1, 2015 – post 7
Playtime, she LOVES it!
Project CatART is a big succes, I am inspired and hired by Pip, to create some more!
Chantal Harvey 