art: captain ilias

i just finished this illustration for my son's room ... his room has a nautical theme with a blue and red colour scheme ... he had a big smile on his face when i showed him ... made my day!

Captain Ilias

coming up the gangplank are our 3 newest passengers with their luggage ... mr. crab ... mr. clownfish ... mr.starfish ... i'm really happy with how this one turned out ... feels sunny and warm ... can almost smell the fresh ocean air ... 

art: hung out to dry

my latest piece titled "hung out to dry" was inspired by my recent trip to greece ... it was april and the weather enabled us to hang our laundry outside ... it was so windy that within an hour everything was dried ... it brought back memories of when i was little growing up in a hot climate which allowed us to hang the laundry on a line outside the window of a condo 25 floors above ground all year round ... i still chuckle when i remember back to times when a sock or a shirt would slip from our hands and land on someone else's laundry line floors below ... you would have to count backwards and downwards and try to figure out which apartment it was that you should call on to retrieve your clothes ....

this illustration was overlaid onto a photograph i took in greece ...

"hung out to dry"

inspiration: mary cassatt | artist

happy mother's day to all the wonderful mothers out there!  whenever one thinks of paintings of mother and their children, the wonderful mary cassatt comes to mind ...

mary cassatt (1844-1926) was an american impressionist painter who later made france her home.  she was influenced by her good friend edgar degas and often painted her sister lydia, women and their children and life in society.

 above: little ann sucking her finger, embraced by her mother, 1897

above:  breakfast in bed, 1897

above: mother combing her child's hair, 1901

above:  mother and child, 1901

    

above:mother and child (the oval mirror), 1889

above:  la toilette, 1891

above:  mother and child, 1900

above: mother and child, 1900

 above:  young mother sewing, 1900

above:  young thomas and his mother, 1893

   above:  mother wearing a sunflower on her dress

photography: bicycles & mopeds in greece

after a beautiful and relaxing vacation, i am back at it ... the worst part of going away is not the travelling ... not the packing ... not the cranky kids ... not the security checks at the airport ... not the few added pounds ... not even the jetlag ... it's catching up on all the things you left behind when you come home ... the emails at work ... the bills ... the empty fridge ... and knowing that today is the furthest day from your next vacation ... at least summer is around the corner (yes ... positive thoughts ... glass half full ... lol)

on a brighter and more exciting note ... i took tons ... and i mean tons of photos ... i haven't even begun to sort through most of them ... but here are a few i've picked out of bicycles and mopeds ...

blue papaki

bicycle flowerpot

 janissaries' mosque (chania, crete, greece)

red bicycle 

white bicycle flowerpot

mint papaki

inspiration: hundertwasser | architecture

hundertwasser was an austrian artist and best known for his contemporary paintings and architectural designs ... when we got the opportunity to visit vienna a few years ago,  i dragged my husband around town to see some of his buildings ... here are some of the photos i took of his amazing work ....

above and below:  hundertwasserhaus

above: kunst haus wien (museum hundertwasser) 

above:  spittelau incinerator

i bought this amazing book (and yes my pattern of buying heavy art books and using up all my allowable luggage weight continued ... )

i'm hoping to see many more of his buildings in the near future ... here are just some on my wish list ....

above:  waldspirale in darmstadt, germany

(image courtesy of darmstadt.de)

above:  rogner bad blumau in styria, austria

(image courtesy of rogner bad blumau)

above:  die grune zitadelle von magdeburg, germany (the green citadel of magdeburg)

(image courtesy of www.gruene-zitadelle.de)

above:  hundertwasserhaus in rorschach, switzerland

(image courtesy of kickmeto on deviant)

 above: ronald mcdonald haus in essen, germany

(image courtesy of wikimedia)

art: urban cinderella

this new piece titled "urban cinderella" is my modern take on the classic fairytale ... i overlaid my digital illustration onto a photograph i took of an alleyway ... i grew up reading fairytales and wonderful tales from writers like roald dahl ... some things will never change = ) .... enjoy!

urban cinderella

"cindy lost her shoe again"

art: the duck piper

this piece is titled "the duck piper" ... this is one of my original digital painting overlaid over a digitally enhanced photograph that i took while taking a walk in my neighbourhood ... 

"the duck piper's melodic quacking is sweet music to her loyal ducklings."

the duck piper