Goodbye Singapore

The strange thing with blogs (or is it common?), is that you start with so much enthusiasm, you have so much to say, that you cannot wait for the following day to write another post. You don't want the reader to think you are addicted to your own words, although you are...
And you gather photos, and you make long lists of what you are going to write about, and you check your stats, and you don't tell anyone as if you are indifferent...

So I started this blog about a year ago. I took photos frantically, and I have made long lists. For a while I kept going, and as with everything else in life, the new becomes less new, and thus not so attractive, and I wrote less frequently, until I stopped writing altogether.

I wanted to write about the art schools of Singapore, the street art, the astonishing architecture which is not like anything you have ever seen.

As for my art - It has been quite an adventure here in many ways. My art has changes. It took a turn to something I feel very comfortable with, something I feel at home with it. Though I have not been working from morning till night, I have produced about 100 paintings and drawings, some I am very proud of.

Yesterday I have finished my last paintings in Singapore. Looking at it again now I realize, that it resembles somehow the first painting I did here.

the last painting is called Still Standing (A2 Pastels on paper) -

 



p.s. The photo is not blare and you don't need to rush to the optician... The background is done purposely blared :-)

 

Here is the first painting I did here about a year ago (Acrylics on A3 paper):

 

In a few days we are heading back home with a lot of good memories from this stay in Singapore and with a pile of paintings.

 

Goodbye Singapore.





Art-ventures

Recently I have started to draw fairly big drawings with 0.7 2B pencils (that is the common mechanical pencils). I sit very close to my work, pay attention to details. It is mainly hard labor which requires full control of your hand and concentration.

 

  

It is very new to me and I like the process. It makes the work almost personal. It, somewhat, resembles the mosaics process - small pace, touching equally every tiny space on the surface.
Oh, and yes, very addictive...

It is so different from how I used to paint or draw in the past. I worked then very rapidly, bold colors, bold brush strokes, details were not very important, all attention was to the expression, feeling and mood.

In the last few days I have done these two portraits:

They are rapid, bold and dirty. Just needed to see if I still had it in me. I must admit I had to work here rather small (A3). Painting big requires standing, and with my aging back, it is not an option.

But with art there are always new adventures. All you need is open your eyes, widen your heart, loosen your brain to meet them.

Winter in the tropics

Morning. Just another day. Sitting in my studio. The light is bright and smiling at me from the window-wall on my right. I am sunk in my pencil drawing, on which I am working for a few days now, my computer sings RFM (the French radio station). All well and happy and perfect (Actually almost perfect, since my man has left for one day).
Then with no warning (at least not one that I had noticed) the light disappeared, so much that I had to stop working. The wind threatened to tear the leaves of our plants and the doors just banged crazily. I managed to close the balcony doors just seconds before the painting on the wall was about to relocate itself to the floor.
I am looking now outside. The rain is pouring in waves that carry it side-ways, the sky is grey. Inside the aircon is on, and with the doors closed, the temperature at home is quite cold.
It feels like winter.
So who says there's no winter in the tropics?

The Asian touch

Some people might say that my art keeps changing, some might also say that I have no consistency, and therefore other might say, that by being all over, my art is not solid. Well... they might have a point... or not... :-)

I have read an article recently about building a consistent body of work for an exhibition. Even raising this topic means that not all artists work the same. Some would work with the same media most of their life or stick to the same subject and others.. well.. will be all over.

The truth is that I get so bored easily. With everything! My art is who I am, looking for other venues to ease my boredom.
However, looking at my art during the last 15 years (and I am indicating just the last 15 years, because I started to be a full-time artist 15 years ago), you can see, not only the changes, but also how my previous art influence my current one, and how my surrounding influences it too.

I have just finished a new painting. 15 years ago I was working a lot with ready-made. For example look here. Then I moved back and forth from media to media, however, acrylics were the "home" I've always returned to.

Using my nowadays methods I gave my painting a "twist". I added a ready-made (broken china) and painted a Chinese plate. I am in Singapore after all :-)

And of-course it has the hint of mosaic art which I love so much :-)

Heavy SMOG in Singapore

My computer desktop shows the weather in Monaco. It is raining there. I wish it was raining here in Singapore too. It has been dry for a few days now and it is hot.
But it is not the hot weather that is bothering right now. It is the smog!!!

With the burning of forests in Indonesia, the island of Singapore is covered with heavy haze. It is reported to be the heaviest in 16 years.
Yesterday night the PSI level was 321!
The authorities advise everyone to stay indoors, and say, that if the condition continues, they schools will be closed.

This morning at 8am the PSI level was 122, now (1pm) it is 371.

I took photos from our balcony at 8am.

 

An hour later (PSI 131) it looked like this:

 

There is a smell of fire in the air, the eyes are burning. Some people are wearing face masks. A scene I have never seen in Singapore before.

 

So now we are waiting for the rain.









Laundry Day

When I was a small child we had a semi-automatic laundry machine. A break-through of its time. Most house holds didn't own one. But still, in between the machine circles my mother had to use wooden forceps to deal with the wet laundry, following with hanging all outside on the wires.
A day later the laundry, which was stiff as a heavy paper, was neatly ironed and folded.
I can't even think doing it nowadays... myself...
Who can think today of dealing with hanging laundry that can be easily be put in the dryer.

I can divide Singapore to two main areas - The Expats live in state-of-the-art condos. Most of the locals live in public housing (HDB), most of them very nice and huge.
You will never see any laundry hanging out in a condo, but going to an HDB neighbourhood is all different feeling and view. There's this a warm environment around the HDBs. The buildings are colourful, surrounded but little shops that sell everything. And yes, laundry is hanged outside.

 



 I have just finished a painting. I call it Laundry Day.

I painted the Western style.

I can't even begin to understand how the Eastern way work. How do they get it on there, how do they get it off.

It's a mystery to me :-(

Location, Location, Location

We left Singapore for a short vacation to our second home in Europe, where I (also) have all the art supplies I need. A vase with roses waited for us on the table, and I've decided to paint them. Luckily I took a photo because they died after two days...
Not being comfortable with painting flowers, it took me four days to complete rather a small acrylic painting.

I have realized that in my European home I paint differently than in my Singaporean one. I cannot tell why, but this is a fact!
In both locations I paint at home with the same medium. And in both places I am happy with my home. So what is it really that changes one approach in art???

Many of the old masters moved to southern France both for its cost of living and its weather.
Our second home is (sort of) in southern France, and that does not make me a master, sadly not even nearly... The light here and in Singapore is not much different (neither that cost of living).
Nevertheless, my art is different.