The past few weeks have been fullbore, and for the most part, exhilarating and creatively fulfilling, but with one sad note which I will mention later in the update.
ART GROUP TOUR
A few weeks ago, I was asked to entertain an Art Appreciation Group Tour of my Home/Studio. I had some trepidations, and almost passed up on the opportunity for several reasons – one was I didn’t know if I could accommodate very many people, and didn’t think my work would be of interest to such a group. But the occasion was an overwhelming success, and I was delighted by how well it went and how interesting and interested the group were. Many of the twenty-strong group, at the finish of the 2-hour exposition wound down over coffee and cakes up at GG’s Café in Dulwich – my favourite café.
MERMAID DREAMS
I am really stoked to be able to announce I now have a new piece of art available. I have such a soft spot for mermaids, and in this piece, I was attempting to draw something that had a serene quality. Dreaming Is one of Humanity’s greatest gifts, and greatest vices – of course, who knows what a mermaid dreams of? Floating weightless immersed in a lustrous gem-like blue-green – a Mermaid Insensate enshrouded In the mists of Morpheus. This Is a special new version never before seen.
So if you’re a lover of all things mermaids, I hope you’ll add Mermaid Dreams to your collection – available from RedBubble and CafePress in a wide range of formats; you can purchase T-Shirts, cards, mugs, fridge magnets and all manner of stuff…..
And on that note, the next piece is almost ready – so I should be able to make an announcement about that one in a couple of weeks.
THE LAST REALM
Just a quick mention of the Last Realm series – I am currently doing some extra art for TLR-BOOK 1: DRAGONSCARPE. Yes – strange and very true – that very same Book 1 (which is already crammed to bursting with art) is having a few more pieces drawn and coloured, for reasons I am not at liberty to mention here and now. But I’m thrilled to be able to do a few more pieces that I felt were missing from the first book – and show a bit more of the world that was missing …but much as I personally would love to depict more of the mundane Day-To-Day-InThe-Life stuff – well – this is action fantasy after all – so the new pieces will unfortunately be exciting and action-packed for the most part.
JAN SCHERPENHUIZEN PROJECT
And another exciting point of note – I’m in early talks with one of my past collaborators, Jan Scherpenhuizen, who helped out on LOST IN SPACE: VOYAGE TO THE BOTTOM OF THE SOUL and WOLVERINE: DOOMBRINGER. We are developing plans to work on some projects together
It’s very early days yet, we haven’t even settled on which project, but I am enthusiastic…
SHUTTERBUG TRIP TO STIRLING
My brother Adam and I had a spectacularly fun Autumn day up in Sterling in the Adelaide Hills snapping shots of the seasonal colour change – not so noticeable with the native Australian trees, but the deciduous exotics were beginning to look spectacular.
We slowly worked our way from a bus stop beyond the town back towards the centre of town, stopping for quite a time at the Aptos Cruz Gallery – that had several works in oils on wood veneer by a marvellous painter called Nina Rupena – I haven’t been so taken with the aesthetic sensibilities of an artist in years.
We then photographed the authentic Buddhist stone statues in the environs of the Gallery’s Garden and I made many dismal attempts to photograph a huge, gnarled old lichen-crusted Oak with phantasmagoric recurving branches shaped a little like oxbow loops in a river. Then we safaried out onto the roadside common strip, which was covered in flowers, grass, moss and trees such as silver birches, where we discovered a spectacular array of 100 or so Amanita muscaria toadstools (also called Fly Agarics) pushing through the competing verdancy and leaf litter – their resplendant, decorous red tops and white spots screaming – “Shoot Us, Please Shoot Us!!!”
So we snapped happily away for ages, eating as many of them as we could pick and stuff into our mouths – KIDDING! They’re toxic if not cooked properly, but they’re apparently a delicacy in some regions of Northern Italy
Wandering on, I experimented with my new Nikon L110 Coolpix, but shot the bulk of the shots with my Canon Powershot SX110 IS – which gives such a beautiful result – a snapper’s camera that punches above its weight quality wise. I can’t wait to move on to a proper Digital SLR – but I don’t feel I am anywhere near ready yet.
We finished with dinner at a Thai joint with a wide view of the tree-lined main street, and then came home by bus and did a post mortem on the shots – a lot of grain in Adam’s pics – not sure if it’s the quality of his camera or mostly the ISO settings – I have tried to remove the grain in these.
GOODBYE EVA REHOREK
Lastly, and sadly, I must announce the passing of the mother of my very good friend, Ivan. She is survived by her devoted husband, Karel, and her sons, Ivan and Daniel, and her daughter Susan, and her grandson Ambrose and his sister Madelena. My heart goes out to them and to Ivan’s wonderful wife and staunchest friend and ally, Caroline.
ATB
Michal.
Posted on Thu 6 May, 2010 #
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