Dinner Table

Dinner Table
Henri Matisse – 1897. Oil on Canvas. Private Collection.

This is such a wonderful sumptuous painting of what a dinner table can look like – but ours never does. On our own, we eat quite plain food and serve it simply, too. If we have guests, which is not often these days, I prefer to arrange cold buffets, or in summer we might have a BBQ or picnic instead. I love the finger foods, the canapés and nibbles, and the big party salads…

The photo actually goes years back! I can tell from the surroundings that this is still from the time when I used to live with my mother – so it must be my 16th birthday buffet. It was the only teenage birthday I really celebrated, of which Mother did not approve. She decided to go away for the weekend and leave us to it, and I had to make the entire buffet myself…

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Everything is from Club Scrap "Salsa" except for the recipe cards and 3D stickers which are from Jolee's Boutique and Jolee by You.

Sleeping Child

Sleeping Child
Gustav Klimt – ca. 1905/07. Drawing. The Detroit Institute of Art.

This work by Klimt is entirely boring to my taste. A thin drawing, quite possibly only a draft or study, of a naked little boy on a pillow. He seems to be sitting rather than lying but whatever he is sitting on is not there. The whole picture has an unfinished careless look – nothing like Klimt’s normal flamboyant and colourful nouveau art style.

However, it was the title that caught my attention, and immediately made me think of this cute photo taken of me in July 1966, at not quite two years of age – blissfully asleep amid my friends: my first ever teddy “Volker”, a doll I do not remember and the inflatable “Mickey” of Disney fame...

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Paper from Club Scrap "Salsa"; alphas from Club Scrap but can't remember the kit; Disney 3Ds from EK Success.

Rays od Reflection

Rays of Reflection
Tobias Zeisig, 2003. Photograph.

Although the original photograph is of the sun reflecting behind a single fir tree in a little wood near his town, the artist has taken a whole series of photos that would justify the same title. Many of them involve beautiful rays reflecting off clouds with various types of scenery – not unlike the one I have chosen from my own collection of such things…

If I’m perfectly honest I cannot remember where that photo was taken, probably somewhere in Windsor Park, but I think it has beautiful “rays of reflection”, and incidentally, over a fir wood, too.

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Most materials are from Club Scrap - background from "Culinary"; mattes and stickers from "Time & Space"; alphas from "Reaching Out" (not sure); jewels from "Stepping Out". The "R" chipboard is a leftover from a Scrapmuse kit and the butterfly came from an embellies swap.

A Bride

A Bride
Abbott Handerson Thayer – ca.1895. Oil on canvas. National Museum of American Art, Washington, D.C.

I have always been attracted by the beauty of bridal gowns – I can spend hours looking at them in shops and used to love it when our church choir was invited to sing at a wedding when from the choir stalls we had a prime view of the bridal couple… No wonder I instantly loved this painting of a bride in her Victorian finery.

My first idea was to make this layout with one of my own bridal photos but then I thought that would be somewhat strange with the title of “A Bride”…so I chose this lovely photo of my penfriend Asmah. There is a custom nowadays, I believe in many parts of Asia, by which the bridal couple and in particular the bride spend considerable time on their photographs, getting changed into various different outfits including hairstyles, headdresses and flower arrangements to suit. These tend to include the local traditional garment (in Asmah’s case Malaysian), a Western style white bridal gown, and various other Asian outfits of choice. A very colourful event indeed!

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Papers and alphas from Club Scrap kit "Wedding" and epoxy stickers from Creative Imaginations "Sarah Johnson" series.

A Campus Group

A Campus Group
Louise Jordan Smith – ca. 1925. Oil on Canvas. Maier Museum of Art, Lynchburg, VA

Again, it was the title that got me interested in the painting – then I loved the colours and the informal style of the group.

It reminded me of a photo of my grandmother with a couple of friends from the music conservatorium, a campus group, so to speak… I don’t know anything more about the two young men in the picture – I assume they were just colleagues, but the picture was taken in 1919, just five years before the completion of the painting!

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Paper and date cutout from a HOTP Heritage paper book; alphas from an old Club Scrap kit. Metal corners and clip from the Wiggly Woods "Heritage" textiles box, and lace from my haberdashery stash.

Night Cruise

Night Cruise
Brian Simons – contemporary. Acrylic on canvas. Private Collection.

Another painting prompting a holiday reminiscence – the brightly illuminated cruise ship reminds of how we were greeted in Chongqin by the cruiser that would take us down the Yangtse River. There were several cruise ships moored along the river promenade, most with colourful lights on every deck, quite a lovely welcome sight!

The photo was taken aboard our own cruiser of those moored behind and the lights of Chongqin climbing up the steep hills in the background.

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Paper from Club Scrap kit "City Scape" and alphas from another old CS kit (not sure which); foam wave border from Craft Creations, cruise ship 3D from Jolee's by You; plus a pack of Magic Scrap Designer Flairs.

Watchmakers of Switzerland

A Campus Group
Louise Jordan Smith – ca. 1925. Oil on Canvas. Maier Museum of Art, Lynchburg, VA

Again, it was the title that got me interested in the painting – then I loved the colours and the informal style of the group.

It reminded me of a photo of my grandmother with a couple of friends from the music conservatorium, a campus group, so to speak… I don’t know anything more about the two young men in the picture – I assume they were just colleagues, but the picture was taken in 1919, just five years before the completion of the painting!

*****

Paper and big alphas from Club Scrap kit "Passage of Time", and silver ring element from "Time + Space"; small alphas from Making Memories. For the various watch parts I finally took apart some old obsolete wrist watches...