Pewter and Brass rubbings

I haven't been in a great space at all this week, so haven't wanted to pick up my brushes...I'm busy on some pretty fine portrait work and wouldn't have done anything worthwhile.

I decided to add a little pewter to the brass rubbings we did in London.

I got the reference from an old book...this one coming from an 18th century anonymous french artist, entitles 'Three women'

As usual, the photo didn't do it justice, but I really love how this came out and have decided to frame it.

I've also done some rather expressive drawings which I want to do in pewter. I think the action in working with this medium is helping me get out of my negative space...which I will share at a later stage.

Maderia of old

This is a typical Madeira bedroom scene.......uuummmm.... maybe not









A loom, that is still used today. Simply made and each movement has a heavy 'clunk' sound, but it fascinates me how beautifully it works. There's something ...smells, sounds, and the understanding needed to use this..... old that no amount of new could improve on.....I was born in the wrong era!!




This was taken inside a traditional Santana A-framed wood and grass house. the contraption in the middle is the 'lady hammock' which was used to transport the fairer sex up and down the numerous mountains






An old (and occasionally still used) Maderian kitchen. The kitchens were built off the main dwelling. The smells comming from here were aaaaaawwwwsome, freshly made 'bolle do cako' which is the traditional open fire bread made with potato









This is what houses looked like only a few years back...made with local rock and grass

Door painting in Madeira

A MADERAN DOOR PANTNG....HOW AWESOME S THS???


As part of Madeira's face-lift, the government has asked local and visiting artists to paint on doors.









These are some of the artists that have already participated in the project. Basically, the artist has to approach and get permission from the owner to paint on their front door.







Some really interesting pieces were produced and the project appears to be working. People locals and tourists now often walk these streets to view the paintings...a great idea for SA???









Even business and government buildings are involving themselves in this project, not only residences. These door jams are found right off narrow streets, and because of the increased pedestrian traffic, there have been some roads closed for vehicles, which has had a very good run off. Less danger of being flattened by a bus, cleaner streets, and people just enjoying being part of their communities.
In some cases the door itself creates the picture, i,e, like in this paneled door...each panel became a picture



The varied art pieces were really amazing, This is a painting on a door of the Madeiran traditional dress.
This was my favorite. An entire door way (obviously unused) was used to create this sculpture. Wanting to get into sculpture in the next few months, this fascinated me

My second best...an appropriate painting done on the door of a book store.
If Noreen and I had a little more time on our hands, we would have loved to participate in this project. Unfortunately, we only had a few days and there were many things to do
An interesting piece...nomatter how bad the door, a painting was done. In this one, the bottom part of the left pannel had been badly damaged, but the artist used it in his picture successfully anyway
We really loved this whole idea and feel sure that areas of SA could benefit from a project like this ...creating an opportunity for all artists, to express and display their talents at little cost to themselves...properties are beautified, and areas are improved at little cost to the owners or government...everyone seems to win

Barrels of fun

A statue of St Charles of Austria on the grounds of the church. Not sure what miracles he performed. I would spend a little more time researching this if I had the time.
This is the Monte Church. Fortunately, it was spared during the floods. This is one of Mareira's landmark buildings and people used to come here on pilgrimage.
After lunch, we decided to go up the cable car, a 20 min ride above Funchal, to Monte, a scenic tourist spot and the site of a church which holds the remains of a canonized saint, an Austrian Emperor (Charles) who is said to be responsible for miracles (from where we took the Cesta's/baskets). At some stage, the Maderian government realized that the country needed a cultural boost, and has started encouraging art and the expression thereof, in all forms, everywhere. ( More later)
Here one can see how some of the wine barrels have been turned into art pieces
Maderia has world renowned wines ...historically, that is. I can't vouch for now as I am perhaps a totally biased wanna-be SA wine drinker (getting there :o) )..I've certainly tasted a whole lot of different wines, doing the Cape wine routes and slowly have begun to enjoy a good wine.
Nor is unable to drink wine so we bought port instead and we soooooo enjoyed that! I have since bought a bottle here at home and it somehow just doesn't taste the same. So, based on my very limited knowledge, I would without hesitation, endorse their port! (more stories on that later :o) )
Oh Lord...not the best picture...I pretty much walked around for the rest of the day with 'bed-head'...full of sea-salt, wind-blown..hell, and I didn't give a toffee. This was taken in the cable car, on the way up to Monte.

Dodgy dish

This looks way worse than it tasted :o) In fact it was delicious. A piece of Espada (a typical Madeiran fish) served with a side salad, baked potato and .........a fried BANANA (traditional dish). Other than looking decidedly phallic, the connotations of the banana on the fish....hmmmmmmmm....well, just some naughty thoughts from some naughty ladies.
Col and Noreen, drinking what tasted like fruit punch with a kick. The starter was a pile of yum olives.
Ok....now THIS....ooohhhhh...my......woooorrrrrrrdddddd.....Don't know how this was made, but the 'cup' was made of soft and moist cake and the inside, hot, thick chocolate mousse. It was absolutely delicious and served with Ice cream.

My darling Col took us to a restaurant on the Marina, close to their office. It was awesome. A special time laughing, chatting and just enjoying each other.

Swimming off the Cat

Nor and I decided to brave the sea off Madeira. The Sea the Best anchored just off Camara de Lobos (oh, hell...I think...these darn names are killing me!!).....basically off a flat little farming area at the base of the second highest cliff in Europe ( think I may have that right)





Here, we'd just climbed in. I have never not seen my friend smile. I know her for that smile (and that darn dimple!!)..It became particularly broad at seeing my discomfort methinks!.so while I'm trying to catch my breath and make believe that the water is in fact really warm (which it actually is, I was just being a woos), she's swam like she does this every day!!





Ok, so eventually I got into it then didn't want to get out! Bliss, bliss, bliss. We could see the fish around the boat...we could see the white of the rocks below us, we could see the farm workers in their lands, we looked up at the high cliffs above and became little nothings!. How small we really are!!




Heading off into the water, we didn't even give it a second thought..we're here, ..we have to do this...we're part of this moment...we were IN the moment.

Some Sea Scenes

I don't think I could replicate this color, but was thinking about using this as a background to one of my paintings. Taken from the boat, just off the island.








We lay on the trampoline on our second trip out and I loved the patterns. Again, I would love to use this in a painting.








This was taken while lying on my back. A disappointing sky when one looks at the color of the ocean below, but, I liked all the shapes and tried to figure out how many triangles I saw in this picture







Taken while lying on a lounger at Porto Santo. This has got to be one of the best beaches in the world...I think between 9 and 11 straight kms of soft, white sand, warm water and gentle waves.






This is the color of the water off Madeira....I blue that I've never seen before. The ocean around Madeira is very deep and on clear Summer days, the water is like glass. On the 26th December 2004, Rob, myself and the children were swimming...jumping off one of the piers near Funchal harbor, when we saw a long ripple, about half a meter high, from north to south, as long as the eye could see, coming in-land. We were only to find out a few hours later, that it was caused by the Thailand tsunami,

I loved the reflection of the clouds on the water. This was taken while waiting to climb on board the cat at the marina.










I thought this was an interesting perspective..."seeing life from behind bars". Also taken in Porto Santo.