48/365:2013 ATC Pierette

In my childhood my mother sang about Pierrot, he would like to marry Pierette, but used so long time to find the right words.

The first verse is roughly translated as follows:
Pierrot said to the moon: "Light now white and clear, until I am finish writing this letter. It is Pierette I am writing to, she will be my wife if she wants"


Here you can listen to the melody: http://www.erlingmusic.dk/upl/26998/AuClairDe.mp3

Want to trade/swap an ATC? Read here to see how: http://ewian.blogspot.no/2012/12/atc-artist-trading-cards.html

Medium used: White, black and a touch of red acrylic paint.

5/365:2013 ATC lily of the valley

Lilys of the valley grows in forests and gardens. It has white flowers in one-sided clusters in May (June) and get red berries the after flowering.

The leaves and flowers, and berries contain substances that have been used as medicine for centuries, but which can be lethal, even in smaller doses for children and animals.

Lily of the valley's most often grows in sheltered forests, but is also observed up to 1200 meter above sea level, and in Norway as far north as Mo i Rana, my childhood town.

Medium used: watercolours and acrylic iridescent.

Want to trade/swap the ATC? Read here to see how: http://ewian.blogspot.no/2012/12/atc-artist-trading-cards.html

Potato vacation - Norwegian culture

In Norway, all schoolchildren have autumn vacation. This vacation is also called potato vacation. In the old days, the schools had two weeks potato vacation in the autum. Now it is reduced to 2 days, related to a weekend. As the name says, it was a school holiday for school kids to participate in the harvesting of the potato crops. In today's society the family do not depends on the help of children's hands in the harvesting, and the schools' autumn vacation is often regarded as outdated.

Many parents take time off work to be with their children. Some actualy harvest the potato, while others take their children to the mountains(cabin) or the Mediterranean, there are also some who for various reasons stay home. For those who can not take time off, or if it is just the best soulution, send there children on vacation to aunts, uncles, grandparents or other close friends of the family. My youngest boy, Zack, went on potato vacation to his grandmother. This gives him and his grandmother a great opportunity to tie good relationship. It is from this potato vacation that my illustration is inspired.

Norwegian:
Potetferie - norsk kultur
I Norge har alle skolebarn høstferie. Denne ferien blir også kalt potetferie. I gamle dager hadde skolene 2 uker potetferie om høsten. Nå er den redusert til 2 dager knyttet til en helg. Som navnet sier var det skolefri for at skoleungene skulle få delta i innhøstingen av potetavlingene. I dagens samfunn er ikke familien avhenging av å få hjelp av barnehender i potetsinnhøstingen, og skolenes høstferie blir ofte ansett som utgått på dato.

Mange foreldre tar fri fra jobb for å være sammen med barna sine. Noen tar opp potet, mens andre tar med seg barna til fjells eller til Syden, er det også en del som av ulike årsaker må holde seg hjemme. For de som ikke kan ta fri eller bare for det passer best, drar barna på ferie til tanter, onkler, besteforeldre eller andre nære venner i familien. Min yngste gutt Zack dro på potetferie til sin bestemor. Noe som gir han og bestemoren en kjempefin mulighet til å knytte gode relasjonsbånd. Det er fra denne potetferien at min illustrasjon er inspirert.

Moly_x_3 sketch: waltzing mathilda

Here is the sketch, finished picture will come soon.

I am participating in another moley_X project. If you are curious or want to follow the adventure of this group of artists from around the world, in a Japanese fold Moleskine sketchbook exchange you can go here:http://moleskinex3.blogspot.com

The theme I have chosen for my book is "waltzing mathilda". This is one of the first thing I learned about Australia. (The exchange was original Australian so to honour that my theme is set to that part of the world) My father is one of those musically people who is always whistling a tune. "Waltzing mathilda" was one of those that was repeated. Sweet childhood memories. As a child I always thought "waltzing mathilda" was about about exploring the world together. You'll come a waltzing matilda with me? So the motive is a girl starting her journey, wondering what she'll see and who she can bring along for this walkabout. I am so exited to see how the book evolves and what it will bring along on it's journey.

I change the paper in the book to watercolour paper. I think it can handle a bit more beating and I like the feel of the texture. However this process of chaining the paper made me realise I need a scoring board... it didn't turn out strait at all. But as long as it fit in side the book, I am happy. There is a first time to everything right? The book is done and on it's way to the next in line, niniji. Well that's it for now, I'll post pictures of the finished book tomorrow. (The back need rest now.)

--
In other news: Sorry, for lack of posting earlier, an acute back pain has for the last month and is still keeping me from typing much on the computer. In addition to have to write some blog post I have about 300 email to sort through so I'll get back to you soon. However physiotherapy and acupuncture is helping to move things back to normal.

IF - old-fashioned

The word for Illustration Friday is old-fashioned. Although there is a lot of cool old fashioned things, I do like the classic Apache bike-cycle. I was never lucky enough to have one as a child, but there was some of the elderly boys that let us girls have a try.

The illo is made on gessoed background, drawn with a pencil and then drawn with ultramarine blue and silver acrylic paint.

Medium used: gesso, pencil, acrylic paint.