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A piece of think-about

This is the second part of my January-Résumé. By the way, at the end of January we had the first real snow here in Bremen – a beautiful catch of winter – the last one was in 2016 I guess (!!). So, I want to share my favourite motive with you first before getting back to the subject :):

In these days, living with the corona-virus from day to day and all of its policies, it’s hard to stay in contact without real contacts. Insta, Facebook and co. may help us out temporaily, but there is no replacement for human contact!!

I started my little card-art project at the beginning of the first lockdown in spring 2020. I sent them to family and friends all over the world to tell them how much I miss them and that Thomas and I can’t wait to see them again at a time past-COVID-19.

A friend of mine asked me a couple of months ago to participate in some of her charity projects. It’s about creating self-made cards and giving them to different retirement homes in Bremen and its surroundings. A lovely idea! Who suffers most from this crises than older people who belong to the high-risk group and aren’t allowed to meet anyone :(!!! They really, really deserve it!!! So, here they come, some more little card-art works – still in progress and to be continued … :):

Mountain Mirroring – Watercolour on paper. 14*11 cm.

Cliffs And Clouds. Watercolour on paper. 14*11 cm.

Flowerfield Sea. Watercolour on paper. 14*11 cm.

Something like a path to the Alps. Watercolour on paper. 14*11 cm.

Pinky Winky. Watercolour on paper. 14*11 cm.

The Woodruff. Watercolour on paper. 14*11 cm.

Singing in the tree. Watercolour on paper. 14*11 cm. (This one I gave to my sister ;))

Little Papageno. Watercolour on paper. 14*11 cm.

The Couple. Watercolour on paper. 14*11 cm. (This one went to my grandma’s :))

Itchy on a snowy perch. Watercolour on paper. 14*11 cm.

Wishing you a great weekend and a good start to February 2021!

magdalenaarte

“Kneipentour” Waiting For a Go!

This is part 1 of my little January-résumé. First month of the new year 2021 is just over and was pretty stuffed with bigger and some little projects. Actually, it was so fraught with work that I’ve been too busy to write anything last week :D!! But, never mind: work is good – it keeps us getting on!

First January-project was a really lovely one. I was asked by a friend, if Thomas and I would like to help her out with any surprise for her brother who graduaded at business school.
Instead of collecting money or amazon vouchers etc., she had the gorgeous idea that everyone should gift him a “personal experiance”. That could be an adventure, a day at a normal or special place of choice, or anything else – but, of course nothing you could simply buy in a shop ;)! She collected all those collages, paintings and photos made by Jan’s (her brother’s) friends and created a self-made coupon book of them – a very, very nice idea!!

For me, it was a given – that our special thing to get him would be a “men’s thing” :)!! I do the art work, but Thomas would be the performer :)!!! So, I asked him: “What is the first thing you think about Jan and you doing together?” – and as quick as a shot he answered: “I think a ‘Kneipentour’ would be cool!”.
A “Kneipentour” – for everyone who didn’t use Google Translate yet – is the German expression of showing somebody all the pubs or bars around – a pub crawl or bar-hopping-thing :). OK, KNEIPENTOUR IT IS! And the best place to do that in Bremen is a trip from the “Bremer Viertel” to the “Bremer Schlachte” (now, use Google Images ;))!

Wanna see my personal Kneipentour-coupon? Here they come, Jan and Thomas ready to go (at some time when it’s possible again!!):

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When the ‘Nähkästchen’ talks…

In German, in older times – when someone shared his/her wisdom, life experiance or talked about secrets – the saw “aus dem Nähkästchen plaudern”, 1:1-translation = “talking out of the sewing box” was used :). That saw was the subject of an art project in 2007, one year before my school leaving examinations.

We had to compose a collage with all the ideas which came up to our minds when thinking about the sewing-box saw. For me, it was clear that I would picture some of my mother’s sewing stuff (cause I – as a 17-year old hadn’t a really idea of sewing work). So, I took her big black box (an old cookie box) from the shelf and examined the contents accurately. What I loved most as a child, was mom’s big button collection in a big jar. I used to sort those buttons in differet ways, according to their colour, size and peculiarity. As a matter of course, buttons would play a role in my collage 🙂 … See the result here:

Wishing a great weekend to you all!

magdalenaarte

Afterwork Card Art

January 2021 is on its current and we had our first snow here in Bremen yesterday! OK – it ended up in plashy ice rain in the evening, but hey – at least a light sense of winter :)!!! I cannot emphasize enough how happy I’ll be when spring months finally bring back the power of sun and also longer and brighter days which help a lot to get creative ;)!!

In an earlier blog post I already wrote about the joy to surprise people with self-made cards and letter paper. I started with flowers first, went over to abstract colour arrangements and now love to carve out different and/or exotic birds (like shown above). Yesterday, I started to design my first cards showing landscapes, let’s take a look at the prototypes:

Wishing you a great, relaxing and inspiring weekend!
magdalenaarte

2021, hands on!

Hi there! Hope you had a nice, relaxing time – maybe spent a couple of days together with friends and family and enjoyed the tranquillity – as we did :).

Now, finding ourselves at the beginning of a new year, it’s time to rethink, to set new focuses, to aim new adventures … One thing (what a mess!) remains also in 2021: COVID-19. Here (and I suppose: all over) the people are weary of being confronted with restrictions, with terrible news or other disenchantments caused by the pandemic. Hard times persist :(.

Nevertheless, I think from the confrontation with the situation a special kind of ART has arised. As always, artists use political and/or econimic situations to express theirselves, to show the world what’s going on – to catch the scene beyond the scene. Every artist does that in his/her individual way.

I took the following photo at a shop-window of a tattoo studio in the “Bremer Viertel“. The “Viertel” represents the “alternative” circle of Bremen’s townships and so are their public reactions, too – strong, loud and free – no room for timidity ;)! On a sunny morning during the holidays, I made some shots:

A Symposium – In a gap between buildings

Forum of Arts – Save your appointment for the exposition!

This shop-window tells you: We will make it! It’s not the end of the world.

Two hours later the rain dropped, but this CORONA-PIZZA-take-away shows up with its resplendency

Back at home, it was clear to me that many, many projects are waiting to be pursued and started. Wishing you all a good start and a lot of motivation!!!

magdalenaarte

The Prediction

“Every picture tells its story.” – words expressed by my former art teacher Udo Steinmann many years ago.

In my gallery, you will find a self-portrait from the year 2006 I also created a blog-post for. I thought by myself, now, 14 years later (!!) it would be good to work at a current one – so I began.

Man, can tell ya’ – it will take a while to get there! I remember how I tried my first “Grand Jeté” (it’s a ballet move :)) after having paused for three months during the first lockdown this year – a disaster: You feel like lifting three times harder than usual and all of your movements seem so incredibly tardy and weak. Same thing with drawing: “Definitely not like it’s supposed to be!” – the first steps to take are always the hardest, in every life situation.

Nevertheless, I think motivation starts at the point you share your progress with others – the results may not be terrific (you might even hate them :)) – BUT all of those tryings are able to tell stories! Here are mine from the beginning of this week:

THE DETAILED. Pencil on paper. 20.12.2020:

FAST SKETCH 1. 15 minutes. Pencil on paper. 21.12.2020:

FAST SKETCH 2. 5 minutes. Pencil on paper. 21.12.2020:

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Nudeside-down

2006 – I was 17 – my mom (see her here) asked me to paint a poster for the next summer semester of her dancing lessons waiting in the offering.

It’s not that one you see above – due to COVID-19 I haven’t had the possibility to take photos from the works hanging at my parent’s yet. However, I designed a series showing different scenes with dancers and body movement. My mom was so taken with them that she made me (a seventeen-year-old a really, REALLY!) challenging gift: a nude-drawing-course weekend!!

For me (I was the youngest one in the group of mid-twenties), it was a strange (ok, can’t deny: embarrassing!!) feeling sitting there and waiting for the two nude models taking off their cloths. I felt a kind of being at the wrong place at the wrong time that moment. But it became better :).

The teacher explained the techniques. We had to do some sketching exercises first: drawing the models and their movements without looking at the paper. Next, we had to use a palette-knife to mix some acrylics on a palette. The palette-knife was also our painting tool instead of a brush. That May, 20th in 2006 is noted as the first day in my life I worked with acrylics :). I remember, I was so impressed by the smoothness of the colours that I promised to myself that wouldn’t be the last time I experiment with them.

Now, arrived at my thirties, I’m very thankful that my mother supported me that way! It was an important experience for me I would have missed definetely!! So, thanks to you, mommy <3!!! Here they come, my interpretations – Body Studies in Acrylic:

Man sitting on a chair. Acrylics on paper. 50*70 cm

Woman sitting on a chair. Acrylics on paper. 60*70 cm

Side view of the man. Acrylics on paper. 50*70 cm

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DRAW’N TALK

As I told before, for me the winter months are the hardest to deal with, especially when working on bigger projects like oil paintings. The colours seem to take three times longer to dry and it is a challange to use the short frame offered by daylight to be able to mix the desired shadings into them. Instead of getting frustrated because things take their time, for me it is a help to work on different skills contemporary (pencil, watercolours, acrylic).

A friend invited me to his zoom-drawing-group at the weekend. I must admit, I don’t like to paint or draw in group very much. The talking and laughing is an amusing relief but I really have problems to get myself into the drawing and painting when listening or answering stuff ;). And (I think you guys understand what I mean:) via Skype or Zoom it is much more straining to follow the conversation than being live in a course together with others where the distance caused by room makes it impossible to follow all the talking and gaggling inside there. But I gave it a try – and it was a nice Sunday afternoon experiance 🙂 – thanks for persuading me, Daniel!!!

I made a simple compromise: 45 minutes talking and laughing and 15 minutes drawing :)!!! The subject of that Sunday-Zoom drawing appointment was “Enjoy Your Break”. See my little sketch above.

Wishing you a great week!! Stay save!!!
magdalenaarte

Monday-Me

I cannot definetely say if the day I drawed that portrait of myself in my sweet sixteens was a Monday – but as I promised to you guys some posts ago: from time to time I will also show you some of my earlier works.

I can remember that it was a cold autumnal day in 2006 when my art teacher told us to take a selfie (with a digi-cam, not with a smartphone (can you imagine: the first iPhone has been released 8 years later!!!). After having printed out all the photos, she fitted us up with a sheet of paperboard and chalks. We had only 45 minutes time to draw our self-portraits.

“You don’t have any blue or green highlights in your hair!”, some of the students laughed at me. “I don’t care – I love the colours!”, I answered. Yeah, and I still do! I was really happy when I made that discovery today afternoon. I’m no 16 any more, but my love for the colours hasn’t changed. It is always great to start a new week with a finding :)!! What’s yours?

Wishing you a good new week and a lot of creativity!!

magdalenaarte

The Rainer

This weekend blog post is dedicated to a very special person. He is the one who offered me an opportunity which – I’m convinced of – will never turn again to my life like it happened in summer 2011.

I was young, green and had no idea how to sell myself in order to get a very, very important job. But Rainer saw my qualities beyond the veil of inexpertness – saw that I was just in my second year at university and saw that I would surely fit to the team – my team in which I work till this day <3!!

Nevertheless (sorry Rainer, I was so incredible reckless), it took almost three months until I sent my application papers to him (finally!!!). But Rainer didn’t give up on me – they needed someone who could help out with Finnish translations. Due to my language abilities as a native speaker, I got the job – and fitted well :). Today, I still fix translations sometimes, but after 9 years of experiance I’m a professional technical writer now and have left the student trainee times behind me.

Thanks to you, Rainer – the best, caring and most ambitious boss I know!!!

On the occasion of his retirement last year, I had the honour to pencil a little portrait of him we used to design an individual best-wishes card with containing all our (his colleagues’) signings. Tadaaa, and here he comes – the Rainer.

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