The grey hues are the waves in the paper, I didn't bother to arrange this in photoshop. Today is a beautiful day,, the sun is almost shining, and poeple are busy outside, probably thinking happily "this is the weekend".
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Copyright ©estandrea - All rights reservedI was standing near a fence on my left and the soft pink blossoms of the apple tree
right before my nose, whereas the tree itself was much farer away. I loved this perspective,
although it cuts of the sky and the earth:)
Today I feel ready for the world, got up early which means lots of studio time before going to
the safetyjob:)
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Der Baum war viel weiter weg als die Blüten. Ich mag diese Perspektive und das Bild, obwohl es keinen Himmel und keine Erde hat:)
10 x 10 cm (3.9x3.9 inches)
My head is still away. Or my soul? Remembering the beautiful fading tulips in the sunny garden and painting them with great pleasure brings soul and body together:)
Mein Kopf ist im Garten geblieben (oder Seele?). Es hilft,voller Genuss die schönen welkenden Tulpen im Maigarten zu malen, dass bringt die Seele und den Körper wieder zusammen:)
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Right after taking this picture, a geranium has been planted in this pot. I didn't think of taking a picture afterwards, sorry.
Gardendwarfs ( a German specialty:) They make me laugh, my mother thinks they are absolutely kitschy, I agree, and Dad has to put them in the "garden-spirit "corner. Sometimes, they move. I mean, my Dad tries to put them out of this forest corner into the part of the garden, where they can be seen better. But my Mom always smells a rat (I tell her!) and the dwarfs have to beat a hasty retreat:) - I know though that she likes this whimsical corner very much...and that she believes the dwarfs just belong there. This dwarf war going on between my parents always makes me laugh.
Some simple things have their place here too, like this Dandelion.
This is the other big-eared guy. Ivy is slowly covering his head:). I love his hair.. 
In the upper part of the garden, there is this tool shed, my Dad built. My Mom took care of the decoration with flowers. They hadn't yet filled the flowerpots when I took the picture... But the Clematis's blossoms already opened, what a miracle:)
My Dad and my brother chatting and drinking beer:)
So, this is where I grew up. We came here when I was 1. My Dad and his friends built this house, on weekends. Of course, with the support of their wifes, being busy to cook for the whole crew. Must have been happy times...
The eagle was sculpted very quickly by the guy who cut the garden spirit tree. Oscar is going to check what happens in the dark corners behind the eagle and the goose:)
On vaccation, the cat Oscar does the same things we did. He hangs around in the garden, watching the birds, sleeping under the fern and enjoying the sun and the green everywhere.
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Hi I'm back in Paris, have spent two weeks staring at the green plants and the flowers blossoming everywere in my parent's garden in Germany, eating a lot, enjoying the sun, sketching a little, reading 5 thick books or so, and, the most important thing, enjoying the company of my old mom and dad.
Thanks so much to you, my dear blogfriends, for coming here faithfully, looking for news or just leaving a kind comment on the last post. I'll be very present again now, that I'm back with a strong spirit:)
Please let me introduce to this guy in my parent's garden. Some time ago they had to cut off a big tree, and they thought it would be lovely to keep parts of it. My father sees faces everywhere and sometime they show themselves to the others too. Not always to my mom's delight, I must say:)
So now there are these two (or three?) guys, this is just one of them, he has mighty big ears (like my dad, mom says). Garden spirits:)
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The Earthspirits.
It is gloomy outside,
I feel murky inside.
Time for the earthspirits to take over.
The city and it's thousand stimulations suffocate me.
Back into the woods,
we will walk on earth not on concrete,
surrounded by space,
and the horizon,
we watch and do not think.
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In this Moleskine watercolour sketchbook I put some colour on the page, in this case a double page. Then I leave it alone for some time, until it has dried or a day or more, depends on what else has to be done.
When I come back and look at page, all sorts of beings are waiting for their bodies to be outlined, their face to be shaped, their eyes to be opened... (click to open)
PREENING BIRDS
"They [dogs] never talk about themselves but listen to you while you talk about yourself, and keep up an appearance of being interested in the conversation." - Jerome K. Jerome
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The things of the ocean will always fascinate me. Water. Wasser. Eau. Aqua. Agua. Aab. Do you know poems by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe? Here is one: "Songs of the spirits over the water"
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"Oh but, this Aquarius is a women" my stepdaughter said to me when she saw this new Zodiac painting yesterday. I hadn't thought of it like that, but yes, most of the Zodiac pictures you can find in books or magazins or the internet show a male Aquarius.
I will post the description of the sign here tomorrow, as I have to prepare the english translation.
Watercolour, acrylic paint, coloured pencils and ink pen (available as print ltd.edition here)
"Oh, dieser Wassermann ist ja eine Frau" - meinte Axelle, die Tochter meines Mannes, (Stieftochter klingt zu sehr nach böser Stiefmutter) als sie dieses neue Sternzeichenbild sah. Ich hatte darüber noch nicht nachgedacht, aber die meisten Sternzeichenbilder, die man in Büchern, Illustrierten oder auch im Internet findet, stellen den Wassermann eher als Mann dar.
Die Beschreibung des Sternzeichens Aquarius erscheint morgen!
Aquarellfarben, Acrylfarbe, Buntstifte und Tuschstift (hier als Kunstdruck in limitierter Aufl.)
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Desert donkey and rose, wish-fish and cactusblossoms, runman and bubblegirl, proud peacock and pondering penguin, cissors and plancton. And the opera in Paris. Have a lovely day:)
Wüstenösel und Rose, Wischfische und Kaktusblüten, Rennmann und Kugelmädchen, stolzer Pfau und Paddelpinguin, Scheren und Plankton und die Oper in Paris. Schönen Tag noch!
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Copyright ©estandrea - All rights reservedAnother happy blotch-community:) or thought-confetti, as my friend Katrin calls it.
Glückliche Klecksgesellschaft, oder Gedanken-Konfetti (danke für den Ausdruck, Katrinchen:)
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Copyright ©estandrea - All rights reservedSaturday: A bus tour through Paris with my German friends. We sat on top of the Bus, it was cold but we had a great time. Take a look at the "Dame de Fer", The Iron Lady, as it is called here. The last picture was taken at the Sacre Coeur Church. If you come back tomorrow, there will be more pictures:)
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INVITATION TO BROWSE THROUGH MY NEW ART IN MY ETSY SHOP!
aren't they cute with names? You can still play and chose one, I'll put your names in the drawing. I love them all, especially those you picked. I scanned this again this morning, now the colours are what they really are.
I chose the little one with the arrow.
(I guess I will develop all these little girls you picked, they will be great together, that was fun, thanks so much for playing with me:)
A very nice lady writes nursery rhymes ("comptines" in French) and was looking for someone who can illustrate them. A friend of mine gave her my number, we talked on the phone and she sent me one of her comptines, so that I could get an idea of her work and see if it inspired me or not.
It did. When I read it, something jingled in my head... I have no children and don't have much experience with little ones and even less with nursery rimes! Perhaps the jingling in my head is the universal nursery rhyme response:)
This comptine is about a little coloured girl (J) who has been adopted and now lives in Paris. The rhymes are very sweet, we have to keep them secret, though. There will be more pages and we will have to think about the layout. This is the beginning. There should be no more than, let's say 4 or 5 pages. (which means 8 or 10 images!)
May I present you "J" (watercolour, size about 30 x 40 cm (11.8x15.7")
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4 studies in my watercolour sketchbook. Before doing a bigger painting, I wanted to explore this beautiful substance. The way it captures light demands all your attention while painting.
4 Studien zum Thema "Bernstein". Man muss aufmerksam hinschauen, dann sieht man wie das Licht mit den Farben spielt, oder besser: wie es die Farben einfach erst entstehen lässt...
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PS for the next two weeks I'll be less present, as lots of stuff has to be organized, lots of work to be done and: I'll act as a tourist guide for a happy gang of German friends invading Paris during the coming weekend. But I'll be here with a picture for you every day, sorry for not being able during this time to leave comments so very often on all your beautiful blogs, but I'll be back soon;
Love
Andrea
I have a thousand things to do, but I did this first. Had to, cause I had to get acquainted with my new Sennelier Watercolours. After having done this, the eye and the hand can place each colour better on it's place in the box. This is essential for an instinctive use of the colour.
I haven't much else to offer you today, I'm in a hurry here and head off to the hearth now:) to prepare a QUICHE LORRAINE (oh, of course I have, Miss Doodle saying Good Bye to NYC)
Have a wonderful weekend
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These remind me of happy kids in the classroom, laughing at a joke their teacher just made, or of happy Baseball fans heading off to the Superball...
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Where has time gone? The Turtle asks herself.
I made this picture in the fascinating Muséum Nationale de l'Histoire Naturelle, some time ago. There is one big filing cabinet in my computer with pictures of beautiful skeletons and stuffed animals. More of this tomorrow. Hope you do not find this macabre, because I don't. Nature is beautiful, even in death?
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And , if you are still with me, here is Miss Doodle's lates picture from NYC
Wo geht die Zeit bloss hin? Fragt sich die Schildkröte.
Dieses Foto stammt aus dem Nationalen Museum für Naturgeschichte in Paris. Ich habe Stunden dort verbracht, wunderschöne Skelette und ausgestopfte und präparierte Tiere fotografiert. Habe einen ganzen Foto-Ordner davon im Computer. Ich finde diese Skelette wunderschön, gar nicht makaber. Natur ist schön, selbst im Tod?
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