my Holy Trinity - part III - Friedensreich Hundertwasser

Hundertwasser
architect and painter




It was love at first sight, the first time I saw the columns that Austrian painter and architect Hundertwasser uses to support the buildings he creates. It was somewhere in Germany. The pictures in the slideshow above were taken in Vienna - Austria, some of them at the Kunsthaus Wien.

The picures in the slideshow on the right part of the page show my own version, I keep calling them columns even though they are a lot smaller. They are named "Honderdwater" , this is Hundertwassers' name translated in Flemish. In English it would be "Hundredwater". It is my hommage to him.

my smaller version of a column inspired by Hundertwasser

my Holy Trinity - part II - Niki de Saint Phalle

Tarot Garden

details of mosaic

Niki de Saint Phalle

if the slideshow doen't show, click HERE
Niki de Saint Phalle is the second person whose works inspire me for my Honderdwater pillars. The slide show above are details of the mosaics in the Tarotgarden she built in Italy. We visited this place just a week after she died a couple of years ago. The garden wasn't finished, but there is a crew that continues her work. As the name says, the enormous sculptures are based on Tarot cards. The biggest one, the Empress, was her home and studio for many years. Click on her name to get a link to the garden to see all the structures and her biography.

the small pictures are details of my work on the pillars

To view more posts on Niki de St Phalle : use the 'search this blog' on top right of the page.

my Holy Trinity - part I - Antoni Gaudi

Sagrada Familia

Antoni Gaudi
Barcelona - Spain

The details on the Sagrada Familia are part of the inspiration I used for my Honderdwater pillars or columns. The first time I saw this church, still under construction since 1881, was in 1969 when I was 12. I was very impressed and it still has a special place in my heart.

details of my work

memory lane

Now, here I'm looking back in time at the last patchwork I made exactly 15 years ago. It was the preliminary work of a commission for someone who wanted a wall piece with orange and blue. At that time I was hesitant as I thought these were not my colours to work with. And he couldn't specify exactly what orange or what blue he wanted.

To get a feeling of the right combination of these colours, I started to dig in the clothes my brother Herman left, he always wore bright colours. I took all the blue and orange tones I could find. The piece above was meant as a 'sample' so that the commissioner could choose from this range of colours the blue and orange he had in his mind, so I could actually start the commissioned work. When the person saw this piece he bought it. I was taken by surprise as I always had the idea he only wanted two colours.

I've always regretted selling it because it was a very personal work. I never could make another one like this because of the sentimental value of it.

There was another very strange thing about this piece. When twilight set in, the center part of the patchwork -where the greyscale of the colours is almost similar - seemed to pulsate and vibrate. One colour would come forward in the light and when that light changed the other colour was taking over, it was a very weird experience.

I don't know the person who bought it, I never had the chance to buy it back.

This made me stop making patchworks, but on reflection it was an important piece for my future work. I started working with bright clashing colours.

environmental art

While driving from one location to the next during the art tour, we saw these piled up reels (used for electricity cables) in a field. In the distance they somehow look like Pagodas. There was no mention of this work in the catalogue, so I guess it is a work from previous years. I don't know who made them. If someone can tell me I will add the name of the artist to this post.
The weather was very dark and rainy, and the dirt road leading to it was very muddy. We might have to come back one day with better weather conditions.

update : an anonymous reader told me the work is from Julos Beaucarne, an artist in many ways and living in this area. Click his name to see his blog and there click Pagodes for more pictures

good mood light

one of the first Good Mood lights I made, rediscovered while scanning negatives, I think it looks cute

sold

Dirk Boulanger - studio

Dirk Boulanger
is a painter and sculptor

He carves intricate patterns in MDF, coloured in the mass. He builds tables engraving 'ingredients' of the commissioners, such as the title of a book or a favorite travel destination. In this way the custombuild table - steel frame, topped with glass - becomes a unique and personal object. The wall panels, incorporating a painting, look like polished stone slabs.

glass & concrete

Trying to get accustomed to the new camera, I start to look at details again the way I used to years ago. I never was a photographer but many years ago, I loved to make pictures of details on buildings. Everywhere on my travels I would have one or two cameras, one with a stronger zoom lens. I suddenly stopped photographing when I had to wear glasses for my aging eyes and I couldn't focus anymore the way I was used to. Almost from one moment until the next I stopped looking at details, I wasn't interested anymore, I couldn't see them properly. Another thing was that I realized I actually never looked at my pictures again. So for about 6 or 7 years I didn't make any pictures. When a small digital camera came into my life things gradually started to change again. Of course, this little camera does not have the possibilities my former ones had, but all of a sudden I realize that I start looking again, hunting details.

This dome is made of concrete and glass, somewhere in Brussels.

German ceramics

Always on the lookout for interesting shapes and colours and materials, I spotted this on a flea market in the German speaking part of the country. It looks like a seventies version of traditional rustic German earthenware. It certainly caught my attention, but honestly .... I wouldn't like these on my table.

light up the dark days

As Christmas is approaching I'm thinking of how to bring more light into my house this year. Every year I try to do it somehow different without buying ready made items. It is in this time of year that they're is a need for more light as the dark evenings and nights are very long. That is the original meaning of the Yule-fest : the celebration of the light, the solstice of winter where the daylight starts to come back. So the decoration I use has always something to do with light. Yesterday I felt the urge to try something new in my 'pillar' series (the slide show on the right called Honderdwater), but without the mosaic. The new columns will be topped by a glass globe with light. This one is just a quick 'sketch', things are likely to change before it is finished. I hope to make a few of them the next weeks. But they're definitely not just Christmas decoration.

spijkerschrift

'nail script'

65 cm x 30 cm x 7 cm

oakwood, concrete, nails

playing with words as 'spijkerschrift' means 'arrow-headed script'

more art tour - Fêtes de la Saint-Martin

the last weekend for the art tour of the 'Fêtes de la Saint Martin' is

saturday november 24 from 14.00 until 18.00
sunday november 25 from 13.00 until 18.00

Christina Jekey


Cathy Cleppe


Brigitte Schuermans

Claude Rahir

Daniel Fauville

Guy Forge

Phil Billen
a sculpture of Phil Billen in another artists' studio HERE

Teresa Zielonko

and many many more

all posts on the art tour 2007 & 2008 : click HERE

art tour - Fêtes de la Saint Martin

Les Fêtes de la Saint Martin, an art tour in the Walloon part of Belgium, more than 100 artists participating on many locations. With performances and music.

Pierre Devreux

intriguing portraits

Pierre Debatty

interesting spaces

Pierre Devreux

exhibitions in centuries old barns three times the size of a church

Catalina Van Cauwelaert

nice details in artists' studios

beautiful details on old farmhouses
Yves Fièvé

brave artists in ice cold stables giving explanations to interested art lovers
the old farmhouses are worthwhile doing the tour as well. We got to the most impressive one (not the one on the photo) when it was getting too dark to make pictures, it was an enormous farmhouse from the 17th century, build like a fortress.

Catalina Van Cauwelaert

small courtyards in humble farmhouses

another post with Catalina Van Cauwelaert's work HERE

more of this tomorrow

Pierre Devreux : http://www.devreux.com/

Yves Fièvé : http://www.fieve.net/

all posts on the art tour 2007 & 2008 : click HERE

wooden relatives

More treasures I found while scanning negatives from travels in the past. These sculptures were made in Australia by my husband's brother-in-law, Robert Vandevelde. He's an acupuncturist and in his spare time creates, among many other things, large mosaic terraces and walls in his garden.

graphic shadows

I'm pretty busy scanning the negatives of my older pictures that were taken with 'old fashioned' cameras. I like this photo. It was taken in the Acoma reservation in New Mexico where the Pueblo Native Americans live in Adobe buildings. The older houses don't have stairs, so you see ladders like this one against the walls all over the village.



A few hours later we were in Albuquerque waiting for the plane back home.