Productive evening at the art school

Thursdays is art day! I take painting classes at an art school. Most of the time we have lessons in abstract art, and that is quite an challenge for me. It looks so easy, doesn´t it? But it isn´t!
This evening we had to make an background on the canvas that should look like this:

Painting by my teacher Anna Stenberg

It was to difficult for me to use so little colors, so mine looked like this:

It is not finished yet, but you get the picture ;-)

Another of my painting are finished, and this one is inspired by Paul Smulders 

I´d wish I could explain the technique, but I think you need to try it for your self ;-) Basically, you just use lots and lots of paint (you can use both acrylic and oil, mine is acrylic), add filler, sand, ash or whatever, and mix it directly upon the canvas, while adding lots of varnish. The result is stunning! It is also fun to move the layors around while it is still not completely dried through. You can keep on adding layers, and carve others away too. When it is dry, you should look for a face in the colors and patterns. Then paint some grafical objects on top.

Sound like fun? It is! Here is a video with the master himself: 

Let´s talk about recycling!

I participated in a very special workshop today. It was held at REMIDA in Randers, and for those of you who doesn´t know what that is, here is an very short explanation:


"REMIDA, named after King Midas, because everything he touched turned to gold, has been an invaluable source of material supply and a challenge for children and adults that transform seemingly worthless things into beautiful and imaginative expression that can support learning, creativity and imagination.
Not only do  the materials get a new, longer life and new meaning. The concept of waste receives a new content, and it also provides an opportunity to think about Agenda 21 and ecological thinking in pedagogy and in the companies that contribute.
Companies who donate their surplus production contributes to a social and ecological perspective.
Intelligence is not something you have, but something you are doing is a popular paraphrase neurologers and educators research suggests that it is essential to human learning processes, through the use of many different materials, language and intelligence, making links between hand and brain"

Google translated from home page

The concept is so fun! You get to take all the materials you want home with you for free! And they have a lot of materials; plastic, wood, paper, textiles, glass and much much more. Everything neatly sorted in boxes.

Thos photo was found on the net, but the principle is the same.

We are participating in a Remida art project in my kindergarden. We will recieve a 2 meter pole from them, and the task is to decorate it unique with Remida materials. Quite a challenge, if you ask me, because my children are at the age of 3 - 3,5 years old! How will they do this? I´ll keep you all posted on our progress.

At the workshop, we decorated our own poles too. Smaller poles, but the same as the one the children will recieve. I made a rubberhose tree, with an owl in it, and lots and lots of orchids made of shuttlecocks! My fingertips are burnt from raping the gluegun! But it was soo much fun. I´d wish I could show you a picture, but I totally forgot to take some! The tree was nice though....

Norse Mythology

Scene from Norse mythology. I love the Midgard serpent! 

I painted this 10 years ago. Still love it!

The birth of a doll

Boxy George // Kasse-Madsen from Teater Refleksion on Vimeo.

I am a big fan of the danish puppet theatre "Teater Refleksion". My puppet was made with inspiration from this caracter, Boxy Georg.

You can´t really see it yet, but my doll will be soooo cute! And it can allmost walk, just like Boxy Georg. Please look at the Vimeo.

I was fortunate enough to participate in a 3 weekends long workshop at the theatre in Aarhus. Look at this cute photo:

I couldn´t help myself, and just played along with the puppet, and took some photos of them together. It was a little special thing for me, to let my doll play with the theatres puppet. Being such a fan of there dolls, and never quite understand, how they animate them so beautyfully, and then be lucky enough to try to move Boxy Georg, feel him, talk to him, and let him teach some of his tricks to my little puppet. It was truely magical :-)

Later, I will share some of the photos from the whole workshop. 

I am painting a fairy!

I never paint faces. I don´t really know why. I am more into dreamscapes, fantasy and eclectic and whimsical art. This is a fairy. She would be lovely as a doll, wouldn´t she?