Blue Matisse

Finished a copy of a Matisse still-life/landscape (~3x4.5 ft). It was fun, and I would have never had the guts to use that much blue! I replaced his objects with mine. So, the moroccan figure hidden in the wall far left becomes Pascal's favorite stuffed dragon (I love how the composition includes the figure in the same plane as the other objects, yet at the same time the figure is 'excluded' by being embedded in the plane of the wall - is the figure there or not?), the flowers become my flowers from another painting, the African head becomes my sculpture of Ani, the Lamp becomes a jar of paint brushes together with a sand dollar, and Matisse's plate becomes a plate with my shells, which I have painted before. My version could have been painted a little bit looser, but then it's kind of hard to paint that way when you are copying. Anyways now we have a pseudo-Matisse in our living room, and I learned a lot about his painting style.

BTW although 'blue' is usually associated with a down mood, in this case blue seems to work more like the sky or ocean, giving a calm reflective feeling.

iPad aus Papier

Ya Richtig. I had one before they made one! It's about 5 euros, fits in your pocket, the pages are touch sensitive (you rub the page with a iPen or iPencil or iMydirtyfinger). It needs absolutely no battery. It accepts text inputs. You can flip through the 'pages' by swiping your finger from left to right, or from right to left. Totally intuitive interface.

An ink drawing of the Marie Theresa statue in front of the Kunsthistorische Museum, and a figure from a painting in the Kunsthistorische Museum (loved the hand pointing upwards to God, and how the shadow casts over the upper arm and torso).

Actually I'd love to have an iTouch and make electronic finger paintings (or even an iPad for the sake of its larger screen). See here for drawing examples. But for the meantime, my paper iPad does pretty good.

Piraten

Arrrrgh..... giants of the mighty sea!!!

Anika and Pascal got their costumes for Fasching (this Friday). They decided on pirates. Pascal wore his costume for two days straight.

Winter

A view out our window. It's cold and snowing here and there. I had the guy walking without a dog, but it looked too down. Adding the dog cheers it up a little - they really do walk their dogs all over and all the time. There's even a special icon on the U-bahn ticket machine for dogs (yes dogs pay, but they're half price).

My Children Should be in a Museum - They're Priceless!!

Around Town

Pictures from around town. It snowed again. The kids played in the snow in front of the Kunsthistorische Museum. They 'skated' on a puddle of ice. Ani tried on my glasses. We found a walrus and a sun bear in the Naturhistorische Museum. I light my hand on fire. Isn't vacation nice?

Baroque Family

Tessa and Grandma were here for Christmas. We all had loads of fun. At the Belvedere we found some statues representing the different months of the year. So.... it was natural to pose before your birth month. In age descending order: Grandma tending the harvest, me praying (What??), Sabine loading her rifle (Jeez), Tessa having a merry time playing the flute, Anika loading her rifle (I'm scared now), and Pascal having a merry time with her month-mate Tessa.