Art

Thursday Thoughts – Poznan Ice Festival

/ Leya / 9 kommentarer

For many years we have kept an eye on the ice festival in Harbin, China, but oooh…the cold (-25) is just too much. This year we went for the small Ice Festival in Poznan – the Midieval beauty that once was the capital of Poland. Unfortunately no snow, but the festival is always held.

Poznan is a big city of about 1 miljon inhabitants, but we stayed in the old center with its typical architecture and beautifully decorated facades.

A festive feeling lit up the grand square, where they also had arranged a skating rink.

People of all ages enjoyed themselves – and treated the audience to lovely moves as well as spectacular falls…

The Christmas market was in full swing as well and we were still lucky with the weather. But, This was what we came for:

There were participants from all over the world, about 30 couples all in all. They circled the whole square. It was good to see great cooperation between people of different countries and nationalities. Iraq, Spain, Canada, the Philippines, Germany, Poland…The Ice Team worked hard to serve them all!

The artists were very skilled, and it was a treat to see them handling the ice. Some of them had made a sketch to follow, but some not. Their tools looked similar to those used for tree sculpting, but how do you work with a material like ice? We saw no big mistakes though, and the ice blocks seemed to tolerate almost any treatment…

The finished sculptures were fabulous works of art. Most of them rather small sized, but some the size of a grown human.

They were put on pedestals and lit up in different colours. We didn’t stay to see the winner, but these two were my favourites.

Art is a wonderful thing, it makes your heart glow and your mind grow. Thank you for walking with me, I hope you enjoyed!

Favourite Images of 2025

/ Leya / 36 kommentarer

I hope you all had some Happy Holidays and are now ready for posting your favourites of 2025! As has become our custom, we are asking our followers to select their favorite images of the last year – whether they’ve been included in previous posts or not. This week, no single host will present the challenge. The entire team will share the challenge topic.

Here are mine – difficult to choose, and, of course I could have chosen other ones. But, with some for the beauty, some for the fun, some for the surprise and some for Love – I hope you will find something for yourself too!

This picture is my absolute favourite of the year – an endemic chaffinch sitting in a young girl’s hand in the forest in Madeira. A moment of peace and total connection with Nature. It fills my heart with gratefulness just looking at it.

I think I wrote in another post, that this year I didn’t do much photography – because I have started painting again. That is why one of my paintings is here in the gallery too.

Spring is the starter of Life – and everything…also my joy in photography. But it must be Spring at home, in Sweden.

In June we returned to Madeira, our hiking paradise for many years in the 70’s and 80’s. It was a joy to come back to the lush and beautiful nature there, but in the city so much had changed that I hardly recognized it. Despite the changes of time though, the country feeling remains – suddenly close-up cows in the middle of the road. Loved it!

Back home to Autumn, Winter and bird feeding in the moonlight. I do love my sweet sheep meetings every day on my dog walks – Milo believes they are his cousins.

Finally, a trip to the ice festival in Midieval Poznan, Poland. This is Restaurant Ratuszova with its amazing paintings in the cellar vaults.

We thank all of our followers for continued support and look forward to seeing the images you choose as YOUR favorites of 2025. Please remember to link your post to any or all of the Lens-Artists team members. Also, remember to use the Lens-Artists Tag to help us find you.

We offer our best wishes for a New Year filled with peace, happiness, love and friendship. Anne will lead us next week on her lovely Slow Shutter Speed blog. Until then, stay safe, be kind and and find joy in the simple things.

Lens-Artists Challenge #375 – Mysterious

/ Leya / 33 kommentarer

Patti, welcome back and thanks for an interesting theme! I have gathered some different ”mysteries” here. Hope they will fit the bill. Shadows, darkness, mist, tunnels, abandoned places, artworks…and unexpected items in unexpected places. Often also a limited colour sphere – or a fireworks of colour! adds to the feeling.

First out, a levada in Madeira – in the middle of nowhere and roadless land. Suddenly we passed a resting place – for tired hikers?…How did a car seat end up here?

Natural mysteries – Last time I visited this pond, there really was a pond – now only a mysterious, dead piece of land with stumps sticking up. Quite eerie.

In this park in Copenhagen, the trees reached out their spooky fingers to touch the grey sky.

A late evening walk with ominous skies – natural mysteries are the best!

Abandoned houses, streets and cars have their own kind of mystery…

Every kind of Art can be mysterious. And it doesn’t have to be dark…

I love trying to figure out why/how – but also love it if I find a note from the artist on what the original intention was.

This is Prague and a hanging umbrella man by the famous Michal Trpák.

The yearly Light Move festival in Lodz, Poland. Very Mysterious and beautifully made by a talented group of artists.

A special thanks to John Steiner for leading the challenge On the Move last week – a joy to see all your posts! Next week, it’s Beth’s turn. So, be sure to visit her site, Wandering Dawgs, Saturday, November 29th at noon ET for more.

Until then, I hope you can spend time with your loved ones and enjoy doing things together. Take care and be kind.

To find out more about the Lens-Artists Challenges, click here.

Thursday Thoughts – More Madeira!

/ Leya / 26 kommentarer

Welcome back to Madeira, and something new to us – a rundown area had been neatly decorated by talented local artists. Rua de Santa Maria in downtown Funchal. We had walked here before, but this year we did with open eyes, savouring the varied door paintings.

They made the area shine! The street came alive with tourists visiting the galleries, the little restaurants and cafees. No tourists in my pictures though…

Colourful,

scary or fun – we found all sorts of painted doors. And sometimes we got a glimpse of the inside too –

– or what might be on the inside…

A walk to be recommended if you ever visit Funchal. There were many more doors than these, and I saw the whole menue vividly painted on one restaurant door!

Lovely Madeira to be continued next week!

Thursday Thoughts – Madeira Magic

/ Leya / 36 kommentarer

Mmm… Madeira once more! My husband bought us tickets for one more trip to Madeira – the hiking paradise of our youth. There are endless hiking possibilities along the levadas carrying water to the city. The scent, the sound, the solitude. Unforgettable.

This is only a short Thursday entry, because there will be more posts from this charming island.

The last time I was there was with my children and my mother. We walked several levadas, not the most difficult ones, because my mother was 75 – but even if she was agile, I wanted us to be safe. And she loved it. Our forest walks at home used to be frequent and long. But, in Madeira the added sound of water swirling in the levadas is very soothing.

As in Portugal in general, the Azulejos are beautiful history tellers.

A must was always the Botanical Garden – and other gardens of course. Madeira is a flower Paradise – so there are many reasons for loving this island. Every time we visited, there was a new pattern in this open space. This summer it was geometrical.

A visit to the museum of their greatest son, Cristiano Ronaldo, was of course a must for my husband. But I rather enjoyed it too. The statue of CR was much debated when it was set up. I must say I didn’t like it then, but the one we saw here couldn’t have been the same – it looked much more like him now. Maybe they had to make a new one because of all the criticism??

Finally, the promenade we have walked so many times. It was good to see it again. Walk it again. Even if the city had changed very much in later years, this part felt warm and familiar.

Thank you for walking with me, there will be more of levadas, gardens and city walks in a couple of Thursday posts. Looking back sometimes is good for the overall perspective of your life.

Happy July 4 to you who celebrate, and hope you all are having a beautiful week!

Lens-Artists Challenge #355 – Looking Back to #42 – Creativity

/ Leya / 127 kommentarer

This week we are starting to look back… each month or maybe every 6 weeks, one of us in the LAPC – team will repeat a PREVIOUSLY USED subject for the week. We will share a link to the old post, and then create a new post on the same subject. This will also give us all a chance to address challenges we may not have done before.

In 2019 we had a challenge on Creativity – I have picked that one as a starter for this series. Much because we need to be creative in life’s ups and downs, and I guess most of us also love being creative. Blogging is one creative thing we have in common!

Here’s what I wrote on Creativity in the first post, #42: ”… is the use of imagination or original ideas to create something new or somehow valuable – inventiveness. The created item may be an idea, a scientific theory, or even a joke; or a physical object, maybe a new invention, a literary work – or a painting.”

Last Sunday I met one of the most creative souls I have ever met – Susanne Demåne. We went with some friends to see her studio and garden – she calls it ”The World of Demåne.” In 1998 she bought this old schoolhouse – rather dilapidated and no garden worthy of the name. Over the years she has created a fantastic place filled with creativity and fantasy, which also involves animals like beautiful black horses of the breeds Frieser, Knabstrupper, Arab and Shetland pony. Horses she trains with nothing but her voice and the bond she makes with them.

In these photos here, of Susanne’s own, I hope you can feel some of the magic …

How much they love and respect each other…

How much her horses trust her…

And how much she trusts them…

Susanne works in various materials, living, clay, metal, enamel, wood etc. Maybe her most famous works are in wood – made with a chainsaw…

And while we were admiring her studio – Susanne herself suddenly appeared in the doorway. Silently waiting, graceful and humble. So beautiful – a creative witch, a troll from the deepest forest. When she walked into the room – she filled every inch of it – her energy was tangible.

Susanne is a hard working woman who made her life the way she dreamed and wanted it to be. I read about her son, Kim Demåne (also a brilliant artist), how he stated that she was the most hard working woman he knew – and how much he admired her.

Many questions whirled through the air, and she was happy to answer them all. She was so natural, so down to earth, and so humourous. She laughed and told us she had worn out several men – because she was not that easy to live with… I can imagine not. Creativity was written all over her. A passionate woman!

The final gallery shows her work at Bredåkra cemetary. She was asked if she could make something out of the many dead elm trees there – and she did. She made magic. In these photos you see: ”We are all someone’s child”, ”Madonna and child”, ”The Elm Angel” .

Someday, early morning and late evening, I will be back for the perfect light…

Hope you will enjoy this concept of looking back! We are looking forward to seeing your new take on (or first take on, if you never did ”Creativity” in 2019)! please use the Lens-Artists tag and link your post to my original post.

A big thank you to Anne for her wonderful Reflection challenge. You found reflections we never even had thought of! Next week it is holiday time, so we hope to see you July 12, when our guest host SH will be your guide. Please visit his site for inspiration.

Have a great holiday you who celebrate!

Thursday Thoughts – Tutanchamon

/ Leya / 13 kommentarer

Last time we visited Malmoe, we went to see the immersive exhibition. As we went to Egypt in 1981 and saw his tomb, and the mummy and golden artefacts at the Egyptian museum, I did not expect much from this visit. But, it was a nice outing and another experience. And again I felt so sorry for this young, sickly boy, whose fate was to be farao.

I’m sharing some of the pictures – I had fun taking them.

Lens-Artists Challenge #337-Bold

/ Leya / 80 kommentarer

Your life is your canvas, and you are the masterpiece. There are a million ways to be kind, amazing, fabulous, creative, bold, and interesting.

– Kerli

Sofia is our lovely guide this week, and she wants us to be Bold – or at least send pictures that speak bold. Please visit her beautiful site for more inspiration!

Colours and patterns in furniture – can indeed be bold. I like it, but maybe not in my own house…

Gaudi was one of the most bold architects according to me. I am looking forward to seeing a Sagrada Família fully fledged in 2026.

Last Tuesday we saw the immersive exhibition of Frida Kahlo in Malmoe. The Mexican painter and artist who was severely wounded in a bus accident at the age of 19, and lived with constant pain until her death in 1954, only 47 years old. Few people and artists were that bold and colourful as she was in both life and works.

Finally, In the true spirit of it, be bold and take us all somewhere new, Sofia says. How…? Well, you asked for it…it is rather bold of me, in this famous company, to show one of my wild paintings (I don’t call it art…)for my granddaughter. Creatures.

I am truly grateful for the many beautiful and thoughtful answers to last week’s challenge – and we all managed to post only ONE image! I guessed it would be difficult, but you really made it work – and work so well, that I had tears in my eyes more than once…

So now – welcome to this week and Sofia’s magic. Remember to link back to her post and to tag Lens-Artists so we can find you.

Stay well, keep calm and make the best of your week.