Art

Thursday Thoughts – Scanisaurus – Europe’s largest stoneware fountain

/ Leya / 17 kommentarer

Just outside the Ifö factory in Bromölla, live-sized ceramic dinosaurs sunbathe on a ceramic cliff surrounded by springwater. Or should be, but there was no water when we visited.

Plesiosaurs first appeared in the latest Triassic Period, 203 million years ago. They became especially common during the Jurassic Period, thriving until their disappearance about 66 million years ago. They had a worldwide oceanic distribution. Scanisaurus (Saurus from Skåne) bones were found on a small island, Ifö. (Ö means island in Swedish)

Scanisaurus is the masterpiece of Sweden’s renowned ceramic artist, Gunnar Nylund. It is a one of a kind artwork, made by hand and consisting of more than 3000 individual pieces.

In 2014 many of the original plaster forms that were used to make the fountain were rediscovered by Ifö Center’s artists. They are now under restoration at the Center and the goal is to produce new parts and restore Scanisaurus for the 50th anniversary in 2021.

The funny thing is, that the discovery of the plaster forms was what finally convinced ROA to come over from Australia to paint T-Rex in 2014.

This is my third post from Ifö Center. Here are links to the previous posts:

https://lagottocattleya.wordpress.com/2020/10/22/thursday-thoughts-ifo-center/

https://lagottocattleya.wordpress.com/2020/10/29/thursday-thoughts-more-ifo-center/

Thursday Thoughts – More Ifö Center

/ Leya / 22 kommentarer

If you enjoyed last Thursday’s trip, let’s have a walk indoors as well!

Artwork keeping an eye on you everywhere…

And us keeping an eye on Teresa (the engineer and coordinator of every activity at Ifö Center) – our guide …this place is so big you could easily get lost. The great insulators made at the factory here looked like gigantic piles of ceramic plates.

We arrived at the bar…built around some machine too big to remove (- according to Teresa -), what else to do than to use it for practical artistic purpose! We were greatly impressed by the light and the large areas – perfect studios for any group of artists.

A piece of cake? I don’t think so – not in any way.

In the middle of a potential crash – tread lightly, move softly, think twice – Corona restrictions? We made it through the cups and plates. 8 people.

My favourite project was the paper works by Sebastian Blomqvist – paper, paper, made only of paper. Impressive! But all kinds of artwork was made at Ifö, graffitti, painting, ceramics, weaving, 3D – nothing seems impossible.

I so loved the studios, the gigantic windows letting in that magical light. As an artist you can apply for a certain time and a place at Ifö – I wish I was – You can also support them in many ways, why not as a volunteer or friend?

Creativity is contagious, pass it on.

Albert Einstein

Lens-Artists Challenge #120 – What a Treat!

/ Leya / 72 kommentarer

Tina has got a marvelous treat for us this week! African wildlife in glorious images through her lens. So, now we are looking forward to seeing Your treats – be it candy, grandchildren’s visits, a splendid hike or…

One of my own biggest treats is a visit to Kew Gardens – I don’t go that often…maybe once every fifth year – and this year should have been a Kew year for me. But then came Covid-19.

Maybe the fact that something is not easily available is one of the reasons for making it a special treat?

I will let the images speak for themselves. And, I really long for a new visit … In the opener, a late night view from the plane back from London.

A microphone? Yes…listen to Mother Nature and do everything you can to help her!

If you feel lost, disappointed, hesitant, or weak, return to yourself, to who you are, here and now and when you get there, you will discover yourself, like a lotus flower in full bloom, even in a muddy pond, beautiful and strong.
― Masaru Emoto,

This week we are including what we hope is a treat for all of you! At the suggestion of one of our followers we are announcing NEXT week’s theme. Our host, Patti, will share “FOCUS ON THE SUBJECT” on her blog Pilotfish. Please let us know what you think – is it helpful to know the theme in advance or do you prefer to be surprised?

Finally, sincere thanks to all of you who participated in my Hideaway challenge last week. I am glad most of us have a special place where we can focus on Life and our inner thoughts. Mindfulness. As always we enjoyed your creativity and the glimpses you gave us of your own lives.

Whatever you choose to treat us with, please remember to link to Tina’s post, and to use the Lens-Artists TAG. Until then, have a lovely week and please remember to stay safe.

Thursday Thoughts – Ifö Center

/ Leya / 37 kommentarer

Since 2014 this artist run culture project has brought some of the world’s best street artists to paint and create the old ceramic factory area, Iföverken, in Bromölla. This center is located about a 45 minutes drive from where I live. So, I decided to ask some friends to join in for a guided tour.

Please come along you too! The tour will take some posts further on…so stay tuned.

In the opener you see the main outdoor painting, Abstrakt Komikz Palais by D. Brains (2017) from Ronneby, Sweden.

You can see the outdoor works for free if you stay outside the old factory’s fence. This is T-Rex, a painting by world famous Belgian artist ROA. ROA generally paints wild or urban animals and birds that are native to the area being painted. Dinosaur skeletons were found around Bromölla in Skåne, thus a T-Rex it had to be.
Boy with Stone Face by Argentinian Milu Correch (2016)

Living Room by Teresa Holmberg. There is sound and light in the ”sofas” and the glass in the pillars are made from discarded Tiffany lamps.

Mandala by Sigrid Wallskog (2018). Made from discarded ceramic pieces found at Ifö.
Thoughtprovoking and important. Dehorning by Italian Vera Bugatti (2019). Discussing the poaching of our rhinos – and is dehorning the answer to save them? Is it the same animal without a horn?
We are what we think – Buddha, Wild Drawing (WD 2019), Balinese artist based in Greece. And…a car
Hand sign by Carolina Falkholt

Finishing off the outside of this 42000 square meters’ art factory – with nature’s own art.

Hope you enjoyed the tour – it is to be continued!

Thursday Thoughts – Sketches

/ Leya / 16 kommentarer

A visit to the Museum of Sketches for Public Art ( Skissernas museum – Arkiv för dekorativ konst), also known as the Archive of Decorative Art, is indeed a pleasant visit. In the Header a suite I loved: Raoul Dufy’s La Fée Électricité (Paris 1937). The Art museum at Lund University in Sweden, is dedicated to the collection and display of sketches and drawings for contemporary monumental and public art, such as frescoes, sculpture and reliefs.

The museum contains about 25,000 items, including sketches and contest entries by leading 20th-century Swedish artists such as Isaac Grünewald, other Nordic artists and foreign artists such as Henry Moore, Diego Rivera and Henri Matisse.
Greta Garbo, KG (Karl Göte) Bejemark 1922 – 2000. Dimensions 166 x 150 x 54 cm. The big arms and feet symbolizing the big step forward. The profile is correct though…
Below the skirt…more legs of course!
The Swedish Room
Below, Mexican artists. My favorite is the first sketch, Pablo O’Higgins, Tenochtitlan libre, 1961. Then the concert room. Shot through very dirty glass.

The museum was founded in 1934 by Ragnar Josephson (1891–1966), professor of the History and Theory of Art at Lund University. Josephson wanted to collect material illuminating the creative process of the artist – not only the finished artwork itself. The collection opened to the public in 1941 in a building close to the Lund University Library.

I studied for many years in Lund, saw the sign every day, but never visited. Finally, now I did – better late than never! And it was well worth the visit.

Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #117 – A Photo Walk

/ Leya / 67 kommentarer

This week Amy is taking us on a walk – a photo walk. What a brilliant idea!

In order to distract myself and lift my spirits, we decided to go to Borås last Friday – a lovely little town we hadn’t visited for years.

They’d had a graffitti and mural festival some weeks ago, so a walk through this part of the town would be an interesting experience. And I must say I enjoyed it very much – despite the grey weather.
Leaving your garage to meet this charming lady might be a not so bad start of the day…
Alfred Nobel – I heard today that the Nobel Prize for medicine went to three scientists: Harvey J. Alter, Michael Houghton and Charles M. Rice, who discovered the virus giving hepatitis C – and making it a curable disease.
A discovery of great importance – we need more of those.
This mural was painted on a school building – It surely makes the school days brighter!
Back on the parking after an enjoyable tour – Autumn had left its mark.

The whole day I had been on the lookout for the Swan and the Fox, but it seemed nowhere to be found. I had found it on the Internet plan and was eager to see it with my own eyes too. In fact, after two hours I had given up on it by the time we were approaching the end of the walk. But, on turning right into the last street before the car park, I caught a glimpse of it in the corner of my left eye – there it was! Sitting on our left hand side, it obviously was impossible to find on our way out. So, now you too can see it, in the header. It was my favorite on this Friday walk.

As always, thank you all for your creative responses to last week’s Symmetry challenge. We enjoyed your interesting and thoughtful images for the concept. I am sorry to be a bit absent from commenting – I lost my mother in September and my mind is focused on everything connected to that. But I will be back. I am sure Patti, Tina and Amy will support you even more.

Now we look forward to seeing your results from this week’s Photo Walk. Please remember to link them to Amy’s original post here, and to Tag them Lens-Artists to be included in our reader section. Last but not least, we hope you’ll join us next week when our special guest host, Biasini, Anne Leueen’s clever horse, hosts our next challenge on her always-interesting blog Horse Addict.

Until then, stay safe and creative.

Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #116 – Symmetry

/ Leya / 85 kommentarer

Patti is our host this week, and we are asked to think about symmetry. As she explains in her instructive and beautiful post, symmetry is, and have always been, pleasing to the human eye.

The header, as well as most of these images, are from Spain. Art and architecture here has its origin from many cultures including the Moorish. A fantastic blend.

A warm Barcelona night – we stumbled upon a motorcycle gathering
More Spain – Gaudí of course! A small church or chapel, not that well known.
Nature then? I cannot have a post without being natural in some way… Bilateral symmetry, (in biology) – ”a basic body plan in which the left and right sides of the organism can be divided into approximate mirror images of each other along the midline.”
Back in Spain again – A silent monastery walk
Cervantes looking down at his heroes, Don Quixote och Sancho Panza
Finishing off with one of my favorite floors – a wooden floor found in Copenhagen – man-made. Diagonal symmetry? Or I just made that up maybe… but, symmetry can also exist in many ways in the same object, work of art or image. I like the combinatory possibilities.

Thanks to all of you in our creative community for your support, enthusiasm, and creativity.  Let’s keep inspiring each other !  Next challenge, LAPC #117 will be hosted by Amy instead of me, October 3, 2020, so don’t forget to stop by her site and join the fun.

Until then, I wish you all a wonderful, creative week – and stay safe.

Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #115 – Inspiration

/ Leya / 74 kommentarer

This week, Tina’s challenge is all about inspiration. What inspires you in life? Go to Tina’s fabulous post for more inspiration – and I am sure you will be lingering there for a while…

I am a nature person and an animal person. I prefer walking in nature and being together with animals instead of people. Nature is all inspiring and the foundation of my thoughts and choices in life. Nature is real, animals are honest and straight forward. Humans can seldom measure up to that.

When I was a child there were always cats in my home. As an adult, always dogs. They listen, they do not judge you, and they are faithfully loving till the end. I believe it is essential for a child to grow up with animals around, to watch them and to learn from them how life and death works. They teach you how you should treat everything living. Furthermore – it is a scientific truth that people feel more calm and stable with animals around. In Sweden we have specially trained dogs to go visit elderly people regularly. Some homes for the elderly have a ”house cat”.

I have met some fabulous dogs and cats over the years – here are two of my favorites.
Nature is my greatest inspiration. From glorious landscapes to its tiniest and most intricate elements.
My Swedish summer landscape, and then something from my windows – size, 7-10 mm.
Art in all its forms is inspiring – religious art, street art, everyday art… Antoni Gaudí was always inspired by nature, in my book he is the number one architect of our times.
Abstract trees and flowers in Sagrada Família. Remember that Gaudí found Nature inspiration through walks and talks with his mother.
“You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream.” – C.S. Lewis

To me, reading and books always mean inspiration, film and photography as well. There are so many things to be inspired of…what is inspiring for you?

Thank you as always for your support of, and commitment to, our challenge. We hope you’ll join us next week when Patti brings us challenge #116 on her Pilotfish blog.

Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #111 – Everyday Objects

/ Leya / 72 kommentarer

”For this week’s Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #111, we’re taking a fresh look at ordinary, everyday objects–things that you see and use in your daily life.”

Patti is our host for the challenge, and we are looking forward to seeing your creative response!

My start is the old silver box from my husband’s mother. I haven’t changed its position for the image, but, inspired by Patti, I put my garnets there, to pick up the colours of the faded rose. In the header it stands in late evening light – here in ordinary daylight. Quite a change – light and the photographer’s position sets the mood.

If you read my blog now and then, you know I have two real dogs, but also some other dogs and cats, hiding among my house plants…

These are my two favourites – both left to me by Anita, a beloved friend who passed away some years ago.

They are hiding in different places depending on what plants I have for them. The lovely blue cat was one of Anita’s special favourites – and yesterday she was hiding behind a Medinilla Magnifica. I think she loved it!

Finally, my scary friends in the blue box – always hiding – seemingly frightened – put there and painted by Lena, a very good friend of mine. Can you see just how scared they are? I even helped them look a bit shaky…

A special thanks to Tina for hosting last week’s Creativity in the Time of Covid challenge.  A great theme, that really showed us many creative ideas on how to cope with and manage these difficult times.  I think we all learned something new and picked up more tricks to stay creative throughout! Well done All of us – together we will meet the future, stronger!

Next challenge, #112, I (Ann-Christine/Leya) will be your host. Stay creative and stay well – and be kind, also to yourself.

Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #110 – Creativity in the Time of Covid

/ Leya / 73 kommentarer

“One day you will wake up and there won’t be any more time to do the things you’ve always wanted. Do it now.”

Paulo Coelho

And many of us tried, hard, this summer.

Last week we saw a tremendous amount of beautiful answers ”Under the Sun”, hosted by Amy. This week, ”We’d love you to share with us the ways you’ve fueled and satisfied your creative energies these past few months as the pandemic has restricted our ability to move freely.” And this time, Tina is our host.

When all this started, I had just visited my daughter in Umeå, and bought a fascinating  jigsaw puzzle with many house plants – most of which I some time over the years had grown in my house. And, puzzling hade not been on my mind for some 20 years…This was february, and we knew nothing about what would happen only some weeks later.

Emma’s birthday is in September, so we decided to celebrate during her summer vacation instead. She wished to take a short course in ceramics and clay work, together with some friends. I joined in as well, and we all had a creative day at the small farm, where the artist, Caroline, had her studio.

During the whole summer, Emma kept working on the costume for her graduation. She also made a prototype for sewing her leather spats. Much work, but I am sure it will look really good in January for her Big Day. Posing for me? Well, some minutes only – it was 37 degrees C that day…so fast I had to be!

For her birthday, of course I made her favorite lamb pies with lots of vegetables and fruit. For me it is a joy to cook for her when she comes home – I want to make her feel relaxed and having nothing to worry about. Being a student for so many years is tiresome – not least doing all the cooking yourself.

We did many other things togehter of course, but these were some of those that made our summer worth remembering. I think we worked on 5 puzzles at least, and we had so much to talk about and debate – things that might never have come up an ordinary summer. Summing up, this Covid summer went from hopeless to meaningful in the end.

Emma has left now for her final term, so maybe this was her last stay ”at home”. And the last puzzle we started together, I have to finish on my own. It has a name: Universe Creator, by artist Lora. Autumn is coming, and I sit in the warm evening light, looking at Lora’s painting. It shows a little girl cycling, and a giant panda blowing soap bubbles that sails through the air, making new planets and galaxies. I like that idea.

 

Finally, are you interested in learning more about about the team behind the Lens-Artists Challenge?  If so, we invite you to visit TCHistorygal.net where you’ll find our recent interview with Marsha Ingrao of Always Write. It was great working with Marsha and being a part of her Artists’ Interview series. We thank her sincerely for her efforts on our behalf.

We hope you’ll join us next week for Patti’s challenge #111. Until then, take care and stay safe.