Creative work is a good way to get the best quality of life

Especially if it's painting.  I am working on a painting for a sweet and super strong lady in Denmark but in between I get ideas for other stories.  This is a work in progress and a story about a couple of children WHO live in a lighthouse and are looking for their parents.

 

There is not a direct link between the painting and my personal life but on a higher level - or deeper - a connection maybe.  As some of you know my beloved mother is gravely ill with cancer and part of my painting is about supporting her - using happiness therapy and colours.  Mum is the most creative and productive person I know.  She is a fantastic painter,  weaver, potterer if that's a word, knitter, felter you name it.  Or she was until she got ill. Now painting for her (and with her in my heart) is a source of great help and therapy - for us both I think. She has taught me so much  - so much.
 
She always supported me in being myself.  No more no less. I didn't have to live up to my siblings' great careers or anything as long as I do the best I possibly can in whatever I choose she is there.  When I got very ill almost 19 years ago and had to rethink my plans for the future - my ambitions in life - she said: Sussi, I think they call it life - grap it.

 

I chose to focus primarily on my family and my health.  Developing my own style of painting by taking courses and of course practicing. A lot.  Doing charity work and later on specialising in my academic field (of education and psychology and teaching in creative ways).

Little did I know that I would later have to nurse ill family members and that painting would be instrumental in that.

But there you are. 

Preparing for the April exhibition

The green landscape painting is acrylic and a work in progress. I am mixing textures and materials to test out depth and intensity

My new career in tattoo drawing!?!

I have the pleasure to inspire a lovely lady.  She has copied a section of a card I've made and had it tattooed behind the ear.

Lovely

Just so ya'll know - just because I'm Danish it doesn't mean I don't love giraffes

As most of you know I collect giraffes - not real ones, even though I wish I could. I have a whole collection of giraffe themed paintings and you will see if you look closely that may of my micro paintings have a little giraffe lurking about.

 

I am of course sad about Marius in CPH Zoo

 

 

 

Whatever is the point

People ask me why I focus on the little things when there are so many huge problems in the world.

My answer is simple... The most powerful feeling in the world is HOPE even when the world seems to fall apart and there appears to be no way forward, we still for no apparent reason and with a minimum of encouragement, hope. A snowdrop peaking through the snow, the favourite teacup, the silly necklace the children made in preschool. A sunset burning purple on a fiery sky, the sudden smell of pancakes as you walk past a cafe in an unfamiliar place.

Hope is the little thing that makes the big things happen.

That's why, when people lose hope - they lose the faith in the future. For that moment. And sometimes all it takes is your favourite colour, a happy memory, the sight of something happy...

I paint happy pictures because the world is nasty. "I think they call it life" my grandmother used to say. She was right.

The last almost 20 years I have given support to sick people, nursed critically ill family members and coached human beings afraid to teach... And what I've learned is that the power of colours and memories can heal the soul and egnite hope where it's been lost.

So when I paint everydaylife it's because that's where it starts.

I paint for smiles.
Happiness therapy. And I exhibit my interpretations where they are needed. Dentist practices, doctor's, hospitals, hospices schools, old people's homes. Places that are in need of a good story wrapped up in happy colours.

So there....

 

Bigger than life

Declarations of love :-)

A total of 46 hours ten of which ten went to do the skies. I am actually super proud of them. My intention was to show the warmth of the love between two special people as well as the mystery of futures

7 hours and counting...

The larger the area the more difficult it is to achieve  a smooth transition between colours. .. If that's what you are going for. .. In this painting I am looking for both seamless transitions and motion. .. A breathtaking declaration of love like a beating heart. To do that I need the sky to be just so.

The sky

Took me more than three hours of work to do the sky of this picture. Six layers still three to go. Watercolours are a temperamental medium and getting it right is a balancing act. 

I can't overstate the importance of good materials and patience.  Never stint on paper quality and always buy artist's colours if you can afford it at all