My Things, Tote Bag

oil on canvas panel - Öl auf Malplatte - huile sur carton entoilé
15 cm x 15 cm / 5,9" x 5,9"
sold - verkauft - vendu

This bag is "one of a kind" which my dear friend Francesca Spille made for me a few years ago. She is a very creative artist, not only in regard to her paintings and photographs but to life in general. I absolutely LOVE the design of this tote bag.
Check out Francesca's flickr site.

My Things, Red Bouclé Jacket

oil on canvas panel - Öl auf Malplatte - huile sur carton entoilé
15 cm x 15 cm / 5,9" x 5,9"
sold - verkauft - vendu

I am a fan of figure hugging little jackets. This is my favorite one - bright red and made of snugly bouclé wool.

My Things, Russian Hat

oil on canvas panel - Öl auf Malplatte - huile sur carton entoilé
15 cm x 15 cm / 5,9" x 5,9"
Buy it here

Again, it has become quite cold here - a rare occasion to wear my Russian hat.

My Things, White Shirt

oil on canvas panel - Öl auf Malplatte - huile sur carton entoilé
15 cm x 15 cm / 5,9" x 5,9"
Buy it here

Plain, classic and of good cotton - a white shirt like that is essential!

My Things, Bra

oil on canvas panel - Öl auf Malplatte - huile sur carton entoilé
15 cm x 15 cm / 5,9" x 5,9"
sold - verkauft - vendu

I am quite happy with this one. The semi-abstract quality of it is something I would like to achieve more often.

My Things, Canvas Cap

oil on canvas panel - Öl auf Malplatte - huile sur carton entoilé
15 cm x 15 cm / 5,9" x 5,9"
sold - verkauft - vendu

This cap is a souvenir from one of the yearly Fashion Fairs I sometimes worked at when I still lived in Cologne, in Germany. The dummy is called Oskar, a little boy who serves me as a valet stand and is usually loaded with all sorts of stuff.

My Things, Rain Boots

oil on canvas panel - Öl auf Malplatte - huile sur carton entoilé
15 cm x 15 cm / 5,9" x 5,9"
sold - verkauft - vendu

With these boots I look fairly "elegant" even in pouring rain. This is my personal favourite of this series so far - I am very pleased with how it turned out.

My Things, French Skirt

oil on canvas panel - Öl auf Malplatte - huile sur carton entoilé
15 cm x 15 cm / 5,9" x 5,9"
sold - verkauft - vendu

The title of this painting is due to my husband saying this looks like half the tricolore. Apart from that it actually is French made.

My Things, Levi's

oil on canvas panel - Öl auf Malplatte - huile sur carton entoilé
15 cm x 15 cm / 5,9" x 5,9"
sold - verkauft - vendu

I can't imagine life without a pair of good, classic Levi's jeans.

My Things, Norwegian Pullover

oil on canvas panel - Öl auf Malplatte - huile sur carton entoilé
15 cm x 15 cm / 5,9" x 5,9"
sold - verkauft - vendu

This is not really Norwegian - I bought it in Southern Spain of all places!
It's the mixture of southern colours and northern patterns that appeals to me.

My Things, Pile of Pullovers

oil on canvas panel - Öl auf Malplatte - huile sur carton entoilé
15 cm x 15 cm / 5,9" x 5,9"
Buy it here

A while ago I met an art expert from a prestigious auction house in Paris, who explained to me that he can see at first glance which country a painting comes from, depending on the main colour that was used. Apparently the german colour is green and he was not surprised to hear that I am half german when he saw a few of my paintings - I love green. He hated green....

My Things, Pashmina Shawl

oil on canvas panel - Öl auf Malplatte - huile sur carton entoilé
15 cm x 15 cm / 5,9" x 5,9"
sold - verkauft - vendu

What can I say? Just a nice shawl of mine.

My Things, Vintage Handbag

oil on canvas panel - Öl auf Malplatte - huile sur carton entoilé
15 cm x 15 cm / 5,9" x 5,9"
sold - verkauft - vendu

This was a Christmas gift my painting class pupils gave to me a few years ago.
It is small and sweet and has a nice patina.

My Things, Patent Leather Shoes

oil on canvas panel - Öl auf Malplatte - huile sur carton entoilé
15 cm x 15 cm / 5,9" x 5,9"
sold - verkauft - vendu

I have had these for more than ten years - they go with nearly anything and always look good! As the women among you know - it's the shoes that make the outfit!

Siorac on a Frosty Day

oil on canvas panel - Öl auf Malplatte - huile sur carton entoilé
15 cm x 15 cm / 5,9" x 5,9"
Buy it here

Our little village "Siorac de Riberac" with its romanesque church, as seen from our house.

Coure in Winter

oil on canvas panel - Öl auf Malplatte - huile sur carton entoilé
15 cm x 15 cm / 5,9" x 5,9"
Buy it here

Still very cold...
But at least it was possible to go shopping for food which was really necessary. The snow is slowly disappearing, as you can see on this painting.

Cold Outside

oil on canvas panel - Öl auf Malplatte - huile sur carton entoilé
15 cm x 15 cm / 5,9" x 5,9"
Buy it here

Still very cold, still trapped at home, but at least we did get some new wood today! (No problem with a truck)
It's supposed to get warmer tomorrow and we will hopefully be ably to do some grocery shopping - slowly but surely we are running out of supplies.

Winter Sun

oil on canvas panel - Öl auf Malplatte - huile sur carton entoilé
15 cm x 15 cm / 5,9" x 5,9"
sold - verkauft - vendu

We still haven't been able to go anywhere, but my sweet husband managed to keep the fire going somehow - he miraculously found a huge log he had stored years ago in an overgrown corner of our property. So, with four layers of clothes and lots of mugs of hot tea, we are actually doing better than expected. And... the sun even came out for a while! We keep our fingers crossed for tomorrow.
By the way, this is an oak tree that still has it's leaves in spite of very stormy winds we've had - amazing.

Garden in White

oil on canvas panel - Öl auf Malplatte - huile sur carton entoilé
15 cm x 15 cm / 5,9" x 5,9"
sold

Again we are snowed in, this time luckily at home and not out somewhere. Just hope the snow will melt until tomorrow, so that we can go and buy some petroleum for our little burner... and - there's not much wood left either. It has been impossible to get in touch with the wood deliverer over the last days. I guess he's very, very busy and doesn't even answer the phone anymore. Living in Southwest France we thought, we didn't really need a central heating. Well, that has proven to be wrong!

My Boots

oil on canvas panel - Öl auf Malplatte - huile sur carton entoilé
15 cm x 15 cm / 5,9" x 5,9"
Buy it here

After all these days of festivities, visitors and other oddities, which threw me out of my routine, I am finding it a bit difficult to get back into the flow of daily painting. Hopefully that will soon change... This painting is a tribute to my fantastic, comfortable winter boots that supported me so well on an unforseen long walk through snow and ice two days ago. We were stranded in Ribérac, about 8 km from home, due to a very sudden heavy snowfall. The roads turned into skating rinks within minutes and there was no way of using the car (we did try, but had to give up). So we decided to leave it in town and walk home, instead of sitting around there doing nothing. It went better than I thought, as we are not great walkers - it took us about an hour and a half. Encouraged by that we then even returned on foot in the afternoon when we saw the snow melting and picked up the car. By then, the day was over and I was certainly too exhausted to paint!

Rip Hopkins

oil on canvas panel - Öl auf Malplatte - huile sur carton entoilé
15 cm x 15 cm / 5,9" x 5,9"
Buy it here

Not only does the cultural centre in our small town Ribérac organize a great music festival every summer (Le Grand Souk), but it also invites very good photographers as artists in residence for three months every two years. I have already portrayed two of them ( see Claudia Terstappen, "The Photographer" and Delphine Balley "Delphine") and follow that tradition now with a portrait of Rip Hopkins who is working on an exhibition and a book about the English people living in this area at the moment.

Comfy Cushions

oil on canvas panel - Öl auf Malplatte - huile sur carton entoilé
15 cm x 15 cm / 5,9" x 5,9"
sold - verkauft - vendu

Have I actually ever mentioned that I am a fan of stripes? Well, here's an example of it on my creased sofa.

Flowers for the New Year

oil on canvas panel - Öl auf Malplatte - huile sur carton entoilé
15 cm x 15 cm / 5,9" x 5,9"
sold - verkauft - vendu

To me this beautiful bouquet of champagne roses seemed the perfect decoration to greet the new year. Abundant and delicate at the same time. Have a wonderful year 2010 everybody!