Gouache and watercolors are like sisters and brothers. In a way, you can say that gouache is like the strong brother and watercolor is the intelligent pretty sister. While gouache is up for some action, watercolor wants to flirt in the old fashion way. Although they are both water-based, after you have had a… Read More
Choose Your Paint Brushes I am sketching upstairs in this lovely cafe in Mae Hong Son. (January 2020) We went on a small airplane from Chang Mai to Mae Hong Son which has a tiny airport with just two flights per day. (In Thailand) Of course I brought my watercolors brushes and paints and there were… Read More
Sketching in a bar with a view over the Nam Ou River (“rice bowl river”) in Laos Last spring I went to Laos, now one year later I feel extremely lucky to have made the trip to Asia just like we planed it to go. My favorite part of the 14 weeks must be the river trips in… Read More
You can use your favourite coffee to create beautiful art work Happy New Year everyone! This week I have been painting with coffee to prepare for my students´ home assignments. I work in a culture school in Norway teaching kids and teenagers art. And, like a lot of the places in the world we are… Read More
Sketching or camera? A journey is special. A few days in a special place, that you want to remember for as long as possible. Sketching is a great alternative to the camera. It is much easier to take a photo, but it is so much more rewarding to make a sketch or painting. Pointing a… Read More
Chiang Mai is a lovely city up in the north of Thailand. I went on a fantastic trip from January till March. I was very lucky to get to visit South East Asia before the Coronavirus shut down the world. There, my partner and I came across a wonderful quirky museum just outside the old city in Chang… Read More
Wat Phan Tao Sometimes you are just lucky and we were lucky to get to Chiang Mai before Corona hit Europa. Thailand is full of surprises every day has something new to offer, Chiang Mai is a lovely city up in the north of Thailand. Our visit to Wat Phan Tao coincided with a Buddhist ceremony… Read More
Hello everybody! Before leaving Thailand we wanted to get a good guidebook for Laos. We couldn’t find any at the bookstores in the town, but we found Peter from Germany who has converted a couple of rooms of his home into a secomd hand book store with books in German, French Scandinavian and lots of… Read More
My first 20 days in Thailand has been great What an amazing day tour of the area around Mai Hong Son where we visited hill tribe villages with coffee and tea plantations, teak forest, a bamboo bridge to a temple, a waterfall, a fish cave a short visit to Myanmar and more. Many of the… Read More
Here is a very cool place it visit in Bangkok, especially if you like cats. Here is a little postcard from Thailand. At the moment I am travelling around Asia for some time. I been inspired to make some new drawings, I have used my iPad for these illustrations. My favourite app for artworks is… Read More
What to look for in a watercolor brush and why Hello, hello! Have you noticed this? That the nice thing about watercolors is that you don’t really have to spend much money to get started. You can choose from a good selection of good quality supplies. Luckily in watercolors, it is not difficult to find cheap… Read More
Scary, sweet peppers – the perfect Halloween-meal! Hello! Everybody. I found another Norwegian called Eva living in France, really close to the Matisse house in Vence and she will be guest posting here today. Eva has a great blog (in Norwegian) She is posting beautiful photos and mouth-watering recipes based on the ingredients available in her… Read More
Hello, everybody! Here we are in the Matisse Villa in Vence again. Today most people have gone on the tour to see the Picasso “War and Peace” Chapel and pottery museum beside it. This week all the students are Norwegian, so we are doing the classes in Norsk instead of English. If you like… Read More
It is under a month until we are in Vence again?? There are so many things to look forward to but one of my favorites is the Salad Niçoise. You will find lots of discussion about what goes into a salad Niçoise. My recipe uses only local ingredients But what makes this salad unusual is… Read More
A peep behind the scenes. It is time to introduce you to Gerry In 2015 Gerry and I started this blog and in 2017 we held the first painting classes in Vence in France. Gerry looks after the catering and I am teaching. Everything else we do together. Gerry is Irish and currently lives in… Read More
What is your hobby? What hobbies do artists have? Me, I am in Second Life. It is Summer and I am so happy to be in Dublin now. If you follow me you know I love sketchbooks, the painting above is a painting of my favorite places in Temple bar. This pub means a lot to me… Read More
Achieving the perfect setup for watercolor painting. Today I am reposting my most popular post ever, about how to make your painting experience as comfortable and natural as possible. I love teaching and blogging and I truly believe that art is for everybody. I am all about the importance of practicing creativity as a healthy lifestyle. So today… Read More
LoveIs Is Art A marvelous friendly place for excellent coffee and music in Ireland. ??? We were taking a shortcut down a back street and stumbled upon the cutest little coffee shop hidden away just on the edge of Dublin’s busy shopping area. It is at: 3 Great Strand Street ( Dublin 1) It’s one of… Read More
* Villa Le Reve – Villa “The Dream”. Henri Matisse at the villa Le Reve Hello, everybody! So, I’m back home and a week has gone by, and I feel so lucky to go on these Art Retreats I hold in the villa Le Reve in France. I love going there for so many reasons.… Read More
What is the best watercolor paper? Here we are in the middle of a busy and very enjoyable week here in the south of France. Weather is perfect, well almost, a little cool in the mornings and evenings. There is a TV team from “France Arte” to make a documentary about Henri Matisse living in Nice… Read More