Artwork of the week

What can I say ??? Thank you again to Artfair 365 for nominating my poppy image as Artwork of the week !! In September one of my paintings had the same priviliege...mmm...I feel xtremeley honored !! Thank youuuuuuuuuuu !!

My Sunday movie

When I was a little girl growing up in Barcelona my grandfather used to take us to the cinema on many Sunday afternoons, his love for the cinema was seriously catchy. The excitement of looking through the Sunday papers to decide which movie we should go and see, the getting there and queuing round the block with other cinema goers, buckets of sweet popcorn , the lovely comfy big red velvet seats, the trailers, intro music and the images on a big screen that would take you to another world, yes , that's where my love of film and cinema started and a tradition that somehow it has stayed with me through my teens, twenties and to this day... whatever country I'm at, weather is in the cinema or at home it has become a some sort of Sunday ritual, which I see as my little treat of the week that takes me to somewhere else to either learn from or dream about. This Sunday my treat was a Wes Anderson film, The Darjeeling Limited . A soul searching film set in India with the fabulous Owen Wilson and Adrien Brody, the lighting and camera angles contribute to a visual feast by the cinematographer Rober Yeoman as so do the costumes and set designs. I totally recommend this film if you enjoyed the Royal Tenenbauns and The life Aquatic with Steve Zissou.

Gregory Crewdson in Lndn !

When I first discovered Gregory Crewdson was at uni @ a lecture. I was totally fascinated by the images shown to us on the slide show that afternoon, which was from Crewdsons' Twilight series. From that day on he has become one of my favourite photographers of all time.His images have a dreamlike feel, Lynch and Hitchcock coming to mind as does Edward Hopper. Complicated sets lit by large crews of 15-20 people can take three to four days , Crewdson himself directing most of the time whilst somebody else takes charge of clicking the shutter.Today I'm so excited to read that there 's currently an exhibition of his work at the White cube gallery in London.

The exhibition runs till 24 May...enjoy !

Retro cool?

What can I say?? There's a few of us out there that as teenagers grew up wearing the good old Converse trainers and many years on as grown ups are still wearing them!!...We all have them in different colours, old and new and can't part away from them or is it that still feels good to have that free spirit & unconventional feeling once in a while that takes us away from the everyday mundane routine ? Personally it works 4 me!

Book day & Sant Jordi

Today is a day in the calendar that I miss most for not being in Barcelona.The 23 rd of April it's a day of two celebrations, Sant Jordi ( St George's day ) where roses are given as a sign of love and book day when gift books are exchanged with friends and family.The centre of Barcelona is full of bookseller and red rose stands which by early evening the streets are full of smiles, laughter, music, people walking in the streets with handful of books on their way to hook up with friends for evening drinks also to celebrate it with those of the name Jordi too.This evening there's a very important football match, Barcelona V Manchester United semi- final, which will another reason to have a party and have fun....Oh well, I'll just have to do with going to my local bookstore and get myself a book...Happy Book day and Feliz dia de Sant Jordi!

Fruit & Veg

Having been talking about my mini- organic garden that I've started cultivating over the weekend, I thought these images would follow the post quite appropriately ( which I've also added them to my shop and website. ).

My weekends ( now )

Having been living in cities most of my life, I'm a city girl at heart, or I thought so...

My weekends in London would consist of : Saturday morning brunch in Notting Hill catching up with friends, a stroll in Portobello Market buying some exotic fruit & veg, evenings at a pub, dinner or funky party, Sundays checking out a gallery, movie or stroll in the Park .Since I've been living in the countryside it has taken me a long time to adjust to another way of life...until recently !!..now I'm starting to embrace this peaceful way of life and learning new things that nature has to offer by planting a range of fruit & vegetables ( organic lifestyle in my own doorstep) I can tell you I never thought I would enjoy it so much and finding it so rewarding watching every day how a tomato plant grows even baking my own wheat free bread is a delight, it makes me realize how we take so many things for granted in life, I now see life in a different way.

I know that a lot of people that know me very well when reading this will be very astonished ...I am too...then again...I think I might have to pop into London ..next week?..

Thinking of summer..

This afternoon I was finally able to find a couple of hours to update my web page inArt Fair 365 .

Thinking of summer time ( I know, I cant wait !) I decided to add these Daisy images to make this Blog more colourful. They were flowers in my garden last year and now I'm just waiting eagerly to have all my flowers and veggies growing again in my garden pots .

Cambridge @ the weekend

After all these months of madness & non- stop working ( not complaining though) it was utterly fantastic to be able to get away for 48 hrs at the weekend! Matt and I had a lovely time in Cambridge, although a shame for the rain, but managed to get a few pics, check out some nice bookstores and cake shops too...back at the studio now feeling re-energized for the months ahead..

Linda McCartney exhibition

Paul McCartney and children in the family home

Self- Portrait by Linda McCartney

On the 25 April this month -19 July there's going to be an exhibition of Linda McCartney's Photographs from 1960's-1990's at James Hyman Gallery in London. I have always loved her work and admired her for what she believed in.This exhibition seems like a great opportunity to see images rarely seen before. Another exhibition on my "must visit this month "list!

Climate change in 7 hours

It was early this morning, 7 a.m , when I woke up. Feeling cold I looked out of the window to see my backyard full of snow !!! I couldn't believe it !! we had just been sitting in the garden re- potting some plants only yesterday!!..Well it is now 2 pm ( same day yes, hard to believe ! ) it is lovely sunny day just like Spring and the snow has partly disappeared !! you can just about see a little bit of snow left on the image below, if not you would all thought I was telling stories ...

Giftware Review

This morning I was delighted to see my Apple blossom image in the Giftware Review magazine in the "Best in Show " page from Top Drawer exhibition at Earls court back in January.
Thank You !

Vanity Fair Portraits Exhibition

Gloria Swanson By Edward Steichen

If you are in London this weekend and are looking for some exciting exhibitions to go and visit and get you out of the cold and rain, I suggest the current show at the National Portrait Gallery.A fabulous collection of images showing 150 photographs featured in Vanity Fair Magazine from 1913-present day.Images by some of the most renowned photographers of the twentieth century such as Man Ray and Cecil Beaton together with contemporary ones such as Herb Rits, Mario Testino, Annie Leibovittz, Helmut Newton and more.The exhibition runs till 26 May, so plenty of time to see it.I'm going to try next weekend, hopefully.
For more information see here.

Run DMC by Jonas Karlsson

Hanami

Apparently today is the official start of Hanami festival in Japan.A couple of weeks of celebrations occur day and night in the parks to celebrate the Cherry Blossom Season.The tradition is to have picnics, drink Sate and sing Karaoke with family and friends, how much fun ! I wish I could transport myself to Japan for the day and experience this lovely tradition.If anyone has any photos of this event and would like to share them please email me, in the meantime you can see more here.

Paris, Je T'Aime too !!

Well now that I have got into my Blogging again, I thought I'd share with you a great movie that I saw over this Easter weekend.It was snowing outside so it was a great opportunity to indulge in cups of tea, cake and a good movie! I totally fell in love with this fantastic movie Paris, Je T'Aime.A great concept showing a variety of short, clever, lovely and some quirky love stories set in Paris by some of the worlds renowned film directors such as the Cohen Brothers and Wes Craven with a cast to die for including some of my favourites; Juliette Binoche, Bob Hoskins, Nick Nolte, Gerad Depardieu, William Dafoe and Maggie Gyllenhaal to name a short few!
For those of you that love French movies, Amelie being a favourite and can put up with subtitles for a couple of hours this movie is a must!.

Berlin memories...

Remains of the Berlin Wall

Holocaust Memorial The Reichstag

Having been absent for a couple of weeks enclosed in my studio working 24/7 I'm glad to comeback to my blogging and think of other things other than work, orders, deliveries etc...

Looking at the previous post it made me reminiscence of my time in Berlin so I searched for some images that I took when I was there that for me represent Berlin, its history and development in many ways.I think the images speak for themselves.

Berlin and an afternoon with Annie Leibovitz

Annie Leibovitz

It was a couple of years ago I was in Berlin on a cold, quiet Sunday afternoon covered with a thick carpet of snow exploring the cobbled side streets ( which for me it is the best way to discover a city walking and seeing what surprises the city gives you) when I came across this very quiet street...in the distance I could see a lot of people going into a building with a lovely courtyard...I had to follow and investigate what was the event being held, to my great joy my exploring had given me my wonderful surprise -An exhibition of Annie Leibovitz Photographs !! I had to go in an see...I was mesmerized but the whole experience having just been a couple of hours in this city full of history where I was standing with my shoes fool of snow, warming up in this lovely little Gallery with unknown location to me, admiring in front of me an amazing collection of Photographs by one of the best photographers in the world !!

This morning I was reading an article in one of the weekend papers about the new documentary filmed by her sister (Barbara Leibovitz) following Annie at work for a year, brought this great moment back that I shall never forget!
Film tittle - Life Through a Lens