Three or more Tuesday favorite paintings

Since I was a child I had an interest in the arts. My father followed painting lessons in the local academy and saw him do his paintings in the evenings and in the weekends. I have one memory of me being a model for him. He took me on his bike to class on a cold february evening. I remember the hot burning coal stove and the fact that I was wearing my hair in a ponytail. That I had it in a ponytail was special since my mom always braided my hair . I hated that and it was very special for me that I could have it in a ponytail. Helas the portrait of me is gone missing in the last 15 years.
The painting above is one of my fathers paintings. He was not a great artist but this painting is double special to me. He made it when I was 9 and it depicts his hometown seen from the little mount there was. It's called "Bilzen seen from the Borreberg". It hangs in my hall and I love the cool winter theme and the understated colors.

This second painting I found in a fleamarket. It costed almost nothing. It's painted on a wood panel and the frame is black with handpainted tiny golden stars. I believe it is at least 100 years old. It only costed about 60 dollars but I am in love with it. It has such charm. I love paintings with black and white cows on it. A reminder of my father being a farmers son??

The third and last painting I found in a second hand shop. It's big, almost 27¨ square.

It stood there in the second hand shop with a very havy gold frame on it. I immediatly say its potential. The painting is very well done and I love the braekfast scene on it. The eggs, the bread and the herings, the jug of milk and the cup and the Sanseveria plant. This plant was once's in every household. I remember my mother having one too. It is very strong and if your lucky it blooms once a year with one big stem of Ammaryllis type flowers. The painted costed about 150 dollars but I think it is worth every cent. It is the perfect picture for our kitchen wall.

Three or more cat paintings

Today, my big boy, Jack, the first Maine Coon I ever bought is celebrating his 10th birthday. He is the kind of cat you don't want. He sprays, even after being castrated for 9 years of his life and he is not the cuddle type that sits on your lap.But never the less (and only other catlovers can understand) I love him dearly.
So, to celebrate this birthday I show you my collection of cat pictures that I collected over the years. This is the cat picture wall, situated in the cat room. As a catbreeder I needed a room for the cats for when they are sick or pregnant or for when I have kittens. So when the children left the house a small bedroom was rearrangd to accomodate the cats.

This and the picture below are the work of Elie Harper. Her husband is very famous in the US and I love these funny catpictures that hang in our living room.

On the above a cat is looking at the snow outside, peeping from under the blinds

This second one from Elie Harper is a cat looking trough a fish bowl.

The work of this lady is totally different. On the cat picture wall I have two other small painting of her. She works a lot in green and depicts a lot of cats. Her name is Sarah Kiser. The other two pictures are on the top left in the cat room. You see immediatly the likeness to these two pictures.

This could be a painting of Jack but it is not. When I saw this one on Ebay I absolutely wanted it. All these pictures come from the USA and are all bought trough Ebay.

A very small painting only as big as a postcard.

This one, also from Ebay, also reminded me of Jack somehow and it was given to me for my birthday by my daughter.

Jack, darling, I love you and I wish you a very happy birthday. Tonight before bedtime we will celebrate with a few cans of tuna. Together with your 10 other friend we will make a party!

Tree or more Tuesday Bird bronzes

Last week I told you about a beautiful bronze statue of a bird on a wheat ear that was hidden in the last birdcage of that blog.

My husband and I where trilled about this silver wedding anniversary gift from our family.

The bronze is from the well know French artist André Vincent Becquerel.
We came across his bird bronzes by accident. A few years before this gift was made to us, my mother and I where at an antiques fair and all of the sudden we saw a bronze statue of a branch with 4 birds on. Its black base lay beside it. We where both immediatly atracted by it.

The base was signed by the letters AV Becquerel. We never heard of this artist before but since the bronze was not too expensive I advised my mother to buy it. Since that day it stands proudly on her coffee table and everybody loves it.
My younger brother, the man he is, wanted to know more about that Becquerel.
He surched and surched the internet but there is not much to be found. We see his work regulary at auctions and on Ebay and so, but he seems not to be a major artist.

There are two versions of his day of birth. Sometimes you see the date 1880 to 1940. On other websites you see 1893 t0 1981. Much of his work has influences of the Art Deco period so I would personaly rather go for the latter date. He has exhibited in Paris in the period between 1914 and 1922. That then again suggests rather the earlyer birthday since he only would have been 21 years old when he exhibited in 1914... I stays a mystery.

We have discoverd some other beautiful other sculptures of him, like leaping fish, deer, lioness and his famous panthers. He also made some bird booksupports and some radiator caps depictings dogs and hares. All these sculptures are much more Art Deco in style then the birds. But we mainly love his bird sculptures.

My brother was so fasinated by the bird bronze of my mother that he looked out for them and managed to find and buy some more. He knew I loved the one my mom bought and one day he found the one with the bird on the wheat ear in a small antique shop. First he offered me to buy it from him and I accepted that offer. Then when I wanted to give him the money he refused to sell it to me. I was very disappointed in him but afterwords of cause we found out that in the mean time the family had decided to gift it to us for our silver wedding anniversary.

So this one became the first I owned.

Of course I wanted some more... Trough Ebay I found the other once. The second one in the house where the seagulls on the waves...It is a common subject for Becquerel since I know of at least two other sculptures with gulls.

After a few years I saw this small one on the French Ebay site and bought it after asking my brother if he was also going to bid on it. We tell each other if there is another Becquerel on Ebay and we decide amoung us who is going to bid for it. We never bid against each other. Last september I found this big one with the whole flock of birds on a branch and managed to buy it. I weights a ton. But I love it so much.
A month agoo I found the last one. This is a sweety too. Look how graceful the grass bows and see the little snail that is crawling up the stem?

The birdies are just fledgelings.They look so young with hardly any feathers, huddled together looking at the snail that is crawling up to them. This bronze is more Art Deco in style than the other ones.
After I maneged to buy this one I said, now I have enough sculptures.I have no more place to put them...but I know I at least have my eye on two more. My mothers sculpture and the one with the birds picking cherry's that I managed to lose on Ebay. So I am saving up again for the next upportunity....

Dierbare kunst Precious art

Ik zal jullie een hoekje van onze keuken laten zien.


Toen we zo'n maand geleden alles geverfd hebben moest en zou de decoratie ook veranderd worden en zoals men zegt alles komt terug. Zo zijn ook deze oude puddingvormen terug uit de kelder opgediept. Het zijn de allereerste brocante dingetjes die ik zo'n 25 jaar geleden gekocht heb. Ze hebben al eerder jaren in de keuken gehangen maar bij de vorige make-over zijn ze naar de kelder verhuisd. En nu zijn ze weet terug!

De tekening die eronder hangt is het geboortehuis van mijn overgrootmoeder. Zij had een heel bekend café in Hasselt dat nog altijd bestaat. Zo'n 10 jaar geleden is de zijgevel naar beneden gestort maar het huis is weer heropgebouwt en er is nog altijd een café in. Dat nu al voor meer dan 100 jaar. De tekening is van een kunstenaar uit de buurt van Hasselt, Steven. Hij heeft het huis speciaal voor mij getekend en ik kreeg het van m'n ouders kado toen we 25 jaar getrouwd waren. Daarom wilde ik graag ten allen prijze laten hangen in m'n keuken.



Aan de andere zijde van de keuken hangt dit olieverfschilderij. Een van de weinige vonsten dat ik deed in een tweedehands zaak.Het kostte maar 125 euro en het zat in een zwaar massief houten, gouden lijst.
Deze lijst maakte het schilderij echter te massief voor de keuken. Daar had ik het nochthans altijd willen hangen want met z'n onderwerp van brood, eieren en koffie is het voor een keuken gemaakt.
Nu zonder zijn lijst is het perfect op z'n plaats in de frisgeverfde keuken.




There for I want you to see a bit of my kitchen. On the wall are the old pudding moulds that spend years in the cellar. They where the very first brocante things I ever bougth.

After being on the wall for a length of time they disappeared to the cellar to be hung up again after we painted the kitchen last month.

The drawing beneath is is a drawing of the pub of my great grandmother. It still stands even after more then 100 years and it is still a pub. The artist, Steven drew it especially for me, so it had to be back on the kitchen wall at all cost. My parents gave it to us for our silver wedding anniversary.

The other painting hangs at the opposite wall of the kitchen and is one of the few good buys fron the second hand shop. It came with a massive wooden and gilded frame that was far to heavy for my kitchen. I love this oilpainting and with its subject of eggs, coffee and bread it was made for a kitchen.
Without its massive wooden frame it is perfect on this wall.