watercolour

François Henri Galland

Tuesday 22 July, 2014 · 6

last week i hung some pictures in our apartment. Anton has lived there since 2010 and i moved in a few years ago – and till last week there were hardly any pictures up. which is crazy, right? considering how much i love art and surrounding myself with it. i guess it’s harder when there are two of you, and you have to compromise on what both of you like (and where it should go!) anyway now that those first few pics are up things are starting to snowball, and my thoughts are occupied with filling all the blank spaces.

i want to find something awesome for above our bed – and i’m vacillating between some smaller pictures or one HUGE piece that can fits over the entire headboard. when i saw these images by artist François Henri Galland i thought they would look amazing on a massive scale. they are also just the right amount of dreamy and unnerving.

Kim McCarty

Monday 9 June, 2014 · 6

i love the watercolours of artist Kim McCarty.

Working rapidly, at times using only a single color and at others a haunting, bruise-inspired palette of acid yellows, greens, and browns, McCarty’s portraits evoke the sense of uncertainty, ambivalence, anxiety, and loss with which we view today’s generation.

365 Postcards for Ants

Thursday 13 February, 2014 · 19

Lorraine Loots is an artist based in Cape Town who wrapped a highly successful project called 365 Paintings for Ants at the end of 2013. as you can guess from the title, Lorraine painted a tiny painting every day for 365 days and, well, you have hopefully seen that scene which explains the name. she posted a painting every day on Tumblr and Instagram (where you can browse all 365 paintings in the archive). most of the time the subject stemmed from her own imagination, but as it gained momentum people booked dates that were special to them and commissioned paintings, like this portrait of Ron Swanson painted for a couple who got engaged after an episode of Parks and Recreation.

i enjoyed seeing such a talented person’s dedication to her work being celebrated in local blogs and magazines, and all over social media, and i wondered what Lorraine was going to do when she had finished. well, she’s not stopping. 365 Postcards for Ants is the next phase of the project, celebrating Cape Town in honour of it being the 2014 World Design Capital.

be sure to read this wonderful interview by Lior Phillips to learn more about Lorraine and her work. you can follow the new project on her Instagram & Tumblr and you can also book a painting if you’d like to own one of these tiny delights.

paintings c/o Lorraine Loots. video by Gareth Pon. photographs by Frances Marais for MBLife.

Olga Inoue

Wednesday 10 July, 2013 · 6

Olga Inoue is a teacher turned artist living in Moscow who creates many things including beautiful watercolours, hand-carved stamps, sweet objects & jewellery, delicate pottery and also lovely photographs.

my inspiration is nature, children, the way they see things and talk. their art. countries, weather, changing seasons. and words i hear from people, i’m very sensitive, so i can be moved easily, inspired by anything. *

you can find out more about her at her website and blog & you can also buy her work at etsy.