Wednesday, May 23, 2012

"My second trip to Berlin, Aug 2011"

Hi everyone! 
I want to share with you today, my second visit to Berlin in August/September last year, 2011.

I only went for 4 days this time and I went to see my son Glenn's mural that he had been commissioned to do, along with other artists to put up a mural each on the entrance archway to the Fellini art gallery in Berlin.  I wanted to be there for the preview show of the opening of the exhibition which had many artists and the muralists combined. 

Glenn had been working on this mural for quite a while and had sent several updates every few days and it was such a feat as it is all done in coloured pencils! And when you think that whatever about doing a drawing this size on paper but this was on a stone wall  and so amazing and he certainly used up many, many pencils! 

Per usual, I was nervous going off over, flying on my own but I made it ok and Glenn met me per usual. He had moved address from the previous time so he showed me around the new area, the weather being good, it was lovely.

The mural was fantastic! I love the 'eye' part in particular, very striking and mysterious! Also loved the butterfly. And the colours were so rich!
His fellow-muralists all had stunning work also and I am putting up photos of most of them for you to enjoy.





















We had a lovely opening night and a small group of us went off afterwards around Berlin to a music venue beside the River Spree which had a man made beachfront and it was really lovely to lounge around in the sand and listen to the music late at night by candlelight, lamplight etc.,
We also went to a small club/pub and had some food and a few games of pool!! That was great fun!
I hadn't much time this time to do very much as it was only really 3 days there. I will put up another few random photos of my trip here.






















Over all, I enjoyed my second tripto Berlin - and that one will probably be my last as Glenn and the lovely Aiva are moving to the UK shortly to Brighton and I wish them both the best of luck and hope they will enjoy it!

But of course, that means I will be visiting there next and will have another story to tell when I do!

Eileen (:o)

Saturday, May 19, 2012

"Old stone wall"

Hi everyone!
As I said in an earlier post,  I am working on a few paintings at the moment and this was one I started a while back and had to go back to finish. 
I think it is at that point now.

This painting is called "Old stone wall".
Eileen (:o)

Wednesday, May 16, 2012

Latest work.





This is one of my latest works and I hope you like it! Any comments would be appreciated per usual.

                  I can't think of a title that I really like for it yet so feel free to suggest something!

Again, it's about nature's natural way, with these little seedlings finding their way into the cracks and settling down there and having a happy life!! (:o) Gotta love nature - we can learn so much from observance of it, so natural, so beautiful!
                                                           Eileen

Tuesday, May 15, 2012

My trip to Berlin 2009



Hi everybody!


I have been working away on some paintings in my "Nature - up close and personal" series and I will be putting some up shortly (:o). 


In the meantime , I will tell you about my first trip to Berlin in Germany in 2009 to see my youngest son, Glenn, who is also an artist.  
I was terrified of flying and usually I have a companion to go with me but this time I would be on my own and I was so scared that it was either "feel the fear and do it anyway" or stay at home! And as I really wanted to see Glenn and Berlin, I went ahead and I must say, the flight wasn't too bad at all for me. 
When I got off the plane and went for my luggage, I saw all 6ft 5in of Glenn towering over others, waiting for me to come through! It was lovely to see him again as I hadn't seen him for awhile.


We set off by bus to the train station and after a few changes of trains, we arrived in Berlin and I was amazed that it was different than I expected. The architecture in the buildings was beautiful, and very colourful. The people were very helpful and cheerful, even though I didn't know the language. And they are very inventive and recycle a lot, amazing how creative they are too.




Anyway, we set off for the apartment and when we had something to eat, we took off right away for a bit of sightseeing and headed towards the botanical gardens which was so beautiful! As it was early October and autumn, the leaves were  beautiful autumnal colours which was a feast to the eye and we even picked up chestnuts that had fallen by the side of the road on the way up to the gardens!
We stayed there for ages, and looked at all the flowers and trees and in to the hot house which housed fish and all sorts of exotic plants. We had a lovely meal in the cafe afterwards. 
I will just give a general sense of everything we did  for the week as it will take up too much time otherwise.









We went shopping to the big retail outlets and I saw where they have the christmas markets which were even getting ready in October for the christmas rush already!
We went to the tv tower which was so tall - beautiful building.  















On one of the days we went to see the where the original berlin wall was and the look out towers and they have all sorts of invited artist now from all countries putting up their murals on these mock slabs of wall now of which I will put up some photos. It was so interesting!

















We went for a meal in a vietnamese restaurant too which was lovely and Glenn knew the manager and he came over to talk to us too.
But in all my visit, the most interesting was when the giant puppets came with their troupe of puppeteers from Nantes in France to perform a fairytale through puppetry on the streets of Berlin for 3 days. The story was of a little girl who somehow lost her uncle and she searched Berlin starting and finishing at the brandenburg gate, for 3 days to try to find him But he was a deep sea diver and had gone under the water in that time to dive and on the 3rd day, he came up and they found each other! it was a fabulous spectacle! 




I had a great time over all and will never forget it! 


I will tell you about my 2nd trip to Berlin soon........ 


                          Eileen    (:o)