Friday June 29, 2007
Gutted
Still no call from Keano.
Gutted!
But never mind... because Trade 10 is still on schedule for tomorrow!
Posted by Andrew @ 12:23am
Sunday June 24, 2007
Football Roller
My path crossed with Roy Keane's path again on Friday. This time I wrote him a note with a proposal, which I hoped he could take with him and read at his convenience. Of course he has a lot of demands on his time, so it's not like I am expecting a call. But you never know. He was decent enough to take it anyway, and I believe he looked at it soon after as well, heard me out, which I much appreciate.
So we are all set for Trade 10 next weekend, probably Saturday, out in West Cork in Ireland.
And I might be mad enough, not sure yet, to make a day trip to London a few days after that to do Trade 11 with Kyle MacDonald, the guy who traded up from a paperclip to a house. He'll be over promoting his book, and would take the old Lucky Strike match box if we go ahead...
Last and by all means least, I moved last weekend in England. From Preston to Warrington area, that's county Lancashire to county Cheshire, or half an hour down the road. No biggie.
Posted by Andrew @ 1:23pm
Monday June 11, 2007
Well... not quite, to be honest.
No, not even nearly as the crow flies.
But Stan - still officially trading nothing item T6_2 - lives in a very different world now...
"Stan is exceedingly happy in his new home (note new friend at back of Stan!) Thriving on the big fat cow flies!!" - that's the latest from the West of Ireland!
My thanks go to the next (probably) trading nothing trader for sending me this reasonably good photo of Stan.
Might even be the finest photograph of a metal spider ever taken.
By anyone. (yes, including me. I can just about take it.)
And there's more!!!
With the help of some unfathomable technology, I've deliberately blurred the image of a part-finished unique-and-especially-made-for-trading-nothing object...
?!
I hope all can be revealed in less than two weeks.
Posted by Andrew @ 11:11pm
Sunday June 3, 2007
A Choose Day Trade (Trade 9)
Poor title, I know. Really poor. Probably my worst yet even.
But never mind... because on Tuesday we did Trade 9!!
And much credit for this trade goes to Lynda "I did Trade 7" Cookson, because Lynda included her art exhibition booklet ("Art in the West 2005") when she sent me the frame for her painting "Lylac Buds", and in this booklet I found details of another talented South African artist living in Ireland - Marilise Lombard. After a little online research, I sent Marilise an email inviting her to consider doing a trade, and she responded with a reasonably positive "This sounds like fun!!!!".
Now, I would have liked to have seen a few more exclamation marks added on the end, but, all in all, this wasn't such a bad response, I thought.
So we kept in touch, and we agreed we would probably meet half way since Kinsale to her home in Thurles is about two hours drive...
In the end though, I found myself with a free day - last Tuesday - in Ireland, so all was set for me to drive to Marilise's pad.
Up the N8 road to Thrurles I drove, on the way getting stung by the outrageous toll demanded to save a few minutes on the M8 motorway. Not something the locals fall for, a local told me on Friday. If only I had had an up-to-date map. If only...
But never mind. Water under the bridge and all that.
So I rolled up on to Marilise's drive and rang the bell. Marilise let me in, thankfully, and I was faced with a very large Marilise Lombard painting with quite a huge frame.
A pic of it was in order...
Looks to me like a pretty good day's fishing.
I already knew Marilise's paintings are very distinctive - I reckon I would recognise one anywhere on planet Earth, even if she forgot to sign it! - and I knew I was about to have a job deciding which one or ones to take away. Clearly though, I wasn't going to take this one, because I didn't have the use of a large truck or a helicopter...
Marilise already knew what she wanted from me - Porky and Bess. She had seen and liked some of Lynda's piggies paintings being displayed in Galway...
After introducing me to her visiting mum and her husband Christo, and offering and organising hot drinks, Marilise showed me her many works she was prepared to swap.
Probably more than half were unframed. I decided not to take any of those, because I wanted to trade on finished articles. I don't know if that was a mistake, because framing can be a personal experience, and also there were some I ruled out which I really liked.
Out of the remaining assortment, I whittled the ones I particularly liked down to five. And we agreed I could take four of those.
The one I left behind is probably back up hanging in the kitchen, I regret not taking a pic of it to show you.
But at least I snapped a couple more of Marilise's larger works, still available to buy at time of writing. Enjoy...
And just before we did the trade, Marilise showed me a book published in South Africa for which she was asked to provide all the art work...
So we cleared a table, got organised for a snap by photographer-elect Christo, and we did the trade...
There is an "extra" in there, did you guess that?
Here it is closer...
Marilise wanted me to take something away for keeps, and this is it, another original - Thanks Marilise! - it now has a home in Kinsale.
Personally, and sorry I can't contain myself here, but personally I blame the Spice Girls and their tireless promotion of "Girl Power" in the late 90's for that kind of...
Rant!
"I have a passion for sunny bright colours and music and see it as a way to express feelings of joy and happiness in my paintings. My inspiration came from the coloured people in the Cape in South africa - the way they live, the way they talk and the way they are - always happy-go-lucky and celebrating life - in spite of difficult circumstances. Living in the countryside is a wonderful privilege - to see people go to church on a donkey cart, playing guitar and singing!!! Very little is needed to make one really happy and we must hold life in both hands. Happiness seems made to be shared - we all want to live, laugh and love and with my paintings I hope to bring colour and happiness into homes. Art is a passion and a gift from God and I give God all the glory for it and thank Him everyday for it.”
- provided by Marilise Lombard
To learn more about Marilise, please check out some or all of the following:
Marilise can also be reached by email here: mariliselombaard@yahoo.co.uk
Frames are by Christo 0872401841 (Ireland number!)
Posted by Andrew @ 12:03pm
To see what I traded the Marilise Lombard painting "Happy-go-Lucky" for, click here
To see what I traded the Marilise Lombard painting "Market Day" for, click here
To see how I got the Lynda Cookson paintings "Porky & Bess", click here
Friday June 1, 2007
Houston We Have A Problem
I hope no-one noticed I posted a work-in-progress last night.
I'm kidding of course!
Unless you noticed of course.
So here I am back in Ireland again. All the Lynda Cookson and Marilise Lombard paintings are here too, all eight of them. And the remaining Evelyn Kharag painting is in England.
If anyone had told me a year ago I was soon to become an art dealer, I might well have rolled about the floor laughing. I wouldn't have agreed, that's for sure.
Posted by Andrew @ 11:26pm
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