Musical tree

Created and posted for Tree at Inspire Me Thursday.

Darkish

Original digital art created for 'dark' at Inspire Me Thursday.

Mademoiselle Rivière et moi

This week, Inspire Me Thursday suggested taking Ingres' painting Mademoiselle Caroline Rivière and going to work on it. Which is exactly what I did, doing some digital magic involving a photo of yours truly.

Blumfeld's back

Oh no - it's been weeks since my last appearance here.

What have I been doing?

Lots.

Let's see - there was an Indian event here in Stuttgart, for which I organized some of the music (Subroto Roy Chowdhury on sitar, accompanied by Sanjib Pal). There was a trip to Munich to see my daughter before the end of her semester break. We dived into the art world by visiting an exhibition of Pakistani sufi posters and the gigantic Alfons Mucha show (art nouveau), which included some of his well-known posters but other works as well, including some bombastic Pan-slavic megalomania paintings.

My love life's been on the rocks and mostly in the dumps.

Strangely enough, I can't seem to enjoy life when I do not allow myself to be in love (and yes, with that one particular woman I've been writing for, to and about for the last year and a half).

Bye for now during a break in work.

Don't tell the boss.

– Len "Heartbreaker" Blumfeld

And they said to each other ...

And they said to each other, "We need
glasses so we can see. Because, as it is
now, we have no vision."
And one of them continued, "We have
been self-indulgent way too
long. This has got to stop."
But where to go in this land
without opticians, and how to slim
down on indulgence?

– Leonard Blumfeld (© 2009)

The painting is gouache on paper and dates from 2002

Posted for Inspire Me Thursday and Glasses as well as Sunday Scribblings #171, Indulgence.

Owl

Owl
Gouache and oil crayon
on wrapping paper, 2008
(detail of a larger painting)

Posted for Inspire Me Thursday's Owl.

Push

A digitally processed gouache sketch from 2003.
Since the original was mostly green, my initial intention was to use it for the previous green topic. But the scan struck me as boring. While playing around with the tools of digital editing, I arrived at this version, which shows what I'd call a dynamic push. The massive, bulldog-like body on the right – itself receiving a push from the right – is going to collide with the spiky* body on the left. The resulting crash should be interesting...
Now for Inspire Me Thursday's Push.

*Inspired by Santa Maria della Spina in Florence.

Solarized green

View from our window at Villa Valeria in Bari towards the Adriatic Sea.
A late entry for Inspire Me Thursday's Green.

Ghost of a god

Ghost of a god photographed and edited digitally for Inspire Me Thursday.

Spanish circle

Inspired by One Single Impression's Circle.

Two lacy variations

Variation 1

Variation 2

Two variations resulting from different combinations of two pictures - one of a strip of lace, the other of a lacy flower. Posted for Inspire Me Thursday's Lace.

Pavian soup

The zuppa pavese I had tonight photographed & and then subjected to painful digital treatment for Inspire Me Thursday's Soup.

Zuppa pavese is an Italian soup consisting of broth, a slice of toast in the broth and a fried egg sitting on top of the toast.

Canjurian dancer

Canjurian dancer wearing traditional costume
Ink and acrylic on photo paper,
digitally edited, 2008

Created for Inspire Me Thursday's Dress.

Antique gift

Antique gift of uncertain significance
Acrylic on cardboard, 2008

Posted for Inspire Me Thursday's Make a Gift.

I didn't have to make this gift - it was on my desk under a layer of papers and other "art", waiting to be discovered as a gift of uncertain significance and slightly revised.

A tinge of Klimt

A tinge of Klimt
Acrylic and ink on photo paper,
digitally modified

My contribution to Inspire Me Thursday's Open Topic.
Actually, the original is more Klimtian, having gold in it.
But I very much like the batik-like blue that replaced the gold.

Papercut art

A photograph underlayed with a papercut for Inspire Me Thursday's Papercut theme. I made a papercut, scanned it and underlayed a recent flower photo with it. This is just a section of the whole picture.

Social mind at work

A little cartoon from the insect world for Inspire Me Thursday's Storyteller.

African Yellow

African Yellow
Acrylic on paper, photographed, clipped and digitally modified, 2008

A belated entry for Inspire Me Thursday's Yellow.

Breath from beyond

Breath from beyond

Acrylic and ink on paper, 2006

For Inspire Me Thursday's Breath.
My mother passed away last Friday. Whenever I go
back to look at her, I still expect her to start breathing
again any moment.
This won't happen, of course. If there were any breath,
it would be from beyond, as in the painting. Life,
colors and breathing are underneath the blackness.

Against the clock with music

Created for Inspire Me Thursday as specified ... against the clock in a way - the timing and mood being provided by a sufi music CD purchased today. Further constraint: colors picked at the beginning ... orange, cinnabar, raw umber, black. Executed in acrylic on Fabriano paper in approx. 40 minutes.