From the category archives:

That's Art

On The Bounce Back

March 9, 2010 · 12 comments

faithan oldie but a goodie

cartoon © 2009 Jean Burman

If ever verification was needed for the power of positive thinking… positive action… and the extreme benefits of taking the leaps of faith I have had to take over the past 14 months… I now have it.

Just climbing through 19,000 feet… [okay my love of flying is officially now legendary - say no more]  I have been away for nearly four weeks. How did a week turn into four I wonder?  I am now winging my way home to pack up and move south. I know I know… I said I wasn’t going anywhere for now… but the Universe apparently has other plans for me!

Funny how things happen when you let go… and say yes to pretty much everything [within reason of course]. I can’t begin to tell you how much my life has changed over the past year… and how many opportunities have come my way since I began saying yes to the Universe instead of fighting it every step of the way… which I’ve now realised is something I have pretty much done all of my life! [Grin]

And this especially includes saying yes to a whole range of opportunities and experiences that I might otherwise have thought were not for me.  I’ve now learned not to do that… for things are rarely as they seem at first glance.

We all have limitless potential but first we have to get over our limiting beliefs to realise it. All I can say is…

TAKE THAT LEAP!

The only downside to this move [if ever there could be one] will be that I shall have to relinquish… for now… my beautiful tropical northern Australian location… my good friends [if they don't come visit! grin]… and life as I had re-invented it. But that’s okay for now.

Nothing is ever for nothing… and nothing is ever forever!

port road 3ahhh… I love this place… [insanely hot here at the moment tho]

What it does mean though is that for the time being I shall have a home on my own terms… and a definitive place from which to go forward. And the very best thing of all is that…for the first time in over a year … I shall have a dedicated creative space from which to work!

Oddly enough this one requirement has become more essential to me than breath… so urgent is my need to simply get on with the work at hand. My creative process has been the one sure thing that has sustained me throughout this transformational period of my life. And it’s this process that shall finally have my utmost priority over the next few months as I adjust to my new home.

At last I shall have somewhere to do what I love to do more than anything else in the whole wide world… when… where and however I want to do it.

Write. Paint. Create. Plan. Dream. Go forward… and move on.

It’s a sensational feeling… almost as exhilarating as those first few moments of flight! (((chuckles)))

With the stars aligned… and God willing… I may [at last] be the master of my own destiny and the architect of my own dreams.

I would have once said “I can’t wait”… but of course… I now know that I CAN [wait] and that now anything… absolutely anything… is possible.

The sky might be the limit.

But the Universe knows no such bounds!

Hope to see you all on the other side… watch this space for updates on my new space!  Coming soon.

port bookshopOne last coffee – for now – at the Port Bookshop

[but I'll be back]


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La Belle Femme

February 14, 2010 · 12 comments

La Belle Femme 1Artwork & Images © 2010 Jean Burman

I fell in love with Sweet Addiction the first time I heard it.

It was a couple of days before Christmas… and La Belle Femme was in the early stages of conception. I had received a commission for a large nude painting in landscape format. So not being someone who does things by halves… I decided instead to paint three! [I know... I know]

As I was sketching out ideas… and deciding on how I would approach the series… this piece of music dropped into my email inbox via Facebook. I had it playing in the background on my laptop… and listened to it over and over again. I never tired of it. Before long I was completely beguiled by the sound. It was indeed a “Sweet Addiction” [grin]

La Belle Femme 3

The making of the Music…

Sweet Addiction was created by Daniel Marolla… a young man who is definitely going places! He created and recorded this piece of music one afternoon in mid December using [keyboard drums and base guitar] an Mbox and Garageband… then shot his video for You Tube from the built-in camera on his laptop and edited it in Final Cut Studio. If all that sounds like double dutch… well… don’t worry. Just listen to the music… it will speak for itself!

The making of the Art…

The first in this series was initially a commission. The paintings were relatively large for watercolour at 76cm x 38cm – [that's 30" x 15"] with the figures approx. 1/2 life size. It was so much fun working wet into wet in the initial stages… just allowing the paint to flow and directing it where I wanted it to go.

It’s fast… it’s fluid… it’s free and wow… you just gotta love working in watercolour!

Willow charcoal of course… adds another dimension. It’s a style I have been working on for a couple of years now especially in figure and life work.

La Belle Femme 2Artwork & Images © 2010 Jean Burman

The pics were taken on my humble little Panasonic Lumix and assembled as a slideshow in iPhoto. I purposely kept the photos edgy and a bit blurred by movement with [perhaps] some “debatable” degree of success!

And of course… iPhoto is no precise science but that’s about the extent of my techie expertise at this time. I am however willing to learn.  Note to self: Get Final Cut Pro… there has GOT to be a better way!  [Grin]

By the time the three paintings were done… the music had weaved it’s incredible magic into them all.

Consequently… what you hear and see here is the end product of an [unintended] creative collaboration between paint and music. It was entirely unintentional of course.

Daniel could not have known that his music would so happily “belong” to these paintings that afternoon in December when he brought this music to life!  He was afterall on his own creative tangent … and the paintings did not [as yet] exist!  But somehow… still… the paintings and the music seemed strangely made for each other!

Enjoy the clip!  Let me know what you think… leave a comment here!

For availability of original artworks

and to see more… contact

Jean Burman Galleries [click here]

La Belle Femme – Artwork & Images © 2010 Jean Burman

Sweet Addiction – Music © 2010 Daniel Marolla

All Rights Reserved

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The Bright Side

December 7, 2009 · 9 comments

Wave shadow

Do not be desirous of having things done quickly. Do not look at small advantages. Desire to have things done quickly prevents them being done thoroughly.  Looking at small advantages prevents great affairs from being accomplished – Wilson Mizner

I have felt terribly impatient to be getting on with my life this week.  I really can’t say what has prompted it.  But perhaps it is that a few of the doors that had opened with such promise  earlier on… have now revealed themselves to have only more brick walls behind them.  So I guess the next lesson must be… open the door by all means… but be mindful that there may be “little of substance” on the other side. That’s life. But perhaps the bigger lesson here is that there may be a greater purpose to the sum of all the many smaller experiences strung haphazardly together across a lifetime.  Knowing this doesn’t help… but it does remind me that I must be patient!

Anyhow in the spirit of the past year… I have bobbed up yet again this week [like the proverbial cork on the ocean]… and yesterday knocked out my second art clip just for the fun of it.  It was a good thing that I did this yesterday because today it is raining… and more and more as the wet season approaches we shall have fewer sunny days like this one.

palm tree ellis beach

It was however windy as anything… with a 25 knot sou’easterly blustering in and putting paid to any ideas I might have had about setting up to paint! I am still learning heaps in iPhoto and haven’t quite figured out how to speed sections up (which would have been good for the bit where the wind picked up my board and I had to chase it down the sand dune!)  I had hoped to film a watercolour work in progress… but in the end it was all I could do to keep things nailed down long enough to get a couple of photographs!  Consequently most of the pics are of me… and lately I reckon it would take more than a gale force Category 5 to sweep me off my feet!  (((chuckles)))

running 2

It was a lot of fun running up and down the sand dunes… jumping waves… and being silly all over the place.  But it was extra good though because despite the hot fine weather… there was virtually no one else on the beach and I was free to do whatever I liked. It doesn’t get better than that!

There were a couple of people way off in the distance further off down the beach… just enough company to make me feel quite safe at least. But no-one at all to get in the way… or [thankfully] ask what I was doing!  I did however garner a good humoured wolf whistle from a car speeding by [which I stylishly ignored]… but was secretly grateful for in the grand scheme of things! [insert riotous laugher here]

Anyway… take a look here… and let me know what you think in the [Comments] below.  Feedback is essential to the creative process… so don’t be shy… speak up… even if it’s just to say hello.  And I reckon if I can do what I’m doing… YOU can do absolutely anything you like.  But I do want to hear about it okay!?


Summer AgainFunny videos are here

I would also like to acknowledge with grateful thanks the fabulous music of The Beach Boys. The single Do It Again was released way back in 1968 and continues to DO IT AGAIN… over and over again!  You can purchase Do It Again on iTunes or at your local music store.  That’s what I did.  [I know I should probably have better permission than that... so I guess it will be here until someone asks me to take it down]  I do think however that sometimes it’s a good idea for older music to get a good modern day airing.  The record companies may not however agree… but I reckon good music… like good art should be out there circulating for everyone to enjoy.

My Red Bubble Store

My Zazzle Shop

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The Creative Dilemma

November 30, 2009 · 24 comments

JB for the blog 2Join me on You Tube (see below for the link) but read this first!

Well it’s been a crazy week of revolving doors for me as new doors swing open and old doors slam shut . Generally speaking though that’s great news… and a sign that things in my Universe are starting to shake out!

You know… it’s kind of fun to stand back and watch from a distance all the action happening in your own life. Letting go of outcomes and allowing things to just be can be a bit scary at times… but it’s fun nonetheless. And I could get used to it. [Grin]

The global economic climate (not to be confused with climate change per se- grin) has given everyone quite a bit to think about. But for creative artists of all persuasions (be they painters potters or musicians) the struggle to do well at what we do well… has always been pretty difficult. And historically nothing has changed.

VincentCartoon Pen & Watercolour

Copyright © 2007-09 Jean Burman

Vincent Van Gogh was creatively and financially supported throughout his entire career by his brother Theo.  He never sold a painting. We may well laugh now at how wealthy he might have been in his own lifetime. But he wasn’t. He was a man ahead of his time. But no-one really got that. Not even his fellow artists. Especially not his fellow artists. Consequently without the creative endorsement he craved… he was condemned to continually question his own worth as an artist.

Sound familiar?

The upshot of course was that Vincent finally sliced off an ear and died in a garret with two bullet holes in his stomach partly because he couldn’t handle it anymore. He gave up. And it’s easy to give up on a world that doesn’t know that stars are blobs of swirling bright light circling the evening sky… [grin]

Vincent 2Cartoon Pen & Watercolour

Copyright © 2007-09 Jean Burman

Creative spirits live in a world of their own. There is no clear direction forward for us… not to mention… very little endorsement or feedback for what we’ve already done.

Yes… we know what we want. But what the rest of the world wants is an entirely different matter. Complicate that further by saying that much of the rest of the world doesn’t actually know what they want… or what they like [without being told]… and we have one very perplexing problem!

In the end… fame and fortune pretty much comes down to the “hype” around the product… and not necessarily the product itself. The people who eventually gain recognition… are not necessarily those with the most talent… but those who are best able to bring their product to the marketplace via the best most expedient method.

But this is all terribly left brain stuff. And most artists (well the creative ones anyway) are incredibly right brain orientated. That’s what makes them… surprise surprise… so darned creative!

For my part… well… I don’t want to be famous but I do want to get my stuff out there. So that means I have to spend at least some of my time in the left brained world. It’s a funny nuts and bolts place to be… but it can be a whole lot of fun as well.

Check out my new You Tube clip here.

It was a challenge to put this together and the best fun you can ever have all by yourself in iPhoto and on YouTube. Would also like to thank Paul Simon [the voice and lyrics of my childhood] for the use of Punkey’s Dilemma… the cornflake song… what a great little song it still is!

For my part… I just want to paint and write… live… laugh and love. Whatever comes after [in/around and between] all that… who knows and who even cares? It’s my life. And I’m only going to get one chance at it. I make mistakes like everyone else. And have suffered probably more than my fair share of sadness. But I am also blessed in so many ways.

And the great thing is I am finally beginning to realise that absolutely nothing is ever set in stone. Doors open and close all the time with intermittent regularity. And all that’s required of us is a willingness to step through the next open door to see what’s on the other side. It’s as easy as that! *wink*

The real prizes in life go to whoever opens the most doors… and investigates as fully as possible their own individual potential. There are no guarantees we will survive this life… in fact… it’s a pretty sure thing that we’re not going to make it out alive!

So heck… while we’re here we may as well give it our best shot. With or without any thanks… or claps… and regardless of the heckles… [or the people who would persist in placing obstacles in our way]

Doing our creative thing… whatever that may be… is our gift to the world as much as ourselves. And you never know… maybe someday… someone… somewhere…. might just get it and go WOW!

If not… well… we had a whole heck of a lot of fun doing whatever it was we got to do!

Didn’t we?

Would love to hear your comments about YOUR creative life and experience.  Drop me a line here!

Oh… and before I forget… the 2010 Universal Artist Calendar is now available for immediate shipping over at RED BUBBLE [in case you didn't get that already LOL]  Okay… that’s enough shameless self promotion for me… back to painting… writing… more dreaming *sigh*  :-)

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