Friday Pretties: Birthday-cowboy

Saddle up and ride your pony!

If someone in our family has birthday, i do a special painting as a decoration. It's a tradition we started, when the kids were really small. We had all kinds of animals, comic-creatures and super-heroes already. Now big boy is riding out on his own trips, and, since mama has the cowboy-feeling on her mind i dedicated this theme to him this year. I'm dreaming of painting a big canvas with horses and all, maybe soon! Hope your weekend will be filled with sunshine, love and fun. See you soon lovelies!

There never was a horse that couldn't be rode;

Never was a cowboy who couldn't be throwed.

Painting: Martina Voigt-Schmid

More Friday Pretties here! 

My art in new rooms

Home is where your art is!

Purple and yellow sure is a daring combination, but it looks rich and warm with a new painting of mine, one of a set of three, with different color skies. These little orange houses appear in my paintings from time to time – like a symbol for a safe and happy place to be! Hope you're having a good time so far this week - keep up the sparkle!

Painting: Martina Voigt-Schmid, photo: Modern Country Home

Friday Pretties: Small collages

"I work in whatever medium likes me at the moment!"

Marc Chagall

Some more small canvases with a mix of painting and collage, a playful approach i like at the moment. It's fun to play with colors, while the world around us is doing the same, adorning trees with fluffy pink blossoms and tender green leaves. 

While everything is getting brighter and more and more pretty around me, i can't help having this sad and burdened feeling underneath, because of the nuclear catastrophe in Japan. When i see Cherry-trees, i think of those people who like them so much,  and who have to bear terrible uncertainty as to what is happening to them. And to a certain degree, it is happening to all of us. All the more reason to be grateful and cherish life the best we can.

Have a splendid spring weekend, i'll be coming over and visit you for tea (or champagne?) anytime!

Photos and paintings: Martina Voigt-Schmid

For more Friday Pretties visit Joyce's here!  

Friday Pretties: Some art vitamins

Let Yourself Be Silently Drawn By the Stronger Pull Of That Which You Really Love.

Jalal-al-Din Rumi

Some small canvases i've worked on, using bits of vintage paper i'd stored in my drawer, and pages of an old book by french writer Colette.

Happy weekend dear ones! I can't believe how another week has just flewn by - time seems to be faster than me! At the moment i feel like time is a horse, and i don't really manage to ride it, but it gallops away with me - there, boom, friday again! Nevertheless of course, weekend is more than welcome and i can't wait to stop by at your places and have some tea!

Paintings/Collages: Martina Voigt-Schmid
More Friday Pretties to visit at Joyce's here! 

Spring is in the air!

Yellow mellow

A painting from last spring, celebrating the yellow things, that so belong to the beginning of spring - even if lemons don't really grow here ;) Everything is easier, when spring is in the air and the evenings get longer again ... Today, i've had my first Cappuccino sitting in a café outside - to good to be true!

Painting: Martina Voigt-Schmid

Friday Pretties: Small tree paintings

Happy weekend dear friends!

When i look out of my windows, i see a lot of trees - a walnut tree, a cherry tree, a plum tree, lilac, elderberry - all bare at the moment, in their winter-outfit which makes them look so graphic. A structure that has a rythme - quite some inspiration for painting. In the case of these, i painted the sky bright cherry blossom pink, for there is this a little spring in the air already - or is it just my mind and wishful thinking? 

More Friday Pretties to visit at Joyce's here! 
Paintings: Martina Voigt-Schmid

Friday Pretties: A studio, a crepe and a birthday boy!

A sneek peek into my studio

where i hope to be working this weekend, and start catching up with all my unfinished paintings there. I can't wait to have more creative time again and will start scheduling that from next week on. Time to set "Bloom" (my Motto for 2011)  in motion, as the first green buds are visible in the garden now!

Yesterday, we had cherry crepes with vanilla cream cheese for tea - a little celebration for my youngest boy Marin, who turned eighteen and happens to love pancakes and sweet treats of all kinds! He will be going out to town with friends tonight, but yesterday, since it was a normal school-day, we had a family afternoon at home and it was lovely. There is something about having big boys, i thought. As much as i miss having small kids sometimes, i adore having more space for myself again, and, since my kids are both creative people themselves, it's great to be able to talk to them as friends. We still are very close, but now, they (almost) stand on their own feet and occasionally even try to fly a few meters!

 The last picture, that's Marin, seen by Robin, his older brother who takes a lot of photos and does fashion shoots for our magazine. He looks like a pianist there, which he really is for he got so good on the piano lately. But the thoughtful posture is only one side of him - he can be awfully funny and witty.

Have a lovely weekend, with everything you like and a special treat

 just for yourself. See you very soon!

Photos: 1st: Martina Voigt-Schmid, 2nd: Aquired taste, 3rd: Robin Benito

Recipe here,  more Friday Pretties here!

A lemon, a painting and some kidsfashion

 

Another peek ...

into the new fashion shoot for KidsLife, with children of lovely people i know, who did their job so well . We even had a lot of fun together, ignoring the weather with a painted blue sky.

In the last picture, you see the whole painting. The photo is taken with my i-phone, so the quality is not great. But it gives you an idea of the size. Many people think, small rooms  call for small paintings on the walls - not always true. Sometimes, a big painting gives space to a small room, like adding a window. Blue skies here in real life as well today, YAY! I can't wait for spring to start, how about you?

Photos: Robin Benito, painting: Martina Voigt-Schmid

Make spring happen - now!

Let the sunshine in!

Some pictures from a new KidsLife-fashion shoot from last sunday. We had planned to go outside and do something with a big tractor. But it was just simply too cold, So we stayed inside and played in my studio  with colors, flowers and fruit, using some of my big paintings as a colorful background.

Photos: Robin Benito, Paintings: Martina Voigt Schmid

Sweet winter beauties

Art & Fashion

This is my favorite picture from a fashion shoot for KidsLife last winter. Our little models Miriam and Helen are posing in front of a collaborative painting by me and my friend Andrea, a huge painting called "Medusa". The part of it that shows here, reminds me of the milky way - lots of tiny silver dots form kind of like a veil over the painting. It shifts with the light and looks fascinating. This is how we work together: I do the painting part, while she adds graphic elements, such as silver dots or typography in crayon.

Photo: Robin Benito, Painting: Andrea König & Martina Voigt-Schmid

Loulou de la Falaise in Paris

"

"If you are lucky enough to have lived in Paris as a young man, then wherever you go for the rest of your life it stays with you, for Paris is a moveable feast."
Ernest Hemingway

Ever dreamt of a charming place in the capital of love?  I sometimes do! And  Loulou de la Falaise's apartment here looks just perfect to me!

Loulou de la Falaise was Yves Saint Laurent's favorite muse. And as a designer and a woman with great taste and style she decorated the place in a relaxed, elegant way, combining neutral eggshell shades with colorful items from all around the globe. 
'When I saw my apartment for the first time, I felt good in this artist's studio,' she says.

Well - i would, too! Can i please come visit for tea and macaroons Loulou? 

In case you want to dream on a bit, i highly recommend the little book by Ernest Hemingway  "Paris,  a moveable feast".  It's a real favorite of mine and i read it again and again over the years.

Photos via Daily Mail from from Fashion Designers At Home by Marie Bariller 

Portrait: Christopher Wahl 

My Motto for 2011

Bloom! Boom!

This is a painting that was hanging around in my studio for a long time, without ever getting finished. It had nice parts in it, but never felt quite right. And maybe it isn't finished now. The colors are a bit unusual for me. Maybe too gloomy. But somehow, just before Christmas i started playing with it and added the purple face and the word - BLOOM! And when i look at it today, it seems to be the message for me, the word that titles this New Year. Welcome, flowers of all shapes and colors - this garden will be beautiful!

New Year, new colors

Let the sunshine in! 

I've just returned from a lovely trip to Austria and Munich, meeting a lot of family and taking a break from it all. Now, January is here, looking like a white canvas, kind of empty and bland after all the opulence of christmas. A new year, a new page. a new story - hmmm, what colors am i going to use?  What plans and resolutions do i have - and how can i make my dreams come true?

The modern prints and bold flower patterns in this California bungalow designed by Krista Ewart appealed to me. It is just the mix of fresh, clean and creative that seems right to get the year of to a great start. Get rid of some old stuff and bring in some new inspiration!

A toast to 2011 and to all of wonderful you - see you soon! 

 Photos:Victoria Pearson, via House Beautiful

Red Meditation

I'm seeing red

Red is a very strong, outgoing colour, normally associated with action, love or aggression. This painting however, shows the meditative side of it, a warm, vibrant, nourishing glow. I read that in Tibet, red is the color that symbolizes our connectedness with the whole. And that reminds me, to look for the quiet place inside, right in the midst of the pre-christmas buzz.

Painting: Martina Voigt Schmid

Friday Pretties: My paintings in new rooms

4 Colorful rooms

 by Toronto interior decorator Holly Dyment, virtually updated with some of my art. Her site is worth exploring, if you're on the hunt for some dashing ideas on how to ad color to your rooms.

. Have a look: in the first picture you see the painting i've posted some time ago, the yellow and black lady, now with the mysterious silver layer, added by my friend Andrea König. In the last picture you see one of the wild girls from beginning of this week. Ah, i had so much fun doing this! A few dashes of color so brighten my mood while winter spreads out it's beautiful but cold sheets everywhere!

Have some creative fun this weekend, and look at some more pretties here!

Photos by Michael Graydon