Tag Archives: cherie roe dirksen

Are you Swimming in a Sea of Possibility?

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Your Creative Legacy

You may think of yourself as a mere drop in the ocean but also know that you are the ocean.  You are special and are eagerly encouraged to leave your loving, creative mark on the world.

In the sea of all possibilities, what form will your mark take?  I can assure you that the excitement lies in finding out.

Remember that the journey should be as pleasurable as arriving at the destination.

Spice it Up!

Your unique stamp or soul imprint allows others to experience life from a different perspective.

Your personal creative endeavours lead to your specific  brand of reality…which allows the collective to experience variety – the spice of life.

Anyone Qualifies!

Imagine a world without musicians, architects, artists, playwrights, comedians, chefs, teachers, programmers, entrepreneurs, healers, writers, homemakers, artisans, designers, gardeners, builders and all those souls who exercise creative flow with everything they touch and do – no matter what profession they are in.

I can’t – can you?

You can contribute to creative expression no matter who you are – no exceptions!

The above imagery and quotations were taken from my table book of art and inspirational teachings called ‘Creative Expression — How to find your inspiration’ (please click the book icon to take you to a full preview of the book):

Why I love to paint flowers…

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When I paint a flower I feel an overwhelming bliss – an excitement to capture the beauty and magic of what I see and feel when I am in their glorious presence.

I am never happier than when I have a house full of flowers and the scent hangs on the air. Or when I am in my garden just being present with the smell of lavenders on the breeze.

They are my main source of inspiration because I still cannot fully fathom their exquisite beauty. Eckhart Tolle put it in a nutshell when he said that we could look upon flowers as the enlightenment of plants. I could look upon flowers all day and still be mesmerized. They are a true gift to us and to gaze upon their delicate wonder is to look at the unfolding of pure potential.

Here is an example of one of my floral paintings called ‘Red Poppies – Finding Beauty in Chaos’ from my new portfolio book – the original is still available and can be found in my art brochure 2011, which can be downloaded for free (see sidebar or click here to download):

To read more about what inspires me, please visit  or click on the book below – you can view a full preview of the book (preview button is at the bottom of the book icon on Lulu.com).

Art Portfolio - Cherie Roe DirksenSubscribe here to receive my monthly newsletter and free gift or click ‘sign me up’ in the side-panel to receive blog updates as they are released.

Fun with Fruit and Vegetables!

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As promised, I am continuing with the unveiling of my Vege-Tate Gallery in today’s Art Blog.

If you missed out on last weeks blog — here is a recap:  How many carrots does it take to screw in a light bulb?

Here are the last of the designs (for now — I see this as an ever-growing project!):

For all the Steve Jobs Fans

Even lettuce can be corny!

Yeah, we’ve all heard this one before!

Another one for the well-endowed lady…

Juicy, very juicy…

No orchestra is complete without one!

Is your Grandmother sheepish?

Enough is enough…a special thanks to Templeton for coming up with this one!

The sorrows of love (and the pining that ensues)

If coconuts had udders, coconut milk wouldn’t be so readily available

To check out the store in its entirety, please CLICK HERE.

I have another store dedicated to these amorous fruit and vegetables, where you can find a host of products such as key-chains, aprons, mugs, iPhone skins, magnets, cards, mouse-pads, bags and a whole lot more…ENTER STORE HERE

   

How Many Carrots does it take to Screw in a Light Bulb?

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I’m not too sure what the answer to the joke is…perhaps none as they were all rooted to the spot?

The Vege-Tate Gallery — Beginnings…

My idea for a Vege-Tate Gallery grew into full blossom when my husband and I decided to try and plant a vegetable garden around the back of our house.

This was no easy task as we have vegetable guzzling baboons to contend with on a regular basis — so strong fencing and locks were needed for this venture to succeed.

I am happy to report that my actual vegetable patch is doing very well and is starting to bear the fruit of our hard-earned labour.  Well, except for the poor runner beans that never made it to the finishing line due to a critter biting them off at the base of the stem, which consequentially led me to create the ‘Has Bean‘ design.  You have to work with this!

Whilst planting the seeds of the garden, my mind started pondering all these crazy ideas for a vegetable joke shop with lots of corny but fruity ‘green’ humour.

The designs started to take shape as I sketched out the ideas as they came to me, with a little help from the hubby.

The Next Step

When I had a good 20 designs to work with, I began the digital journey of drawing them onto the computer (yes, using my mouse!  I am still using that old archaic rodent until I get my digital pen) and loading them as t-shirt designs.

I am officially launching my new gallery entitled ‘The Vege-Tate Gallery’ — I do hope you enjoy them as much as I enjoyed creating them.

The link to the store is here.

Below are my personal favourites.  Next week I will showcase the rest of the store along with some other fun merchandise from this range.

Literally for the man who has everything!

This one is for the ladies — especially the ones that can make a grown man cry!

For The Beatles fan

For the humble…

For the melon appreciation club

For the overworked!

For the political activist

Keeping abreast of things

Please let me know what your favourite design is!

Something Blue…

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Today is going to be a visual blog.  I have taken some of my favourite paintings/artworks with a boisterously, blissful blue hue/theme.

Come take a journey with me, let’s waltz through the world in blue…

I hope you enjoyed this trip with me.

What colour do you like to see in monotone art?  What is your favourite general colour?  Is there any colour you tend to wear more or have the inclination to paint your walls with? Spill those colourful beans!

And I’ll end it off with a blue t-shirt design…

Some More of My Best Selling Art Prints

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If you want to see my top selling art prints then click here.

These are some more of my best selling art prints online.

I love doing the backgrounds for these paintings.  Many people have asked me if it is a stencil – definitely not!  This is all done by hand and no pattern is ever the same.  It is like a fingerprint.

White Poppies

The Poppy Collective was a huge painting, the first large one I ever did of poppies.  It was definitely a challenge to do, especially the background as you can well imagine.  The painting measured 760mm x 920mm.

The Poppy Collective

Sunset Reflections was purchased by my sister and hangs in her bedroom.  It was a marriage between the poppies and the sunset/landscape.

Sunset Reflections

Another poppy painting has made it into the best sellers list ~ Poppies in the Rising Sun.  This particular one was featured on the RedBubble homepage.

Poppies in the Rising Sun

And there you have it — some of my Best Selling Art as Prints and Posters via RedBubble.

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My Best Selling Art as Prints and Posters

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What the Public Want

I’ve strung together some of my best selling art prints (taken from online sales) over the years.

I thought it was quite interesting to see what was popular in my collection and perhaps, you the viewer, will get a kick out of seeing what people are buying to beautify their spaces.

Heck, maybe one of them will even tickle your fancy!

To visit the print store — where you can buy not only framed and mounted prints of all the art below but an array of other products from canvas prints to skirts (select ‘Available Products’) — just click on the pictures below.

Let’s Get Started…

Number 1 is ‘Raw’ (painted to the music of Jeff Buckley) and is part of my Rock Art Series (read more about that HERE). At the moment, this painting is hanging above our bed and I’m in love with it.

No. 1 ~ Raw (Rock Art Series – Jeff Buckley)

Jeff Buckley --- Raw 24 x 36 LR


Number 2 was also somewhat of a surprise as it has turned out to be not only a best-selling print but also the most viewed item on my RedBubble portfolio, clocking up a whopping 15 254 views as of December 2015.

No. 2 ~ Tree Silhouette

The next one was inspired by the Lord of the Rings trilogy and is called ‘My Precious’.

No. 3 ~ My Precious

Frodo by Cherie Roe Dirksen

My Tree of Life Series watercolour called, ‘Dusk’, is in at no. 4.  It’s currently clocked up more than 14 000 views.

No.4 ~ The Tree of Life Series – ‘Dusk’

Tree of LIfe by Cherie Roe Dirksen

In at no. 5 is ‘Zebra’ — a macro painting of a zebra’s face.  I just happened to sell a poster of this one today!

No.5 ~ Zebra

And here is Three Pink Poppies.  I must admit that this is one of my favourites as well.  Just because I loooooove poppies so much! 🙂

No. 6 ~ Three Pink Poppies

Pink Poppies

Number 7 on the list is my reproduction of Starry Night.  Vincent Van Gogh is my all-time favourite artist and I wanted to re-create this work.  This does come as a surprise for me as one would think that if you were going to buy a print of this, you would buy the original as a print.

However, I am flattered but have to give all recognition to the original artist for the beautiful rendition of the night sky.  The original was never sold as my husband did not want to part with it, so I gave it to him and it is in our bedroom.

No.7 ~ Reproduction of Starry Night

This painting was the first I did in my Rock Art Series and it was painted to one of my favourite bands, Radiohead. This is now hanging in my hubby’s new music studio.

No. 8 ~ Escapism (Rock Art Series — Radiohead)

Escapism - Rock Art Painted to Radiohead by Cherie Roe Dirksen

And, again, another one from my Rock Art Series makes it into the top selling prints — ‘Metamorphic Dilatation’ (The Beatles). This one is quite funky, vibrant and colourful and also hangs in the music studio.

No. 9 ~ Metamorphic Dilatation (Rock Art Series — The Beatles)

Beatles Rock Art by ©Cherie Roe Dirksen

The next one has a similar theme to the previous painting but was a mural I did on the wall of my husbands music studio in our previous house. Alas, we had to leave it behind but at least I have the photo!

No. 10 ~ Musical Mural

musical mural hi res

I would love to know which of these stands out the most for you?

Thanks for looking!

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Christmas Gift Ideas…Part 3

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A Recap

In the past 2 weeks I have discussed great sites such as RedBubble and Zazzle for creating your own gift designs, whether it is from photographs or your own personal artwork.  See Part 1 here and Part 2 here.

Need inspiration?

Today we are going to go behind the scenes and discuss getting inspired.  It’s not an easy thing to obtain if you are stuck for motivation or ideas.  This is where perusing other artist, designers and photographers websites or works on sites such as RedBubble is such a great way of seeing what other creative beings are up to.  Not that you want to copy their ideas but it does, more often than not, lead you to do something that is triggered by someones idea but made completely different by your creative style.

A lot of these gift ideas use captions along with images that can really have that added ‘wow’ factor touch.  So, to get you going on some inspirational visuals, I have been introduced to a site called Pinterest and I want to share this wonderful site with you.

Pinteresting…

For those of you who are not acquainted with the site, it is a really great visual social network.  Displaying not only art, design and photography but also captions, short quotations, illustration, fashion, home decor designs, food and a whole lot of other fantastic things to stir up your creative juices.

“Set aside some good quality time for this as I guarantee the candy feast your eyes will be lapping up is going to make time fly…”

It is a fairly easy site to navigate and it allows you to ‘pin’ any image you like, adding it to your pin board on the site where others can have a look too and repin if they desire.  You also get to check out what other people have pinned on their boards, whether it be their personal creations or other images they have nabbed off the web.

Again, these pictures do fall under copyright laws — so obey!  But have fun getting inspired and motivated to start your own creations.

Set aside some good quality time for this as I guarantee the candy feast your eyes will be lapping up is going to make time fly out the window…next thing you look at the clock and hours have passed as you have perused the many visual delights!  Enjoy and, most of all, have fun.

Future projecting

Can you imagine how impressed your family and friends will be when you present them with a gift of your very own design?!

It is a great way to express yourself, feel a sense of achievement and to get that Christmas list looking good.

If you still feel like making your own gifts is just not for you, here are some more gift ideas from my store:

  

Christmas Gift Ideas…Part 2

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A little bit of silliness never went astray!

Over the past couple of months my husband and I (no, I am not the queen) have been trying to plant our own vegetable garden.  This is not as simple as it would usually sound as we live near Cape Point and have baboons for neighbours.  And as you can surmise, baboons eat vegetables.

So the plan is to build frameworks with chicken wire around our vege garden to protect it from our hairy adversaries.  A challenge to say the least.

So what has this got to do with art?

Well, during our spates in the garden, we have come up with some witty vegetable ‘catch-phrases’.  I was wondering how to incorporate this new avenue into my art and have come up with a bold solution.

The vegetables have given rise to new unfounded inspiration…(picture opposite – ‘Can you handle me?‘:  Warning!  I come with many different layers…and I can make a grown man cry!!!).  This has led me to create the….*drum-roll*…

The Vege-Tate Gallery

In a moment of pure silliness I invented a joke shop, which I have named The Vege-Tate Gallery, that hosts a number of incredibly cheesy vegetable quotations accompanied by my digital artwork of these tasty morsels.

I wanted to make the designs simple yet effective.  At first I contemplated freehand drawings and then scanning and cropping them into a T-shirt design but decided to go the digital route.

This involved my hand, the mouse and the simple paintbrush program that most Windows packages come with.

I then transfer these crude drawings into Photoshop, where I can put them on a transparent background and ‘clean’ them up.  Finally I add the text and upload it to the site (at the moment I am using RedBubble but you can also do this on Zazzle – see my previous article for all the goodies you can create there).

Voila!

Another gift idea for Christmas in the (shopping) bag…

How can you do this?

If you struggle with the graphics side of things, you can use photographs instead.  Ever taken a funny photo of a child or pet? – well, use that! Everyone has at least one crazy catch-phrase they can use as an excellent and unique gift idea for that someone special.

The wonderful thing about both these sites is you can have the gift sent directly to the person, so it is simply fantastic for those relatives and friends overseas!  No excuses.

Can’t be bothered?

Visit my ever-growing store and have the hassle taken out of Christmas shopping.

This is my first batch of vegetable produce:

Feel free to post some of your creations here for others to see and get ideas from.

Gift Ideas for Christmas…Part 1

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Part 1 – Getting an Idea

As unbelievable as it is, Christmas is starting to loom over the horizon.  I don’t even want to go into the fact that time is definitely speeding up because it is of no actual help to us when we start to think of the panic and mayhem of the ‘silly season’.

So, this weeks art blog is going to be one of many, leading up to Christmas, on getting creative with gift ideas.

Feel free to post/comment anything that you have discovered that is of help in the great gift ideas department!

Today I am going to be talking about the wonderful idea of designing your own products.  There is a great store called Zazzle, that allows you to customize designs that are already available or, if you are feeling creative, to design your own products.

Zazzle Dazzle!

It is easy to open an account with them and only takes a few minutes to get started.  They also offer tutorials on how to make a start.  Click here to go to the store.

The excellent thing about Zazzle is that you can send the product directly to the person you are making it for and you can add a personal message with the gift for them.  Nothing could be simpler!  Just the click of a button.  This makes it so easy for those loved ones overseas that you want to send something to.  Zazzle also offers affordable products – there is something to suit every pocket.

All that you need to do is upload a photo onto a mug, T-shirt or any one of their massive product selection.  Or you can really get creative and start working on your own masterpiece (maybe you already have some art or sketches ‘lying around’ gathering dust from yester year).  All that needs to be done is to get a good quality digital image of the desired picture and you can start designing your own product.

Sounds easy?

Well, it is!  Get creative – design your heart out (you can even slip in a bit of doodling at the office while no-one is watching…although I don’t want to get you fired – perhaps leave it for your lunch break).

There is no excuse for not finding some idea that will work and that is yours…this is your chance to show your family and friends at Christmas how innovative and productive you really are.  And besides a little head-swelling, you are giving them something from the heart.  Your personal creation.

Right, this all sounds really fantastic but I have no ideas – where do I start?

To get you started, here are some useful tips…

  • What are you passionate about?  Horses, dolphins, flowers, a great sunset, anime, stick art, collage, patterns?  Start from here and brainstorm…
  • What style do you like?  Simplistic, photographic, 70’s retro, digitally enhanced images, hand drawn?  Figure out how you are going to implement the design…so for instance you have a great photo of a flower but you like impressionist style painting – well, most computer programs offer special effects that you can apply to your image.  Play around with different effects and most important, have fun!
  • Do you have a great photo of someone that you can use to create a personal gift with – this has to be the most simple way to give a unique gift.  Just remember to make sure that they also like the photo – there is nothing worse than getting a beautiful photo framed for someone only to find out that they think they look ‘hideous’.  If you do this you may have to redirect them to my article on yesterday’s blog ‘Do you take things personally?’…just for a laugh. 🙂
  • Try recognizable signs and symbols if you are having a tough time figuring out what to do.  Peace signs, hearts, stars, emoticons…there is a wealth of stock available for you to use.  Just make sure you add your personal touch to it.
  • If you are really stumped then do a Google photo search for images that you are interested in and start to work out a plan from there.  Be careful not to use someone elses work for copyright reasons.  You can get ideas but don’t be a copycat.

If you truly don’t feel like going to the effort of creating your own masterpiece then here are some unique gift ideas from my store that you can personalize (add a name or phrase to)…

    

Or you can visit the store here…

Remember that you can personalize these products when you are in the store (click on the ‘customize’ button at the bottom right hand side of the product).

Stay tuned for more gift ideas in the weeks to follow and don’t forget to share your comments and inspirational ideas for the festive season.

Painting Dolphins

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As promised, in my previous blog about whales (read here), this art blog is going to be about painting dolphins.  As I explained in the ‘Why you have to love whales’ blog – I live in Cape Town and am privileged to see these beautiful mammals expressing their joyous souls on a regular basis.

I have not, sadly, swum with them (yet) – as was the case with the whale – but I have seen pods of dolphins in the False Bay area and what a sight and fuel for inspiration they are!

I have no fantastic tales (or tails) to regale with today so I am simply going to stick to the technical aspects of painting underwater scenes…

The technical side of painting underwater (and no, not physically!)

Dolphins - Cherie Dirksen original paintingPainting underwater scenes are quite involved as they require a lot of layering.  This ‘wash’ of blue that needs to be repeated until the desired effect is achieved, needs time and patience…and I paint in acrylics – for those who paint in oils the process takes even longer as the drying time is slower.

  1. The first layer consists of getting the basic blue background started – then I apply the subject matter.
  2. When that is done the watered-down blue paint wash layering begins until the right monotone colour is produced and ready to go out into the world.
  3. The most rewarding part of this journey is in the varnishing.  As soon as you apply that coat of gloss varnish the painting comes alive and the water looks wet again (like it does when the paint is first set to canvas).

Magnifique!

Perhaps this can give you a better appreciation of how much time and effort (or in some cases, curses and tears) goes into these deceptively tricky aquatic scenes.

Inspiration

With every work of art comes the inspiration behind it.  With this painting, as with the whale painting, I have put it down in the form of a poem.

The Poem 

‘Dolphins – The Spirit of Freedom’

You never let us forget how to love
How to laugh
How to smile
How to be light-hearted

You never let us forget how to be
In the moment
In this space
In this time

You never let us forget about beauty
About simplicity
About friendship
About sincerity

You never let us forget about fun
Being in the heart
Playing with each other
Soaking up the bliss

You never let us forget why we love you so
Why we feel connected
Why you are important
Why you are here

You never let us forget
Who we are
Why we are
When we are

Please never let us forget

If you also have an affinity for dolphins and would like to splash out and have this original painting gracing your wall – click here for details.  I also have a wide variety of products to choose from with this specific dolphin design – for prints, posters and greeting cards click here, for gift ideas click here.

For those of you who still need convincing about how wonderful dolphins are, please do yourself a favour and watch this incredible short video – your heart will melt…go on, you know you want to. 🙂

Why You’ve Got to Love Whales (and Paint Them!)

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Whales - Cherie Dirksen original painting mammals marine life cetacean

Today’s blog is going to be about the mammals of the world beneath the waves and what inspired me to paint this picture (left).

I live in Cape Town, in the False Bay area.  We are privileged to get the annual migration of whales to our seas every year round about July/August.  It is such an inspiration to be able to watch these majestic creatures from the shore as they play and parade their beautiful bodies for us to take snap shots of (I do believe that some of them definitely ‘work it’ for the camera!).

“After much coaxing, my father got me to come down off his shoulders and reach out as this tremendous toddler swam by…”

An Real-Life Encounter with a Human Toddler and a Baby Whale

I was only about 4 years old when I got to touch my first free-range whale.  My father and I where swimming at the notorious Fish Hoek beach (recently been in the news for shark attacks) when a calf – wanting to ‘play’ with another baby (me) – casually made its way towards us.

I was initially terrified, even a baby whale is the size of a small car!

After much coaxing, my father got me to come down off his shoulders and reach out as this tremendous toddler swam by, allowing me to touch it’s back before it swam away back to its mother.

An experience I shall never forget and one that has led me to feel a great bond with them.

“I often get a flipper coming out of the water in recognition (or perhaps telling me to stop)”

My husband often raises an eyebrow when we are out walking along the coastline and I start wailing like Dori from ‘Finding Nemo‘ (you know, the fish character played by Ellen DeGeneres who can ‘talk’ to whales) but I tell you now – it works!  I often get a flipper coming out of the water in recognition (or perhaps telling me to stop).

Inspiring Grace 

But on a more serious note – how can you not be inspired by such creatures?!

My first painting of a whale was a creation of the pure love I have for these amazing mammals.  I am not going to go into too much semantics about them because I put my feelings down in this simple poem…oh go on – have a read then!

Whales – Beloved Cetacean of the Deep

In the depths of the ocean you reside
Anchoring the light for all
Majestic and graceful
You help us from afar
Your song passed down through generations
You never lose sight of your goal
Determined in purpose
Showing the way
Amidst the adversity of lower vibrations
You carry on your star mission

Some of us feel your presence
And we love you and thank you

Like the pod, we are all one
Unity consciousness will prevail
And contracts will be fulfilled 
Our gratitude is yours
As are our hearts

My next blog is going to be about…you guessed it – dolphins.  Well, we can’t leave them out you know.

Related Blogs:

Painting Dolphins