Eating The Sun

A camelia eating the sun.

Explosion In The Subway

An Explosion In The Subway

Mixed Media Art Poster by Chocolat Negro

This is a large poster print of an original mixed media art piece by me.
Printed on matte high quality paper 160 mg in a professional laboratory.
It is printed with Archival High Quality inks.
All my prints Signed, dated and numbered by artist.

The Colors In The Night - A Mixed Media Art Poster By Chocolat Negro

  

THE COLORS IN THE NIGHT

This is a poster print of an original mixed media art work by me. Size 12" x 17 ".

160 mg matte or gloss paper printed with high quality Archival inks

Available on Etsy

Summer, Like You

There are people in this world, they are just like summer.

You never feel cold with them.

This ring and the rest of the fabric vintage button collection has been inspired by one of them!

The Flower Behind The Blue Fence

Title: The Flower Behind the Blue Fence

By Chocolat Negro

Recycled Art, Mixed Media Art

Dimensions 30cm x 30 cm

Material: Industrial Steel Waste, Hair curlers, Paper Waste, Porcupine Quills, Acrylic and Laquer on Canvas

The Flower Behind the Blue Fence is one of my smaller artworks of 2012. It has been created using waste material abundantly. Industrial waste in form of small steel particles originating from a steel perforating machine, paper off-cuts and a set of broken hair curlers have been applied and arranged in thick layers.
"The only natural ingredient" are two porcupine quills. The edges are finished off with white acrylic and the surface is sealed with clear matte lacquer.

Although the painting is abstract in nature, the Abstract is used only as part and as an element that contributes to the whole arrangement. There is room for interpretation but the spectator is guided in a certain direction in a subtle way.

The thickness of the layer and the mass of material used correlates to the extent the human nation produces waste and discards of items at present on the planet earth.

And amidst all of it there can still grow a flower!

About Waterlilies

Waterlilies have always been a great challenge for me. They are for many artists. They are difficult to photograph and to paint. That is why Monet is so famous and why he is really one of the greatest painters on this planet. As an artist I want my art to show something, that allows the spectator to enter into another world. 

With waterlilies the right light is more important than ever. I find, that when taking pictures of them, the lilies have to be in the shade, but I have to be in the brightest of sunlight at a distance from them. I have to lower myself to their level to catch a glimpse of their essence. The essence of something is also the beauty of that something. The essence is what comes from the universe. To extract it without damaging it is an art.

I want to show their timidity and their translucence 

I want to show their fragility and evasiveness

but also their incredible strength and resilience

I want to show their symbiosis with the water, that I call their "soul giver" 

And if i am lucky I can show you the very close relationship that they have with the ones that live amongst and from them

The ones that live below them at their feet

 they love them in return

 

And like her, we all start out not knowing how to do it right! Like her, we learn to look at something closer. Like her, I learned to paint flowers in the Orangery in Karlsruhe where great masters have walked and painted before me!    

And like her, I have along way to go ! But today I am happy with the lilies and that is why you see some waterlilies for the first time on my blog.

The Orangery in Karlsruhe - A Princely Pleasure Garden

I wanted to write this post a while ago about a very unique and beautiful place, the Orangery in Karlsruhe, Germany - a city where I lived for a while. The Orangery with its many greenhouses hosts the famous Botanical Gardens of Karlsruhe. The Botanical Gardens were established in their current location in 1808, during the reign of Karl Friedrich of Baden (1728-1811). The origins of this extraordinary collection of plants date back to Margrave Karl Wilhem of Baden(1679-1738).

Between the two wings of the palace he ordered a " princely pleasure garden" to be laid out with magnificient orangeries, greenhouses and aviaries. At the end of the 18th century, the Margrave had his residence, gardens and palace grounds remodelled in the English style and established the Botanical Gardens on their present site.

The Margraves and Grand Dukes of Baden were plant afiocionados, amassing an impressive collection of exotic greenery. The greenhouses built to display these treasures are today home to a unique and rich plant life.  A number of rare trees from a collection dating back to the 19th century have survived until today in the park grounds.

The combination of rich growth, amazing colours and the rarity of plants is blinding the eyes of the visitor. 

This building with its amazing dome is a part of the State Art Gallery. Here you find the more modern art works from the end of the 19th century up to today. You can see a wide spectrum of works including Cezanne, Gaugin, Kandinsky, Miro and also some contemporary artists.

 

Visitors from all over the world come to see the flowers and exotic plants. When I visited the garden last year with my aunt the were great numbes of Japanese tourists discovering the beauty of the green houses and the State Gallery.

Today I am showing you only the outside are and the buildings of the gardens. The inside deserves a guided photographic tour on its own!

In 1863 the wooden glasshouses were replaced by grand ornamental cast iron structures putting Karlsruhe at the fore front of garden architecture. And more building were added, designed by the architect Heinrich Huebsch, to accomodate more plants.

Princely it is !

Armando

Armando, once a fighter in the bush of Mozambique.

I had to kill Portuguese

but that was a long time ago.

Killing is never good and only someone who has never killed anyone

will tell you it is necessary.

A pacifist today.

Mozambique is a good place now for everybody.

Do not think of the blood anymore.

The Trash Is Out

My latest work - probably inspired by the streets of East London

Title : The Trash Is Out ( series of two)

Mixed Media Recycled Art

Paper and Acrylic on Canvas

Sealed and ready to hang

40 cm x 60 cm

I See A Distant Land - A Self Portrait

A long time ago I have been dreaming of a distant land.

My passion for photography and creating visual, intriguing scenarios through the media of film started at a very early age. Staging photographic installations,  like a theatre play, centering around a certain chosen topic or idea was my favourite. I dreamed of situations and sceneries, would write my dreams down in my diary the next day and then try to capture them on film with the help of some of my school friends.

Eye To Eye

Praying Mantis, eyeing me out! From behind the couch!

 From the curtain rail 

Mozambican Gold

When you listen you can hear them calling

loud and clear

the whispers of the sea

the three towers

and the ocean's chapel

the Kauri, the first money of Africa

or just a piece of jewelry

the tiger shells, they are all there just for you to see

 

The Gold Of Mozambique