LISA NG ART

When 2 Wake Windows Close A Painting Window Opens (In My House Of Art And Life)

Hi hi hi been lousy updating, I had a baby about a year ago and then another just now, a year later! I now find myself a mother of 2 under 2 (go big or go home?) and although I consider all my paintings my babies, these little ones move so much faster. I moved back to my hometown, Hamilton ON and have set up shop here and have coined it The Zoo. I needed to be closer to family, “it takes a village,” and now the village has a painter! I haven’t much time to update but rest assured, thanks to the village, am still producing.

I bought a house with a studio:

and am living with minimal furniture. Been expanding on my series of animal furnishings to compensate. I started some work with coloured pencils. It’s a great medium to use when the little ones are up and terrorizing the place. I can start and stop as needed without having to wash paint brushes to tend to what I need to:

These are 5 x 7 inch postcards in size, I’m still getting to know the medium and tinkering around, searching for a more solidified format to unify them, but here is some work in progress. I’m thinking maybe a limited edition set in the future, we’ll see:

I was rounding out this crocodile couch but then got interrupted with a commission (more below). Nearly done and will get back to him soon:

Currently finishing up this commission for another Polar Chair. My previous ones are long gone but I gotta get me some snowblower paper, tis the season. Here is a teaser, more to follow:

Also taking orders for my postcard surprise pack of 10 for $35 CAD Inquire within! They make great stocking stuffers!

How has motherhood changed me/my art? I’m not sure it has but it’s accelerated the fact that time is finite! There’s just no time for wasting. I either work on stuff I really want to work on or I don’t work on it at all. But also:

Artists make worlds, mothers make inhabitants.

Most flattering quote as of late:

“Your art makes me feel like a kid again, but in a sophisticated way!”

I should take the time to savour little nuggets like that, yeah I’m gonna ❤️

Hedgehog

A hedgehog sits up at night nestled in a cozy room of purple, red and blue flowers. The moon shines in the skylight, a furry of moths visit, celebratory lights are present, a rubber ducky sits in the corner and a basket of fruit brings good fortune and prosperity. Completed a day before the artist gave an unexpected early birth to her second child (how’s that for nesting?), just hours before her water broke, in fact. Things turned out fantastic and this painting brings good surprises.

All paintings are one of a kind originals. Finished with painted edges, 1.5 inches deep, they do not require a frame and are ready for your enjoyment, complete with hangy wire.

Prints and original available at Saatchi Art

Original Surrealist Painting Of A Panda With Cub

Panda Flowers acrylic on canvas 12 x 12 x 1.5 inches 2022 $500 CAD

A big panda cuddles with a panda cub in a cozy room of red peonies, pink cherry blossoms and orange kumquats! Covered in symbols of prosperity and good fortune, this painting will only bring joy to its owner. Spot the lucky bamboo and the panda paw print lantern. Painting comes with a carrot and a bowl of fruit for delectable snacking. A great painting for any caregiver/”caregivee” relationship, done while the artist is just getting to know her own little toddler at 1 year of age while pregnant with her second. The family’s rocking horse came in handy.

All paintings are one of a kind originals. Finished with painted edges, 1.5 inches deep, they do not require a frame and are ready for your enjoyment, complete with hangy wire.

Original painting and prints available at:

https://www.saatchiart.com/art/Painting-Panda-Flowers/672002/9699965/view

Indoor Chameleon In Blue acrylic on canvas 12 x 9 x 1.5 inches 2022 $400 CAD

The forever elusive indoor chameleon in a world of blue. Featuring Picasso’s guitar player from his blue period, a Smurf and the universe’s very own blue marble, Planet Earth! A toddler in a blue striped onesie draws in the corner, the only hint of orange, red and yellow comes out of his hand, the only colours of hope. Completed during a rather blue period in my life with a lot of readjustment, including leaving old roots behind, switching cities and looking for a place of my family’s own, toppled with an ankle injury with a slow recovery, I am just coming out of it now with the prospect of settling in a new home and expecting a baby boy!

All four sides are painted and therefore painting does not require a frame. Complete with hangy wire it is ready for your enjoyment!

Original painting and prints available at:

https://www.saatchiart.com/art/Painting-Indoor-Chameleon-In-Blue/672002/9574847/view

Art For Album Cover Digital Release 🌺

Honoured I was approached to have my art as the cover design on a digital album released! The music came out this week 😀 Three Corners by Hypnosis Negative, give it a listen on band camp 🎻 Traditional folk music from Estonia 🇪🇪

Three Corners by Hypnosis Negative on Bandcamp

Indoor Chameleon In Tutti Fruitti

My forever elusive and colour changing indoor chameleon, see if you can catch him in one of his many patterns. Always surfing for a place to crash, so much of survival in the face of hardship is about adaptation, builds character! This one comes in tutti fruitti with a full zest for life. A grey cat plays with a red ball of yarn but hasn’t quite caught on to her new guest. A painting of a ship sailing in the storm under night vision hangs above the couch and the curtains above the windows just opened.

All four edges are painted and therefore does not require a frame, complete with hanging wire it is ready for your enjoyment.

Original painting and prints available @: SAATCHIART

Painting For A Lullaby

Having a kid makes you step out of your element. One of the reasons I love painting is that I can scour through the world’s infinite library of music for hours on end while feeling productive and despite having already covered 30 something years worth of music in my little short life span, there’s still so much more to go.

Most recently I’ve gotten into lullabies. I’ve always loved slow tempo, classical and modern piano (Claude Debussy, Erik Satie, Dustin O’Halloran) some of it back from my bad piano lesson days, but this new obsession has made me delve further into the past to discover more, specifically lullabies, music that have been putting babies to sleep for decades, centuries and I’ve still got eons to go.

My new obsession is Johannes Brahms’, 1868, “Wiegenlied” or “Lullaby” or “Cradle Song.”

Johannes Brahms Lullaby played by Miles Patrick on Spotify

From Wikipedia:

“The cradle song was dedicated to Brahms’s friend, Bertha Faber, on the occasion of the birth of her second son.^[5][6] Brahms had been in love with her in her youth and constructed the melody of the “Wiegenlied” to suggest, as a hidden counter-melody, a song she used to sing to him.”

I just love this little diddy and even more now that I know the story behind it. I started humming it to my little monster at night to calm her down for sleep and although I always wanted to be a singer or to have musical talent of some sort, it never transpired due to my tone deaf ears and unwillingness to practice. My baby doesn’t seem to mind my off key singing surprisingly and better yet I’ve gotten better at it so much so it is maybe the first tune I’ve been finally been able to commit to memory! My baby is a very forgiving audience.

Something else I learned about lullabies, they are simple, repetitive and contain pauses so as not to overwhelm the tiny humans. They are melodic, and use a range of pitch within a higher range, which is thought to convey feelings of love and affection. They are in 6/8 time, which supposedly mimics the rocking motion in the womb. They are even used neonatal units to regulate babies’ breathing patterns and generally lead to better outcomes, one study showed lullabies could decrease an infants stay by 3 days.

So as my baby sleeps and I am reflecting on all of this while painting, I think how lovely to be a composer and to have that sort of lasting appeal! Then I thought well how could I translate that into a painting. It probably wouldn’t have the same effect but let’s indulge in my ego a bit, what would be my everlasting lullaby painting/ cradle song, something that might lull a baby to sleep. I think my best bet might be my Koala In The Bedroom Painting:

Koala In The Bedroom acrylic on canvas 48 x 48 x 1.5 inches 2019 10,000 CAD Prints available just inquire at lisangart@hotmail.com

From my giant animal in tiny rooms series, koalas sleep a lot so I put him in the bedroom. Comes with a mushroom night light and a few hidden animals from the eucalyptus forest. Painting comes with a koala stuffy, a bedside lamp, and a gentle view of the moon also. A good thing to have in the nursery or bedroom maybe? Painting is night themed but might also run the risk of keeping you up at night, depending on how you feel about monster sized koalas..

Canada Post Custom Stamps

My custom stamp collection to date, use them just like regular Canadian postage! Write me at lisangart@hotmail.com to get some ordered or better yet, you can write to Canada Post and request they include me in their stamp selection process: Canada Post Stamp Selection Process

I’m writing to the director of stamp services to point them to the direction of my website but probably a long shot and a lick of wishful thinking but I’m a dreamer.

What I’m Painting Right Now

Working on a tutti fruitti, seemed like a good summer move. I wanna work on a series of indoor chameleons, smaller in size, in different colours and patterns. My life is blowing up and going through so many changes right now, I could use an adaptable constant, but also they’re fun 🤩 #wip #lisangart #tuttifruiti #artandstuff #artdiary #artjournal

Making Art And Being A Mom

Marabou Stork In Fur depicting my family at present. Dad’s in the background out getting fish, mom’s at home with the little one with another chickadee on the way. Looks like mom’s either just on her way out to run an errand or just came back from one. She’s not painting now but she’ll get to it in a bit! The colour scheme for this painting is completely taken from my little one’s outfit 🐣

What can I say about making art and being a mom?

I used to think you had to choose one or the other, like that infamous quote by performance artist, Marina Abramovic. Or that women don’t first off handedly choose to be artists but drift into that arena to fill up the space when they find they sadly, physically unable to procreate, see Frida Kahlo, or don’t have the support to raise a family, see Maud Lewis, or maybe just never found the right partner, or maybe they just never intended to, Georgia O’Keefe?

But then again, I think of the other women painters who did, Leonora Carrington had 2, Artemesia Gentileschi had 5, Grandma Moses had 10! So in short, there really is no right way, nor wrong way, I think, to go about being an artist or being a mom, and or being both. There’s really no need to overthink it, you just wake up in the morning and keep at it.

History is marked with female painters I admire, I guess in a way I always thought of all of them as my own “art mums,” and as I spent my youth devouring the biographies of each and every one, finding inspiration in all of them, I look at their independent trials and tribulations, their particular obstacles and fears, and admire that despite everything, they all continued to paint. I cut and paste what I admire from each of them as I make peace that there really is no single life manual to go by, and that like one’s own art, as one’s own life, you really just have to map out your own path in the end. Everybody’s got their own problems, their own issues, and ultimately, I believe it all added a uniqueness to their art, and that’s what makes it original.