Marianne Hallberg

March 8, 2021 12:03 AM \

Gothenburg-based ceramicist Marianne Hallberg graduated from the University of Design and Crafts, Gothenburg in the early 1980s. She creates everyday objects decorated with playful, sketchy designs that appear to jump off of the flat surfaces of her pottery with distorted-looking forms. Her material is stoneware with a white tin glaze, decorated with cobalt oxide. She has always been interested in ornamentation studying flowers, exploring symbols, squares, dots, stripes and combines them like patchwork quilts. Her ceramics are sold all over the world but mostly to Sweden and Japan.

More of her work can be seen here in her Instagram page.

Images:  Courtesy of Marianne Hallberg.

Posted in: Ceramics \ Tagged:

Søstrene Grene

March 5, 2021 12:03 AM \

Søstrene Grene opened its first store in the Danish city of Aarhus in 1973.   They have since opened several locations in Scandinavia and Western Europe.  Their stores are designed to inspire body and soul by means of classical music, creative product displays and aisles of ‘hygge’ (creating a warm atmosphere).  Søstrene Grene in Danish means the sisters Grene, Anna and Clara, who founded the company.  We love their over 200 postings of DIY projects and will probably create the Christmas ring project shown above.  And as the sisters always say, “With a curious and creative mind, even the smallest things can be turned into something absolutely wonderful”.

You can find Søstrene Grene on their website, Facebook and Instagram. Instructions for the Christmas ring project shown above can be found here.

Images:  Courtesy of Søstrene Grene.

Posted in: DIY, Shops \ Tagged: ,

Ikki Matsumoto (1935 – 2013)

March 3, 2021 12:03 AM \

Ikki Matsumoto is the son of the artist we featured yesterday, Katsuji Matsumoto.  Ikki travelled to the United States to study at the John Herron School of Art in Indiana, where his older brother was a sculpture student. He transferred to the Art Academy of Cincinnati to study under the renowned wildlife artist, Charles Harper.  After an unsatisfying work in the advertising field, he established a new career as a painter and printmaker using the native birds as his subjects. Matsumoto intended for his work to make people feel good as he said, ‘there are no heavy messages in my work, I just simply wish to delight’.

More of his art can be viewed here on his posthumous website.

Images:  Courtesy of various sources.

Posted in: Fine Art, Illustration, Japan, Printmaking \ Tagged: , , ,
%d bloggers like this: