Surfing Sisters

This is really great Anni, I really like your style and I love paintings with a sense of humour!

Like it! Do you actually like nuns, or is this a subtle form of revenge for a convent school education? The shark gives one cause to ponder...

Hello Christine, Thanks for looking at this and taking the time to comment. Sometimes we take life too seriously and it is good to have a laugh to raise the spirits. Kind regards ~ Anni Morris :)

:) Glad you like it Robert. I am not a Catholic and did not attend a school with nuns, so no secret axe to grind really. I have been told many stories about them by friends however, some of which depict them as being very kind and others the extreme opposite and very cruel. I think I am intrigued by them, their dress and mystique. I enjoy putting them in unlikely situations...i.e. getting up to mischievous deeds. That dorsal fin could be a shark or dolphin....perhaps it is a case of how we look on life. I appreciate you looking and giving it some thought. I have a few bizarre ideas for my next paintings, can't wait to make them materialise. Kind regards ~ Anni Morris

Having had a convent school education myself - I am surprised to see joyful nuns as it was not my experience of them. Lovely joyful and funny painting, very expertly executed as well.

Hello Thea. Thanks for looking at this one. Quite a number of people have mentioned their not very pleasant school days to me with nuns. Many recall being wrapped over the knuckles with a ruler while learning the piano!...and other things too. This crowd are a merry bunch and very unconvential. They live for the moment and can be dare devils at times. It was difficult to photograph it well, colours are better in real life. If it made you smile, I feel I have achieve my objective. Kind regards to you and happy painting ~ Anni Morris :)

I so enjoy looking at your gallery Anni. Vibrant, colourful and full of humour - such skill needed to portray these qualities. This one certainly makes me smile! Whatever will you come up with next? Thanks for your comment on my polar bear - much appreciated.

Thanks Julia for those words. I love polar bears, their environment is so rapidly changing because of global warming and man...I would hate to see them become extinct. I like making art...that makes people smile. We all have to laugh at ourselves now and then and not take life so seriously. There are plenty of funny pictures to paint for the future, ideas aren't the problem, it is just getting them done. Enjoy the warmth of your summer up there in the northern hemisphere. Kind regards Anni Morris

Anni...I missed this when you posted it...I think it is hilarious and it certainly made me smile! Nuns present such a lovely outline for design and composition, don't they, and I am very fond of black and white work. You have a wonderfully intelligent sense of humour, and I just love all your work. In some ways it reminds me of those witty paintings by Louis Wain, my sister has one of his originals, I seem to remember i is of cats playing cards (?) Thank you for your comment on the rabbits. I have just treated myself to a rotary blade sharpener, which fixes onto the edge of my work table. it is a Faber Castell and it's great., takes most thicknesses, adjusts from sharp point to blunt, and when the pencil is ready the turning handle (manual) runs free. The pencil sits in a firm grip carriage which moves it forward as it sharpens. Worth the money so far, I am very pleased with the results, and it has only ever broken one old pencil which I had dropped on a tile floor and damaged anyway. kind regards, Ruth

Dear Ruth Always a treat to hear from you. Thanks for looking at this :) Funny you mention Louis Wain. Several months ago I looked into his life as I have always loved his work. What a very fascinating, be it sad in many ways background/life he had. He was born in a poor area of East London and was the eldest of six children, also the only boy. He was born with a cleft lip and a doctor suggested he not be sent to school until he was 10 years old! All five sisters never married but lived with their French mother. At the age of 30 his youngest sister was admitted to an asylum as did dear Louis for the majority of his life. He studied Art and became a teacher, then did illustration work. At the age of 23 he married his sister's governess who was 10 years his senior. Sadly she soon became sick with cancer and died 3 years later. He usd to draw her humourous cat pictures while she was in bed..he even trained her pet cat to wear specs...to make her laugh. He contributed to many animal charities, he had to support his sisters and mother and fell on hard times. He was exploited as he was a simple modest man and his health begun to suffer. He was an eccentric and he committed to a puper's ward in London. The compassionate H G Wells heard about his plight and had him moved to a comfortable and peaceful hospital near to St Albans (near to where I used to live) . He live there until he died. It is quite a trafic tale and I think it would make an excellent film of his life, showing how biggoted and uncaring society can be . He deinitely was a talent with a wonderful imagination. Crikey, sorry to have rambled on but he has a special place for me. That sharpener sounds just the ticket Ruth. Kind regards Anni Morris

Love this, such a lot to look at. Lovely treatment of the water, and marvellous palette.

Hello Lesley, Thanks for looking and your words :) I think this is about the first time I've tackled waves and it was a huge learning curve. I wanted to make a great wave somewhere in the painting. I used several blues with the titanium white. Then there were the reflections and thinking about the colour of the shallow water in the foreground. I decided against doing much shading to the nuns clothes as that would detract from their overall shape. I love putting in the tiny details like the lighthouse (Im fond of lighthouses), seagulls, dorsal fin. I always enjoyed those picture books as a child when you looked around the page for the little things happening. ~ Kind regards ~ Anni