Jeni Caruana
  • Portfolio
    • Live Music Paintings
    • SKIN
    • Art in a strange time - 2020/1
    • Landscapes
  • Tuition
  • Blog
  • Contact Me!
  • About

ecoarti

10/7/2018

5 Comments

 
Picture
My daughter Tamsin and I have just come back from a business bootcamp in Frankfurt - which is the last thing I ever though I'd be doing! We are now part of the Climate-KIC start up business programme, organised by Provadis. It was amazing to meet 120 people from 9 EU countires all sharing amazing ideas and inventions to positively impact the environment and help to combat climate change.  
From green rooves to pesticide sensors to street vending machines that extract drinking water from humidity.... so many incredible ways to clean up our world and safeguard it for future generations..... I can only wish them all well. So much brilliant potential! And Provadis is giving us all the advice and support needed to make those dreams happen.
Our idea is not a product at all though - we feel that we need to help address the very basic lack of awareness that is still evident around us. Our dream is 'ecoarti' - inspiring eco-responsibility through artistic ventures; workshops and events to underline the message that seems to have been around for ages but doesn't seem to be working. Our polluted air and plastic filled seas bear witness to the failure of the 3 R's;
1. Refuse unnecessary packaging and single-use plastic
2. Reuse it for as long as possible.
3. was Recycle, but it's pretty obvious that globally we are not coping with the sheer amount of waste we are producing. As ecoarti we will create installations from rubbish and waste materials that would otherwise end up in landfills. Our third R would be aRt - make rubbish into something memorable and perhaps even useful. I don't suppose we'll ever make a fortune by doing this, but there are many ways to feel rich! 
​Our next project is "Bahar taz-Zibel" ("Sea of Rubbish"), working with 70 teens to create a mural 8ft x 52ft to make them more aware of the impact plastic and other debris has on sealife. If only a few of them go home afterwards and take the message with them it will be worth it.
We want to show that rubbish can actually be a resource when used with imagination and creativity. Instead of letting it depress us, let's reuse it to make Art.

5 Comments

Painting La Grotta Mangiapani in Trapani, Sicily

20/6/2017

1 Comment

 
In May I organised two painting trips to Trapani in Sicily for my students.  We really did a lot of work between us, and had a good time exploring some interesting sites .....  as well as feasting on fresh fish and local wines!
Picture
One intriguing place we visited was ‘La Grotta Mangiapani’ described as ‘a village where time stands still’. 

​

​This huge cave is in Scurati, part of the Mount Cofano Reserve in Custonati, about 30 minutes from Trapani by car.


Picture
The cave has been inhabited since Palaeolithic times and in the 1800’s was turned into a small village by the Mangiapani family. Four family units lived there for 150 years until after the Second World War, when most of the inhabitants emigrated.

​The Di Rosario family continued to live there, using  it as a large stable and store. 

In 1982, destroyed by the animals and quite derelict,a group of young people from Custonaci decided to restore the place and hold an annual Live Crib in the cave. It took years to restore the abandoned buildings and surrounding areas. They sourced examples of traditional tools and wares, and it is now a kind of living museum, with animals in the pens and the rooms displaying various crafts such as the making of barrels, clothes, puppets, carts, and  food. 
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
​​The photos above were all (brilliantly) taken by Melanie Geraghty

It was all very well done and we had a great time exploring before we settled down to paint.

It’s a challenge to draw such a massive cliff and keep the sense of scale and perspective –
​I’m not sure how well I managed but it was fun trying.
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
​My visit with the second group was on a Sunday and we were overrun by about 50 motorbikers obviously on a Tour, and we were all entertained by a group of traditional singers in local costume.....  they did kind of disrupt our painting, but they offered to share their wine with us, so we forgave them !!
PictureI couldn't resist these two horses swishing off the flies from each others' faces

I couldn't help thinking that Malta has so many locations that could take this idea and restore interesting but currently derelict areas.
​

​Close to where I live, the old village of Manikata "Razzett tal-Qasam" has been very well restored and preserved by the local farmers (see 
Koperattiva Rurali Manikata ) but there are many once-inhabited caves in the area that could be used in a similar way to the Sicilian one - even a Living Crib! Just an idea....

1 Comment

Hello 2016!

1/1/2016

0 Comments

 
To all my friends, 'followers', and students past , present and to come, I hope that you have had a wonderful, magical Christmas and New Year celebrations. May 2016 bring a cornucopia of joy, wonder, beauty, good fortune and all other wondrous things spilling into your life!
Picture

​I have to apologise to anyone who sent me a Christmas card this year - I didn't send any out at all.

I did this painting of camels from some sketches I made in Libya when I was there in 2010.
I was running classes in the lovely grounds of a friend's villa - and she just happened to have three camels living at the end of her garden! Happy days. I do hope that peace breaks out in Libya soon. And in the rest of the world for that matter. 


Anyway, I did the camel painting for Christmas but it didn't quite get to the printers - so I saved a few trees, at least. 
​If I start now I might have some for sale next year........

You may have noticed that I fell off the weekly blog ladder in the last few months of 2015. Sending it out so often was probably too ambitious - I'm going to try and write a monthly one this year, plus a newsletter-y thing about classes and whatever else I've been up to art wise.
Picture
"High Tide" mixed media on board. 60 x 60 cms
I am looking forward to starting a new series of Creativity Classes to stimulate and inspire old and new students. The first one will be January 30th at 10am in my Manikata studio and after that on the last Saturday of every month. We will explore different methods and materials, techniques and tools as a path to finding unique and personal work. Everyone can gain from 'playing' like this; it's a great way to push the boundaries of your knowledge and discover new ways of working that will enhance your skills. We'll cover things like textural surfaces using tissue paper and collage, using 'found' objects, creating happy accidents and generally having a lot of fun. 

Meanwhile, my weekly classes will begin again next week.
Tuesday 12th at Le Meridien 10am - 12.30pm
Thursday 14th at Ta Mena in Gozo 10.30am - 1pm
Friday 15th at Villa Bologna in Attard 10am - 12.30pm 

Basic classes for beginners, improvers and wish-I-could-get-going-again-ers will start in February.
All classes are 20 euro, or 100 euro for 6 classes paid in advance. 
Please Click Here! to contact me for bookings or more info. (PS I don't teach children.)
 
Here's to the most creative and fulfilled year of our lives! 

​
0 Comments

The Business of Being Creative

26/1/2015

0 Comments

 


Creative people often rely on others to actually market and sell their work. Creativity is a sensitive place to view the world from, allowing ourselves to be totally open to inspiration and the breath of new life. We welcome different ways of seeing, making, hearing, doing things in our own unique and individual way. 


This can be a very fragile state to be in, and the work we produce is precious and personal. Even our more commercial efforts tend to be special to us, and we can be over sensitive to criticism about them. 


Picture
Picture
Picture
It’s not common for a creative person to excel at business and marketing. One skill usually outweighs the other. Marketing the Arts is best done by those who are not directly involved in creating it. You can’t be over sensitive if you are good in business, and you can’t be insensitive if you are going to create meaningful pieces of art. Business people know how their world works; it is built on things that have worked in the past, proven methods and safe approaches. A good business model is a sound, logical left-brained piece of thinking, with steps to take to reach the goal.
Picture
Business says – it works like this; you do A, B, C, and reach X
Creativity says – I wonder what would happen if I did z, R, h......... ?
The two don’t work together easily.

Creativity and the arts depend on right brained innovation, running on completely different tracks. Inspiration strikes and the ideas come like an avalanche; we may or may not be thinking of the end result, just the interesting way the whole thing is happening as it does.
Picture
Picture
Picture
 One of the last things we may think of is a happy customer. Putting that into the mix often stifles the flow. That’s not good business, but it’s certainly good for us. We are feeding our own soul, helping it to grow and express itself in its own unique way. 
There are many innovative ways of running businesses now, of course, with the internet so easy to access and use. Creative people, like me, can really enjoy making websites and skimming through hundreds of inspirational images online. I like playing around with the way the pages on my website look, and editing my own paintings. But I know that I fall down when it comes to the promotional and marketing side of it all. I start and then retreat. It doesn’t feel right for me to put ‘BUY ME NOW!’ buttons under my pictures. Feeling isn’t part of most businesses though, is it. What to do??  
0 Comments

    Jeni Caruana

    ​

    Picture



    ​


    ​I love to paint - and draw - and help others to discover their creative side too.....

        Be the first to see my latest work and hear of new classes by adding your email address below. Thank you!

    Categories

    All
    Art
    Art And Business
    Artist
    Classes
    Courses
    Creativity
    Dancers
    Drawing
    Drawing People
    Emotion. Ideas
    Exhibition
    Fifty Shades Of Grey Nudes
    Figures
    Fun
    Gallery
    Images
    Inspiration
    Jazz
    Jeni Caruana
    Landscapes
    Malta
    Maltese
    Motion
    Nude Models
    Nudes
    Originality
    Painter
    Painting
    Painting Holidays
    Pictures
    Sketchbook
    Sketching
    Students
    Teacher
    Tips On Drawing
    Tutor
    Watercolours
    Workshops

    Archives

    February 2019
    July 2018
    May 2018
    February 2018
    August 2017
    June 2017
    February 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    October 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    October 2012

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.
  • Portfolio
    • Live Music Paintings
    • SKIN
    • Art in a strange time - 2020/1
    • Landscapes
  • Tuition
  • Blog
  • Contact Me!
  • About