American Artist Jeff Koons has just opened a new exhibition of work. And it’s not at any art gallery. You can see his new creations adorning the halls and gardens of the beautiful palace of Versailles in France!

“Versailles in recent years has displayed only a few select works of contemporary artists. The exhibition of 17 Koons sculptures marks the first time that the chateau built by Louis XIV has organized so ambitious a retrospective of one contemporary artist.” (NY Times)

The exhibition showcases works like a giant pink balloon animal dog, a hanging plastic lobster and even a sculpture of Michael Jackson and Bubbles.

“Not everyone here was as pleased by the installation. Several dozen people demonstrated outside the palace gates early Wednesday, a protest organized by the National Union of Writers of France, a little-known, right-wing group dedicated to artistic purity in France. The group’s chairman demanded that the exhibit be canceled”.

‘In his opening remarks at the news conference, Jean-Jacques Aillagon, the chairman of Versailles and a former French culture minister, defended Versailles against its critics. He called Mr. Koons a “cultivated” artist who treated the artistic history of Versailles with respect, and described the exhibition as “a great cultural event.” ‘ (NY Times)

You can see the full NY Times story and slideshow here.

I recently splurged on a new set of etsy prints, from the pairabirds. I do this every now and then when i get bored with what is on my walls and fall in love with something beautiful.

Right - Left: Bobbi, Sky & Cat Call.

Tabitha Bianca Brown creates the artworks for sale at the pairabirds. Her beautiful illustrations and paintings evoke a sense of movement and story in their images. “I’m on a quest to find the Grit and Grime of the heavy Jazz Funk culture, prevalent in the 60s and 70s, in our modern times”, says Tabitha on her Etsy site.

She also blogs over at: Cover that mother.

I finished my first ever Abstract Painting last week at Uni. I only worked on it for three weeks, which so far is a record for me. it was also the first time I have ever deemed a painting “finished”. All my other attempts have been finished simply because it was time to hand it in to be marked.

I began this painting with a very different end result in mind. But i suppose that is part of the process. Originally I had envisioned an almost completely white canvas, with the top right corner blue with white light coming through. I want a red base though, to scratch back into, and that that red ended up engulfing the painting almost entirely.

It took a lot of layering, washes and glazing to get it to where it is, and alot of encouragement, pushing and instruction from my teacher. I don’t mind it, in the end I suppose. There are things I would change, but i learnt ALOT and plan to continue with abstraction in my next assignment, and have a much better idea of how to get the end result I’m after.