I sat around a coffee inTours the other day, then still the Old Year, waiting for our youngest who got her hair trimmed. All around me in the brasserie hung these clowns along with clown paintings. They made me giggle. A clown does that. And they make me sad. But these clowns can’t make me sad. Because they aren’t real. And because it was the last day of the Old Year. I didn’t want to end the year sad and I want this year to be filled with much more laughter. I didn’t laugh enough in the previous one. And so the clowns worked their way into my moleskine.
May we all have a year overflowing with good, old fashioned, unashamedly wild laughter and may we laugh the hardest at ourselves.
…haaa ha ha ha ha ha!…
Sketches in moleskine, pen and watercolour.
Africantapestry 
Wonderful!
Happy New Year
They look absolutely wonderful in your loose colourful style! What a fun way to start the year – I hope it’s fun filled and creative one for you Ronell!
I’ll toast to that, Ronell!! Felicity and Anita are so right. Those clowns even MOVE like laughter, itself!
You have brightened my morning.
May 2009 be full of those happy moments to share with one another.
annie
Great!
Clowns scare me! But I will laugh right along with you!
And, of course, you have a wonderful way with clowns, Ronell. Maybe we can have one a week, to keep our spirits up throughout the year. Please?
What a FUN sketch!! Oh I love the joyful abandon of this, Ronell!
These are fun!! So cheerful and colourful, too! When I was little and living in Germany, we used to go to the circus every now and then. Those were the days when they still had animals like lions and tigers, too. I LOVED thecircus! The clowns came out when there was a possibility of danger like the big cats or tight rope walking. The tension and suspnse just added to the atmosphere,but the clowns made us laugh and giggle with their antics, so that made everything less scary.
I love these sketches, Ronell! I agree, we need more laughter in our daily lives. May you have mirth and fun every day!
You are silly! Love your clowns.
Happy New Year!
I’m not typically a big clown fan, but these are charming and full of life–a glorious way to start a new year. Happy New Year, Ronell!
Beautiful! I especially like the one in the airplane on the right! dear Ronell, I, too, wish you all the best for 2009! May it be a happy and creative year!
what beautiful sketches! All the best for 2009 – I love your laughter wishes.
I just LOVE our clowns. I did laugh at their cuteness.
Yipee!!! These certainly made me giggle!
😉
I’m not actually much of a clown fan, but you make them look like fun.
I hope 2009 brings you all that you hope for.
Wonderful memories for me here in your charming freeform colourful clowns. The first time I visited my son in Luxemburg I bought some clowns in Remich for my grand daughters and they looked just like yours. Wish I still had them to sketch. Happy New Year Ronell and good luck with your New Year’s two image project – great start. So many of us have enjoyed your happy post.
the detail and yet the free flowingness makes me gasp, if only i could paint like this. whew.
I love these, they are fun and alive and so well done!
I’m with Marta — clowns scare me (but not these). I even had a nightmare recently about a clown coming up to me and sticking his big scary face in mine! Your wonderful primary colors add to the festivity of this painting. I agree that it’s good to start the New Years off the way you want to spend the year, happy, not sad!
oh… these are fantastic and jumped at me in my feed reader! have a great new year, ronell, and i’m looking forward to sharing parts of that with you on watermarks.
all the very best!
and yes: clowns ARE scary 🙂
Here here, nothing like a good, deep laugh and these clowns are pure joy! Happy New Year to You!
I haven’t been here in awhile and enjoyed seeing some of your latest work. I love these clowns!