Tag Archives: Arno Carstens

Arno Carstens shows us another creative side @ I ♥ My Laundry

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I’m becoming quite a regular at I ♥ My Laundry.  Last wed eve I attended another “Laundry party”, this time to check out some art by legendary SA musician, Arno Carstens while sipping on some Graham Beck wines.  Wed eve perfection right there…

Now I’ve been a fan of Arno since my student days when he used to rock those tight leather pants on stage as the front man of the Springbok Nude Girls.  You see, I have a huge thing for muso types.  Put a guy on stage, let him rock his heart out and instantly his appeal quadrupels in my sad “groupie” eyes.  Then again, I’m sure I’m not the only girl in that boat, right? ;)

Arno’s always been a great musician.  I’ve followed his music career post the Nude Girls and have continued to enjoy his musical stylings.  But Arno as an artist?  I wont lie, I was a bit sceptical…

Little did I know that Arno has always had a love for painting.  In fact, as a kid he dreamt of one day becoming a full time artist and even went on to study graphic art back in 1992.  But all that changed in 1994 when he met Theo Crous, Anro Blumer, Francious Kruger and Adriaan Brand and the band, Springbok Nude Girls, was born.  Music took centre stage so to speak and continued to do so for the next 18 years.

In 2010, after a successful 3 year stint overseas, he decided it was time to pick up that brush again.  And a 2 year creative journey has now culmitated in his Arno Plus exhibition.

I’m not going to act like I know anything about art, cause I don’t.  But what I can tell you is that I know what I like.  I’m not really drawn to things which I think will look nice in my apartment.  I’m also not one for anything related to the big 5 or nature scenes.  I usually like paintings which are slightly weird, dreamlike or even a little dark.

Luckily for me, Anno’s style turned out to be exactly that.  A technical fact you’d probably want to know:  he paints with oils on canvas. :)

My absolute favourite was this one called “Swan Love”:

It immediately made me smile.

And then I liked the dark mood of this one titled “Beast”:

And also ”Self Portrait”:

And the total craziness and bright colours of “Face of deception”:

And “Lothario”:

Prices for these pieces range from about R25,000 to R50,000 and you can check out the full exhibition catalogue here.

I momentarily got side-tracked by a cookie.  Yes, that’s right – a cookie:

I thought to myself… Now this is the easiest way to get that perfect bikini bum!  Well that is until is disappears into your tummy…

As much as I appreciate good art, I also really appreciate good wine.  We kicked off the evening with some Graham Beck Brut NV MCC, which is always a winner, and then we moved on to some of their reds:

On the left - a 2009 Syrah; And on the right – a 2010 Cabernet Sauvignon

This was the first time I tried their red wines and I really enjoyed both.  Heading out to their estate in Franschhoek for the full Graham Beck experience is still on my list of “to do items” and then they also have a new “bubbly bar” called Gorgeous out on the Steenberg Estate in Constantia which I hear is a must see.  I certainly don’t need any excuse to go and indulge in some sparkly daahling. ;)

Me with the man himself. Oh and congrats to Arno on becoming a first time dad recently!

This exhibition is part of the I ♥ My Art club.  For more info or if you’re someone who’s interested in exhibiting as well, contact Susan Botha on myartilove@gmail.com or 084 358 4119.

Thanks to Arno, the fabulous guys & girls of I ♥ My Laundry & I ♥ My Art and of course Graham Beck wines for letting me crash the party.  Loved every minute.

xxx

Cosmo puts on one hell of a show!

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On Thu eve I attended the Cosmopolitan SA Lingerie fashion Show 2011.   How did I get in exactly?  Well the lovely Bjorn Steinbach sorted out an invite for me.  You see he got invited because he is Cosmopolitan’s very own Mr December on their 2011 Sexy Man calendar, check it out:

Hotness. AND December happens to be my birthday month!  Bjorn’s not just a pretty face, he’s a talented actor.  Go check out his IMDb link above to see what he’s worked on.

The event took place at the amazing Upper Eastside Hotel in Woodstock.  I had no idea this place even existed, and I was blown away at how impressive this venue was.

There were lots of little stands where you could peruse through sexy lingerie.  Revlon offered mini makeovers and you could even have your photo taken with some Wonderbra hotties.  Triump went for a “live display” option:

Wait, those mannequins move! ;)

I picked up my complimentary Absolut Vodka coctail and we went off to do a bit of exploring and mingling before we were asked to take our seats for the show.  We were very lucky to have 2nd row seats, just look at how excited we were:

Ready to see some hot chicks in some hot lingerie… oh yeah.

The show featured all of the lingerie ranges from the September 2011 Cosmopolitan Lingerie feature.  This included some sexy items from Wonderbra, La Senza, Jockey, After Eden,  Temptations, Shelley, Edgars Free 2BU, Triump, Maidenform & Sloggi.

It opened with quite a bang – very Victoria Secret fashion show inspired, but with a SA twist:

Then Adeline Mucke (accompanied by Albert Frost) did a sexy number for us.  You’ll probably remember Adeline from the SA Idols top ten last year.   I don’t really follow SA Idols, but I was very impressed by her singing ability…  she has a great voice, and clearly she’s also a total bombshell:

I have to just show you a piccie of the stage, was so cool with these huge doors which were opened by some scantily clad muscle boys at the beginning of the show:

I must also note that the models in this show were some of the hottest women I have seen in a long time.  The line-up included big names such at Tracy McGregor & Lieschen Botes and they all made me promise myself that I will be spending way more time in the gym from now on!

From angelic whites we went to some Naughty & Nice lingerie:

Then we got to drool at the absolute hotness that is Aidan Bennetts:

Aidan is not just that hottie from Top Billing and a talented designer.  He also happens to be a Muay Thai champoin, hence the fighter themed ramp appearance.

Then there was some more hot & sexy lingerie:

A mini burlesque show:

And Arno Carstens came out to do a song:

Lastly, the grand finale, all in red:

My favourite biets, Leigh (aka Lipglossgirl) was also amongst the lucky invitees:

Bjorn surrounded by women… lucky man.

And I also got to catch up with fashion blogger, Jasna Zellerhoff (aka Fashionjazz):

Geeze that chick is tall! Poor Leila and I look like dwarves… haha

We got to enjoy some snacks and even got to bust out some moves on the dance floor before we needed to head over to the Global Party at the Fez.   Was having such a great time though, I didn’t really want to leave!

According to the invite, the event was put together by the PR people at Associated Magazines.  For those who don’t know, Associated Magazines publishes Cosmopolitan, Marie Claire, House and Leisure & The Oprah magazine.  Fantastic job guys!  Was a seriously impressive event. :)

Check out the Cosmopolitan SA website for all the official event pics.

xxx

PS:  I just found a cool piccie on Thunda.com from the party:

The cutie on my left is Siv Ngesi – check him out on the new Castle Lager ad where a group of SA guys head over to London to check out how they do a “braai”.   Love it. ;)