Rain, strangers and a new home

Hi there all. Already back at work for 2 weeks but not on the internet much. Holidays are almost over, my kids have one week left, and then everything will be back to normal. We had a lazy vacation, the first week camping we had nice weather, but the second week we went home because of the rain. I do love rain, but this was lots and lots of rain and that's not so nice while camping.  The kids didn't mind luckily. Next year we're off to France or Portugal again LOL.  The first day i had to work again, guess what?  A very hot day with lots of sunshine. Life sucks haha. :-S But i can enjoy the sun when i have my day off.

I wrote about some news i have to tell you when i am back. So here it goes:

first of all i am building a webshop for Splash splash kisses and almost ready for your visit. With lots of nice poppy stuff i think.

But most exciting: we are going to move again! The house we live in now is nice, but we are a bit strange for the neighborhood. We don't have a bourgeois taste so it seems, whatever that means. We drive an old car that takes us to places, thats all that counts right? We don't like to spend lots of money on a shiny new car, if the car drives than the car is sufficient for us. I wear black clothes most of the time, we listen to strange music, we don't like cultivated gardens and environments, the same garden as the neighbors with lots of concrete etc. It seems that some neighbors of us are upset because of our free, a bit wild front and backgarden. But they don't come to us to talks about this, we are very nice people really, they complain to the housing society, so this feels not good.

But in the beginning of next year we are moving to a nice project: Saksen Weimar. This was an old terrain with barracks for the military. When it wasn't in use any longer for the military, it became the place for artists and musicians with concerts and expositions.  And now the housing society is renovating all the beautiful old buildings, and inside the buildings there will be appartments with ateliers. And we are the lucky ones to rent one of these appartments. I have to admit it's a bit of a presomptuous project, there also will be new houses, expensive houses, so the terrain will be much more structured, no large metal statues etc. anymore. This scares some artists off. But i have faith in it, i can see through it. Artists will be artists, you cannot control them. Especially when they are living together, inspiring each other. Another project here in Arnhem, for artists, also a bit presomptuous, also scaring off artists in the beginning, prove i am right. ;-)

It's so nice to live in a home with artists around you yeay! I can't wait haha, but i have to be patient......

An old photograph of the barracks.

This is the gateway to the terrain.

Entering.......



One of the buildings in which our appartment will be build. Our living room has 3 windows, and the atelier next to it has also 3 windows! The width of our garden will be about 14 meters.  Are we lucky bastards or what?



That's it for now. I also have done some new drawings in my holidays, i will upload these in a new post. I will be visiting you all pretty soon. Stay happy!



What is it?

It must be spring, it sure is looking at this drawing. Because of the beautiful weather (and being busy as well) i spend my time outdoors as much as possible. That's the reason i am not too often behind my desk staring at the computer.  But at the end of the week the weather will be colder again and rainy,  giving me time to pay a visit to all my favourite blogs again. I promise, okay? ;-)

Friends, enjoy spring or fall, both such wonderful seasons of the year. 

Ready to go

This morning my work for the upcoming exhibition is collected, they were ready to go. I am really excited, trying not to be intimidated, because many of the participants are well known artists, selling their art all over the world. One of the pieces for this exposition has to be sold for 23.000 euros. Gosh, and then there is my work:  small, intimate and leaving an intense feeling i hope. The good thing about these welknown artists is the fact that there will be visitors who wouldn't come for an exhibition with only my name. Not well known (yet). ;-)
I noticed that art has to be BIG these days, BIG seizes, overwhelming techniques. I also see this on the internet: students from art schools with art that intimidate at first sight. Wow! i think, great art, overwhelming and so very clean and strict. I mean the look of it. Clean worlds, sometimes disturbing because of the perfection. That's what i think. It overwhelms me but then.... there it is, i take a closer look, still admiring the perfection of it all. There it is, in all its glory, intimidating perfection and it doesn't move me. It doesn't reach my heart and soul. Oh yeah. it keeps me thinking also. Should i make larger drawings? Flawless drawings? Drawing larger formats is tempting me, because of the challenge. Not because it looks better in a museum (?), trying to ahhhh and oooooh people. But i am also tempted to draw even smaller drawings, as a reaction. Wouldn't it be great: large paintings, installations, drawings everywhere and then a tiny tiny drawing of me. I would hang it a bit low, so people should go down, to take a better look. That's what i dream of right now......

And ofcourse of selling my drawings for enormous prices, so i can take a visit to my overseas artist friends all over the world. ;-)  I was very very busy, but will visit you all soon. Enjoy the rest of the weekend and i wish you a wonderful week full of dreams and challenges.

Warm feelings in winter and a bit of delicious, scary excitement.

Again such a lot to tell, where shall i begin? First of all, i already had spring in my thoughts and feelings but King Winter woke me up. Finally we have a winter and today it's snowing again. I am happy it's a good winter, not wet and blubbering, but clear, dry air, sometimes sunshine and because the waether is clear it's also very cold. When sitting behind my table, drawing, i can watch the snow falling and spotting all kind of birds in the garden and the old, big tree standing behind our house. Which reminds me to finally upload a photo of my working place.




 


Twelve o'clock, midday

  

Afternoon, after snowing all day long.








  

I am on RedBubble for quite awhile, but i didn't do anything with it. Until now. You can buy there cards and prints of my work. To support me and at the same time you will have a beautiful Momo Luna Signal. Ofcourse i ordered some cards myself, to check the quality of it and i must say the cards are beyond my expectations. They were larger than i thought, the image is bright and sharp, the cards are really very beautiful. Click on the Cards & prints diashow on the right and you enter my page.

 I also found Harry Kent on RedBubble that made me very happy because i love his art very much. I also ordered some cards of him. Again very great quality.  I think we should send each other cards more often. Not only with Christmas or a birthday, but to let someone know you care. A real card is much nicer than an email right? So take a look at RedBubble, there are lots of great artists with wonderful cards and prints.

For all the nice support and friendship i'm going to send my loyal blogfriends a little package. To thank you for that. I also received this week a package myself from my blogfriend Renilde. I love her art a lot. I love the fairytales she spins and the beautiful blues she uses on her palette. A special Renilde blue. :-) Thank you so much sweet Renilde for your beautiful gift, i am very happy with it!!!! Very much so.

Beautiful art by Renilde, i'm very happy with her lovely gift.




The wonderful cards of Haryy Kent, available on RedBubble.


And last but certainly not least: in March i will be participating in a group exhibition. The topic of this exhibition is:  Sex without joy, or unfulfilling sexual experiences. The curator asked me if i had something fitting this theme so I sended a mail with a suggestion of three drawings of mine. Unfortunately i was a bit late and there were already enough contributors. Typical me. But the curator likes my art, so she was going to check if i can have some space afterall. And she made it possible. I am so happy, excited and a bit scared haha. Because there are some well known artists on this exhibition. So i have to try not to get intimidated and to feel trust in myself. But this tiny bit of anxiety gives me butterflies, like the fear you have in a rollercoaster, you are scared and at the same time you have so much fun.  Soon more information about the exhibition.

The three drawings for this exhibition:   





Tenderness is weakness

 

Do you see who i am?



 
 
 

F*ck me doll - I dare you!

  




And to make this cold winterday even warmer and more perfect: i ordered an agenda with great photographs of Crissant. It arrived today and it's even more beautiful than i could imagine. If you wanna support this lovely lady check out her Blurb here.  I wish you all a perfect weekend!




Great agenda from Crissant.

 

Paint! Busy busy busy......

I had a very busy but very fun weekend. It was my birthday, there was family from Australia, i hadn't seen my sister in law, her hubby and their eldest son for 8 years. I never had met their daughter, my niece in real life. So that was so wonderful! There was also other family and we all had a really great time, swimming, playing games, reading.Today starts the 3 busy busy weeks. Friday i received the keys from my new home and today i was painting, painting, painting. Not on canvas but on walls, ceilings and window and door frames. I wish you all a good week, and soon i will be visiting you all again!

A happy Easter to you all!

I blow you a sweet Christmas kiss!

Tomorrow it's Christmas day! Soon this year will end and i'm looking forward to a new year. What will 2011 bring me? 

This year, 2010, has had it's ups and downs but i'm so lucky that it ends as a happy one. There's hope and  my problems are slowly turning into possibilities.

This year was a very wonderful year for blogging. I'm so happy to meet nice people (YOU!) from all over the world. And i am so very, very happy with all your kind comments and support. Bringing me joy, confidence and also inspiring thoughts and ideas as well. I appreciate your visits and comments so much, even more than you will know. It's so great to send my fellow bloggers some of my drawings or cards at times. And i'm always surprised by the sweet packages i receive in return. I don't expect anything in return, but my sweet blogger friends are also kindhearted  and enjoying the happiness of giving. Thank you all! 

Sweet Rachel, i am so very happy with your wonderful book full of your even more wonderful poems. You are such a kind and sweet lady. Your sweet comments and support always make me smile and every time i read your poems i hear sweet laughter like bright little bells......

Our country and i'm sure all over the world is retrenching on expences. My Christmas wish is a hopeful one:

Don't retrench on your heart. 

You, my dear visitors have a kind heart for leaving me such wonderful comments and support. So therefore i give you this heart of gold.

I wish you all nice Christmas days and a fantastic new year full of LOVE, friendship, warmth and lots lots of creativity!!!  Kisses for all of you and even more kisses for my special friends (you know who you are) ;-)  I'll be off line till january, so see you later!

And here are the winners:

 

 The winner of my original drawing Autumn, i miss you most of all  is: 

 Robert * Always 11 o'clock

And the two winners of a card or button of your choice from my Splash splash shop are:

 Martine * Atelier Colore

Laura * Nouvelles couleurs

Congratulations my friends. If you all will send me your adresses i'll send you (Robert) the drawing and Martine and Laura the card or button of their choice. Martine and Laura you can choose from my shop here.  If you mail me your choice i will order it for you and send it to your homes. :-) 

This was such fun, next year another give-away. I love to give.....

Sinterklaas give-away; the season of nice presents and surprises

 I miss you most of all.....

I was cleaning my working space and there she was. This autumn lady i drawed last year. Safely tucked away in an old sketchingbook. I had all forgotten about her and i'm so happy she suddenly showed up. So unexpected. But at the right time. Because i was thinking about a give-away. Sunday 5 december we have Sinterklaas overhere in the Netherlands. It's a children's party mostly, but grown-ups are giving each other nice little surprise presents as well. To find this lady again was a big surprise for me, so i think she's just perfect for a Sinterklaas give-away. Watercolors and ink on paper; 13 x 18 cm. I will send some other surprises as well.

I believe in the magical number of three, so i happily add two other items as well for this give-away. To celebrate my new project Splash splash kisses i also give-away 2 x a greeting card or button of your choice.

If you're interested to participate in this give-away, then leave a comment. Next tuesday the lucky number 7 december i'll pick the winners.
It's very cold at the moment overhere but my house and heart are warm and cosey. I wish you all a warm and cosey week! 

A scream for culture and splash splash kisses

I don't wanna talk about politics on my blog, but for just one time i make an exception. Because our new government (i feel ashamed about this government, it shows the world how intolerable we became) is destroying everything we have build the last hundred years.  Because of the crisis Holland has to cut down expences. Okay, sure, that's how it is, no problem.  But this government has decided that culture (such as theatre, opera, ballet, art) is just a hobby for the elite. Especially the left winged elite. Why should the man of the street has to pay for it? Ofcourse this is bull and very narrowminded and carped but our new government has decided to cut down expences on Culture in a huge way.  Taxes on art and theatre was 6% and will be raised to 19%! Buying art will be more expensive, but a ticket for the cinema will also be much more expensive. All kind of subsidies will be stopped. This means that lots of orchestras will disappear, that theatres has to shut their doors, there will be no projects for children introducing them to art and much much more. And musea will have to raise their prices, so the man of the street who IS interested in art cannot afford a ticket. This decision of the government is unthoughtful and most of all a resentful action to the left  winged politicians who were our government for a long time.

Last saturday 20-11-2010 there were lots of manifestations in many cities of our country and at the end of the day on a certain time, lots and lots of people were screaming. A scream for culture!

*And some famous dutch artists screamed as well.

It is very difficult to make a living on art alone. For me that is anyway. Next to drawing and painting i love  to make collages. With scissors and glue but also on my computer. And i think i'm pretty good at it. I've started a new project named Splash splash kisses (we could swim my little fishes and me) and i made a wonderful logo for it i think.

 Splash splash kisses design

So i have started a shop on Zazzle where i sell more 'commercial' stuff in the form of cards, buttons, bags etc. I have great pleasure in making my poppy images with sometimes a  vintage twist as well. Here you also will find my Organic worlds series.

So now for the fun stuff; some of my designs for splash splash kisses.  Take a look at the shop if you feel like it. I hope you enjoy this as much as i do. :-D 

I wish you all a wonderful week and like Brian i will upload once a week on all tuesdays.  So stay tuned!

Mist * Strange twisted popmusic

I wrote about the bands i used to play/ sing in. That made some of you curious. So if you're curious how my voice sounds like, take a look at my blog Starpower.

Strange days and sweet friends

Strange days lately. I had this virus that kept me on the bed thursday, friday i felt fine the whole day and friday evening feeling sick again. But i'm okay now.

I feel a bit guilty for having the feeling to neglect all of you, my wonderful blogger friends. But i'm not neglecting you, i'm reading and visiting you, really, but strange enough it still seems that i cannot find the words to comment. Not find any words to write a blog also. My head is full with wonderful words that i gladly would like to share with you, but writing it down, or in this case typing it on my computer and post it, is a different story. Somehow it won't come out this way.
Next to working, being ill, taking care of my family, i'm also very busy with drawing, painting ánd experimenting with new graphic designs. More commercial, because my wallet is very, very empty at the moment haha. And the landlord doesn't seem to be very happy with my behind on the rent. :-S But i have trust in the future. I'm an optimistic person. I'll soon will post about this graphic experimenting. It's really fun.

Talking about wonderful blogger friends....... Two or maybe already three weeks ago i received mail from a very sweet lady from Germany. So unexpectedly and on a moment i could use some sweetness. The lovely Kathrin sended me a sweet letter and some very beautiful cards. Her photographs are so very wonderful, always making me smile and dream, and comforting me. That the world isn't such a bad place, that there are wonderful worlds and sweet souls out there too. Check out her blogs with all those lovely photo's of her. A book of magic and her awesome Swkalo with black and white photo's. Very dreamlike.
Thank you so much sweet Kathrin for all your support, your lovely comments and your thoughtfullness. I appreciate it more than you will know......


And thank you all my wonderful blog friends! All your comments and support have made me stronger and gave me the confidence to profile myself in the artworld of my state. I couldn't do that without all your support. So next friday i wanna start a give-away to thank you all ánd to celebrate my favourite season. So stay tuned!
Also a very warm welcome to my new fellow dreamers. I'm glad you found me, nice meeting you.

♥ Falling in love

Hi wonderful blogfriends! So you notice, i'm back. The holidays was one of the lonelinest i ever experienced, but therefore interesting, confronting and clearing my feelings and thoughts. And i have made some new drawings that please me a lot. But i'll post them one by one in a new post.

I fell in love with Bretagne (Brittany) big time. I was never before in this area but it's so great, amazing, wonderful. It stole my heart. For interested in Celtic history, I loved the celtic influences you could sense everywhere. I never saw those 'open' towers of the churches, but it looks gorgeous. I love the rough nature, the huge rocks on the beach, the menhirs and dolmen that tickles my imagination. We had a wonderful view on a bay from our tent. I loved to stand on this hill, the scent of the fresh sea, listening to the sound of the waves and the seagulls, the wind playing with my hair and thoughts, i imagining that i'm a celtic lady searching the sea for the boat of her lover. Nearby our camping there were the remains of a celtic community, so that's where my fantasy comes from. ;-)
The weather where we were was warm, but with soft rain and always a wind. Exactly how i love it. My boys loved to climb the rocks with their father. And the youngest one was tickled by the history of Normandy (we were there the first days of our holidays) so he was sometimes a soldier, hiding in the dunes or on the rocks.
I have reloaded my batteries, hoping to safe this energy for awhile.
It's good to be back though as well and i'll pay you all a visit in time.

This view i will miss a lot. I already do. Standing there everyday, dreaming, feeling peaceful.

Beautiful rocks

The 'open' towers that amazed and entchanted me.

MENHIR

That special old language.
More photographs on my Facebook.

Holidays

My drawing stuff is packed as well. Monday morning, very early i'm off to France! How i need this vacation, hoping to refill my batteries. First we going to a little village in the neighborhood of Le Havre. There's a nice skating parc on the beach. My love and i laying in the sun on the beach and my 2 kids skateboarding. ;-)
Then we're going further down, wanna explore Bretagne. I'm looking forward to much sunshine, France bread, wine and cheese and hopefully lots of drawing as well.

I'm not the only one that travels. The mandalas Shana Goetsch and i are changing and working on is travelling again also. A new round has started. Check it out HERE! I take the mandala witj me to work on it......

Take care you all, i'll be missing you! And i'll be back at the end of august, begin of septembre.

Heatwave

Because of the tropical temperatures i'm most of the time outdoors instead of behind the computer. :-)

Great paintings from Brian! I'm a lucky girl.......

Friday the 7th of may i received a package from Inkpunk's Brian. It arrived at my home earlier than expected, fast mail this time. I was so happy because i knew that in it there was this wonderful painting with the tarsier. The generosity of Brian to send me this painting. How amazed i was when i discovered that there was not one, but two paintings in the package! Also the eye in the bright red and black. Ofcourse a kind letter, some beautiful cards (i will spread them dear friend) and a great sticker (3x) with a skull.
The stickers are very cool Brian, are these your design? If so, you should sell these too. Or maybe you are. :-)
Thank you so much for these wonderful gifts, for being a friend.
Now i have 4 (!) paintings of Brian and i'll hang them together on a nice spot. How awesome is that?!

Fun stuff and a GIVE-AWAY

Today Holland is coloured orange everywhere. Because today it's Queensday and that means lots of old folklore but also lots of music, theatre and free markets. People partying, having fun, wearing the strangest hats and for some people it means also lots of beer. Since i have kids i behave myself, thank you. ;-) It also means many people on the streets, very, very busy. I don't like that myself. Not anymore. But there are also activities in the parc.

Tomorrow is also partytime because it's Chris' birthday. It would be nice if you leave a comment on his blog. :-D Time flies, he becomes 14! Sometimes i think he's growing too fast haha. But he thinks he grows too slow.

And sunday also a little party. The presentation of a new book 'Nu je er niet meer bent.' (Now you're gone) It contains letters daughters wrote to their mother who has passed away. Daughters who lost their mother at young age, daughters who lost her when they are middle aged themselves etc... Some stories are cheerful, some sad, some funny or all three at the same time, but all stories are touching. I have written a letter to my mother also. The book is in Dutch. More information you can find here.

Because of all these fun things, ánd because of the expansion of my website with webshop ánd because of a new booklet; Strange organic worlds and also new cards, i think it's great to celebrate this with a give-away. Also as a thank you for all the nice and sweet comments, greetings, support and e-mails i received from you. That's so nice and much appreciated.
.

I wanna dispose two of my booklets: Strange organic worlds and also 4 x a beautiful card (of your choice). You can see pages of the booklet here. If you are interested and wanna take place in the lottery, just leave a comment. Saturday 8 may i will pick the winners.

Also i wanna welcome the new follow dreamers of my blog. Nice seeing you here.
Enjoy your weekend and dream about orange balloons!