dance the night away

I wish everybody a festive night tomorrow. I always get a bit sad on New Year's Eve, but I try to think about the  new, great and wonderful year that will come and that I hopefully can share with you.
All the best for 2012 and till next year!

instantly more pretty

This is the wrapping paper my dad made for my christmas gifts. I often know what I'm going to get from him, so he makes his own wrapping paper, which I find great. Handmade stuff is always better. And this year he drew this sweet and funny angel and below it says: no surprise I (I also got a "no surprise II"), because I knew what was in it. One gift was a surprise, so off course the wrapping paper said: Surprise!
He also wrapped a gift for my sister, which gave a little bit away what was in it.....and it was not the easter bunny!

I hope you all had some nice days!!!

let it snow, let it snow, let it snow...

Too bad, we won't have a white christmas over here. I love snow: build weird sculptures and just walk through the beautiful, silence landscape.
I want to wish you all some nice and warm days, enjoy being with your family and friends. And don't eat too much!

succesful opening!

Yesterday opened the exhibition at Schunck* and I'm really happy with the result. The museum hang up my drawings very beautiful, on a nice spot in the exhibition. There were a lot people during the openings-speech, which was given on a different floor. After the speech my family, friends and I finished our drinks and wanted to visit the exhibition and then something funny happend: it was to crowded and there were no more people allowed to get in. For the first time in my life I had to stand in line for my own work! Besides that I got a lot of nice reactions so I'm very pleased and the stress was worth it!

waving in and out of wind

The weather is starting to be really bad: a lot of rain and storm. The minute the weather is getting bad, people start complaining about it, even if we had beautiful weather for the last two months. People are wearing their overcoats, gloves, warm boots and off course very, very, very big shawls. Sometimes so big that you can't even see their faces. I made a drawing out of it: strangled and fighting with your shawl, blowing in the wind.

exhibition info

Next saturday, 17-12 at 6 o'clock, opends the exihibitions "De 'state of the art' in Parkstad". If you live nea by or you just happen to be in town, you're welcom to stop by. You can visit the exhibion until the 22 of January. For more information and opening hours, visit the website of Schunck*. Four of my Pippi-drawings are going to be showed in this exhibion and I'm very exited. I'll take some pictures for you!

stress therapy

At the moment I'm a bit stressed out because of the exhibition, my job, a lot of other appointments and christmas coming up and blablablabla. And just as I was running around in the house I saw our neighbours cat "Juul" at our back door, waiting for a cuddle. So I went outside (I can't let him in because I'm allergic) and spend 10 minutes cuddling him. Spending time with animals always calmes me down and makes me forget my little problems for a while. After that Juul thought it was time for him to relax:

No more cuddling with the cat so I visited my rabbit Pollock but he just wanted to eat my boots...

happiness hit her

I finished drawing number 8 of my Pippi-serie! It feels like I've done a lot more of them, but maybe that's because the drawings are so big (150 x 230 cm). Yesterday I had to say goodbye to 4 of them: they will be shown in an exhibition. More about that later this week. I find it hard to leave my work, but I left them with professionals who know how to handle precious work... I hope!

saturday night

Getting ready for the weekend: eating cheese on toast, dancing at disco's!
Wish you all a nice weekend!

early December give-away

Today is the first advent. I actually don't know if you all celebrate that or in which country you do.  In that case here a small explanation: the Christmas season officially begins with advent, it's the month before christmas day. Advent begins four sundays before christmas. By definition, "advent" means arrival.
I made stickers of my first Pippi-drawing. In about two weeks I will show you what I have done with them. And because it's advent I would like to give some of them away as a "thank you" for all your nice comments!
I hold the same rules as the last give-away: Normally I have between 4 and 14 comments on one of my posts, so I give about 15 stickers away. If you want one, leave a comment and I contact you for your address.

it's so beautiful, but it's not real

Me and my sister made another trip, this time to the "Efteling". It's a theme park and everybody in the Netherlands does know it and if you are in the Netherlands I would say: visit it! Off course they have also rollar coasters, but the whole park is really magical ans has this great atmosphere. They are famous for their "fairy tale forest" where you can see all the famous fairy tales: red riding hood, Rapunzel and so on and a lot of dwarfs. Now they have build something new: this tree who tells stories and moves his leaves and somethimes a rabbit comes out of a whole an talkes back. There was a lot of fog that day, so that helped creating a nice sphere. The Efteling did another wonderful job creating something for your fantasy!

And a picture of me standing next to a giant gatekeeper. He makes me feel good about myself because I feel so small next to him. I'm 1.78 m and always feeling to biggest girl in the room....

a touchy situation

This is the new Pippi-drawing (150 x 230 cm) that I was working on and this is the first time that I'm a bit scared to post a work... I wonder what you'll think of it. I think I'm a bit scared to post it, because this drawing scares me. I did now 7 of these drawings and all of the Pippi's are doing - or are about to do something violent. But in the other drawings the girls don't look happy, they have no choice. And I think that is just it, that makes me uncomfortable with my own drawing: the smile on her face and the fun she is having, running around with that knife. It's that typical picture of a young girl running through the grass in the summer.

cups of tea

The last couple of days I have a very bad cold and not feeling very well. By now I really want it to go away. I'm starting to feel sick of eating peppermints for my throat, eating toast and drinking a lot of tea and soup. So I thought I make a funny drawing out of it, kind of....

oh so sweet

For my birthday my sister made me something sweet: Cake Pops. Do you know what that is? It's perfect if you want to make something smaller than cupcakes and you can be even more creative in decorating. Cake pops are small balls of cake on a lollipop-stick and you can make the most funny things out of them. I like sheep, so she made me a whole herd and me in the middle of it. In the piture below you can see the work of art. My sister loves to bake but it was still a lot of work. I loved it!

it's my...

...birthday and I can cry if I want to ;)

full of play

I'm working on a new Pippi-drawing. This is the first girl who looks happy and even smiles. But the rest of the drawing isn't that much fun...I wonder what you will think of it when I'm done...

quite happily

Today I was walking in our garden and wondering about the beautiful colours of autumn. I just love the brightness of yellow, orange and red. Amazing what nature can show us. Over here in The Netherlands we had a wonderful October and now even in November it's really warm. I guess it soon will be over, but for know there still are some flowers:

And even my red-hot-chilli-pepper-plants are still alive and that in November! Amazing!

high noon again

It has been a while ago since I posted a part of the next Pippi-drawing I'm working on. It's has been finished for a while but I could not take a nice picture of it, because of the rebuilding that was going on in the house. For me this girl looks kind of sad, because she knows she's always going to be faster then you.... Or maybe she doesn't really care.

between the curtains someone is watching

Wish you all a scary weekend, happy halloween!

hip, hip, hurrah

This week is my blog's birthday, it's 1 year old! Hip, hip, hurrah!
As I started I did not know what to expect, I just wanted to share my work. I had no idea how the blog-world works and how many people share their stuff, whatever it is. Soon it became a small addiction and as I had my first followers, it became even more fun to read their thoughts. It's amazing how many nice people I have met in this blog-world-thing, even I haven't seen you in personal. Making this blog does not feel as unpersonal and "not real" as many people say about the digital world. It really was a big surprise to me what this blog turned into and that's just because of your comments and support! Thank you all and I wish I could treat you all to some homemade cake!

silly sorrow part 6

It's not a very good picture of another cabinet of mine, but I hope you get the idea. I like it: this "cool" girl is walking her silly birds. I don't have a title yet, I have to think a bit more about that.
I hope you all have a nice weekend!

it's good for the walls

Now that our sunroom is finally done, I found a good spot for my work "100 ways to Taka-Tuka-Land". I like this work, but it's quite big, so I'm happy that there is now a wall big enough in the house for this piece!

oh so sweet

I found this picture of me at the age of 4, sitting behind my dad's drawing table and working really hard... I made this drawing inspired by it. I like it, but maybe that is just because it's so nostalgic for me?

one hundred times before

Sometimes the most normal and daily things can be inspiration for a drawing. Like hanging out the washing...

state of the art

SCHUNCK* is a new kind of multidisciplinary cultural institution that is specialised in Modernity and Urban Culture within international contemporary art and culture. Every second year they organize an exhibition that shows "the state of the art" of professional artists in this region. You can only apply if you have an connection with the city Heerlen or "Parkstad".


I send in my Pippi-drawings and they want to show 4 of them! I'm really happy an excited and looking forward to see the drawings in an actual nice space. More information in November for those who want to visit.

like a rose

I finished the painting on the door I was working on. It's very difficult to take a nice picture of it. The colours get very bright but I hope you'll get an idea.... I'm very happy with it, also because we have lots of plants and flowers in that room. Some of you asked me if it's special paint and yes, it is. So if you want to try it for yourself, asked for glass-paint, I'm looking forward to your works!

dum-ditty-dance

I wish you all a very nice weekend! What are your plans?

in and out of windows

I few weeks ago Lela send me this beautiful card of a domestic triptych window. I absolutely love the colours and those flowers: hollyhock.
As you know we are renovating our sunroom. You can also enter this room from the hall and I thought that this door could also use somethng new.... The door has a big window but the glass isn't that pretty anymore. I didn't like the curtain anymore so I wanted to paint something on it and I remembered the card. So now I'm working on the window and I wonder what it's going to be like...

vanish and fly

Sometimes I wish I could do that -vanish and fly- especially when things don't go the way you want them to be...
This is an older drawing of mine and I find it a bit mysterious, hmmm, what was I thinking?

high noon

I'm working on a new Pippi-drawing. I don't think I have to tell you what she is doing...

it's quite a slow disaster

In June I told you that we are renovating a part of the house: the sun room. It had to be finished in July and now it's......Yes, Sepember! And still it's not done. I'm not going to annoy you with boring stories about everything that has gone wrong and dealing with construction business. The bad thing is that I can't really concentrate on drawing when people are working in the house.  Last weekend we decided to start painting the walls ourselves, so that is the painting I do at the moment, haha! And if your wondering about the blue walls: they delivered the wrong colour and we're waiting for the correct ones. I feel like I'm in an aquarium!

going nuts

We have a walnut-tree in our garden and what a coincident: since my last post about autumn the walnuts have started to fall down! It's guite some work to collect them all and it takes a while before they're all fallen down. Then they have to dry and well.....  I give them away to family and friends, because I'm allergic to nuts (see my post where I tell 7 things about myself). And every year I put a table outside and sell them.  When you drive around here you can find people selling their fruits, vegetables and nuts.We live in this house for 4 years now and in all this time only two persons did'nt put the money in the money box I ask for the nuts. So most people are honest ;-)

the leaves are gonna change

I know that it's still summer, but I can already feel autumn.  And I can't help it: I love it! The colours of the leaves are so beautiful, it gets a little bit colder and the air smells different. We didn't had much of a summer in the Netherlands, but I hope will have a beautiful autumn.

picture perfect

Your reactions on my post where I showed you these photo's of me while I'm drawing one of my big pippi-drawings, made me realize how important it is to see the drawings together with a human being. In the very beginning I told you how big the drawings are, but I guess you all realized it when you saw me drawing. As you all know I love working on the floor and at the moment it's actually the only way for me to draw. So I "faked" a photo of me while I'm working at a drawing, so you can see the whole drawing while someone is standing in front of it. You can see all of the drawings I made untill now on my website, including the titles I gave them. You can also see this one without me blocking the view... (I like this one because of the energy the girl has in her movement). What I'm trying to say is: thank you for your nice and helpfull comments, it means a lot to me!

nerve-wrecking acrobatic backwards bend

Friday night I went to the opening of Cultura Nova. It's a multidisciplinary summer festival which offers a varied programme for adults and children over the course of ten days, including theatre, dance, visual arts and film.Cultura Nova aims to amaze, evoke wonder and surprise, and to introduce a new audience to unconventional forms of theatre, dance, music, film and visual arts as well as to productions that explore and cross the dividing lines between the individual disciplines. Artists and ensembles from various countries will aim to move the audience in various – special - locations and stages throughout Parkstad Limburg and over the border in Germany. The openig show was done by Voalá Project, which is a Spanish/Argentine company. It was really amazing, you can see it a bit in the first two photo's. I would love to be part of such a show!
The last photo shows 3 people on stilts in white clothes. At one moment they started to blow-up and transformed into these bubble-people. It looked wonderfull, especially when the lights inside the bubbles got on.

go back to the city

I sorted out some more photo's of my day in Masstricht. I already showed you some photo's of the exhibition I saw in this post. As in most cities you find the interesting scene's outside the centre. Did you see the wall painting in the first photo? I didn't see it right away when I was standing in front of it, I like that kind of things. I wish you all a nice weekend!