playing around

I brought this hand model home as a souvenir from my holiday. Maybe I finally learn how to draw hands correctly now…. I find them still very hard to draw and it goes wrong most of the time. Then I made this picture and just a little note: hold on to the ones you love, life can be over in a second after all that is going on in the world. I don't know how to say it in other words that do not sound like a Hallmark-card so before it gets to viscous I made another picture: maybe it can make the drawings for me! Ha!

Have a nice weekend!

drawing challenge

This weeks host for the drawing challenge is my dear friend Roberto. Even if we never met, I think of him like a friend, because he helped me a lot with his comments which are serious and often funny at the same time and I'm sure he will say something about what I'm going to write here and I will think: he is so right! That happens a lot ;-)
So: Roberto's theme is "limits" or if you will "no limits".  I didn't have to think long about this one. I have one big limit and that is myself. Let me try to explain. I limit myself, my head does. I think to much. I question everything. I think ahead if there is no use because I can't influence the future. My limit is fear. Not in the way that I don't like roller coasters because I love that! But in the way that I'm afraid to take a step in the wrong direction, ruin things or hurt people. I know al this and try to take things easier, let this limit not influence my work because that would be the worst thing ever!
For this challenge I took a still from one of my older video works, made in 2004. I choose the first still because of the word "hey". The video has a lot of text in it, but for this "hey" fits perfectly. "hey" to myself: take it easy, do not limit yourself, don't be scared. Like a note to myself. The second still is just a big scream! I get soooo tired of myself questioning everything. I'm going to scream "no limits" right now!

For more limits please visit Roberto's blog, where you find lots of his great and funny illustrations. Thanks for stopping by this week and I wish you all a wonderful weekend!

NEWS!

I started a new shop! And I like it! I just thought that it would be a great idea to use the illustrations I made for my new works. They are digital and perfect to print. Of course it is something different then the original works and therefor I changed the illustrations and gave the girls names. If you look carefully the "DreamGirl" for example is also a statement because of the chain.  There are only a few images up there for sale, soon more, but you can already now get your own t-shirt, bag or print with one of my illustrations!  Click here or check out the link on the right where now a banner for this shop is. Hope you like it!
And if you want to read something more about me, click here. My art was featured by Kettlepottracks
;-)

request: underwater...

Because so many of you asked for my underwater pictures I search for them. Then I realized that maybe you thought I had beautiful pictures of an underwater world with nice fish and a coral reef or something like that… But I never was in such places to take such photo's so I have to disappoint you if that is what you expected. We always just had fun taking pictures of each other and because of the cheap camera's we had (just use one time) you are never really sure what kind of pictures you get. Is the person on it or not. So I selected two pictures of me which aren't that explicit or with weird swimming moves, so sorry for that: I self-censorshiped-me ;-) This picture was taken in Spain in a lake and the picture below in Finland. So you can really see the difference in light. The best pictures of course you get in a swimming pool but that is not so much fun. You always see the tiles or stuff like that. Hope you  still enjoy this post ;-)

drawing challenge

The first drawing challenge of this new year and it is hosted by Tammie Lee and her theme is "numen": "the spirit or divine power presiding over a thing or place, or devine presence referring to the idea of magical power residing in an object or place".

A perfect theme for me to start this year! I always collected things, objects, stones or stuff that people made for me, I surround myself with them. I feel protected by them and I hope that they give me strength. They make me feel safe. To have stones or plants in my home gives me the feeling of the power that nature has, the beauty of it. And because I moved to a new place, me and my boyfriend are searching for a commination of our "spirits", to combine our little things were we find magic in. Now I think of it, that went really easy, to find places for our things and let them be next to each other. Like in the picture above. Between the stones you can see small woman made out of clay. I made them years ago for a project. These were not not the ones I used, but I kept them because they give me the felling of power-woman, like mother earth, ha!


The next picture is in my studio. It's a combination of the things I made and a drawing that Roberto made for me which is very dear to me. I look at it if a doubt myself as an artist and it makes me smile that someone who I only met through blogin made something for me, it is a positive vibe!

The last picture I like to show you are real spirits, at least I hope so ;-) They are from Finland, Africa, Greenland and again Africa. They were all gifts to me from my parents and sister. I hope they do get along, standing so close to each other. I hope their powers work together...

This time no drawing but a sneak-peak into my home. This theme fits so well in the situation that I'm in right now that I decided not to draw for ones.

For more spirits please visit the wonderful blog beauty flows!

test 1,2,3...

A while ago I told you here about this great gift I got to make enamel jewelery. Well....I started to read about it in the vintage books that came allong with it, checked the internet and it turned out that nothing has changed or became easier in the process. So the books are still a good way to learn, even in the old-fashion dutch ;-) And what a process it is, it took a while to figure it out and still a lot goes wrong or I'm not happy with the result. In the picture above you see the first pieces I made and in the picture below you see a piece were I'm a little bit happy with, so I framed it for a necklace. What do you think about them?

sneak peek...

...in my sketchbook to start this new week. Thank you for the nice comments the last few weeks to my exhibition, paintings and drawings, it really means a lot to me that you still take the time to write something! Wish you all a good start on this monday!

"miss wespentaille" means "miss wasp waist"

sometimes...

... you meet such nice and friendly people. It's a shame that I feel that I should write a post about it, that it's such a rare thing these days if something nice from others happends to you. A lot of people are so grumpy, not happy and don't want to share anything any more. If someone gives you something for free without wanting anything back, that is just great! I got two boxes full of material to make enamel jewelery or others things with. I got it from the woman who invited me to take part in the art route a month ago. I didn't know her at all. She turned out to be very nice and we got along very well. At the end of day she said to me that she got these boxes full of material. She got them from a nun who made jewelery while living in a convent. The nun past away and she got the material. The boxes standing there for years and she just doesn't have the time to figure out how it works. She saw my jewelery and asked if I want to have these boxes because she felt that I would do something with it. And now I have these wonderful things! All the material to make new things, the enamel powders and the old vintage books how to make it. Just to own this is great, it's like going back in time, to see a glimpse of what this nun made and did. Old letters of her and the orders she placed for new powders. I still have to figure out how it works, it sounds really not that easy! I hope I soon have some more time to work with it and I hope I manage to make something out of it. At least make a piece for this lovely lady who gave it to me.

drawing challenge

This weeks host for the drawing challenge is the lovely Nadine and her theme is "Nature". As I saw the invitation for this DC the first part of it was about our collective dream of meeting up and experiencing our weekly drawing challenge live! I was so exhited about this part and that Nadine really thought about it and wants to take it to the next level, that I made this drawing. I don't know you bloggers of the Dc in real live, but I imagine us meeting and having a wonderful time and this drawing could turn into a  group photo;-) I wasn't sure if should post this drawing because the theme is "nature" but then I just gave the girl in the middle a shirt with some colourful, abstract flowers!

Please go to the tinyWoolf blog for more nature, and have a good weekend!

play my darling play

I just found my old 3D view-master! Do you remember them? If not, take a look at my new profile-picture;-) This week it's all about taking a little break, taking care of my shop, cleaning my studio a bit and that kind of things. And while doing that I found this wonderful vintage toy and I managed to take a sort of good picture of one of the images. I'll play a little bit more with my view master and wish you a good week!

around the world

A few months ago The Great Roberto came up with an idea. He would start drawing on a card and send it to me. I continue drawing and send it to the next person. 5 Persons participated on this wonderful project and the fun thing was that all 5 of us started a card. So 5 cards were posted and started their journey around the world. This weekend I got my card back that I started and it was excited to see what the others had made of it.  I really enjoyed this project. People I only know because of their blogs, started something "real". I now have a card with drawings of 4 people around the world and I really like that... Thank you Roberto, Stefanie, Hedwig and Rossichka.      

On the back of the card we each wrote something to the drawing or just what came up into our mind, to start a story you maybe can read when seeing the drawing:

about days off, real life and beautiful gifts

This week I had a few days of so I tried to relax and do some nice things.  At day one we went to beach. The weather was so beautiful ans sunny but we froze our ... of because there was so much wind, haha! We didn't bring our sweathers because in the city it was really nice and as we arrived at the beach we wondered why all the people came back and didn't stay. Well, we found out as soon we saw some sand, brrrr!

At day two I went to an exhibion and I saw the work of Nelleke! It was really nice to see it in "real life" and I also met Nelleke, which was really fun because we follow each other for a while now here in blog-land and we know things about each other and now we each have a face to go with it!

I also went to an exhibition in Amsterdam about Pixar which was really gooooood! You can see the sketches, drawings, paintings and storyboards they make for each movie. So it's not about the finished movies, but the work they do before that. All the hand-made drawings. And wow these people can draw! That was really inspiring. Unfortunately you're not allowed to take pictures, but this little guy wanted to come home with us and took a look arround in the train:

And the perfect ending for my days off was when I came home and a package of Stefanie arrived. I'm now the proud owner of some postcards, her beautiful little booklet and some jewelery made by her. Men, I'm happy! Thank you Stefanie!

my paintings as jewelery

When I opend my studio about 3 weeks ago I got a lot of reactions to my paintings. And then the next day it just hit me: why did I never made jewelery of the images of my paintings? They are so colourful en strong I don't have to make new images. So I tried how they would like if they became so small and it works perfect! At least I think so. If you like them you can click here for my shop and see the close-up pictures.

drawing challenge

These weeks host of the drawing challenge is Patrice and her theme is Proverb or Saying. Or any other text or sentence that means something to you or in your work. Well.... I don't have a favourite sentence: I have a whole booklet! I already told you once that I collect sentences or text pieces that inspire me. I'm very bad with words, so I collect them and then make something new out of them. I always have been fascinated by drawings or paintings with text pieces in them. I also made a lot of these drawings. Especially the ones I make on the computer. I like to play with it and see where the text can fit into the drawing and become a part of it. Some of them become very personal and others have my theme: woman in art and how they are threated and judged and so on. My favourite line is "Whatever kind of art I'll make, it will be labeled feminine". Just to bad that that is my favourite one, but as long as I meet people who think that's important to tell me so, I feel the feminist inside me, haha! Also important: humor, as in the drawing on top. And a little bit in the second one, humor and a little bit true. And last but not least: a picture of one of the cabinets I made a few years ago, some of them I already posted. A combination of drawing and a small object. The text is "fuck geluk" in reversed writing which means fuck happiness in dutch, but in dutch it rhymes and sounds funny. I like it especially when I'm angry and those "happy people" irritate me, sorry...

I just noticed I wrote a lot here...mmmm, Patrice I think your theme made me think again about some things! Please check out her blog for all the players in this challenge!

drawing challeng

This weeks host for the drawing challenge is Tania and what a theme! The last theme was "dance" and this week we dance a little slower, sensually and erotically: Burlesque! And I love it, as Tania said: "burlesque is sensuality, is feminity, is playing. Striptease without stripping off completely, showing and hiding, openness and secret, coquetry, frivolity, erotic without obscenity, joy of seduction."
I like the clothes, the music and the fun of it and one of the queens of burlesque Dita von Teese.

For more Burlesque please go to Tania's blog and enjoy, I know I'm curious!

drawing challenge

This weeks host for the drawing challenge is Nadine from the wonderful tinyWoolf blog.  And what a challenge it is this week! Her theme is "in the line of beauty" and I thought about it all week. You can take this challenge in so many directions, so many interpretations that I almost got lost in my own head, haha! And I don't know if I made this one easy for me or really hard. I found out that beauty for me has everything to do with personal feelings, like finding old pictures of an art-experiment where I'm wearing my mother's wedding dress on a swing, which didn't mean a thing at that time, but it does now. Bautiful flowers in the garden, sweet Pollock kissing my little sister, cuddling with friendly animals, drawing pictures of me and my mom, dancing. Being a little proud of yourself of the things you make, even if that's hard, getting a beautiful smile from the one you love. A bad picture of the moon, but you remember how beautiful it was at the time. My so loved stuffed sheep. Getting beautiful cards of wonderful blog friends. Being sick and getting better and turn it into something good for other people and discover on the way that you're doing not so bad with your own food-problems. A hand-made card for your birthday. Beauty lies in so many things, sometimes you need a challenge to see it!

For more beauty please go to tinyWoolf!

open studio...soon

No drawing or painting this time, not much to see as well. I have to start airbrushing to make a sign and a flag. I'm taking part in an "art-tour" of our community by the end of may. 80 artist show their work and you can also visit some of their studio's. I'm opening my house and work space for 3 days. I really wonder how it's going to be but I still have some work to do. I also show my jewellery pieces and that's the first time I'll get reactions of people directly. Now you can only see them on the internet. Maybe that will help me to develop them or maybe the opposite of that and stop making them. Anyway: back to work!

something new...again!

Lately I have so much fun drawing new illustrations on my computer that I decided to do it even a bit more ;-) I noticed that I like making the drawings for my food-blog, especially the quotes. I used to do a lot with words in my drawings and paintings. Now I picked that up again and it's just feels good right now. You can also see that a bit in the jewellery I make. And now you can buy some of these illustrations, juhuuu! And you can choose how you want them printed: on canvas, on paper or rather framed, as gift cards, tote bag, iPhone cases, t-shirts or as a pillow (which is my favourite I think...) There are only a few designs online right now but I'm working on more. If you want to take a look, click here and I wish you all a good weekend!

drawing challenge

This week host for the drawing challenge is Carole and her theme is "Willow".

Everytime I join a challenge and I'm not sure if I understand the theme correctly I google it to be sure. This time I thought about a beautiful drawing of a tree or a picture I could take outside of one the trees over here. But just to be sure I checked my dictionary and then googled the word for some inspiration. And what happend? Well, the first few pages are dominated by this girl Willow Smith, the daughter of Will Smith. I found that very interesting and I wondered about this girl with her always changing hairdo's, fashion statements and songs. How old is she? 12? And she looks already so very grown-up... So I let myself go with a hopefully very fashionable drawing of her ;-)

Please chech out Carole's blog for some more Willows!

drawing challenge

This weeks host for the drawing challenge is the lovely Patrice and her theme is "moon". I tell you right away that my entry is nothing I made. This is a painting my dad  made. When I saw this weeks theme "moon" I just had to think about my dad and the only thing I could do is show you a painting made by him. I don't know why, everything that has to do with the moon, stars or the universe makes me think of him. He made quite some works with stars and the moon, although I thought it where a lot more, so that was funny... maybe because he used the colour blue a lot? Listen to the dark side of the moon? Has a lot of books of the universe? I don't know...but it just felt wrong to make something myself.

I wish you all a nice weekend and for more "moons" check out Patrice's blog!