it comes to you in slow attacks

A few days after the exhibition and my head is full of ideas. At first I just thought: well, back to work and finish the drawing I started. But now the new ideas just keep coming and I have to write them down and make some new sketches so my head settles down. The funny thing is that if I have a lot of new ideas, it paralysis me at first and I can't really start. It's like I can't get a grip on it. But that's over know, back to work, now for real!

quite happily

Some pictures of the exhibition. It went really good: the weather was very nice this weekend, different locations took part in this exhibition-route, so there were a lot of visitors who took the time to come and see the exhibition. I'm very pleased how everything turned out: my drawings looked very good, a lot of visitors and nice reactions.

pressure is building up

Tonight is the opening of the exhibition. I'm looking forward to it but I'm also a bit nervous, but everything should be done by then.

I'm away until Wednesday, so pictures of the exhibition next week. I wish everyone a nice, sunny weekend!

KunstTour

For everyone who wants to visit or happen to be in Maastricht: you can see my drawings during the KunstTour Maastricht. More than 200 artists of international diverse backgrounds will exhibit their work. The opening takes place on friday the 25 of May and you can visit the exhibition on the 26, 27 and the 28 of May. You can find my work in The Royal Mosa, a former porcelain factory, which is also the epicenter of the Art Tour and starting point for the walking and bike routes which will take you through the studios, squats and art institutions.
For more information, routes and addresses: www.kunsttour.com.

the edge of May

The last two weeks we had a lot of rain over here. At the same time it was very warm so that are good conditions for plants to grow. Because it was so cold for a long time, there was not a lot of work in the garden, but now everything just exploded! So this weekend I have to work a little bit in our garden. Not to much, I like a wild garden, but I still want to see the funny schulpture and my strawberry-plants also need some space. And I have to sort out my drawings: which ones I will show in the exhibition. A busy weekend it will be, I hope you will enjoy yours too!

What do you think?

As you can see I'm going into fashion-design, haha! No, I just have this new idea for my drawings to put them on t-shirts. This is the first shirt and it's just a try out to see how the fibre-tip pen works on fabric and if the drawing has a nice effect on a shirt. Now I have to wash it and find out if the drawing is gone or still on the shirt.... I like to draw it on the shirt myself and not have it printed. This way it has almost the same effect as in my drawings with  pencil.
So, how do you like this new idea?

one word or idea

As a comment to my last post, Mano wrote that she would love to see some of my sketches... I work in phases and these sketches are the last step before I start the actual drawing. I also write all kind of possible titles or words on them that I associate with the drawing. I keep a book where I collect sentences, maybe I show you some pages of that too someday. These drawings are made on the computer ( with red colour pencil try-outs on them) and not very spectacular...

girl power

8 March: International Women's Day.
Make sure that the future for girls is bright, equal, safe and rewarding!

the way to the sun

March arrived and the news promised us some more sun. I like winter time: dark evenings, snow, candles and all that, but not the time between two seasons.  The last two weeks it has been very gray and rainy, but not cold anymore. Just so-so-and no more... I'm ready for some more colours, flowers, spring and the sun! And I hope we will get some of it this weekend so we can spend some time outside, enjoying the warmth on our faces.

present to past

Yesterday I found this old polaroid picture of me. I'm 11 years old and dressed as Pippi Longstocking. I totally forgot about that and that I loved to have my hair that way. It's my own hair and my mother did a great job creating it. Nobody was allowed to touch it or even come near me. Now I know were the inspiration for my drawings comes from...

play with me

Maybe you remember that I'm a big fan of the work Niki de Saint Phalle, so yesterday me made a little trip to Brühl (Germany) to the Max Ernst Museum. It's the first and only museum worldwide dedicated to the large oeuvre of Max Ernst (1891-1976). It offers a review of his versatile work in a permanent exhibition. And now you can see a retrospective of the work of De Saint Phalle, concentrated on her early works, called "Spiel mit mir" (play with me). It is a small exhibition, they didn't had a lot of her work, mostly drawings, some paintings and assemblages. But it was still nice to see it: how she started to work and still had to find her way.

take it from here

I thought I show you a piece of my "inspiration wall", where I collect newspaper articles, pictures of magazines, sentences that I find interesting and some of my sketches. I like to see this kind of stuff when I'm in a studio of someone. The problem I have with my wall is that I find it difficult to change it, put some of it down and hang something new. I always get so used to it.

how I wish you were here

This is a drawing in memory of my mum. This weekend it's been 4 years ago that she past away. And how time-worn it sounds, I miss her every day. And even more if "special" things happen, like an exhibition or when I'm working on something new, changes in my life. I'm lucky that I have so much sweet, funny, nice and beautiful memories of her: those who are dead, are not dead, they're just living in my head!

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!!!

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...

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!

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!

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!

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...