Away and home again

 I have been away, strolling along beaches, hiking paths, bird-watching and relaxing with my husband. It has been good, well the weather wasn't particularly good with storms and gusts of wind, but maybe those elements are needed to feel refreshed.

I found inspiration in the clouds, the muted tones of colour in winter and in visiting a small museum with works of a female painter. I am trying to hold on to this inspiration and look forward to go painting and making. When it is difficult to keep focus, Will Kemp (an art teacher from the UK), who knows about having too much ideas and distraction, advised: Just pick one thing and start.

Best wishes

 

Wishing you happy holidays, enjoy the small moments of happiness, we all need them! Looking forward to more creativity in the New Year. Thank you for following along, let's make beautiful things.

Bye for now, Christien

These December days

 Currently in Christmas mode... I have had several Open Studio days, and have also been making Christmas cards. This is one of the handpainted designs.

I have tried to keep my schedule pretty free, because I want to work on some paintings in the studio and also enjoy the days before Christmas. I am also looking forward to the new year and am making plans.

 We have got grey weather all week, but it was warm and cozy inside the studio: 

This abstract painting is for sale, it is made on a wooden panel with acrylic paint. Contact me for info if you are interested. 

Current read

In a charity shop I found this little book, with a lot of information about primitive art and drawings. It has always fascinated me to see how people thousands of years ago started to express themselves. In this book there is a lot of information about the drawings found in caves all over Europe. It makes me want to go and visit those places. In Scandinavia also a lot of drawings were found, they tell so much about the people who made them.

These last drawings were found in California.

Using charcoal or red clay or dirt, they drew their surroundings, their world. Persons, animals and later the stories came about the capture of a herd of animals. Interesting to read how it developed.

A winter hat

 Yes, it is time for those winter accessories like gloves, scarves and... hats. So I took one page in the sketchbook to draw some of them. When I take some time I think I could draw a lot more of them, but this was the start:

My other theme was Christmas cards, I like making a new design each year. Overall just making and producing a nice product enlarges my creativity. Because: what if I made this in another colour... or in another shape? This is one I made, starting with the purple blend and adding on sparks to make it look like a starry sky.

On my desk

 Last week I have been working on a painting of a Tundra-landscape, and my desk looked like this:

I made some small adjustments but I think the painting is finished :). It has been a while to take time to paint. But the weather was brutal and I decided to just go for it, to find the pleasure in creating and see where it all leads to.

Maybe I'll keep the painting for a while, to look at it, or it might appear in my shop.

Wishing you a good week!

Mondriaan

 This week I visited the Mondriaanhuis, the house where the painter Mondriaan was born. It is a small museum with a shop and coffee corner. It gave a peak into his life. 

Piet Mondriaan took classes at the Academy in Amsterdam, here you see how all painters-to-be had to draw the male model. One of his teachers was Nicolaas van der Waay.

A quote from him was inspiring: 

We artists can point humans the way, to show how you can find balance between contrasts through our work. That way the world could be so much prettier.