zaterdag 24 december 2011

Happy holidays!

Time has flewn by, it is the end of the year already... I am wishing you all the best for the new year, and the peace of Our Saviour, who came as a Prince of Peace, for you and me.
© ZIZOlabel, painting by me

dinsdag 20 december 2011

I love to look at the world of children

knights on the lookout at the top of their castle
animals are placed in their meadow
parking!

maandag 12 december 2011

Cloudy brooch

While I was making the tree pins from felt (see picture at the right), I also designed a cloud-brooch , with some sunshine and a friendly hello!

dinsdag 6 december 2011

Ties at Junior Masterchef

I made this drawing with one of the exercises of Carla Sonheim, you make a drawing without looking at your paper but following the contours (this explains the wonkiness and the large right shoulder...). After that you fill it with lines, I think it is called non-cheating drawings... it is one of the lessons in her book Drawing Lab. And so much fun to do. Ties is one of the participants of Junior Masterchef in the Netherlands, unfortunately he didn't make it into the following round.

woensdag 30 november 2011

Small houses at winter fair

These days I have my own shop at the winterfair in Soest (NL)! A small Anton Pieck house filled with all handmade gifts, cards, accessories and paintings and drawings. I am there until Saturday afternoon, welcome to drop by, especially if you like christmas trees, sledges, a woodfire and shopping! For route, times and information see: www.warmewittewinterweken.nl.

donderdag 24 november 2011

Book Open Studios bij Swedish LottaJansdotter

I am an enthusiastic fan of the Swedish designer Lotta Jansdotter (www.jansdotter.com), I like her designs, the simplicity and pureness of it. I have bought some of her books. The last one is this book Open Studios in which she shows the studios of many designers. It is so nice to see all of them at work in their creative space! I am now selling this book for 19 euros (mailingcosts are 2.76 euros if you are in the Netherlands). I am hoping to make some room for other books on my wishlist... please contact me if you are interested.

dinsdag 22 november 2011

results!

The paper workshop was really nice, about 20 ladies took the plunge to make torn up pieces of paper into a picture. I always like the diversity of the results, strong colours, soft colours, abstract, flowers or a landscape:
Another workshop challenged the participants to make a woollen hat out of old jerseys and shirts. Nice for the winter which has been predicted to be one of the coldest ones! brrr!

maandag 14 november 2011

this week: workshop paper-collage

This week is paper-week: with a group of women I'll be tearing paper apart to make it into a new nice piece of art. I made two examples: a landscape and an arrangement of tulips. I hope to inspire them to make something beautiful!

maandag 31 oktober 2011

colour of mountains



Autumn in Derborence, Switzerland
words of association: fresh, clean, calming, gigantic, heavenly, powerful

colours of autumn



green, orange, bright yellow, red, dark red, brown

maandag 24 oktober 2011

Lessons at the academy

In September I've started lessons in painting and techniques. After working alone for a while, I really longed for some guidance, some criticism on my work. And I really like the challenge, the different technique and learning from my colleagues).
Our first assignment was to paint an animal according to three periods: impressionism, expressionism and cubism. I chose an owl, because I think they are magnificent and also kind of mysterious. I had already seen lots of pictures and made some live photos, for example this beautiful one:



This is my version of impressionism:

(photo: ZIZOlabel ©)

At the end of our class we are studying our paintings (not all are finished).
(photo made by one of the students: Jan).

dinsdag 18 oktober 2011

"Live" drawing

I was asked to illustrate "live" at a school nearby. Because of the week of children's books, teachers were reading stories and while the children were listening I made a drawing in front of the class. It was really fun to do! The kids were attentive listeners and asked questions as: what was the first drawing you ever made?

For the smallest children I made a colour drawing, related to the story about finding the bear. Copied 60 times and the colouring could begin!

maandag 3 oktober 2011

Woonbeurs #2

Next to the Woonbeurs there was the designers-fair "Meesterlijk", here we saw a lot of jewellery-designers with new concepts and ideas.
I really liked the products of AT.they make lamps out of leather, I like the form, the colour combination and the cleanliness of the product.


There was a lot to see, and my eyes wandered to this wooden floor, which for the occasion was made into a mural panel. It's like a painting and somehow this colour combination makes me happy!

donderdag 29 september 2011

Inspiration from "de WOONBEURS"

In Amsterdam "de Woonbeurs" is taking place where interiormagazines, designers, decorators etc. are showing their new ideas and products. I've been there 10 years ago and now decided it was time for a new introduction.

I really enjoyed it and I like to share some of the things I saw. For instance, the wall hangings made with plants. Nicely decorated and nice to see some green!



Each interior magazine builds its own house, I like the one of VT Wonen the best: a bit trendy, new use of old materials, some new designs, really nice. I liked their idea to make a bench/sidetable of wood, simply held together by some belts and then styled. Ofcourse the downside is that you have to have a very large house to achieve the same effect :-), but this idea can be used in different ways if you are a bit creative...

maandag 26 september 2011

Painting



The African landscape and their strong African women always inspire me. I've seen so many pictures and documentary's, and these impressions resulted in this painting.

A Dutch woman who has done amazing work in Kenya is Ria Fennema, she is the manager of several children's homes and is strongly involved in many African lives. She is helping students with their education and makes a lot of effort to create job opportunities for them.

dinsdag 20 september 2011

exhibition in Studio, this Saturday!



Together with two ladies, Kitty (glass-art) and Ellen (bronze art), we present our work in a special exhibition in my studio, welcome!

maandag 19 september 2011

The power of ochre




I have the unusual habit of looking down to the ground, in search of patterns. On a visit to Amsterdam once, I saw the nice patterns of the pavement, of a board used on a new apartment.
Last week I saw this moss-version, just outside my house. This ochre-colour is such a strong one, and gives a positive glow, really nice! Subconsciously, I brought something back into a really tiny scribble of a painting..., which when you enlarge it to this size, is quite nice.

donderdag 15 september 2011

delicate cardboard painting



I had a lovely day at the studio, just working with a clear mind on several paintings at a time and enjoy what's happening. I had made a painting on a thick piece of cardboard, spreading some layers of acrylic paint. I liked the purple-blue combination (cloudy effect) and decided to emphasize this delicate combination by adding white and a touch of gold. The colours are quite cold, but I like them.
(30*40 cm) =SOLD

zaterdag 10 september 2011

Garden

I've been busy and since today was a rare sunny day I took the chance to work in the garden, it was really time to clean up... and after finishing up I took my camera. While working in the garden my eyes see the different colours and textures, time to snap some photos.
The sedum is slowly showing her colours and the bees seem to like that! This combination of soft pink and this green with the white, I like it!





And finally a nice garden bouquet to enjoy the colours indoors, gives me a holiday feeling, nice for the weekend!

I've also been working on some paintings, I hope to show some in a short while.

maandag 29 augustus 2011

Colours of August





several shades of green, from dark, warm green to lighter green, soft pink, bright pink, purple pink, warm red-orange, beige and yellow grass... an August-range of colours... to lure us into Autumn...

Colourful birds



I enjoyed making these colourful birds, first I drew with a permanent marker and then I coloured them with pencils in several layers. This colouring is quite a relaxing exercise, I discovered.


Was it only one week ago that I wrote about the SUN....? Well, it has been raining for several days now and the sun seems to have left us..:-( The rain kept me indoors, with the advantage that I started colouring and working on a workshop-preparation, but I'll tell more about that another time.

maandag 22 augustus 2011

It was a sunny weekend!


The sun was at her best this weekend at the art fair. Lots of people wandered about, enjoying the sun, the craftmanship of wood artisans, the icecreams and visiting the art fair... it was a nice event! I had some nice interest in all my handmade products, lots of people taking my businesscard, so we'll see...

One of the chainsaw-artists was making something special: an owl on top, and an amazing owl at the side spreading his wings, and a third owl was to come at the bottom.. such craftmanship!