Merry Christmas

Wishing you peace and happiness and Light in dark days:

From the sketchbook

Little drawings from the sketchbook, using Ecoline pen by Talens:

Morning walk

I took my camera with me on a morning walk:

Portrait of a woman

I have been sketching for a new portrait:

charcoal on acrylic paint

And it turned into this:

Lots of layers and changes. 

ETSY made local in Utrecht

Nice times this weekend,

more than 50 etsy-shops and their makers

together in an artistic greenhouse.

My handpainted signs :):

My cards in between the green plants:

There were lots of visitors (did not take pictures of them) 

and it was nice to meet all those other etsy-shops.

ETSY made in NL... in a few days

This Saturday and Sunday there are ETSY-markets throughout the Netherlands.

I will be there in Utrecht on Saturday,

a large greenhouse full of ETSY-shops :).

Autumn colours

Beautiful light in autumn...

walking through the forest...

This is what I see

...when hiking through woods in Autumn:

 

colour contrast, shapes, repeat, patterns

location: Canada

Making pictures teaches me a lot for painting: trying different compositions,

looking at colour combinations, and seeing all the different shapes Nature creates.

Looking down

Old floor tiles, I love them:

 

They give so much character to a room.

Interiors with a touch of art

 

 

In the beginning of October I visited an interior and design fair in Amsterdam.

I am always interested in new products,

and was curious.

There was a lot to be seen,

I noticed an emphasis on artistic interiors

and took some photos.

I love how art can be a part of everyday life 

and can give you so much joy by looking at it.

Of course I hope my art and drawings can be part of someone's interior as well :).

I had a lot of quality felt

I got a lot of quality felt by the brand Kvadrat,

it would be thrown away otherwise...

What to do with it?

Of course you can think of a lot.

I wanted to make something sustainable for Christmas,

I had some ideas and started to cut, try and make. It turned into these colourful garlands.

Quite a lot of work... but quality and you can use them for years to come.

Charcoal

Love to use charcoal for portrait sketches,

most of these drawings I kept in a portfolio.

Some of them I turned into cards:

The painting of the castle garden

So I made this first draft of the garden of the castle this summer,

and I have been looking at it for some time,

not knowing what to do with it.

And today I just started.

So this is the beginning of the draft, painting live in the garden:

This is my palette:

And this is the painting up until now:

I think I will look at it some more, 

deciding whether I will work on it some more or not.

Make art

Quick drawing in between, doing some lettering.

Hand lettering is very popular nowadays,

and it is so much fun to do.

When I was young, I practiced calligraphy,

and I have several inspiring books about this topic.

But... I prefer to freestyle, not looking at other fonts or ideas but just try new ones:

Sketchbook

From the sketchbook, using oil crayons and pen:

ABC

I used Ecoline-pens by Talens to write this ABC:

And the A is for: Art.

The P is for: paint, plants, personal, plans.

The S is for: Scotland, scribbles and sense.

A favorite one...

Once again I stumbled upon this painting in the Singer Museum,

and I instantly liked it.

It was part of an exhibition this summer. 

It is painted by Frans Deutmann (1867-1915), a Dutch painter,

and I think it is beautiful.

The museum often has nice exhibitions on themes as impressionism or expressionism. 

Mainly focusing on Dutch painters who have been living in the artist village of Laren.

Caterpillars

Butterflies are late this season and so are therefore the caterpillars,

but they are beauties:

Combining paintings

Some of my paintings combined in a composition,

totally different styles I know...

see my Etsy-shop for more.

Paintings by ZIZOlabel, all rights reserved.

Castle garden

Live drawing in the garden of the castle... difficult!

Castle Sypesteyn

Textile museum part 2

At the moment there is a small exhibition on Scandinavian design

in the Textile Museum, and there was this vintage IKEA item from 1973,

funny to see the brochure and the product!

There are also a lot of techniques being tried,

for instance this tufting on large scale,

I like all the test runs made next to the artwork:

In the entrance hall there was this beauty, textile can really make life more beautiful. 

Let's cherish all the techniques: