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.

Discount in my ETSY-shop

 Hi, currently there is a 15% discount in my ETSY-shop, valid until Wednesday November13th. It is on all items, so cards and paintings. Look here.

Trees

On my walks I have been looking at trees a lot, looking at their size (some are huge), at their shape, at their colour and their leaves. Sometimes I take pictures because I think it would be fun to do something with it, or use it as a reference for a drawing. But I find it quite difficult to draw trees..., so even better to just start and take notes. This is a drawing I made in my sketchbook, well it is not quite a drawing but more a way for me to look at lines, size and depth and how this all works in a forest full of trees (I kind of get lost). My next step would be to make a drawing, or rather a painting I think, and see where I end up.

This picture is from a majestic beech tree, catching the golden light of Autumn. And when you stand directly under it and look up, you feel the upward movement of the branches leading your eye to the sky.

For some Autumn inspiration

I have been outside a lot where Autumn is showing her colours, so just some pictures to enjoy. After a holiday I will now be working in the studio again, working on some paintings, making some designs for Christmas and updating my ETSY-shop. 

Small

Just some drawings in the smallest sketchbook I have, an A6-size. I used my permanent markers, so relaxing to do this, draw away!

 

Autumn

Enjoying the Autumn colours: a bit of pink, ocre, orange and burgundy. Trying to catch some of them in pictures. Before you know it they are gone. 

Try-out

 On my desk: a try-out of some colours, prints and Christmas ideas. I want to design something new for Christmas but I have not found it YET... So I wrote down some ideas, then tried something with paint and multiple colours and still have not found it ;). Still I enjoy this process and it is often by trial and error that I will come to something. 

Sometimes the brilliant idea in your head turns out as a disappointment in reality, therefore I always make multiple versions.

It is also how this series came about, by experimenting with painted paper and collage. I also had an idea... and went to make it, and this is how it turned out: Christmas cards (for sale in my ETSY-shop). It was so much fun to design and make them :).