Winter blue sky

Hello blue sky :)

Best wishes and Merry Christmas!

 Wishing you a Merry and Happy Christmas,

and lots of Light and Love for the New Year!

Wow, 2020 already, what will the twenties bring for us all...

I am hoping for peace, for warming encounters, 

for creativity to be part of happiness and solutions,

and for laughter and joy,

that we will care for each other, see each other and be hopeful!

Christien, ZIZOlabel

Winter in the Northern hemisphere

Fog, frost and cold,

this can be the case here in the winters in the Northern 

hemisphere.

It can be grey in colour... brrr.

but also a bit magical in black and white:

And two other birdies

And I made two more birdies:

And this colourful one:

I love playing with this technique :).

A drawing in between

Made two small drawings/paintings in my sketchbook, to try some techniques,

to enjoy the birds by looking at them in detail.

I first painted a rough colour background and then drew the details.

A small Robin, a loud and cosy bird, always staying close when I work in the garden:

A Kingfisher, small and colourful, never saw one in real life:

CYBER sale on ETSY

It is Cyber SALE on ETSY and I am joining with my shop.

Get 10% discount from November 26- December 4.

Kinetic art

Kinetic art is art from any medium that contains movement 

perceivable by the viewer or depends on motion for its effect. 

For this painting I thought of a movement, I expressed it myself while someone 

else photographed all the different motions, and then I made it into a kinetic art-painting. 

I like the dynamics of it, and the opening up-feeling.

ETSYmade in NL - this Saturday!

This weekend it is ETSY made in NL.

In three cities you can meet the makers of ETSY and see their products.

I will be in Leeuwarden in the creative meetingplace Blokhuispoort.

From 11-17 hours you are welcome!

Changing seasons

It is already November... time flies.

I did not have enough time for the vegetable garden this year.

Luckily I did pick some grapes,

and now the grape vine is putting on some bright colours right outside my studio.

Beach finds

Found some small treasures on the beach in Italy,

which I can use for my Nature journal:

Galaxy project of painted paper

I really like working with paper,

and when I have some paint left-overs I use them 

on left-over paper bits.... yes: I like to re-use and use the resources to the fullest!

It resulted in a galaxy project,

by designing and cutting tags and notebooks.

For sale in my booth at ETSYmade in NL in Leeuwarden on November, 23rd.

Yes, I really like those ETSY craft fairs, meeting the makers! And I like to be a part of them :).

Chestnuts in abundance

Sun and chestnuts, but wow these are prickly...

and edible...

Autumn red

I like to walk through the garden and just look at details.

These sweet red Autumn colours are popping up here and there.

A sort of soft burgundy, fresh, not saturated.

Love them in combination with the green colours.

This is a raspberry stem.

One more: Nature journal

Another exercise in my Nature Journal: make a reference of colours and patterns. 

I chose a magazine from Sweden, and simply painted what I saw.

When you fill in all the squares,

it is a nice reference to look to for ideas.

I will use this more to gather ideas.

The nature journal progress

I spent some time working on the Nature Journal. This time we looked at the shapes of leaves and how to use these in your art. It is just fun to experiment with the shapes and structures.

Some results:

The autumn is starting here: lots of rain showers, a slight chill in the air, mushrooms popping up.

I miss summer already... but hey it is time for a new season, and new colours.

Hello from ground level

Hello from ground level! In the dark world of the tiny and small creatures,

these flowers must look huge. A dark world because it is overgrown with greens,

and you have to find your trail to get through it. 

A magical world also when proportions are out of size, a bit of a fairy tale land.

The nature journal

I have not had the time to work a lot in my Nature Journal.

The summer has flown by. I did however take the time to go out into nature and take pictures.

For one of the assignments in the online course you had to collect different shapes,

and make a rub of their structure.

I made these and drew some exact shapes in between.

Landscape in layers

The colours are changing and it is good to go out there and enjoy them. 

I learn a lot from photography,

you can play around with composition and framing.

And close-ups focus your eye on details and structures.

Inspiration in an old church

Last week I spent my days in an old church. I had the opportunity to work there, 

to be inspired by the light, the silence, the landscape.

I painted, sketched, talked, reflected and met with visitors.

It was good to be there, to work on a specific theme which I had prepared.

And now it is back to my own studio,

to process the results and to continue the theme.

New small paintings

In my series of paintings on Nuances I added two new colour combinations:

When I start I never know how these will end up,

I keep painting until I feel there is some sort of balance.

They can be found in my Etsy-shop.

Out and about

We all need to go out sometimes,

to enjoy the landscape where ever we are.

Recharge, change focus, new inspiration.

This is what I saw while being out and about:

Wild flower (malva) beauties: