Amsterdam Maker Festival

I joined the Amsterdam Maker Festival at a splendid location bij river IJ. 

Together with Jenn from ColornCream (another Dutch Etsy-shop with hook tutorials and accessories) 

we represented the Ka-Ching collective (some active Dutch Etsy-shops working together).

Because it was all about making, 

Jenn was hooking up a pillow and I was drawing small portraits to make a gallery. We had fun!

The making of a new product

A while ago I received a lot of small wooden panels from my husband, 

and after some thought I came up with a new idea: 

to make these into small text panels, as a nice gift/message. 

I like words, I like writing (my grandmother made me enthusiastic about calligraphy, so lovely...) 

and I like painting.

It took some work; sanding, priming, painting first layer, choosing the palette, painting the words,
putting on a hook and wrapping them all before I could take them with me to a fair.
These are some pictures of the process:

They are now for sale in my Etsy-shop for 19.50 euro.

The abundance of spring

We have got some warm and sunny days in the Netherlands

and it seems like spring is exploding with flowers and birds.

It is so nice to be outside now.

The region I live in is sometimes called

the Dutch watergarden

and here you can see why:

So this is where I take my bicycle for some nice rounds

and look for inspiration for paintings and drawings!

The crimson field series

At the moment there is a TV-series on the BBC on Sunday evening called: The Crimson Field. 

It is a story about nurses in the First World War and how much they contributed by their work.

I saw a trailer of this series, 

the composition and colour of the images were very inspiring to me. 

So when we had to paint a shot of a movie (for our course), I selected one of these series.

I made a rather large painting and this is a part of it:

The matron is marching with a steady pace to one of her nurses.

Workshop: making layers with paint

On April, 30, I am hosting a workshop in my studio: 

we will be focusing on building up layers with acrylic paint, and above all having fun discovering and trying!

Again and again I find that painting is all about just doing it and discovering along the way, 

and then feeling the fun of it!

The layers will lead to an abstract work, but really with your own stamp on it!

To join the workshop please send me an e-mail.

In the studio: happy drawing

Took up my old soft pastel crayons and enjoyed drawing various models.

This is one:

 And put into a frame I like it even better:

I think I will put it into my Etsy-shop soon.

The medium soft pastels is one which I practised about 6 years ago, but since I am drawing more and more lately, I am getting re-acquainted and it's like saying hello to an old friend!

Assembling street scenes

Painting a street scene has been done by many painters, for instance Breitner. We had to make a painting of a street scene in our home town by making several pictures and assembling them into one.

So I went with my camera and made pictures of bicycles, dogs, people walking, people talking and a shopping street. These had to come together in a painting with an exciting composition and one which was always correct by perspective.

Pfew, quite an assignment for me!

So, here's the preparation and sketch:

and this is the end result:

I used crayons to liven it up a little and to make it more my own.