Overview of my creative year 2022

One more day and this year is over. I'm not sure how I feel about it. It started promising, with covid finally relenting, but then in February the war in Ukraine started and the world was plunged in darkness once again.

It had a profound impact on me too. I started out the year with plans of finally painting on large canvases again, and when the war started it was as if all my plans evaporated and I couldn't find the motivation anymore to work on something big.

So when I started looking through my files to make an overview of my creative year, I was pleasantly surprised to see that I created more than I thought. So without further ado, here we go!

JANUARY

I started the year with a brandnew painting on canvas. It was so much fun to finally be painting big again. I worked all of January on this painting and finished it in February. Here's the finished painting. It's called "Is there anybody out there?" and measures 60x80cm. You can see details of it on my Instagram and on my website.

FEBRUARY

In February I started a new background on canvas right away and worked in my artjournal because I wanted to finish it this year (I didn't ....). Here's a collage I did:

MARCH

The war in Ukraine inspired me to get out my roadbook again and make mapfaces. I don't know why but whenever there's something going on in the world that deeply troubles me I tend to go back to my map paintings.  

I also started a "Celebrate women"-month, because of International Women's Day, and because I think it's important to keep fighting for equal rights for women everywhere. I made a whole series of drawings with a quote about women.

APRIL

In April I was preparing for an art market and an art exhibition in May. I painted some boxes, which was a really long time ago, and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

MAY

Still working for my artmarket, I painted some small paintings on cut-out forms in MDF

JUNE

In June I was obsessed with making patterns. I want to do more with this, it's so much fun!

JULY

In July I started making backgrounds for my new calendar.

AUGUST

Working on my calendar-pages, and also re-working a painting from earlier years 

that I wasn't happy about:

SEPTEMBER

Yep, still working on my calendar-paintings, but getting there ;-)

OCTOBER

Putting the final touches to my calendar-pages and adding the quotes

NOVEMBER

I made a few new paintings on cutout MDF, inspired by Klimt and Hundertwasser. Glad to finally be doing something else than calendar-pages ....

DECEMBER

I participated in another artmarket and was busy preparing for that. And in the nick of time, right before the end of the year, I managed to make another journalpage in the journal that I had wanted to finish but didn't. Oh well, that'll be for next year I guess. Or whenever....

And that's it for this year! 

The only thing left to do is to wish all of you a happy, hopeful and joyful new year!

Take care of yourselves and your loved ones.

See you in 2023!

hugs, Denise ♥♥♥

2023 calendars are here!

I can't believe it's been almost a year since I was here last! I had planned on coming here more often this year, but somehow it didn't work out. The year started out so wonderfully with the pandemic almost over and freedom and travelling on the horizon. I felt like I could finally breathe again and live again, making all kinds of plans, and then booom, the war in Ukraine started and I felt myself and all my plans sinking away. 

But I did paint, and I did manage to finish my calendars for next year! So I thought I'd let you know :-) (if there's still someone reading this blog, I'm not sure ....)

Like I did last year, I made two calendars: one with (English) quotes, and one without quotes

The pictures I'm showing you here are all from the calendar with quotes.

I used the same paintings for both calendars

These are all paintings I made on canvasboard. I started out with backgrounds full of marks and paint, and then searched for figures in there.

I tried out some new ideas, where I combined intuitive painting with geometrical forms.

Different way of working but it was fun to do!

My calendars are for sale in my LULU-shop. When you order please make sure you use the correct link, either for the quotes-calendar or for the calendar without quotes.

Also, good news: from today through November 4th you get a 20% discount when you use the code SNEAKPEEK20 at checkout!

The calendars measure 11"x 17" (27,9 x 43,2cm) when open. The weeks start with Sunday. As you can see there's enough room for writing down your appointments and plans.

This is the direct link for the calendar with quotes

And this is the direct link for the calendar without quotes

You can also order them from the sidebar. If you have any questions at all, please contact me. You can do that simply by posting a comment or by e-mailing me at infoatdenthe.com. Please know that the sale of my calendars is in the hands of Lulu from start to finish. I don't even know who orders a calendar. So if there are any issues, you can contact Lulu directly, or you can contact me and I will contact Lulu for you.

Thank you so much for being here! 

Please stay safe! I'll talk to you soon ♥♥♥

#artcalendar #calendar 2023

Happy holidays and overview of the year 2021!

The last months have been so busy that I didn't get a chance anymore to post on my blog. So this post will be packed with pictures 😉 Like I do every year at the end of the year I review everything I've done artwise and that's often very satisfying because usually I've done more than I think I did so I can end the year feeling like I've taken some steps towards my goal of becoming a full-time artist 😊.

JANUARY

I started the year really relaxed by doing some art classes. This is from "Fearless faces", a mini-workshop by Jerney Marisha. Her classes are lots of fun and great value for what you pay.

FEBRUARY

In February I kept seeing these posts about the 100 day project, where you do something creative every single day for 100 days in a row and post about it. This intrigued me but I thought no way I'd be able to do that. But then I saw another artist who had the fabulous idea of making art in a little square each day. Because it's so small, it's easy to keep it quick, so I tried it and yes, it was do-able :-)

MARCH

In March I discovered one-line-drawings again, and combined them with watercolour and pastel. 

APRIL

In April I finally finished a project that I had started in December from last year: doodling the walls of  a bathroom in an organisation that has conference rooms and a restaurant. I was one of 6 artists chosen to do this, and it was great fun, but man, sooo much work! I don't even want to think about how many hours I spent there ... 

MAY

In May I ended my 100 day project. I managed to do some art every single day for 100 days in a row. I quickly stopped with the little squares, and instead I made a double spread per week, and every day I added something to that spread. It was way more fun that way 😃

JUNE

In June I was painting some women on a wooden form. I wanted to make these for my group exhibition in December, together with some mosaics. Different feel from working on canvas but lots of fun.

JULY

In July I had to start painting for my calendars. I made 12 backgrounds with inks and watercolours and coloured pencils and started looking for figures in there.

AUGUST

Still working on my paintings for my new calendars

SEPTEMBER

Getting my calendars ready for the printer, and working on finishing my mosaics. I also re-opened my Etsyshop, to sell my oneliner-calendar and digital downloads of work I did in my artjournals. I'm planning on adding more.

OCTOBER

Even though time was limited, I decided to once again participate in Inktober, this time with ballpoint-drawings. I really really enjoyed doing these sketches and adding some of the quotes that I wrote during the pandemic. It was healing.

NOVEMBER

I was participating in an online auction with five paintings and managed to sell all five of them! Two went to Germany, the other 3 found a home in the USA.

DECEMBER

I am participating in a group exhibition in Global Art Gallery, and I opened a new Redbubble-shop. I made some new greeting cards and Christmas cards and am planning on adding a lot more in the coming year. Redbubble might take the place of my Society6-shop. I like their style better, and they work with local printers, which is less the case with Society6. It won't make much difference for US-customers, but for European customers it really makes a difference, in shipping costs and customs and taxes. We'll see how it works out.

And that's it for the year 2021! The only thing left to do is end with some funnies 😀 Enjoy!

No matter what you're celebrating this time of year, I hope your days will be filled with love and warmth and joy and togetherness and above all peace! And for next year, let's hope:

Thanks for being here!

Stay safe, healthy and happy. I'll be back next year! 💕💕💕

Long time no see ;-)

 Hi there!

Yes, I know it's a long time ago.

And yes, I know I was planning on posting a few times a year on this blog.

But, well, life happens and I've been very busy on Instagram. If you want to keep up with what I'm doing it's best if you follow me there 😏

But for those of you who might occasionally come over here to have a look, I wanted to let you know that my calendars for 2022 are available 😀

The first one is an intuitive artcalendar with quotes. This is the cover. When you click on it it brings you to my Lulu-shop:

In my Lulu-shop it's possible to see a preview of the calendar. You can also have a look at my Instagram-feed where I've posted all the paintings and a few video's of the calendars.

The next one is the same intuitive artcalendar but without quotes. The cover is slightly different:

And the next one is a oneliner-calendar. This one consists of continuous line-drawings of women, with an inspirational quote. I sell this calendar through my Etsyshop (yes, I revived my Etsy-shop, finally, after it's been closed for the last five years 😀):

This is just a quick post now but I will be back before the end of the year and talk some more.

I will be linking this to Paint Party Friday. Long time ago I was there, life just flies by too fast. But I will have a look at what everybody is doing over there!

Thanks for coming over here and having a look! I'll talk to you soon ♥ ♥ ♥

Farewell to 2020 and hello there 2021!

Usually at the end of the year I make an overview of everything I've done artwise in the past year. So that's what I'm going to do here :-) 

JANUARY: started a colored pencil journal

I revived my Instagram account this year. I now try to post something every two days at least. This way, in order to have something to post, I have to make sure I keep creating. 

FEBRUARY: still playing with colored pencils

And I found that's something I need. It's too easy otherwise to just let everyday hassle take over and before you know it a month has passed and nothing artwise has been done. I don't want that. 

MARCH: Corona is taking over the world and the lives of people - I try to focus on art-making to keep sane: journal page

It puts a bit of pressure on me but not too much and I find that forcing myself to create makes me realize again how much I love and need it. 

APRIL: playing with paint markers

Also, not painting or drawing makes me rusty, and I feel as if I need to learn everything all over again. Which is a bit of a shame. I should be improving myself instead of rehearsing the same things all the time. 

MAY: another journal page

And then it was June and .... nothing .... I didn't make one piece of art in that month. But, I stumbled upon a series of free workshops about making art your living and that had me totally hooked. So while I may not have been creating, I was still doing something art-like ;-)

JULY: started my collage-adventure

I'm always fascinated by collage, but never really got into it. My collages always looked like an inferior Teesha Moore look-alike. But I found some new ways to make collage and started experimenting. And having lots of fun with it :-)

AUGUST: started preparations for my calendars

I decided to make a map calendar again, and an intuitive art calendar. I even wanted to make a third calendar filled with all different things, like collage, drawings, doodles etc ... But alas, time, again, didn't allow it.

SEPTEMBER: intuitive painting for my calendar

In earlier years, when I was still painting on large canvas, I just used parts of my paintings for my calendars. Because I haven't painted on canvas anymore I had to create completely new artwork specifically for the calendars. This took up quite some time.

OCTOBER: still painting for my calendars

All these paintings were made on heavy watercolor paper, and are for sale. I plan for next year to paint more on paper or canvasboard, since this is much easier to ship, and a lot cheaper too. Although I love painting on a large canvas, it's easier to start these smaller paintings.

NOVEMBER: calendars are finally ready!

Thanks so much to all of you who purchased one of my calendars! I made three in the end: one map-calendar, and two intuitive paintings calendars, which are both the same except for one has quotes and the other one hasn't. The links for the calendars are in the side-bar. There's now a discount of 15% through January 1st when you use the quote NEWYOU15 at checkout!

DECEMBER: painting little rocks, rainbow-ladies and ...doodling a bathroom!

December has been the most creative month of the year! First I felt like painting some small rocks, then I started playing with watercolors again, and in between I went to work on a big project. A few months ago I participated in a contest that was written out by an organization looking for artists to paint their bathrooms. I was one of six artists chosen to do this. It was a hell of a work but today I finished it. Well, more or less .. ;-)

And that's it for 2020! Another year gone, and hopefully in the next year we will be able to hug again and travel again and see family and friends and do whatever we like without having to wash our hands constanly or wear a mask. I am pretty sure I am not the only one hoping that ;-)

I will keep posting on this blog a few times a year. If you want to keep up with what I'm doing daily or weekly, it's best you follow my Instagram-account.

Only thing left to do: post a few funnies and thinkies :-)

Thanks for being here! 

Have a wonderful and healthy jump into the new year! 

Stay safe and I'll see you in 2021 ♥ ♥ ♥