Calendars and Christmascards, and some doodles in between ...

No paint for me this week, boohoo ... Life is getting in the way big time! So I limit myself to some doodling, which is also a lot of fun. And now I come to think of it, in this doodle I did use some paint.... :-)

Besides life getting in the way, I worked on my calendar, and I made new Christmascards. Even though I think it's waaaayy to early to think about Christmas. But I've had some orders already, so I needed to get going.

Here are some more pages of my new calendar (here are even more):

My calendar will be available from the end of October, online at Lulu. I'll share the link when it's ready.
And here is (only a small) sample of my new Christmas and New Years cards:

These will be available in my Etsyshop soon.

And guess what? I sold 2 paintings this week!

"Summerblues":

which will always be special in my heart because it's my very first "Flora"-painting. I worked on two paintings during the workshop, but this is the first one that I finished.

And I also sold "May you walk gently through this world":

They are like my babies, but I know they're going to good homes, and I'd rather have them there than standing here in my cupboard ...

And speaking of Flora Bowley: a new course is starting on the 30th of September, with updated videos so even more yummy goodness. If you want to sign up for it, please consider using this link, since I'm now a proud affiliate of Bloom True. Since I did Flora's workshop, more than a year ago, my way of painting has changed forever. It is so much more than "learning to paint", it's a totally different way of looking at your painting process and following your intuition.

Well, that's it for now. Next week the spring-holidays start here in Queensland, and I'm taking some time off from my blog to have some quality family time. I also accepted a new commission, so I need some time for that as well.

Linking this as always to Paint Party Friday. Thank you so much for being here, and for giving me your uplifting and heartwarming comments.

I'll still be posting on my Facebookpage, but my blog will be in "vacation-mode" until the end of October. Hope to see you back then! Meanwhile, have a wonderful Friday, and enjoy your weekend! ♥ ♥ ♥

Artists that inspire me: Alice Mason

I recently discovered the art of Alice Mason, a British artist living on a cliff top by the sea in south-east England facing France.

Alice is a muralist and specialist decorator, but also a fine artist and painter.

Her work is usually inspired by imagination, fantasy and dreams of the unconscious and conscious mind.

It is her intention, in her work and her world, to create a utopia, or a feeling of paradise.

She uses a lot of pattern, decoration and ornament in her paintings. She is inspired by different artists from the early 20th century, by religious art and iconography, by aboriginal art and by highly decorative applied arts and ceramics.

If you want to see more of this artist, please visit :

her Facebookpage

her website

her blog

her Etsyshop

and her Society6 shop

Hope you enjoyed her art as well. Thanks for visiting, I'll be back on Friday for the Paint Party!

Working on my calendar 2014

I don't really want to think about next year already, or even Christmas for that matter. But alas, if I want to publish a new calendar I'll have to ....

So last week I slowly started, and I'm well on my way to get it finished this week! At first I had planned on making a similar calendar as last year, with sketches pasted on a coloured background. But then I decided I wanted something different this time.

So I decided to use parts of my "Flora-paintings", accompanied by a quote (well, yes, naturally , .... ☺)

To be sure the text is readable I had some postcards printed from these. I really like how they came out, so I probably won't change anything anymore.

It's so much fun making these calendars. It's the third year in a row that I do it, but only last year I started selling them on Lulu. I will do the same this year, they'll probably be available from the end of October.

These are the pages for 5 months. I'll show the other 7 months in my Friday-post.

And sweet Rachel Awes, from "All I did was listen", featured me on her blog in this post. Thanks so much Rachel, I really appreciate it! If you don't know Rachel, you should definitely have a look at her blog. Her colourful drawings with the insightful quotes grabbed my heart from the moment I saw them.

Well, that's it for now. I have one more thing to share that is probably of no interest to you, but makes me verrrryy happy: I finished my tax file return today! Yay!

I'll be back on Wednesday with another inspiring artist post. Thanks so much for visiting ♥

Journalpages and face in the world

Since I don't have time at the moment to start a new painting, I'm back to art journaling. I forgot how much fun it is. I'm experimenting a bit with shapes and forms. This one is a combination of a sketch and a doodle:

I also tried my hand at collage again. But it was a struggle. This one was pretty straightforward, but I'm working on another one that I'm really stuck with at the moment ....

And our round of the Face in the World challenge is now officially finished! Here are all the pieces:

This one was started by me, the face is done by Shelle and the background and hair by Sandra. I love what they did to it! Thanks both of you :-)

This one was started by Sandra, hair and lips by me and face by Shelle. Love her!

Of this one I don't have a picture of the first phase, done by Shelle. The face was painted by Sandra, and the hair and shoulder by me.

This really is a fun challenge. It's really exciting to open up the mail not knowing what you'll find inside.

And last but not least: you know I was in a kind of a slump last week, wanting to do creative stuff and not getting anything on paper?  Well, just when I was all frustrated and bad-tempered, I stumbled upon Clare's blog, where she showed a sketchnote she made about an "inspiration crisis". It was so recognizable that I asked her whether I could share it on my blog. Here it is:

Love love love it! Thanks Clare, it was just the thing I needed to see at that time :-)

Well, that's it for now. I've almost finished my new calendar and am now trying to figure out how to self-publish a book. More about that later ...

Thanks so much for visiting and for leaving your wonderful comments. They are so appreciated!

Linking this again to Paint Party Friday, don't forget to go over there and check at least a few of the links out. Hope your weekend will be peaceful and sweet .... ♥ ♥ ♥

Artists that inspire me: Brian Andreas

I discovered Brian Andreas a few years ago. First as a writer, it was only later that I discovered his quirky little drawings in combination with the most beautiful quotes.

The simplicity of his drawings reallly appeals to me, but it's the combination with the words that make it really special.

I have a subscription to his mailinglist, where you can choose to get a daily or weekly mail with this kind of posts.

While I don't keep all of them, I have loads on my computer, and found it really hard to choose which ones I'd show here ... ;-) (I guess that's kinda obvious ☺)

He has so many different items for sale, like books, pictures, cards, sculptures, frames, treasure boxes etc... , it's a pleasure to browse through his webshop.

His quotes vary from absurd to funny to wise to sad. I love how sometimes the daily mail I receive mirrors exactly the way I'm feeling that day.

If you want to get these in your mailbox too, just sign up for his fun email and story of the day on his website.

Hope you like these fun and thought-provoking messages. Thanks so much for being here, I'll be back on Friday!

Slowly getting out of my slump

Finally, sitting with my daughter on her bed last night, I had fun again just drawing and trying things out in my journal. No creative block anymore, no "everything I touch turns to disaster". For one moment I even had the urge to still participate in the 29 faces challenge, but luckily my good sense won this time. I don't have time this month. I DON'T HAVE TIME THIS MONTH. I just need to keep repeating this to myself every now and again... ;-)

I finished another doodle, but I'm starting to get a bit sick of them. Might have to leave it for a while ...

Here are some painted rocks I didn't show yet

And some new postcards for my Etsyshop

I am now working on a new calendar for 2014, and also want to self-publish a photobook with my art and some poetry. Not my poetry, since I don't have any talent in that area whatsoever, but poetry that is in the public domain. Looking forward to that. I might even make a notebook / planner, but that depends a bit on time left. Because those taxes are still waiting to be done, and lots of other boring administrative stuff too...

Hope your week has started well! Thnx for visiting, I'll be back on Wednesday with another inspiring artist post. ♥ ♥ ♥