Overview of 2023

It has been a strange year. I haven't been very active creatively and that had various reasons. 

The year started out really bad with our beloved dog getting sick and in the end we had to let her go on the 13th of January. Exactly one month later I started working fulltime again, and while I really enjoyed my new job and colleagues, it left very little time for creative endeavours.

So I was actually pleasantly surprised to make an overview of this year and found that every month I did something creatively. Some months more than others, but still. What I didn't do, for the first time in 12 years, was make a calendar. And I still regret that. One of the things I really enjoy about Newyear is starting with a brandnew calendar. So I promised myself to make one next year. I will just have to make time for it. It's my new years' resolution ;-)

So, here's just a quick and not at all complete overview of some creative things I did this year. If you want to see more, have a look at my instagram.

January

I started the year really well with a 5-day "Happy New Year"-artchallenge in January, organized by Karen Abend from #Sketchbookrevival. This is one of those drawings. The prompt for this drawing was "house" and "fly" and "watercolor".

February

In February I started making collages again and incorporated the February Faces 
challenge in this. 

March

In March I experimented a lot with watercolour techniques and also made a few more rainbowladies.

April

Because I would be participating in an exhibition in May I painted a new canvas. This is the only painting on canvas that I finished this year. It measures 40x30cm (15,7x11,8") and I called it "the love that remains". I started a new one, much bigger, right away but it's still on my easel, unfinished.

May

In May I did a collage-workshop with one of my favorite collage-artists: Julie Liger-Belair. This is one of my experiments with collage. Great workshop it was!

June

Another one of my collage-experiments, inspired by Julie's workshop.

July

Aaand another one! For a while there I only did collage.... It is easy to work on when you only have little snippets of time.

August

While I was on holidays in Spain I tried out a few ideas in my journal.  This was inspired by a free lesson by Helen Wells, also organised by Karen Abend from Sketchbook Revival.

September

In September I was still experimenting with some new ideas. Here I tried a coloured doodle and used regular felt tip pens to colour it in. That was fun!

October

And then it was October and I really wanted to participate in Inktober again. But it needed to be something quick and easy. So I decided to make faces in ballpointpen on post-its, and accompany it by a quote for the day. Most of the quotes were pretty sad, as they were a reflection of the state of the world  ....

November

In November I finally discovered my artjournal again and I have been working in it on and off for the last few weeks. Who knows I might even finish it this year!

December

December: still working in my artjournal. If I manage to finish it, I'll make a video! Follow me on Instagram if you want to see it ;-)

And that's it for 2023! 

Thank you so much for following my journey. I hope the last few weeks of 2023 will be happy and I wish you all the best for 2024.

Take care, I'll be back ♥♥♥