It's that time of year again ....

Yes, time for my calendars! They're still not ready, despite my best intentions. But in the end they did take up much more time than I thought. Since it's so long ago that I posted anything on this blog, I just wanted to give you an update on what's happening.

I decided to make 2 calendars this year: one with intuitive paintings and one with mapart. I had also planned on making one with various techniques, but alas, it was too hard to get it all ready in time. I'm still finishing up the last paintings for these calendars. 

I've been posting the process-pics and end results on Instagram and on my Facebookpage, so check it out if you want to see all of them (well, the ones I've finished for now). I will be posting all of them on this blog once they're finished.

I also decided to sell the paintings I made for the intuitive painting calendar. They're done on A4-sized watercolor paper. I'll wait until they're all finished. Not sure yet how or where I'll be selling them, have to look into the different possibilities. I'll keep you posted so keep an eye out for that in case you're interested.

Now I have another question for you. Every year I use Photoshop to add quotes to the paintings I use for my calendars (except of course for the map calendar, since I've written them on there and they're an integral part of the painting). I was wondering whether I should do that this year or whether I should just leave them as they are and not put any quotes on there. Like the ones I'm showing here.

The following is an example of a page from a previous year's calendar where I inserted a quote in Photoshop. Just to give you an idea:

What do you think? Do it or leave it? I would really like to know! 

That's about all for now. Just a quick update :-) As I said, I'm finishing up the last paintings so once they're all done I can make the calendars, they can go to the printers for a testprint and then they'll be available for purchase. Should be by the beginning of November.

Meanwhile, I hope all is really well with you guys. The world is still in turmoil with this whole corona-crisis and it looks like it won't end soon. Quite the contrary, in Europe we're experiencing a dreadful second wave of the virus. 

I'll be linking this to Paint Party Friday. Because humor is so very important to deal with things we can't control, here are some funnies, with some thinkies thrown in the mix. Enjoy!

Take care, stay safe, talk to you soon! ♥ ♥ ♥

Some collage and other stuff ...

Hey there, how are you doing? It's been a while since I was here, time is still flying by, despite the strange times we're living in, or maybe even because of it.

Lately I have been posting on Instagram more regularly, and decided to come back to this blog every now and then and share what I've been up to. The last weeks I've mostly been doing collage. It's fun, I love looking for images and fitting them together and then looking for the perfect lyrics or quotes or poems to go with them. Here are some spreads:

This is the first one I did. I put some progress-pics on my Instagram, as well as the original picture I started out with. If you want to have a look, here's the link. Just click on the little arrows to go to the next pictures.

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While I've been busy with these, just when I started thinking about trying again to make art a bigger part in my life, I stumbled upon some free workshops from Michelle Lloyd from United Artspace. And man, that was an eye-opener for me. The things she said resonated deeply with me, and I signed up for a year-long membership in her "Hub". She only admits new members twice a year, so I was very happy to have found her just at the right time. I'm really looking forward to all I can learn there, and one of the first things I will do is clean up my website or maybe even make a brand new one! More to come on this :-)

I also suddenly realized we're almost at the end of July! And I really want to get my calendars ready sooner than last year. So I already started prepping some papers and thinking about what I want to do. I have been making calendars with my art for the past 10 years or so, and I always had enough material and paintings to choose from. But since I haven't painted any large paintings anymore in the last year, I don't have any material. So last year I used doodles and paintings on paper that I made specifically for the calendar.  

There was not a clear favorite last year, both calendars were equally popular. So here's a question for you: do you prefer a certain style? Doodles, or paintings, or drawings, or mapfaces or .... I'd really like to know, because I'm not sure I'll be able to make 2 different ones this year. I've also been thinking about maybe making a calendar with all different things, like one month a doodle and the other month a mapface etc ... So I would really appreciate your input here ;-) Thanks!

Well, that's it for now! Linking this to Paint Party Friday, and ending, as always, with some funnies and thinkies. Enjoy!

  guess the same can be said for August ....

 this is from Asaf Hanuka

See you next time - thanks for visiting! ♥ ♥ ♥

a strange spring

Hey, hope you're doing well and keeping healthy! I decided to do a quick blogpost just to connect for a bit and share some journalpages from the past weeks.

Spring has started well and truly these past few weeks and I love it. It lifts my mood, being able to sit outside in the sun and soak up the sunshine. Even though the world is still a strange and scary place. But it's improving and slowly things are going back to, not to normal, but to a little less weird. Hope all is well in your part of the world too!

Here are some journalpages from the last week. Lately I've been switching a lot between my journals, trying out different things and trying to find a way to journal every day.

This is another spread in my collage journal:

- lyrics from Sia -

I bought a pack of really thin paint markers in lots of different colours, and I wanted to use them a bit more extensively, so that's how the next journalpage was born ;-)

- lyrics from Sasha Sloan -

And then I read a beautiful poem by Victoria Erickson and had to make a journal page to go with it:

And finally I wanted to use my paint markers again, so the next journal page was born:

- lyrics from Beth Crowley - 

Now I feel like diving into collage again. My mood changes all the time lately, I can't keep to one thing. But it's okay I guess, as long as I'm creating.

To finish, I'll just share a bunch of funnies and thinkies, because, let's face it, everyone needs a laugh (and a think!) in these hard and crazy times :-) Here goes:

Thanks for visiting! Keep safe please ♥ ♥ ♥