Dec 24, 2013

Fairytale cardboxes of Sara Fanelli

The postman just brought a very nice package:
Two fairytale cardboxes of one of my favorite illustrators: Sara Fanelli.


One Cinderella box and one of Pinokkio.
Both 18 cards which make six illustrations together
Also a little booklet and stamps, all in these nice little boxes.

Last week I was looking for them.
I saw they were available in the library of Rotterdam.
But you can't borrow them, they save them in a special collection.
I asked if I could see them and that was possible.

Two ladies of the library and a security guard walked with me to a special room.
It was locked. I had to wait outside, the cards became more and more special
and mysterious in this way. They brought me the box of Cinderella
and kept waiting while I was looking. So I had a very quick look
and the cards were locked up again.

That evening I found the cards on Markplaats, a Dutch second hand market on internet.
And now I have these 'secret cards' in my home :-)

Dec 23, 2013

inspiration: various artists 16


Here's a new post in the series: various artists.

Really nice work of inspiring artists, which I wanna share with you.
To see more of their work, follow the links beneath:

from left to right:
Emma Virke
Yara Kono
Barbara Dziadosz
Irene Servillo

Dec 18, 2013

selfie: word of the year

In Holland we choose the word of the year.
A word which is new and used a lot during that year



This year it is the word 'selfie', a bit strange because it's almost an english word...
But also the meaning of the word is a bit funny, I think.
People are taking pictures of themselves and place them on social media.

I'm often surprised when I see people in the middle of the street,
suddenly stand still to take a 'selfie' of themselves.
Redo their hair and looking in the camera with an appealing smile
They don't seem to notice their environment.
that surprises me and makes me smile :-)

I wonder what new words and phenomenons will pop up next year...

Dec 13, 2013

SaltyStuff



This Mèèèèrry Christmas card is a part of a series December postcards,
produced by SaltyStuff, a new part of SaltyStock




The illustrators of these cards from left to right:
Red Cheeks Factory, Tjarko van der Pol, Veronique de Jong, Valezki
Monique Wijbrands, vrouwvanrinus, Gemma Pauwels and Pépé Smit.

If you are interested buying these cards,
order them here or send a mail to saltystuff@saltystock.com

Happy Weekend!

Dec 10, 2013

Red Cheeks Factory Christmas cards

Time flies...
It's already almost Christmas and we come closer to the end of the year...



Time for contemplation, celebration, good intensions and resolutions.
Time to send warm greetings to your friends and wish them all the best.



Here are this years Red Cheeks Factory Christmas and New Years greeting cards.
They are available in the Red Cheeks Factory shop.
You will get an attractive discount, when ordering more Christmas cards at the same time.
So if you have a lot of friends, you are lucky ;-)


You can also choose from the Christmas cards of last year:
angel Milly and angel Billy, there are still some left...

I wish you already happy last weeks of the year!

Dec 6, 2013

Nelson Mandela



Yesterday Nelson Mandela died. I have to think a lot about him.
I wanted to make a drawing to honour him.
He has done so many good things for the world.
May he rest in peace...

Nov 27, 2013

red cheeks



I made this red cheeks drawing some time ago.
It's now available as giclée art print here

Nov 23, 2013

opening winterwinkel

Yesterday I was at the opening of de Winterwinkel in Amsterdam.
I wrote about it in my last blogpost


It was very nice to see how the empty space, which I had seen the day before
had turned into a real shop, with a variety of nice products.


Very good to see how much work can be done by real team-work.
The organizing Ka-ching collectief seems to be a good team!



There were a lot of people, good to see also customers among them already :-)
It was also nice to meet other participants of this pop-up shop.

If you have a chance and you are in the neighbourhood,
you should have a look, it's very close to the Central Station.
in de Haarlemmerstraat 25. It's open till December the 1st.

Have a nice weekend!

Nov 22, 2013

Plop!.... a pop-up shop!

Today an Etsy Pop-up Shop will pop up in the center of Amsterdam. It's called 'de winterwinkel', which means 'wintershop'. They sell all kind of nice, handmade and vintage items for under the christmas tree.

And guess what?
Red Cheeks Factory prints and postcards will be also available there :-)


This week I was busy with framing prints and organizing everything.
Yesterday I brought my work to Amsterdam.

I've met the enthusiastic organizing team: the ladies of the Ka-ching collectief.
They build up the shop and this afternoon (friday the 22nd) it will be open for the public.
There's an openings-party from 16.00 hour till 18.00 hour.
I will be there too!

The winterwinkel will be open from November the 22nd till December the 2nd
If you are in the neighbourhood, you are welcome!
Adress: Het grote Avontuur Haarlemmerstraat 25, Amsterdam

Nov 14, 2013

new giclée print: can, want & do




This is one of my favorite sentences :-)

I now made an illustration of it and it's available as a giclée art print.
If you are interested, find it here

Nov 12, 2013

inspiration: various artists 15


Here's a new post in the series: various artists.

Lately I discovered again very nice artists, which work I wanna share with you.
To see more of their work, follow the links beneath:

from left to right:
Faye Moorhouse
Dasha Tolstikova
Miroco Machiko
Moa Hoff

Nov 7, 2013

Red Cheeks Factory on Etsy



Today I opened a brand new shop on Etsy

You are very welcome to like, to buy products
and to follow Red Cheeks Factory on Etsy now too :-)

Nov 1, 2013

Happy Movember!



Today there's a brand new giclée print available in the Red Cheeks Factorry shop.
Mister Moustache, a colorful print in retro colors, made to celebrate Movember,
but ofcourse you can hang it on your wall the whole year, if you want ;-)

Happy Movember and happy weekend!

Oct 30, 2013

inspiration: Kazimir Malevich

Yesterday I went with my brother to the big Malevich exhibition in
the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam. And big it is!!!



I'm impressed by this exhibition. It gives such a great overview on his work.
You can follow in steps what a talented and influential artist he has been and still is.

Starting by his early work, influenced by the impressionism, fauvism and symbolism.
Inspired by the Russian Folk Art, was part of the neo-primitivists, experimented with cubism and intorduced the a-logism, an associative, collage-painting style.



In 1913 he designed the decors and costumes of the opera: Victory over the sun.
A very futuristic opera. This was the point he came for the first time to total abstraction.



In 1915 he intorduced the suprematism on the exhibition 0,10 in Moskou.
Pure art, without objects, only geometric shapes on a white background.

In this exhibition the paintings have the same lay-out as in the famous 0,10 exhibition.



In 1928 the Stalinistic regime disapproved the abstract art officially.
Malevich turned back to recognizable forms in his work.
But also in this late work he preserved the suprematistic abstraction.

This is only a little glimp of what you can see on the Malevich exhibition.
It's untill 2nd of February 2014.

If you have a chance to visit it, it's really worthwile.



Ofcourse there's also some merchandise around this exhibition.
I'm always a bit surprised where they come up with.
Well, besides posters and cards they also sell special Malevich puppets!
I'm wondering what Malevich would have thought of that.

Oct 25, 2013

Zwarte Piet

In Holland we have a discussion about our traditional 'Sinterklaasfeest'.
Every year around December we play the game a bisshop arrives from Spain with a boat.
He brings lots of presents and Zwarte Pieten (black servants) along.
This may sound strange in foreigners ears, and people may think of rascism...

For many Dutchies Zwarte Piet is a kind of clown, making jokes and is innocent.
But nowadays we live in a multicultural society and more and more people are protesting against it. They want to change things about this tradition.

Now even the United Nations join in into this discussion.
They want to abolish it all. That makes a lot of dutch people angry.



I've made two illustrations about this theme. Find them also on SaltyStock

The first one shows Sinterklaas en Zwarte Piet looking for coloured servants
instead of black ones. In the row of candidates a Smurf, the Hulk and Tweety,
all wanting the job ;-)





Find this illustration also on Illustration Daily

In Holland we have an expression 'jezelf groen en geel ergeren' which means
'to become green and yellow from annoyance'
That's were above illustration is based on. Maybe if the discussion
continues for a while, we will have all green and yellow Pieten ;-)

Oct 23, 2013

9 x inspiration on Eyespired



Today you can find a blogpost about 9 of my inspirations on EYEspired
A blog full with inspiring things and I was asked to share mine

The text is in Dutch, but all the links you find in that blogpost are international
and worthwhile to be clicked on, so if you are interested, find my inspirations here

Oct 19, 2013

Holland - Rusland year

2013 is Holland - Rusland year.
A year to celebrate our friendship.

Russian puppet player with a dutch marionet


That's why there are several Russian exhibitions over the year.
At the moment there's a huge Malevich exhibition in the Stedelijk Museum
in Amsterdam. (It's on my wishlist)

But lately there are some troubbles...
First about the gayrights in Russia,then problems with the Greenpeace ship.
And after that some more incidents... It's on the every day news now.
For some people the party is over.

I've made some Holland - Rusland illustrations.
Above you see one of them:

Russian puppetplayer plays with Dutch marionet

Find the other illustrations here about this theme.

Oct 14, 2013

opening exhibitions in Amsterdam and Schiedam

Yesterday was the day of the two openings:
One in Pand Paulus in Schiedam and one in Galerie Oker in Amsterdam.

I chose to go to the last one and my partner went to the one in Schiedam,
so I also heard about that opening :-)

I will share some photos from both of them, starting with Galierie Oker:
(photos in Oker made by my sister and brother :-))



When we (my brother and I) came in the Galerie,
there were already a lot of people and it became a fun party :-)



Marleen, the owner of the Galerie held an opening speech
and proudly presented the brand new tableware 'lose a shoe'



It's a nice and cheerful exhibition with much variety.
I was happy to see my new mad tea party series between all this work.



The name of the exhibition is 'aan tafel' ('to table'),
so the artists and even some visitors brought
something delicious to eat for the guests.
Above one example of a pie, there were lots of them,
nicely presented on the new tableware :-)

exhibition Schiedam


As I told, unfortunately I couldn't go to the one in Pand Paulus in Schiedam.
But I'm lucky to have a partner who is interested in art,
so he went to the other opening and made some photos. :-)



It's a big graphic art exhibition with a first, second and even a third floor.
My work is exhibited on the second floor, nine faces and two bigger giclée prints



On the photo above you can see different rooms and if you look closely
you can see my work on the back :-)





This is another work of mine, which hangs on the opposite site: title - lost
This exhibition can be seen untill November the 3rd,
So I will have a chance to see it myself :-)

Oct 11, 2013

...I wish I was two Nellekes...

Sometimes I wish I was two persons. Coming Sunday is one of those days.

I'm very happy to see my work exhibit in two exhibitions, but...
the openings are both Sunday afternoon, and I want to be on both places
at the same time, so... I wish I was two Nellekes...

Nelleke Verhoeff in doubt


Both exhibitions have their own charm:

The first one 'gerakel en gedruk / prent of print' in Pand Paulus in Schiedam
is a big graphic art exhibition and shows the traditional graphic art techniques
as woodcut, etching, linocut and screenprint. But there's also room for
newer techniques as giclée print and photocopy

On Sunday November the 3th this exhibition will end with a discussion
afternoon about old and new possibilities in the changing world of the graphic art.

More information here (in dutch)
expositie in Pand  Paulus in Schiedam en galkerie Oker in Amsterdam

The second exhibition is in Galerie Oker

For this one I've made new work. I wrote about it in the previous blogpost.
More information here (in dutch)

Because I can't be two Nellekes, I decided to go to the one in Amsterdam
and November the 3th, I will be at he finissage in Schiedam.

It would be nice to meet you on one of these days!

Have a nice weekend :-)

Oct 9, 2013

new work!

Sunday the 13th of October will be the opening of the exhibition
'aan tafel' in Galerie Oker in Amsterdam




Especially for this exhibition I've made what I call the 'mad tea series'
The theme of the exhibition is around food, drink and tableware.





I played with this idea already for a long time
and this exhibition seemed to be a good reason to develop it further.




I had to find a special tea-character
First I drew a lot of teapots and cups. I gave them faces and bodies
And slowly the girl appeared with her head based on a tea-cup
Above you find a little selection of my sketches




I've made a giant list of all kind of teas: liber-tea, positivi-tea, simplici-tea
musicali-tea, synchronici-tea, creativi-tea and many many more
and chose five teas to play with and here's the result




Wouldn't it be a nice idea if those teas really existed?
If you are worried, you'll take a cup of simplici-tea
or when you feel stuck, you'll take a cup of creativi-tea.
Or if you are a little stiff, what to think of a cup of flexibili-tea?



The exhibition 'aan tafel' in Galerie Oker is from 13 October till 15 December
My work is only a little part of the exhibition, there's much more work from
many talented artists! Galerie Oker even launches the special tableware: 'lose a shoe'

Oct 2, 2013

childrenbooks



It's childrenbook week in Holland! We call that 'kinderboekenweek'

A week with special attention to the children book
I like that, because I love children books :-)



I've made these two illustrations and I must confess I feel like them :-)

Oct 1, 2013

Muscle man Paper Doll winners

Tadaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!
Here are the winners of the Muscle Man Paper Doll:



After gathering all the names here on my blog
and on facebook, I picked two winners:

Congratulations,Kirsty Elson and Maartje Jaquet

Thank you all for joining the game and liking Muscle Man Paper Doll :-)

Don't be sad if you didn't win, you can always go to the Red Cheeks Factory shop
and buy you a Muscle Man Paper Doll

(Kirsty and Maartje, Can you send me your adress,
then the Muscle Man Paper Doll will come your way!

Sep 26, 2013

Muscle Man Paper Doll! (give away)

Here's a present for you:

a Muscle Man Paper Doll!




This is more than just a postcard. You can cut out the limbs,
head and body of Muscle Man to make a special Power Paper Doll.
Split pins, envelope, string and instruction are included.



On his shirt there's the typical Dutch word: 'STERKTE',
This is a common word we say in Holland, when people can use some extra strength

If you wanna win a Muscle Man Paper Doll, leave a comment below
(for example why you can use some extra strength
or only just for fun, because you like to win :-))
If you wish, you can also leave a comment on facebook
(you make double chance then :-))

I will pick some winners next Tuesday.
I say it in dutch now: STERKTE! :-)