Blog feature on Print & Pattern

Hooray, I just heared my work is featured on the Print & Pattern blog today!

It 's a very inspiring and cheerful blog, with all kind of patterns and lots of other whimsical stuff. Every day some new inspiration. And today it's my turn. That makes me happy and
I feel honoured  :-)  You can find the blogpost here

I must say the 'make art that sells' e-course I did with Lilla Rogers gave me a lot of inspiration to make these works. Some of them I even made during this inspiring course, so thank you, Lilla! :-)

De oase van Matisse - Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam

 Today we visited the big Matisse exhibition in het Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam.
 Really very inspiring!

Last year I wanted to go to the Tate Gallery in London to see the Matisse exhibition, but we didn't found the time. So I was very happy to hear there would be an exhibition in good old Amsterdam this year :-)

We took a guided tour, which was very nice, because we heard more background about this exhibition. Good to see a combination of paintings of artists who iinfluenced each other. Works of Van Gogh, Mondriaan, Picasso, Malevich....

I didn't know Matisse's cut-outs were this size. Impressive! Interesting to see the devellopment of how he came to this cut-outs. Below the famous Parakeet and the Mermaid, one of his most spectaculair cut-out works: a coming together of an underwater and above water world:

Here's one detail of a cut -out work which he made for a tapestry.
These are also shown at the exhibition.

My dearest brother in front of one of his cut-out works ;-)

For this exhibition Dutch illustrator Annemarie van Haeringen made a beautiful childrensbook: The parakeet, the mermaid and the snail. She tells a bit more about it in this video

In the hall of the museum you can find a giant drawing of hers:

I think I wanna go another time, because there is so much to see and discover. The exhibition takes place till half of August. So if you are in the neighbourhood. It is certainly worthwile to visit!

85 Geraniums....

Today it's exactly 5 years ago my Mam passed away. Every year after she died, I've made a special blogpost to honour her. In a few of these previous blogposts I wrote about her last geranium. I took it with me to take care of it...

I wrote about the slips we are taking every year from this Mother Plant. Second year we had about 10. last year about 30 and this year already over 100 geraniums! My dear friend Herman took care of it with his green fingers :-)

This year my mother had become 85, so we planted last week 85 geraniums in the garden around our little Summerhouse.They are still little ones now, but I think this will be the most beautiful geranium-flowerbed I've ever seen. I'm looking forward to it.

Ofcourse I would like to show it to her... She would have loved her special 'Annie' flowerbed


If you like to read the other posts about my Mam:

The first year  I posted this one: to honour my mom
(including some funny animations my mother made)

The second year I wrote another blogpost about her: far away, but still near 

As I said before the third year I wrote about her geranium

And last year I wrote:  In memori-mam, thinking of you...

Moustache postcards

Recently I've added some new postcards to the Red Cheeks Factory shop. These Moustache postcards have 'real' moustaches and eyebrows.

This handmade touch makes every Moustache postcard unique.

They are available as a set, but you can also buy them seperately.

Custom made illustrations

Today it's the birthday of Geert De Kockere, the Flemish author with whom I made my first book 'stil verwateren' :-)) I made this 'happy birthday illustration' for him:

If you want me to make a custom made illustration for your or for a friend of yours,
just send me a mail for more infrmation.

Spring Festival Rotterdam

This afternoon I visited the Turkish spring festival in Rotterdam - Crooswijk.
It was very nice. People were so friendly.

As if we were for a moment in Turkey with traditional food and Art and old children songs and games (I even saw a giant Pinocchio) and that all just around the corner from where I live. I love my city :-)) It inspired me to aboves drawing

This was the photo I took which gave me the inspiration for the drawing.
Have a nice weekend!

Geert trakteert!

This is a special post for my dutch followers... (sorry for the rest)

Geert De Kockere is bijna jaig en trakteert! Waarop? Op een exemplaar van het luxueuze haikuboek 'stil verwateren', waar ik met veel plezier 71 prenten voor tekende. Onderstaande illustratie maakte ik voor deze speciale actie op zijn Facebookpagina

Je kan het boek heel eenvoudig winnen door een reactie te geven onder deze post
Op zijn verjaardag trekt hij dan een winnaar. Succes! :-)

Freaky Spring in the Kunsthal Rotterdam

Today I visited the big FREAKY SPRING exhibirion in the Kunsthal Rotterdam. With my favorite brother ofcourse. (my museum mate ;-))  It was a big surprise. I didn't know what to expect, but I walked through the museum halls with open mouth...

Especially by seeing the work of Kristof Kintera. I had never heard of him, but it is 'freaky' indeed! His exibition is called: Your light is my life. The walls in the halls of the museum are painted neon green / yellow. It's impressive to walk through.

His work is weird. You enter a whole new world with talking and moving objects and installations. Ever seen a talking and moving shopping bag with rubbish or an office chair with giant wings?

Dancing trees, a moving bucket... a giant palmtree and cactus of tins....
It is worthwile to have a look!

Also very surprising was the exhibition of photographer Charlotte Lybeer from Belgium:
The fantastic adventures of the Cabbit and the Folf

You enter again a complete new world. She portrays people who like to be in an 'in-between' world. They live in a world in which they take on a different identity to escape from everyday reality.

She did photograph them in their own environment. It's fascinating! I didn't know the existance of this phenomenon.

These are only two of the five freaky exhibitions. It was a while ago I went to the Kunsthal. I almost forgot what a nice museum it is....

inspiration: 100 great Children's Picture Books

Sometimes I give myself a present :-) This time it is this inspiring book:

If you like picture books, it really is a 'must have'. A collection of 100 books
from 1922 - 2011. Collected by Martin Salisbury.
I am very happy with it, maybe it's something for you too....

Happy weekend!