time for a walk

After a few weeks of hard work on the book we are making, I took a well deserved day off today! I went with my brother to the woods of Hollandsche Rading in Utrecht.

It was such a beautiful day! Being in nature gives me fresh energy :-)
Especially when the sun shines and everything is sparkling and shiny.

You could even 'hear' the forest, because it had rained a lot and drops were falling out of the trees.

I made pictures with my phone and the hipstamatic filter. New to me, but I love it!

It was fun to experiment and see all the results afterwards...

And now my mind is fresh again to continue my work on the haiku book project :-)

I love Amsterdam

TodayI was a day in Amsterdam to get some work back from an exhibition. I went with my brother and we made a long walk through the city. I love being there. We went to the Museum square, such a great atmosphere. They have whole walls with advertisements for the van Gogh museum and tis gives funny photographs in combination with the real buildings:

We walked through the Vondelpark and had a nice lunch on a seat outside and watched the people passing by. I also saw this beautiful tree. I always see faces in trees ;-)

And here's another van Gogh painting with the Rijksmuseum on the background:

In the Vondelpark there's a sculpture exhiibition. Designs made by children and artists, because the park celebrates 150 years of existance. You can hear about the project here (in dutch)

They want to build a connection between the youth and the Vondelpark, so the Parc will be cared for in the future too. It's one of my favorites Parcs in Holland and some of the sculptures were really nice and fun! A lot of bright colors between the trees.

The whole day I saw beautiful, funny, colorful patterns and textures. On clothes, in nature, everywhere. So inspiring!

Here's another sculpture I liked a lot. I love this combination of culture and nature.
We also went to a photography exhibition in Huis Marseille. Also inspiring!

My work is back from the exhibition and I had a really nice, relaxed  and inspiring day in a beautiful city! Have a very nice weekend! i'm gonna work and draw, which i love so much!

Graphic Art in Nature

I really LOVE trees. Especially in this time of year.
It's like walking in a huge Graphic Art landscape:

ode to my glasses

I have three different kind of glasses, without them I can't see so clear.
In some cases this can be an advantage, but most of the time I need to see sharp.
so I'm constantly juggling with them.

The fisst one is the most important: a multifocal one which I wear everyday
The second one I wear behind my computer to see the screen.
But these two weren't enough, so I bought a third one for reading.

I try to keep them on places where I easily can find them and I won't accidently sit on them
I even have a soft piece of fabric on my desk for my computer glasses,
because it broke already two times and then I'm lost...

The glasses also give inspiration for photographs.
I often see the soft light shining through the glasses which is inspiring.
So they are not only helpful for my eyes, but also for my creativity :-)

sunny flower

and still its sunny here in Holland :-))

Art Diary / Kunstagenda 2013

Since I opened my shop, I have to learn many new things
for example: product photography
How to make attractive photos of the products.

These are new photos of the Art Diary / Kunstagenda 2013

I often hear: "your products look nicer in real than online".
Of course this is a nice compliment and it is better this way
than the other way around, but I wanna improve these skills too!

If you wanna see the difference, between the photos I took before
and these new ones, have a look here
I know they are still far from perfect, but it's improving :-)

As said the Art Diary looks better in real. There are
only a few copies left in the Red Cheeks Factory shop
So, if you wanna see it yourself, it might be a nice christmas gift... ;-)

in memoriam: Hugo van Wijk

a remarkable and authentic man has died.

It was a friend from my brother. He was a huge fan of street organ music.
For a long time he went every week to the street organ museum in Haarlem.
One time my brother and I joined him on his trip.
I then made this photo reportage

When we were in a hurry to catch the tram, he said: "don't worry,
if we don't get this one, we'll take the next."
An inspiring attitude...

I dedicated today's face to him.

breathtaking

Today I walked with my dearest brother and friend johbont in Driebergen-Zeist.
We started very early and just when the sun came up we were at Heidestein,
a beautiful heather. We saw a fen with tree reflections.
It really was breathtaking. So beautiful and quiet. It made our day!

wide angle lense

It's almost my birthday. (a special one this time, because I become 50....pffff...)
Yesterday I've received already my present: a wide angle lense for my camera.
I'm very happy with it! It can be a great inspiration for my face a day project
I need to experiment with it, what works and what not, but it gave already a lot of fun :-)

inspiration: Vincent van Gogh

Yesterday I went with Johbont to the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam. We thought we'd go early to avoid the huge crowd of visitors, but it was already very crowded. I've never been to a Museum with so many people. A bigger contrast is not possible. Van Gogh was hankering for acknowledgement during his life, but he got none and now he's over-famous, but he will never know... I think that's sad and I wish it had been different for him...

travellers

clouds

Today we took a day off. We were on the water with our little boat: Patser
It was sunny, blue and wonderful, especially the sky with those tiny soft clouds.

trial goods

title: in balance
When in balance, seemingly impossible things become possible.

title: bubblelicious
Inspiring the bubble. Sending your wishes into the world.

title: trust
What goes down, must come up!

title: little secret
Sometimes you want to share your little secrets with someone who won't pass it on.
Try a bird, but beware of talking parrots or twitterbirds :-)

This is the second assignment for pika bootcamp 2 These are photos from possible prints to sell in my shop, which I don't have yet, but who knows it will come....

lamb and tip

Today I walked in the Biesbosch, during this walk we saw a lot of sheeps and lambs.
I like to photograph animals, because they are so patient and seem to don't mind.
I would love to photograph people too: streetphotography, because you see so many interesting characters out there. But I don't have the right attitude for that, I'm too shy.

Here's a tip for a short movie about Bruce Gilden He does have a very cheeky attitude, It's funny and he makes very interesting pictures, but as I said, he's very cheeky.

Bokito

It's almost 4 years ago now, Bokito escaped from his cage in the Rotterdam Zoo.
He attacked a woman who had challenged him for weeks. Bokito got very angry and jumped over the water to grab this woman. Every time I see him I must think of this fascinating story and imagine angry wild Bokito runs around in our Zoo. He has a new cage now, behind glass. You can see the story about his escape here

silence

I made this picture during a walk from Baarn to Hollandse Rading.
There was a kind of very tiny small lake, beautiful silence,
sunshine and this cane reflected into the water. It was beautiful!
Almost a drawing.