Twice lavender. On the right side an embroidered piece from maybe twenty years ago. I used to be an embroidery teacher and this lavender in a pot was a design I made for my students to recreate. I came across it while searching on my PC and made this drawing yesterday.

I have been teaching embroidery for over 30 years. One of the techniques in the curriculum was Blackwork. And, after so many years, this inspired me to fill two whole journals with drawn patterns. I started at the beginning of the Covid period and am now nearly at the end of my second book. I can recommend it to everyone: I think it is the best way to slowing down and relax! And it really is amazing how many different patterns you can come up with, just starting with a line, a dot, a square, rectangle or lozenge.

This  is a - nearly finished - drawing from a collection of bottle caps. I only used 3 different sizes of black pigment liners. Why did I choose for crown corks? Because there's such a big variety of type in them. It made me reflect on the fact that every design, how simple it may look, is carefully thought of. And there's only limited space! I learned a lot about type by making this drawing.

During these strange Corona times I started a journal. I'm a huge fan of lists, meaning: books I read, films I saw, music I like etc. But I also wrote down snippets from old diaries and old letters, even a part of a family tree. But most of all I drew a massive amount of decorative patterns and borders. They're all my own design. I can assure you, it is an addiction! You start with some lines, dots or round shapes in a regular pattern and you keep adding until you have the desired outcome. I use different sizes of fineliners and one extra color which is my favorite, yellow.  I highly recommend to anyone making a journal like this. Don't hesitate to ask for more information if you have any questions! I still have a lot of pages to fill and I don't care at all :)

Occasionally I meet an artist over the internet, totally unknown to me and of whose work I'm upside down. Johannes Paul Vroom is one of those people. He was born in 1922 in the Hague and died in Amsterdam in 2006. He studied at the Royal Academy in the Hague but soon, at a  very young age, left for Paris. I didn't find a lot of information about him, but these paintings are really adorable I think!

                                 Pompidou silkscreen

                                  Korenveld canvas 63 x 88 cm

                                Maïs olieverf 104 x 154 cm

I spend hours and hours in my studio.  It’s a place of concentration and inspiration and hard work and late nights. Because my studio is in my home, the work  just never seems to end! But I couldn't imagine another way of life. I'm working on a new drawing in my big sketchbook. I was inspired by many things. First of all by old Swiss 'scherenschnitte' that I found, browsing in my mother's old folk art books. But also by ancient Arabic and Ottoman botanical manuscripts. And finally by a black and white embroidery I made many many years ago when I was an embroidery teacher. 

She's on my radar since a long time! Alice Pattullo is an illustrator based in East London. Her work is inspired by British folk tradition, superstition and mid-century design and she strives to create a nostalgic aesthetic through color choices and composition. I'm attracted to her work including through the narrative part. I have the pleasant feeling that each illustration is an entire novel!  There's so much to see and  experience and those cheerful colors and vintage patterns make me happy! 

I love collections! I mean, I like to draw them. My father collected stamps although he was not a real philatelist. He could as well have collected posters, old soap boxes or match boxes but stamps took up less space. He only collected aesthetically pleasing stamps in terms of illustration, used font and color. Thinking of this collection, I started drawing my own. The aim is to make a new print for my Etsy shop. I finally used two of my new Microns that I bougt in America last year. I wanted to limit myself to two colors, orange and purple, colors that I usually don't use. In the end, I added a little gray watercolor to finish it. What do you think?
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