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The honey bee, the bumblebee, the butterflies and other pollinating insects are in danger. Some species have already disappeared never to return. Fewer pollinating insects will effect us more than we imagine right now, also in our daily economy. So it's best for all of us if there are more uncultivated places for bees, butterflies and other pollinating insects. I try to apply this in our own garden. It's a start if everyone with a garden should do the same! This quote of Albert Einstein says a great deal about what we know now and shows what a visionary he was!
IF THE BEE DISAPPEARED OFF THE SURFACE OF THE GLOBE
THEN MAN WOULD ONLY HAVE FOUR YEARS OF LIFE LEFT.
NO MORE BEES, NO MORE POLLINATION, NO MORE PLANTS,
NO MORE ANIMALS, NO MORE MAN.
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Today is World Pet Day! I remember, when I was a child, my dream was to have a dog hotel. I was crazy about dogs, trusted all of them and was petting every dog I came across in the street. I was lucky, never been bitten. The whippet in this concertina book is so decorative, he was literally begging to be painted!
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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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With the floral explosion of an extraordinary spring, our garden is like paradise. I had the irresistible urge to make a painting of this abundant amount of greens and bright colors. So here is the final print! I'm very happy with the colors. I was inspired by our own garden but also by old Indian embroideries. These prints are available through my Etsy shop. Click on 'sale' to see more!
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The sunny start of a new day in my studio! I have plenty of ideas and want to make them all come to life. But why do I always feel like life is too short?
Our good friend Brody Neuenschwander gave me this wonderful book as a Christmas gift. It's about garden design, and this happens to be a big area of interest of mine. I want to make something in relation to gardens, maybe a print or a series of greeting cards!
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I love butterflies and I never get tired of painting them. Here's two details of a concertinabook I made in 2009.
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It requires a lot of work and time to come to a final piece. Lots and lots of trials and errors before a piece is finished. Not to mention countless sleepless nights. Now and then I have to clean up my studio and make decisions of what to keep and what to throw away.
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Since 2001 I'm making these oblong concertina books. The term 'concertina' refers to a method of parallel folding with the folds alternating between front. This picture shows a detailed view of two of these books. Mustn't read too much into it: the top one is just a compilation of different paintings and text blocks without any cohesion. The only consistency would be color. The bottom one is about an long adventurous trip I made from Belgium to Iran.
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I love folk art. About three weeks ago I was in New Mexico and I visited the Museum of International Folk Art in Santa Fe. Textiles from India, figurative wood carving from Poland, U.S. visionary and self-taught art, Japanese woodblock prints, Indonesian shadow puppets and many other objects: more than 130,000 from more than 100 countries. A really fascinating museum! A collection of ex votos immediately caught my attention. Were they made of metal or silver? Were they factory-made or hand-crafted? I don't know but I could see they were embossed. I've seen collections like this before in other countries. I love all the different shapes of hands and thought it was a good idea to draw a collection of them. I first drew them with my favorite fineliners and then painted them in with a wash of watercolor paint.
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This was one of those moments of tidying up my drawing folders, finding a whole lot of pieces of paper with trials and testings from over the last fifteen years and having to decide whether to keep them or throw them away. Well, in the meantime most of them are gone but I've made some pictures of everything because they can inspire me for future pieces. Next time I'll post some other ones!
