Duo-workshop Marit Barentsen & Jenny de Bode
Middelburg – 7 oktober

Na, in het voorjaar, deze workshop te hebben gegeven in Hillegom komt Jenny nu naar Middelburg! In deze workshop maak je een harmonica-boekje waarbij je de ene zijde à la Marit en de andere zijde à la Jenny gaat bewerken.
Meer informatie, voorbeeld-afbeelding en de mogelijkheid tot inschrijven vind je HIER

Duo-workshop Marit Barentsen & Jenny de Bode
Middelburg – 7 oktober
After teaching this workshop in Hillegom last Sping, Jenny is now coming to Middelburg!
In this workshop you will create a harmonica-booklet that you will fill on one side “à la Marit” and on the other side “à la Jenny.” Marit will introduce you to spray-ink techniques and the use of various templates and Jenny will show you a fun technique using Bistre.
More info, an example picture and registration in my shop on the website.

Workshop “Een eigen gezicht”
Middelburg – 11 november

Je leert bij mij niet hoe je zo’n ‘poppen-meisje-met-grote-ogen’ schildert. We gaan in plaats daarvan op zoek naar ‘koppen met karakter.’ Collage-koppen, gezichten in vlekken, blind getekende portretten en nog veel meer! Je maakt kennis met verschillende methoden, materialen en technieken die elk zo hun eigen uitstraling geven aan de gezichten op papier.

Meer info en de mogelijkheid tot inschrijven HIER

Workshop “Your own face”
Middelburg – The Netherlands, November 11
I will not teach you how to paint a ‘doll-girl-with-big-eyes.’ Instead, we go looking for ‘faces showing character.’ Collage-heads, faces in blobs and spots, blind drawn portraits and more! You will learn various methods, materials and techniques that each have their own look and bring a special style to the faces on paper. More info and registration in the shop on my website

WOYWW #385

My neat desk is screaming for a colorful mess, don’t you agree?

There’s two canvasses on my desk that I worked on over the weekend. The big one lay in the atelier for weeks with only a background and a rough sketch (some sort of face) on it. I kinda blocked after that… I’m not good at painting faces so I was almost at the point of wiping it off, but then I saw the work of Cuban artist Hector Frank (thanks for the link Seth!) and I got inspired right away. A face does not have to look realistic after all…

It’s not finished yet, but I like the way it is going.

Size: 30 x 40 cm / 11.8 x 15.8 inch

Next painting is made on a piece of cardboard (I told you I was inspired!) and it’s on my desk because I am in doubt if it is finished or not… should I work on it some more (the eye, the mouth?) or leave it as is. What do you think?

Size: 18 x 24 cm / 7.1 x 9.5 inch

I also bound a new journal last week; it’s the book at the back (to the left on the picture) that you can hardly see because of the reflection of the light on the cover. I wove beads to the binding so the spine looks very special but I show the photos some other time. After all, miss Julia doesn’t like it when we write long posts. So this is it for today, enjoy your week. Go do something fun. Paint a face!

Cold day lovelies… errmmm, I mean GOOD day of course – xcuse-me, but “cold” is on our minds here in Holland lately. When I woke up this morning, I found  a white world outside my window… Grrrr, it had snowed. AGAIN *sigh*

The snow melted during the morning, but still: it is too cold for the time of year. These temperatures are a bit strange to experience in the Easter weekend in the Netherlands but hey… I’ll put on an extra sweater and just keep on going.

So here’s the Friday post with – of course – a haiku (a special ‘Easter haiku’ today) and quite some art. I’m pretty productive since I have a studio. So sit down, make yourself comfortable, grab another chocolate egg (you have my permission 😉 ) and come on in.

Haiku My Heart Friday

This haiku was found/written for Haiku my Heart Friday. Visit Rebecca at Recuerda Mi Corazon to find the list of participants and blog-hop from haiku to haiku.

I find myself making ATCs lately… it started in January, when I had to get used to having my own creative space and had to learn where I stored all my stuff and find my way around in my studio.

While decorating my studio, I’d come across a box with ribbons – I don’t use ribbon that much and almost forgot I had those – so it was fun to make an ATC with some of the pieces.

That number was already on the green ribbon… it must have been the end of the ribbon on the bobbin or something – but I kinda like how it works on this ATC.

I find myself using the sewing machine again! It is a lot easier now that I don’t have to drag that heavy machine (it’s an ‘antique’ one from the eighties) down the stairs…

And then last Month, Ali Wade had a give-away on her blog and I happened to win the book Artist Trading Card Workshop

The book shows all kinds of (technique) tutorials. The techniques are used to make ATCs but of course they can apply in an art journal also. Although I knew most of the techniques already, I’d forgotten about a bunch of them and it was fun to come across them again…

… like painting over a photo.

I made a lot more ATCs, but I am not able to show those (yet) as they have to stay secret for a while longer.

I did make my weekly art journal spread of course.

The Chronicles of Marit – Week 12

And here’s a spread in my ‘weird art journal’.

For Months now, ‘doll faces’  show up on many art journal pages. It almost seems like all art journalers were in the same workshop(s) to learn how to draw these kinds of faces. I sometimes like the drawings, but mostly I don’t. That made me think – what is it that some of these faces DO speak to me? I presume it has to do with personality. Some artists are able to make the faces ‘their own’… the basic ‘doll drawing’ may be still visible but some drawings have something ‘unique’ that makes it stand out. I jotted down my thoughts about this ‘hype’ on an art journal page – with a ‘doll face’ to illustrate my words of course.

Thanks for stopping by my blog again today dear ones!
Have a wonderful Easter weekend!
Go draw some faces.
Or eggs.
Or faces on eggs.
Or eggs on faces.
Whatever.
Enjoy!

I have some fun photos to show.

And a haiku.

Oh, and an art journal page.

And yes… a winner for the giveaway…

In fact: TWO winners!

Enjoy!

For Haiku my Heart

Can you believe this audacious guy was on my window? I just had to take
a picture!!! (I removed him afterwards, but the damage was already done)

Haiku My Heart is a wonderful place where people from all over the world
post beautiful photos and and write amazing Haiku. It is hosted by Rebecca
and you can find the list of participants here at Recuerda Mi Corazon.

Remember the faces that appeared on my last art journal page?
I cut out a whole bunch of them at the time and here’s the other page I made
using those shapes. I’m not sure if I like it though. I did when I started working
on it last weekend, but now I’m not so sure.

Oh well, you can’t always have a WOW…

Face in the crowd

(29,7 x 42 cm - 11.7 x 16.9 inch)

Finally: you were waiting for this weren’t you?
(Or did you scroll down right away 😉  )

We have come to drawing the winners of my give-away!

Here’s how I did it.
I devided the comments into two groups. Three actually:
the ones who prefered the AJ package (20) the ones who prefered
the scrapbook package (11) and the ones that didn’t make a choice
or liked both – yeah, right… you wish!  (7)

The latter were added to the scrapbook-package drawing – to equal
the groups. I ended up with this:

I used the random generator at www.random.org

For the ART JOURNAL PACKAGE the generator chose this:

Congratulations to this Dutchie in Germany!

For the SCRAPBOOK PACKAGE the generator chose this:

Congratulations to this ‘naughty girl’…

I will email you to get your addresses ladies!

One more congratulations goes to… my brother!
He’s far, far away from us (he emigrated to Canada with his family years ago)
and it was his birthday yesterday!! Hope you had a lovely day ‘broertje’.

I don’t know if his package arrived yet, but when it does I will show
on my blog what I made for him.

That’s it for today folks…
Be happy and enjoy the weekend!