However, in some way you may call my job ‘creative’ too (I work in the restoration studio of the Zeeuws Archief ), ’cause I handle all sorts of paper all day long and today there is something interesting on my desk.

WOYWW #900

It will take some time *grin* to smoothen and repair the paper so that the public can handle this book again, but page by page I will get there….

Thanks for stopping by and uhrm, ladies: congratulations on this 900th anniversary!

(I hope to be able to visit your blogs too in the next days, see ya!)

So, it’s been a long time, but Sarah is still hosting the ‘deskers’ and I have a little vacation (this week and the next) to fill with whatever I want – a lot of creating going on – and I thought it would be fun to join in this wednesday to see if all my former desk-collaborators are still there. HI THERE, MY FELLOW ARTISTS & DESKERS, I plan on visiting you this week and am curious to see what you’re all up to.

For now, here’s how my workdesk looks today

WOYWW #882

It’s a rather big project I’m working on: making 80 “prompt/inspiration cards”. I got a list of “prompts” from a woman in an art journal group on Facebook. I printed those prompts and selected eighty of them. Next, I spend an afternoon making gelliplate-prints and glued those on old playing cards.

Next, I dived into my stash of scrapbook papers to glue on the back.

I’m still cutting out and gluing the prompt-sentences, and it will cost me another afternoon or so to finish the task. I might decorate the cards even more, depending on the time I have left ’cause there are more things I want to work on this week as there is: my CHRONICLES!

For all the ones who knew me from former years: yes, I am still journaling and keeping my ‘Chronicles’ going.
For the ones who don’t know me yet… I am an art journaler, I bind my own journals to fill them with all kinds of things (‘mixed media’)
I work in different journals but there’s one ‘theme journal’, The Chronicles, that I keep going since 2010 and that can be seen as a red thread… These are handmade visual year-journals in which I create a weekly spread. It’s sort of a visual diary and on its pages I comment and reflect on my days or just try to capture the week in words and pictures,

My friend Lena took photo’s of me with all my Chronicles journals the other day, ain’t this a fun picture?

Here’s the latest week spreads.

Chronicles Week 13
Gelli print background, collage (the three little pictures = details of my art, older work) and yes, I’m a bicycle race fan…

Chronicles Week 14
Painted background, washi tape, gelliprint cut out ‘eggs’ (it was the week of Easter) and I painted the heads of me and my friend on cut-out figures.

Chronicles Week 15
The big portrait is cut out of a magazine: famous bicycle racer Wout van Aert

And that’s it for me this week. Hope you enjoyed seeing me and my art again… enjoy your week!

So, it’s been a long time, and something changed over these months… Julia, our beloved host of WOYWW, retired after hosting the weekly event for over 15 years (I don’t blame her for retiring, it’s quite a ‘thing’ she did and she put so much energy and love in for so many years…) Luckely, she found a successor in  Sarah Brennan who keeps it going since May of this year, so HI THERE SARAH, it’s my first time I will put up my link over at your blog, and HI THERE, MY FELLOW ARTISTS & DESKERS, I plan on visiting you this week and am curious to see what you’re all up to.

For now, here’s how my workdesk looks today

WOYWW #805

For all the ones who knew me before: yes, I am still journaling and keeping my ‘Chronicles’ going.
For the ones who don’t know me yet… I am an art journaler, I bind my own journals to fill them with all kinds of things (‘mixed media’)
I work in different journals but there’s one ‘theme journal’, The Chronicles, that I keep going since 2010 and that can be seen as a red thread… These are handmade visual year-journals in which I create a weekly spread. It’s sort of a visual diary and on its pages I comment and reflect on my days or just try to capture the week in words and pictures.
Today I show you the latest spreads

Chronicles Week 40

Background of old pieces of book paper with some white paint over it to tone down the color. Circles cut out of patterned paper and a collage of a ‘Zetti-like’ figure. A lot happened that week so I just filled the open space with text to be able to get rid of everything. (I blurred the text in the lower right corner for privacy reasons.)

Chronicles Week 41

In week 41, the footbal player Johan Neeskens died. I was a fan of him when I was young, I even send him a letter when he played for FC Barcelona – back in the early eighties – and asked him for his autograph… which I received and treasured since then – see further photos.)

Chronicles Week 42

a fairly simple spread because I felt a bit ‘stuck’… ‘stiff and rusty’ after a few busy weeks in which I barely had time to create… the flow is not back yet so I was being kind to myself and limited this spread to a painted background, some pictures and some text. (Recognize Rutger Hauer? I saw a documentery about him, and a picture of a surrealist painting made by Leonora Carrington, I painter I read a book about.)

And that’s it for me this week. Hope you enjoyed seeing me and my art again… enjoy your week!

Last Sunday I spend the afternoon making gelli prints and recording the session for my online workshop. My workdesks became pretty messy… I usually clean up after creating but not this time. It was late, I was tired and there was a cycling race on tv that I wanted to see so I left the tables as they were, thinking I could play with the gelli plate again on my free day. So here it is: my desk(s) as I left them on Sunday.

WOYWW #773

It had been ages since I created a scrapbook layout but the challenge over at Challenge YOUrself caught my eye. It showed a color palette that made me think of some photo’s that were made in Antwerp last january…

So I decided to play along and create a layout BUT… being rusty and all it took me FOUR DAYS (with some pauses in between) to get it done. How come I have no problem whatsoever to start creating in an art journal, no matter what size, but paralize as soon as I grab a 12 x 12 scrapbook? It became quite an obsession to get it done but hey… I finished it!

Here’s some random art journal spreads that I created earlier this year (I have several art journals in different sizes that I create in)

“There’s a morning to come…” (Grandes Chaleurs journal, spread  30 x 48 cm)

“Who are those people?” (Bauhaus journal, spread 29,7 x 21 cm)

My gelli plate is calling me and my fingers itch so I will put on an old shirt and start dipping my hands in the paint. I hope to visit your desks later today and/or in the days to come. Thanks for stopping by my blog today. Happy Easter (don’t eat too much chocolate!)

WOYWW #772

Last week a friend of mine came over and now that I refurbished my atelier there’s room for two to sit at my table. We spend the whole day together creating up a storm and it was so much fun! She decorated her phone case (it’s a pity I didn’t take a photo…) and I created the tiny journal that lays on my desk. I worked on the pages some more over the weekend and here’s the finished little thing.

It was a productive weekend ’cause I also created a spread in my Chronicles art journal

Chronicles art journal – Week 11 

There is another spread on the way and I am playing with the idea of ​​making an old-fashioned scrapbook layout again so there’s plenty to do in the coming days, but first I will visit your desks today. Thanks for visiting mine, enjoy your day!

First: here’s what my desk looks like this wednesday morning

WOYWW #771

Those of you who remember my old blog posts and desk photos may now be surprised: what is this? You had a brown desk, right? And it was in front of the window, right? Yep…at the end of last year I bought new furniture and threw out the old corner desk. It was a great worksheet, yes, but the whole thing was not very flexible and when a friend or student came over, we had to sit next to each other. That felt rather awkwardly, especially when teaching how to bind a book… So I got rid of the old thing and bought me a new desk, new dressers and two smaller tables that I can slide around. Now there’s more flexibility and that was the intention. Mission succesfull, yay!
Here’s the before and after pictures

Before

After

I like sitting in that fresh, light corner behind the tables and I still create a lot on the days I don’t have to work… of course most of the time goes into keeping my ‘Chronicles’ art journal up to date. It’s my 15th year/Chronicles journal and it’s there on the table all the time. These are the latest spreads.

Chronicles art journal – Week 8

Chronicles art journal – Week 9

Chronicles art journal – Week 10 (with postcard in pocket)

Chronicles art journal – Week 10 (with postcard out of pocket)

Besides these Chronicles journal, I do create other spreads, drawings etc. but this post would get too long if I’d show that all to you… so I leave you with these and will go visit YOUR blogposts and desks now… have a lovely day, see ya!

WOYWW #747

The little “Cairn” book on my desk I made to practise a special binding technique, here’s a close up.

I used very thick watercolour paper for the pages (I guess: 300 grams or more… I had a big piece of that in my stash) and I plan on filling this book with paintings of cairn. A cairn is a human-made pile (or stack) of stones raised for a purpose, usually as a marker or as a burial mound. The word cairn comes from the Scottish Gaelic: càrn ~ Wikipedia

Next… all the Chronicles art journal spreads I made over the last weeks (months even…) I’m sorry it’s a lot but if I don’t publish it now, I probably never will…

Chronicles: Week 29

Chronicles: Week 30

Chronicles: Week 31

Chronicles: Week 32

Chronicles: Week 33

Chronicles: Week 34

Chronicles: Week 35

Chronicles: Week 36

Chronicles: Week 37

Ha, I reached a goal and posted those spreads before I turn sixty *** ??? *** Sixty? Gulp! Oh yes… it’s quite a big number but next week I will get there. My birthday. I’m getting used to the number by now. I might even start to like it… ‘Sixty’. Yep. Sixty. Next week. Cheers!

WOYWW #733

Philatelic Collage

Last year I joined the Special Agent Collage Collective. I am officially known as Special Agent 074 and I love the missions that Head Quarters send out… for example this one: “Your mission is to create an analog collage ON a postage stamp (not an artist stamp). This means a tiny collage.”

I found a sheet of postage stamps at a flee market, picturing paintings that hang in the van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam. I managed to make collages on all three stamps but it was pretty difficult to create that small!

I hope you liked seeing me and my workdesk again and I plan on visiting ‘the workdesk gang’ in the following days. Enjoy your day!

One of my colleagues will certainly benefit from the extra time I have because I made her a beautiful card: it’s her birthday this week and she moved into a new home last month. I took the photo of my desk yesterday when I was in the middle of creating that card.

(click on the images to enlarge)

WOYWW #723

… and here’s the end result.

And of course I still keep my weekly Chronicles art journaling going. I started in 2010 with creating a weekly spread so this is the fourteenth (!) journal I’m filling… btw: all my journals can be viewed on my website – and here’s the latest spreads

Chronicles: Week 12

Chronicles: Week 13

That lady standing on one leg might need some explanation because she’s not just there to look beautiful: some time ago, after a walk on the beach and over the dunes, I forced my hip. After weeks of struggling with pain in my groin and knee, I went to the doctor and he send me to the physiotherapist. The physiotherapist gave me tips and exercises and he said that the problem should be resolved within a few weeks. One of those exercises is, that I have to alternately balance on one leg. I’m now wobbling on one leg a few times a day – and no, I don’t look as elegant as that woman on my spread. I’m more like an old stork (or maybe even less elegant than a stork) but hey, it works because the pain is almost gone!

Sketchbook revival 2023

Mid-March I signed up for the free Sketchbook Revival workshop… but I already knew I wouldn’t have time to watch all the free video-tutorials and/or work with all the lessons (the workshop closes on April 20th) so I picked out my preferences to watch and even created some pages. Last week, I watched a video with Toni Burt which tutorial I liked very much. When the weather gets better I’d like to go outside and draw more, so this was a start to work with the techniques she showed (I used a photo of our apartment complex as a reference.) It’s a bit overdone but I still like the outcome.

It’s been two months since I joined WOYWW, I hope you liked seeing me and my workdesk again and I plan on visiting ‘the workdesk gang’ in the following days. Enjoy your day and ‘see ya!’

Goodmorning sweeties!

A few weeks ago I asked my Dutch followers if they had a problem reading my blog in English, and the English blogreaders if they would have a problem if I started blogging in Dutch… from the responses I could conclude that most Dutch people understand and read English well, but that my English followers – although most of them very sweetly stated that they would translate the texts – would have a bigger problem with it. This has made me decide that I will continue to write my blog in English.

Today is Wednesday, the day that creative bloggers ‘get together’ virtually to share photos of their desks and talk about what they’re up to… I joined this tribe every Wednesday for many years but since 2019 I only dip in occasionally, because I have a daytime job to go to on Wednesdays. However, I write (and schedule) a blogpost every now and then because I’ve known and followed these ladies for so long, I want to stay in touch and visit their blogs from time to time. So hi there deskers, I hope to visit you over the past days to see how you’re doing!

My desk today shows what I was working on last weekend… another Chronicles art journal spread. It lays there as shown to finish in the next days.

WOYWW #713

Perhaps you saw in a previous blog post that I created more space in my studio by throwing out the guest bed, and that I used that extra space to set up an easel. I put on a large canvas that already had many layers but still showed ‘more or less white’. For two months, that canvas stayed there and challenged me until last week. I suddenly got tired of it staring at me all the time… I took a piece of charcoal and broke “the curse of the white canvas” by drawing a line and a circle on it… “There you have it, I started something!” The day after, I splattered some paint on it too. Will I do more? (and when?) We’ll see…

And of course I also created some spreads in my good old art journal – after all, creating in a book is my safe haven!

Chronicles 2023 – Week 2

Chronicles 2023 – Week 3

Thanks for stopping by my blog today! If you leave me a comment I will try to visit you back. Enjoy your day, go do something that brings you energy… splatter some paint!