denthe

Overview of 2023

noreply@blogger.com (denthe) — Fri, 22 Dec 2023 16:36:00 +0000

It has been a strange year. I haven't been very active creatively and that had various reasons.

The year started out really bad with our beloved dog getting sick and in the end we had to let her go on the 13th of January. Exactly one month later I started working fulltime again, and while I really enjoyed my new job and colleagues, it left very little time for creative endeavours.

So I was actually pleasantly surprised to make an overview of this year and found that every month I did something creatively. Some months more than others, but still. What I didn't do, for the first time in 12 years, was make a calendar. And I still regret that. One of the things I really enjoy about Newyear is starting with a brandnew calendar. So I promised myself to make one next year. I will just have to make time for it. It's my new years' resolution ;-)

So, here's just a quick and not at all complete overview of some creative things I did this year. If you want to see more, have a look at my instagram.

January

I started the year really well with a 5-day "Happy New Year"-artchallenge in January, organized by Karen Abend from #Sketchbookrevival. This is one of those drawings. The prompt for this drawing was "house" and "fly" and "watercolor".

February

In February I started making collages again and incorporated the February Faces
challenge in this.

March

In March I experimented a lot with watercolour techniques and also made a few more rainbowladies.

April

Because I would be participating in an exhibition in May I painted a new canvas. This is the only painting on canvas that I finished this year. It measures 40x30cm (15,7x11,8") and I called it "the love that remains". I started a new one, much bigger, right away but it's still on my easel, unfinished.

May

In May I did a collage-workshop with one of my favorite collage-artists: Julie Liger-Belair. This is one of my experiments with collage. Great workshop it was!

June

Another one of my collage-experiments, inspired by Julie's workshop.

July

Aaand another one! For a while there I only did collage.... It is easy to work on when you only have little snippets of time.

August

While I was on holidays in Spain I tried out a few ideas in my journal. This was inspired by a free lesson by Helen Wells, also organised by Karen Abend from Sketchbook Revival.

September

In September I was still experimenting with some new ideas. Here I tried a coloured doodle and used regular felt tip pens to colour it in. That was fun!

October

And then it was October and I really wanted to participate in Inktober again. But it needed to be something quick and easy. So I decided to make faces in ballpointpen on post-its, and accompany it by a quote for the day. Most of the quotes were pretty sad, as they were a reflection of the state of the world ....

November

In November I finally discovered my artjournal again and I have been working in it on and off for the last few weeks. Who knows I might even finish it this year!

December

December: still working in my artjournal. If I manage to finish it, I'll make a video! Follow me on Instagram if you want to see it ;-)

And that's it for 2023!

Thank you so much for following my journey. I hope the last few weeks of 2023 will be happy and I wish you all the best for 2024.

Take care, I'll be back ♥♥♥

Overview of my creative year 2022

noreply@blogger.com (denthe) — Fri, 30 Dec 2022 23:03:00 +0000

One more day and this year is over. I'm not sure how I feel about it. It started promising, with covid finally relenting, but then in February the war in Ukraine started and the world was plunged in darkness once again.

It had a profound impact on me too. I started out the year with plans of finally painting on large canvases again, and when the war started it was as if all my plans evaporated and I couldn't find the motivation anymore to work on something big.

So when I started looking through my files to make an overview of my creative year, I was pleasantly surprised to see that I created more than I thought. So without further ado, here we go!

JANUARY

I started the year with a brandnew painting on canvas. It was so much fun to finally be painting big again. I worked all of January on this painting and finished it in February. Here's the finished painting. It's called "Is there anybody out there?" and measures 60x80cm. You can see details of it on my Instagram and on my website.

FEBRUARY

In February I started a new background on canvas right away and worked in my artjournal because I wanted to finish it this year (I didn't ....). Here's a collage I did:

MARCH

The war in Ukraine inspired me to get out my roadbook again and make mapfaces. I don't know why but whenever there's something going on in the world that deeply troubles me I tend to go back to my map paintings.

I also started a "Celebrate women"-month, because of International Women's Day, and because I think it's important to keep fighting for equal rights for women everywhere. I made a whole series of drawings with a quote about women.

APRIL

In April I was preparing for an art market and an art exhibition in May. I painted some boxes, which was a really long time ago, and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

MAY

Still working for my artmarket, I painted some small paintings on cut-out forms in MDF

JUNE

In June I was obsessed with making patterns. I want to do more with this, it's so much fun!

JULY

In July I started making backgrounds for my new calendar.

AUGUST

Working on my calendar-pages, and also re-working a painting from earlier years

that I wasn't happy about:

SEPTEMBER

Yep, still working on my calendar-paintings, but getting there ;-)

OCTOBER

Putting the final touches to my calendar-pages and adding the quotes

NOVEMBER

I made a few new paintings on cutout MDF, inspired by Klimt and Hundertwasser. Glad to finally be doing something else than calendar-pages ....

DECEMBER

I participated in another artmarket and was busy preparing for that. And in the nick of time, right before the end of the year, I managed to make another journalpage in the journal that I had wanted to finish but didn't. Oh well, that'll be for next year I guess. Or whenever....

And that's it for this year!

The only thing left to do is to wish all of you a happy, hopeful and joyful new year!

Take care of yourselves and your loved ones.

See you in 2023!

hugs, Denise ♥♥♥

2023 calendars are here!

noreply@blogger.com (denthe) — Tue, 01 Nov 2022 22:49:00 +0000

I can't believe it's been almost a year since I was here last! I had planned on coming here more often this year, but somehow it didn't work out. The year started out so wonderfully with the pandemic almost over and freedom and travelling on the horizon. I felt like I could finally breathe again and live again, making all kinds of plans, and then booom, the war in Ukraine started and I felt myself and all my plans sinking away.

But I did paint, and I did manage to finish my calendars for next year! So I thought I'd let you know :-) (if there's still someone reading this blog, I'm not sure ....)

Like I did last year, I made two calendars: one with (English) quotes, and one without quotes

The pictures I'm showing you here are all from the calendar with quotes.

I used the same paintings for both calendars

These are all paintings I made on canvasboard. I started out with backgrounds full of marks and paint, and then searched for figures in there.

I tried out some new ideas, where I combined intuitive painting with geometrical forms.

Different way of working but it was fun to do!

My calendars are for sale in my LULU-shop. When you order please make sure you use the correct link, either for the quotes-calendar or for the calendar without quotes.

Also, good news: from today through November 4th you get a 20% discount when you use the code SNEAKPEEK20 at checkout!

The calendars measure 11"x 17" (27,9 x 43,2cm) when open. The weeks start with Sunday. As you can see there's enough room for writing down your appointments and plans.

This is the direct link for the calendar with quotes

And this is the direct link for the calendar without quotes

You can also order them from the sidebar. If you have any questions at all, please contact me. You can do that simply by posting a comment or by e-mailing me at infoatdenthe.com. Please know that the sale of my calendars is in the hands of Lulu from start to finish. I don't even know who orders a calendar. So if there are any issues, you can contact Lulu directly, or you can contact me and I will contact Lulu for you.

Thank you so much for being here!

Please stay safe! I'll talk to you soon ♥♥♥

#artcalendar #calendar 2023

Happy holidays and overview of the year 2021!

noreply@blogger.com (denthe) — Thu, 23 Dec 2021 22:24:00 +0000

The last months have been so busy that I didn't get a chance anymore to post on my blog. So this post will be packed with pictures 😉 Like I do every year at the end of the year I review everything I've done artwise and that's often very satisfying because usually I've done more than I think I did so I can end the year feeling like I've taken some steps towards my goal of becoming a full-time artist 😊.

JANUARY

I started the year really relaxed by doing some art classes. This is from "Fearless faces", a mini-workshop by Jerney Marisha. Her classes are lots of fun and great value for what you pay.

FEBRUARY

In February I kept seeing these posts about the 100 day project, where you do something creative every single day for 100 days in a row and post about it. This intrigued me but I thought no way I'd be able to do that. But then I saw another artist who had the fabulous idea of making art in a little square each day. Because it's so small, it's easy to keep it quick, so I tried it and yes, it was do-able :-)

MARCH

In March I discovered one-line-drawings again, and combined them with watercolour and pastel.

APRIL

In April I finally finished a project that I had started in December from last year: doodling the walls of a bathroom in an organisation that has conference rooms and a restaurant. I was one of 6 artists chosen to do this, and it was great fun, but man, sooo much work! I don't even want to think about how many hours I spent there ...

MAY

In May I ended my 100 day project. I managed to do some art every single day for 100 days in a row. I quickly stopped with the little squares, and instead I made a double spread per week, and every day I added something to that spread. It was way more fun that way 😃

JUNE

In June I was painting some women on a wooden form. I wanted to make these for my group exhibition in December, together with some mosaics. Different feel from working on canvas but lots of fun.

JULY

In July I had to start painting for my calendars. I made 12 backgrounds with inks and watercolours and coloured pencils and started looking for figures in there.

AUGUST

Still working on my paintings for my new calendars

SEPTEMBER

Getting my calendars ready for the printer, and working on finishing my mosaics. I also re-opened my Etsyshop, to sell my oneliner-calendar and digital downloads of work I did in my artjournals. I'm planning on adding more.

OCTOBER

Even though time was limited, I decided to once again participate in Inktober, this time with ballpoint-drawings. I really really enjoyed doing these sketches and adding some of the quotes that I wrote during the pandemic. It was healing.

NOVEMBER

I was participating in an online auction with five paintings and managed to sell all five of them! Two went to Germany, the other 3 found a home in the USA.

DECEMBER

I am participating in a group exhibition in Global Art Gallery, and I opened a new Redbubble-shop. I made some new greeting cards and Christmas cards and am planning on adding a lot more in the coming year. Redbubble might take the place of my Society6-shop. I like their style better, and they work with local printers, which is less the case with Society6. It won't make much difference for US-customers, but for European customers it really makes a difference, in shipping costs and customs and taxes. We'll see how it works out.

And that's it for the year 2021! The only thing left to do is end with some funnies 😀 Enjoy!

No matter what you're celebrating this time of year, I hope your days will be filled with love and warmth and joy and togetherness and above all peace! And for next year, let's hope:

Thanks for being here!

Stay safe, healthy and happy. I'll be back next year! 💕💕💕

Long time no see ;-)

noreply@blogger.com (denthe) — Thu, 21 Oct 2021 21:35:00 +0000

Hi there!

Yes, I know it's a long time ago.

And yes, I know I was planning on posting a few times a year on this blog.

But, well, life happens and I've been very busy on Instagram. If you want to keep up with what I'm doing it's best if you follow me there 😏

But for those of you who might occasionally come over here to have a look, I wanted to let you know that my calendars for 2022 are available 😀

The first one is an intuitive artcalendar with quotes. This is the cover. When you click on it it brings you to my Lulu-shop:

In my Lulu-shop it's possible to see a preview of the calendar. You can also have a look at my Instagram-feed where I've posted all the paintings and a few video's of the calendars.

The next one is the same intuitive artcalendar but without quotes. The cover is slightly different:

And the next one is a oneliner-calendar. This one consists of continuous line-drawings of women, with an inspirational quote. I sell this calendar through my Etsyshop (yes, I revived my Etsy-shop, finally, after it's been closed for the last five years 😀):

This is just a quick post now but I will be back before the end of the year and talk some more.

I will be linking this to Paint Party Friday. Long time ago I was there, life just flies by too fast. But I will have a look at what everybody is doing over there!

Thanks for coming over here and having a look! I'll talk to you soon ♥ ♥ ♥

Farewell to 2020 and hello there 2021!

noreply@blogger.com (denthe) — Wed, 30 Dec 2020 23:39:00 +0000

Usually at the end of the year I make an overview of everything I've done artwise in the past year. So that's what I'm going to do here :-)

JANUARY: started a colored pencil journal

I revived my Instagram account this year. I now try to post something every two days at least. This way, in order to have something to post, I have to make sure I keep creating.

FEBRUARY: still playing with colored pencils

And I found that's something I need. It's too easy otherwise to just let everyday hassle take over and before you know it a month has passed and nothing artwise has been done. I don't want that.

MARCH: Corona is taking over the world and the lives of people - I try to focus on art-making to keep sane: journal page

It puts a bit of pressure on me but not too much and I find that forcing myself to create makes me realize again how much I love and need it.

APRIL: playing with paint markers

Also, not painting or drawing makes me rusty, and I feel as if I need to learn everything all over again. Which is a bit of a shame. I should be improving myself instead of rehearsing the same things all the time.

MAY: another journal page

And then it was June and .... nothing .... I didn't make one piece of art in that month. But, I stumbled upon a series of free workshops about making art your living and that had me totally hooked. So while I may not have been creating, I was still doing something art-like ;-)

JULY: started my collage-adventure

I'm always fascinated by collage, but never really got into it. My collages always looked like an inferior Teesha Moore look-alike. But I found some new ways to make collage and started experimenting. And having lots of fun with it :-)

AUGUST: started preparations for my calendars

I decided to make a map calendar again, and an intuitive art calendar. I even wanted to make a third calendar filled with all different things, like collage, drawings, doodles etc ... But alas, time, again, didn't allow it.

SEPTEMBER: intuitive painting for my calendar

In earlier years, when I was still painting on large canvas, I just used parts of my paintings for my calendars. Because I haven't painted on canvas anymore I had to create completely new artwork specifically for the calendars. This took up quite some time.

OCTOBER: still painting for my calendars

All these paintings were made on heavy watercolor paper, and are for sale. I plan for next year to paint more on paper or canvasboard, since this is much easier to ship, and a lot cheaper too. Although I love painting on a large canvas, it's easier to start these smaller paintings.

NOVEMBER: calendars are finally ready!

Thanks so much to all of you who purchased one of my calendars! I made three in the end: one map-calendar, and two intuitive paintings calendars, which are both the same except for one has quotes and the other one hasn't. The links for the calendars are in the side-bar. There's now a discount of 15% through January 1st when you use the quote NEWYOU15 at checkout!

DECEMBER: painting little rocks, rainbow-ladies and ...doodling a bathroom!

December has been the most creative month of the year! First I felt like painting some small rocks, then I started playing with watercolors again, and in between I went to work on a big project. A few months ago I participated in a contest that was written out by an organization looking for artists to paint their bathrooms. I was one of six artists chosen to do this. It was a hell of a work but today I finished it. Well, more or less .. ;-)

And that's it for 2020! Another year gone, and hopefully in the next year we will be able to hug again and travel again and see family and friends and do whatever we like without having to wash our hands constanly or wear a mask. I am pretty sure I am not the only one hoping that ;-)

I will keep posting on this blog a few times a year. If you want to keep up with what I'm doing daily or weekly, it's best you follow my Instagram-account.

Only thing left to do: post a few funnies and thinkies :-)

Thanks for being here!

Have a wonderful and healthy jump into the new year!

Stay safe and I'll see you in 2021 ♥ ♥ ♥

Calendars 2021 are ready!

noreply@blogger.com (denthe) — Tue, 10 Nov 2020 21:09:00 +0000

I have finished my calendars, sent them off to the printers and got them back, so I know they're good to go! I always get my calendars printed at Lulu, that's a print-on-demand-shop with printers all over the world.

Now at the start of this year, Lulu made some big changes to its website, and the calendars got a make-over. Well, actually, they still look the same as previous years, but there are a few minor changes, that people who have been buying my calendars might notice:

- the cover is now really glossy paper

- the weeks start with Sundays now, not with Mondays

- there is no (automatic) message from me anymore to thank you for your purchase, which I think is a pity. Since it's a POD-shop I have no idea who buys my calendars or when, I just get an overview each month of how many calendars have been sold. So I want all of you who buy my calendars to know I'm really grateful, to thank you for your purchase and to wish it'll bring you as much pleasure as it was for me to create it

- there's no preview button anymore, which is really annoying. I hope they'll change that.

- and lastly: I put up one price, in Euro, and it automatically puts the amount in USD, GBP, AUD and CAD at the exchange rate of that moment. So it's possible the prices differ from day to day (except for the euro) When you open the link it automatically puts it in USD but you can easily change it when you scroll all the way down and there you can choose which currency you see.

I have decided to make three calendars: the map calendar, the intuitive art calendar with English quotes, and the intuitive art calendar without quotes. Because there is no preview anymore, I'm sharing all images of the calendars here.

I'll start with the map calendar:

cover: click on it and it'll bring you straight to the shop

The next one is the intuitive painting calendar WITH quotes:

cover: click on it and it'll bring you straight to the shop

And this next one is the intuitive painting calendar WITHOUT quotes. It's exactly the same images, just no quotes:

click on the picture to go straight to the shop

At this moment Lulu has a 10% discount on all printed products. Use code READ10 at checkout. Ends November 13th.

As I think I said before, the original paintings for the intuitive art calendar will be for sale, at a discounted price until the first of December. I will share this in a next post.

Well, that's it for now. If you have any questions or remarks, please let me know in the comments below or just email me at: info at denthe dot com. Thanks!

Finishing with a blend of funnies and thinkies ;-)

(can't help it :-D)

just discovered this artist (haroldsplanet.com) - LOVE it!

Take care, stay safe, hugs ♥♥♥

It's that time of year again ....

noreply@blogger.com (denthe) — Thu, 15 Oct 2020 19:19:00 +0000

Yes, time for my calendars! They're still not ready, despite my best intentions. But in the end they did take up much more time than I thought. Since it's so long ago that I posted anything on this blog, I just wanted to give you an update on what's happening.

I decided to make 2 calendars this year: one with intuitive paintings and one with mapart. I had also planned on making one with various techniques, but alas, it was too hard to get it all ready in time. I'm still finishing up the last paintings for these calendars.

I've been posting the process-pics and end results on Instagram and on my Facebookpage, so check it out if you want to see all of them (well, the ones I've finished for now). I will be posting all of them on this blog once they're finished.

I also decided to sell the paintings I made for the intuitive painting calendar. They're done on A4-sized watercolor paper. I'll wait until they're all finished. Not sure yet how or where I'll be selling them, have to look into the different possibilities. I'll keep you posted so keep an eye out for that in case you're interested.

Now I have another question for you. Every year I use Photoshop to add quotes to the paintings I use for my calendars (except of course for the map calendar, since I've written them on there and they're an integral part of the painting). I was wondering whether I should do that this year or whether I should just leave them as they are and not put any quotes on there. Like the ones I'm showing here.

The following is an example of a page from a previous year's calendar where I inserted a quote in Photoshop. Just to give you an idea:

What do you think? Do it or leave it? I would really like to know!

That's about all for now. Just a quick update :-) As I said, I'm finishing up the last paintings so once they're all done I can make the calendars, they can go to the printers for a testprint and then they'll be available for purchase. Should be by the beginning of November.

Meanwhile, I hope all is really well with you guys. The world is still in turmoil with this whole corona-crisis and it looks like it won't end soon. Quite the contrary, in Europe we're experiencing a dreadful second wave of the virus.

I'll be linking this to Paint Party Friday. Because humor is so very important to deal with things we can't control, here are some funnies, with some thinkies thrown in the mix. Enjoy!

Take care, stay safe, talk to you soon! ♥ ♥ ♥

Some collage and other stuff ...

noreply@blogger.com (denthe) — Thu, 23 Jul 2020 21:56:00 +0000

Hey there, how are you doing? It's been a while since I was here, time is still flying by, despite the strange times we're living in, or maybe even because of it.

Lately I have been posting on Instagram more regularly, and decided to come back to this blog every now and then and share what I've been up to. The last weeks I've mostly been doing collage. It's fun, I love looking for images and fitting them together and then looking for the perfect lyrics or quotes or poems to go with them. Here are some spreads:

This is the first one I did. I put some progress-pics on my Instagram, as well as the original picture I started out with. If you want to have a look, here's the link. Just click on the little arrows to go to the next pictures.

link

While I've been busy with these, just when I started thinking about trying again to make art a bigger part in my life, I stumbled upon some free workshops from Michelle Lloyd from United Artspace. And man, that was an eye-opener for me. The things she said resonated deeply with me, and I signed up for a year-long membership in her "Hub". She only admits new members twice a year, so I was very happy to have found her just at the right time. I'm really looking forward to all I can learn there, and one of the first things I will do is clean up my website or maybe even make a brand new one! More to come on this :-)

I also suddenly realized we're almost at the end of July! And I really want to get my calendars ready sooner than last year. So I already started prepping some papers and thinking about what I want to do. I have been making calendars with my art for the past 10 years or so, and I always had enough material and paintings to choose from. But since I haven't painted any large paintings anymore in the last year, I don't have any material. So last year I used doodles and paintings on paper that I made specifically for the calendar.

There was not a clear favorite last year, both calendars were equally popular. So here's a question for you: do you prefer a certain style? Doodles, or paintings, or drawings, or mapfaces or .... I'd really like to know, because I'm not sure I'll be able to make 2 different ones this year. I've also been thinking about maybe making a calendar with all different things, like one month a doodle and the other month a mapface etc ... So I would really appreciate your input here ;-) Thanks!

Well, that's it for now! Linking this to Paint Party Friday, and ending, as always, with some funnies and thinkies. Enjoy!

guess the same can be said for August ....

this is from Asaf Hanuka

See you next time - thanks for visiting! ♥ ♥ ♥

a strange spring

noreply@blogger.com (denthe) — Thu, 07 May 2020 21:55:00 +0000

Hey, hope you're doing well and keeping healthy! I decided to do a quick blogpost just to connect for a bit and share some journalpages from the past weeks.

Spring has started well and truly these past few weeks and I love it. It lifts my mood, being able to sit outside in the sun and soak up the sunshine. Even though the world is still a strange and scary place. But it's improving and slowly things are going back to, not to normal, but to a little less weird. Hope all is well in your part of the world too!

Here are some journalpages from the last week. Lately I've been switching a lot between my journals, trying out different things and trying to find a way to journal every day.

This is another spread in my collage journal:

- lyrics from Sia -

I bought a pack of really thin paint markers in lots of different colours, and I wanted to use them a bit more extensively, so that's how the next journalpage was born ;-)

- lyrics from Sasha Sloan -

And then I read a beautiful poem by Victoria Erickson and had to make a journal page to go with it:

And finally I wanted to use my paint markers again, so the next journal page was born:

- lyrics from Beth Crowley -

Now I feel like diving into collage again. My mood changes all the time lately, I can't keep to one thing. But it's okay I guess, as long as I'm creating.

To finish, I'll just share a bunch of funnies and thinkies, because, let's face it, everyone needs a laugh (and a think!) in these hard and crazy times :-) Here goes:

Thanks for visiting! Keep safe please ♥ ♥ ♥

A different world

noreply@blogger.com (denthe) — Thu, 02 Apr 2020 20:53:00 +0000

How I wish my first blogpost of 2020 could've been in happier circumstances. But right now I feel the need to reconnect with my blog-friends and find out how you are all doing. I hope well and healthy!

We have been in lockdown since almost 3 weeks. It's a lockdown light, we're still allowed to do necessary stuff like grocery shopping, if we take precautions of course, like keeping our distance and not going out when feeling sick. I'm working from home now, as is my hubby. Kids are home from school too, getting a lot of assignments and online classes.

The last months I've been working a lot in my new colored pencils journal. I started it out with peepholes because I thought it would be fun to be able to look through to the other page. Here's the first page I did:

Here you can see where the holes are. I messed up her hair so I cut another hole through her forehead.

However, when starting on the second page, I found it a little annoying that I had to work around the peepholes. I wasn't too happy with what was coming through either:

But, well, I had to finish the third spread with the peepholes too. Although I must admit I like that horizontal line I had there. I wouldn't have thought of doing that without the hole being there.

And then I had enough. I wanted the freedom to put on the page whatever I wanted without having to work around something. The next page I had to start with collage because I had put varnish on the page and the ballpoint from the hair went through to the other side.

I was really getting into colored pencils again. It's a long time ago I used them and it's fun to have a journal dedicated to colored pencil drawings.

And I love searching for lyrics or texts that fit the images :-) It's kind like a poetry book for me. If I ever get it finished of course...

And then, whoops, I was getting bored again. I have these periods that I'm really into something, like in this case colored pencils, and other times markers, or intuitive painting or sketches, or, .... I don't worry about it, because I know there will be other times when I really get into it.

So then I did nothing for a while. When this whole Corona-thing swept over Europe I felt paralyzed. I couldn't stop watching the news, reading those horrific stories about people dying alone, not being able to say goodbye, all the heartbreaking details, the health care workers that were dying too, and it just didn't stop. I wanted to find solace in art, but I couldn't. Until one night I decided I had to stop watching the news, or at least spend less time glued to the screen. I revisited my "Creatures"-workshop with Roxanne Siciliano ("by Bun") and started glueing images in my journal. And it helped. I had found a quote on Facebook that hit me right in the gut, and I knew I wanted to use it in my journal. Here's the resulting spread:

I don't know what I'll do next, maybe I feel like starting a new painting. On the other hand, I might just continue glueing images. I'm too restless to paint. Whatever I do, I know I must protect myself from becoming obsessed with what's happening in the world. Art helps. It always does. I just need to find the courage to start. Or to continue in this case.

Anyway, enough about me. I'm looking forward to go visit my favorite blogs. And link to Paint Party Friday again.

Because this is such a weird time, and because humour helps to deal with things, here's a whole bunch of funnies, mixed up with more serious memes. Hope you enjoy!

I just want to end with a beautiful song I first heard this week and that really touched me. It has nothing to do with Corona, in fact it's from a Belgian TV-program where a group of artists spend some time together and make their own version of each other's songs. I so love this song, hope you enjoy it too!

Well, that's it for now.

Please stay safe, wherever in the world you are.

Virtual hugs ♥ ♥ ♥

Giveaway!

noreply@blogger.com (denthe) — Fri, 20 Dec 2019 21:51:00 +0000

Thanks so much to all who purchased one of my 2020 calendars! I was curious which one would sell more: the intuitive painting calendar or the doodle calendar. As it turns out they were both equally popular. I sold one more of the intuitive painting calendar.

Of course that can still change. The calendars are still for sale and will be for many months. The links are in the sidebar if you're interested.

I haven't been doing much in the way of painting or drawing. Work was hectic these last few months, but today my holiday starts and I plan on playing a bit more in my new journal. I really didn't need a new one, I have so many already and not one of them finished, but I just love starting a new art journal. They all have their specific purpose. This one is, for now, dedicated to coloured pencil and drawing. Of course, that can change ;-)

And now for the giveaway!

The first name I drew is .....

Gloria Zucaro!

Congratulations Gloria! You get the first choice!

The second name I drew is ....

Sherie Weiser Eddy!

Congratulations Sherie! You get the second choice. I will let you know which painting Gloria chooses.

And then, just for the fun of it, and because, after all, it's Christmas, and you guys make me so happy to want to have a piece of my art in your house, I drew a third name :-)

And that is ...

Shelagh Meston!

Congratulations Shelagh! You'll get to choose after Gloria and Sherie have chosen their painting.

And this is, I think, a wonderful way to say goodbye to the old year and welcome the new one.

I wish all of you a loving, warm and cosy Christmas / festive season, and a glorious 2020!
May at least a few of your wishes come true!

See you next year!

Hugs & warm wishes

♥ ♥ ♥

almost time for the giveaway!

noreply@blogger.com (denthe) — Tue, 17 Dec 2019 20:24:00 +0000

Hey there, just a quick reminder that whoever purchased one of my calendars and wants to be in the draw to win one of the original paintings used for the calendars: please let me know by sending a picture of the calendars or some other proof that you purchased it, at infoatdenthedotcom.

Just 4 more days till the giveaway, so hurry!

And good luck to those who are in the draw :-)

♥♥♥

2020 calendars and giveaway!

noreply@blogger.com (denthe) — Thu, 21 Nov 2019 21:27:00 +0000

Hi there! Just wanted to let you know that my 2020 calendars are ready and up for sale!

I made 2 calendars this year, one with intuitive paintings and one with doodles. They're both in English. You can find the link to the shop in the sidebar, or by clicking on the picture here:

and here:

And, as a thank you to my social media-readers and newsletter-subscribers, I'm giving away 2 of the original paintings that I made for this calendar! They're made on watercolour paper size A4 (21x29.5cm) (approx. 8.27 x 11.69 inches). There's no text on there, as I did the quotes afterwards in Photoshop, but I can always write it on there for you if you want :-)

So how does it work?

My shop is at Lulu, a print-on-demand-shop that handles everything from print to delivery. This means that I don't know who buys my calendars, I can only see how many I've sold and to which countries. So if you buy one of my calendars (doodle or intuitive art), post a picture of it on your social media and send me the link. If you don't have a social media account or you don't want to share it there, you can also privately send me a picture of the calendar you purchased (infoatdenthedotcom)

From all the pictures I receive, I'll pick 2 names at random (or I might let my kids pick them ;-) ). The first one may choose an original painting from the 12 paintings I used in the intuitive art calendar. The second one can choose from the 11 paintings that are left after the first one has chosen.

Sounds interesting to you? This giveaway will end on the 20th of December. And more good news: from now until the first of December you get a 10% discount if you buy one of my calendars!

Here's the 12 paintings that you can choose from (without the quotes):

It doesn't matter whether you buy my intuitive calendar or my doodle-calendar. As long as you buy any one you're in the draw. And if you buy more I'll add your name twice (or more!)

That's all for now. I'll be back before the end of the year to share some more news and pictures. Hope to "see" you then :-)

I'll end with some wise words ♥ ♥ ♥

What I've been doing in the last 7 months ....

noreply@blogger.com (denthe) — Wed, 21 Aug 2019 20:39:00 +0000

Hey there! It feels strange to write on my blog again! So many months have passed, and it felt completely natural not to blog anymore. But lately I've started wondering how everyone's doing and who is still out there in the virtual world. Also, I made a promise to keep you up to date on what I've been doing :-) So here I am!

journal page

Those of you who subscribed to my newsletter already got an update of my digital sabbatical. As it turns out, the extra time I should've had by not being so often on the internet anymore wasn't spent creating and experimenting and painting. It just kinda disappeared into daily life things and duties. Which is a pity, but on the other hand maybe this was just what I needed. There was less stress, so that's a positive.

The first three months of the year I painted quite a bit. The last weekend of February I taught a live weekend workshop artjournaling, and most painting was done as a preparation for that.
Here's a journalpage I finished during that time:

In April I had an exhibition, and for that I finished one painting, and about 15 small woodblocks that were given to visitors of the exhibition. Here's the painting:

"Summer Dreams" - 40x40 cm - mixed media

And some of the woodblocks:

I find that for paintings lately I seem to go more to these kind of negative space paintings, while leaving my intuitive work for my art journals. I really enjoyed working in my journals. I experimented with 2 kinds of spreads: one more collage, of wich this one is an example:

And one more intuitive, like this one:

And then my exhibition started, and I was done with painting. Just like that. Too many other things going on, nothing in the future that required me to finish a project, no need to get art ready to post on social media... While I enjoyed the fact that I could just relax and didn't need to prepare anything, after a while I started to get this nagging feeling that I should do something, that I should get out of this slump and start using my art materials again, before they all dried up.

So in July, when I went to Lissbon for one week with my daughter, I took my doodle-book with me and "forced" myself to work in it in the mornings while my daughter was sleeping in (she's a teenager, they seem to be physically unable to get their ass out of bed in the morning ...) Well, in reality I only had to force myself the first day. After that I couldn't wait to get out of bed and start doodling again.

I am now finishing all the doodles I started last year, and will use these for my new 2020 calendar. That'll give me an incentive to keep going and make art part of my daily routine again. And I'm hoping I will also find time to paint, so I might even be able to make 2 calendars this year!

In October I will be teaching two workshops about lettering. Here's an example of a journalpage I did while experimenting with different ways of lettering:

I have in-progress pics of most of the spreads I showed here, but since this is already such a long picture-heavy post I won't show them now. I might do so in later posts though, if you're interested.

Sooo, that's a bit about what I've been doing artwise this year. Sorry for such a long post, but I guess that's inevitable when you only blog once or twice a year ;-)

Don't know yet when I'll be back, only that I'll be back. I will be visiting blogs this week, see what everyone's been up to. And I'll also link to Paint Party Friday later this week.

To keep up with an old habit: here are some funnies and thinkies :-) (yes, I'm still collecting them!)

Well, that's it for now! Not sure whether there's still somebody out there reading this, but if you are: thanks for still being here!

I'll be back!

♥♥♥

An overview, a goodbye and a very big thank you!

noreply@blogger.com (denthe) — Tue, 18 Dec 2018 23:18:00 +0000

As 2018 draws to a close, I've found myself reflecting on last year's new year resolutions. And finding that, once again, time flew by too quickly and I didn't find time to do some things I really wanted to do this year.

JANUARY: I started out the year well with a sketch a week :-)

It's been a long time since I posted (except for the one post about my calendar) And that has its reasons. I already told you about the non-art-related business that was going to take up all of my time in November. Well, it turned out it also took up all of my time the first half of December.... I also had a market the first weekend of December and a group-exhibition that is still going, and my todo-list seemed endless. I needed to post updates on Instagram and Facebook, I needed to update and reorganize my Society6-shop, I needed to get things ready for the market and make publicity for the exhibition, and, and, and, ....

FEBRUARY: finished a painting "Find the light"

And while I was stressing away about not being able to make art and not being able to keep up with my blog, I suddenly had a wake-up moment. I realized I don't HAVE TO keep up. I realized I don't have to blog every week, I don't have to post on Instagram and Facebook as often as possibe in order to market my stuff, I don't have to create just so I have something to post on the internet, I don't have to do markets and try to make money with my art, I don't have to keep up with other people's posts. I am responsible for putting all this presssure on myself to keep up and it's time to stop. Just like that.
Time for a break.
Time to back off.

MARCH: Finished another painting! "Teach me to fly"

That's a big decision for me. My blog is very important to me. I love the people I met through my blog, the possibilities it has created, the interactions and discussions with like-minded individuals.

APRIL: started a third painting

But: it's taking too much of my time. Not just my blog, but the internet in general. I look around me and I see people glued to their screens. Not talking, not interacting with "real" people, but fixated on that little (or big) screen in front of them. My kids do it, my neighbours do it, my friends do it, I do it. And it saddens me and scares me and I have had enough. I long for evenings without a screen, I just want to sit on the couch and read a good book or knit a sweater, play some board games with my family, do things together, interact with real people.

MAY: started my map-paintings again

And I want time to play. To paint, to try things out, to experiment without the pressure of putting something out there. Make art just for myself and for the fun of it.

JUNE: experimenting with weird faces and alcoholmarkers

While I was living in Australia I didn't have a job anymore and I tried to make a small business with my art. I might have succeeded had we stayed in Australia. But back in Belgium I soon realized it would be so much harder here. Much less opportunities for unknown artists to get out there and be seen, less galleries and the ones that are there prefer well-known artists, plus having your own business is so much more expensive here. So I looked for and was lucky to find a part-time job, so I still had time to make art.
At least, that's what I thought...

JULY: journal play

But it turned out that the 2 days I don't have to go to work were filled with household duties and grocery shopping and administration and all kinds of daily life-duties that took up all of my energy so that I didn't have anything left to experiment and play. Art became a duty in order to be able to put something on my blog. Okay, that sounds harsh, and it wasn't always like that, but it did become one more thing on my todo-list.

AUGUST: painting colourful slippers for the warm summer weather :-)

And so for the new year I choose to back off, to get back to my inner circle of family and friends and leave the internet alone. And ever since I made that decision I've felt a huge relief. The internet and social media has given me a lot over the years and I'm thankful for all the great people that I met (that's you!) and all the things that I learned. But it's taking up a too large part of my life nowadays and I want to have it back and spend it on other things.

SEPTEMBER: doodling again, and making plans for a doodle-calendar
(which in the end I didn't have time for ....)

What does that mean? I can't give up this blog completely, it's too dear to me. So I will post approx. twice a year an update of my work, of what I've been doing. Maybe none of my followers will remain, maybe no one will read what I write.
So be it.
It's the risk I've got to take. I will also write a newsletter twice a year (you can sign up for it here, or via the link in the sidebar).

OKTOBER: I participated in Inktober and managed to make 31 drawings in 31 days!

I'm still amazed by that ;-)

And that's it. My Facebookpage, my (new!) Instagram and my Pinterest won't see much action anymore. And that's okay. For now at least. Who knows what might happen in the future.

NOVEMBER: I finally put my new calendar up for sale. Many thanks to all who
already purchased it! If you're interested: here's the link :-)

So I want to thank you for being here and sharing your news and your comments and your wisdom with me. I have hugely enjoyed interacting with you, and I've learned so much from you. I will still visit every once in a while, I'll look on from afar, and of course you can always contact me through this blog or via e-mail.

DECEMBER: my very last art market. All that is left will be given away or kept for myself ...

I just want to share with you something a friend of mine posted in Facebook, and that really resonates with me, and helped me realize that this is the path I need to take right now. It's by Brandon Stanton:

"The general trend of media and art has moved in the opposite direction. Content has become more bite-sized, more consumable, and less nuanced. In a world of decreasing attention spans, brevity is seen as the only way to compete. Importance is placed on the quantity of output rather than quality. Many ‘social media gurus’ teach that success is frequency of contact. Publish or perish. Either you constantly remind the world that you exist, or you will be forgotten.

I’ve spoken with a lot of artists on the Internet who feel burned out by this dynamic. They feel stifled by the treadmill of daily content. It can be impossible to reconcile the demands of social media with the demands of art. Social media tells you to go quickly. Art tells you to go deep. Social media tells you to replicate what works. Art tells you to experiment. Social media tells you to always be visible. Art tells you to disappear, figure something out, and come back with a discovery worth sharing. It’s not an easy puzzle for artists to solve. Because social media is the lifeline to our audience, and artists can’t survive without an audience. But it forces some tough questions. Is your purpose to create art? Or is your purpose to create an audience? And what happens when those two things compete?"

Sorry for the lengthy post. But I didn't want to just disappear. I feel I owe it to my followers and my internet-friends to explain why I won't be present anymore. And it's always fun to do an overview of my artistic year :-)

The only thing left to do is wish you all the very best for the holiday season and the new year that awaits us. Let it be full of love, full of laughter and full of joy.

Just one more funny ;-D

And this ....

Take care! I'll be back ♥ ♥ ♥

Map calendar for sale!

noreply@blogger.com (denthe) — Thu, 29 Nov 2018 21:46:00 +0000

Finally! My calendar arrived! It has taken 5 weeks, almost 6, thanks to the Belgian post going on strike. But it's looking good and I'm happy with it, so I put it up for sale right away. Here are some pics:

The link to my shop where you can purchase it is in the side-bar, or you can just click here.

I'm doing a market this weekend, so this will just be a very short post. I haven't been able to get back to you yet, but I'll be visiting your blogs next week. I'll finally have a bit more time then :-)

I'll leave you with some funnies and thinkies :-)

Thanks for your visit! Wishing you a glorious day ♥ ♥ ♥

Update on 2019 map calendar

noreply@blogger.com (denthe) — Fri, 23 Nov 2018 20:17:00 +0000

Hey, just a very quick update on my calendar. As I said before I'm horribly busy this month with non-art-related stuff, so no time to blog or paint or anything :-(

But I wanted to give you guys an update on my map calendar. As some of you know I always order one for myself before putting it up for sale, just to make sure everything is picobello in order. Alas, the Belgian Post decided to go on a strike, and although I ordered my calendar 3 weeks ago already I still haven't received it. Grrr. Makes me really mad having hurried so much to get it ready in time.

Anyway, I'll keep you posted, it can be any day now that it's up for sale. Meanwhile, here's the front page already :-) Just for a sneak peek :-)

Talk to you soon! Take care ♥ ♥ ♥

Inktober and map-calendar finished!!

noreply@blogger.com (denthe) — Thu, 01 Nov 2018 21:28:00 +0000

I did it! I finished Inktober this year, and in one go I also finished my map-calendar :-D

Here are the last ladies of my Inktober-series:

I really enjoyed making this series. I wanted to make a small square book with all of them in it, but I couldn't find any print-on-demand shop that had square books in a small size. So alas, no book, unless I can find something else ...

I did however make my calendar! I haven't put it up for sale yet, because I 'm waiting for my copy. I always order one for myself first, so I can check whether everything is exactly as I want it before I put it in my shop. As soon as I have it and it's ready to sell, I'll give a shout-out!

Here are a few more pages:

I'll show all of the pages that are in there as soon as it's available for sale!

Linking to Paint Party Friday tomorrow. Looking forward to seeing what everybody's been up to.

Ending, of course, with some funnies and thinkies:

missing summer ....

Thanks so much for your visit! It means a lot to me ♥
Hope you're having a great day and, my American friends, don't forget to vote :-)

I'll be back as soon as my calendar is available! Take care ♥ ♥ ♥

Busy with Inktober and map-calendar

noreply@blogger.com (denthe) — Thu, 25 Oct 2018 20:02:00 +0000

Still doing my Inktober-ladies, and still enjoying it :-)

It looks like this year I will be able to finish Inktober for the first time!

I've also been working on my map-paintings. I should be able to upload everything to my Lulu-shop this weekend. We have one extra hour since the time is changing this weekend to winter-time again. Yippie. I always love that extra hour :-)

Here are 2 map-paintings that are finished:

I will have more than 12 paintings, so I'll have to make a selection of which ones I want to use for my calendar. That's quite a luxury I must say ... ;-)

That's it for this week! I will be linking to Paint Party Friday tomorrow. Now the only thing left to do is post my funnies and thinkies :-)

Hope you're having a wonderful day, and that the weekend will be amazing :-)

Take care! I'll be back next week ♥ ♥ ♥

Still going strong!

noreply@blogger.com (denthe) — Thu, 18 Oct 2018 20:24:00 +0000

Yep, I'm surprising myself, I'm still doing Inktober!

I've told myself a few times already to stop it and get on with the stuff for my market and my group-exhibition in December.

But I can't. I'm a bit addicted to drawing these women, giving them all their own character and searching for quotes that fit them perfectly.

I just enjoy it :-) So I keep going ....

Although I must admit I started panicking a bit when my daughter mentioned she only has one more week of school before the autumn-break ...

November is going to be a very very busy month with family-business, so I won't have much time to do anything art-wise.

I'm not even sure I will be able to blog ...

So yesterday I sat down at my art-table, whipped out my roadbook, put on my headphones and made 7 map-paintings! Seven! They're not all finished yet, but boy did it feel good to make such progress :-) Here's the first one completely finished:

I'm not sure how my doodle-calendar will proceed. I have all the drawings in pencil, I just need to put them in marker, which isn't a lot of work, but I also need to add all of those small details. Not sure whether I'll find the time and/or the patience for that. We'll see. My map-calendar will be finished though!

That's it for this week! I'll be linking to Paint Party Friday tomorrow. Only one thing left to do now: post some funnies and thinkies :-)

Thanks so much for your visit and your uplifting comments! Have a wonderful day, take care and I'll be back next week ♥ ♥ ♥

Inktober series

noreply@blogger.com (denthe) — Thu, 11 Oct 2018 19:58:00 +0000

Despite expecting that I would only be doing a few ink drawings, I am still going strong!

I draw every day, it's just the words that sometimes take a while longer.

And I don't succeed in posting every day.

But who cares? I'm enjoying making these ladies.

After I've drawn them I search for a quote that fits them well. They all have their own character and carry their own message, so it can sometimes take a while before I find a quote that fits them.

I try to post on Instagram every day. A lot of people are participating.

Who knows, I might even finish this challenge!

I'm already thinking of maybe making a little booklet out of these ....

But first of course I need to finish my calendars. Hopefully by next week I'll have a few more pages done!

That's it for now. Linking to Paint Party Friday tomorrow. In case you haven't had enough yet: here are my weekly funnies and thinkies :-)

:-(

Thanks for visiting! Enjoy your day, and for those in the path of a storm: stay safe! ♥ ♥ ♥

Quick post

noreply@blogger.com (denthe) — Thu, 04 Oct 2018 21:45:00 +0000

Uh-oh, it's way too late already and I should be in bed. So just a quick post today.

I'm determined to get a map-calendar ready for next year, so I finished another map painting :-)

And after a long deliberation I decided to join Inktober again. I've never been able to finish this challenge since it's really a very inconvenient time of the year, so I probably won't finish it this year either, but I'll do as many as I can.

I didn't feel like following the prompts, so I decided to stick to my own theme: one-line women (well, it's multiple lines actually, but it's completely done without lifting the pen from the paper) with quotes. Quotes about strength and empowerment. Here are the first 4 days:

That's it! Except for my funnies and thinkies of course :-)

Will be linking to Paint Party Friday tomorrow. Off to bed now. Thanks for your visit and your comments. They are truly appreciated. Wishing you a lovely day ♥ ♥ ♥

Trying to be zen

noreply@blogger.com (denthe) — Thu, 27 Sep 2018 20:02:00 +0000

The comments on last week's post offered me a great way to look at things differently, and while I'm still having a hard time with it, I'm learning to be content with what I was able to do, and not get so frustrated when I can't do everything I want to. So thanks all of you who gave me your thoughts and advice :-)

I played in my art journal this week. Guess I needed a break from the doodling ;-) Plus I'm thinking about participating in Inktober, and this is a bit of a practice start. Although I already know I won't be able to make an elaborate drawing each day, but that doesn't matter, I don't want to stress about it.

I also finished another mapface. I hope I'll be able to get enough of these done for a new calendar.
We'll see ....

And here are my weekly funnies and thinkies :-)

Linking to Paint Party Friday tomorrow! Thanks for your visit. I hope you'll all have a great day.

Take care and see you next week ♥ ♥ ♥

Calendar doodle

noreply@blogger.com (denthe) — Thu, 20 Sep 2018 20:32:00 +0000

Well, this week was a whirlwind of activity, and I hardly got any art done. Just one doodle for my calendar finished:

Oh well, some weeks are like that... I guess I'll just have to be okay with it and not get frustrated. I keep wondering though how other people do it. They have a job and they manage to journal daily. I so wish I could find a way to do that. Because it makes me feel good when I can paint or draw, and I get cranky when I don't find the time. If anybody has any tips: please share :-)

I'll just move on to the funnies and thinkies then, shall I ;-)

I will be linking to Paint Party Friday tomorrow. Hope to see you there! Thanks for your visit, and have a great day and a wonderful weekend ♥ ♥ ♥