The Achterhoek Journal

A few weeks ago I went on vacation to the Achterhoek, a region in the East of the Netherlands. You can read all about it here, here, here, here and here.

One of the big and very important parts of any trip or vacation is to decide on what travel journal to take (or if I want to take any at all) and how to go about filling it. Art supplies and such are a much bigger issue for me than for example what clothes to take or what shoes to wear.

For this vacation I finally decided on this little book:

It's a 15x15 cm journal (6x6 inches) that was gifted to me by my friend Monk many years ago. I'm mentioning this as both a warning and a comfort to anybody who has ever or will ever give me journals or notebooks. I have tons of books that I received as gifts and I have tons of books that I bought myself. But I never buy them with a specific purpose in mind, nor do I use the ones I am gifted right away. But the occasion for use always eventually presents itself. It's just that sometimes this can take years.

I'm the same way with art materials, especially when it comes to imagery and pretty papers or fabrics. No, I don't plan a project and then buy the materials. I just start making stuff and gather the things that are in my stash and fit what I'm doing as I go. I'm very much for using what you have, but what I have needs to be full of options and choices. ;-)

Anyway, this small journal was perfect. It had pretty sturdy, but not too thick paper and 160 pages to work with. My approach was that the left pages would serve as a photoalbum and the right pages would be the travel report with the option of doing a bit of drawing or collage if I felt like it. This means that the left pages rarely are connected to the right ones. But it worked for me.

Here's a selection of the spreads for your viewing pleasure:

The right page is a nature print of a fall leaf that I bought at Slangenburg Castle. I want to learn how to do this.

Now what I'm not showing you are the gazillion spreads where I simply wrote on the right side and had a picture on the left. The photographs you've all seen in my Achterhoek Slideshow posts, so you're not missing anything.

Most of the little collages are cut up flyers and free maps or packaging. My love for chocolate, flavoured coffee and tea may shine through here and there. ;-)

I did not do a lot of 'real' art, whatever that means. I'm not one of those people that does a lot of sketching and drawing of their surroundings. I'm way too busy exploring and photographing to take the time for that. The most important thing I want from a travel journal is for it to be a keepsake of a wonderful trip. And that I managed just fine!

I hope you enjoyed this peek into my travel journal and I wish you all a wonderful and artsy day!

Morning Paintings #211-220

Time for another batch of my Morning Paintings. I am still enjoying them very much!

#211 - Abstract Nonsense

#212 - Forever

#213 - Strength

#214 - Warm Dashes

#215 - Flower

#216 - Bouquet (done on the ferry)

#217 - Beach Pavillion Schiermonnikoog

#218 - Lighthouse Schiermonnikoog

#219 - Landscape Schiermonnikoog

#220 - One, Two, Three Flowers

Paintings no. 217, 218 and 219 I made on my weekend getaway to Schiermonnikoog. I so rarely paint realistic things. This is one thing I have learned from my morning painting practice, that I way more enjoy making stuff up or just doing patterns and such than painting from life.

No. 215 and 220 were the start of a whole series of flower paintings in a similar style as you will see when I post my next set of morning paintings.That is also a cool part of doing this, sometimes a series or a theme will emerge and you can just go with it or get back to it when you feel like it.


Wishing you all a wonderful and artsy day!

The last of the Spiral Book

I finished my journal the Spiral Book about a month ago. It was one of those fast journals that took about two months to fill. I really enjoyed the paper in this book that was originally just a regular sketchbook. I have unfortunately not been able to find similar sketchbooks again, but I keep hoping I will run into them some day.

Here are some of its latest spreads:

This journal was a mixture of a lot of writing and photographs in quite rigid layouts (which I liked for this book) and some art every now and then.

The last bunch of spreads pretty much all look like the last picture. Writing on the left and four photogaphs on the right. They were done during my weekend getaway to Schiermonnikoog. Since I already showed you all those photographs here on the blog, it seems superfluous to show those spreads here.

Right now I am working in a another journal (duh!) and it's a beautiful fauxdori this time. I will tell you all about it in a future  post.

For now I wish you all a wonderful and artsy weekend!

Mail Art for my Snail Mail Listers

So I sent out a new batch of cards to my Snail Mail Listers. You know: the people I have on a list who would like to receive a random bit of art mail from me with no strings attached. They have to be patient people too, because I only  make art mail when I feel like it, haha.

Here are the most recent cards I sent out:

As you can see I went with orange and red backgrounds this time. The imagery is usually a mix of my own photographs, magazine images and some collage elements that I made myself. Making these cards is a lot of fun.

I have almost forty people on my Snail Mail List now and I have decided that forty is the maximum I will take on to keep it at least a little manageable. If you're not on the list yet and would like to be you can mail or message me, but please realize there's only room for two or three more people and after that I will have to turn you down. Hope you understand. 

Wishing you all a wonderful and artsy day, be it with or without art mail! ;-)

Morning Paintings #201-210

Because of all these trips and vacations (ahem), I am way behind on my Morning Paintings. Let me rephrase that: the blog is way behind. I am doing just fine and closing in on my 250th painting!

I did not paint during my Achterhoek vacation. For me vacations are times to get out of your regular routine so I have no problem skipping my painting practice then. But I'm back on track again and have a lot of catching up to do on the blog.

So without further ado, here are paintings no. 201 to 210.

#201 - Zig Zag

#202 - Mail Order Catalogue Girl

#203 - Flowers on Red

#204 - Rainbow Dots

#205 - Dashes in a Rectangled Spiral

#206 - Focus

#207 - Flowers

#208 - Roses in a Vase

#209 - Seven Flowers

#210 - Flower Bouquet

If you want to see my Morning Paintings real time you can follow me on Facebook or Instagram where I post them every morning right after I make them.

Wishing you all a wonderful and artsy weekend!