Thursday 31 December 2015

Happy new year and a gift to you!

I'm just popping in for a quick hello, and to wish all of my blogreaders a wonderful, warm and joyful celebration of the end of 2015, and the beginning of 2016. May at least some of your wishes come true in the new year, may it begin in a happy and healthy way, and may you celebrate creativity in the year to come!

As a thank you for all who visit here regularly I made a wallpaper for the month of January :-)


I'm planning on making this monthly for my newsletter-subscribers. You can download the one for January here (hope it works since it's the first time I use Dropbox, please let me know if it doesn't).

That's it for now, before celebrating the new year we are now going to our new house and sand the floors :-P

Stay safe! See you in the new year ♥ ♥ ♥



Thursday 24 December 2015

Overview of my creative year

This year I often had the feeling that I never had enough time for painting. There was always something else that was more urgent or required immediate attention. I only finished 3 paintings this year, and 2 of those got their first layers last year already. So for me it's important to make this overview, to see whether the year was really so bad artwise as it sometimes feels ....

January: January was the month that our container arrived from Australia, so almost the whole month was taken up with unpacking boxes and trying to find room for everything. But I did some artjournaling that month. My art supplies were amongst the first things that I unpacked :-)

In this spread I needed to bring out some softness and kindness after all the horror going on in the world. You can see a bit of the progression in this post.

February: February was my 29-faces-month! I managed to keep up with the challenge the whole month :-) Here's an overview of the faces I did:



March: almost all of March was taken up by videotaping my lesson for Soulfood. My very first online workshop! It was a lot of work, but I so enjoyed learning and being a part of such a wonderful group of teachers. This is a spread I did in preparation for this workshop:

And for those of you who missed out on Soulfood: I will be offering this class as a stand-alone workshop on my blog next year! So if you want to learn how to make these weird figures: stay tuned :-)

April: This was a very productive month! I finished one painting and started another one, and I discovered a new love: ACEO's. And finally figured out how to put paypal-buttons on my blog.... Also, my class in Soulfood went live and I loved interacting with the students in my class and seeing what they did with the ideas I handed them :-)
Here are some ACEO's that I made:


May: more ACEO's and finished my second painting! While it was still in the early stages I posted a picture of it on Facebook and sold it to a lady in Puerto Rico before it was even finished. Took me quite some time to figure out how to ship a painting like that, couldn't believe the prices those couriers were charging... In the end I decided to take it off the frame and send it rolled up (the lady suggested this, and I do admit it scared me a bit to do this...), but all went perfectly :-)
It's called "A world that I long to see":

You can find the progression pics of this painting in this post.

June: in June I finally tried out something I'd had in my head for a long time: painting furniture, more specifically small sidetables. I went to the recyclingshop and got some cheap wooden tables, and then went to work on it with paint and dots. LOVED doing this, and discovered my love for dotpainting all over again!

the first three ....

July: the Summer of Color challenge is another of my favorite challenges, but for some reason this year I didn't enjoy it as much. I only did 4 of the 6 weeks, also because it was summer holidays and we went to the south of France with our family. This was a week I really enjoyed doing: 2 shades of green and one shade of pink:


August: in August I did a bit of everything. I was participating in 3 artmarkets and needed to make some new products. So I painted some more rocks and boxes and sidetables and some new things too, like these little papier-machée men, and wooden bowls:


September: another 29 faces challenge! And I managed to finish it again. I always love how many faces I have after this challenge, to use in other projects, like my calendars or my Society6-shop for example :-) Here's the overview I created when the month was done:


October: this was the month I worked on my calendars, and finished my third painting. It's called: "we are never broken", and you can find the in progress pics here.


November: finished 2 calendars (actually 3, since I also made a Dutch version of one of them), and started preparing for my Christmasmarkets.


You can find them here and here. It's never too late to order ;-)

December: made lots of new stuff for my Christmasmarkets: small paintings, boxes, finally that coloring book I'd been wanting to do since a loooong time, postcards and mixed media wood slices, that I really enjoy doing:


And that's it for this year! I must say I'm really glad I did this overview, I'm pleasantly surprised by all the things I did achieve this year. I always tend to focus on all I didn't do, but that's wrong of course. And it has to do with the fact that I always plan too big. Things always take much longer than I think, and it's only natural to feel frustrated when you sometimes don't even get half done of what's on your todo-list. So that's my goal for next year: plan less, go more with the flow, and be aware that I do the best I can with the (sometimes limited) time that I have.

And now it's time for a break! I want to wish all my blogreaders the very best end of the year; whether you celebrate Christmas or not: I do hope you can be together with loved ones and do things that you like doing. Thanks so much for sharing your thoughts and taking the time for reading this blog. I love connecting with each and everyone of you :-)

I might post one last time this year, if not: I'll see you in the new year ♥ ♥ ♥




Thursday 17 December 2015

A bit of a rest ...

Did my last Christmasmarket last weekend so I finally have some more time on my hands :-) Which doesn't mean I did a lot of art this week. But I did throw a few more layers on my big canvas, and finally some figures are starting to emerge. Phew ...


At this moment I'm seeing 4 faces, 1 dog (!) and 2 birds ..... Do you see them? I'm not sure yet whether I'll go with all of them, but I'm so happy they finally showed up. There must be at least 15 layers of paint on there already.

For my markets I made a few more smaller dotpaintings. Here are some of them:





They all measure 20x20cm (7,9"x 7,9"). I really need to update my websites now, haven't added anything in a long time, even though I made quite a few things.

I also painted more of those branches that I showed you last time. So much fun :-)

They are a mixture of collage and paint, and measure approx. 7x5cm (2,8"x 2"). Very small, especially to put quotes on there. We just got a lot of wood for our woodstove, and there are some branches there that are a bit bigger, so I might try to saw those into little slices. Or better yet: I'll ask my hubby or my son to do it for me, since I don't trust myself with a saw ....

Here's a box that I painted to try out a technique that I want to use in our new house. I got the idea here at Sandra Kaye's blog. Have a look there, her blog is colourful and inspirational and fun! I loved it right away, but just starting like that on the walls felt a bit daunting, especially since I don't have much practice in painting flowers. So I tried it out on my box, and this is the result:

It's a very bad picture, the weather was horrible and dark and misty and it's almost impossible to make good pictures now. But you get the idea.... Not sure whether I'll do the walls like this though, I want to throw in some birds I think .... I'll keep you posted ... ;-)

And then last but not least: I got a surprise Christmascard in the mail from Robin from Pink House Studio. I "met" Robin during the 29 faces challenge, where she made the most original, fun faces out of drops of paint and collage. I just loved seeing what she would come up with next. Check out her blog, it's full of whacky funny posts :-). This is the card she sent me, it's one of her own unique designs:

Thanks to the fact that it arrived on an exceptionally rainy day (although, now that I think of it, it's not thát exceptional....) some of the print got ruined a bit, but I just love it. Thanks Robin, it'll get a prominent place in between our Christmas lights ;-)

Well, that's it for now! I'm linking this to Paint Party Friday. Didn't get a chance to visit last week, so I'm looking forward to seeing what everyone's been doing. Thanks for your visit, I hope you're having a wonderful day, and that the weekend will be relaxing and fun. We will be working in our new house again, won't be moving this year anymore ... :-( Oh well ...

Next week I'll be back with an overview of my creative year. I did that last year, and it gave me a boost knowing that I had been doing quite a bit of "work" even though I sometimes had the feeling I got nothing done. Hopefully it'll be the same this year :-)

And here's my funny for this week:

lol :-D

See you next week! ♥ ♥ ♥

Thursday 3 December 2015

Back again !

This being the busiest time of the year, I don't really succeed anymore in writing a blogpost every week. But here I am again :-)

Last weekend I had my first Christmasmarket, so I spent the week before putting the finishing touches to everything. Which always takes up much more time than I count on. With a lot of last-minute stress and late nights as a result. But it was fun and I sold quite a bit.

Here are some things I've been making:

A few boxes:






Some wooden hearts with a (Dutch) quote:


A few mixed media branches (these were fun! I'll definitely make some more ☺)


I also got my copies of my 2 calendars and I'm very happy with how the colours came out:


http://www.lulu.com/shop/denthe/denthe-art-calendar-2016/calendar/product-22418502.html

http://www.lulu.com/shop/denthe/art-calendar-2016-by-denthe/calendar/product-22421011.html

And I got my colouring books from the printer, and sold half of them already :-)

 It looks a bit hazy but that's because there's a plastic cover on the outside....

I did only one image per page, so that it's possible to tear them out and frame them.

And lastly I made a whole bunch of new Christmas- and New Years cards. Here are a few of them:




I will put these in my Etsy-shop, along with some more coloring pages.

That's it for this week! Haven't had the chance to work on my big canvas anymore. Still painting in our new house, but it looks as if it's going to be the new year before we can  move in. We're experiencing a lot of delays in getting things done, f.i. we don't have any heating at the moment, which is not very comfortable in the middle of winter  .... ;-) So we'll just stay with my sister's a bit longer until everything is sorted out.

Linking this as always to Paint Party Friday. I haven't been able to visit your blogs this past week, looking forward to seeing what everyone's been up to!

Thanks for visiting! I wish you a very pleasant day and a relaxing weekend! Here's my funny for this week:

hahaha! Love this :-D

See you next week! ♥ ♥ ♥



Thursday 19 November 2015

New doodle and work in progress

The days fly by and it seems I just never have enough time. Very frustrating...

But ....

I made my first colouring book! Something I've been wanting to do since a long time but never got around to. I want to sell it at my Christmas markets, so I decided to take my doodles, use Photoshop to take out the English quotes that were on there, and replaced them with Dutch quotes. And tadaa: 20 brandnew/recycled colouring pages/doodles! It's now at the printer, so I can't show it yet.

But I have a new doodle to show you, one I started ages ago and only now managed to finish. Well, actually, it was finished, it just needed a quote ;-)


And I found this quote very fitting for all that's happening in Europe these days. The endless stream of refugees, people seeking a safe haven after all the horrors they've been through, the problems our governments are facing to handle all the extra demands, the fear and anxiety among the people, not knowing what this influx of people will mean for the future, and to top it all off the murdurous idiots that want to get the whole world involved in their dirty war and think it's okay to kill anyone that doesn't belong to their hateful club. It's easy to start hating and blaming, but it makes me sick to my stomach reading some of the comments on social media and hearing people talking on the streets. Where will it end? How do you deal with maniacs who want to divide the world into opposing camps and are seemingly succeeding? I really fear for the future, but at the same time I still have hope that in the end the good in humans will survive. I have to keep that hope, if not for myself at least for my kids.

We're still working in our new house. I have just finished painting the top floor, in nice bright sunny colours :-) Can't wait to finish it and finally move in, but I'm afraid it's gonna be almost Christmas before we actually can.

I am also still working on some boxes, here's a view of my table:


Nothing else to show for now. I am working on some Christmascards, and have also finished a Dutch calendar that will be for sale at the Christmas-markets.

I want to say thank you to all of you that have already purchased my calendars! Since all sales are being handled and printed by Lulu, I only get notified when a calendar has sold, but I don't know who bought it. I only know it when that person tells me. So all of you who haven't heard from me because I don't know who you are: Thank You ♥

I want to end this week not with a funny, but with this picture:

Wouldn't the world be a better place if we humans could follow the example of these guys? Finding comfort with each other, seeking warmth with each other, loving each other despite their (big) differences ....

I'm linking this to Paint Party Friday and to Show your Face. Thanks so much for taking the time to visit. I wish you love and kindness in your hearts and homes ♥ ♥ ♥



Friday 6 November 2015

Calendars 2016 and more ...

Well, this week certainly has flown by. The kids have autumn-vacation, and we have been in our new house painting and doing all sorts of other things the whole week. I managed to start a few new wooden boxes, but nothing is even close to finished.

But ..... I finished my second calendar!! I'm pleased with myself that I managed to do it even though I had so little time. I'm now thinking of making one in Dutch too, I can just use the same images but put a Dutch quote instead of an English one.

This is the front of the new calendar:

http://www.lulu.com/shop/denthe/art-calendar-2016-by-denthe/calendar/product-22421011.html
and it's for sale here!

Here are some of the pages that I didn't show yet:








And here's where I am with my big canvas :-)


Every time I walk past it I throw some more paint on there. In between I snap pictures, and once I was looking at the pictures and saw some images very clearly. But alas, I had thrown more layers on top of it before I looked at the pictures on my camera, so the images were gone .... Now I'll just have to wait until something else is revealed to me :-S

Also: Society6 has a big promotion going on at the moment: free worldwide shipping and 5$ off everything in my shop! Until November 8th! They have some new products, like travel mugs and throw blankets, so have a look, there might be something you like for a present ;-)
The promotion is only available through this link.

That's it for now. I better hurry, Friday is almost over, and I want to link this to Paint Party Friday. And of course also to Show your Face.

Thanks for your visit! It's hugely apreciated, as well as your lovely comments and encouraging remarks. I wish you all a relaxing and kind weekend!

Here's my funny for this week :-)

lol .... :-)

Hugs and see you next week ♥ ♥ ♥