Merry Christmas!

Dear friends,

I wish you a

merry Christmas!

May your home be filled with joy, peace, and love.

And if you're in distress because of illness, sadness, or something else, may your pain be softened and your heart filled with peace. I'm sending you my warmest love and best wishes.

Big hugs,

xx Wen

(PS: this is a page from a fabric book, one of my w.i.p.'s that I never came to finishing and I doubt I ever will, but hey, who knows?)

Simply Neutrals 49 - bird illustrations and mixed media journal

Hello dear friends, a very warm welcome to Simply Neutrals for October 2018!

Thank you so much for your beautiful and heart warming link ups last month, I really feel this is a beautiful group of kind souls, encouraging each other and sharing our stories. Although I'm very busy with my illustration journey, I would not want to miss you sweeties! So I'm dedicated to keep this Simply Neutrals going for as long as possible.

The monthly Simply Neutrals gathering is a good motivator for me to keep on working on my Forest mixed media journal, which is mostly neutrals with green here and there.

For one of the projects for the illustration year course that I'm doing (and I will probably do another year in 2019!) I had to draw birds. If you know me, you know that I LOVE birds! So I don't mind drawing them, at all.

And one of them ended up in my mixed media journal :)

Above you see my journal surrounded by some of the other birds I drew.

In the (near) future I'd also love to embroider birds (and more flowers) in my journals, because besides drawing and painting and photography, embroidery is one of the things I'm passionate about. And besides illustration projects I'd love to go on with my exploring journey in textile and mixed media arts.

***

FEATURE OF LAST MONTH

Last month we welcomed Alison of alisonbomber.blogspot.com to our gathering. A very warm welcome to you, Alison! I was enchanted by the gorgeous nature themed tags she created. There is so much texture and layering going on on these small canvases. I love that she added dried flowers too.

Simply Neutrals 48 - working in my mixed media journal

Hello sweet friends!

Summer holidays are over, the kids are back to school, so I am back in Blogland! I hope you don't mind that I kept quiet during the summer holidays?

At the moment I'm really busy with an illustration/art course by the wonderful art agent Lilla Rogers, called Make Art That Sells. And besides the course my main focus at the moment is drawing a whole lot of all kinds of objects and living creatures, including human beings :) To practice practice practice.

I hadn't been working in the little mixed media books that I created (and which you can see some of HERE, HERE and HERE) and thought it was about time and wanted to draw a little tree in my forest book. I also added some lace that was gifted to me by SuziQ and Odetta, and a a clover four that I found and pressed. Not sure if these pages are finished yet. The whole book is a work in progress to which I keep adding bits and pieces here and there.

I'm wondering about the health of our trees lately, because we had such a dry summer here. It's been said that some of the trees really suffer and most likely some will not make it through autumn and winter...

***

FEATURE OF LAST MONTH

Thank you for joining in the fun again last month!

For the feature I chose this month a most gorgeous card created by dear Karen of Roosterhead Designs.

I chose this gorgeous work by Karen because I so much loved the romantic beauty of it - the layering, the aging, the textures, the beautiful image.

As you can see in the work of both Karen and me, I really don't mind some hints of colour here and there in the work you share with Simply Neutrals. As long as the overall feel of it is in neutral tones. If you know what I mean :)

The stillness of early Spring

I'm having fun experimenting with several media. I think I will do a whole lot more experimenting because I'm really enjoying it! First of all, earlier I had tea dyed some papers for a junk journal (of which I'm still in the progress of editing the video footage I took of it). I thought this was so much fun that since then I'm begging everyone's used tea bags when their tea is still hot, lol! Then I run upstairs to "paint" with these bags on paper and cloth.

When doing so, a flower head of a bouquet dropped on one of the papers and I noticed the colour the stamens were making on the paper. So I started rubbing some of these on paper and cloth. (Some result are on bottom of the photo above, both left and right.)

I also started experimenting with the copier machine. I copied a bird illustration I painted earlier and really love the result. And when I saw two little leaves that had fallen from house plants, I picked them up, put them under the copier again and again, creating a pattern. I then copied some vintage French text on top of that. (See top right of photo above.) I think this is so cool and will definitely experiment more often with the copier machine!

It's freezing cold outside. We had a tiny bit of snow a couple of days ago, but it's all gone now. The howling wind is icy. "Wind is spoiling skating fun, natural ice still very unreliable" the news headlines read. Dutch people love to skate on natural ice. Well, many of them do, not all.

But the sun is shining happily, making my room comfortably warm. If I didn't hear the howling wind, I would say it's a nice Spring day. But it's not, it's still Winter. There are some first signs of Spring though. In a neighbouring garden the ground is littered with Crocuses. Happy little dots of purple in a neutral coloured surrounding. This gave me the inspiration for an Early Spring fabric heart. Which is finished, but I cannot show it to you yet because it will be send to a dear friend. So you'll have to do with a little sneak peek for now. See on the left of the photo below.

On the right is the beginnings of a small journal, with a birdie I embroidered.

I also gather flowers and press them. Not flowers from outside, not yet. But from bouquets that are on their return. And I have so many flowers and leaves dried and pressed last year. Here are some Hydrangea flowers that I used on a tag. The tag I will show you later, cause again this one goes to my dear friend. Patience my dears :)

More experimenting: I made my first two erosion bundles and put them in the garden. I wanted to try this for some years now, but never did. So here's my first attempt. Now I have to wait two or three months and see what the elements of wind and moist create with it. In the bundles there are papers and fabrics, pieces of lace, flower heads, rusted iron and copper bits, and some cheap water colour paint splashes here and there. I hated painting with this paint and thought this would be a fun way to try something different with it in stead of disposing of it. (Update: I had put them in a little cardboard box and someone thought it was garbage and did dispose of the little packages without me knowing... sigh.)

And then of course there are some of the photos I promised earlier, of the walk we did on the Utrechtse Heuvelrug. In the land of bogs and woods and heather fields. It's such a beautiful area and it's not far from where we live, so we love to go there often.

There was a thin layer of ice on the water then.

I'm sure it's grown much thicker now with this icy cold.

But the strong winds make it treacherous to walk or skate on it.

In the woods we found beautiful textures of bark and fungus.

 

And I love the beautiful mirroring in the water.

There was no wind that day, so the water was peaceful, like a giant mirror.

Small fungus growing on fallen bark.

You know what I forgot to look for?

Skeleton leaves!

I'm sure there must be skeleton leaves now, don't you think?

Well, it doesn't spoil the fun I had :)

I was just thinking, funnily I named this blog post the stillness of early Spring. But indoor as well as outdoors it's not so still at the moment, with my happy experimenting and the howling wind, lol!

Wishing you a beautiful day!

Big hugs xx

Wen

Simply Neutrals #32

Hello dear Simply Neutrals friends!

It makes me so happy to see what this gathering together in our mutual love for neutral colours means to you. The sweet messages you send me, the gratitude and happiness, it's heart warming.

And I notice it can help us feel inspired to get back to blogging and/or crafting, which is so so wonderful to see! And this is so true for me as well. Because otherwise, well, you know, life tends to get in the way :) So here's a page spread I'm working on in my woods inspired journal, a work in progress still. Just like I am a work in progress still :)

Feature of last week

Dear Jesse of Lace Age Girl posted on her blog a story that really touched my heart.

She made a couple of gorgeous collages in honor of the woman who's old baby photo she used. Please go to Jesse's blog to read the touching story if you haven't done so yet.

Her story was another witness and reminder to me of how important it is to really stop and listen to each other. Listen to each other's stories and sorrows and joys.
And to gather and share with each other.
I feel blessed to have met here some wonderful, generous, and caring women, through blogging. We are each on our own computer, most of the times were literally miles apart from each other. But it is heart warming to see us gathering and sharing as if we lived next door.

So thank you, dear Jesse, for sharing your gorgeous collages and a beautiful bittersweet story!

Book of Bloom

Hello sweet friends, remember the book inspired by the woods I made, and the beginnings of the Book of Bloom I shared with you there? Well, here's what the Book of Bloom looks like so far.

I bound all the pages and started to collage and paint on some of them.

Here and there I added some photos of earlier works too. And some laces and fabric snippets. In this book, like in the book of woods, there are pages of different kind of papers. Like mixed media or watercolour papers, book pages, scrapbook papers, and wrapping papers. And I added some fabric pages to which I will add little collages or embroidery pieces.

I haven't finished the back of the binding yet. I'm not sure what I will add to the fabric there. Probably some embroidery on fabric snippets. Or may be buttons?

But flowers... there will always be flowers wherever I go!

They're just a must have in my life, they make me so happy!

I'm very sure there will be dried and pressed wildflowers in my book added here. And painted flowers. Photos I take of flowers. Sketched flowers. Poems about flowers. Flowers everywhere!

Wishing you a happy blooming day!

xx Wen

Art in neutrals

Hello hello friends,

A little while ago I shared with you the beautiful nature inspired book that I received, created by dear Dorthe of Den Lille Lade. I said she had sent some other beautiful handmade goodness. Here is one of them: a gorgeous fabric and lace collage.

I love how she makes her collages hanging from a piece of driftwood, which she found on her local beach. And I also love the little snippets of embroidery in yellow, complementing the beautiful honey coloured piece on the left. Her way with texture and colour is just sublime.

Thank you so much sweet Dorthe for this gorgeous piece of art!

Another time I'll share the card she made in a coastal theme.

This time I wanted to keep this blog post in neutral colours. Apart from the Book Of Bloom that I'm making (and which is almost finished), I had some fun making my own stencils for my art journal. I used them on a art journal spread in neutral colours that I'm currently working on.

Although rather delicate to work with, my favourite one is the one with the branches with little leaves. It's so much fun to create your own stencils, I'm sure I will make many more!

Did you try making your own stencils and/or stamps?

In my previous post I forgot to mention that for the background work of my woods journal I was inspired by this lovely tutorial by Sandy Babb of Quill Cottage.

Wishing you a beautiful day,

xx Wen

A walk in the woods

Hello sweet people,

Last weekend we went to my favourite woods here in the area. It's huge (for the Netherlands that is, we are only a tiny country). This time we went to an area of it which we hadn't visited before. And we were in for a beautiful surprise at the very end of the walk, a field of gorgeous wildflowers.

Here's a short film I made, come enjoy this walk with me:

Does anyone know which flowers those are? I googled it and couldn't find it, but would love to know.

Of course I brought back some little treasures from the woods like nuts and sticks. But I left this beauty below where I found it.

The woods inspired me for the art book - or journal or whatever you'd like to call it - I am making. The foundation of the book itself is finished, but I will add more and more later on. I'm going to use it as my nature journal, adding little paintings, journaling, embroidery snippets, found objects like leafs, and so on.

The pages all have something on it, so I will not have to start with a blank canvas. I added snippets of fabric and lace, found papers, I added some paint strokes here and there. The pages are of a variety of papers. Watercolour papers, book pages, fabric pages, wrapping papers, printer paper, scrapbook papers. And the cover is made out of cardboard.

 

Gosh, I really want to know which flowers these are. They're so gorgeous! A whole field of them, blooming somewhere in the middle of the woods.

On the back I added a snippet of fabric on which I did some embroidery. To my book I will also add inspiring quotes that I find. And photos I took myself of all things nature.

These gorgeous wildflowers gave me the inspiration for my next art book, for which I started with making the front cover painting:

Book of Bloom

Which, of course, will be about wildflowers, blossoms and other flowers, but also about blooming as a person.

I make these books with the help of a bookmaking workshop by Nellie Wortman. Unfortunately she retired this class, so it will no longer be available, but you can find other awesome classes by Nellie (and other art teachers) at Creative Workshops.

Now put on your hiking boots and have a stroll outdoors, my friend. I know we spend way too much time indoors and also behind our computers. I know I do.

Big hugs and happy day wishes,

xx Wen

Linking this to Nature Notes

Go create!

Hello my dear friends,

Do you have any idea how much time we use up with art-related things without making art ourselves? Be it the hours we spent on pinterest or instagram in search of inspiration, or watching how-to videos on youtube, visiting inspiring art blogs and spending hours scrolling through their wonderful articles and photos, or getting excited over an online art workshop (buying the thing and never get to finish or even start with it). Any idea?

May be I even don't wanna know the answer for myself, because my goodness could I have used a big portion of that time to actually DO something with all that inspiration! Here's a great quote I found on the blog of Roben Marie Smith:

“The potential to be an artist is there in each of us - consistent creation is what helps unleash all that possibility.

— Roben-Marie Smith

Read her awesome article about creating art consistently HERE.

A great tip is to get offline more often and search for inspiration in other things than pinterest or instagram.

In my case, nature is my muse. I know that my soul gets more alive when wandering through a beautiful landscape and soaking in the majesty and paying attention to the small details.

What's yours?

Get out there, be inspired, and go create!

You already know what to do and how to do it.

Now do it.

(I'm so talking to myself here as well!)

Wishing you a beautiful day,

xx Wen

The inspiring coast of Cornwall

Cornwall had been on my wish list for a long time before we made it there. I grew up in a coastal town myself and really longed to visit the south west end of the UK. And I was not disappointed. Now I really long to go back there again and again.

It's that's feeling of really being on vacation, that I also always have when we drive to our local coast and pass the sand dunes. On these coasts the trees are lower than inland. There's more bushes than trees, really. You hear the seagulls and smell the salt of the sea in the refreshing breeze. And of course there's the sea. The waves splashing on the beach over and over again.

It's the hours spent beachcombing.

Finding treasures in shells, stones, sea glass and pottery pieces.

It's a place so inspiring, I take loads and loads of photos to bring back home some of the beauty and memories. At home I wish to capture it all, studying in threads, fabrics, paints, and so on.

And I don't mind the weather on coasts like this.

I want to stay outdoors for as long as possible. You really have to drag me home then.

The hills and cliffs, the beaches and sea, they inspired me to experiment with crochet. I used a version of the so called wave stitch, and varied with working in back loop, front loop and both loops, to add some depth to the piece. I also started adding some tiny flowers in embroidery. Where this will lead me, I have no idea, but I'm having a whole lot of fun anyway :)

And the colours also inspired me to get some paint going as well, as you can see.

I love paintings worked in detail and abstracts equally. It's just like nature. Nature paints in wild landscapes, flora and fauna, magical small worlds in details, and abstracts and patterns.

Here's an abstract painting by nature:

Isn't it just gorgeous? Plant life holding on to ancient coastal rocks, washed by the tidal waves. 

Waves that bring little treasures to the coast: sea glasses, pottery, shells.

Found in rock pools and harbours.

Here the ocean has withdrawn. But only for a little while. You have plenty of time to do some beachcombing, but make sure to keep an eye on the tide and go back to dry land in time. I didn't, and got wet feet. Luckily I was close enough to the beach. Others had gone a little further and had to swim back. They had fun though, and got back safely.

I can see why so many artists are inspired by the Cornish coast.

Here are some of my favourite Cornwall inspired artists (in alphabetic order):

Amanda Richardson

Carolyn Saxby

Hannah Cole

Kirsty Elson

Melanie McDonald

Serena

The only thing that I regret, is that I didn't shoot more video on this trip.

Oh well, next time!

Is there a particular coast you have fond memories of or which you would love to visit?

Do you love beachcombing?

xx Wen

Simply Neutrals #16

Time flies!

The first month of this new year has already gone...

As a gift to dear friends I'm making little fabric wraps.
Nothing fancy, but it takes me forever to finish it.

Above is a sneak peek of the work in progress of one of them.

Features of last party

Please respect the copyright of the artists featured

and when pinning, please link back to their blogs!

First feature is one that really touched my heart.

Dear Karen of Rooster Head Designs wrote a beautiful post on being genuine.

Accompanied by a gorgeous card she made

with the photo of the man that inspired her in this.

Next is another of the stunningly beautiful soldered charms

which Marie of Lost Bird Studio made.

So so gorgeous!

And then I'd like to feature the beautiful work of

Dorthe of Den Lille Lade, again...

This is a page from her new fabric journal I just had to share with you,

which she's making after the wonderful workshop by Suzy Quaife,

which you can find HERE.

An online workshop I can highly recommend!

You can see some of my work for this workshop here and here.