Most Roald Dahl-fans will know that on September 13th 2016 it’s 100 years ago
Roald Dahl was born and that the July 2016 premiere of Steven Spielberg's adaptation of
Roald Dahl's The BFG (Big Friendly Giant) is no coincidence.
To celebrate these wonderful events the American Book Center Amsterdam asked me to
paint a special Roald Dahl window in style of Quentin Blake’s art. I am both a Roald Dahl and
Quentin Blake fan so I immediately said YES!
At home I made a small design of some of Dahl’s characters (almost) all being after
Wonka’s Golden Ticket.
When it was time to paint the design on the window itself I first started sketching the
characters in white. This to position them correctly and also provide a more rough
surface so the next layer of colour paint would stick better and be less see through. When all
this was done I used an acrylic marker for the line work that I drew on top of the acrylic paint.

So hop on over to the American Book Center Amsterdam to buy one of Dahl’s treasures and
see my window live at the same time.
As far as my window goes you can do so until July 14th.

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Last weekend me and my colleagues at Grafisch Collectief Thoets had our open studio
Sunday. It was fun but compared to the exhibition weekend I organized last April it was
soooo quiet… At the end of the day I started doubting myself.
Was my work not good enough? Maybe the way it was displayed on the wall wasn’t working?
Or maybe the art didn’t work well together…
Also I find it very challenging to divide time between all of my different guests: friends,
family, old customers, potential new customers… Maybe I did it all wrong!

Maybe I did some of these things wrong, maybe, but then I thought I just had this big
show in April, people had just seen me (and my art). Also we started promoting the event quite
late, only 2 weeks ahead of time. Next to our event there was a lot happening that weekend,
a big comic festival in Haarlem, the start of Terschellings theatre festival Oerol and
probably much more…

Today there was a new episode of a podcast that I like, the Creative Pep Talk by Andy Miller
and the theme of the show fitted perfectly: Breaking Through (creative) Anxiety.
Or as Miller puts it: ‘Creating from a place of anxiety is like trying to plant a garden on concrete.’


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Since last January I haven’t written at all. First I wanted a little break after posting a blog every
day for 30 days. But this little break got a bit too long I’m sorry to say… There was plenty to post
about but for some reason I couldn’t move myself to do it.

After my ‘30 Paintings in 30 Days’ project I started working on finding a place to exhibit
these 30 paintings and then organizing the exhibition itself. It was a lot of work but it was well worth it.
Next I did a commission of 3 savanna animals, I did some illustration work for Dutch magazine
Zone 5300, I started a newsletter to which you can subscribe here, I had my exhibition at the
ABC Treehouse and sold a nice amount of art.
After a break of 2 years I started showing my art again at the art market Artplein Spui and
now I’m preparing for the open studio at my shared studio Grafisch Collectief Thoets this Sunday June 12th.
And somewhere in between I celebrated my 40th birthday.
See, plenty to write about but somehow I just didn’t. Sorry.

My plan is to pick up my weekly blogging. Next week will be about how the open studio turned out!

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When I first decided to participate in Leslie Saeta’s 30 Painting in 30 Days Challenge I
wasn’t sure if this was for me. I wasn’t sure how I would react to the pressure of creating
every day, taking a picture every day (considering the murky Dutch weather), posting
every day…
After my first aquarelle on January 1st I knew that the plan I had (drawing insects and flowers
from graveyard Huis te Vraag wasn’t going to work. Already I felt a huge resistance to
continue.
Next day I made a flower portrait. In my ‘drawing a day’ sketchbook I had been drawing
a few flower portraits and decided to continue with those and there wasn’t a day I got bored
with it.
Some days I feared not being able to do another one but every morning I would find a fitting face
and flower. And in a months’ time I feel like I did grow in the way I told my story.

Lessons learned: I like working on projects like this. I like working on not too many things at the
same time. I can (sort of) handle aquarelle paint. I can handle the pressure of having to
finish a painting every day for a longer period. I enjoy creating and I can do this every day.
Creating makes me happy and no matter what people from the past or present have told me,
I am an artist!


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The last flower portrait of this challenge. A bit of a creepy one. I was thinking about this
composition a while back but didn’t feel comfortable to actually paint it and decided to
save it for last.
Thank you Leslie Saeta for this wonderful challenge, I learned so much.



Aquarelle, 25 x 18 cm, +/-10 x 7 inch

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  1. Thirty Paintings in Thirty Days Challenge – Day 29
  2. Thirty Paintings in Thirty Days Challenge – Day 28
  3. Thirty Paintings in Thirty Days Challenge – Day 27
  4. Thirty Paintings in Thirty Days Challenge – Day 26