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Wednesday 30 November 2016

Sometimes it's out of your hands

You can prepare for an (art) event all you want but some things are just out of your hands.
The ArtWest Open Studio weekend was promoted quite well by the organisation. I properly framed all art I wanted to show. I send out invitations via e-mail, via Facebook, I put the event on my website, wrote a blog about it, shared it a couple of times on Facebook… We cleaned the studio, hung the art (it looked quite good I think), bought drinks and snacks, we had a massive flag waving for attention, the door stood wide open…
But then on Saturday there was rain, lots of rain and Sunday there was a storm and only a few people dared to venture out of their warm, cosy homes.
Saturday we had 36 visitors and Sunday 46, considering the weather not that bad but still, if the weather had been nice the turnout had been much higher. From our group of 5 I was the only one who did not sell.
That evening wasn’t very pleasant. I doubted myself and my work. Was my attitude too much ‘wait-and-see’? Should I jump people when they enter the studio (something I hate when people do that to me in shops etc.). Was my art just bad/ weird/ unmarketable? Did I present it wrong? What did I do wrong??
Sunday, at the end of the event our group of Grafisch Collectief Thoets decided to prolong our open studio to next Sunday. We would again invite everybody and hope for better weather.
The weather was nice, a lot of people who couldn’t make it the weekend before came by and I sold some small things. Happy.
I need to remember that there’s nothing wrong with my artwork, I just need to reach the right people.


Wednesday 16 November 2016

Getting ready for ARTWEST Amsterdam

Getting ready for this!!
The last couple of weeks I’ve been working hard to finish up for my upcoming open studio
weekend which will be on November 19th and 20th.
Together with my artist colleagues Jan Baas, Ina Brekelmans, Edwin Emmens and
Ellen Huijsmans (Grafisch Collectief Thoets) I’m participating in ARTWEST Amsterdam for the second time.

Please come by and visit at:

Nassaukade 321, 
1053 LS Amsterdam.
On both Saturday and Sunday from 12:00 till 18:00.



Friday 11 November 2016

Varnish Adventures

Today I varnished my most recent work. I started it a while ago and got stuck, put it away for a few months and finished it last week.
After the ‘30 Paintings in 30 Days-challenge’ from last September I finally knew how to continue.
Since I started working in colour more and more I also like using lots of different materials (bistre, pigmentedink, water soluble (ink) pencils, soft pastels by Schmincke) at the same time, just mixing them up.
Varnishing is possible because I work on aquabord by Ampersand and can be a problem using all these different materials. I start by putting on different layers of fixative letting them dry for 24 hours in between layering. After that I put on a layer of matt acrylics varnish. This is the tricky part because if not fixated well enough the varnish can partly dissolve the fixative and make the materials run.
All went well today.