ARTWEST Amsterdam

The last couple of weeks I’ve been working hard to finish up for my upcoming open studio weekend which will be on November 21^st and 22^nd. Together with my artist colleagues Jan Baas, Ina Brekelmans, Edwin Emmens and Ellen Huijsmans (Grafisch Collectief Thoets) I’m participating in a new art event in Amsterdam, ARTWEST Amsterdam.

We’re hoping for a good turn-out and good weather. If you’re in the neighbourhood come and visit!!

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

Experiment (3)

Just realized I didn’t tell you about experiment # 3: claybord by Ampersand. I had big hopes for this one because on the leaflet that comes with the claybord it says: ‘absorbent (…), perfect for inks, gouache, egg tempera, pencil (…)’ so I thought it would be perfect for my ink and pencil combination.

When I got it out of the wrapping the surface felt smooth. I wondered how this was going to absorb and hold watery materials. Well, it didn’t.

To save the mess I tried to sand the surface and that helped a little but didn’t give the results that I was hoping for. So as for Ampersand surfaces I’ll stick to the aquabord.

For the drawing below I used Derwent Inktensepencils, Lukas Illucolor Pigmented ink and it is done on Ampersand aquabord.

Bauhaus commission

Right after I said ‘yes’ to the commission of the adoption announcement I got a call from a friend of mine. He asked how I felt about putting together a painting in a Bauhaus kinda abstract way.

First I asked when it was supposed to be finished. Luckily I would have plenty of time first to finish the adoption announcement and then start on the painting.

I told him I didn’t do any regular (acrylics or oil) painting in 14 years but hey, it’s like riding a bike, right? And did you notice I never do abstract art? Ahem…

It ended up being a fun commission, solving all kinds of problems.

The painting needed to be 60 x 60 cm, depicting a red square, a blue circle and a yellow triangle. Very Bauhaus. Also there needed to be structure in the painting, preferably the same structures as the sculpture my painting should be based on. I think it turned out pretty well.

Experiment (2)

Last week I’ve been experimenting more on Ampersand bord. This time on aquabord.

It’s a panel coated with a special clay mix that sort of absorbs water like a fine paper. The reason why I wanted to try it out was the claim that watercolours can be displayed without a glass frame.

Now I’ve tried pastelbord and aquabord. Next is claybord and I will let you know which I like best :)

The drawings I did were done in Lukas Illu-Color pigmented inks and Derwent Inktense pencils.

Experiment (1)

Here’s a experiment I’m doing, working on pastelbord by Ampersand the first time :)

Secrets revealed

Finally I can show you what I’ve been up to a few weeks ago! I’ve been working on an adoption announcement for a Dutch family that adopted a boy from Kenya.

They asked for a realistic (pencil) drawing, combining both Kenyan and Dutch elements.

On the front you can see a big ‘M’ because the boy’s name starts with ‘M’. A loving lioness with cub and on top of the lioness the family dog. Next to the lioness and cub two stuffed animals, a zebra that the boy owns and to add something typical Dutch: Miffy (Nijntje)! In the back baobab trees, very common in Kenya. Up in the sky the star constellation Capricornus, the constellation the boy was born under. The lion cub grabbing at the stars was on the inside of the card next to some other drawings that I’ll post later.

I really enjoyed doing this commission and I’m glad the family was very happy with the result.

Dear Diary (6)

A few weeks ago I started to exercise, my way, my ‘I’m-still-having-trouble-with-my-burn-out-way’. My energy level is still not what I want it to be and I noticed my physical condition going down and my weight going up. So I though not to make it too difficult (I hate exercising) and thought about what comes easy to me.

‘Riding my bike!’ So for the last couple of weeks I’ve been riding my bike 4,8 kilometres in about 20 minutes back and forth from my home to the Amsterdam Forest (Amsterdamse Bos) and walking for half an hour in between. Not sure how fast or slow I’m going, the term right now is while biking my legs need to hurt.

It really surprised me how easy it was to get accustomed to doing this every morning and I really like doing it! Both the biking and the walking. The walking turns out to be a really good start of my day, it eases my mind and it takes my mind to places I need to go to get my creative juices flowing. Now and then I take pictures and pick up stuff I find on the dirt road to draw later. Yay!

Secret commission

Last week I totally forgot writing a blog, sorry about that! I was really busy working on a commission that has to remain a secret for now.

So here are some hazelnuts instead ;)

These are from my 'Drawing a Day' project on my Instagram account, you can follow me at:
 https: https://instagram.com/melissa_halley/

Drawing A Day (2)

The last couple of weeks I didn’t spend any time on my larger drawings. I was back at cleaning my home (as in throwing things out) so it would be a better home studio. Almost ready.

After that I had two weeks of vacation which I spend with my boyfriend and his 4 year old son.

During this time I only did my Drawing A Day which I’m managing to do so for almost a month now.

For a large part my vacation consisted of doing things a 4 year old enjoys, mostly very active things and the boy asking a lot of attention. Perfectly normal for a 4 year old.

What I noticed was that these small drawings I did every day formed a much needed ‘me-time’. They drowned all the noise of the day and brought me back to myself.

So just in a few weeks these daily drawings changed from a daily task, or ‘should’ as Elle Luna calls them, to a daily necessity or ‘must’.

Drawing A Day from the last 9 days

Update

A day late but here is the result of a week (and a day) of my Drawing a Day project. So far so good.

I try to post all my drawings (and more) on Instagram.

You can find me at: melissa_halley

Drawing A Day (1)

March 2013 I started my Drawing A Day sketchbook. My plan was to make a small drawing every day that would take about 15 to 30 minutes. The idea was to draw every day especially when I couldn’t spend that day entirely drawing or on other art related business.

It’s also a really good way to get your drawing-juices flowing.

After a month I abandoned the sketchbook, started again and so on until the beginning of this year.

For some reason I couldn’t stick to it, every day I had more important things to do, no time and after a while I would just forget.

I got quite upset with myself that I could not even do this little 15 minute thing.

A few months ago I made a daily plan and the Drawing A Day was part of that plan but still I would somehow ‘forget’.

Until today…

Back Home

Sometimes kids (temporarily) come back to live with their parents again. Last weekend 3 of my ‘kids’ returned home. These drawings were sold in 2003 and 2006 and I hadn’t seen them since. It was actually nice to see them again.

The circumstances were less fun. The man that bought them in the past recently passed away, there were no family members who showed interest in them and that’s how they were returned to me. Feels weird…

Left a pastel drawing of a Long-eared Owl and middle and right two landscapes inspired by pictures from the book 'A Text-atlas of Scanning Electron Microscopy'.

Books I'm Reading (5)

Recently I’ve been listening to this podcast called The Unmistakable Creative. The people that get interviewed are all some kind of creatives. For me the painters etc. are most interesting but interviewer Srinivas Rao is really good at his job because he’s actually interested in the answer to the questions he’s asking. So I got really addicted to listening to his podcast.

Different books have been promoted on this show and I got curious so I bought some of the titles: ‘The Crossroads of Should and Must’ by Elle Luna, ‘Steal Like An Artist’ & ‘Show Your Work’ by Austin Kleon and ‘The War of Art’ by Steven Pressfield. All books were purchased at the American Book Center Amsterdam.

Find some of my favourite episodes of the podcast here: Lisa Congdon, Elle Luna, Austin Kleon, James Victore.