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Tomorrow exactly one year ago - May 11th 2022 - we finally visited Boyne Valley, two years after our original booking in 2020. It probably needs no explanation why the trip was cancelled. We were actually the first tourists to visit Ireland after the Covid-19 lockdowns. The reason we booked the trip in 2020 was to visit the ancient monuments that are scattered in the valley and get inspired to write a new book. Heavily disappointed that we couldn't go in 2020, we were rather suprised when a Dutch publisher asked us just some months later to write a book about my watercolor technique. So the trip was cancelled but a book was published in 2021 (named "watercolor in simpele stappen" in Dutch or "watercolor in simple steps" in English).  There was only one thing: I booked a private tour with Anthony Murphy and I was still very exited to go. Besides that we wanted to update our Zen drawing books with new chapters and drawings. So as soon as possible we went for an inspirational trip and celebrate my birthday on May 12th in Ireland. You may like to know that I visited other parts of Ireland years ago. One of my best discoveries then was the banoffee pie! This pie, nowadays seen more often on Dutch menu's too, was something new to me and incredibly delicious. I asked my foodie-blog-friend Anja to help me out with a recipe. She wrote a lovely blod post (sorry the recipe is only in Dutch but hurray for google translate) and since then I make my own Banoffee pie every year on my birthday! I had no doubt that this year the tradition would continue. It was just two days later that I found a piece at the Newgrange visitor centre.

ENGLISH: The year 2022 seems far away, but as time flies anyway, I'd better be in time with promoting flying Maccaw's on my new diary and calendar line called 'Blue Sky, Blue Sea'. I am so in love with al the colors of the tropical birds and fish. Besides this diary and week calendar, a family planner is coming soon, and the good news is that the diary contains multiple languages including English. Please have a look at the video below to get an impression of the content. You can order the diary and week calendar here in my shop . DUTCH: Het is nog lekker vroeg dit jaar, maar toch kun je er niet snel genoeg bij zijn met agenda's, planners en kalenders. Van de nieuwe lijn voor 2022 zijn onlangs mijn agenda en de weekkalender uitgekomen. De bijpassende familieplanner volgt snel. Alle ontwerpen hebben het thema 'Blue Sky, Blue Sea' en bestaan uit kleurrijke tropische vogels en vissen. Ik word er vrolijk van! Hieronder een video van de binnenzijde van de agenda. Je kunt zolang de voorraad strekt de agenda en kalender hier bestellen in mijn shop.

ENGLISH: This year, Covid-19 was a real bummer for KreaDoe a popular event for all creatives of the Netherlands. Instead of a huge exhibition in Utrecht, this year's edition was an online event with many workshops and classes. Covid-19 seems to have stimulated lots of people to explore their creative skills and there were thousands of people online the 29th and 30th of May, the first warm and sunny weekend of spring. I was invited for an interview in the Live Lobby in Utrecht and I had created a video of the hummingbird exercise of the book that was shown on Sunday 30th. DUTCH: Dit jaar gooide Covid-19 een hoop roet in het eten van KreaDoe de grote beurs voor creatievelingen. In plaats van een Jaarbeurs vol enthousiaste mensen, moesten deelnemers het doen met online workshops. Maar dat mocht de pret niet drukken. Door Covid lijken steeds meer mensen hun creatieve talenten weer te ontwikkelen en er waren ook voor de online beurs duizenden enthousiaste deelnemers. Het hele weekend van 29 en 30 mei konden deelnemers zich inschrijven voor workshops en meekijken naar de live lobby waar interviews werden gehouden met de 'standhouders' en workshop-gevers. Ik vertelde op zaterdag mijn verhaal over het boek en de aankomende online video-demonstratie die op zondag 30 mei werd getoond. Het was een surrealistische ervaring in de gezellige lobby en een donkere en lege jaarbeurs, maar één om niet meer te vergeten!

ENGLISH: Hurray!! My new book arrived! The project I have been working on a great deal of the 'Year of Covid' has been published! The Dutch book 'Watercolor in simpele stappen' (Watercolor in simple steps) is available in bookstores and online shops. And of course here in my own webshop. DUTCH: Hoera!! Mijn nieuwe boek is er! Het project waar ik een groot deel van het 'Coronajaar' aan gewerkt heb is gepubliceerd! Het boek 'Watercolor in simpele stappen' ligt vanaf nu in de winkels zodra deze weer open zijn. En natuurlijk is het boek ook te bestellen op internet, onder andere hier in mijn eigen winkel.

ENGLISH: In the past few weeks several products from the collection 'Touch of Zen' have been released by Bekking & Blitz publishers. Perhaps you know their beautiful gifts and greeting-cards from the museum shops in Holland? I personally am a great fan of their collections and I feel honored that they published this extended line with cranes and pink-red blossoms. Below you'll find some photos of some of the products. This upcoming December holiday period they can serve well as a gift for under the Christmas-tree. You can find them here in my shop. DUTCH: De afgelopen weken zijn een aantal nieuwe producten gelanceerd uit de lijn van 'Touch of Zen' bij uitgeverij Bekking & Blitz. Misschien ken je hun prachtige cadeautjes en kaarten uit de verschillende museawinkels in Nederland? Ik ben in ieder geval fan van al hun mooie spullen en voel mij vereerd dat ze zo'n uitgebreide lijn wilden uitgeven met kraanvogels en roze-rode bloesem. Hieronder een aantal foto's van de verschillende producten. Zeker deze decembermaand zijn dit hele geschikte cadeautjes voor onder de boom. Je kunt ze -zolang de voorraad strekt- hier in mijn webwinkel vinden.

After a long period of staying at home and forced social distancing, we could finally make our first trip in months last weekend. Since we live in a small apartment in one of the most most densely populated parts of the Netherlands, we were happy that one of our favorite Airbnb locations was still available for the weekend. Diana, the lovely owner of this small detached house -that was once built for medical staff and lies just outside Roermond close to the protected forests of the 'Meinweg'- offers a warm welcome every time we visit here. The huge garden feels more like a forest and attracts many birds, squirrels, moles and even a fox. Besides that, you will find many statues made by different African artists in her garden. These give th e garden the appearance of a gallery, museum and sculpture garden all in one.

About five years ago I was thinking of a birthday present for my sister's boyfriend of that time, a surf lover that lived in San Diego, in the United States. I had just started out as a watercolor artist and had been painting animals and flowers most of the time. My sister suggested to paint something that was surf related and after some thinking (how do I paint a surfer on a white background?), I came up with the idea of a surfer inside a wave. As I wasn't to sure about the result, I decided to let the idea rest for a while. I did however show my painting to a few people and they were very enthusiastic, so I gave the original painting as a birthday present and I decided to sell reproductions on Etsy. To my surprise it became a very popular watercolor and is still one of my best selling paintings.

This year Royal Dutch Post, Post NL, will release 4 set of stamps combined with matching greeting cards based on my designs. The first set of the year, released in March, consists of 3 owl stamps and 3 owl greeting cards. This set was available in shops all over Holland, could be ordered online and was also given away by PostNL as a thankyou gift to customers who placed an order online of 15 euros or more. In the article below you can read about the stamps in 'Collect magazine' (click on the image to see the full page). In the same magazine PostNL announced that my 2019 bird stamps had been chosen by readers for second place as one of the prettiest stamps in 2019.

In spring 2015 I got a request from an American Facebook friend and fellow Zendrawing artist to meet in 'Keukenhof' -the colorful exhibition of flowers and tulips near Amsterdam- as he was visiting Holland for the first time. Even though I have lived very close to 'Keukenhof' all my live, I never visited this colorful exhibition of flowers, so I accepted his invitation. Besides seeing my friend, I also loved to go to this magnificent exhibition for some inspiration and to do some on the spot drawing and painting. In case you have never heard of 'Keukenhof': this is one of the main tourist-attractions of the Netherlands, like the canals of Amsterdam, the windmills of Kinderdijk and Rembrandt's paintings. Every spring more than a million visitors from all over the world visit this exhibition to see a wide variety of magnificent flowers, mostly tulips, beautifully arranged by color. So on a beautiful sunny day in May, we had a fantastic day in 'Keukenhof' and despite all those thousands of people from all over the world, the energy was lovely, bright and surprisingly calm and the colors and flowers were magnificent. This day made a lasting impression on me and the park turned out to be a fantastic place for inspiration and painting.