Four Witty Art Drawings got published in brandnew Dutch magazine De Horizonvreter

Am absolutely thrilled to announce that four of my Witty Art drawings have been published in the first edition of the brandnew magazine ''De Horizonvreter'' (literally: ''Devourer of Horizons'').

De Horizonvreter is a Dutch magazine, entirely and solely dedicated to "The Strange, The Odd & The Unknown". It features a collection of short stories, poems and art by Dutch writers, poets and artists, all dedicated to the fantastic, the grotesque and the bizarre.

What makes this magazine really stand out is the enormous high level of dedication put in by its editors (it took over two years to realise this first edition!) and that they've asked all contributors for an autonomous piece of work - all works, short stories, poems and the artwork, were collected first and then put together, in what can't have been an easy process but somehow the endresult feels like a very natural, almost organic one.

The editors chose the following four Witty Art drawings to be published:

"But We Just Got Here" (above)  en "A World To Be Blamed" (below, both from 2013) accompanying the short story "Clowns" by Martijn van Koolwijk, a piece pretty much written in a newspaper-like style, about a young documentary filmmaker becoming a clown, thus ultimately meeting his gruesome fate....

"Not There, Not Anymore" (2014) accompanying "Eindeloos Vakantie" (''Vacation Without An End'') by Olivier van Nooten, a darkish, Roald Dahl-like tale about young love, disapperance and murder with an unexpected twist.

"Shall We Dance" (2013) accompanying the short story "Kerstmis Aan Boord de Terminus 969" (''Christmas Aboard The Terminus 969'') by Joachim Heijndermans, about a distant-future Christmas spent in the dystopian surroundings for an almost abanbonded spaceship... 

These are all short stories written in Dutch, so if any of my Dutch followers or anyone would like to order a copy regardless: De Horizonvreter costs € 8,40 each (amount is including postal costs) and for that amount you'll get a grand total of 45 pages full of fantastically strange stories and ditto art. You can order your copy via email: dehorizonvreter@gmail.com.

If you are not able to read Dutch but would like to own a copy anyway, feel free to order yours too - but do know that, if you are living abroad, international shipping costs ofcourse will be charged.

 





 

Studio PuRRR opened up for the first time for Kadefestival 2017 - including small showcase of Witty Art!

So, last Sunday, we opened up our Studio PuRRR for the public, who came to the Kadefestival Delfshaven (a local festival in the Rotterdam area Tussendijken), right at our very doorstep at the Spangesekade and organised by our partner Schiezicht. My creative partner Deborah van de Beld and I'd decided to put together a small showcase of our creative skills, resulting in some Witty Art on the walls and a bit of Deborah's handmade costumework on display.

As this is my Witty Art Blog, I will focus on my own presentation here, but you if want to follow both our individual and combined creative and culinary projects, please follow Studio PuRRR on both Facebook, Instagram and ofcourse, our brandnew Blog.

For this occasion, I opted for a small presentation of a series still pretty much in progress: ''TEST L.A.B. (Lost Accidental Babies)'', a series featuring one of the most popular characters in Witty Art: UnBunny. This time, UnBunny finds himself captive in what appears to be a test lab facility where UnBunnies like himself are subjected to a series of sinister experiments, resulting in them losing shape and form and ultimately their mind.

A gruesome fate, you wouldn't want to wish upon anyone, however, as we catch glimpes of life outside, the question comes to mind whether life in the madhouse is to be prefered above the real world gone even madder. Also, if you have lost your mind, who says you cannot be happy regardless? Does one really need a sane mind to be really truly and fully happy in this world?

To be fair, questions like these pop up in my mind quite often...

I showed this series, which I originally started in 2012 and is very much up and running in 2017, before at a Pop Up Expo in the beginning of 2015, but for this occasion I thought it'd be nice to show some of the drawings still in progress. As to give the viewers a bit of an impression how Witty Art is created, in this case from the initial first pencil sketches to adding the lines in ink and adding the layers of watercolouring.

Consider it a bit of ''The Making of Witty Art'', so to speak.

Directly facing those poor little TEST UnBunnies, on the opposite wall, you can see a small selection of four so-called Singles, all of them created back in 2013-2014. These have been on display on several locations before, amongst others at Route du Nord (edition 2014) and at private artgallery Lijnbaan140 (2016) and I felt that their minimalistic mood would contradict with the colourful explosive force of the TEST L.A.B.-series in an interesting way.

After all, both type(s) of work reflect the World of Witty Art, albeit in different manners, but they definitely are firmly rooted in common ground.

During the day, quite a number of interested people came into our studio and had a look at our presentation, which led to often very entertaining and interesting conversations about our work and our studio.

So this was a very good 'test run' as far as opening up our studio is concerned, a thing we definitely are willing and planning to do more often, by organising exhibitions and other creative and culinairy events, such as our pop up restaurant Tante Timmie Kookt (Tante Timmie's Kitchen) and more!

As said above, if you don't want to miss out on upcoming Studio PuRRR events, please follow us on Facebook and/or Instagram.

Reaching Rock Bottom: a solid foundation for personal and artistic growth!

 
As I have been quite consumed by the move to the new studio and the set up of a whole new workplace, I unfortunately have had very little time to update this Witty Art Blog. But the good thing is, I have also recovered and in a way more or less rediscovered a bunch of older work I created throughout 2015 and 2016 most of them either sketches in first stages or just plain unfinished works.

So, I kind of went through them again, sorting them out and filing and, where and when needed, adding the final touches. Often it was the not so simple case of a bit of finetuning, while with others I decided to leave them just as they were. For some, only the titles were lacking - but the process of naming my work can also be a difficult and challenging one.

But, managed well, I think. Either way, here are a couple of these recovered works of Witty Art, most of them drawings made with a combination of graphite pencil, charcoal and/or conté crayon. I do like the contrast between the fine pencil lines and the velvety robustness of the charcoal, interacting with the harsher tones of the conté crayons.

This combination of materials provides for very strong images, powerful but with a touch of tenderness to it. Edgy and raw, yet strangely soothing. Well, I like to think so, at least. 

So, I updated them on this page: Witty Singles, Part 2, together with a whole batch of other Witty Art, most of them created in the late fall and winter of 2016.

And to be honest, when I look at this particular page and compare to them to the Singles I made in the period 2013-2014, I am quite proud. For I can see my work has definitely grown, as whereas at the time I was forced to give up my home and my workplace, I was so afraid that losing a proper place to work would limit or even stop me from developing myself as an artist.

That fear was real. I had been there before. And I remember so clearly, whatever happened, I would not let that happen all over again. Not this time. So, with the support of my dear loved ones, I kept on creating Witty Art. With a simpe fineliner or a fountain pen, in a notebook, which prompted the birth of my artbook ''My Life In Limbo'' (which I am STILL working on, more on that again SOON). Later, I rediscovered the pleasure of pencil drawing and materials such as charcoal, pastels and conté crayons and so on.

And when finally I got to work with ink again, I could feel that my work had been enriched by, in fact, I had feared most. That reaching rock bottom would leave me wasted and worn out and unable to create and be myself for a long, LONG time. 

Turns out, I was wrong. So wrong. In fact, I can say that reaching this all time low point in my life, helped me to become myself in many more ways than I ever could've imagined before.

In fact, Rock Bottom proved to be a solid foundation of some kind, at least! 

On working with rediscovered materials and yes, more new Witty Art!

 
So, the previous post showcased a couple of brandnew Witty Art Singles - and, surprise, surprise, so does this one. As I said before, there is a LOT of new work waiting to be featured on this blog, so might as well share all previews as soon as possible. Which is now ;-) 

Perhaps I should write just a bit on the techniques and materials I used for making many of these drawings. Ofcourse, my favourite material without a doubt is still ink and will forever and always be ink and it's fair to say that without my treasured dip pens I'd be lost. Also, a couple of years back, in 2014, I wrote this blogpost on my undying, eternal passion for ink. Nothing has changed since then.

But other materials managed to grab my attention off late, as I rediscovered working with pencil, charcoal and especially conté crayon again. I love how it helps me to add more or a different sense of depth to a drawing, to play with light and dark, if not dark and darker, but still keeping it 'light'. I love how these different materials interact and often fight each other, as their characteristics either work with or against each other.

Last year, I kind of rediscovered working with mixed media again and did so in series such as ''Redemption Day Is Not Installed'' and ''Once Upon A Time... Never Happend!'' 

So far, to be able to work again with different mediums and materials together, mixing and exploring them, has certainly enriched my work, as I rediscovered skills I'd thought were gone and lost. Turns out, I didn't. For sure, ink is still ny number one love but guess there are some pretty good runners up there now! So, I hope you will stick around to see where this path will take me too.

If you wish, you are free to explore older Singles from the years 2011-2014 and from 2015 up till now.

Brandnew fresh previews of brandnew Witty Art Singles!

Apart from working on several older and new(er) Witty Art Series, such as ''One Step Forward (How Many Steps Back?'' and the most recent additions to ''EarthRocks & MoonSwings'', I've been also busy creating new Witty Art Singles: artwork that are no part of a specific themed series or featuring a fixed main ''lead character'' in it. Which does not mean they are not somehow bound by underlying themes and threads, they most certainly are - but in a far more 'loose' way than is the case with my series.

So, I actually have a huge volume of work not published here on this blog before, though I showcased some previews on my Instagram feed. I now feel it's about time to share some out here, as well. Well, some previews, that is.

What I am most pleased with, is the development of my artwork. Yes, it's still definitely signature ''Witty Art'', so still definitely me all over, but I can also see a certain artistic growth over time. I hasten to add, for me ''growth'' does not necessarily mean ''growing up'' or ''maturing''. To me, ''growth'' here means the deepening of my work, as more and more layers get exposed, more and more layers seem to be added as well. As in: often I still don't know what awaits me when I start drawing and the final outcome often still surprises me.

So, I honestly hope, that by keeping on drawing, I will keep on surprising myself and therefore, I hope I keep on surprising you, the viewers, too.

The adventure that is art, and in this case, Witty Art, my art, coninues. And I could not wish for more than for you all to join me on this beautiful adventure! 

If you wish, you are free to explore older Singles from the years 2011-2014 and from 2015 up till now.


 

''She Will... Always Be Your Mama'' in her happy new home - and that feels great!

My previous blogpost was dedicated to 'She Will Always Be Your Mama' moving to a happy new home. Very recently, I got the opportunity to see her on the wall of the proud new owner of this piece of Witty Art. And as always, that left me feeling extremely proud and grateful for people who show their support and apprecation of my work. By not just purchasing it for the sake of having to have it, but because they truly care about it.

And by showing they care, they are taking care of it, making sure it is displayed in the right way, in the right place. It's like a sense of belonging, somehow, and to me that matters a great, great deal.

You see, for a variety of reasons too personal to convey at this moment, or perhaps at any time at all, that feeling 'belonging' is a matter of great importance to me. In fact, I can safely say, it's one of the every present themes in Witty Art. 

Anyway, to know that my artwork belongs somewhere, makes me one happy artist, and all the more motivated to keep on creating more Witty Art!

'She Will... Always Be Your Mama' spotted and SOLD!

Just posting some random selection of work I created over the last two months - with one of the artworks pictured above even being sold without ever having been on display, except on Instagram, where it was spotted by a long-term Witty Art follower! Apparently, she had wanted to purchase one for a long time, but was never really able to make choice (a dilemma I've heard a lot of Witty Art fans going on about) - untill she saw this one: 

Now, this buyer is a devoted mother of two herself, and knowing the great pride and joy she takes in her kids and how protective she is of them, yet also carefully encouraging them to make their own mistakes and learn from it, slowly letting them out from underneath her wings, but always there and prepared to cover them up if need be - I can see why she was instantly drawn to this particular drawing. 

And yes, I did make this drawing with the echo of my own mother firmly in the background, an vivid image of the powerful bond between a mother and her child, as I myself, the youngest from a family of six, always knew and for always will know, that 'She Will Always Be MY Mama, no matter what...''.

So, I was one extremely happy and proud artist when I got to hand over this piece of Witty Art to its happy new owner, as this moment, for me, added a new layer to the drawing, a new chapter to its story. And from here, it will continue to grow even further. Well, who's the proud mama now, huh?