There have been so many new beginnings over the past month. My art-making and life feel full of new possibilities. There’s also so much I treasure from previous chapters and want to make sure to bring with me into this next chapter of my art (and life.)

Those of you who’ve come along with me for several years now will remember that I co-founded The Creative Grief Studio with Kara Jones back in 2011. It’s been a few years now since I left CGS at the end of 2019, so it was such fun to be invited back to share with all of the CGS alumni about my Untangle Your Grief book.

Something surprising and hilarious happened in my studio and I have to tell you all about it because it delivered me a perfectly-timed and much-needed truth-bomb, and it’s all still giving me the giggles…

Both my art-making and life-making these days are asking me to stop over-functioning and let go of my training into the idea that understanding and being understood are required in order to enjoy art (and life).

If you’ve spent any time around here, you’ll have noticed that I really LOVE South African flora, especially Proteas. I was reflecting the other day on how many many different versions of Proteas I’ve created, and how exploring their quirky shapes, colours, and textures never gets old.

I spent the morning playing with different media and versions of a beach landscape, exploring different media, line, light, color, space, texture, edges, and shape.

I was struggling to start making art on a large canvas today so I tried a trick that’s worked before… instead of trying to make art on the prepared canvases, I got out some Gesso and prepared some more large canvases.

I’ve been learning so much about abstract art lately, and doing a lot of noticing what I like, when I feel a piece works, and trying to figure out what it is that’s making it feel like it works.

This week, after getting in touch with some big grief I’ve been feeling, I sat and created some “Happy-mess” ink sketches of one of the things I appreciate now more than ever. We still share lots of cuddles and physical affection between the 3 of us in our household, but I grieve deeply for all of the other physical touch, closeness, and affection that Covid has stolen from me.

Almost every weekend, and often on both weekend days these days, we visit our favourite beach. It’s become something of a ritual with all the same elements that the four of us love, and so we repeat it all every time …

Having so enjoyed creating the Deconstructed Aloes series, and celebrating the business development success I’ve been enjoying in recent months, I went to bed with a very full and happy heart, looking forward to creating a series of Deconstructed Proteas the next day. But the next morning I woke to an unexpected and very worrying new development…

Here’s a little primer to help you with all the choices you’ll be offered by Fine Art America  when you order a print, so that you won’t feel overwhelmed and you’ll love the art prints you order…

My history of art training was very much in the classical kind of representational art, where the goal is to observe really carefully and produce realistic art. It was the loss of 80% of my eye sight in 2013 that changed my art-making style and gave me the courage and new perspectives I needed to be able to make more expressive and abstracted kinds of artworks. These days I love working with magazine paper cuttings, so I’ve been playing with creating more abstract and expressive artworks with those.

I often get requests for framing suggestions when people buy my art. There are SO MANY frames to choose from, and then there are mats (the card borders that you can place between the artwork and the frame) and glass options too! How do you decide?!

If you live outside of the Netherlands and have been considering purchasing one of my originals, here’s what you can expect the shipping process to involve.

In the case of large acrylic paintings on canvas, there is often the option to remove the canvas from the frame and roll it for shipping. For large canvases, this usually significantly lowers the costs of shipping.