2022 – 2023

So here’s the end of another year. Another year of quite some productivity on my side.

I designed a birthday calendar as a request of a very dear friend. The pictures on that calendar turned out so nice, that I decided to have them printed as birthdaycards too. Which turned out a succes.
I wrote my very first Panda & Bear adventure: Panda en Beer gaan voor groen. A Dutch title, which means that Panda and Bear chose green to be their colour. They ‘photographed’ green animals and in the book they tell about their experiences and even give some fun facts about those animals. In the end they meet the most interesting animal of all… in their own garden… It was a first for me to be the writer as well as the painter of this book.
For the first time by book was also available at two bookstores: Bruna Hoogland and Boekhandel Riemer in Amersfoort Kattenbroek.
This year was also the year of the very first set of Christmas cards of Panda & Bear. They sold well on the Chrismas markets.

I found out that selling my stuff on markets does work well. So I intend to find more opportunities for that next year.
This website will of course always be available for orders online!

Plans for the coming year are in the making… a booklet about Panda & Bear discovering Amersfoort (my home town)… maybe another Panda & Bear adventure for the next Dutch Kinderboekenweek… and who knows what cards I will design!
Painting is and will always be there too. Was I on some sort of speed production, the last few years, that now has come to some better balance. I still do paint. It still is my way of dealing with all sorts of feelings. The paintings just take more time, nowadays. And I can only think that is a good thing.

I am proud to be able to tell that 3 of my paintings found new homes, this year! It is such an honour to have my work, with so much ‘me’ inside, hanging in other peoples homes. Making people happy with what made me happy myself while painting it!

The final thing that happened was, me starting to write music again! I am currently writing a few small piano pieces. Reflecting on deep feelings. That may sound heavy.. which it is, sometimes, but mostly it is very helpful to me. And if that makes some nice music come out to the world… how beautiful that is!

So. Let’s dive into 2023 and have fun creating!