There's a lot happening already in the new year! I wish I could have a bit of a slow January. My instincts tell me it's time for hibernating, but no way ;-)
Ok, first there's a new
Minted contest: the "Drawing and Sketching Art Challenge". It is all about drawings and sketches in any medium, but as well about watercolours, printing techniques, mixed media and collage. I loved the brief and submitted quite a lot!
Have thought a bit about how to handle the Minted contests further on. And have decided to add a
"voting now!" page to my blog, so that hopefully I won't annoy everybody doing ALL my vote asking in my blogposts. From now on you'll find a full listing of my submissions to the current contests posted on the voting page. Then in my regular posts I will highlight only some of my fave art pieces. I'll be super thankful for everybody who takes the time to look through the voting page and to vote for me!!!
So here's my faves from the Drawing and Sketching challenge. Please click on the title of the image to vote if you like to …
First up a watercolour sketch done in Kenmare at the famous Ring of
Kerry. It is one of my fave places ever … so beautiful, green and really
lush like a garden.
The next drawing is about County Kerry in Ireland too: The "Lady of the Lakes" is based on my memories of visiting the beautiful Lakes of Killarney, and feeling one with nature. It was a bit like a déja vu, like coming home … I'll never forget that moment.
And here's one of my fave fashion drawings, done in pen and ink plus watercolour, concentrating on the elegant silhouette of the woman and the flowing lines of her ball dress.
My little patterned fox from last year's inktober sketches is in too! I just love the softness and peaceful look of this little guy.
Finally here's two mixed media pieces. The first one is a collage of: a monotype printed directly from a tree slice, frottaged elements and a drawing in coloured pencil. It is part of two collages about the different qualities of time, this one about free flowing time.
And finally a collage for all sea lovers and adventurers … this is a digital collage of a watercolour ocean, handdrawn waves and clouds and the photographed boats made of sea glass and driftwood.
I hope you like them! And thank you for voting :-)
Then yesterday I have been visiting
Heimtex fair in Frankfurt – one of the biggest fairs there is for home textiles. I met up with some lovely friends and colleagues, some with their own booths, and made some interesting new connections.
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| Copyright: Messe Frankfurt Exhibition GmbH / Jochen Günther |
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The "Galleria" on the fair. Copyright: Messe Frankfurt Exhibition GmbH / Jens Liebchen
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It was pretty busy, though not too much. Nice for us visitors but for the designers offering their collections I wished it would have been even more …
The fair basically is divided into a trend section, the designer's hall with all textile + surface designers and studios, and then several manufacturer's halls with all kinds of different textile products for home and for objects like hotels, holiday resorts etc. There's bedding, carpets, pillows, curtains, kitchen textiles, wallpaper and many more, and a lot about the technical side of textile manufacturing too. Naturally, the designer's hall was our first point of interest, but we looked into the trend area too and followed a trend seminar by
Milou Ket (recommended! Have a look at her website, it's worth it!) And then finally we had a closer look at the halls for wallpaper and curtains, both really interesting.
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| Novamur GmbH. Copyright: Messe Frankfurt Exhibition GmbH / Thomas Fedra
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| Ugépa S.A. Copyright: Messe Frankfurt Exhibition GmbH / Thomas Fedra |
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| Alfred Apelt GmbH. Copyright: Messe Frankfurt Exhibition GmbH / Jochen Günther
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| Elitis SAS. Copyright: Messe Frankfurt Exhibition GmbH / Thomas Fedra |
I am hoping to publish a little review of the trend "theme park" at the beginning of next week. Unfortunately it's not allowed to take pictures on the fair, but I managed to source some nice pics from the fair company itself, meant for journalists. Oh well in a way blogging is journalism too! More next week, so stay tuned!
