Bidprentje

Joyce's husband found his devotional for his first communion, so cute. We're puzzled about the seven thingies at the bottom, anybody? We'll reward you with a virtual kiss!

Who's version?

We love Raghava KK's idea for educating children multiple perspectives (and it's not only children who need it!) . It's almost a good reason for buying an Ipad. Almost...

Ever wonder?

...what some of your colleagues are doing after they quit their regular day job? Some of them you know they have other passions, but I think it's only fair to say that of the majority of your colleagues, you simply haven't got a clue.

I find it a sheer pleasure to see people discovering their passion and living it every day of their life. Like Irma Braat, one of my ex colleagues, knowing her in her role as a loyal assistant, not as an excellent artist.

I visited her in her atelier here in Amsterdam, love the colours she uses, and her portraits are amazing.
 

Irma has been painting all her life, but Stephan Peters was the one who really woke up Irma's passion for painting. When he traded Amsterdam for Apeldoorn it was very hard to find a substitute of the same caliber. But she found one, Luk van Driessche, who taught her the technical tricks of the trade. She decides to follow up and starts her four- year study at the Wackers Academy, finishing it at 2006 while being pregnant and still working her day job. And, as there is no such thing as coincidence, circumstances were at a point that favourable that she could take the big step and live her passion.

And she's doing well, so well indeed that every thing she paints is sold straight away. So this year's goal is to make a series of paintings with a specific theme and if all goes well an exposition.

Want to see more of Irma's work?
- On 4 June, the start of the exposition 'Noordwijk schildersfestival' at the N.H. Kapel, Hoofdstraat 96 in Noordwijk
- On 7,8 and 9 October an exposition with the Dutch 'Portretschap' at Loods 6, KNSM-laan in Amsterdam.

Want to learn from Irma? From 22-26 August, she will teach a whole week of portrait painting at the Wackers Academy.

Get together

Liefgoed picks out her own selling points so you won't find our cards on every corner of the street. It was therefore quite amazing to find out that two of our hand picked retailers Het Grote Avontuur in Amsterdam and Huis van Alijn in Gent (Belgium), have a get together for a couple of months.

Till August 2011 Het Grote Avontuur will have the POP UP photo exposition 'proud of my car' of the museum Huis van Alijn at her shop & nice products from the museum for sale as well. Definitely worth a visit!

Being seduced..

Spring finally arrived and we are being seduced by this lovely creature. The art exhibition of Jill Greenberg in Amsterdam at Jaski Art Gallery from April 2- 24.

With all our Love

No doubt about it! Please join at: www.paumes.com/prayforjapan

The influence of..

Look, even 'zwarte Piet' is transformed in a Little Pet Shop mega head figure.Looks like we're finally beyond the Disney princess phase, it's still wearing a dress though. Wonder what 's next.

By Tinker

Dutch recycling with a twist

We love things made out of materials that are no longer used for what they originally were designed for. Marnix Kleefmann is one of those people who sees and creates completely new objects out of the ordinary stuff.

Can you imagine going up to your grandmothers attic finding these old everlasting indestructible Brabantia bread bins, and you remember that your mother use to have the same one, rush over to her place, pick it up and just before you want to go home, you'll drop by your neighbour for a cup of coffee and there you spot your third similar bread bin. But, your neighbour doesn't want to separate from it because she feels its a very useful bread bin. You decide to make deal, you'll buy her a brand new modernly designed upper class super deluxe extremely expensive bread bin. But HEH, it's worth it, because now you can make your own Brabantia cabinet.

Sorry got carried away. Have a look at Marnix-rated

Combinations

The new edition of Maeve Magazine is out, yeah! Like, like. Just read it yourselves, one thing I love the combination of photography & illustrations in this particular photo shoot. Photography: Rowe Timson, Styling/Illustration: Jody Walker

Innocent creatures

I'm always amazed by the creatures little children make. These two are made by Ernest I think at the age of 4 & 5. The racing car he made after eating an icecream and looking at stick which was the only thing leftover, he came up with this.

The other one, is a (hopefully) nonexistent creature which he created when he found this little piece of wood at my fathers shed having all the needed tools available.

As they grow older the pieces become more sophisticated but less wildly imaginative, like if the innocent way they look at everything looses its magic.
That's why pieces like these get a special place in our bookcase, so we always remember that it's an asset & a joy to think OUT OF THE BOX.

Alexandra Brand

Today attention for Alexandra Brand. I met Alexandra two years ago as a fellow student at my palmistry study. As one can imagine with studying palmistry, the sides of us humans which we actually don't want anybody to see, were floating to the surface as well. Discussing these topics, I became more and more interested in Alexandra, the way she looked at things and her eagerness to immediately start figuring everything out. So when I learned she's a photographer and seeing her work, the picture came together. You can see her interest in the human psyche & emotions symbolically represented in almost every piece of her work.

At this moment Alexandra is giving more time to free work, exploring the depths of the human psyche. She is one of the participants of the international contest Viewbook PhotoStory 2010. A contest to which photographers are invited to submit a contemporary collection of images that convey a compelling narrative. You can see her work, negative capability, and vote on the website.

Alexandra graduated at the Royal Acadamy, The Hague in 1998. She photographed for Elle, Elle Wonen, The Colour Envelope (Akzo Nobel) & Hollands Diep. And... she is a wonderful & amazing person. Some more work from her.

Art & Nature

Spending this summer on the lovely Greek island Santorini we came across a great artist Yorgos Kypris. I love his work with metal, his vision on how we treat the world & it's beautiful nature (bad, very bad!). On top of, it he still has the enthusiasm of a child looking into the world with such eagerness to explore and create. So don't leave Santorini without visiting the Mati Art Gallery, the impressions will stay with you for a long time.

Don't want to!

I have to give my daughters room a thorough cleaning today and this is how I feel about it.

Photograph is by Richard Trusscot, such great photographer