Portrait of a horse named Olly

'Framed' the way my late grandfather added photos to his photoalbum.

Sent to the owner of Olly (well, people own animals as much as animals own people - so: sent to Olly's human :-) ).

The revenge of the Trees

It is autumn, time to finish the mixed media mail art I started to create many months ago. The tree leave I used, had fallen from its tree in one of the previous autumns.
A lot of Trees have been murdered recently, both in my neighbourhood and close to my work. It makes me angry and sad, however I'm finding a little comfort in the fact that nature (hopefully) will 'win' in a way, after all.

I hope the receiver won't get too sad by this scenery, so I thought to paint the envelope in bright orange colours and to add a friendly hedgehog.

Oranjevrouw - from the Dutch woman's soccer team

This member of the Dutch 'Orange' women's soccer team I drew as a reply to Jimmy Connors in Berlin, who has sent me several collages and recently wrote very kind words about our 'Orange' teams.

I guess the player won't recognize herself in my drawing (she's a very good, excellent player!), but at least I had a try. That's what counts, doesn't it?!

My very first Etegami

I never had heard of the word 'etegami' until I got involved in an etegami swap recently.

Etegami, or 'picture letter' or 'painted letter', origins from Japan and consists of a simple hand-painted drawing accompanied by apt words, mostly done in postcard size for a quick and easy mailing.

Etegami can be about daily objects. So I chose to draw/paint one of my favourite obkects: my morning coffee (with milk, no sugar).
Here you can see a picture of this very first etegami, next to the original object.



On the back side this etegami artistamp appeared.

And the stamp which I added to the envelope, invited me to make a longer green road:

FeMailed Artist and Scientist

Recently I was invited to join the 'Femail-XX' mail art project about female art and science.



I chose to draw this illustration, in honour of Maria Sibylla Merian (Frankfurt am Main, Germany, 1647 - Amsterdam, Netherlands, 1717). As an artist and scientist, Merian has played an important, be it not so well-known, role in natural history and biology.
Did you know that there were times that people thought butterflies arose spontaneously from mud and dirt? For us it is so obvious that butterflies originate from eggs. However, not until Merian's era people got little by little aware of the connection between butterflies, caterpillars and eggs. And Maria Sibylla Merian was one of the very first to research and draw these species and their metamorphosis. And the very first to add the hosting plants to her insect illustrations.
At older age (as old as I am now) she even traveled by boat to the tropics, a 2 months journey, to Suriname. There she researched more butterflies and other insects, and she has published beautiful, and scientifically seen correct, illustrations of the insects and all stages and surrounding vegetation.

This not so correct drawing is just a small honour to a woman who deserves a high place in natural and art history.



The mail art project's full name is Women Art Scientist Testament Exploration. I couldn't resist the urge to change 'waste' into the well-known female item 'waist'.

The Kancil and the Bridge

'The Kantjil and the Bridge'. Maybe an old, maybe a newly invented story.

Made for Theo Nugraha and the Palangkaraya Batuntur mail art project, in honour of the 60th anniversary of Palangkaraya.

Mail Cardinal

This Cardinal Bird I drew and consequently I turned it into a Mail Cardinal Bird:



Sent to the USA (and arrived - thank you, FinnBadger, for your reply! I'll post your Chicken mail art in a few days at the RealWeirdAnimals blog!)

Superb Fairy Wren revisited

I've drawn a superb fairy wren before. Drawings never will be as good as the real bird, but anyway I love to continue to draw them.

This time the tiny bird flew to Antonia Mayol in Spain, covered by a far larger bird, a razorbill, as an envelope.

Blue birds

Naomi was so kind to send me one of the postcards from her thousand postcard project.
On instagram I saw she draws and paints wonderful birds on envelopes (like these Cockatoos).
So I decided to draw a bird in reply to send to Australia. And while I prefer to draw Australian wildlife, she prefered to receive a Dutch bird. So this Blue Tit arose on my paper.

On the envelope some more 'blue' birds: the 'Blauwborst' (literally 'blue chest', in English the Bluethroat) on the Dutch stamp, and... I couldn't resist to add one tiny Australian birdie, the superb fairy-wren.

For the Endangered Animals project

This year Micu has an ongoing mail art project about endangered animals. I would say: take a look at Mail a Smile and join!

This bluefin tuna I finished today, in hope that the original species won't finish.



On the back side an example of the location fish like these finish in:



A few weeks before I drew and painted her this white rhino:



See Mail a Smile's gallery for more contributions from various artists to the Endangered animals project and feel inspired to add your contribution to this project!

Frog mail

Frog, drawn and coloured and sent as a reply to frog mail I received from France.

My biggest fear?

Made for Corentine Granderue's mail art project "Envoyez-moi votre plus grande peur"("Send me your greatest fear").
Me 'peur'??
As I know and accept since many years that life will end one day, that most people learn to cope with negative things in life and I expect myself to do so, too, and that unpleasant things always will end, I thought there is nothing that really and continuously would scare me. Until I remembered a situation that my knees started shaking and my body stopped moving forward: I am able to be afraid: there are situations in which I show fear of height!
So I drew this situation. In real it was a ledge instead of a bridge and this ledge wasn't that high :-)



In front you can see one of my very rare self portraits :-)

And I wonder: what is YOUR biggest fear?



The envelope was inspired by Corentine's call for entries and by the well-known art by "E", ambassadeur d'Utopia.

The 'fear' mail art project has closed. But don't worry: check Corentine's website for her new mail art project: "l'Enfermement" ("The imprisonment").
And "E"'s website for his new project: "Les migrants – Mineurs isolés – Europe, terre promise?" ("The migrants - isolated minors - Europe, promised land?").

Time to send Butterflies!

It is summer now, here, with temperatures over 30 degrees Celsius, and the butterflies fly.
Time to send two of them into the world.

The Vanessa Atalanta (Red Admiral) will travel overseas, to the USA, and the Lemon butterfly will go to Hungary.
Have a safe travel, the two of you!

Ficus Postalis

Recently I unexpectedly received mail art from our mail art colleague Fike, aka Ficus Strangulensis. A nice surprise!

Usually I don't draw plants (I think them difficult to draw!), but this time I couldn't resist drawing a plant in return. Named Ficus Postalis.

Sometimes a bird, sometimes a cat

Sometimes one has to draw a bird, sometimes one has to draw a cat.
You'll probably know that I prefer to draw birds, but to my surprise suddenly this cat came out of my drawing pen, too.

The Rainbow Lorekeet I've sent in south-east direction, the Cat is on its way to the north-west, which I think a good idea because this way they won't hurt each other.





Update (two hours later)

Forgot that this year I've drawn one other cat before.
Accompanied by famous Rat Remy, sent to the south:

Squirrel / Fox / Sqox

Squirrel and Snail Mail Snail sent to Connie Jean's Squirrelmuseum:



Fox sent to Margit in Germany:



Sqox - Pufflingspaintings character - sent to @pufflingspaintings herself:



Fortunately for the latter I had found these matching stamps to accompany Sqox during the journey:

Koffie filter mail art

"Snail Mail Snail defies harsh conditions
(even coffee grounds) to deliver mail."



Great mail art project for coffee lovers and recyclists:
mail art on a used coffee filter (size 4).
Sent to Ed Hanssen in the Netherlands.

The Three Aquariae

Several mail artists have been born under the Zodiac sign 'Aquarius'. Here are three of them :-)

Sent to Dean aka Artist in Seine.

Las Meninas - donde están?

Las Meninas (1656) is a famous painting by Diego Velázquez.
And a mail art project (2015-2016) organized by Carlos Botana.

So far I always thought 'Las Meninas' was referring to the child in front, but when I searched for more information to create this mail art I learned that 'Meninas' means 'Maids-of-honour' (the junior attendants) and the child in the center is no 'menina' but the young Margarita Teresa.

Nevertheless, in my interpretation alas the Meninas have disappeared. The child and the painter himself (also pictured in the original painting!) remained.
As our present crown princess wears a pink dress on this stamp, I thought in those days Margarita might have liked a more prominent pink dress, too.




For the envelope I used some paper which showed an other painting by Velázquez, and a stamp showing the lighthouse of Terschelling, because it reminds me in some way of the lighthouse in the place of destination, A Coruña. And warm socks, it is winter now.
Finally, I could't resist to draw an artistamp on the back (here shown next to the front images) showing a Brazilian/Portuguese children's song: 'Vamos Menina' (aka 'Vamos Maninha'). I am curious to know if someone would have sung lullabies for la infanta Margarita in those days?

Owl, in violet and turquoise

Sent to Frances in the USA, of whom I think she'll like these colours.