Hermelijn

Deze hermelijn is geïnspireerd door Ti Ar Raden, die me een faux postage postzegel stuurde waar een hermelijn op stond ('erminig' in het Bretons, weer wat geleerd!).

This hermelijn (or Stoat in English) I created for Ti Ar Raden. Ti Ar inspired me to do so by sending me an artistamp showing an erminig.

Two crows in a row

Kraaien en hun familieleden behoren tot mijn favoriete vogels (tezamen met nog verschillende vogels meer), en toevallig waren er twee mensen die ik wel een kraai wilde sturen.

Crows (and their relatives) are among my favourite birds. This week there happened to be two people to whom I wanted to send mail art and who unconsciously 'invited' me to draw a crow for them.

Baardagame

An other Australian animal is the Bearded Dragon (Baard agame in Dutch). This one didn't need to travel that far, he only had to cross the North Sea (and some areas over land) to arrive at John's place in the United Kingdom.

Chess queen zentangled

Meanwhile the 'zentangling' kept on, and suddenly some chess figures appeared on my paper.

This one I created to send for the Connection 15 exhibition in Kuala Lumpur, May 2015.

Happy 2015! Colour your Year!

By this '2015' Snail Mail Snail I am wishing you an amazing, happy, healthy, creative, peaceful, loving and lovely New Year!
Feel free to download the picture and use it as a colour plate, feel free to choose your own colours for the New Year!

By the way, 'New Year' at the 1st of January is a relative subject: for some people New Year starts on the 1st day of Spring, for others the New Year starts on 19 February 2015, when the Year of the Horse will make place for the Year of the Sheep. And there are many more New Years! So you can keep on wishing your beloved ones good wishes every day :-)

An other Australian

As many of you will know, I love Australian animals.
Of these, the Kookaburra and the Australian Cassowary have some turquoise in common. The Kookaburra shows this beautiful colour in its wings, while turquoise colours the Cassowary's head and neck.

Mixed media (pen and colour pencil), created for Jack Oudyn and sent to, of course, Australia.

An other seagull, zentangled

And not only an other wave, but also the seagull returned into a new piece of mail art.
Created for and sent to Connie in the USA.

An other wave, zentangled

Turquoise is one of my most favourite colours, and also seen in both sky and water.
So also Hokusai's sea and some zentangled waves and sky became part of this piece. Created for the 'Turquoise' mail art project, and sent to Monika Mori in Austria.

Seagull surfing the Wave

Made for Miche-Art-Universalis, for her mail art project 'Hommage to the World of Hokusai".



I think Hokusai's most famous work, the Great Wave ('The Great Wave of Kanagawa') has inspired many artists to create a variation.
I couldn't help adding this one. I simply love birds, and am impressed by both Hokusai's woodblock print and by the fact birds survive such hard circumstances.

Juweelkardinaalbaars

De juweelkardinaalbaars woont in wateren rond de eilandenarchipel Banggai, waar hij/zij ook de Engelse naam aan dankt. En ze wonen in Artis. Een foto uit het tijdschrift van deze Amsterdamse dierentuin inspireerde me tot deze tekening. Verstuurd naar Keith in Amerika, tezamen met onderstaand waarschuwingsteken: 'Postactiviteiten zijn zeer verslavend'.

The 'jewelcardinalbass' (Dutch name translated into English) lives in the waters around the Banggai islands, which gave them their English name. There are also Banggai cardinalfish in the Amsterdam Zoo Artis. I saw a photo of this fish in the Artis magazine, and became inspired to draw this fish.
Sent to Keith in the USA, together with the warning sign you see below: 'Mail activities are highly addictive'.

Australians

Verschillende van mijn lievelingsdieren zijn Australiërs. Onder meer de Kookaburra en het Vogelbekdier.
Bij deze zijn ze weer eens gemailartificeerd.

Several of my favourite animals are Australians. Among them, as many of you might know, the Kookaburra and the Platypus, who have been mailartified again.



Hana in Japan tekent zelf bewonderenswaardig prachtige vogels (en mensen, en insecten, zie haar instagram account), dus ik ben blij haar op mijn beurt een vogel te sturen: de Kookaburra.
Toevallig ontdekte ik recent het 'zentanglen', dus de envelop meteen maar volgetekend.

I admire the drawings by Hana from Japan. She creates beautiful birds (and people, and insects, see her haar instagram account). So on my turn I was happy to create this Kookabura for her.
Apart from that, I happened to have discovered 'zentangling', so that inspired me for this envelope:



Voor het Mail a Smile project van Micu kwam dit vogelbekdier uit mijn pen en penseel:

For the Mail a Smile project by Micu this platypus arose from my pen:



Gemaakt voor en verzonden naar het Mail Poet Team.

Created for and sent to the Mail Poet Team.



Ti Ar Raden in Bretagne wilde ook graag zo'n vogelbekdier, maar geïnspireerd door Ti Ar's logo (die weer gebaseerd is op de Bretonse vlag) werd het toch zwart-wit vogelbekdier in plaats van een gekleurde.

Ti Ar Raden in Bretagne's wish was to receive such a platypus, too. However, inspired by Ti Ar's logo (which seems to be based on the Breton flag) it became a black-and-white platypus instead of a coloured one.



En, toch ook een vogelbekdier naar Australië zelf. Vizma heeft me verschillende prachtige vogelbekdieren gestuurd, en daarom verdiende zij dit exemplaar (op m'n allereerste officiële gezentanglede envelop).

Finally a platypus was also sent to Australia! Vizma has sent me several wonderful platypus pictures, so I created this one (on my very first official zentangled envelope).