AC | rituals and routine{s}

sweet 16. probably

i grew up in a family where a weekly schedule of cleaning house, kitchen chores and garden pleasures ran riot. i didn't appreciate much of it as a child, but i find a bunch of rituals stuck to me. apart from my own, naturally. 

morning sun

quite late in life, i find, i understand that rituals are necessary besides sensible. in times of trouble, it is a ritual that can save our skin. when overjoyed i've fallen prone to that well known ritual of drinking, to one's health. 

train ride; guess where i'm heading soon? 

i wake up in the morning and i sit down to post my instagram entry of the day. i dabble a little, get ready for an office morning and am on my way, same seat on the train, sometimes earphones, mostly not. 

brussels, rue blaes

i try to read, but what's the use. my office day is cut by lunch break, which i try to have outside the office. when it rains, i stay inside, drink my soup, eat my salad, make a walk inside the building. 

kitchen!

evenings i cook supper, put on pj's, go to the studio for an hour, then telly and watch, often listen, to a series or a movie. i do some sketching, or painting. i hang out on my cell phone, come and say hi to y'all. 

coffee at philominius, aalst

on days off from work, my schedule differs greatly. i go for a walk, do the house in the mornings and after lunch i'm in the studio. i come back down to the kitchen and get some stuff ready, usually a few days coming. 

home. sunday morning

weekends are kind of holy, which is an interesting word. saturdays are my favourite. as a child mum ploughed away on the hand operated washing machine; the sweet, heady scented smell of that washing boiling...  

antiques shop on rue blaes, brussels. same house number! ☻

sundays are quite sacred too. i like to share a walk with a friend, or do absolutely zilch (i like that). mostly though practiced schedules of mixing chores and play. i find duties a necessary evil, i try and avoid them. 

flowers in the street

i seem to repeat those seven days and find the classification satisfying. i also love breaking it all up into not doing any of it and wait till the routine filters back in. because it always does. it's a trusty animal. 

bathroom wall, awaiting finishing plastering touches

i have of course forgotten to mention SO many of my usuals, but generally this is pretty much what it grinds down to, and like i said, happy about it. i tend to slow down in aging. i am curious to find out about yours:  stefanie, veronica, tammie, sharmon, carole, sabine, annton, roberto, melodye, renee, ... 

THANK Y'ALL FOR PLAYING. ONWARDS AND FORWARDS. ☻

ps - health restored, my computer still on the blink. must. get. a. new. one. ... 

art challenge NEW THEME | RITUALS AND ROUTINE{S}

work in progress

so that was exciting, our brainstorm about our renowned ART CHALLENGE! welcome, again! i've been fighting the elements (flu and my trusted laptop machine rather being into crashing), i still have to get necessary hardware, but we're halfway there and with any luck, i can just about squish in the new theme here. 

work in progress

one morning i ran my thoughts through the day to come and realized rituals are part of our daily lives. a very personal routine is born from those proved and constant daily deeds. without further ado, let's get into rituals and routine{s}. how do you go about those automatic things in life? 

work in progress

how to play

draw, paint, photo shoot, embroider, install, write, muse, .... any discipline is welcome. over the weekend of march 18-19, come and announce here you have posted. to participate, add your name down below in the notes section (or facebook, et al., i'll pick up your entry from there) and see you here next weekend. yay! 

players : stefanie, veronica, tammie, sharmon, carole, sabine, annton,  

reminder

i think it is safe to say that in future anyone can announce whichever way (be alert to the usual hangouts of all participants though) and yes, it would be awfully kind if you, when hosting a challenge, could link up your blogpost announcement to facebook and send word to veronica's. she is so kind as to take over from ariane in collecting our current and future themes in one spot. i think having a AC HOME PLACE can work beneficial on many levels, one important one (i know what i'm saying) quite simply being memory.

AC | {it started with a} pig

illustrator : jiří kalousek

i woke at 3 AM one week night and got up. pulling a favourite illustrated book from a studio shelf, i started leafing, revelling at one image after another. i was awake!

illustrator : jiří kalousek

and there she stood, in one corner of poland, a subject of wonder: pig. how ever carole came about this theme, i guess i’ll find out over the weekend.☻

preparing last night, the drink held berries

anyhoo. i was already considering patterns of hoofs, and meagre legs under a big corpus, a snotty snout and flappy pig’s ears; all of its potence appealed. 

no more legless

then an early morning headache hammered in and i lay my head down again on my soft cell memory pillow, deciding upon good old fashioned drawing. a pig then, as is.

in a pig's ear = pigs might fly. oh! pink floyd!!

so i pulled out my paints and lines and rolled in snorts of contentment upon oinks of marvel. super great fun theme in the end and this weekend at carole’s. 

and terribly sorry, no. not a thing about piggy banks. unless... (note to self : i should really read the briefs more carefully). chop chop, knor knor. ♥

AC | tropics

watercolour on (too) thin paper

tropics sounds *h*o*t* (singer + parasol!). the cooling effect for me would have to be lime juice, tequila, and ice, ice baby. and while we're at it, that mandatory {mid century} parasol. ariane's AC this weekend. ♥

tiny update

ghent sint-niklaaskerk (interior) - ghent 'schapestal' - at mum's tarte au pruneaux - ghent house on the waterfront

after taking some of your good advice to heart i partly solved the blog buttons quest. all buttons now open in separate pages, precluding cybernetic straying. my website will materialize, but not just yet. 

ghent wall paper shop - home preparing gigantic salad - ghent bretagne pancake house - geraardsbergen coffee shop

i have good hopes to reopen my shop, though i feel etsy *RUSTY*. i chiefly need time to do so, but regular work, unexpected visits and home changes have kept me away from devoted studio work.   

abc to be

besides producing postcards i aim to paint tiny tableaux. the instagram portraits i've painted so far make me very happy, and happy art draws in, don't it? i wanna do more of those. 

anne brontë - marie de rabutin-chantal - rosa parks - zsa zsa gabor

it's ideas in pipelines still, but we're on our way. after many, many days of chilly winds we may begin to wave bye bye to baby, it's c.. and collectively put our heads in the direction of the sun. 

♥ see you over the weekend for ariane's AC ♥

AC | sticks

let's stick together 

loud, clear. on the radio,

sentimental air

two and two together.
bryan ferry's song and
dune sticks,
for tammie. n♥

AC | daily

seaside, at the beach. blankenberge (work related)

building a proper website still being a far stretch, i've decided to stick to my blog as a pivotal instrument in my digital communication explorations. new link buttons (do try them!) have changed the blog format slightly.

seaside, at the beach. blankenberge (work related)

i've been looking into becoming more visible on the net and i enjoy the online drawing community more and more. working on a daily project allows me to grow, besides feeling well chuffed and grateful about the attention. 

seaside, at the beach. blankenberge (work related)

i am still aiming to return to blogging and show more work methods and project stages. it might put back the pizzazz into photography as well, which seems to have fallen slightly out of grace.

going to paris without seeing paris. meeting friends though

doing just one thing at a time however, allows for a certain ease and steadfastness to settle in, which makes me very happy indeed. rose's weekend treat ♥ here ♥. enjoy the week ahead, everyone, and hope to find you soon. ♥

AC | sanctuary

ghent forelstraat, bisserart

raining cats and dogs all week long and more of it promised for the weekend. central heating on the blink, maybe the problem will be solved today. there's hope. last night, i was watching NW, the story based upon Zadie Smith's 2012 novel.

ghent forelstraat, bisserart

not since BORN EQUAL, i got hooked on the tiny silver screen to fully realize the foundations of an inner sanctuary can be easily shaken by our daily realities in which joy, optimism, frustration, anger and rage huddle. 

sanctuary. i almost watch the now fully filled 'new' sideboard more than that tiny telly... ☻

picking up on bits of the daily news, social-economical imbalance will only grow and hit ever more individuals. maybe you, maybe me? and i mean, i aim for sanctuaries around the house, i do. i know why and we all make choices in our lives, and live by them. 

ghent forelstraat, bisserart

and chances need taking, when opportunities arise. i'm pretty sure no one is deprived of those sentiments these days. making also, i guess, cats and dogs look trivial, or the temporary lack of central heating subordinate. veronica's sanctuary this weekend.

ps - to be fair. above graffiti artwork isn"t mine! look for the link in image footing. painted sideboard is mine. ☻

AC | winter room for nostalgia

all images (except last one) from my former high school i recently revisited

she was fifteen and crushingly in love. amidst the johnny rottens of the era she found peace in a boy three years her senior, wearing stiff pressed white shirts only, adorned with a silver safety pin, under a black shiny longcoat, his dark bangs a stubborn blaze. 

all images (except last one) from my former high school i recently revisited

soft punk if ever, alongside the even sweeter you're the one that i want. dreamy lunchtimes, shared in a tiny canteen off the main hall, where forks in potatoes and one veg rattled on worn stoneware. and them four, or five punks huddled up together over sarnies. 

all images (except last one) from my former high school i recently revisited

and her. watching their every move, learning fast. all through never ending doses of rotten biology, haughty physics, lamentable latin verse and sweat stinking PE potions, her bets were laying in one camp only : lunchtime break. him. and her. 

all images (except last one) from my former high school i recently revisited

for him she would insult that geology bastard, who courted his dreary self smart. for him she would defy home teacher's prying tongue as she choked on hebban olla vogala, while prévert for french helped her along the way of her wild, if unsophisticated fantasies. 

all images (except last one) from my former high school i recently revisited

however. nostalgia can only bring back so much, never that person nor a given situation. stefanie's winter rooms remind me of keepsake days. and my memory wandered to those few weekends i held, a long, long time ago, called OPEN HOUSE. no more, for now. 

i'll bring the cookies! ☺

thank you though, stefanie, for this recollection that could only stem from your gentle probing. i so wish i was living closer by so i could step right into your saintly world and bring me home an angel. and we could sip liquorice tea, for good (wintertime) measure. ♥ 

AC | halloween and school... whaddayaknow...

i had never expected to combine halloween and school, but fate took a leap! here's a mix of today's bonfire night (the well known guy fawkes ~post~ halloween mask), and a fond school memory. both images recycled and popping up on ariane's AC this weekend! ☺ 

AC | tide {and did you know about my new 365?}

maths as a science is fascinating. i love proclaimed formulae and extensive mathematical deductions, purely for their rhythmic properties. tide immediately reminds me of nagakawa's great wave. i granted that masterpiece a numerical twist in ariane's AC.

AC | ROOM

london, osborn street, image tilted

we've had a {work}week from hell, though some folks find 30° onwards pleasant. i'll be clear about one thing : i HATE hot weather. after one hot italy and one hot holland i had a moderate england, but now this! i hate climate change if this is what it is.

art challenge NEW THEME | ROOM {with a view}

brussels, grote zavel

 as some of us got together last summer, we found ourselves gravitating towards a summer theme that would connect us, ranging from la-la-la-ing songs to letting our thoughts wander over ways to tie creativity into our daily lives.

AC | blue. like the deep sea

what with the busy-ness of the past few months, i've neglected blogland. again! but strapping up for a party in blue, i cannot resist. okay, so i missed the ° {tea} party. here's my contribution to blue{s}... 

drawing | sky

kingfisher blue. off-white fat clouds floating by. even, when the sea seems to reside up above {not shown here}. it happens. once i drove into work and the sky shone unearthly mountain solid. i felt as if i was driving through the french alps in belgium.

drawing | meditation

the drawing challenges of the past i enjoyed most were the ones where a quirky element sided up with dots and line drawing. and really it takes me straight back into my childhood days, where lines and circles and dots were also prominent. it is for life, i figure. 

drawing | pink horse {trying}

what with entering another online, virtual community, the risk of not seeing the wood for the trees is imminent. i've actually gone and bought a smart phone to connect to the world this summer, as i travel, and of course now : distracted by its tinsel. 

drawing | leap

any time is a good time to brag about socialism, lest we grow sour and dour. there, that's probably the first and last time i come up absolute about my position in politics on an otherwise neutral and usually straight creative blog. but then veronica is giving us a leap.

drawing | halfway metamorphosis {please hover}

our first time metamorphosis was hosted by rose ariane also! let's have a look at what we are talking about four years down the road... and although i started out doubting the challenge, an early morning pinterest walk got me inspired. 

drawing | cocoon {winter cycle}

when to bed, curling up in a tiny pool of warm sheets and soft bedding, atop a well comfortable mattress, i feel in sheer heaven. indulging in that trusted mass of cotton, wool and expectation is a thing to look forward to every night.