written on 12 september 2025 and sent as a newsletter

I hope you had a lovely summer because fall seems to be here! It's been raining cats and dogs and even though it's not time to grab a jacket yet, my work-mode is fully back on.

Not that it was off in the summer because I had two big projects — one I can't tell you about yet but hopefully soon. And the other was making my first online course!

The last newsletter I sent you in July was about 'not giving up' and sowing seeds for later, keeping busy etc. etc. Well, those seeds? They're all coming up now! I've been flooded with opportunities and work which is amazing, but I've also been happy to tick off a few boxes and call projects finished. Let me show you a few things.

A gift from four brothers to their parents' anniversary.
Stijn reached out to me a few months ago if I could draw a family portrait as a gift. I proposed to do it live, so they could see how it was made and he and his brothers loved the idea. Fastforward a few months to August and it was time to draw! They had a lovely big garden so there's a lot of greenery in the illustration, as well as a little doggy.

A gift from three sisters to their mom's birthday and anniversary.
I posted the first drawing to my stories on Instagram and suddenly an email arrived from Annemarie, which I still think is pure coincidence, ha. Her mom's 60th birthday party was in two weeks and could I draw their family live? They had experience with other live illustrators and loved the idea of getting a remembrance of that day. Of course I said yes, and at the end of August I drew during the party. We made some videos and photos near the water (that's their boat on the left), that I combined into one illustration. And two (!!) doggies.

My personal work has not received a lot of attention this summer, although I've had mini painting sessions (20 minutes – an hour). It's been really nice to focus on commissioned work and I feel like my brain is slowly getting ready for personal work again. I also finished one painting that I haven't photographed yet and still have to name.

Clay has also been a fun find! I felt inspired to create figures based on my paintings' poses and they've since been baked. I still have to find time to glaze them though, but I really like how rough they came out. I obviously don't have the fine motor skills for being precise with clay which is exactly what I like about these figures. I made five in total.

This summer also marked my 7th year anniversary of working as a self-employed artist in a lot of different versions. Seven years is a long time.