Mindful Drawing

Father’s Day June 16th; What to give to the best Daddy ever?

Paula Kuitenbrouwer — Fri, 24 May 2013 12:47:40 +0000

Father’s Day is a celebration honouring fathers and celebrating fatherhood, paternal bonds, and the influence of fathers in society. This is a rather long definition. To celebrate ‘The Best Dad Ever’ of ‘The Best Daddy in the World’, probably rings more bells.

‘Daddy toss me in the air’ and ‘Daddy be a horsey’ is preformed by dad year round; one day per year it is about celebrating good fathers.

Happy Father’s day to all best daddies of the world!

I have two gifts designed for bird loving fathers.

An A4 high quality reproduction of my Common Kestrels on thick fine art paper (that can be framed) for 20 Euro/ 17 British pounds/ 25 US Dollars exclusive shipping.

And a set of 4 fine art cards of a pair of Woodpeckers, Woodcocks, Golden Orioles, and Turtle Doves, that come with inlays and envelopes. This set is 15 Euro/ 20 USA dollars/ 13 British pounds exclusive shipping.

Paula

For ordering, contact me at mindfuldrawing@gmail.com

Vesak or Buddha’s Birthday

Paula Kuitenbrouwer — Wed, 22 May 2013 09:51:42 +0000

Drawing, conté crayons, copyright by Thomas Kluck

Vesak, or Buddha’s Birthday, is a holy day observed traditionally by Buddhists that commemorates the birth, enlightenment, and death of Gautama Buddha. This year Vesak is celebrated on the 25th of May.

Colourful lanterns with wish tags and cherry blossoms

When my family lived in Korea, we celebrated Vesak by going to our neighbouring temple. The streets leading up to the temple were decorated with lanterns and trees celebrated the month of May with abundant cherry blossoms. The temple was almost covered with colourful lanterns. Our young daughter had to touch them all. Buddha’s Birthday was one of the most colourful and happiest days.

We donated money to the temple and clipped our wish tag to one of the lanterns. After a walk through the temple gardens, we were invited by the monks to pour ama-cha (a beverage prepared from a variety of hydrangea) on a small Buddha statute, as if bathing a newborn baby. A festival with music and lectures followed. Long time after we had gone home, we could still listen to the music through our open windows.

If you have no temple in your area, you can still celebrate Buddha’s birthday. Invite friends over for a (vegan/vegetarian) lunch or diner, put on colourful lanterns, or write your fellow Buddhist friends a nice handwritten note with a Buddhist verse that inspires you and your friend. Or walk the dog of your ill neighbour or visit an animal shelter…there are many ways to celebrate Vesak.

May the teachings of the Buddha bring you wisdom and happiness.

Paula Kuitenbrouwer

P.S. I invite links to vegan/vegetarian blogs for Vesak lunch and dinner ideas in the comment-section. I thank my fellow vegan and vegetarian blog-friends in advance for their cooperation and scrumptious ideas.

All Things Butterfly

Paula Kuitenbrouwer — Fri, 17 May 2013 09:52:22 +0000

Clockwise, click to enlarge:

1. Two Butterfly Mugs (with succulent plants), designed by yours truly

2. An engraving of the fossil of a Prodryas persephone (1887)

3. A Ringlet, photo May 2013, The Netherlands

4. Prodryas persephone, an extinct butterfly. It was the first butterfly fossil to be found in North America. It is unusually well preserved.

5. A Ringlet, small business or mummy card by your truly

How does this butterfly fossil affect you? This fossil has amazing detail and clarity. It was collected in the late 1800s by the Mrs. Charlotte Hill, a homesteader turned naturalist, who helped discover many important fossils.

I’m inspired by the contrast of the hard stone (shale deposits of Late Eocene age) and the fragility of the butterfly. The force of raindrops on some rocks make them wear down, and a fragile butterfly can leave an imprint in stone. It tells us Die Milde Macht Ist Gross (Gentle Power Is Great).

Paula Kuitenbrouwer

Paula Kuitenbrouwer sells exquisite original drawings, fine art cards, reproductions, and business-, gift- or mummy-cards. See Purchase in the header. In case you like to talk about an order or commission Paula, contact her at mindfuldrawing@gmail.com

A Pink Moment

Paula Kuitenbrouwer — Sun, 12 May 2013 14:45:38 +0000

Enjoy spring’s pink moments…

Malus ‘Red Sentinel’ Blossom;
Magnolia Branches, coloured pencil drawing Paula Kuitenbrouwer;
Magnolia branch, coloured pencil drawing Paula Kuitenbrouwer;
Yellow-Pink tulips.

Are you enjoying pink in your garden or your local park? You love or hate pink? Did you ever had a pink moment and later asked yourself ‘What was I thinking?’

Nature knows how to handle pink well; it mixes it with fresh green, dark brown and orange-red, as you can see studying the above photos and drawings. I think pink needs to grow up and does that well by relating itself to more adult colours like green, brown and red. Right? Or not? I invite you to share your thoughts on pink.

Paula

Paula Kuitenbrouwer sells exquisite original drawings, fine art cards, reproductions, and business-, gift- or mummy-cards. See Purchase in the header. In case you like to commission Paula, contact her at mindfuldrawing@gmail.com

A Honeysuckle Waltz

Paula Kuitenbrouwer — Tue, 07 May 2013 14:04:21 +0000

Flower Art and Music by Rebecca Tripp, Honeysuckle by Paula Kuitenbrouwer

Rebecca Tripp is a young musician as well as an artist. Music is her passion. Rebecca composes music that evokes uplifting and peaceful emotions. She has created many enjoyable flower art and music videos. Click on my honeysuckle and you will be directed to her video. To my delight Rebecca has included my honeysuckle in her Honeysuckle Waltz.

This is Rebecca and if you look carefully and creatively, you will notice that Rebecca and my honeysuckle resemble each other: both are elegantly positioned, with having green and tan-orange as their dominating colours. (Little wonder Rebecca has been drawn to composing a honeysuckle waltz).

Enjoy more of Rebecca’s work on Deviantart.

I wish Rebecca success in the world of music and art.

Paula Kuitenbrouwer

Paula Kuitenbrouwer sells exquisite fine art cards of her drawings as well as reproductions, and of some drawings smaller business-, gift- or mummy-cards. See Purchase in the header. In case you like to commission Paula, contact her at mindfuldrawing@gmail.com

Botanical Garden Hoofddijk Utrecht

Paula Kuitenbrouwer — Mon, 06 May 2013 13:36:19 +0000

Photo impression of Fort Hoofddijk’s Botanical Garden, Utrecht. Click to enlarge

Utrecht’s Botanical Garden (Fort Hoofddijk) is such a wonderful place to visit on a fine sunny day. It is amazing how horticulturists have been able to squeeze so many different landscapes in a relative small area. I give you an impression of our short walk (not even a mile) through different biotopes. Clockwise:

Beautiful paths lead you through wetlands, rock gardens, and tiny meadows,

A Pyrus communis, a small peer tree, is such an eye catcher,

Bee hotels in all sizes and shapes with many solitary bees buzzing,

A child-friendly volunteer has understood that where bamboo is, there are pandas,

The main waterfall in the rock garden, flowing down to the wetlands,

Near the tea-house, you can buy some garden and succulent plants,

Flowering Prunus everywhere,

From the higher rock garden you can view the different sections of the garden,

In the small patch of mangroves, we spot a moorhen and a big frog.

It is a delight to see a Fritillaria imperialis ‘Crown imperial’ (or Kaiser’s crown) in full bloom. When you see this majestically plant, you understand why Dutch Golden Age floral painters used them as their top flower in their painted floral bouquets. Like Ambrosius Bosschaert (1573-1621) did in his Flowers in a Chinese Vase

To our delight we find an educational patch in the herbal garden. A board informs us that this patch is used for growing plants for manufacturing paints. The board shows how the pigment-rich plants look like, their name, and their colouring use. It goes without saying that I read this board with great interest, not in the least because the colouring properties of some herbs were new to me.

‘Verven met planten’ (‘Painting/Colouring with plants’)

More information on Utrecht’s botanical gardens you find here.

Paula Kuitenbrouwer

Common Kestrels with Nest (Falco tinnunculus)

Paula Kuitenbrouwer — Thu, 02 May 2013 08:54:17 +0000

Common Kestrels, Falco tinnunculus, copyright Paula Kuitenbrouwer

Spring, Birds and Bird Eggs

I have drawn a springbird scene, showing a female common kestrel, who has just landed on her old crow’s nest. She is inspecting her eggs. The male is relaxed and sits close to the nest. The male common kestrel has a blue-grey cap and blue-grey tail, whereas the head cap and tail of the female is brown.

Have you ever seen a common kestrel? You will be amazed how cute they look. It is the combination of their round little heads and their big, dark eyes that makes them look adorable. But are ‘cute’ and ‘adorable’ words we use to describe a bird of prey?

Common kestrels were hunting birds for royal ladies in medieval times. Kestrels were considered to be of little use for serious falconry, and that is because they weren’t thought of as fantastic hunters. Kestrels hunt exclusively for mouse-sized mammals, insects (like dragonflies), beetles or small reptiles.

High court ladies wouldn’t mind when their bird caught a dragonfly, a beetle or a vole. If a bird prefers to chase a dragonfly over a delicious rabbit, or catches a clumsy beetle instead of small, tasty bird, this allow us to describe kestrels as cute, and surely very cute by comparison to birds of prey that hunt for hares, pheasants or even apes.

Paula

Paula Kuitenbrouwer sells exquisite fine art cards of her drawings as well as reproductions. An A4 reproduction as well as big and regular sized fine art cards of this Common Kestrel drawing will soon be available. Pre-ordering is possible.

See Purchase in the header for what is available as well as the price list. In case you like to commission Paula, contact her at mindfuldrawing@gmail.com

The Dutch Beach: Shells and Sand Patterns

Paula Kuitenbrouwer — Thu, 25 Apr 2013 18:42:08 +0000

1. A variety of beautiful Dutch beach sand and stone patterns.

2. The delight of beach combing is in the small finds, like razor shells, cockles, tellins, oyster shells, and driftwood, that has been turned grey by sea salt and made smooth by months or years of sanding.

3. Exotic shells in front of my drawing of one of them.

Paula Kuitenbrouwer

Spring, Persephone, and Demeter

Paula Kuitenbrouwer — Fri, 19 Apr 2013 06:56:45 +0000

Paula’s Spring Fine Art Card Sets, click on pictures to enlarge.

Spring has arrived in the Netherlands!

The Greek goddess Persephone, also named Proserpine, is the personification of spring. She is the daughter of Zeus (a.k.a. Jupiter) and Demeter (a.k.a. Ceres).

Persephone sitting on her throne (marble)

During winter she is abducted by Hades, to be queen of Underworld. Every spring she is allowed to return to the surface of the earth. As soon as Persephone leaves the Underworld, spring is inevitable.

This year it took Persephone a long time to escaped from the wintry embrace by Hades, the ancient Greek god of the Underworld. Demeter, her mother, cries of joy, and embraces her daughter. Now they celebrate spring together.

Terracotta, two women, Hellenistic, around 100 BC
The figures may represent Demeter and Persephone.

Demeter is a glorious mother goddess again. She blesses our fields and flowers. Our grain will ripen, and our harvest will be abundant. Persephone and Demeter will make our garden and balcony flowers bloom.

Dante Gabriel Rossetti’s Proserpine (Persephone), 1874

It is wonderful to welcome Persephone and Demeter back after a long, cold winter. Let’s hope they bless our flowers and crops.

Paula

Paula Kuitenbrouwer sells exquisite fine art cards of her drawings as well as reproductions, and of some drawings smaller business-, gift- or mummy-cards. See Purchase in the header for what is available as well as the price list. In case you like to commission Paula, contact her at mindfuldrawing@gmail.com

Delicate Butterflies

Paula Kuitenbrouwer — Tue, 16 Apr 2013 08:02:11 +0000

To my delight, I’ve seen the first butterfly of this season.

The first butterflies we are likely to see early in the year are those which hibernate, such as the Peacock, Comma, Red Admiral, and Small Tortoiseshells.

All of them I’ve drawn on my different butterfly compositions.

Atalanta & Peacock

(For more information on this set of fine art cards, click here.)

(A Ringlet)

Have you seen spring butterflies?

Could you find out or look up which one it was?

Paula Kuitenbrouwer