studiomates

The november exhibition, work of my colleagues. We all have our own studio (some share) in the same building. It was great fun doing this exhibition again. And saturday was quite busy too! It was very hard taking pictures of my work, because of little lighting. I will show you some 'studio' pictures soon. Please be patient : ) I am working on it. And there will be new prints in the shop too.

autoportrait en hibou

Pablo Picasso, Autoportrait en hibou, Cannes September 1957
Bought this postcard last year, loved it. Found it again, still do! Not always a huge fan of Picasso's paintings, I think I prefer his drawings. Simplicity.

drawing game

A drawing game:
These three drawings were made by three people. (Rein, Coert and me) Rules of the game: you fold the paper horizontally in three (or more pieces, depending on the number of participants) and everyone has to draw one piece of the body without seeing what the other drew. You have to make to small lines on the next part, so the person next knows were to start drawing.
Finished? Unfold. Laugh.
As you can see we were very into squids at that moment, strange because we did not see each others drawings by then. Anyway I like this game, we have made about 40 of these during my birthdayparty recently.. See the others on Rein Schoondorp's blog, Ram illustratie This is his website.

movember, birds and boxes

Moustache brooch: You probably get that I like moustaches, not necessarily on a man, but in drawings and their shape in general. And after all it is 'Movember', which I think is a very good initiative. It is a shame I will never get one, or not.
Wooden boxes: Made these for the last exhibition, there will be a new exhibition last weekend of November, the 26th and 27th. Will be showing brand new work, along with my colleagues. More info soon.
Birds: (not the right colours and no feet : / Zanglijster, goudhaantje and zwartkop. Made these three years ago, they were supposed to be in a tree on postcards, but I did not like the design in the end so let them be. Just put them on the boxes for now. They are the size of my index fingertip.

from the bottom of the ocean

Shells from Portugal: Too bad this shop was closed when I was there, on a sunday. But I have collected a lot of shells, so it could be an autumn afternoon project.
Squids from Holland : ) I cut these earrings out of veneer. Finished with squids, completed with hardware and varnished.

barbed

Watching them from a distance, looking so small through these trees. Just 20 minutes before I took these pictures, I really pissed off (sorry) a huge bull. There were little calfs running around the meadow, but at the moment we took our camera out to film, they stopped. Because I absolutely love to see calfs running, I thought it would be a good idea to start running (huppelen) a bit myself to get them to move again... Perhaps they thought I was crazy and the bull (2,5 cows in width) did not like it at all. So he started raging and coming towards the fence, which was made of barely one meter high - non electrified barbed wire.

woods foods

All from the woods (in the north of France) it felt very much like autumn. Even the smell of fallen leafs was already there. They tasted pretty nice, the blackberries, hazelnuts and beechnuts. There was a Badger's hole too! In Dutch: Dassenburcht, I couldn't find the English word for 'burcht'. Unfortunately did not get to meet the badgers themselves...

out of practise

5x8 cm/2x3 inch
A little drawing I made in my sketchbook a few weeks ago. I have not been drawing so much lately, there were a lot of other things that had to be done. But I miss drawing and making things. And it usually takes me a while getting used to it again, my hands are out of practise.

new prints

There are some new prints available in my shop here The shop = spider - left top corner.

You are very welcome to come and take a look! Unfortunately there is a bit of a problem with the website. Loading at the start takes a while, so please be patient. And the 'accessories' section in the shop doesn't work. 'Prints' section does though! I am trying my best to fix these problems. Hopefully it will be running smoothly again soon!

transport

That is my bike. My fast one, for longer trips. Swallows in France a week ago, they are such excellent flyers! When I visited Vlieland last weekend one of them flew just over my head when I was watching them fly in the grassdunes. Nice. That is not my car, but I like it.

various

Pictures from there and then. France and Belgium.

left over

When I was cleaning out my studio, I found a piece of bookbinders linen that I've bought years ago. I always wanted to make little booklets, but never got to it. So I made this (test) one on a rainy day. Next time I would do a bit of research on how to, but it's really nice to do! Most of the tiny papercuts are left overs. But I'd like to make some new ones soon.

Size: The miniature book fits in the palm of my hand.

my first

This is a tattoo design I did, my first ever! It took me a while to finish it. It was a commision for Gijs Coolen, a musician. He plays the guitar in the bands: Woost and Moana. The design was inspired on a fairytale by Godfried Bomans.

I am so curious how it will look on him, maybe I can show you a picture when it's done!

pale pink and pavement

Hellobster

This lovely lobster was outside a fish shop, I had the best Northsea sole (fish) there.

shore

We were in 'Zeeland' in the south of Holland, by the sea. Very nice. I would like to visit the Northsea more often, it is not that far away from Amsterdam a trip to the beach. We are planning to go there by bike, I will show you my new 'bicyclette' then.

Arboretum Kalmthout

I visited this Arboretum in Belgium (tree -and flower garden) with a friend and it was beautiful! Almost everything was blossoming. Finally a boost of color, this blog was getting a bit greyisch.

Pinks

yellows

Oak

Oak wooden panels. 10x8,5x2 cm. With a hole in the back to hang on a nail or screw. The oak has a great scent, I have always loved the smell of wood. Especially when it is just sawn. Hopefully one day I will have space for a small woodworking area : )

Wild Sea, Paper Charleston

So you can see a bit better what I have shown in the exhibition.

These are Giclee prints on heavyweight museum quality paper, presented in thin oak frames. Edition of 100 except for the Charleston girl, she is printed in a limited edition of 50. Soon available in my Etsy shop. They will be for sale with or without frame and/or passepartout. If you are interested please contact me on info@gracabrohm.com or leave a comment in this post. I use Paypal for transactions.

I'd love to hear what you think of these and appreciate your comments.

1) Wild flowers
2) He is at sea
3) Lad with a paper hat
4) Charleston